Tag Archives: Honor

Commentary

I recommend the movie Battle: Los Angeles to my readers

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ECM recommended this movie to me and I saw it and it was AWESOME.

Here’s a review.

Excerpt:

“Battle: Los Angeles” takes a big “what would happen if” premise – in this case, a massive alien invasion – and then fulfills that premise by taking it seriously. Not self-seriously. The movie is lots of fun, but it stays true to the terms it establishes, telling the story through the eyes of one Marine platoon assigned to rescue civilians in Santa Monica.

[…]Essential to the movie’s success is Aaron Eckhart, who plays a Marine staff sergeant as though he were in a World War II movie: no camping it up, no comedy, no winking at the audience, no smiling. He’s just a tough guy, with lots of emotional scars, who is very good at his job. Eckhart’s commitment to the movie’s reality, which is as fierce as the sergeant’s commitment to his men, takes what otherwise might merely have been outlandish and makes it believable, and frightening.

[…]Advisory: The aliens are ugly, and there are a lot of dead bodies. But these have to be the politest, cleanest-talking Marines ever. They don’t even curse at the aliens. They want to take back Los Angeles while avoiding an R rating.

The movie features a very positive portrayal of military professionals, especially of the U.S. Marines – the Wintery Knight’s favorite military branch.

I am not saying that Battle: Los Angeles is a courting movie, I am saying that this is a FUN movie, and recommended for children ages 16 and up. The PG-13 rating is a little low, because there is some swearing and one F-word. But there is also a V-22 Osprey! Several of them, in fact!

When it comes to movies, I am a stickler for realism, especially with spy movies and war movies. The new James Bond movies are not spy movies, they are stupid movies. Danger Man and Secret Agent shows with Patrick McGoohan are real spy shows. Real war movies are movies like Gettysburg and We Were Soldiers. Battle: Los Angeles is science fiction, but the movie has a realistic scope, and there is no ridiculous video-game style running and gunning. The weapons and vehicles were realistic, although the tactics could use some work. (I saw little suppressive fire and flanking, for example).

The story is very plain and believable. Simple objective for the mission, easier to follow, and showcasing U.S. Marine initiative and ingenuity. If there is one thing that the Corps drums into their recruits, it’s to accomplish the mission by any means necessary, and to take the initiative to act without orders if necessary. That’s why the Corps makes new Marines read books like “A Message to Garcia” and “Riflemann Dodd” – to drum into their heads that what superiors want from them is RESULTS, not questions. Find a way to achieve the objective. Think for yourself.

Just FYI, here’s my list of movies that I do use during courting:

  • Rules of Engagement (Samuel L. Jackson)
  • Bella
  • Henry V (Kenneth Brannagh)
  • The Lives of Others
  • United 93
  • Taken (Liam Neeson)
  • Cinderella Man
  • The Blind Side
  • Cyrano de Bergerac (Gerard Depardieu)
  • Amazing Grace (Ioan Gruffudd)
  • Gettysburg
  • We Were Soldiers
  • Stand and Deliver
  • Blackhawk Down
  • The Pursuit of Happyness
  • High Noon

If you don’t want to see a good heroic conservative action movie, watch one of these.

News

Homeless man who found $3300 tracks down owner to return it

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Another story for our series on heroic men. (H/T Wes Widner, who IS a heroic man!)

Here’s a print version of the story.

Excerpt:

When a homeless Arizona man found a backpack containing thousands of dollars in cash, he could have seen it as a windfall. Instead, he saw that it was returned to its owner, an honorable act that’s now paying off.

Dave Tally, a recovering drug addict, came across the lost backpack earlier this month in a light rail station in Tempe. He opened it up, trying to find some sort of identification or baggage tag.

Inside, there were no clues about its rightful owner, but Tally did find an envelope stuffed with $3,300 in cash, as well as a laptop computer.

“Finding the envelope with the case was just mind-blowing,” Tally said. “There were lots of crazy thoughts that went through my head.”

The cash could have meant a lot for Tally, who’s lived on the streets for several years after losing his home. He now sleeps n the basement of local churches, saving what little he can to fix his broken bike, his only source of transportation.

“I went into survival mode for a moment, actually more than a moment,” Tally said, “thinking about all the things I could do for myself.”

But in the end, the money wasn’t worth more than his honor.

“It wasn’t easy, but I know it was the right thing to do,” Tally said. “I beat myself up pretty hard for even thinking I would spend one dime of that person’s money.”

What an awesome story – it shows that some people refuse to do wrong no matter what their situation is. I think it’s amazing because so many people justify taking their neighbors money (through taxation) by pointing out inequalities between rich and poor. Here’s a man who is very poor, and yet he did not consider his own modest situation to be a justification for stealing money from his neighbor. This is the problem with modern Democrats – they feel entitled to a perpetual adolescence by spending their lives working in the government or the schools or collecting welfare – and they are willing to steal from other productive people to finance it.

News

Man chases down kidnapper’s vehicle to rescue young girl

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Story from ultra-leftist MSNBC of all places. (H/T Mara)

Excerpt:

A man who rescued an 8-year-old girl who had been abducted by a stranger says he was “beyond scared” as he forced the alleged kidnapper to stop his truck and hand over the child.

At about 6:45 a.m. Tuesday, Victor Perez, 29, recognized the truck from media reports about the girl, who was taken while she played outside a home in Fresno, Calif., at 8:30 p.m. Monday.

He gave chase in his own vehicle and repeatedly tried to force the alleged kidnapper’s truck off the road. Eventually, Perez saw the girl’s head in the truck’s window.

“He kept getting away. He kept going round my truck. The last time I completely said, ‘Either he crashes into me or he stops.’ He stopped and pushed the little girl out,” he told NBC station KSEE 24 News.

After being forced out of the truck, the girl ran to safety.

“The first thing she told me, ‘I’m scared,'” Perez said. “She was shaking. I said, ‘You’re all right now.'”

[…]Perez told CNN that he saw a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the abduction — an older-model, reddish-brown Chevrolet with a white stripe on the side — as he stood outside his house talking with his cousin about the abduction early Tuesday.

“I thought, that could be the truck,” Perez told CNN Tuesday night.

“I had a split-second decision to decide to call 911 or go after it,” Perez told ABC News. “I decided to go after it while my cousin was dialing 911. I took a chance to go and ask a question to see if that was the man that we’re looking for.”

He got into his 1988 white Ford pickup, and began to follow. As he tried to cut off the truck, its driver reportedly told him, “I don’t have no time,” and claimed his battery was dying.”The second time I reached him, the way he acted — yes, I was, for a split second I was nervous until I saw the little girl and all fear was out the window after that,” Perez told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I didn’t have no fear. I wasn’t thinking of me no more. I was just thinking we need to get that little girl to safety,” he added. “I wasn’t going to give up. … I couldn’t give up.”

“I kept telling him, ‘That’s not your little girl.’ We argued. We exchanged words,” Perez told CNN, admitting that he had wondered whether the motorist had a gun. “I was beyond scared.”

“He was hiding her — like pushing her down. I thank God he put me here to help out that little girl — that’s for sure,” he added.

On the fourth attempt, he forced the vehicle to stop.

This man is a hero! We need to make a big deal out of him in order to encourage more men to be heroes.