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Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden ignored and tried to bury. Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words. Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle. |
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Oppenheimer (5/10) by Tony Medley 3 hours R. When I learned that Christopher Nolan had written and directed a film about J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) that lasted three hours, John McEnroe’s immortal words flooded my mind, “You cannot be serious!” Alas, it's true. But, in order to present a sympathetic picture of this highly controversial left-leaning scientist who led the team at Los Alamos in developing the Atomic Bomb, Nolan has flooded the torturous first two hours of the film with confusing flashbacks and flash forwards (some in B&W), enough to make the viewer dizzy as well as perplexed (can’t modern filmmakers make a linear film anymore?). Nolan’s preconception forces him to present President Truman (Gary Oldman) and Special Counsel Roger Robb (Jason Clarke) as heavies. An example is when Robb confronts Oppenheimer with indisputable evidence that he lied, Nolan manipulates the scene so that the viewer sympathizes with Oppenheimer. The left is gonna love this film so it will probably be the subject of breathlessly adulatory reviews and up for multitudes of awards, but I found it slow, confusing, disjointed, and more predispositional than objective. The film is sort of based on the McGuffin of what did Einstein say to Oppenheimer in a meeting shown near the start of the flim. In fact, Einstein and Oppenheimer were neighbors, but more acquaintances than friends. What did Einstein say to Oppenheimer in the film’s alleged meeting? We don’t know the validity of what Nolan writes in the script but one of the few quotes of Einstein about Oppenheimer extant is, “The trouble with Oppenheimer is that he loves a woman who doesn’t love him — the United States government.” It picks up speed, however, during the last hour when Oppenheimer is questioned by Robb during a hearing challenging his security clearance. Oppenheimer was a complicated character. This film doesn’t uncomplicate anything (and maybe that’s appropriate), but Nolan could have used a strong editor with sharp scissors to make this shorter and more objective.
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