One of the greatest American films of all time is Charles Laughton's sole directorial effort, a truly compelling and terrifying classic masterpiece thriller filled with an array of startling images. A sinister, crazed, psychopathic, black-cloaked and hated 'Preacher' Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), one of the 'false prophets' of the 30s presents a chilling, perversely evil and memorable monologue to the Lord in the film's opening. He glances heavenward and delivers an insane prayer, revealing that he is a serial killer who receives divine inspirations to first marry, and then murder and rob women, usually rich lonely widows who do not see the evil in him.
His left hand is tattooed with the letters "H - A - T - E" on his four fingers, and his right hand's knuckles with the letters "L - O - V - E" - which he explains in a memorable hand-wrestling scene. When a criminal's execution takes the secret of the location of stolen money to his death, the smooth-talking Preacher marries his widow Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) and then knifes her to death in a frightening yet subdued scene in their A-frame bedroom. The grisly sight of her corpse is a nightmarish, hypnotically-eerie image. It dissolves into view - water reeds flow in the underwater current with Willa's corpse strapped to the front seat of her model T submerged in the river. Her long hair is tangled with the river reeds and her throat is slashed.
[In a classic confrontational scene between the phony, blaspheming 'false prophet' and a true, pure and strong Bible-fearing farm woman - a matriarchal widow named Mrs. Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish), Powell lurks outside the farm house, singing his rendition of a gospel hymn ("Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" with the words: "Leaning, leaning..." In silhouette, Rachel appears like the portrait of Whistler's Mother, sitting in a rocking chair on her screened-in porch with the shotgun across her lap. Rachel counters his song, defiantly and harmoniously singing the authentic version of the Protestant religious hymn with a spiritual reference to Jesus: "Lean on Jesus, lean on Jesus," filling in the words that he has chosen to leave out in a simultaneous duet.]
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Smooth Operators
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Your spouse is not your trophy but your treasure. Make your wife the object of your highest devotion. Make your husband the recipient of your deepest passion. Love the one who wears your ring.
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Children spell love with four letters: T-I-M-E. Cherish the children who share your name.
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Today's Word - moiety: 1. A half. 2. A portion.
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You may not be at a high risk for outside attacks--but what about from the inside?
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Jack Bliss, a notorious rustler, who operated in Northern Wyoming in the early 1890s, was a product of the economically depressed area, caused by the severe winter of 1886-1887 and took to the outlaw trail like many cowboys of that era. In 1892 efforts were being made to rid Wyoming of these outlaws and two range detectives were sent out to capture Jack Bliss. While trailing a herd of stolen horses through the Bighorn Basin to the Jackson Hole Country, Bliss was hunted down and killed by these range detectives on what is now known as Bliss Creek and Bliss Creek Meadows at the head of the South Fork of the Shoshone River.
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The story is told of a man on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide before him had a machete and was whacking away the tall weeds and thick underbrush. The traveler, wearied and hot, asked in frustration, “Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path?!” The seasoned guide stopped and looked back at the man and replied, “I am the path.”
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Gangs have many strategies to perpetuate their existence as the in-group. One of the most interesting ways in which gang members maintain their in-group status in relation to society is through the use of language. By using a common language that only gang members understand, they can create their own society in which they are the good guys and everyone else is the bad guys.
The majority of the information that the general public is exposed to concerning gangs in America places them in the negative, bad out-group. Think of the news, magazines, talk shows, movies, etc. that portray gangs. It’s not a pretty picture, is it? Gang members are commonly stereotyped as threats, delinquents, killers, thieves, etc. This phenomenon could further be explained by the following example:
A man pulls out a shot gun and shoots a man standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus. Think how your interpretation of the event would be different if:
A) The shooter was a business man driving a Mercedes and wearing a suit and tie.
B) The shooter was a man in a Mercedes with a blue bandanna tied around his head.
American society, in general would likely attribute the behavior of the man in scenario A to situational factors such as the victim sleeping with his wife, someone paying him to commit the crime, someone holding a gun to the shooter’s head, etc. Yet in situation B, the average American would attribute the behavior to the shooter’s personal disposition. They may say things such as, "Those ignorant gang members walk around all day with nothing to do but kill people all day long, why don’t they get a job and work like everyone else" or "that person was crazy". The fundamental attribution error plays a large role in relationships between gang members and American society.
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