#David Straithairn

[livesinyesterday]

Happy 75th Birthday, David Russell Straithairn!

(b. 01/26/1949)

[kamreadsandrecs]

By Vince Mancini

Oppenheimer is a sumptuous drama from one of our finest directors working at the top of his game—but there's only so much information you can pack into a three-hour movie. The movie entertains and makes you feel dumb in almost equal measure, making it hard to escape the basic takeaway that we probably should know a lot more: About this guy, the Cold War, the birth of the Atomic Age, and quantum physics in general. And while you can (and should) head straight to Wikipedia, the real lore is in books and documentaries, and here are 11 to get you started. 

At the risk of being painfully obvious, the book on which the movie was based seems a logical place to start. Written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, it was published in 2005 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Nolan reportedly began adapting it after Robert Pattinson gave him a collection of Oppenheimer’s speeches as a parting gift when the two finished Tenet. (It would’ve been called “Oppie” if not for a last-minute veto from an editor.)

The other big book on the subject, from Richard Rhodes, published in 1987, which also won the Pulitzer Prize. Focused more on the general history of the bomb than on Oppenheimer himself, Rhodes relied heavily on lengthy interviews with the scientists and engineers of Los Alamos.

Less well-known than Rhodes or Bird and Sherwin’s books, UC Merced historian Gregg Herken received a MacArthur Grant to write this history of the nuclear age, told through the three titular personalities, Oppenheimer, Lawrence, and Teller—who you may now know as Cillian Murphy, Josh Hartnett, and Benny Safdie.

For those of us who prefer watching to reading, there’s Jon Else’s Oscar-nominated 1981 documentary about Oppenheimer’s anti-proliferation advocacy. 40-year-old documentaries can be tough to find these days, but this one is luckily available from the Criterion Channel. “Through extensive interviews and archival footage, The Day After Trinity traces Oppenheimer’s evolution, from architect of one of the most consequential endeavors of the twentieth century to an outspoken opponent of nuclear proliferation who came to deeply regret his role in ushering in the perils of the atomic age.”

Also in the documentary department, there’s PBS’s 2009 re-enactment-style documentary about Oppenheimer and the subsequent battles over his communist affiliations, produced as part of the "American Experience" series, starring David Straithairn as Oppenheimer. Directed by David Grubin, it’s about as straightforward a telling of some of the background information covered in the film as you’ll find. (It’s also available on Apple TV.)

John Hershey’s 30,000-some word report focusing on six survivors of the first atomic bomb exploded on a civilian population initially took up an entire issue of the New Yorker in the summer of 1946, and was turned into a book soon after. It’s one of the most famous pieces of journalism ever, to the point that it spawned an entire book about the making of it – Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World, by Leslie M.M. Blume. Chances are you’ve already heard of Hiroshima, but the perspective it offers from the bomb’s actual victims is the mandatory counterpart to any Oppenheimer viewing.

If Oppenheimer advances (somewhat) the traditional narrative that the A-Bomb was the revolutionary weapon that ended the war, Princeton historian Michael D. Gordin presented a counter-interpretation in his 2007 book that “the military did not clearly understand the atomic bomb’s revolutionary strategic potential, that the Allies were almost as stunned by the surrender as the Japanese were by the attack, and that not only had experts planned and fully anticipated the need for a third bomb, they were skeptical about whether the atomic bomb would work at all.” 

If the race to beat the Germans to developing the atomic bomb is the obvious cinematic center of Oppenheimer, Nolan devotes a surprising portion of the film and especially the last hour to the 1953 hearings over Oppenheimer’s security clearance, which was denied over his alleged communist ties (and, according to the film, all spearheaded by Oppenheimer’s nemesis, Atomic Energy Commissioner Lewis Strauss, played by Robert Downey Jr.). In this volume, Cornell historian Richard Polenberg drew on annotated transcripts of the hearing and Oppenheimer's subsequent appeal, as well as declassified FBI files, to create a portrait of the Cold War atmosphere of the time and what the hearing's outcome meant for Oppenheimer and for the world. 

If Oppenheimer presents a fairly sympathetic portrait of Robert Oppenheimer in his relationships to his left-wing friends, this pair of articles from Esquire and the New York Review of Books are… less sympathetic. The former also offers detailed interpretations of Oppenheimer’s conflict with Strauss. 

Oppenheimer opens with its subject trying to understand, and then teach, the truly strange and seemingly paradoxical science of quantum physics. Certainly there are more scholarly works on the subject, but probably there exists no goofier introduction to subatomics than AC Weisbecker’s 1986 cult semi-autobiographical novel about a pot smuggler who becomes obsessed with quantum physics and his dog. The easiest way to learn something is by accident, and it doesn’t get more accidental than this footnote-heavy farce.



[tuppencetrinkets]

#9,000 200x100 icons of David Straithairn as Klaes Ashford in season 3 of The Expanse; slightly sharpened.

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Previous Expanse resources can be found HERE and HERE. There are also some Expanse gif icon & base icon sets on my blog w/ more to come.

[kammartinez]

By Vince Mancini

Oppenheimer is a sumptuous drama from one of our finest directors working at the top of his game—but there's only so much information you can pack into a three-hour movie. The movie entertains and makes you feel dumb in almost equal measure, making it hard to escape the basic takeaway that we probably should know a lot more: About this guy, the Cold War, the birth of the Atomic Age, and quantum physics in general. And while you can (and should) head straight to Wikipedia, the real lore is in books and documentaries, and here are 11 to get you started. 

At the risk of being painfully obvious, the book on which the movie was based seems a logical place to start. Written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, it was published in 2005 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Nolan reportedly began adapting it after Robert Pattinson gave him a collection of Oppenheimer’s speeches as a parting gift when the two finished Tenet. (It would’ve been called “Oppie” if not for a last-minute veto from an editor.)

The other big book on the subject, from Richard Rhodes, published in 1987, which also won the Pulitzer Prize. Focused more on the general history of the bomb than on Oppenheimer himself, Rhodes relied heavily on lengthy interviews with the scientists and engineers of Los Alamos.

Less well-known than Rhodes or Bird and Sherwin’s books, UC Merced historian Gregg Herken received a MacArthur Grant to write this history of the nuclear age, told through the three titular personalities, Oppenheimer, Lawrence, and Teller—who you may now know as Cillian Murphy, Josh Hartnett, and Benny Safdie.

For those of us who prefer watching to reading, there’s Jon Else’s Oscar-nominated 1981 documentary about Oppenheimer’s anti-proliferation advocacy. 40-year-old documentaries can be tough to find these days, but this one is luckily available from the Criterion Channel. “Through extensive interviews and archival footage, The Day After Trinity traces Oppenheimer’s evolution, from architect of one of the most consequential endeavors of the twentieth century to an outspoken opponent of nuclear proliferation who came to deeply regret his role in ushering in the perils of the atomic age.”

Also in the documentary department, there’s PBS’s 2009 re-enactment-style documentary about Oppenheimer and the subsequent battles over his communist affiliations, produced as part of the "American Experience" series, starring David Straithairn as Oppenheimer. Directed by David Grubin, it’s about as straightforward a telling of some of the background information covered in the film as you’ll find. (It’s also available on Apple TV.)

John Hershey’s 30,000-some word report focusing on six survivors of the first atomic bomb exploded on a civilian population initially took up an entire issue of the New Yorker in the summer of 1946, and was turned into a book soon after. It’s one of the most famous pieces of journalism ever, to the point that it spawned an entire book about the making of it – Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World, by Leslie M.M. Blume. Chances are you’ve already heard of Hiroshima, but the perspective it offers from the bomb’s actual victims is the mandatory counterpart to any Oppenheimer viewing.

If Oppenheimer advances (somewhat) the traditional narrative that the A-Bomb was the revolutionary weapon that ended the war, Princeton historian Michael D. Gordin presented a counter-interpretation in his 2007 book that “the military did not clearly understand the atomic bomb’s revolutionary strategic potential, that the Allies were almost as stunned by the surrender as the Japanese were by the attack, and that not only had experts planned and fully anticipated the need for a third bomb, they were skeptical about whether the atomic bomb would work at all.” 

If the race to beat the Germans to developing the atomic bomb is the obvious cinematic center of Oppenheimer, Nolan devotes a surprising portion of the film and especially the last hour to the 1953 hearings over Oppenheimer’s security clearance, which was denied over his alleged communist ties (and, according to the film, all spearheaded by Oppenheimer’s nemesis, Atomic Energy Commissioner Lewis Strauss, played by Robert Downey Jr.). In this volume, Cornell historian Richard Polenberg drew on annotated transcripts of the hearing and Oppenheimer's subsequent appeal, as well as declassified FBI files, to create a portrait of the Cold War atmosphere of the time and what the hearing's outcome meant for Oppenheimer and for the world. 

If Oppenheimer presents a fairly sympathetic portrait of Robert Oppenheimer in his relationships to his left-wing friends, this pair of articles from Esquire and the New York Review of Books are… less sympathetic. The former also offers detailed interpretations of Oppenheimer’s conflict with Strauss. 

Oppenheimer opens with its subject trying to understand, and then teach, the truly strange and seemingly paradoxical science of quantum physics. Certainly there are more scholarly works on the subject, but probably there exists no goofier introduction to subatomics than AC Weisbecker’s 1986 cult semi-autobiographical novel about a pot smuggler who becomes obsessed with quantum physics and his dog. The easiest way to learn something is by accident, and it doesn’t get more accidental than this footnote-heavy farce.

[therealmadblonde]

Sneakers: Just sayin’...

[kevrocksicehouse]

Going to the show. Warren Oates, who played in supporting and ensemble roles for most of his career, got the lead in “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia”(a movie with merit and a very memorable title). Here are five other memorable times character actors got the lead role.

Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. D: David Cronenberg (1986). “Is this death? Am I dying?” No, a botched teleportation accident fused your DNA with a housefly’s, but this question, and that Jeff Goldblum dropped his trademark querulous irony to ask it, gets to the heart of Cronenberg’s vision – if we’re just biological matter, what then?

Tom Wilkinson in In the Bedroom. D: Todd Field (2001).  Wilkinson has the kind of face  that you wouldn’t pick out in a crowd. Playing a man whose son has been killed, he shows everything he’s lost behind that unremarkable face and how when revenge is what’s left, he might get away with it.

Paul Giamatti in American Splendor. D: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (2003). Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical comic made the life of an average schlub and the ordinary people around him (and why “average” and “ordinary” are such inadequate words). Giamatti’s character actor visage works the same magic. There’s not a second his sour, nervous face doesn’t hold the screen.

David Straithairn in Good Night and Good Luck. D: George Clooney (2005). Straithairn has a touch of Gregory Peck’s rectitude in his voice, which can make him sound stiff. It’s perfect for this portrayal of legendary TV newscaster Edward R. Murrow, whose moral authority dovetails with his own moment in history (the red-baiting McCarthy era) when the nation was threatened from within by a self-promoting demagogue chasing even greater power by exploiting a nation’s fear and resentm — yeah, it pretty much works for these days too.

Michael Shannon in Take Shelter D: Jeff Nichols (2011). Shannon is every villain these days, but in this film he’s just a sweaty, terrified prophet obsessed with protecting his family from the ecological disaster he sees in visions, and scared he’s going crazy. This film gets scarier every year.

[home-and-minor]

To celebrate the fact that the 4th season of The Expanse is going to launch on December 13th, I decided to create 13 drawings representing 13 of my favourite characters from the show. I’m going to use the hasthag #TheExpanseDec13th to make them easier to find. Hope you like them!

12. KLAES ASHFORD

"Guilt is like salt. You put a little on, and it hides all the bitterness."

Portrayed by the incredible David Straithairn.

[kwebtv]

McMafia  -  BBC One / AMC (US) -  January 1, 2018 - Present

Crime Drama (8 episodes to date)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Main cast

James Norton as Alex Godman

David Strathairn as Semiyon Kleiman

Juliet Rylance as Rebecca Harper

Merab Ninidze as Vadim Kalyagin

Aleksey Serebryakov as Dimitri Godman

Maria Shukshina as Oksana Godman

Faye Marsay as Katya Godman

David Dencik as Boris Godman

Oshri Cohen as Joseph

Sofia Lebedeva as Lyudmilla Nikolayeva

Caio Blat as Antonio Mendez

Kirill Pirogov as Ilya Fedorov

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Dilly Mahmood

Karel Roden as Karel Benes

Recurring cast

Yuval Scharf as Tanya

Anna Levanova as Natasha

Clifford Samuel as Femi

Maria Mashkova as Masha

Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Karin

Atul Kale as Benny Chopra

Evgeni Golan as Marat

Eve Parmiter as Jennifer

Tim Ahern as Sydney Bloom

Ellie Piercy as Sandrine

Danila Kozlovsky as Grigory Mishin

Alexander Dyachenko as Oleg

Fernando Cayo as Guillermo Alegre

[hotniatheron]

black sails needed so many characters they had to hire australians and americans cause we know england only got 10 actors and rupert penry jones is three of them 

[hollywoodoutbreak]

Nightmare Alley is the new psychological thriller from writer/director Guillermo del Toro, based on the 1946 William Lindsay Gresham novel (and a remake of the 1947 film). The movie, set in the strange world of carnival performers, features a highly acclaimed cast, with Bradley Cooper starring alongside Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Straithairn, among others. Originally, Cooper says, the allure of working with such a top-flight ensemble drew him into the film, though he says he soon found himself immersed in the film’s twisted reality. Click on the link to hear Bradley Cooper Nightmare Alley opens in theaters on December 17.

[soundtrackalley]

Soundtrack Alley 126: Sneakers

Soundtrack Alley 126: Sneakers

Today on Soundtrack Alley, Erik Woods and I delve into Sneakers, the 1990 techno thriller with the amazing cast of Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Dan Aykroid, Ben Kingsley, Mary MacDonnell and David Straithairn. We’ll discuss things on the film itself, and we’ll also enjoy the film score by the late James Horner. Sit back and relax as you enjoy the show. I’m on Social Media…

[hodgman]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Hodgman (@johnhodgman)

Here I am on my houseboat. “DICKTOWN” by me and @thisisdavidrees premieres this very evening on @cakefx and I wanted you to know if. #hashtagdicktown PS I must thank Floyd County’s Matt Thompson, our producer and director, for giving me the courage to make a David Straithairn joke. (at Richardsville, Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCa9AFuls0a/?igshid=wju03ujxnu6p

[joanneisafag]

When I was younger, I thought David Straithairn was the sexiest, then it was Shemar Moore, but these days it's Michael Ealy! So sexy and hot!

[changfrisby]

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

" Godzilla: King of the Monsters" has a feeling of marvel. It's developed as component of a shamelessly Marvel-styled "common motion picture cosmos" of tales that develop as well as interlink in the direction of a collection of tops (the initial of which is 2020's "Godzilla vs. Kong"). This folklore re-imagines Godzilla as well as the various other huge beasts made popular by Toho workshops, consisting of Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, as well as King Kong (an American development folded up right into Japan's cosmos) as component of an old environment of long-hibernating gigantic beasts that precede the dinosaurs.

They shed the 4th participant of their family members, Madison's older bro, 5 years previously throughout Godzilla's fight with the MUTOs in San Francisco, and also the moms and dads inevitably divided. It quickly ends up being clear that their split was similarly due to pain and also a thoughtful difference over just how to deal with Godzilla and also his ilk-- the papa believes they ought to all be annihilated, while mama thinks they can be adjusted via an unique finder gadget that resembles the characteristics of whale tracks.

The United States armed forces (stood for by David Straithairn's admiral Stenz) urges that Jonah is a battle profiteer looking to remove and also offer beast DNA to aggressive federal governments, Jonah is an extreme ideologue, a real follower that assumes the beasts are penalty for humankind's wrongs versus the setting as well as is functioning to stir up as lots of as feasible, the much better to quicken the thinning of the human herd. As exposed early in the movie (as well as in all the trailers and also intros), Emma is on board with Jonah's take on points, as well as proactively takes part in waking up the animals-- consisting of Ghidorah, a lightning-spitting dragon that stands for the just severe danger to Godzilla's placement as the Hollow Earth's employer killer.

Among the movie's attractions is the means it deals with the beasts as exterior symptoms of the personalities' individual problems, sometimes like substantial doppelgängers or golems representing their sorrow and also injury. In enhancement to revealing compassion for the individual discomfort being experienced by people, "King of the Monsters" is steeped with despair for what may be the ultimate fatality of human world itself, which is a clinical assurance if we do not transform our ecological act around over the following century or so, beginning instantly.

Jonah as well as Emma are rather specific (also specific; this is a talky movie when it's not blowing things up) in their idea that mankind has, using negligence and also greed, end up being onlookers in the dramatization of its very own termination-- which we may also proceed as well as speed up points up with a little assistance from Godzilla, Ghidorah and also firm, because that's what the earth itself requires, and also what human beings are entitled to. Emma also contrasts human world to an infection, and also the beasts to a "high temperature" that can clean a lot of it out as well as recover organic equilibrium. A kind of compressed TED Talk in the middle of the movie also exposes that when the beasts have actually completed battling, and also leave the damages of a city, the radiation they leave functions as an organic accelerant, turning on the quick development of plant and also animal life that all the steel, concrete as well as glass when ruined or limited.

At what cost equilibrium? The excellent Ghidorah-- iced up in a wall surface of ice in deep underground in an Antarctica-based Monarch center, and also looking like the most significant, baddest art installment of all time-- is this movie's matching of the extinction-level danger, the high temperature bomb that's fated to melt via the human infection. (A choice of previous art work presumably illustrating Ghidorah consists of William Blake's paint The Great Red Dragon as well as Woman Clothed in Sun, additionally a component in Hannibal Lecter tales).

" Godzilla: King of the Monsters" has a feeling of marvel. It's developed as component of a shamelessly Marvel-styled "common motion picture world" of tales that construct and also interlink in the direction of a collection of optimals (the initial of which is 2020's "Godzilla vs. Kong"). It quickly comes to be clear that their split was just as due to pain as well as a thoughtful difference over exactly how to deal with Godzilla as well as his ilk-- the papa assumes they need to all be eradicated, while mother thinks they can be controlled via an unique finder tool that resembles the characteristics of whale tracks.

As disclosed early in the movie (as well as in all the trailers and also intros), Emma is on board with Jonah's take on points, as well as proactively takes part in waking up the animals-- consisting of Ghidorah, a lightning-spitting dragon that stands for the just significant risk to Godzilla's placement as the Hollow Earth's manager killer. You can Watch Godzilla King of Monsters with HD quality from here.

Jonah as well as Emma are rather specific (also specific; this is a talky movie when it's not blowing things up) in their idea that humankind has, by means of negligence and also greed, end up being spectators in the dramatization of its very own termination-- and also that we could as well go in advance and also speed up points up with a little aid from Godzilla, Ghidorah and also firm, because that's what the earth itself requires, as well as what people are worthy of.