Pizza & Movie Night
I couldn't bear to look at Constitutional Law any longer, so I joined the family for Pizza & Movie night. I'd picked the flicks (wandered around Showtime USA for 30 minutes trying to find movies both interesting and appropriate), left the store with two I'd never heard of before, worried, a little, that maybe they weren't great but desperate for the break.
I needn't have worried.
First up on this double feature (well, more like triple or quadruple or something more, but that's for later...) was a golf movie.
That's right, a golf movie. And it was very very good. We found ourselves holding our breath, amazed at both the special effects and the ability of the film-maker-as-story-teller to make us care about the characters, and about a golf game. It was also an eye-opener to my kids about the reality of class-divisions in society (and foreshadowed the racial equality struggle that still continues). The film is titled "The Greatest Game Ever Played," distributed by Disney, and it is worth seeing.
Second up was a recently released special collection (again, from Disney) out of their Sunday night television show archives, in this case a set of the Elfego Baca series that was part of the "Frontierland" rotation from 1958-1962, following in the wake of the successful Davey Crockett. The cover blurb indicated that Senor Baca held off for 33 hours an 80-cowboy lynch mob hailing 4000 bullets on the little hut in which he was hiding, escaped, was charged with murder, was acquitted by a jury, was elected sheriff, and then studied law and became a lawyer and eventually district attorney. All true stories from New Mexico in the late 1800s.
Well, on so many levels that just begged to be brought home: I mean, it is a lawyer story, after all. But more importantly, knowing that with anticipatory May Day and Cinco de Mayo tensions at the Longmont High Schools reaching a fevered pitch, I feel desperate for a good story to reframe the current messages flaming in the media.
We were delighted. We watched the first two hour-long episodes (The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, and Four Down, Five to Go), and within seconds of its opening were rewarded with the line "We're Americans too, just like they are..." from Baca as he tries to persuade the Justice of the Peace why the citizens of tiny Frisco should be protected from the drunk cowboy shooting up the town.
Another delightful moment was at the beginning of the second episode, when Sheriff Baca, law books on his desk, explains to the Governor's man why he let the prisoners in his jail go free: "But that law was unconstitutional. You need to go back and tell the Governor that it is a very bad law."
Mind you, the production values of this show aren't all that swell ("Mom, why are there all those shadows if it is supposed to be night-time?" I had to explain to my twelve-year-old about tinted lenses and low-budget filming), and the acting is a little bit wooden (again, low-budget). But it was still very worth seeing, to see cultural and religious themes treated respectfully, to understand that Mexican and American culture have been intermingling for more than a century, that there are good-guys and bad-guys on both sides of the story, and to gain a new hero. Hurrah for Elfego Baca!
I needn't have worried.
First up on this double feature (well, more like triple or quadruple or something more, but that's for later...) was a golf movie.
That's right, a golf movie. And it was very very good. We found ourselves holding our breath, amazed at both the special effects and the ability of the film-maker-as-story-teller to make us care about the characters, and about a golf game. It was also an eye-opener to my kids about the reality of class-divisions in society (and foreshadowed the racial equality struggle that still continues). The film is titled "The Greatest Game Ever Played," distributed by Disney, and it is worth seeing.
Second up was a recently released special collection (again, from Disney) out of their Sunday night television show archives, in this case a set of the Elfego Baca series that was part of the "Frontierland" rotation from 1958-1962, following in the wake of the successful Davey Crockett. The cover blurb indicated that Senor Baca held off for 33 hours an 80-cowboy lynch mob hailing 4000 bullets on the little hut in which he was hiding, escaped, was charged with murder, was acquitted by a jury, was elected sheriff, and then studied law and became a lawyer and eventually district attorney. All true stories from New Mexico in the late 1800s.
Well, on so many levels that just begged to be brought home: I mean, it is a lawyer story, after all. But more importantly, knowing that with anticipatory May Day and Cinco de Mayo tensions at the Longmont High Schools reaching a fevered pitch, I feel desperate for a good story to reframe the current messages flaming in the media.
We were delighted. We watched the first two hour-long episodes (The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, and Four Down, Five to Go), and within seconds of its opening were rewarded with the line "We're Americans too, just like they are..." from Baca as he tries to persuade the Justice of the Peace why the citizens of tiny Frisco should be protected from the drunk cowboy shooting up the town.
Another delightful moment was at the beginning of the second episode, when Sheriff Baca, law books on his desk, explains to the Governor's man why he let the prisoners in his jail go free: "But that law was unconstitutional. You need to go back and tell the Governor that it is a very bad law."
Mind you, the production values of this show aren't all that swell ("Mom, why are there all those shadows if it is supposed to be night-time?" I had to explain to my twelve-year-old about tinted lenses and low-budget filming), and the acting is a little bit wooden (again, low-budget). But it was still very worth seeing, to see cultural and religious themes treated respectfully, to understand that Mexican and American culture have been intermingling for more than a century, that there are good-guys and bad-guys on both sides of the story, and to gain a new hero. Hurrah for Elfego Baca!
Comments
Was Sheriff Baca correct in 1880? Would Sheriff Baca be correct in 2006. Why?
1. The constitutional considerations that should be shared with the non-partisan administrative panel for drawing up the House representative districts in Colorado in 2011. (Think Sims v Reynolds, Due Process, Justiciability)
2. The Constitutional implications of various potential immigration reforms (think Steel Seizure, Interstate Commerce, Plyler, Due Process, Equal Protection).
3. The constitutionality of either Louisiana or the City of New Orleans making special rules about repayment of mortgages or repayment of municipal bonds (think Contracts Clause and US Trust Co v. New Jersey).
4. Congress makes rules limiting gasoline producers profitability. (again, Interstate Commerce, Contracts Clause)
Put that in your teeth and floss it.