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Contemplating Life – Episode 64 – “Young’s Theorem”

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This week we continue with my reminiscence of my college days at IUPUI studying computer science especially stories surrounding my mentor Dr. John Gersting and his wife Dr. Judith Gersting.

Links of Interest

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 64 of Contemplating Life.

This week we continue with my reminiscence of my college days at IUPUI studying computer science especially stories surrounding my mentor Dr. John Gersting and his wife Dr. Judith Gersting. I apologize in advance that this is going to be a long episode.

We now continue with my sixth semester at IUPUI. My transcript says I took MATH 361 “Advanced Calculus and Differential Equations”. By now the math was getting pretty hairy and I never really got a feel for calculus and differential equations. I snuck by with a “D”.

I also took Physics 342 “Modern Physics” which involved Einstein’s special and general relativity as well as quantum mechanics. While I enjoyed the lab portion of the class, I never could wrap my head around quantum mechanics. The more I learned about relativity, the less impressed I became with Einstein. He had such a pop-culture image of being this amazing genius but I learned that as is the case in all scientific pursuits, much of what he did was simply an extension of the work of people before him.

We learned about the famous Michelson-Morley experiment which proved that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant. As a consequence of that experiment, Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz derived the famous Lorenz Transformations which describe how time dilates and length changes as you approach the speed of light. I had always thought these derivations came from Einstein but they actually came from Lorentz as a result of Michelson and Morley.

The problem was, nobody understood the significance of those works. It took Einstein who had the courage to throw out a bunch of preconceived ideas of how physics worked to really understand the significance of these previous discoveries. Then that led him to develop both special and general relativity. So while I give him props for following the data where it led him despite the fact it blew up centuries of science before that, Einstein really didn’t do that much in my opinion.

Furthermore, as a third-year college physics student, I was expected to fully understand relativity. None of us in that class, especially me, could be described as a physics genius. Yet I came away with a pretty good understanding of relativity. Relativity is bizarre and counterintuitive but once someone figured it out, it does not take a genius to understand it. Just a well-educated college physics student.

I didn’t do so well when it came to quantum mechanics. The idea that something could be simultaneously a particle and a wave is something that physicists still can’t explain to this day. The problem I had was if it was a wave, what was the medium? Scientists used to believe there was something called ether. Electromagnetic waves were thought to be vibrations in this invisible medium. But Michelson and Morley proved that there is no ether.

I wanted to bring back the concept of ether. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of vibrating energy without the medium. Not only was I way off base, but in some ways, I was ahead of my time. I think I was on the verge of inventing string theory. String theory is the idea that all matter consists of vibrating strings of energy. String theorists don’t say what the strings are made of. So the problem persists. Whether it’s vibrating strings or electromagnetic waves, what exactly is the medium? What is it that is vibrating? No one can tell me. Although the origins of string theory date back to 1943, it wasn’t until around 1984 that physicists started getting excited when they began to believe that string theory could accurately model all of the elementary particles of the standard model of physics as well as the interaction between them.

Proponents of string theory have yet to produce anything useful. It seems to be the general consensus that there is no experiment you can do to prove string theory so although it had some interesting potential, it hasn’t fulfilled its promise. People who still work on the theory are often ridiculed by mainstream physicists.

Had I been better at math and physics, I might’ve gotten into the field of string theory and spent decades producing nothing useful. Fortunately for me, I was getting Ds in calculus and differential equations and I got so confused in this physics class that I ended up withdrawing from it. It’s the only class that I did not complete in college.

Somewhere along the way, the School of Science changed its basic requirements for a degree. They lowered some of the liberal arts requirements which I had already met. I don’t remember the details, but it was to my advantage to switch to the new curriculum. I think it saved me from a couple of liberal arts classes but I had to take a class in public speaking. I enjoyed it and earned a B. I could tell you more about that class but it wasn’t that interesting for our storytelling purposes.

We want to resume talking about my computer classes under my mentor Dr. John Gersting.

CS 461 “Programming 3” was the class I talked about last week in which Gersting told us we had to teach ourselves the course. The title of the book that he wrote was “Algorithmic Languages” and it was a brief survey of I believe 5 or 6 computer languages. There were a few introductory chapters, and then a chapter on each language. At the end of each chapter, there was a programming assignment, and as I mentioned before quizzes and tests that you had to pass 100% before you could go on.

The only deadline was that we had to complete the course by the end of the semester. He posted a chart outside his office that showed where everyone in the class was. A semester lasted 15 weeks. There was one guy who finished the entire course in about three weeks. We all considered him a show-off or a brown nose. All of the rest of us including me and my friend Rich went through the course at a leisurely rate. We would look at the chart and notice that we were all in approximately the same position. It didn’t occur to us until almost too late that we were not going to finish in time. Comparing ourselves to one another was a really bad idea because we were all doing terribly. More on that in a minute.

The book that Gersting wrote was a phenomenal reference book. We began referring to it as “The Bible” because it had all the answers. Then one day I said, “Actually, it’s not the entire Bible. It’s just ‘The Gospel According to John.’” I wrote that across the top of my book but I don’t know if Dr. John Gersting ever saw it.

There was one programming assignment where I got a D from Gersting. I don’t recall if it was in Programming 2 or Programming 3. I tried to raise a negative number to an exponent that was a floating-point number. For example, if you take 2 to the power of 2 that is just 2 squared which equals 4. Similarly, you can take -2 to the power of 2 and that also equals 4. No problem. Now suppose you take 9 to the power of 0.5. That’s just the square root so the answer is 3. But what if you try to take -9 to the power of 0.5 you can’t do that. Mathematically it’s undefined.

The compiler or the runtime system should’ve created an error but it didn’t. It gave an answer of -3. So essentially it took the square root of +9 and then just tacked on the minus sign.

I complained when he gave me a D. I said, “The compiler and the runtime system let me do it.” His response was, “If the guy who wrote the compiler was in my class I would have flunked him. But instead, you get a D. Are you still going to pass the class with one low grade on one project?”

“Yes.”

“Are you ever going to raise a negative number to a floating-point exponent again?”

“No.”

“Case closed. The D stands.”

The bottom line is, he was very tough but he was fair. I came up with an adage, “The only thing more difficult than a guy who thought he wrote the book on the subject was the guy who did write the book on the subject.”

Rich later amended that theory. He topped it when he went into an advanced math class and on the first day the teacher had them open up the textbook and read the acknowledgments page. The author thanked someone for proofreading the book and catching many errors. The proofreader was Rich’s math professor. So Rich said, “Worse than a guy who thinks he wrote the book on the subject and worse than the guy who did write the book on the subject is the guy who was so smart he could catch the mistakes in the guy who wrote the book on the subject.” He had me there.

One of the most significant events in my relationship with Dr. Gersting occurred one day when I went to his office to give him a progress report on my independent study project. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to report. I was lagging way behind on the project. Anyway, when I offered to fill him in on my progress, such as it was, he said he was on his way to the teachers’ lounge to eat dinner and invited me to sit with him and talk. It’s not like I was being let into some supersecret off-limits area. But it wasn’t somewhere that students normally went. I gave my report, such as it was, and then he started sort of rambling about the students in our class. I don’t remember the name of the student he was talking about. We will call him Joe.

“Did you notice Joe hasn’t been in class lately?” He noted.

“Yeah, now that you mention it. Is he sick?”

“No, he’s dropping out. His wife is expecting their first child. He was offered a position writing COBOL for an insurance company so he felt like he had to take it.” That type of job was considered sort of the bottom of the barrel for computer programmers–especially computer science majors. You could sense how disappointed he was. He stared into space for a moment and then continued. “My worry is he will never come back to complete his education. You’re fortunate that your education is being paid for because of your disability and you don’t have responsibilities distracting you from your education.”

I suddenly saw a completely different side of the man. He was so harsh on us because he wanted the best for us. I suddenly realized how deeply he cared for his students. He cared about their life and their career. And most of all he cared about me. He was thinking about my future.

I was struggling to complete the independent study project to create the operating system for our computer simulator. Furthermore, my Programming 3 class was not going well either. Part of the purpose of the course was to teach us self-discipline. In the real world, you only have one deadline. Finish the entire project on time. We kept looking at the chart thinking we were doing as well as everyone else but when it came down to the wire we were all in trouble.

By the way, Gersting once said, “I don’t think God created the world in six days. I think he thought about it for five days and then pulled an all-nighter.” I think being a procrastinator comes with the mentality of a programmer. We pulled lots of all-nighters to finish on time. That’s why I was so sympathetic to the gal who hired me to help her with her last-minute programming assignments that I talked about a couple of episodes ago.

The computer room was always packed in the final days of the semester and it was hard to find a free teletype machine to log in. I remember sitting there with Rich just a couple of hours before the final deadline. I barely got mine finished. Rich had his program working but he needed to print out a final copy. The teletype he was working on broke down. It would print but at the end of each line, it would not advance the paper. It just kept printing on top of the same text over and over again. You had to guess when it was going to do a carriage return and then crank the knob by hand. The result was a printout that went all over the page but at least you could read it. With just minutes to spare we rushed from the computer room in the A-Building to Gersting’s office in the K-Building. There was a line of students trying to turn things in at the last minute. I remember Gersting looking at Rich’s output and saying, “What the hell happened here?” Rich explained about the broken teletype. I don’t recall what grade he got but I think he did okay. I ended up with a “B”.

This semester was undoubtedly the most difficult semester that I had. In addition to this programming class, I had that independent study project with Dr. Gersting. I was supposed to write the operating system for the computer simulator we had worked on the previous year. I barely got the job done and wrote a ridiculously brief report. He easily could have failed me in class or given me an incomplete but he didn’t.

The pressure of having to drop a physics class, getting a poor grade in calculus, rushing to complete Programming 3, and doing a piss-poor job in my independent study class nearly led me to a nervous breakdown.

When I eventually graduated and got a full-time job, people asked me if it was going to be hard to work full-time. I said, “Hell no. 40 hours per week will be a piece of cake compared to what I’ve been through. College is a 24/7 endeavor. There’s always another chapter you could reread. There’s always another program you could’ve written better. There’s always another test you should cram for. Even if you think you’ve gotten everything done, you haven’t. The pressure is constant. Being able to walk away from a job at 5 PM each day and leave it behind me until the next a and to have my weekends completely free is going to be magnificent compared to what I’ve been through.”

The following semester, I had a class with Dr. John Gersting’s wife Dr. Judith Gersting. It was called “Discrete Computer Structures CS 482.” It wouldn’t be the first day in a class with a Dr. Gersting without me getting shrouded like Mr. Hart did by Prof. Kingsfield in “The Paper Chase.”

Before the first class began, one of my classmates and I were talking. “Hey Chris, how did that independent study project go with Dr. G.?”

“It was a disaster. I barely got any reasonable amount of work done. I ended up throwing together a report at the last minute and turning it in. He GAVE me a C for the course.” I put a strong emphasis on the word “gave”.

Then I heard a voice calmly declare, “It was a gift you know.”

I turned around to notice that Dr. Judith Gersting was standing at the front of the classroom. The comment came from her.

“What?” I said.

“It was a gift that he gave you a C.”

“I know that,” I muttered. “It was a gift.”

I did know it was a gift. He could’ve easily flunked me.

Inside I was freaking out. I had a new version for the worst teacher scenario. It’s not so bad when the teacher writes the book on the subject. It’s not even so bad when your teacher is so smart they can correct the mistakes of the guy who wrote the book on the subject. Worse than all of that is when you have teachers who are married to one another and you are the subject of conversation between them. My reputation was preceeding me and it wasn’t a good one.

In retrospect, it was arguably a positive thing. Mr. Dr. G. had my best interests at heart. He knew I’d done poorly but he wasn’t going to crash my GPA or have me come up short and not graduate on time. I probably deserved a D rather than an F because I did complete the work. But it was seriously substandard. The fact that he was willing to give me a break knowing that I would do better in the future was positive. Furthermore, the fact that he had communicated that to Mrs. Dr. G. was arguably also a positive. But it was hard to see that at the time. At that moment, I just felt like I had been shrouded by Mrs. Kingsfield.

The course was a highly advanced computing theory class in which we discussed things like Turing machines which were a hypothetical computer invented by computing pioneer Alan Turing. His life was chronicled in the 2014 film “The Imitation Game.” Turing was played by Benedict Cumberbatch. He was a mathematician who invented the machine that cracked the German enigma code and saved thousands of lives in World War II. Yet he was stripped of all of his honors for being a homosexual. He ended up killing himself.

I drew a cartoonish image of a Turing machine on the front of my notebook that caught the eye of Mrs. Dr. Gersting. She thought it was cute.

I will never forget the most challenging yet rewarding homework assignment that I had in my 4 and-one-half years of college. It simply said…

“Show that there are only two non-isomorphic groups of order four.”

Unless you had some advanced math and/or computability courses you are probably completely clueless about what that sentence means. At the time, so was I. And so were several of my classmates. Some of them were graduate students taking the class. For me, the course was CS 482 but for graduate students, it was called CS 582. The undergrads and grads took the course together.

Without going into a bunch of mathematics that is unimportant, let me give this summary. There is this mathematical concept called a “group”. It’s a way to take several objects as operators, perform some function upon them, and come out with an answer that is a member of that group. Rather than try to explain it here, I found a YouTube video that solves this exact question in almost precisely the way that I and my fellow students figured it out. It took us hours to do so but there was a phenomenal sense of satisfaction that we a taken such an obscure problem and managed to figure it out.

Given that I found so many web pages and YouTube videos attempting to answer the same question, it must still be a standard question for such courses today.

The question said, “Show that there are only two non-isomorphic groups of order four.”

It didn’t say prove it. Because you don’t prove it. It said “Show it” and we did. It’s not like proving a theorem. It’s something that simply is.

Some things are just true. You can demonstrate that they are true. Some things are false. You can demonstrate that. This led me to create what I called “Young’s Theorem.” The theorem states, “If it is, it is. If it isn’t, it isn’t. The proof is… Is it? Then it is. Is it not? Then it is not.”

It’s silly. I understand that. But it was my expression of my satisfaction that I took a wildly hypothetical, marginally useful, mathematical question and came up with an answer when my initial assessment was I had no idea what the fuck they were asking. And that led me to the understanding that for the most part, you can figure things out. True things are true. False things are false.

Well… Naturally, it’s more complicated than that. Later in the course, we learned that there is an entire class of problems that cannot be solved. It’s called computability theory. Some things simply cannot be solved by a computer. The primary example is you can’t write a computer program that will analyze another computer program to tell you definitively will that program will complete its task and stop. It’s sort of the mathematical equivalent of the question, “If God is all-powerful, can He create an object so massive that He can’t lift it?” If he can create such an object. Then He is not all-powerful because He can’t lift it. If He cannot create such an object, then He is not all-powerful.”

Years later this paradox led me to create a joke.

There are two kinds of people in the world and I can prove it.

There is one group of people that believes that there are two kinds of people in the world. There is another group of people who do not believe that there are two kinds of people in the world. So there. I just proved there are two kinds of people.

But because I proved it, there should no longer be people who do not believe that there are two kinds of people because I’ve given definitive proof that there definitively are two kinds of people. But once I’ve convinced everyone that there are two kinds of people. There are no longer two kinds of people. There are only people who do believe that there are two kinds of people because they accepted my proof.

But now, that is no longer true because everyone now believes that there are two kinds of people which means there’s only one kind of person– namely those that believe. But they are wrong.

And so on with infinite circular reasoning.

So who knows… In an alternate universe. I might have been a pioneer of string theory and solved the ultimate theory of everything. But I didn’t have sufficient math background to prove it and apparently, no one else does either or if they did, string theory would be widely accepted as the theory that explains all of physics.

Or I might have become famous for describing what is the worst kind of teacher to have when you are an insecure college student. (I vote that having 2 teachers married to each other is still the worst.)

Or people could have bought into my ridiculous Young’s Theorem that true is true and false is false no matter how trivial that observation is. That would be particularly useful these days when our political discourse includes ridiculous phrases such as “alternate facts”.

That’s the kind of insanity that arises when you are overwhelmed as a college student. Fortunately, I had the Gerstings guiding me through that insanity and somehow I came out on the other end okay.

We are going to go off-topic next week to celebrate my history as a fan of motorsports because we are coming up on the month of May in Indianapolis which is the time of the Indy 500. After that, we are going to return to my college stories and eventually, the Gerstings will play a big role in those stories as well. I don’t want to skip ahead and tell those stories now. I will tell them in chronological order with the other events of my life at that time.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.

Even if you cannot provide financial support. Please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

Contemplating Life – Episode 63 – “The Paper Chase”

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After taking a brief detour last week for a political rant, this week we return to more stories about my college days as a computer science major at IUPUI. We begin a multi-part series about my mentor and favorite professor Dr. John Gersting.

Links of Interest

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

https://youtu.be/DXwL7kfxIlw

Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 63 of Contemplating Life.

After taking a brief detour last week for a political rant, this week we return to more stories about my college days as a computer science major at IUPUI. I want to talk about my mentor and favorite professor Dr. John Gersting.

We will start with my fifth semester. According to my transcript, I took American History H105 to help fill part of my liberal arts requirements for a School of Science degree. In general, I always hated history in grade school and high school because I could never remember dates. You give me an event and I can explain most of its political and sociological significance. On the contrary, if you ask me when it occurred unless it was the War of 1812 I am probably clueless. Even though I was terrible at history, US history was my strongest area and I managed to earn a B for the course. I believe this was the last class I took at the downtown campus. Everything else going forward was on 38th St. for the rest of my college days.

The transcript says, I took Elementary Linear Algebra MATH 351 and earned a C. I took Physics 251 titled Heat, Electricity, and Optics but I remember it mostly having to deal with optics. I don’t recall who taught it but I enjoyed it and earned a B. And most important another programming class. I took CS 320 Programming 2 from Dr. John Gersting.

Before I tell you about that class with Dr. Gersting, I need to tell you of a couple of encounters I had with him before I ever took a class from him.

On the third floor of the K-building, there was a small room about the size of a large supply closet called the “Calculations Lab.” I first spoke about it in episode 43. At one end sat an ASR 33 Teletype that was connected to the university’s DEC-System-10 computer. I’ve talked previously that we used to go in there and play text-based computer games of different types. There were also several very expensive programmable calculators on a table in the room.

One day, I wrote a program in the computer language known as BASIC to see how long it would take to count to 1 million. It had 6 loops that counted from 1 to 10. The loops were nested inside one another so the entire process would eventually count to 1 million. It would print out a message every 100,000 to let me know how it was doing.

While the program was running, someone sat down at one of the tables and began using a programmable calculator. I thought he was a teacher but I wasn’t sure. He was behind me I could only see him out of the corner of my eye. I’m pretty sure I asked if he needed the teletype because I always did that when I was goofing off. I might not have asked this guy because he went straight for the calculator. A few minutes later, one of my friends walked in and asked what I was doing, “What are you up to? Playing Star Trek again?”

“No,” I replied. I wrote a program to count to 1 million and I’m seeing how long it takes to run. Do you need the machine?”

“No. I was just going to goof around myself. Let me know how it turns out.”

“Will do.”

After about 20 or 30 minutes, I gave up. It had not yet even reached 100,000.

Now you might ask, “Aren’t computers faster than that?” Well, this program was written in BASIC which is an interpreted language. That means every time it reads a statement written in the BASIC language, it has to parse each statement every time it is executed and figure out what it means. This is in contrast to programs written in languages like FORTRAN in which the program is read once by a compiler, translated into machine language, and that machine language is what actually executes. In other words, BASIC is ungodly slow. Who knows. Maybe I made a mistake somewhere and the thing was caught in an infinite loop and never was going to finish.

Fast-forward to sometime later… maybe a month or so I don’t recall. I was hanging out with my friend Dennis Adams one day. We introduced you to Dennis back in episode 26. He was my friend from high school who first got me involved in computers by carrying a teletype machine downstairs from the math department at Northwest High School so that I could use a computer for the first time. Dennis is a year older than me so he had already been at IUPUI in the computer science department for a year before I arrived.

Dennis was working on an independent study project with one of the professors and he needed to stop by his office to drop something off. Dennis said, “I’m working with Dr. John Gersting. You will eventually get lots of classes with him. I really like him a lot and I think you’ll like him too.” An endorsement from Dennis was high praise so I was anxious to meet the guy but I waited outside his office while Dennis went in. The professor was either talking to another professor or was on the phone talking to them – I couldn’t tell. He was speaking in a loud and gruff voice saying, “Yeah it’s no wonder the system runs so damn slow. We’ve got all these idiots in there playing games and running programs to count to 1 million just to see how long it takes!”

Oh, shit! He was the guy using the programmable calculator the day I was in there trying to run 1 million loops. I was going to have this guy for many of my programming classes and he already had a terrible opinion of me. I was doomed.

That was sometime during my first or second year. But now it was time to actually take a class with Dr. Gersting and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

On the first day, it was a slight relief to note that his loud voice and somewhat gruff manner were his normal state. He was a tall slim man with sandy brown hair. He wore a bolo tie with a turquoise clasp. I believe he was also wearing boots. With this Southwestern attire, he reminded me a little bit of Clint Eastwood perhaps as his iconic character Dirty Harry. I later learned that Gersting studied at Arizona State University but I don’t know if that’s where he’s from originally. But that explains his Southwest attire.

The first day of class he gave a big speech about how demanding he was going to be. I could imagine him saying, “Go ahead make my day. Fail my class.”

Although he looked like Clint Eastwood, that opening speech was also reminiscent of another iconic grumpy character from one of my favorite films. The 1973 movie “The Paper Chase” was about a first-year Harvard law student named Mr. Hart. In that film, John Hausman portrayed a harish and demanding contract law professor named Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. Hausman won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role. Much-deserved. On the first day of class, Kingsfield famously delivers a monologue in which he says, “You teach yourselves the law but I train your mind. You come in here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a lawyer.”

Gersting’s speech was quite similar, especially in a similar speech he gave the following semester for my Programming 3 class. In that class, he handed us a textbook that he had written. It wasn’t a professionally published textbook rather it was of stack of Xeroxed pages bound together with a paper fastener.

He declared, “I’m not going to teach you this course. You are going to teach it to yourself. I wrote this book. Everything you need to know is in this book. I’m not going to read it to you. I’m not going to lecture from it. Some teachers supplement the book with their lectures but everything you need is in the book. If there was something else you needed to know I would’ve put it there.

“When you complete a chapter, you come into class and take a quiz. You must pass the quiz with a 100% score. If you do not pass 100% you cannot continue. Why would I let you go on to the next topic when you have not yet mastered the previous topic? There are three versions of each quiz. If you fail all three of them, then we will sit down and have a long talk about whether or not you should be in this class.

“One of the reasons you are going to teach yourselves this course is that that’s what will happen in the real world. The minute you leave this institution with your degree, most of what we taught you will be obsolete because the computer industry is evolving so quickly. And even if it doesn’t change, every computer facility has its own standards and procedures. You will have to deal with existing programs that have been written by other people and you will have to learn what that code does. The first day when you walk into a job they’re going to hand you a pile of computer manuals about 2 feet thick and they are going to say, ‘Here… learn this.’ I’m not going to teach you programming. I’m going to teach you to teach yourselves programming.”

In other words, he was saying just what Kingsfield said in that film. “You teach yourselves to write code but I train your mind. You come in here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a programmer.”

John Hausman reprised his role as Prof. Kingsfield in a TV series also called “The Paper Chase.” In the opening episode, Mr. Hart was unprepared for the first day of class. He was expecting a lecture but didn’t realize that a reading assignment had been posted on the bulletin boards in the dormitories and he was expected to have read material before the first class. When Kingsfield discovered that Mr. Hart was unprepared he placed over him an imaginary burial shroud.

Kingsfield: You see this.This is a shroud, Mr. Hart. A shroud. A burial garment. A winding sheet. For the dead. This is for you, Mr. Hart. The late Mr. Hart.

After that, Kingsfield refused to engage Mr. Hart in any of the Socratic dialogue sessions in the class.

Even though I didn’t make any giant mistakes the first day of class like Mr. Hart did, I felt like I already had a strike against me after Kingsfield… Whoops I mean… after Gersting had already branded me as an idiot who just wanted to play games and run a million loops to see how long it would take.

I linked a scene from the movie version of “The Paper Chase” as well as the entire first episode of the TV series which I found on YouTube. You will find the links in the description.

The first programming class I had with Dr. Gersting was CS 320 Programming 2. It taught us additional programming skills in FORTRAN. The primary purpose however was to show how to work in a group setting. We had a massive programming project that would take us the entire semester to complete.

Each year, Gersting came up with a different programming project for his class to work on. One previous year they wrote a piece of software to do the scoring for a car collectors show. Gersting had a collection of a couple of classic Ford Thunderbirds. He had restored the cars in his spare time and would show them off at classic car meets. The scoring system for these competitions was quite complex so he had his class write the software to handle the task. It was free labor. He probably could’ve written the program himself in a few days but it was a good project for the class.

This year, however, we had a completely different project. We were going to create a simulated computer. The project was called IPICS which stood for Indiana Purdue at Indianapolis Computer Simulator.

Gersting had invented an imaginary computer that used its own machine language that he also invented. The set of machine language instructions illustrated the variety of types of machine instructions that you would find in a real computer. It was designed to teach computer hardware architecture to future generations of computer science students. Our job was to bring this imaginary machine to life not with actual circuits but as a simulation.

The project was divided up into different tasks and we worked in groups of 2-4 students each. We had to create and test our portion of the code and write it to an overall standard that he established. Then, near the end of the semester, one representative from each team met with him on a Saturday afternoon as he took all of our different pieces of code written independently and tried to link them together into one massive program. It was an excellent example of how large programming projects work in the real world.

As I refer, my team which I think consisted of only two people was the smallest group with one of the smallest tasks. We had to simulate input and output processes. We had to translate numbers and letters from an internal system to standard ASCII characters and output them to the terminal. For input, we had to take ASCII text and translate it into the internal format used by the computer.

Throughout the semester, Gersting lightened up and you could joke around with him. He was a much nicer guy than he appeared that day. I remember the day we all gathered to integrate all of our pieces of the program. Someone in the computer room was showing off something they had produced on the computer’s plotter. A plotter was a computer-controlled device that had a pen mounted in it and a roll of tracing paper. The computer would move the paper forward and backward and move the pen side-to-side while lifting it up and down. You could use it to draw anything. It was sort of like a computer-controlled Etch-a-Sketch. It was mostly used for graphing mathematical functions. I had played around with it a little bit just for fun and not as a part of any assignment. I was already interested in computer graphics that early in my career.

I joked with the other students, “One of these days I’m going to use the computer plotter to draw an image of a Russian flag. Then I’m going to smear it with dirt. I will frame it and label it, ‘This is a dirty commie plot’” Gersting let out a loud groan at my terrible pun. It proved to me he did have a sense of humor after all.

After an hour or so, he got the program to compile and link as a single module. It wouldn’t do very much but it worked. The next step of the process was to write an operating system. There was a method to partition the memory into different areas. The operating system would run in protected memory and the application program would run in general memory.

I went to Gersting and asked him if he would take me on in an independent study course where my goal would be to write the operating system for IPICS. He agreed.

So, for my sixth semester, I had CS 490 ”Topics in CS for Undergrads” as well as CS 461 “Programming 3” both with Dr. John Gersting. We will talk about that in next week’s episode. In fact it’s probably going to take a couple of more episodes to tell the entire story of my relationship with this amazing man and his wife Dr. Judith Gersting who was also a CS professor and eventually appointed chairman of the department.

The Gerstings moved to Hawaii and taught there for a while but then returned to Indianapolis and are currently still serving as professor emeritus in the computer and information sciences program.

So stay tuned for more of the Gersting Chronicles.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.

Even if you cannot provide financial support. Please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

Contemplating Life – Episode 62 – “I’m a Coward”

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In this special episode, I’m going to depart briefly from my regularly scheduled episodes for a political rant and a confession. This is an open letter to the judicial system of the United States of America at all levels federal through local.

Links of Interest

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 62, a very special episode of Contemplating Life.

I’m going to depart briefly from my regularly scheduled episodes for a political rant and a confession. The title of this episode is “I’m a Coward.”

This is an open letter to the judicial system of the United States of America at all levels federal through local.

I was raised to appreciate our government deeply and am proud of our justice system in this country–especially the right to a trial by jury. I have always considered it an honor, a privilege, and part of our sacred civic duty to serve on a jury. Unfortunately, the severity of my disability decreases my stamina to the extent that whenever I have been called for jury duty I have had to decline to accept that honor. It has been a great disappointment not to have been able to participate in our government in such a capacity.

I’m writing the script on Monday, April 15, 2024, the day when jury selection began in a criminal trial of our former president. While I don’t live in that jurisdiction, I wondered what my response would be should I ever be called to serve as a juror in that case or any of the other civil or criminal cases or as a potential grand jury member in a case involving that particular defendant.

As I fantasized about what would happen if I were in voir dire in such a case, I discovered something quite disturbing about myself. I would have to address the court in a statement somewhat similar to this…

– – – – – –

Your Honor, I am sorry to report that I cannot be an impartial juror in this case or any other case involving this defendant.

I love my country. I am a patriot. I consider it a solemn civic duty as well as an honor and a privilege to be a member of any jury. I have always believed I could be impartial in any conceivable case despite any possible bias I might have. I see myself as a logical, critical thinker who can separate emotions and biases from decision-making.

I am staunchly opposed to the political policies of the defendant. Yet I am confident I can put those feelings aside and render an impartial verdict.

I abhor the public conduct of the defendant including but not limited to his disrespect for the military and the brave veterans who serve in it as well as their families, his disrespect for disabled people, his disrespect for women, and his disrespect for immigrants or potential immigrants. Yet I am confident I can put those feelings aside and render an impartial verdict.

I abhor the defendant’s blatant disrespect for our public institutions including but not limited to his disrespect for the FBI, our intelligence services, our free press, and his disrespectful abuse of Christian theology. Yet I am confident I could still put all of those feelings aside and render an impartial verdict.

Given all of those biases against the defendant, if the prosecution fails to make its case against him, I would sadly have to render an acquittal no matter how personally disappointing I might find it.

The problem comes if the prosecution makes its case and I would have to give a guilty verdict. With all due respect to the court, I do not trust that my identity could remain anonymous should I serve on this jury. I believe that inevitably somehow, my identity would become public knowledge.

I have credible fear that the defendant himself would attack me on social media. This would bring about more attacks from his supporters including other politicians, lawyers, and his cult of personality followers.

The defendant has shown repeatedly that he will show no restraint whatsoever in ruining the lives of people who stand in the way of his quest to lead this country into fascism with him as its supreme leader for life.

It is a matter of public record that many people including those who had former political ties to him and have been in the past his supporters as well as ordinary innocent citizens simply serving their country dutifully as election workers and other government activities… these people have fallen victim to the defendant’s attacks and attacks from use supporters.

Should I serve on this jury and render a guilty verdict, I would be risking my life and my way of life as well as putting at risk my friends and my family.

I’ve never been eligible for military service because of my disability. While I abhor war, I would like to think that were I able, I could sacrifice my life for my country. But apparently, that belief in myself is ill-founded. I am not willing to risk my life to bring to justice this despicable human being who represents an existential threat to our democracy as serious or more serious than any foreign enemy we have ever faced. I would more likely testify against a Mafia boss than I would cross this dangerous defendant and become his target.

Should the prosecution make its case, I would feel undue pressure to vote for acquittal to protect my life and livelihood from the onslaught of attacks I would receive should I be complicit in his conviction. Therefore I am incapable of being an impartial juror in this case or any other case involving this defendant.

I am deeply ashamed but I am a coward. And I realize in admitting that, and knowing that there are probably other people who feel exactly the way I do, that the defendant has already done significant harm to the country I love.

May God help us all.

– – – – – –

So that’s it. That’s what I would say if I were sitting in a New York courtroom today under voir dire to serve on a jury in the case titled “The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump” submitted March 30, 2023. Charge: First-degree falsifying business records (34 counts). Citation IND-71543-23.

A brief update… Although I wrote the script on Monday the 15th, the day that jury selection began, I’m recording it on Thursday the 18th. Initially, on Tuesday they had selected 7 jurors. But one of those jurors has already backed out and another one is likely to. Even the people who initially said they could be impartial in this case are having second thoughts about whether or not they want to be involved at all. The personal cost to them may be too just as it would be for me.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.

Even if you cannot provide financial support. Please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

Contemplating Life – Episode 61 – “Logan’s Run”

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This week we continue my nostalgic look back at my college days and discuss the great friendships I had some of which continue to this day.

Links of Interest

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 61 of Contemplating Life.

This week I want to talk about some of the great friendships I had in my college days. As I mentioned last episode, this is a difficult one to write because it’s about people who are still an active part of my life. While I like these stories to be “tell all”, especially when it gives me a chance to confess some of my stupid behavior, some stories are better left private.

As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, we didn’t have a regular cafeteria in the K-Building at the 38th St. campus of IUPUI. It was just a big lunch room with lots of tables and chairs. Adjacent to it was a vending machine room where you could get stale ham and cheese sandwiches, horrible pizza, snack food, and soft drinks. There was a microwave oven you could use to heat up whatever you purchased.

The room also became a hangout for a group of friends to socialize. Early in the morning someone would break out a deck of cards and start a euchre game. Sometimes the game would last until dinnertime. People would come and go and take your place if you had to go study or go to class.

There was a crazy guy named Mark who was a tall blonde-haired guy who talked way too loud and often said very embarrassing and misogynistic things that occasionally made you embarrassed to be at the same table with him. But except for his unfortunate lack of a filter, he was a really great guy and the life of the party.

There was another guy named Kevin who was fortunately much more restrained than Mark but still a fun guy. Very smart. I don’t recall what his major was.

There was a guy named Gilley who would come to school with a cup of coffee from White Castle that he had spiked with some sort of alcohol. Even at 10 AM, you could smell alcohol on his breath. Extremely intelligent and very fun to be around. A talented card player. My guess is he probably dropped out at some point because of his drinking but I don’t know that for a fact.

There were a few women in the group. Sadly I don’t remember most of their names. There was a friendly gal named Cindy who had short red hair and rode a motorcycle. We went out to the movies and to dinner a couple of times but it never got serious.

I’ve lost touch with all of these people. I’ve tried doing Google searches and Facebook searches but most of their names are just too common. You get lots of people with the same name.

We’ve already talked at length about my late friend Mike Gregory who was part of this motley crew.

There was a computer technology major named Frank Williams who was a good buddy. Computer technology is slightly different than computer science which was my major. The details aren’t important right now. Frank is an excellent keyboard player. He had his own band in college or shortly thereafter. I went with my friends Rich and Kathy to hear him play at some bar on the east side when time. I think Frank sees himself as a Billy Joel-type person. He played lots of Billy Joel’s songs and also could play a few Keith Emerson pieces from the band Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Keith Emerson is my favorite rock ‘n’ roll keyboard player.

Frank liked to call me Christopher even though I repeatedly told him that my actual name is just Chris. To retaliate, I decided to start calling him Frankfurter. I told him, “If you can put a ‘topher’ on the end of my name I can put a ‘furter’ on the end of your name.” The nickname was especially appropriate for him because frequently he would bring a bag lunch of hot dogs. He would take two hot dogs, slice them lengthwise, and put them between two slices of white bread. He would then microwave the sandwich and load it up with copious amounts of ketchup and mustard. When he would bite into the sandwich, the ketchup and mustard would drip all over the place. It was a sight to behold.

After graduation, I kept in touch with him briefly. We had a little reunion at my house a few years after college one day when Mike Gregory was back in town for a visit. But then I lost touch with him for many years. Finally, a few years ago, we reconnected on Facebook. With a common name like Frank Williams, I didn’t think I’d ever find him but I finally did

He is still playing in a band. Last summer, they were playing at a church festival on the south side and I went to hear him. It was the first I’d seen him in probably 30 years. He is not the lead in the band. He just plays keyboards but he does sing lead vocals on some songs. The guitar player is the lead.

Frank sounded fine. The lead singer sounded okay. But for some reason, I don’t think their voices mix very well. I think I liked his band better but this one isn’t half bad. Anyway, it was still great to hear him and to talk to him for a few minutes after the performance. It’s great to be in touch with him via Facebook after all these years.

Frank had a girlfriend named Kay who also attended IUPUI. They had been dating since high school. Somewhere along the way in college, they broke up even though everyone thought they would be together forever. I was also able to connect to Kay on Facebook recently.

As I alluded to last episode, the most important and long-lasting friendship from my college days is with my dear friend Rich Logan. I met Rich in the CS 300 Assembly Language Programming class I talked about last week. We hit it off as friends immediately and it has lasted almost 50 years.

By the way, speaking of that assembly language class, I finally found my little green card. You can see an image of it in the YouTube version.

There was a rec room across the hall from the lunch room. It had about a half-dozen pinball machines, a foosball table, and several pool tables along with other tables for playing chess or other board games. Rich and I played pinball but I could only work one of the buttons so I would get on the left side of the machine and work the left flipper. Rich would fire the pinball on the right side and work the right flipper. I was never any good at it but we had lots of fun.

In the summer of 1976, there was a sci-fi movie named “Logan’s Run”. Because Rich’s last name is Logan, a bunch of us decided we needed to go see the movie together with him. Rich recalls that he was the only one of the group who had not yet seen the movie but I don’t think I had seen it either. As best as either of us can recall, it must have been in late August or early September 1976.

The problem was, how to get me to the movie. I called my mom using a payphone (no cell phones in those days) and told her a bunch of us wanted to go to a movie one afternoon. I asked her if Rich could come by, pick up my van, bring it back to IUPUI, and drive me to the movie. He would then return the van to my house then get back in his car and leave. My mom quickly agreed.

Rich loves telling the story about the first time he ever met my mom. He couldn’t believe that he could walk up there being a total stranger and say, “I’m here to get your van,” and she just handed him the keys and let him drive it away. He said, “I thought what kind of crazy lady is this that would trust me with her car and trust me to drive her disabled son to the movies when she had never met me before?”

I explained to Rich, “It probably wasn’t easy for her. She was probably really worried. But she trusted me and I trusted you and that was good enough. It’s also a testament to how far my mom would go to attempt to give me a life that was as normal as possible. It’s normal for a guy to want to go see a movie with his college friends. If that’s what it took to make that possible, she was going to do it.”

The movie was about a guy named Logan in a future where people were not allowed to live past the age of 30. At birth, they had a small glowing crystal embedded in the palm of their hand. As they aged, it would change colors. When you turned 30, your crystal began blinking red. You then had to participate in some ritual ceremony called “Carousel” in which people would be exploded in a grand spectacle. But they were told that a small percentage would be “renewed”. People in the audience would shout “Renew, Renew” as the victims exploded. But it seemed like no one ever knew anyone who actually was renewed. People who realized that the “Carousel” was actually a death sentence, would refuse to participate in the ceremony. They became so-called “runners”. Logan was a type of police officer known as a “Sandman”. It was his job to chase down runners and terminate them.

Logan was sent on an undercover mission. They turned his crystal blinking red to make him a runner even though he was still only in his mid-20s. He was supposed to track down an underground movement that would lead runners to a legendary place called “Sanctuary”. When Logan inquired, “When my mission is over, do I get my years back?” The computer that gave him the assignment refused to answer. So now Logan really was a runner.

After watching the movie, our buddy Mark decided to start calling Rich by the nickname “Runner” and he went by that nickname for quite a time. I don’t think I used it very much if at all except perhaps when we were all in the group.

There was a woman and a group named Kathy Willaert. At first, it was hard to get to know her. Rich described her as “the quiet, shy girl who was always reading a book.” Many in the group never bothered to try to get to know her. Fortunately one day Kathy and I set down together and had a very long heart-to-heart talk where I did get to know her well. Once you got to know her, she was an amazing person. But few people bothered to take the time to really listen to her and to get to know her. They just sort of wrote her off which was quite unfair.

Had I written her off as unapproachable, I would have lost out on an amazing friendship.

As I previously explained, my approach towards women was that anyone who showed any kindness was immediately categorized as a potential girlfriend. And once I got to know Kathy, she could have fallen into that category very easily except for one thing. Even though I think she was about 19 years old at the time, she did not have a driver’s license. I’m sad to say, that was a dealbreaker for me. So although I was quite fond of her, I never really considered her a potential girlfriend.

One of the people who took the time to get to know Kathy and to truly appreciate her was Rich. I’m pretty sure that Kathy went with all of us to see “Logan’s Run” and somehow I had speculated years later that that was the beginning of their relationship – their first sort of unofficial first date. But according to them, their first real date was to see a rerelease of Disney’s “Fantasia.” According to Wikipedia, that rerelease was in April 1977 but I have no idea when they actually saw it.

When the gang learned that the two were dating, there was lots of gossiping about it. At one point, the gang witnessed Rich and Kathy disagreeing about something. After they left the room, someone said (well I’m embarrassed to say it might’ve been me that said it), they speculated that it wouldn’t last two weeks. Anyway, whoever said it first, me or somebody else, everyone agreed. Well, when that statement got back to them, they didn’t appreciate it. Over 45 years later they are still together and they still argue. When I reminded Rich of that recently, he said, “Yes we just stayed married to spite everyone. We are still waiting on our pool winnings.” Although we never did wager any money, if we had, Rich and Kathy would’ve taken the lot.

There was a bit of tension between the three of us. I grew jealous of the time they spent together. I think they thought I was jealous because Rich had stolen Kathy away from me or we were competing for her attention. But that wasn’t the case. As I explained before, Kathy’s inability to drive made her ineligible even though I really liked her. What really happened was Kathy got between me and my best buddy. I was jealous that she was stealing Rich away from me – not that Rich was keeping Kathy from me. But we worked it all out and we have been friends for decades now. There have been good times and bad times and we have shared them all together.

Sometime in March or April 1979, my disability got worse. I developed congestive heart failure and landed in the hospital for two weeks. Rich and Kathy visited me frequently and continue to visit me nearly every time I’m in the hospital. Rich also came to visit as I was recovering at home.

I remember one day we tried to hook up my Atari 2600 game system to my bedroom TV so I could play video games with him while I was in bed. We finally got it all hooked up and working and then I realized I couldn’t work the controller while in bed. My hands were too weak. So he played for a while and I watched. About 30 minutes later I realized I had fallen asleep. When I woke up, he was just quietly sitting by my bedside keeping me company.

When I was finally able to get out of bed briefly, he came by for a visit and we sat in my family room. He said he had a favor to ask. He wanted me to be the Best Man at his wedding to Kathy. I was honored of course. I explained I wasn’t sure I would be well enough in time for the wedding. At the time I could only be out of bed a couple of hours a day. He told me he had a plan B. Frank would be his backup best man.

My mom took me to the rehearsal the day before the wedding. It was in a Protestant church used by Rich’s family. Kathy, her sister who was maid of honor, and I were all nonpracticing Catholics in a Protestant wedding. Rich and Kathy’s parents, my mom, and perhaps some other family members were there for the rehearsal. There couldn’t have been more than 8 people in the church. Rich and I were at the altar. Kathy’s father led her up the aisle. The preacher said, “Wait a minute. Don’t you people know you’re supposed to stand up when the bride comes down the aisle? This is your rehearsal too. You need to rehearse your part as the audience.” So everybody stood up.

I turned to Rich and said, “That’s the way it is with these religious people. You never know if you’re supposed to stand up, sit down, kneel, cross yourself, or whatever.” We both cracked up. It was especially funny because that’s what Protestants often say when they come to a Catholic Church. Here we had three former Catholics in a Protestant wedding and I was feeding the same lines that the Protestants always say about Catholics.

My only official duty as the best man was to hand Rich the ring. We practiced many many times. He would hold out his hand palm up beneath my hand and I would drop the ring into his hand. I did not want to embarrass myself by dropping the ring.

On June 23, 1979, Rich Logan and Kathy Willaert were married and I was fortunate enough to be there as the best man. Frank was on standby. I successfully dropped the ring into Rich’s hand as we had practiced. Kathy’s sister handed her the ring and they dropped it. It rolled all over the floor. I’m not generally the kind of person who takes pleasure in someone else’s misfortune. But I was so happy that if a ring was going to get dropped, it wasn’t me who dropped it.

They had a small reception at Rich’s parents’ house and in his backyard. Frank got them a particularly nice wedding present. He knew they didn’t have a honeymoon planned so he rented a fancy suite in a downtown hotel. He ordered a steak and egg breakfast for them even though it wasn’t on the menu. Together we chipped in some cash so that they could have some spending money in addition to whatever other gift I got for them. I don’t recall what my wedding present was.

That day, I spent a total of five hours out of bed between the wedding and the reception afterward. It was the longest I had been out of bed in nearly 3 months.

As mentioned in other episodes, I went to see the original Star Wars with the Logans. We went back a year later to see it again. We saw all of the other Star Wars films except for “Rogue One”. We couldn’t go to that one because I was in the hospital getting my trach installed in 2016. A little over a year ago they released “Rogue One” in theaters and so we went back and saw it together even though we had all seen it on streaming or DVD. That completed the set. We’ve seen every Star Wars movie in the theater together – some of them more than once.

The three of us frequently went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on qualifying days and had a wonderful time there together. We saw many track records broken on several of those days.

Another fond memory… Rich and I went to a very memorable Colts game on Halloween night in 1988 against the Denver Broncos. It was carried on Monday Night Football. The Colts clobbered Denver 55-23. Our fans began taunting John Elway every time he made a mistake shouting “El-way, El-way” to mock him. Longtime Colts fans will tell you it was one of the greatest games we ever played and Rich and I were there to see it in person. It was a great event and a fond memory.

In those days, my family owned a cabin on a lake in Brown County. Rich and Kathy were frequent guests there. The YouTube version of this podcast shows some of the fun times we had at the lake. The video is from 1984.

We have seen countless movies and been to many sporting events – way more than I can remember. I have lots of other stories that I will save for appropriate times.

Rich is the brother I never had. Kathy is a very dear friend. I could not ask for more loyal caring and loving people in my life. They really are extraordinary.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. We’ve had our ups and downs. Our misunderstandings and disagreements. Even the production of this episode has been a challenge that we had to work through together.

When I used to teach Catholic inquiry classes at my church, there was a lesson about Old Testament prophets. While we normally think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future, a big part of the job is to be a spokesperson for God. Sort of like a Press Secretary. Typically a prophet’s message is to call you back to God when you go astray. Most of the prophets spoke to the entire chosen people but occasionally a prophet’s guidance is personal as in the case of the prophet Nathan who is best buddies with King David. Nathan didn’t hesitate to tell David what an ass he was being for having an affair with Bathsheba. I teach that sometimes we are called to be prophets to our friends or to have them be prophets to us and call us back when we go astray.

That’s the kind of relationship I have with the Logans. They love me enough to let me know when I screw up and they know that because I respect them and cherish our friendship I will listen to them and try to do better. There are lots of examples. One day I told a horrendously sexist joke in a computer class and later Rich called me out saying simply, “I thought your comments in class today were out of character.” I will never forget those exact words. The phrase “out of character” never had more meaning than it did that day. What he was saying with those three simple words is, “The Chris that I know and love isn’t the kind of person who would say such a thing. The Chris I know and love is better than that.” He was right. That may have been who I was in that moment but it’s not who I normally am and it’s not who I aspire to be. True friends see the best in us and motivate us to be the person they know we can be.

The occasions when the Logans have been a prophet who called me to be my better self far outnumber the occasions when I’ve returned the favor.

Scripture says “A faithful friend is a life-saving elixir…” Sirach 6:16. I’ve been blessed by many such friends.

I’ve been running with Logan for nearly 50 years and look forward to many more years of Logan’s Run and a blessed friendship.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always, my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. Your support means more to me than words can express.

Even if you cannot provide financial support. Please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

Contemplating Life – Episode 60 – “Ghost Writer in the Machine Language”

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This week we continue my nostalgic look back at my college days starting with my fourth semester at IUPUI and the paid programming jobs I ever had.

Links of Interest

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxfDHzcy1KU

Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 60 of Contemplating Life.

We took a couple of weeks off after my office reviews and now we return to my nostalgic look back at my college days starting with my fourth semester at IUPUI and the first paid programming jobs I ever had.

My transcript for the spring semester of 1975 shows that I took “Psychology as a Biological Science PSY 105” which I discussed in a previous episode. I earned a B for that class. Next, we have “Physics 152 Mechanics” which I also discussed in my episode about my friend Mike Gregory. Another B with four credit hours. I also had “MATH 261 Multivariate Calculus“ which was my first calculus class. I never was very good at calculus or differential equations but I managed to sneak through with a C.

Finally, we get to my second-ever programming class – “Assembly Language Programming CSCI 300.” It was very frustrating that this was my fourth semester trying to earn a BS degree in Computer Science And I was just now getting to my second class in my major. I explained previously that they had me mistakenly identified as a Math major rather than a Computer Science major and that got me off sequence.

Let’s talk For a little bit about what we mean by Assembly Language Programming. We are going to get a bit technical for a minute or two but I will try to explain some programming concepts in layman’s terms.

There are a variety of ways to program a computer. Computers don’t understand English-like languages or algebraic formulas to do calculations. Most of the time we write programs in what’s called a “higher-level language.” My previous programming class CS 220 taught programming in a now obsolete language called FORTRAN IV.

Suppose you wanted to calculate the area of a Rectangle. In FORTRAN, you might have statements such as…

Width = 5

Height = 7

Area = Width * Height

(Where an * is a symbol used for multiplication).

That’s a very simple formula but you could have much longer calculations on one computer statement. For example, the volume of a sphere might be

Radius = 5

Volume = 4/3 * Pi * Radius * Radius * Radius

Because the volume of a sphere is 4/3 pi times the radius cubed.

Computers cannot directly understand any of this. You have to use a specialized program called a “Compiler” which translates a high-level language like FORTRAN into something called “Machine Language”.

Machine Language is nothing but a series of numbers that the computer interprets as commands to do various things. Computers have a section of circuitry called an Arithmetic Logic Unit. The ALU consists of some registers to store temporary numbers. Some commands load data from the computer memory into a register. There it can be added, subtracted, multiplied, or divided by a number in a different register or perhaps a number stored in memory. Once a number is in a register you can also compare it to the number in a different register. Based on how that comparison went, you can conditionally jump to a different part of the program. Or you can remember where you were, jump to something called a subroutine, and then when the subroutine is finished, you jump back to where you left off.

There is a special register called the Program Counter which points to the next instruction in memory to be executed. When it completes that command, it increments the counter to the next instruction. Your program instructions and the data it works on are all stored in the same memory. If you’re not careful, you can jump to a location that contains data rather than instructions. The computer will try to interpret that data as an instruction to do something when it really wasn’t meant to be. The program goes haywire doing God knows what.

Machine language consists solely of binary numbers (a series of ones and zeros) which is hard for humans to read. We can group the ones and zeros into groups of four and use base 16 numbers also known as hexadecimal numbers. But that still doesn’t tell you what the instruction does unless you memorize the codes. For example,3c 12 67 means that you should take the value at memory location “6712” and load it into the A register. That’s not a mistake, it stores the lower order two digits first. So you specify the address as 1267 but it means location 6712.

Assembly language, which is what I studied in CS 300, is one step above machine language. In machine language, the previous command we talked about would be…

LDA MyValue

The command LDA means you’re going to load something into the A register. That’s relatively easy to remember that LDA means “Load Register A”. But where are we going to get what we want to load? We could remember a memory address like 6712 but it’s easier if we just make up a name for that location. In this case, we called it “MyValue”. A program called an Assembler translates this command into machine language. Assembly language is just a human-readable form of machine language. Somewhere in the program prior to this, you had to tell the assembler to send side a memory location and that we would in the future refer to it as “MyValue”. The assembler sets up something called a “symbol table” so that you don’t have to deal with numbered locations. You can just refer to it by a name you made up. You don’t have to remember it was location 6712 and you don’t have to remember that the opcode for loading register a was the hexadecimal value 3c. The Assembler takes care of that for you.

So there is a one-to-one correspondence between assembly language and machine language. Every time you write an assembly language line of code, the assembler translates it into a single machine language instruction. The advantage of assembly language is that you are talking to the computer in its native language. You can make the code run very efficiently because you are telling it exactly what to do in exactly what order. When you program in a higher-level language like FORTRAN, you are counting on the compiler to translate what you wrote in FORTRAN into something efficient in machine language.

The advantage of high-level languages is, they are easy for humans to write and read. The disadvantage is, that they might produce a sequence of commands that is not fully optimized. At least in theory. Today’s compilers can probably optimize code better than most programmers can. This is especially true now that computer processors have multiple CPUs that can execute multiple threads of instructions simultaneously. Modern compilers can figure out how to do that efficiently.

Back in the early 70s, people still used assembly language when they wanted the most efficient code. Sometimes today, you might still use assembly language if you are concerned about code that ran with exact timing because of hardware constraints. But these days, people very rarely write assembly code.

Even though assembly language commands tried to use mnemonic codes that were allegedly easy for humans to remember like LDA means load into register A, there were hundreds of commands with variations and we could never keep track of them all. We had something called an IBM System 360 Reference Card. It was a fan-folded card about 8 inches tall and perhaps 3 inches wide with about four panels printed front and back on green card stock. I’ve included an image of one in the YouTube version of the podcast. I found a PDF of one online. Somewhere along the way, the campus bookstore quit selling the famous “little green card”. They replaced it with a version for the IBM System 370 that was printed on white card stock. One day, someone said, “Can I borrow your little green card?” The sarcastic reply was, “They don’t make them anymore.” So then we grabbed the little white card and wrote across the top of it “This is a little green card.” So even though they were white, we still called them “the little green card.”

These quick reference cards were very valuable tools.

Years later, I met a guy named Paul Nanos. We were both members of the Speedway RadioShack Computer Users Club. Paul created a series of quick reference cards for a variety of personal computers. I helped him create one for the Timex/Sinclair 1000 computer. I sold the quick reference cards through my business although I never made much money from them. But that’s another story for another day.

By the way, in the examples above, I’m using codes for the Intel 8080 processor used in early personal computers even though the CS 300 class I took years ago was for the IBM 360. That’s another problem. Every type of hardware has its own unique set of machine instructions. It has a different set of registers and different commands to move numbers in and out of those registers and to manipulate them. So assembly language written for the IBM 360 that we had at IUPUI would not run on the Digital Equipment DEC-System 10 that we also had. Nor would it run on the IBM 1620 that we had. And none of those assembly languages would work on the new Intel 8080 or Zilog Z80 or MOS Technology 6502 processors that were used in the early personal computers.

However, if you wrote a program in FORTRAN and you had a FORTRAN compiler on your IBM 360, DEC 10, RadioShack Model 1, or Apple ] [ computer it would compile your FORTRAN program into the machine language of your particular machine, as long as you didn’t try to use any hardware-specific or operating system-specific features, it would work.

But when using machine language, a program written for one type of computer will do nothing on a different type of computer. A program intended to run on an Intel-based processor in machine language running Windows would do absolutely nothing on your iPhone which uses a completely different kind of processor.

That’s what bothers me about sci-fi stories where we can hack into alien computers or they can hack into ours and upload viruses.

Probably the worst offender was the 1996 film “Independence Day”. Jeff Goldblum was able to hack into the alien computer and upload a virus to disable the shields.

If I gave you a memory dump of a program written for IBM 360, unless you understood the internal workings of the machine and the exact function of every operational code, there is no way you could tell what the program did and there is no way you could write a program for that machine without that basic knowledge. When looking at the memory dump, there would be no way you could tell which of the numbers were program codes and which numbers were data that the program operated upon.

Machine language programs are nothing but strings of numbers in memory. There’s nothing inherent about them that tells you it’s from an IBM 360, Intel 8080, or a modern Intel series CPU. Oh, perhaps if you understood machine language for those types of machines you could try to reverse engineer it and see if it corresponded to machine language instructions for one of those machines. But if it was alien hardware, and you had no idea how the internal workings of their computers worked, you couldn’t make heads or tails out of it let alone write a program that would run on their hardware.

Anytime you see someone in a movie look at a string of numbers and suddenly declare, “It’s an algorithm that does… Whatever” that’s nothing but BS. I have seen that in a number of movies and TV shows. The worst offender of this scenario is the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 Episode 20 “The Chase”. Captain Picard reunites with an old friend who is an archaeologist. Prof.Galin is killed by pirates who are trying to steal information from him. Picard discovers the professor is collecting a series of numbers but they have difficulty deciphering the pattern. They finally realized the numbers corresponded to sequences of DNA that had been found on planets all over the galaxy. They also determine that there is a secret message in DNA. There is nothing scientifically impossible about that. We can already produce DNA strands of a particular sequence so it’s not impossible to think that you could encode a message in someone creature’s DNA. The problem comes when Lieut. LaForge suddenly declares that there is more to this DNA than appears.

LaForge: This is not part of a natural design Captain. This is part of an algorithm coded at the molecular level.

Picard: An algorithm. Are you saying that these DNA fragments are elements in some kind of computer program?

LaForge: I know how this sounds but there is no way this could be a random formation. This is definitely part of a program.

That’s just ridiculous. So we got a string of numbers and they are encoded in DNA and we link them up to get a certain pattern but there’s no way to know that that string of numbers is actually a computer program. Because the way you turn numbers into programs is totally dependent upon what kind of hardware you are using. The number 3c in hexadecimal means something in register A on an Intel 8080, but that number could mean anything on a different kind of computer. A string of numbers that represents a program on one machine would be nothing but random noise for a different type of computer processor. Whoever it was that encoded this DNA allegedly billions of years ago would have no idea what kind of hardware we would be using today.

Later in the episode when they finally connect all of the pieces of DNA, somehow their tricorder device magically starts running the program and projecting a hologram of the recorded message. First of all the idea that this program could magically reconfigure the tricorder to project a hologram which is something we’ve never seen the device do before and that somehow decode the video and audio in 3D to project the message is totally ridiculous but we will them that one. The message was two minutes and 10 seconds long. I timed it. I downloaded that episode, clipped out the two-minute 10-second scene, and it was over 68 MB long. That must’ve been some lengthy sequence of DNA. Much longer than it appeared in the episode.

There are also stories where someone creates a computer virus and the simple act of looking at the file causes your computer to get infected. That’s a load of crap as well.

Probably the worst offender in this category was Dan Brown’s 1996 novel “Digital Fortress”. There was a computer virus that was so dangerous, they couldn’t open it to see what was inside it. That’s ridiculous.

A computer file is nothing but a string of numbers. If those numbers are in the proper form and you name the file “something.txt” then you can open it using the Notepad application and theoretically, it would have plain text in it. Or it would look like garbage. But opening a file with Notepad is not going to infect your computer.

Or if it had an extension like .docx then maybe it’s a Microsoft Word Document file. And if you use Microsoft Word to open the file, there might be some macro codes or program extensions embedded in it. That could possibly be dangerous but only because Microsoft Word allows you to embed programs in what should otherwise be a text file.

The most dangerous type of file is one with the extension .exe which means “executable”. If you try to “open” that file, your operating system will execute it as if it is a program. All you have to do to examine that file safely is to rename it as “whatever.dat” which means it’s nothing but a data file. Then you open it with a safely created program that doesn’t try to execute any code but just looks at the string of numbers inside the file and displays them for you. That is 100% safe. The only way a file can infect your computer is if you load the file into memory and somehow cause the program counter to start executing it like a program.

You don’t need anything special to look at a file safely. You don’t need an antivirus program. You don’t need an air-gapped machine (which means it is not connected to the internet). Computer programs are just strings of numbers no different than data. It’s only what you do with those numbers.

Okay, time to get off my soapbox and get back to my story…

When I got my first personal computer using a Zilog Z80 processor, I did have to write some assembly language. Sometimes I had to translate that assembly language into machine language myself because I didn’t have a suitable assembler program. One time I taught a class in Z80 assembly language for members of that computer club I talked about. The concepts I learned in writing IBM 360 Assembly carried forward when I had to write assembly language for other types of hardware. However, for the most part, I never had any practical use for the IBM 360 Assembly Language Programming that I learned in CS 300.

I said “for the most part” because although I never had a legitimate use for IBM Assembly, my first paid programming job was writing IBM Assembly Language– Illegitimately.

Anyway, I think it was perhaps my third year at IUPUI that a Computer Technology student came up to me and asked me if I would write some programs for her. She had to write about 15 very simple programs in IBM 360 Assembly. It was one of those situations where she had all semester to write these programs and waited until the last minute to do it. I was sympathetic towards her because I had been through the same scenario which I will tell you about in a later episode. Anyway, she needed to write about 15 programs in 10 days. She said, “I can write all of these programs but I just don’t have the time to do it by the end of the semester. Look at the list, pick 4 or 5 of them, and I will pay you $20 per program.”

I picked out 4 of the assignments and told her I would do them. I wrote the programs in FORTRAN but I did it in a very primitive kind of way. I pretended I was writing in assembly language. So I used very simple FORTRAN commands. I made sure that the program ran and produced the proper results. I could run FORTRAN on the DEC-10 by sitting at a computer terminal. If the program didn’t run properly, I could edit and rerun it a dozen times in just a few minutes.

Running programs on the IBM 360 was more difficult. You had to type the code onto punchcards using a keypunch machine. Submit the deck of cards to the computer operator which he/she would put in the pile and run them in the order they were received. Then you had to come back in a half-hour or so, pick up your output, and if it didn’t work, retype some of the cards and resubmit them. That’s why this woman could not get all those programs finished in time.

By getting the basic logic of the program working in FORTRAN, working out all the bugs quickly, and then rewriting them in assembly language code, I’m pretty sure all four of the programs worked the first time I submitted them.

She paid me in brand-new crisp $20 bills fresh out of an ATM. I used the $80 to buy a fancy new HP 21 scientific pocket calculator. It cost $125 but it got me most of the way there.

I know I shouldn’t admit that I helped someone cheat by doing their homework for them, but I looked at the other code she wrote and I am confident she was correct when she said she could have done them all if she had time.

My first legitimate programming job was also in assembly language but it wasn’t for the IBM 360. It was for the Intel 4040. The 4040 was a slightly more advanced version of the Intel 4004 which is widely considered to be the world’s first microprocessor. It was a 4-bit computer. Compare that with computers today that are 64 bits. It wasn’t good for much of anything although the way the computer architecture was designed, it was obvious it was intended to be used for a calculator. I don’t remember the details about it.

It was very primitive in that it would only add or subtract but it could not multiply or divide. Binary multiplication is pretty easy. You just shift the bits left and then add repeatedly. There was a guy who was an electrical engineer who was a friend of a friend. I don’t remember the guy’s name. I don’t remember the friend’s name. But he needed someone to write about 30 or 40 lines of Intel 4040 code for a digital thermometer. All it had to do was read in 6 bits of data from an input port, do some addition and multiplication on it, and store the result in a particular location. He gave me some photocopies of the hardware manuals for the 4004/4040 processor. I had to teach myself 4040 Assembler Language, write the program, and then hand translate it into a hexadecimal code because we didn’t have an assembler.

Along the way, I learned a little bit about digital electronics. For example, the “input” command read data from a pair of 4-bit ports for a total of 8 bits. However, we only needed 6 of the bits. I assumed that the other two bits which we were not going to use would default to zero. But they don’t. A disconnected pin on an input port of a microprocessor in all likelihood defaults to a “one” rather than a “zero”. So you have to mask off only the bits that you want. This was a lesson that I would use regularly decades later when I began programming Arduino-based microprocessors. I never dreamed that someday I would be programming a computer smaller than a deck of cards that had similar computing power to my first PC which was the size of a microwave oven. And that the programming skills I’ve learned on that simple little digital thermometer, would be essential to the microprocessor programming I would do much later in life.

Anyway, I wrote the program out in Intel 4040 Assembly Language on a yellow legal pad. To the left of each Assembly Language instruction, I wrote the hexadecimal codes that I hand-translated into machine language. To the right of the instructions, I wrote comments that explained step-by-step what the program was doing.

The guy paid me $100 and was quite grateful. He said if he ever needed another piece of code written he would be happy to hire me but he never did. But it was my first legitimate job as a computer programmer and I have fond memories of the experience. I spent that money on the more advanced HP 25c scientific pocket calculator that was programmable. I’ve got some funny stories about that gadget for another episode.

With the exception of everything I described above, I had absolutely no use for what I learned in “CS 300 Assembly Language Programming“. I earned 3 credits and an easy A.

I’m not sure who taught the class. I think it was a guy named Dr. Rizo but I’m not sure.

There was a more significant aftereffect of that class that has had a major impact on my life ever since then. One of my classmates in CS 300 was a guy named Rich Logan. You’ve heard me talk about him previously because he and his wife Kathy have been very loyal friends ever since our college days. They frequently take me to movies and occasional sporting events and have been the best friends anyone could ever hope to have. We will talk more about them and some other friends I made at about that time at IUPUI in next week’s episode.

It may be a difficult episode to write. I’ve talked about other people I went to school with in grade school, high school, and other college friends but they are all long gone from my life. We either drifted apart like my girlfriend Ellie or my buddy Dennis who I still keep in touch with but we are not close. Some of them sadly have passed away like my girlfriend Rosie or my good buddy Mike. But, Rich and Kathy are still a very big part of my life nearly 48 years later. I’m not going to be able to tell their entire story in one or two episodes but we will hit the highlights of the early part of our friendship in the next episode.

– – – –

I’d like to dedicate this episode to my good friend and caregiver Brandon Drake who tragically passed away from an epileptic seizure on March 9. You were a good friend and a great caregiver and I will miss you always buddy. Rest in peace, my friend.

– – – –

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although I have some financial struggles, I’m not really in this for money. Still, every little bit helps.

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Even if you cannot provide financial support. Please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

All of my back episodes are available and I encourage you to check them out if you’re new to this podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you found this podcast.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe.

Contemplating Life – Episode 59 – “Oscar 2024: Troubled Geniuses”

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In this episode, we wrap up my six-part series on Oscar-nominated films for 2024. Our final category contains my favorite film of the year and the film that is most likely to win significant numbers of awards including Best Picture. I call this category “Troubled Geniuses”

The 96th Annual Academy Awards will be awarded this Sunday, March 10. After this episode, I’m going to take off the rest of the month and will return with new episodes in April. This is been a labor of love but a labor nevertheless.

Links of Interest

Oscar Nominations 2024: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2024

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, This is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 59 of Contemplating Life – Oscar edition.

The 96th Annual Academy Awards will be awarded this Sunday, March 10. This is the last of my series on the Oscar-nominated films for 2024. After this episode, I’m going to take off the rest of the month and will return with new episodes in April. This has been a labor of love but a labor nevertheless.

Our final category contains my favorite film of the year and the film and the film that is most likely to win significant numbers of awards including Best Picture. So, we have saved the best for last. I call this category “Troubled Geniuses”

We begin with Christopher Nolan’s epic movie “Oppenheimer”. It’s the story of J Robert Oppenheimer who led the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb.

The film is actually two interconnected stories told in parallel. We have the story of Oppenheimer beginning with his career as a young physics student through his development of the atomic bomb and eventually his activism to promote nuclear disarmament. This story is described by a title card as “Fission” which is the term for the splitting of an atom which releases tremendous amounts of energy. This portion of the film is shot in color 70mm IMAX film.

The parallel story is that of Louis Strauss who was a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and who later led the Atomic Energy Commission. This portion of the story is described by a title card of “Fusion” which is the process of combining hydrogen atoms into helium also releasing tremendous amounts of energy. It is a process that powers the sun and all of the stars and is the process of the hydrogen bomb that Strauss promoted. This portion of the film told from Strauss’ perspective is shot in black-and-white 70mm IMAX film which was specially produced for this project because no one had ever used black-and-white IMAX before.

The framework of these two stories surrounds hearings regarding the careers of these two men. Oppenheimer appeared for several weeks before a special committee of the Atomic Energy Commission in April and May 1954 as he appealed the revocation of his security clearance.

At the time he was a highly popular public figure for his role in developing the atomic bomb which was credited for ending World War II. Oppenheimer had hoped the development of a weapon as powerful as an atomic bomb would make war unthinkable in the future and would essentially end all wars. He imposed the development of the more powerful hydrogen bomb and was a strong advocate for negotiated arms treaties. This opposition to further atomic weapon development as well as past affiliations with known Communists led to the revocation of his security clearance. The story opens with Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, testifying before this committee. He chooses to tell his life story so that his work can be understood in proper context. So his portion of the film is told as a flashback as he testifies before the AEC committee.

Strauss is played by Robert Downey, Jr. His portion of the film also centers around a hearing. He is being considered for a position in the Eisenhower administration as Secretary of Commerce in 1958. Strauss testifies before the Senate committee approving his appointment and recounts the story of his feud with Oppenheimer over the development of the hydrogen bomb. His story is told in flashbacks from that hearing.

Although these two stories are told in parallel, clearly this is primarily Oppenheimer’s story. It begins with him as a graduate student in Cambridge where he proved to be clumsy and inapt in the laboratory. At one point, so frustrated with his scientific advisor at Cambridge that he tried to poison him with a poisoned apple. A fictionalized version of this true incident is shown in the film. Fortunately, he’d stopped the man from being poisoned.

Oppenheimer left Cambridge for the University of Göttingen in Germany to study under Max Born; Göttingen was one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical physics. Freed from his inability to perform in the lab, Oppenheimer prospered in theoretical physics. He became an expert in the new field of quantum mechanics and returned to the US to teach quantum theory at Caltech.

His brother Frank, also a physicist, was active in the American Communist Party. Oppenheimer never joined the party but was intrigued by the support of everyday workers and he contributed to programs to help refugees in the Spanish Civil War. Those funds were distributed through the Communist Party. One must understand that the early communist movement in the US was about workers’ rights and other liberal causes but was not yet associated with the kind of dictatorships that developed in Russia, China, and other Communist countries. So, there wasn’t quite the stigma of the Communist Party early on.

Oppenheimer had a relationship with Berkeley activist Jean Tatlock who was active in communist politics. He eventually married Kitty Puening who had also been involved in Communist politics at Berkeley but had renounced communism before she met Oppenheimer. They had an affair and she became pregnant. Kitty’s husband gave her a divorce and she and Oppenheimer were married. They eventually had three children together.

Oppenheimer was recruited by General Leslie Grove to lead a top-secret project to develop an atomic weapon. Grove is brilliantly played by Matt Damon. Grove was well aware of the communist skeletons in Oppenheimer’s closet. In the film, Oppenheimer figures out that Grove was not ignoring his previous communist entanglements but had specifically recruited him in hopes that he could hold those entanglements over his head and control him.

Oppenheimer and his brother Frank loved to roam the deserts of New Mexico and he had always dreamed of finding a way of combining his around of New Mexico with his love for physics. He recommended a location called Los Alamos where the Army would build an entire city complete with homes, schools, churches, and entertainment. Oppenheimer knew that he could not recruit the best scientists in the country unless they could bring their families with them.

The film chronicles some of the difficulties faced in this groundbreaking endeavor of creating a nuclear weapon. There were competing theories on how it should be done and there were early moves to create a hydrogen bomb although to detonate a hydrogen bomb one must use a uranium or plutonium atomic bomb. So they had to build the atomic bomb first anyway.

It’s not a spoiler to say that they did build an atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer then began actively working towards nuclear disarmament and that caused great controversy.

The committee reviewing his security clearance was stacked against him and he never had a chance at winning. During the testimony, it was revealed that he continued to have an affair with Jean Tatlock after he was married to Kitty. Kitty was aware of the affair but the way it was depicted in the hearing is quite explicit. I won’t spoil that for you.

The latter half of the film focuses on Strauss and his Senate hearings as he tries to explain his feud with the popular physicist.

Christopher Nolan is known for his extensive use of IMAX sequences in his previous films such as the Dark Knight Batman trilogy, Inception, Tenet, and Dunkirk. This film was shot almost entirely in IMAX or other 65mm film formats where IMAX would have been impractical.

There was great hype that the film would be shown in IMAX 70mm film in only 30 locations around the world and only 19 of them were in the US. With a three-hour run time, most of these theaters had to install special film platters to hold the 11 miles of film which weighed 600 pounds. The print was shipped to theaters packaged in 53 smaller reels which then had to be carefully spliced together by trained projectionists to produce the giant continuous three-hour print.

There were other digital IMAX and 70mm showings but not in full IMAX. One of those theaters was the IMAX Theatre at the Indiana State Museum at White River Park here in Indianapolis. I was able to see the film in that format at that location.

If you have heard recent episodes of this podcast you know what a huge fan I am of IMAX. You also know that I’m quite a science nerd. You would think that this was the ultimate viewing experience for a geek like me.

While it was an amazing film with a compelling story well written, well acted, well shot, and certainly worthy of its 13 Oscar nominations, overall for me it was no big deal. I go to IMAX or any other theater because I want to get my eyes maxed. I want to see something spectacular and immersive. I want to be taken to places real or fantasy that I could not otherwise go. Except for the actual detonation sequence during the test at Los Alamos, which wasn’t that spectacular by the way, there was nothing about this film that needed to be seen in the theater let alone an IMAX.

The vast majority of the film is people arguing about physics, politics, communism, and extramarital affairs, and none of that needs to be experienced 60 feet tall with state-of-the-art digital surround.

While I am eternally grateful that we have filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, and others who are keeping IMAX alive, this particular film was not a great showcase for the format.

Don’t get me wrong. This is an amazing film. I liked it a lot. It is my third favorite of the year. It deserves all of its nominations. It will likely win a bunch. It’s just not why I spend premium prices and risk my health to see something in IMAX. I quite enjoyed a second viewing streaming on my 23-inch desktop computer monitor. Even viewing it on my roommate’s 55-inch 4k TV wasn’t necessary.

In addition to its Best Picture nomination, Christopher Nolan is nominated as Best Director and has a good shot at winning. He has cleverly crafted a compelling story that dives deep into the minds of two amazing people Oppenheimer and Strauss. These are complex characters with complex motivations who shaped history.

The attention to detail is phenomenal. There are dozens of minor things that only physicists would appreciate. For example, at a social gathering, there is someone in the background playing bongo drums. Only physics nerds know that physicist Richard Feynman was famous for playing those drums. He is never mentioned in the film or identified as Richard Feynman but he is there in the background. Nolan already won directing BAFTA and DGA awards.

Cillian Murphy completely transforms into the character. Anyone who has seen video or photographs of the actual man can appreciate how much he has embodied Oppenheimer and from what I’ve read about the man it’s not just his appearance that he has re-created. He is nominated as Best Lead Actor and is likely to win. It is my second favorite actor performance of the year.

Robert Downey, Jr. gives a chilling performance as the manipulative, conniving Strauss. His nomination for Supporting Actor is well-deserved.

Emily Blunt is consistently interesting as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty. She is someone who has devoted her life to supporting her husband at great cost and has forgiven him for his extramarital affair. She is constantly encouraging him to fight the forces against him yet when she is called to testify before the committee she struggles to maintain composure in the face of attacks against her. Fighting isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. She is deservedly nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar and is my third favorite pick in that category.

Is also nominated for the adapted screenplay by Christopher Nolan, Photography, Production Design, and Sound all of which are richly deserved. I have no opinion about the nominations for Musical Score, Makeup and Hair, Costume Design, or Film Editing except to say that the hair and costumes looked period-authentic and the score seemed to heighten the tension in the film.

Its 13 BAFTA nominations included wins for Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan, Lead Actor Murphy, Supporting Actor Downey, Cinematography, Editing, and Musical Score.

Its 8 Golden Globe nominations included wins for Best Drama, Best Director Nolan, Best Actor Murphy, Supporting Actor Downey, and Musical Score.

The Musical Score also won a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

There were 4 SAG nominations including wins for Murphy, Downey, and Ensemble Cast.

IMDb lists 305 wins and 381 other nominations.

Released in the US in July and produced on an estimated budget of $100 million. It has earned nearly $330 million in the US and Canada and $957 million worldwide.

It is currently still being shown in some theaters although not IMAX. It is available for streaming on Peacock, for rent or purchase on Amazon and YouTube, and for purchase on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4k Blu-ray.

I highly recommend the film although you already have heard my thoughts about seeing it in a theater or on IMAX or 4k.

* * *

Our final film of the year is my favorite of the 10 Best Picture Nominated films. “Maestro” stars Bradley Cooper as legendary composer, conductor, and pianist Leonard Bernstein. While I was impressed with Cillian Murphy totally inhabiting the character of Oppenheimer, it is nothing compared to what Bradley Cooper achieves in his portrayal of this musical legend.

The opening scene shows Bernstein late in life sitting at the piano and being interviewed by a camera crew. He talks nostalgically about his late wife actress Felicia Montealegre who was his inspiration and muse. I had to remind myself that I was watching Bradley Cooper. I’m familiar with Leonard Bernstein from many TV programs and YouTube videos I’ve seen about the great man. It was as if he was brought back to life before my eyes. The hair, makeup, voice, mannerisms, body language, and everything about the man became incarnate in this film.

After seeing the film, I became obsessed with Bernstein and began watching hours and hours of YouTube videos and documentaries about the great genius. With every minute that I watched, I became more and more impressed with Bradley Cooper’s performance.

He is nominated as Best Lead Actor and is by far my favorite performance of the year by anyone male or female.

In addition to the lead role, Cooper also produced, directed, and co-wrote the screenplay all of which were nominated. Consider that he also starred in, produced, directed, and co-wrote the screenplay for his previous film “A Star is Born” which earned nine Oscar nominations. He is proving to be an amazing filmmaker. If he does not win any Oscars this year, it is just a matter of time before he is finally recognized as the top of his craft.

After the opening scene with Bernstein in his late years, it jumps back to the earliest days of his career. He had to fill in as conductor at the last minute without any rehearsal to conduct the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall when guest conductor Bruno Walter fell ill. The next day, a rave review was published on the front page of the New York Times and was picked up by multiple other newspapers. The performance also aired on CBS radio around the country. This rocketed him to instant fame.

Although the film follows his career from that famous debut through his works late in life, it’s not your typical biopic about the career of a genius. The film instead focuses primarily on his relationship with his wife Felicia who is brilliantly played by Carey Mulligan who has earned a Lead Actress Oscar Nomination for the role.

The film is a love story about two extremely passionate people. Like some of the other films we have reviewed, it shows us the price that is paid by those close to driven people. Bernstein had multiple affairs with both women and men. This naturally put great strain on his marriage. He remained totally closeted about his sexuality and when rumors arose about his relationships with men, he flatly denied everything. There was an especially poignant conversation with his daughter in an attempt to spare her feelings.

Cooper uses a variety of cinematic styles to establish the time period being depicted. Early in Bernstein’s career, it was filmed in black-and-white in a traditional 4 x 3 nearly square aspect ratio used by early films. Later in the story, it switches to color but still in that narrow 4 x 3 aspect ratio. These scenes re-create the era much in the same way that “The Holdovers” established its era by its cinematic choices. Only later does the film switch to a widescreen format in full color. While the switch between color and black-and-white was occasionally distracting in Oppenheimer, this progression of film styles in Maestro greatly enhanced the experience and helped set the time frame and the mood of each scene. Except for that opening scene late in his life, the rest of the story is told, chronologically so the shift in cinematic style feels like a natural part of that progression. It is a very effective filmmaking technique.

Bernstein separated from Felicia in 1976 but reunited with her the next year when she developed lung cancer. He put his career on hold canceling many appearances so that he could care for her until her death in June 1978.

The film concludes with a re-creation of Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in a famous performance of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony “Resurrection” Himat Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England. Words cannot describe what a magnificent piece of filmmaking and acting appears in this single scene. It is an achievement beyond belief. I’ve seen a video of the actual performance and to say that Cooper has channeled the great maestro is a huge understatement.

The film has been criticized because it glosses over some of Bernstein’s greatest works. For example, the beloved musical “West Side Story” is barely mentioned at all. But as I said at the beginning, this is not your typical biopic. It is the love story between Bernstein and his wife and it tells the story beautifully.

In addition to Best Picture, its seven Oscar nominations include Lead Actor Bradley Cooper, Lead Actress Carrie Mulligan, Screenplay Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Cinematography, Sound, and Hair and Makeup all of which are greatly deserved. And yes, for once I do have an opinion about hair and makeup. It was essential to the transformation.

It had 7 BAFTA nominations and 4 Golden Globe nominations as well as SAG nominations for Cooper and Mulligan.

IMDb lists 21 wins and 179 nominations.

Released in December on an estimated budget of $80 million this Netflix production has grossed only $383,000 worldwide but as we have mentioned previously, such box office numbers are meaningless for films that are produced for streaming and have only limited theatrical release.

I have insufficient words to describe how magnificent this film is. Please watch it. Also, check out some of the links in the description which include the film’s Executive Producer Steven Spielberg interviewing director Bradley Cooper about the film. Be sure to see the behind-the-scenes feature which includes interviews with Bernstein’s daughters talking about how much they loved Cooper’s performance. The Bernstein family cooperated in the production of the film. Also, check out my side-by-side comparison of Bradley Cooper and Bernstein both conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral. I’ve also linked actual footage of Leonard Bernstein, and if there is not sufficient “West Side Story” for you in this film, check out the documentary I linked which shows Bernstein conducting “West Side Story” for a recording featuring operatic singers playing all of the parts.

* * *

Well folks, that wraps up our detailed look at 14 films nominated for Oscars this year. Let’s recap the entire bunch and I will rank my favorites in order and then tell you who I think will actually win. Keep in mind that although “The Zone of Interest” was difficult to watch and “Poor Things” was sufficiently bizarre that it might not appeal to everyone, I have to say I enjoyed all of these films on some level. There is not a stinker in the bunch.

Counting down to my number one favorite in each of these categories…

Let’s start with adapted screenplays. 5 “The Zone of Interest”, 4 “Poor Things”, 3 “Oppenheimer”, 2 “Barbie”, and my favorite adapted screenplay of the year is “American Fiction” for creating a memorable character and deep satire. I love it even though it doesn’t have a chance. “Oppenheimer” is likely to win but part of me hopes that Greta Gerwig wins for “Barbie”.

For original screenplay. 5 “Past Lives”, 4 “May December”, 3 “Maestro”, 2 “The Holdovers” for its witty charm and clever twists on old tropes, and finally my favorite original screenplay is “Anatomy of a Fall” for that amazing scene in which the husband and wife realistically argue as well as for the clever way it seems to resolve the story yet leaves so many doubts lingering. It’s a phenomenal piece of writing.

Supporting Actress 5 Daniel Brooks – “The Color Purple” in one of only 2 nominations with which I disagreed. 4 America Ferrera – “Barbie”, 3 Emily Blunt – “Oppenheimer”, 2 Da’Vine Joy Randolph – “The Holdovers” who is likely to win and I will not be disappointed if she does. And naturally, my number one pick is… you guessed it… Jodie Foster – “Nyad”. It really is a great performance and not just my obsessive bias for Foster.

Lead Actress I enjoyed all of these performances so consider it nearly a five-way tie. If I had to rank them I would say… 5 Carey Mulligan – “Maestro”, Lily Gladstone – “Killers of the Flower Moon” I moved her from 5th to 4th after reconsidering. She is very likely to win and it will be a close call between her and my 3rd pick Emma Stone – “Poor Things”. My two favorite performances haven’t got a chance but I greatly enjoyed 2 Annette Benning – “Nyad” and was totally blown away by my favorite of the group Sandra Huller – “Anatomy of a Fall”. I plan to look up more of her films. Keep your eyes on her in the future. I expect great things.

Supporting Actor – 5 Ryan Gosling – “Barbie” which is the other nomination that I felt was undeserved even though I found it quite amusing. 4 Sterling K Brown – “American Fiction” which was okay but probably forgettable. 3 Mark Ruffalo – “Poor Things” which had me in stitches at several points. 2 Robert De Niro – “Killers of the Flower Moon” who remains at the top of his form and is a very close second to my favorite in the category Robert Downey, Jr.. – “Oppenheimer” which is likely to win. In fact, I think this is the only one of my favorites that is likely to win. I have to pick a winner sometime don’t I? We’ll see.

We are going to take Lead Actors from the top down this time. As you have just seen, Bradley Cooper – “Maestro” blew me away. I could easily cop out and say it is a four-way tie for 2nd place but if forced to make a choice I would pick 2 Paul Giamatti – “The Holdovers”, 3 Cillian Murphy – “Oppenheimer” who is likely to win, 4 Coleman Domingo – “Rustin”, and 5 Jeffrey Wright – “American Fiction”. All five were phenomenal performances.

For Best Director… I’m a bit disappointed that Bradley Cooper was not nominated but it was really his performance that shined the most. I wouldn’t bump anyone from this list to make room for him or Greta Gerwig. I may have rearranged these from comments made in previous episodes but here is where I stand now. All five of them have done an amazing war this year but if I have to pick it is… 5 Jonathan Glazer – “The Zone of Interest”, 4 Yorgos Lanthimos – “Poor Things”, 3 Christopher Nolan – “Oppenheimer” who is likely to win. 2 Justine Triet – “Anatomy of a Fall” for the choices she made in showing the domestic argument and the overall structure of the courtroom scenes. This leaves us with the Grand Master Martin Scorsese – “Killers of the Flower Moon” who at age 81 still keeps topping himself year after year.

Finally, we come to the Best Picture. Although I might put an asterisk next to a recommendation for a couple of these films, as I said before, there is not a stinker in the bunch. Counting down…

10 “The Zone of Interest”, 9 “Past Lives”, 8 “Barbie”, 7 “Poor Things”, 6 “Killers of the Flower Moon”, 5 “American Fiction“, 4 “The Holdovers”, 3 “Oppenheimer” will likely wi figure n but Barbie might be a dark horse. 2 “Anatomy of a Fall” mostly because of the writing, the lead actress performance by Sandra Hüller and the way it kept me guessing even after the film was over. It was a very entertaining experience. And, as you know, my favorite of the bunch was “Maestro” for reasons previously stated.

Last year I covered 10 films in 3 episodes and I wore myself out editing all of the trailers, still photos, and movie clips into the YouTube version of the podcast. When I finished, I said to myself, “I’m not going to do that in such detail next year. It was too much work.”

Well, so much for that resolution…

This year I did 14 films in six episodes in even more detail. The editing was just as extensive as I tried to get the movie clips and still photos to match up with the narration. On top of that, I did so after three other movie-related episodes. That’s nine episodes in a row that were far more difficult than my usual talking head episodes. I had to throw out my usual schedule of releasing episodes on Monday mornings to get everything done in time for the Oscar ceremony.

I’m totally exhausted but I loved every minute of it.

Who knows what I will do next year? Maybe we will throw in animated animated features which I wanted to watch this year but didn’t have time this year.

I will return with a new episode formed by Patreon supporters on April 1st and the episode will be released to the general public on April 8th

Why do I love movies so much? Because they are all about contemplating life.

I find them to be educational, entertaining, enlightening, and even inspiring.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although finances are tight, I don’t do this for the money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. It expresses your support for what I’m doing. I will never be able to express how much that means to me.

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

You can check out any of my back episodes which are all available where you found this episode. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you find this podcast. Tell me what you liked or did not like about these films. What are your picks to win the Oscar this year?

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe everyone.

Contemplating Life – Episode 58 – “Oscar 2024: Genocidal Husbands”

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In this episode, we review two more films nominated for Best Picture Oscars. I call this grouping “Genocidal Husbands.” Yes, it is strange that we would have two major nominated films on that topic but indeed we do. Check out the episode as we wind down to the end of our list and approach the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10.

Links of Interest

Oscar Nominations 2024: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2024

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, This is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 58 of Contemplating Life – Oscar edition.

The 96th Annual Academy Awards are just a few days away as I’m writing this. We still have four more Best Picture Nominees and two episodes to cover them. We have saved some of the best for last.

When I came up with the idea of grouping the Best Picture Nominees into pairs, I didn’t have all 5 pairs figured out. But now that we are down to the end, my little gimmick for grouping the films in twos has worked out much better than I thought it would.

This week’s grouping is called “Genocidal Husbands”. We have two films about marriages in which the husbands engaged in rampant, racist, murder of people based on their ethnic background. It’s strange that we would have two such films in the same year.

The first one is “The Zone of Interest” directed by Jonathan Glaser. It is the story of Rudolf Höss who was the Commandant of the Auschwitz Concentration camps. He and his wife Hedwig live in a spacious villa with a huge garden that includes a swimming pool, a greenhouse, and stables for his horses. The other side of the tall garden wall is the camp where Jewish prisoners are sorted. Those capable of working are sent to local factories as slave labor. Those who are too weak are killed in gas chambers and the bodies burned in furnaces.

Although this is a British production by a British director, the entire film is in German with English subtitles.

The film does not show us the horrors going on in the camp but we hear them quite vividly. From time to time, you can hear screaming and occasional gunfire as unruly prisoners are eliminated. There is only one brief scene at the camp itself and the camera stays focused on the face of Höss as he oversees the unloading of train loads of prisoners. We hear the screaming of men women and children and again occasional gunfire dealing with those who are uncooperative.

The majority of the film simply shows us the day-to-day happy life of this couple who enjoy the benefits of his position. The renovation of their house and the construction of the garden and other outbuildings were all performed by or paid for by local businessmen as a kickback for getting the slave labor from the camp. In one scene, Höss meets with a pair of contractors who have come up with a more efficient design for the furnaces.

Höss and his wife have 5 children ranging from an infant up to a teenager. Their eldest son enjoys playing with his collection of gold teeth that have been extracted from the prisoners. Hedwig enjoys receiving fine fur coats and jewelry stolen from the Jews and she distributes other lesser-quality pieces of clothing to their household servants.

The family enjoys picnicking, fishing, and swimming in the nearby river. However, one day the river is polluted by ash and human remains. Rudolph has to scurry out of the river where he is fishing in hip waders and get his children out of the water quickly to run home and be scrubbed vigorously with hot water.

The movie was filmed using remotely operated hidden cameras placed around the house and grounds so that the actors would not be distracted by them. There are no movie lights used. Everything is shot digitally with natural lighting. They would act out long scenes and would be unaware of what part of the scene the cameras were focused upon. The actors said that it made their performance more natural because they didn’t have to worry about hitting their marks. They just played out the scene.

Except for one scene, I don’t recall seeing any close-ups in the entire film. During conversations, there is little or no back-and-forth editing between the participants. The cameras are static.

In one particular scene, while Rudolph is discussing the new furnaces in his office with the contractors, Hedwig is entertaining her friends, and a Polish servant girl scurries around the house serving drinks and collecting the Commandant’s bloody boots to be cleaned by another servant. The scene was filmed with 10 remotely controlled cameras in fixed locations. It is edited together to follow the servant girl as she wanders between the rooms. It’s as if this is all happening in real-time and we are voyeuristically watching it unfold. I have linked a YouTube video about the filming of that particular scene. It’s really fascinating.

The actual Höss home still exists in Poland adjacent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial. Director Jonathan Glaser visited the museum and spent years researching the film including material from the museum’s archives. This included written testimony and interviews of the actual servants who worked in their home.

The movie was filmed on location in Poland just a hundred yards from the actual home. They found an appropriate abandoned home and renovated it. It took months to re-create the garden which is meticulously identical to the original. The museum was cooperative in the production and there is an epilogue scene filmed in the museum. I have linked the museum/memorial website in the description.

There is very little plot to the film. We are simply a fly on the wall witnessing the normality of these deeply evil people.

The only plot point occurs about halfway through the film is that Rudolph is reassigned to a new position in the Nazi hierarchy. He delays telling his wife about the move for over a week which upsets her greatly. She has worked hard to create the idyllic garden behind the house and to create a luxurious life for herself, her husband, and their children. She begs him to allow her to stay in the home as he travels to his new assignment. He petitions his superiors to allow her to stay behind and they agree. One of the servants whose testimony is in the museum archives was the source for the information that the couple argued over this incident so it is entirely authentic to what it was really like in the Höss household.

Eventually, Hitler approved a new plan to bring 700,000 Jews from Hungary to the camps in Poland for extermination and war production. Höss will be returning home to his wife and family to supervise the massive new importation of Jews. Himmler describes it as “Operation Höss”. Rudolph excitedly calls his wife to share the good news. She is mildly happy but ultimately just complains that he called her so late at night. Couldn’t this have waited?

And that’s basically it. That’s the movie in a nutshell.

I’ve summarized the entire plot. There is no “action” per se. We just our witness to the casual approach that these people have to evil.

Fortunately, the film only lasts one hour 45 minutes and that is more than enough time for it to make its point.

Rudolph is played by German actor Christian Friedel who is unknown to me and his IMDb listing doesn’t show anything I recognize.

Sandra Hüller was similarly unknown to me until I saw this year’s nominated film “Anatomy of a Fall.” Both of them deliver chilling performances although it’s a bit difficult to judge their performance with a lack of close-up shots.

The film has 5 Oscar nominations. In addition to Best Picture, it is also nominated for Best Foreign Film and Best Director Jonathan Glaser. Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by Jonathan Glaser very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Sir Martin Amis. Sadly, Amis died on the same day that the film made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the “Grand Prize of the Festival”.

None of those Oscar nominations are likely to win in the face of stiff competition however it is also nominated for Best Sound and although I’ve not looked up what other films are nominated in that category, it should definitely win. The entire premise of the film is that you hear the horror but do not see it.

By the way, it was easy for the actors to ignore the sound during filming because they did not have any of those sound effects of dying people during the shooting of the film.

It was nominated for 9 BAFTA awards and it won Best British Film of the Year, Best Film Not in the English Language, and of course Best Sound.

It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards. IMDb lists 158 nominations and 51 wins.

The film has earned just over $7 million in the US and Canada and $16.5 million worldwide.

For the most part, the film is an impossible pain to watch. But then again, that’s the point, isn’t it? Is quite strange that the film can be simultaneously boring and horrifying. It is an amazing piece of filmmaking and I understand why it received its nominations. I think they are all well deserved. But I cannot recommend the film. Although I’m glad I saw it, and I am fascinated by the way it was produced, it is my least favorite of the 10 Best Picture Nominated films.

* * *

In our second film this episode, we get a different look at genocide this time a little closer to home. Martin Scorsese directs “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It is based on the true story of the Osage Native American tribe in Oklahoma in the 1920s who discovered oil on their lands. Then one by one, they are killed off by white people in an attempt to steal their oil rights.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkart, a young man who returns home to Oklahoma after serving as a cook in the Army during World War I. He is taken under the wing of his uncle William Hale played by Robert De Niro. Hale who goes by the nickname “King” is a wealthy rancher in the area who is very powerful in the nearby town of Fairfax.

Ernest is unable to perform manual labor because of a hernia condition but King finds work for him as a driver. The Osage people have become extremely wealthy and Ernest finds employment driving around an Osage woman named Mollie. At Uncle King’s encouragement, Ernest courts and eventually weds Mollie thus making him a partial heir to her oil rights.

King is the leader of a conspiracy to kill off the Osage oil rights holders one by one. Some are simply murdered in cold blood. Some fall victim to accidents. Some are staged suicides. Wherever possible, the powerful white men tried to marry into the Osage families so that their rights would eventually fall to them.

The story jumps in time in several places as we see Ernest and Mollie begin to raise a family. Molly suffers from severe diabetes and King and her doctors arrange for her to be given insulin treatments which are a brand-new therapy during the time the story takes place.

King claims to love the Osage people and befriends many of them. The Osage for the most part believe that he is their friend.

The tribal Council hires private investigators because the local authorities will not investigate the deaths of the oil rights holders. The investigators mysteriously disappear. Eventually, they send a representative to Washington DC to request that the federal government investigate these deaths. For some reason, he never arrives. Then Mollie joins a large Osage delegation who travel to DC themselves and insists on being seen by someone who will investigate the deaths. DC eventually sends investigators.

King insists that Ernest get his wife under control and keep her from being such a troublemaker. They add drugs to her insulin injections and keep her in a drug-induced stupor.

As members of Mollie’s family are killed off, Ernest serves as a go-between between King and the suckers they get to commit the murders. He begins to realize that at some point his wife is going to be next. Even though he is been on board with the plan all along, he truly loves his wife and doesn’t want to lose her or leave his children motherless.

So, what will Ernest do? Does he dare stand up to his powerful uncle and the other powerful white men of the community and testify against them? If he does so, he will naturally have to reveal his role in the conspiracy. While that might save the life of his wife, it will in all likelihood destroy their relationship when his involvement becomes public knowledge.

DiCaprio does a wonderful job portraying this man who participates in such evil acts yet grows a conscience when he realizes the evil is eventually targeting his immediate family. You feel every bit of his struggle with his conscience. You feel he really loves his wife yet he feels bound by loyalty to his powerful uncle. It’s an amazing performance and his Oscar nomination as Lead Actor is very much deserved.

De Niro of course turns in a phenomenal performance as the sly and duplicitous kingpin of the entire plot. He is nominated for an Oscar as Supporting Actor as he should be.

Mollie is played by Native American actress Lily Gladstone. She is the first Native American nominated for a lead role and would make more history should she win. She won the Golden Globe for Lead Actress in a Drama as well as the SAG Award for Lead Actress. I think Emma Stone who won the Golden Globe for Lead Actress in a comedy probably has a lock on the Oscar for Lead Actress but the Academy might not be able to resist the opportunity to make history. This one is pretty much a tossup. I can’t tell you who is going to win

While her performance was probably my least favorite of the five nominees, I will grant that it was worthy of the nomination. I would not bump her to make room for Margo Robbie in “Barbie” or Natalie Portman in “May December” who gave amazing performances but were not nominated.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that we do find out what decision Ernest makes and the consequences of that decision. I won’t tell you what that is.

However, how that information is presented is a bit strange. There is sort of an epilogue in the form of a radio drama that we see performed on a theater stage in front of an audience. It’s sort of a 1930s version of a true crime podcast in which actors and a narrator tell the story of what happened. Martin Scorsese himself makes a cameo appearance in the radio play. While it was good to know how the story wrapped up and I was satisfied with how it was wrapped, I found that epilogue in the form of a radio play to be quite bizarre. I might have preferred an ordinary montage sequence with some sort of voiceover narration.

The film has earned 10 Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director for Martin Scorsese, Lead Actress Lily Gladstone, Lead Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Supporting Actor Robert De Niro, Production Design, Costume Design, and Cinematography all of which are very much deserved. It was also nominated for musical score, a song that I don’t remember, and film editing none of which I have an opinion about.

It received 9 BAFTA nominations and 7 Golden Globe nominations.

As you might expect from a Martin Scorsese epic, the runtime is 3 hours 26 minutes yet the pacing does not feel particularly slow.

Produced on an estimated budget of $200 million it earned nearly $68 million in the US and Canada and over $156 million worldwide yet it was made for Apple TV streaming so it’s difficult to say if it turned a profit depending on how much Apple paid for it. Those numbers don’t show up in the box office figures.

It is my sixth favorite of the 10 Best Pictures. I found it engaging, and well worth my time. It’s everything you expect from people like Scorsese, DiCaprio, and De Niro. You can’t go wrong with a trio like that. I highly recommend it. It is still playing in some theaters and is currently available for streaming on Apple TV+ and for rent or purchase on Amazon and YouTube.

* * *

After doing all the editing on this episode I have a few more thoughts to share.

On a YouTube channel called “Native Media Theory,” Native American Elias Gold gives a review of the film from an indigenous perspective. He has some interesting insights. He talks about the complaints that not enough of the film was told from the Native American perspective. It was all about Ernest and King Hale, and not so much about Mollie and her family.

But he reveals that the book and the original screenplay told the story strictly from the point of view of the FBI agents who came into the town to investigate after all of the killings. So, the film is much more representative of the indigenous you than the book was. Scorsese has really stepped up in that regard to tell a much more interesting and balanced story than he would have if you stuck to the original book.

Gold also supposes that the film was not made for an indigenous population. It was made for white people so that we can take a hard look at our own biases. We need to look at the people in the film who were complacent in what was going on even if they weren’t actively participating.

The same thing could be said for the other film “The Zone of Interest.” Thousands of people knew what was going on in the camps but remained silent and were thus complicit.

So, both Jonathan Glaser in “The Zone of Interest”, and Martin Scorsese in “Killers of the Flower Moon” in what ways are we complacent by our silence about the racism that still exists in the world today?

Some things to think about.

I’ve linked Mr. Gold’s YouTube video in the description. I highly recommend that you watch it. It gives an interesting perspective from an indigenous person.

* * *

So, that wraps up our look at genocidal husbands. It’s bizarre that we even have such a category but I think the phrase is applicable to both of these films.

In our next episode, we present the final two of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture and they are among the best of the best. We have a pair of biopic’s about amazing geniuses. Christopher Nolan gives us a fascinating look at physicist J Robert Oppenheimer who led the efforts to develop the first atomic bomb in “Oppenheimer”. And spoiler… My favorite film of the year is Bradley Cooper directing and starring in “Maestro”. The story of famed composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein.

At the end of our final episode in the series, I will have a brief recap of all 10 Best Picture films, as well as the 20 lead and supporting actors and actresses as well as the 10 nominated screenplays. I will recap my favorites in order and then I will pick who I think will win even though I may or may not agree with the favorites.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, (in a way I found many of these movies) consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although finances are tight, I don’t do this for the money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. It expresses your support for what I’m doing. I will never be able to express how much that means to me.

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

You can check out any of my back episodes which are all available where you found this episode. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you find this podcast. Tell me what you liked or did not like about these films.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe everyone.

Contemplating Life – Episode 57 – “Oscar 2024: Also Nominated”

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In this episode, we are going to take an extremely brief look at 4 films that were nominated for major awards but were not among the 10 films nominated for Best Picture.

Links of Interest

Oscar Nominations 2024: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2024

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, This is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 57 of Contemplating Life – Oscar edition.

In this episode, we are going to take an extremely brief look at 4 films that were nominated for major awards but were not among the 10 films nominated for Best Picture.

We start off with the Netflix film “Nyad” the story of famous long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad brilliantly portrayed by Annette Benning who is nominated as Best Lead Actress. She is accompanied by my all-time favorite actress Jodie Foster who plays Nyad’s best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. She has received a Supporting Actress Nomination. The chemistry between these two is phenomenal. Together they put on a master class in acting. Both nominations are very much deserved.

Nyad set several records for long-distance offshore swimming. She swam completely around Manhattan Island, swam 89 miles from the Bahamas to Florida, and swam from Capri to Naples Italy in record time among other records. She is most famous however for her attempt to swim 103 miles from Havana Cuba to the Florida Keys at age 28. Unfortunately, she failed. She was a frequent commentator on ABC Sports Olympics coverage and was a successful author and businesswoman.

At age 60, Nyad realized she had unfinished business. She began training to tackle her white whale quest of the Cuba to Florida swim. At first, she trained alone and then eventually revealed to her friend Bonnie that she was going to make the Cuba attempt again. Bonnie began coaching her and assisting her in recruiting sponsorships.

Some initial test swims of 12 or 24 hours did not go well but she eventually built up her stamina and skills and began preparing for the attempt.

She recruited a man named John Bartlett as her navigator. He operated a charter boat in the area and was an expert on the currents and weather of the area. Nyad partially blamed her previous failure on the inexperience of her navigator. Bartlett is played by one of my favorite character actors Rhys Ifans. He recently appeared in HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and was in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” but I especially appreciated his performance in three seasons of the spy series “Berlin Station” which I highly recommend. I mentioned last week that his performance was more interesting to me than anything Ryan Gosling did in “Barbie” and I would have nominated him instead as Supporting Actor.

We follow Nyad through three more unsuccessful attempts at the Cuba crossing. She risks shark attacks and deadly jellyfish stings as well as a severe storm all of which nearly killed her. Unlike other such attempts, she did not use a shark cage. Rather she relied on electronic shark repellent systems. She also had to develop a special suit and mask to protect her from potentially deadly jellyfish stings. After these failures, her friend Bonnie, navigator Bartlett, and her entire team give up and encourage her to abandon her quest.

The film is a fascinating look at how a driven person surrounds themselves with supporters to help them achieve their goals but that those supporters pay a personal cost to be a part of the driven person’s life. This theme was especially meaningful to me as someone who is dependent upon a team of people just to live an ordinary productive life with a disability. After 68 years of being dependent upon other people for everything, I’m beginning to feel the weight of the cost it has on my friends and family. So the film triggered many emotions in me.

Nyad was raised to believe she has a great destiny in the water. She often tells the story of how her father explained that the word “Nyad” was the name of the Greek mythological nymphs who swam the oceans.

Once her friends realize that she is going to proceed with or without them, they relent and join her for one final try. I don’t think is a spoiler to say that her fifth attempt was successful.

The film fails to address the fact that her successes were not universally recognized by the marathon swimming community. For technical reasons, her successful swim from Cuba to Florida was insufficiently documented for her record to be officially recognized. Her record was removed from the Guinness Book of Records because they rely upon sanctioning bodies for such records. Still, there were over 40 witnesses to her swim and if she did not meet all of the exact technical requirements for the record to be recognized, it is nevertheless an amazing accomplishment.

I’ve been a huge fan of Jodie Foster for as far back as I can remember. I often joke about the difference between me and John Hinckley, Jr. whose obsession with Foster led him to attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan.

Hinckley was obsessed with Jodie Foster and I claim there is nothing unusual or insane about that. I am similarly obsessed. Hinckley also hated Ronald Reagan as did I although not enough to want to kill him. There is nothing inherently insane about having those two views. The thing that separates me as a Foster-obsessed Reagan-hating person from a nut job like John Hinckley is that he somehow connected the two. That’s why he’s nuts and I’m not. Or at least I like to think so.

Even accounting for my obsession with Foster, you will probably agree she delivers a memorable performance, and as I said earlier, her chemistry with Benning is amazing. By the way, although both characters are lesbian, they are just friends in this story. Nyad explains early on that they dated briefly decades ago but are just friends. Still, you feel every bit of the great love they have for one another as friends.

Foster is my biased pick for Supporting Actress but I think that Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers” is more likely to win given her wins at the Golden Globes and BAFTA awards. I very much enjoyed Randolph’s performance and I will not be disappointed if she wins.

Benning is my second favorite choice as Lead Actress behind Sandra Huller in “Anatomy of a Fall” but Emma Stone is the odds-on favorite for “Poor Things”.

This Netflix film was released in November and shown in theaters only long enough to be Oscar-eligible. Its worldwide gross is only $16,056 according to IMDb. It is currently still available on Netflix. I highly recommend it.

* * *

Our next film is another Netflix biopic. “Rustin” is the story of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin who planned and organized the 1963 March on Washington DC where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Rustin is played by Colman Domingo and has earned a much-deserved Lead Actor nomination for the role. In that category, I greatly appreciated all five nominees and would place Bradley Cooper in “Maestro” as my favorite with the remaining four performances in a tie for second place. I just can’t decide.

Rustin was as openly gay as one could be in the early 1960s. We see the consequences of that situation as he is forced out of the civil rights movement for fear that his sexuality will damage the cause. When there were accusations that he was in a homosexual relationship with Dr. King, He offered to resign from the NAACP and expected King to refuse the resignation. When King accepted the resignation it caused a great rift between the two friends that lasted for several years.

Rustin had studied the nonviolent philosophies of Gandhi and is credited with introducing King to the concept of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Rustin conceived the idea of the largest nonviolent protest in history. A march on Washington DC that would attract 100,000 people. It was to be a two-day affair that included encircling the White House, protesting outside Congress, and a gathering at the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Ultimately, he was forced to scale it back to a single-day event at the National Mall. The event was still a massive success that drew 250,000 people.

The film chronicles his difficult quest to gain respect in the movement in the face of his homosexuality. His primary detractor is NAACP chairperson Roy Wilkins portrayed by comedian Chris Rock. Although Rock does an acceptable job in a dramatic role, I could not help thinking of him as Chris Rock trying to be dramatic. His performance was not strong enough to make me forget his comic roots.

We get brief cameo appearances by actors we have talked about for their other nominated work. specifically, Jeffrey Wright plays Rep. Adam Clayton Powell and Da’Vine Joy Randolph plays Mahalia Jackson who sang at the event.

Rustin reconciled his relationship with Dr. King and they worked together on the March. When accusations arose again against Rustin, this time Dr. King supported his friend.

Similar to “Nyad”, we see the effect that this highly motivated, obsessed, driven person has on his friends and colleagues around him and the price they have to pay for being his friend.

I first became aware of Colman Domingo from his excellent work in the TV series “Fear the Walking Dead” where he plays a highly troubled character Victor Strand. In that series, he is often the villain but he is one who you can root for as he tries to constantly redeem himself. He also does an admirable job playing Mister in this year’s musical remake of “The Color Purple”.

In addition to his Lead Actor Oscar nomination, he was also nominated for the Golden Globe and a BAFTA nomination for the role. He is named as part of the ensemble cast in the SAG nomination for “The Color Purple”.

The film has appeared in a number of film festivals and saw limited theatrical release but no box office figures are available. It has been on Netflix since November and is still available.

The true life story is compelling and well worth your time.

* * *

In our next film, Danielle Brooks has received an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress in her work in the 2023 remake of “The Color Purple.” She is most famous for her work in 89 episodes of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.” Unfortunately, despite its popularity, I never watched the series so I was unfamiliar with her work.

I’m more embarrassed that I had never seen the original 1985 version of “The Color Purple” directed by Steven Spielberg. Initially, I could not understand why such an iconic and beloved film not yet 40 years old needed to be remade. Then I discovered that the new version was based on a Broadway musical adaptation of the story.

It seems strange to make a musical as is such a dark topic. But my three favorite musicals of all time in order are “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Les Miserables”, and “Phantom of the Opera.” Although there are some upbeat numbers in those shows, none of them could be described as happy, feel-good stories. So the idea of taking the story of a woman who is used and abused and essentially made a slave of her husband could theoretically be ripe for appropriate musical treatment.

Sadly, this film is not an appropriate treatment of such a dark story. I am deeply surprised that Stephen Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and author Alice Walker are all listed as Executive Producers. They signed off on this travesty.

I watched the original and the remake simultaneously. How? I would watch 15-20 minutes of one film and then switch to the other one to see how it treated the same material. While indeed there are some happy moments in the early part of the story as Celie and her sister Olivia are young girls and this story does have a happy ending, the bulk of the story is a deeply tragic story of a woman who is sold by her father to be the wife of a horrible abusive farmer. Although they are all black and the story takes place from 1909 through 1947, he treats her as if she were a slave.

There are only one or two musical numbers that I felt were appropriately somber and emotional to fit the tone of the story. The vast majority of the numbers except for those during the happy ending and some numbers in a juke joint bar are completely tone deaf to the seriousness of the subject at hand.

I could write an extensive review almost scene by scene of everything wrong with this musical adaptation. But it’s not worth my time nor yours to do so.

Ultimately, we are only here to talk about the nominated performance of Danielle Brooks. It is difficult to be objective about her performance in a film which I so deeply hated. Brooks plays Sophia which is the same character played by Oprah Winfrey in the original film. One cannot help but compare the performances. While Brooks did an adequate job of playing the character as feisty and at times providing much-needed comic relief, overall her performance is nowhere near as moving during the tragic parts of her story as was Oprah’s original portrayal.

Sophia talks back sarcastically to the wife of the mayor of the town and ultimately strikes the mayor across the cheek which lands her in jail for many years. In Spielberg’s version, she comes out of the experience severely scarred with her left eye almost completely closed from the beatings she took over the years. In this version, there are no visible scars from her experience. Thus, the experience to me seems to be diluted or dare I say “whitewashed”.

I suppose to be fair, we ought to judge her performance on its own and not in comparison to the previous version. The kindest thing I can say about her in that regard is that her performance was adequate. I have no complaints about it. But I would not have nominated her.

I would have rather seen this Supporting Actress nomination go to Julianne Moore in our next film “May December” or Erika Alexander as Jeffrey Wright’s girlfriend in “American Fiction”.

I’ve done some soul-searching about my dislike for the film. I’ve asked myself, “Is this a case of a privileged old liberal white guy taking offense on behalf of bright people over this film?” I have concluded that if this was the story of white women who were being abused and enslaved by their husbands I would be just as offended by a lighthearted musical treatment of the topic.

The film was released on Christmas Day in the US. With an estimated budget of $100 million, it has earned only $60 million in the US and Canada and just $67 million worldwide. It is currently available for streaming on Max or for rent or purchase on Amazon and YouTube.

Okay, don’t hold back Chris… Tell us what you really think. I cannot recommend this film.

* * *

Our final film this week could similarly be accused of not taking a serious topic seriously enough. “May December” is a Netflix film starring Julianne Moore in a fictional story of a woman named Gracie Atherton who at age 36 had an affair with a Korean-American 13-year-old boy named Joe Yoo. She was the manager of a pet store and he worked as a stock boy there. Their affair was discovered and she was sentenced to jail where she gave birth to his child.

The film takes place 20 years later. Gracie was released from jail, and she and Joe were married. They had two more children. Their oldest daughter is in college and the twin boy and girl are about to graduate high school.

Natalie Portman plays TV actress Elizabeth Barry who is preparing to make a movie based on Gracie’s story. She visits the Atherton-Yoo family to interview Gracie and Joe so that she can accurately portray their story in the upcoming film. The couple is very cooperative with Elizabeth and they invite her to a family cookout, a family dinner, and other opportunities to get to know the family.

Elizabeth also interviews Gracie’s ex-husband, her children from the previous marriage, her lawyer, and other people around town who were familiar with the events from 20 years ago. I especially enjoyed her interview with Gracie’s lawyer who said that he had defended murderers, arsonists, rapists, gangsters, and other unsavory characters as a defense attorney in New York City. He had moved to Savannah Georgia to escape that kind of practice. He said that defending all of these horrible people never got him on the front page of the New York Times yet when he came to Georgia and soon after defended Gracie, that landed him on the front page of the New York Times.

Joe who is now in his 30s, is still very much emotionally a 13-year-old boy and Gracie often treats him as such. He is employed either as an x-ray technician or a radiologist in a hospital but it is not clear which. They live in a large well-furnished home on a lake or river. It’s unclear how they can afford such a place so perhaps he is a doctor. They never explained. Gracie spends her time baking and selling her baked goods to friends and neighbors who seem to only purchase them because they feel sorry for her.

There are several plot lines that seem to go nowhere as Elizabeth investigates the events from 20 years ago. Gracie is a highly emotional person who at one point breaks down hysterically simply because someone canceled a baking order.

The musical score accompanying the film features bold dramatic orchestral stings that seem to indicate something dramatic is about to happen. Yet in one example of such a musical cue during a cookout, Gracie is staring into the refrigerator and then calmly declares, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” That’s hardly the dramatic moment that the music indicated we were going to see.

On initial viewing, I didn’t understand the film at all. Apparently, I was trying to take it too seriously. I was only reviewing the film because it was nominated for an Oscar for Original Screenplay. I did not notice until later that it had also been nominated for a Golden Globe as a comedy. Except for things like the overly dramatic “we need more hot dogs” and some over-the-top acting, I didn’t see anything funny about it.

So, I went looking for reviews of the film to try to figure out what others had seen in the film that I was missing. I came across a YouTube video by a reviewer I had never heard of named Broey Deschanel. Her video was titled “May December and the Melodrama of Film Twitter”. The 53-minute video talked about a Twitter debate over whether or not the film was a melodrama and whether or not the term “camp” applied to the film.

I had a rather generic layman’s understanding of the term “melodrama” even though we have briefly touched upon it in my writing seminar. But Ms. Deschanel gives an extensive history of the term from its earliest days in classic theater through more modern plays and especially in films of the 1930s through 1950s. She outlines several elements of what constitutes melodrama and as she was doing so I suddenly began to understand “May December”.

In some respects, it seems that the film is one giant inside joke for film aficionados. It is either an attempt to create a modern-day melodrama or it is a spoof of classic melodramatic films. I’m not sure which.

At one point, Ms. Deschanel is talking about Roger Ebert’s review of an earlier satirical look at the melodrama genre.

Ms. Deschanel: Roger Ebert uses that quote a decade later in his review of “Written on the Wind”. He says something in that review that caught my attention. “Written on the Wind”, like “Stella Dallas”, appears to be played straight. But while I didn’t cry while watching it, I did feel myself chuckling now and then at the ridiculousness of its stakes. Ebert points out this new, ironic take on the melodrama that Sirk is adopting and in that irony, that satire is humor. He says “If you only see the surface, it’s trashy soap opera. If you can see the style, the absurdity, the exaggeration and the satirical humor, it’s subversive of all the 1950s dramas that handled such material solemnly. Sirk’s style spread so pervasively that nobody could do melodrama with a straight face after him. (Roger Ebert, “Written on the Wind” rogerebert.com (1998))” Ebert ends his review with one blazing question. One test of satire is: At what point do we realize the author is kidding?” Which is how we arrive at this current discourse around “May December.”

Me: At what point do we realize the author is kidding? In my case, the answer clearly is I didn’t get the joke until I learned the history of melodrama as presented in this YouTube review.

The video also discusses whether or not the film is appropriately called “Camp”. Author Susan Sontag wrote one of the definitive essays on camp. She said that sometimes something is knowingly camp and other times it is unknowingly camp. She seemed to prefer the latter. The film director, Todd Haynes claims that his film is not camp. Either he is continuing to tease us or the film is unknowingly camp.

If you watched the film and didn’t understand it as a satirical look at melodrama, I encourage you to watch the YouTube review which I have linked in the description of this podcast. And even if you’re not interested in this particular film, that YouTube video is a fascinating look at the history of melodrama and camp satire. I think it is well worth your time.

So on initial viewing, I thought the film was a ridiculous mess. But viewed as satire, I begin to understand it on some levels.

I can’t recommend the film unless you are just curious about it. Many people are offended that someone would treat such a serious topic in a satirical comedic way. Then again, as Ms. Deschanel points out, one of the most beloved comedies in film history is Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” which is about a bunch of people creating a musical play about Nazi Germany including a hilarious number titled “Springtime for Hitler”.

This Netflix film saw only a limited theatrical release. With an estimated budget of $10 million, its worldwide gross is only $3.4 million. Box office numbers for Netflix films really don’t mean anything. It is still available exclusively on Netflix.

IMDb reports 176 nominations and 34 wins.

In addition to its Original Screenplay Oscar nomination, it had 4 Golden Globe nominations.

So, that wraps up our look at four films with five nominations that were not Best Picture.

Next week, we tackle a pair of films in a category I call “Genocidal Husbands” and we will follow that up with our final episode in this Oscar series “Genius at Work.”

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although finances are tight, I don’t do this for the money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. It expresses your support for what I’m doing. I will never be able to express how much that means to me.

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

You can check out any of my back episodes which are all available where you found this episode. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you find this podcast. Tell me what you liked or did not like about these films.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe everyone.

Contemplating Life – Episode 56 – “Oscar 2024: Revenge of the Robot Women”

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This week we continue looking at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. This week we look at two vastly different films on the same theme In a category we call “Revenge of the Robot Women.” It’s going to be tight, but I plan to get out three more episodes before March 10 when the Oscars are awarded. Wish me luck.

Links of Interest

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/contemplatinglife
Where to listen to this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/contemplatinglife
YouTube playlist of this and all other episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFRYfZfNjHL8bFCmGDOBvEiRbzUiiHpq

YouTube Version

Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young, and welcome to episode 56 of Contemplating Life – Oscar edition.

This week we continue looking at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. This week we look at two vastly different films on the same theme In a category we call “Revenge of the Robot Women.” Consider this plot line…

A beautiful young woman is not naturally born but is an artificial creation. She is confined in a world created for her by her maker. She lives a happy yet mundane life. She slowly becomes aware that she is more than what her maker envisioned. Her natural curiosity and a desire to contemplate what life has to offer sends her on a quest into another world. It is a strange bizarre environment that is alien to her but she explores it with vigor and discovers that there is more to her and to life than she believed was possible. In the end, she becomes an independent, self-actualized woven who is in control of her life. At first, she exacts revenge on the men who tried to possess and control her but ultimately finds a way to peacefully coexist with the males of the species.

Pop quiz: is this a description of the film “Barbie” or “Poor Things”?

Answer: Both.

There was so much hype this year about the popularity of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” that we shipped their names together and came up with “Barbieheimer” to describe the phenomenon of people who went to both films on the same day. It was only a coincidence that the films were released about the same time and unexpectedly found overlapping audiences which led to the Barbieheimer phenomenon.

There should have been media hype about “Barbie’s” connection not to “OppenheimerInclude but to “Poor Things”. While “Barbie” and “Poor ThingsEnclosed are vastly different in approach and style, the outline in my opening paragraph is a reasonably accurate summation of both films. The filmmakers used vastly different approaches to tell the same story of a woman discovering her potential.

“Barbie” is set in the fantasy world known as Barbieland and is occupied by the namesake toy. She journeys into the “real world” and although we are familiar with it, it is an alien landscape to her. Her fantasy world is all she has ever known.

In contrast, Bella Baxter is the creation of a mad scientist. He discovered the body of a pregnant woman who had lept to her death off a bridge into a river. He salvaged the brain of her unborn child and implanted it in her 30-year-old body. He then re-animates her in a scene typical of any Frankenstein movie you ever saw. Her literally infant mind develops quickly and approaches life with an insatiable curiosity which eventually leads her to discover the pleasures of sex. First, by herself, then with a lover, and finally as a French prostitute. All of which is depicted in explicit detail.

So, while there was an unlikely crossover of audience between “OppenheimerEnclosed and “Barbie”, “Poor Things” is extremely R-rated and not appropriate for the typical Barbie viewer.

It’s more likely you are familiar with “Barbie” given its popularity so let’s talk about “Poor Things” first.

Willem Dafoe plays Dr. Godwin Baxter, a brilliant surgeon who bears horrible scars and disfigurement on his face. This is the result of his father performing multiple medical experiments on him when he was a child. These experiments included genital torture. To say that his physical scars are only part of his problem is an understatement.

Rather than be called by his given name Godwin, he prefers to be referred to as God and makes that request unapologetically. He is a deeply twisted individual.

Emma Stone plays his creation Bella Baxter whose origin we described earlier.

Ramy Youssef plays Max McCandle, an ambitious medical student who is recruited as God’s Igor-like assistant (without the hunchback). Max’s job is to observe Bella and record in notebooks everything that she does as she rapidly progresses in mental and emotional capability.

As the film opens she has the mind of a very young child. She is awkward both physically and emotionally. Yet she begins progressing rapidly. Even her hair grows at an astonishing rate of an inch every few days. No explanation is ever given why.

God keeps the girl isolated in his mansion/laboratory to keep the experiment of development pure and untainted. But God himself also avoids appearing in public because of his disfigurement. Bella isn’t his only experiment. The courtyard of his villa is occupied by strange hybrid creatures such as a goat with a dog’s head or a dog with a duck’s head, I forget what weird combinations he has running around his courtyard.

When Bella reaches a mental age of what appears to be maybe 8-10 years old she discovers on her own the joys of masturbating her adult body and asks, “Why don’t people do this all the time?”

God notices her sexual awakening as well as Max’s attraction to her. So, God concludes that the next phase of the experiment should be that Bella and Max are wed. He employs attorney Duncan Wedderburn played by Mark Ruffalo to draw up a marriage contract that includes the provision that Bella must remain sequestered in God’s house.

Intrigued by this strange request, Duncan sneaks off into the mansion to meet Bella for himself and discovers this childlike creature in the body of a beautiful woman. He decides that he, not Max, should be the one to introduce her to adult life. He is quite a cad and a sleazy person and plans to exploit her for his own pleasures. Together he and Bella plot her escape and they go off on a romantic tryst to Lisbon Portugal where they engage in frequent sex and debauchery.

The setting for the film is a bit of a steam-punk Victorian setting. All of the interiors look relatively normal for such a setting but the moment that Bella goes anywhere outside, everything takes on a surreal dreamlike quality which by comparison would make a Wes Anderson film seem boringly normal and realistic.

This film makes use of varied cinematic styles and techniques to set the mood. While sequestered in God’s house, the film is in black-and-white. But like Dorothy escaping Kansas to Oz, once she leaves the house and goes on her adventure with Duncan, everything is in bright oversaturated color. Most of the color sequences were shot using Kodak Ektachrome which gives that bright oversaturated look. Those that were shot on other types of color film were color-adjusted to match. Ektachrome is a slow film that requires significant lighting the filmmaker had to use other films when more light was not available. The cinematographer also makes use of a variety of strange lenses including highly distorted fisheye lenses and some scenes filmed with a 4 mm lens look as though we are looking through a peephole. I never did figure out exactly what these varied points of view were designed to evoke.

Bella has absolutely no inhibitions and no filter so she says exactly what she is thinking at any moment. At one point while they are out to dinner, a baby is crying nearby and she announces, “I must go punch that baby.” Duncan has to restrain her as she rises to actually do it.

Bella leaves Duncan to explore the city on her own and fearful that he will lose her, he drugs her, stuffs her in a trunk, and takes her on a cruise ship where she will be unable to escape him. Aboard the ship, she befriends other passengers. By this time she has begun reading and has gained advanced intelligence. She debates philosophy with her new friends as she reads volumes of books to expand her mind.

Meanwhile, Duncan gambles at the ship’s casino and wins a small fortune. When the ship docks at its next port, Bella notices that there are poor people in the world with sick and dying children. She takes all of Duncan’s money and tells the ship’s porter to give it to all of those poor unfortunate people. She didn’t notice how broadly the porter smiled as he took the money obviously for himself.

Now penniless, they are forced off the ship in France and Bella happily turns to a life of prostitution because it gets the money she needs and involves her favorite pastime sex.

Duncan goes insane having lost complete control of her. We later see him as a shell of his former self in an insane asylum. Bella is now a highly intelligent self-actualized person who is not going to be exploited by anyone.

Although the film is highly bizarre and the surreal setting and weird cinematography can make it difficult to watch, overall I found it quite funny, strangely enjoyable, and worthy of the accolades it has received.

Emma Stone is nominated for an Oscar for Lead Actress. She has already won the Golden Globe for Lead Actress Comedy and the BAFTA Lead Actress.

Even though this is a bizarre character who is played over the top, it is a fantastic bit of acting. She transforms from the childlike creature we see at the beginning of the film through the sex-crazed uninhibited adolescent into a sex-crazed young woman and eventually a highly intelligent philosopher. It is an amazing acting feat. With those wins already chalked up she is the odds-on favorite for the Oscar but might face stiff competition from Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. If Gladstone wins it would make her the first Native American to win in that category.

I will rank it as my 7th favorite film of the 10 Best Picture Nominees but don’t take that as a slight. I very much enjoyed it.

I cannot recommend it to everyone. You have to have a bizarre sense of humor and can deal with the explicit sex scenes and the overall surreal nature of the film. I liked it. But I’m weird. It’s a strange new take on the Frankenstein legend.

The film has earned 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Yorgos Lanthimos who is also nominated by the Directors Guild, Lead Actress Emma Stone, Supporting Actor Mark Ruffalo, Adapted Screenplay by Tony McNamara based on the novel by Alasdair Gray, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling all of which are richly deserved. It is also Oscar-nominated for Original Music Score and Film Editing for which I have no opinion.

Mark Ruffalo gives a memorable performance as the sleazy lawyer who tries to exploit Bella. And what’s not to like about Willem Dafoe as a mad scientist? I wish that Dafoe had gotten more nominations. Ruffalo probably won’t win for Supporting Actor but he is definitely worthy of the nomination.

It has 11 BAFTA nominations including Best Picture and Best British Film of the Year. Its 7 Golden Globe nominations also included Supporting Actor Willem Defoe. Emma Stone won the Globe for Lead Actress in a Comedy and the film won Best Comedy.

Stone and Dafoe have also received SAG nominations for lead and supporting roles respectively.

IMDb lists 395 nominations and 90 wins at the time of this writing. It has earned over $32 million in the US and Canada since its December premiere and over $93 million worldwide. It is available for rent or purchase on Amazon or YouTube.

* * *

For our purposes, I’m going to assume you have not yet seen “Barbie” but given its popularity that is probably not true. Anyway, “Barbie” is set in the fantasy world of Barbieland. It is occupied by dozens of women all named Barbie and a bunch of men all named Ken. Our lead character played by Margo Robbie is known in the film as “Stereotypical Barbie” She is the swimsuit-wearing, dream house-residing, pink convertible-driving Barbie that you normally think of when someone says “Barbie”. Other Barbies include an African-American president, astronauts, doctors, lawyers, the entire Supreme Court, Nobel laureates, and every other occupation ever imagined for Barbie.

The main Ken is played by Ryan Gosling. He is the stereotypical Ken who is blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and who hangs out at the beach. He is accompanied by a variety of other Kens of various ethnicities. None of them have an occupation except beaching. He’s not a lifeguard by the way. He just hangs out at the beach and spends his days pining for the attention of Barbie.

It is a perfect world in which all of the Barbies are happy. They believe that they have saved the women of the real world because they have proven that Barbie can be anything and so can you. Although Barbie’s daily routine is monotonous and repetitive, one day she starts feeling some existential dread. She starts thinking about death. She also has other bizarre feelings that are foreign to her. Among the transformative changes she experiences is that suddenly her feet are no longer fixed in the typical high-heel-wearing position that Barbies are known for. Her heels actually begin touching the ground.

She is directed to seek help from “Weird Barbie” who is brilliantly played by Kate McKinnon. Weird Barbie has bizarre makeup drawn on her face in crayon. She is always in an awkward pose usually very severe splits. Her hair is a mess. She is what happens to Barbies who are played with two hard and left in a box in the basement for too long.

Weird Barbie advises stereotypical Barbie that something is wrong with the girl who is playing with her. The girl is unhappy and her negative emotions are bleeding over into stereotypical Barbie. This has opened a portal between Barbieland and the Real World. Her only remedy is to travel to the Real World, find the girl who plays with her, and figure out what is troubling her.

Barbie sets out on this quest and is accompanied by Ken who stows away in the back of her dream car.

Barbie finds the Real World to be completely unlike what she expected. She believed that because she was a role model who proved that women could do anything, she expected the real world to be dominated by powerful independent women. Obviously, it is not. On the other hand, Ken is pleasantly surprised that men are respected and not just unimportant companions for the Barbies. He does some research and discovers that the world is a patriarchy in which men rule. While our Barbie seeks out her owner, Ken returns to Barbieland and begins taking over as he teaches the other Kens the principles of patriarchy.

Initially, Barbie believes that her owner is a young tween girl named Sasha but soon discovers that Sasha and her friends hate Barbies.

Sasha: We haven’t played with Barbie since we were like five years old.

Girl 1: Yeah, I hated dolls with hair.

Girl 2: Me, I played with Barbie but it was like the last resort.

Girl 3: I loved Barbie. [Sasha gives her a nasty look]

Sasha: You’ve been making women feel bad about themselves since you were invented… You represent everything that is wrong with our culture. Sexualized capitalism. Unrealistic physical ideas…

Barbie: no, no, no. I am technically Stereotypical Barbie but…

Sasha: You set the women’s movement back 50 years. You destroy girls’ innate sense of worth and you are killing the planet with your glorification of rampant consumerism.

Barbie: No. I’m supposed to help you and make you happy and powerful…

Sasha: Oh, I am powerful. And until you showed up here and declared yourself “Barbie” I hadn’t thought about you in years you fascist!

Eventually, Barbie discovers that the source of her angst is actually Sasha’s mother Gloria played by America Ferrera. Gloria is a secretary at Mattel. In her spare time, she begins designing new Barbies based on her own inner fears and turmoil. She found her old Barbie and began playing with it as an adult and that is the source of our main character’s transformation.

The FBI alerts the executives at Mattel that their creations have infiltrated the real world. In a panic, the Mattel executives led by their CEO Will Farrell eventually round up Barbie and attempt to put her in a box to be transported back to Barbieland. This will close the portal and set things right. Barbie escapes Mattel headquarters with the help of Gloria and Sasha.

Then Barbie takes Gloria, and Sasha with her when they return to Barbieland where they discover that the Kens have taken over. They brainwashed all of the other Barbies including the president, the Supreme Court, doctors, lawyers, etc. into being airhead women who are obsessed with serving the needs of the Kens.

In a pivotal scene, Gloria delivers a monologue about how difficult it is to be a woman in the modern world.

Gloria: [to Barbie] You are so beautiful. So smart. And it kills me you don’t think you’re good enough. Like we always have to be extraordinary. But somehow we are always doing it wrong. You have to be thin but not too thin and you can never say that you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy. But also you have to be thin. You have to have money but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass. Sigh… You have to be a boss but you can’t be mean. You have to lead but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You are supposed to love being a mother but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people…

This causes the brainwashed Barbies to snap out of it.

Can they regain control of Barbieland? What will the Kens do if they succeed? And now that stereotypical Barbie has been to the real world and had her eyes opened to the imperfection of reality, what will her life be like? Can Gloria and her daughter Sasha heal their broken relationship?

Writer/director Greta Gerwig has created a phenomenal work in this film. It is a hilariously funny yet deeply poignant and touching exploration of the roles of men and women. Even though I’m male and never played with Barbies, it nearly brought me to tears of nostalgia over my love of my favorite toys.

I can’t discuss this film without mentioning the opening scene which is a parody of a classic film. I don’t want to spoil it for you so I will describe it in detail in a spoiler section at the end of this podcast that you can skip. For now, let me just say that I have not laughed harder at a film in decades than I did in that opening scene. As it unfolded, I realized what was happening. I realized very early what film it was spoofing. At one point I said to myself, “If that girl playing with dolls starts to do what I think she’s going to do, I’m going to lose it.”

She did.

I must’ve laughed out loud for 10 minutes. I had to pause the movie. Wiped my eyes. Details in the spoiler section.

The film has earned 8 Oscar nominations yet many critics claim that the lack of a nomination for director Greta Gerwig and lead actress Margo Robbie were a serious snub. I have to disagree. Keep in mind that there are 10 films nominated for Best Picture but only 5 nominations for Best Director and 5 nominations for Lead Actress.

Let’s look briefly at the competition for director. Justine Triet did an amazing job in “Anatomy of a Fall” and happens to be a woman so we can’t say it was sexist that Gerwig did not get nominated. Just because Martin Scorsese has been nominated as Best Director 10 times, that’s more than any other living director, it does not mean he should not be nominated for his amazing work in “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Christopher Nolan very much deserves his nomination for “Oppenheimer” and is likely to win. Yorgos Lanthimos showed amazing creativity and vision in bringing to life the bizarre world of Bella Baxter in “Poor Things.” Finally, a film we have not yet discussed “The Zone of Interest” also is a stellar achievement by director Jonathan Glaser. He has found a new and innovative way to explore the horrors of the Holocaust without showing us any of those horrors. We simply hear them. I would bump no one from this list to make room for Gerwig. She did get a nomination from the Directors Guild.

Along with Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig is Oscar#nominated for Adapted Screenplay. I believe this is where her creativity and contribution to this film truly are Oscar-worthy. It is a brilliant screenplay.

That nomination is not without controversy. The Academy considers it an Adapted Screenplay because she did not create the characters Barbie, Ken, and others. This is a ridiculous distinction. There is nothing in the lore of Barbie remotely related to the story she has created. This is not an adaptation of an existing Barbie-themed book, cartoon, or any other work. The children who play with Barbie create their own stories. Barbie as created by Mattel is simply an image. Not a character. This isn’t like Transformers or G.I. Joe or other toys with movie, TV, or comic book tie-ins.

Typically when a work is listed as an Adapted Screenplay such as “American Fiction” the credits list the author of the book upon which it is based. This was also true with “The Zone of Interest”, and ”Poor Things”. Christopher Nolan has made it clear that “Oppenheimer” is the result of research from many sources including written biographies of the real man.

While I cannot defend the criticism that she was snubbed by the lack of a Director nomination, the criticism of this screenplay being listed as “adapted” is very much an appropriate complaint. This is a highly original screenplay.

The Writers Guild of America nominated it as an Original Screenplay as they should have.

Let’s look at Margo Robbie’s competition. We’ve not yet talked about the film “Nyad” in which Annette Benning plays long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad. It is an amazing performance. A very memorable character. Lily Gladstone’s performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon” while not my favorite among the five nominees is certainly Oscar-worthy. Carey Mulligan’s performance as actress Felicia Montealegre the wife of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein in “Maestro” was a quality performance. German actress, Sandra Hüller was previously unknown to me. She delivers one of my favorite performances of the year in “Anatomy of a Fall”. She is also quite chilling in “The Zone of Interest” as Hedwig Höss the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss but was not nominated for that role. Had these films premiered in different calendar years she might have been nominated for both performances. And finally Emma Stone will likely win for “Poor Things”. Who would you bump? I wouldn’t bump any of them.

The question we should be asking is how did Ryan Gosling get nominated for Supporting Actor as Ken? He did a good job. It was a funny character. But I don’t think there is anything that special or memorable about his performance. In fact, I went back and watched the entire film a second time just to focus on his contribution. I saw nothing after two viewings that impressed me that much.

In contrast, I will long remember Willem Defoe in “Poor Things” although I can understand why he would not be nominated in the same film in the same category as Mark Ruffalo. Nominating 2 Supporting Actors in the same film usually means neither of them will win. I would’ve liked to see a nomination for Rhys Ifans who played in “Nyad” as navigator John Bartlett who helped Nyad make her way from Cuba to Florida. I will long remember that performance after I’ve forgotten Gosling. Although I hated the musical remake of “The Color Purple” I could’ve given a Supporting Actor nomination to Coleman Domingo for his role in tha Christina film. Fortunately, he is nominated as Lead Actor for “Rustin”.

America Ferrera has a Supporting Actress nomination which is very much deserved. Her monologue that I discussed previously was brilliantly delivered and other aspects of her performance are quite memorable.

Although “Barbie” ranks only as my 8th favorite of the 10 nominated films, I very much enjoyed it. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.

The film has 8 Oscar nominations. Best Picture, Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, Supporting Actress for America Ferrera, Production Design (much-deserved), and Costume Design (also much-deserved). They have gone to meticulous detail to re-create Barbieland based on actual products sold such as houses, cars, and especially clothes.

There are about 6 or 7 big musical production numbers and songs. Two of the songs are nominated for Oscars. “I’m Just Ken” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt wasn’t a bad song.

[Excerpt from “I’m Just Ken” plays]

But the odds-on favorite for the whole category is “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell.

It’s a very touching and emotional song. It has already won two Grammys: Song of the Year, and “Best Song Written for Visual Medium”. The song won a Golden Globe. Here is a brief excerpt from the music video by Billy Eilish. Check out the link to the full video in the description. It’s a very touching video itself.

[Excerpt from “What Was I Made For?” plays]

“Barbie” received 5 BAFTA nominations. There were 9 Golden Globe Nominations and it won the Globe for “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” whatever that means. Robbie, Gosling, the ensemble cast, and stunt ensembles have received SAG nominations.

Overall IMDb lists 417 nominations and 167 wins to date.

With an estimated budget of $100 million, released in July it has earned over $600 million in the US and Canada and $1.445 billion worldwide. [Note: This makes Gerwig the first female director to break the $1 billion glass ceiling.]

It is still showing in theaters and is available for streaming on Max and available for purchase or rental on Amazon and YouTube.

Note that on Max streaming there is a special version that includes an American Sign Language interpreter superimposed in the lower right corner of the screen in addition to the usual closed captions. If you watch it on Max, I recommend you view that version to inflate those viewing numbers and encourage Max and other streaming services to provide such versions. I did not find the interpreter distracting.

In previous episodes, I said I was only able to see 9 of the 10 Best Picture Nominated films. Good news… “The Zone of Interest” is now available for digital download rental or purchase so I have now seen all 10 films plus four other films that were nominated for acting or screenplay awards but were not listed for Best Picture. I’m going to try to get three more episodes before the Oscars are awarded on March 10. I’ve not been able to get them out on time on Monday but we are going to go full speed ahead. I will try to get these episodes out between now and the Oscars.

Stay tuned after my typical closing for a spoiler-filled description of the opening scene of Barbie which made me laugh so hard I cried.

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I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe everyone.

Okay, I want to talk about the opening scene but I didn’t want to spoil it in the main section of the review. However, I just discovered that the opening scene I’m about to talk about was spoiled in a teaser trailer that was released before the film. If you’ve not seen that trailer only continue if you’ve seen “Barbie” or don’t care if it’s spoiled.

The film opens with Helen Mirren doing a voiceover narration…

Narrator: Since the beginning of time… since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls.

But they were always baby dolls thus putting the girls in the role of mother. The scene shows about half a dozen girls aged 4 or 5 years old sitting on a rocky terrain outdoors playing with baby dolls, strollers, teacups, and plastic dishes.

That stark scenery along with the phrase “since the beginning of time” immediately told me this was a reference to the opening “Dawn of Man” sequence of the classic Stanley Kubrick film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” In case you are unfamiliar with that sequence, it shows a bunch of prehuman apelike creatures struggling to survive in a harsh rocky desert environment. Suddenly a giant dark gray monolith appears in their midst. One of them cautiously approaches the slab and touches it. It emits a strange sound. Suddenly the creatures have gained great intelligence. They discover how to use tools. Specifically, one of them picks up a long bone from a carcass and begins swinging it as a club. He discovers it makes him powerful and he begins violently smashing a pile of bones sending bone shards flying in every direction. He then tosses the bone into the air triumphantly and we get a crossfade to the year 2001 and a shot of an orbiting satellite. Mankind has transformed from primitive tools like a bone club to the sophisticated technology of space travel.

Back to “Barbie”… The narrator says that this baby doll and mother will play continues until…” Then we get the iconic music “Also Sprach Zarathustra” from “2001”. We cut to a 10-foot-tall Barbie doll that suddenly appears on the landscape in the same way that the monolith appeared in “2001”. Or rather Margo Robbie as Barbie.

The girls cautiously approach Barbie as the music continues. When they touch her, a strange buzz sound emanates.

Then we get a close-up of one of the girls holding her baby doll with two hands by the doll’s feet.

It was at that instant that I said to myself, “Oh my God… If she starts bashing that doll on the rocks and busting up the plastic dishes I’m going to lose it.”

Just as I expected… The little girl begins swinging in a baby doll and violently smashing it into the ground crushing her plastic dishes and the skulls of the other porcelain dolls sending debris flying everywhere. She then flings the doll into the air and we get a crossfade to the Barbie logo.

I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. I had to pause the movie and dry my eyes before I could continue. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard at a film.

If you’re not a mega fan of “2001: A Space Odyssey” then you probably did not laugh as hard as I did. But I hope you did watch the movie before you read this and I hope you enjoyed it at least half as much as I did.

As I explained, I found out much later that this 2001 spoof appeared in a teaser trailer way before the movie opened. Several people on YouTube have created side-by-side views of the “Barbie” trailer and the opening scenes of 2001. However, these mashups are based on the trailer which is a shorter sequence than appears in the actual film. The sequence in the film is and the girls smashing the baby dolls are much more violent. I would try to make my own side-by-side comparison based on the film but I would probably get a copyright violation for it. Perhaps someone else will dare to do so.

I’ve provided a link to the “Barbie” trailer as well as one of the better side-by-side comparisons between it and “2001”. You really need to see the full beginning of the movie to really appreciate it. [Late update: I found a YouTube clip of the full opening. See the links.]

Tune in next week for more movie reviews as we continue Contemplating Life. Fly safe everyone.

Contemplating Life – Episode 55 – “Oscar 2024: Alien Relationships”

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This week we continue with our look at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. On the menu, this week is a pair of films I called “Alien Relationships”. Okay… That is clickbait. They are not about little green men. We have a pair of foreign language films which technically makes them alien to us in the US.

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Shooting Script

Hi, this is Chris Young, and welcome to episode 55 of Contemplating Life– Oscar Edition

This week we continue with our look at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. On the menu, this week is a pair of films I called “Alien Relationships”. Okay… That is clickbait. They are not about little green men. We have a pair of foreign language films which technically makes them alien to us in the US.

One of these films I greatly enjoyed. The other one wasn’t bad but I’m not excited about it.

Let’s start with the so-so film and then finish strong.

“Past Lives” is a Korean film about a girl named Na Young and her childhood friend Hae Sung. The story begins in South Korea when the pair are about 11 or 12 years old. Their friendship is about to grow into a budding romance when Na Young’s family decides to immigrate to Canada. Na Young takes the English name Nora. Hae Sung is deeply disappointed to lose his friend. We see brief scenes of Nora arriving in Canada and struggling to fit in at school in this strange new country.

We then fast forward 12 years Nora is now in New York City studying to be a playwright. She comes from a creative family. Her father was a filmmaker and her mother an artist. One day, she decides to start looking up old friends from Korea as she is reminiscing with her mother. She asks, “What was the name of that boy I had a crush on? We went on one date.” Her mother reminds her it was Hae Sung. A quick search reveals that the boy had posted a message on a Facebook page about her father’s films saying that he was looking for the filmmaker’s daughter Na Young.

Hae Sung is now serving in the South Korean army because they have mandatory military service for young men. Nora decides to contact him and they begin a long-distance online relationship which grows rapidly into something quite significant.

Nora is tied up in rehearsals for her play. When Hae Sung completes his military service he enters college to study engineering. Given the time difference between New York and Seoul, their online meetings are often at the wee hours of the night. Eventually, Nora decides they need to take a break from their online video chats. She said she can’t concentrate on her work because she’s constantly thinking about looking up flight schedules to Korea. His studies are suffering as well but it is her decision to pause the relationship.

Once again, Hae Sung feels abandoned by the woman he loves. He accepts her decision only reluctantly.

Shortly thereafter, she attends an artist’s residency program in a rural location where she meets a young American writer named Arthur.

The movie again jumps 12 years and Nora is married to Arthur. We learn little about their life together until late in the movie.

The last half of the movie shows us when Hae Sung travels to New York to visit his now-married old girlfriend. As Nora and her husband are anticipating the visit from her old friend she explains a bit of Korean philosophy to Arthur. She says, “There is a word in Korean. In-Yun. It means “providence” or “fate”. But it’s specifically about relationships between people. I think it comes from Buddhism and reincarnation. It’s an In-Yun if two strangers even walk by each other in the street and their clothes accidentally brush. Because it means there must have been something between them in their past lives. If two people get married, they say it’s because there have been 8,000 layers of In-Yun over 8,000 lifetimes.”

The question the film poses is, “With which of the men in her life does she have the strongest In-Yun?” Is she destined to be with Arthur or with Hae Sung? How much In-Yun did she have with either of these men in a past life or is this just the first of many lives she will live with one or the other of them?

When Hae Sung arrives, he and Nora wander around New York City sightseeing and reminiscing for a couple of days. She then comes home and talks about the experience with her husband and we begin to learn more about their relationship. Arthur notes that this would make a great story in which he was the evil white husband who kept her from her destiny with her childhood sweetheart. She laughs it off but we doubt the strength of her relationship with her husband as we learn more about their history.

I enjoyed the movie but I am not sure it is Oscar-caliber. I found the pace to be extremely slow.

Greta Lee plays the adult Nora. Previously, I very much enjoyed her work as TV executive Stella Bak in the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show”. Hae Sung is played by Teo Yoo who I have not seen before and his IMDb credits don’t include anything you probably ever saw.

Interestingly enough although both are of Korean descent, Lee was born in the US, and Teo Yoo was born in Germany. He studied at the Lee Strasburg Institute in New York and then moved to Seoul in 2009.

The performances were adequate but nothing extraordinary. I thought that the 40-year-old Greta Lee’s portrayal of the 20-something-year-old version of Nora showed some great acting skills but compared to Lee’s outstanding work in “The Morning Show” overall her performance in this film did not impress me. In interviews both Lee and Teo Yoo have raved about the opportunity to play such characters but it just didn’t do much for me. I suppose if there is any nomination with which I could agree it might be for the screenplay but that is a weak endorsement.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a nice little story of unrequited love and a marginally interesting exploration of the idea of fate when it comes to relationships.

Those of you who are familiar with my autobiographical episodes of this podcast know about my relationship of unrequited love with my childhood sweetheart Rosie. That includes a reunion with her many years after we parted ways after high school. At that reunion, I got to meet her husband. So there are many parallels between this story and my own life. Yet, I did not feel it triggered any emotions in me. Perhaps I never grew to care much about the characters. I didn’t have the feeling that they were telling “my story” despite the parallels.

I was however moved by the final scene of the film but I can’t tell you how or why without spoiling the ending. At the very end of this episode, I will put a brief epilogue explaining my reaction to the final scene. It will include a huge spoiler warning in front of it in case you want to skip it.

In addition to the Best Picture nomination, Korean-born writer-director Celine Song is nominated for Best Original Screenplay Oscar. She has also been nominated by the Directors Guild for Outstanding Achievement in Directing a First Time Feature Film. Her only other credit on IMDb is as a staff writer for the fantasy series “The Wheel of Time.”

IMDb lists 197 nominations and 68 wins including three BAFTA nominations for Best Film Not in the English Language, Screenplay, and Lead Actor for Teo Yoo.

Also, five Golden Globe nominations for, Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Non-English Film, and Greta Lee for Lead Actress in a Drama.

The film opened in June 2023 and has earned nearly $11 million in the US and Canada and over $23 million worldwide.

Is currently available for streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime and available for rent or purchase on Amazon and YouTube.

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Our second film this week is the French film “Anatomy of a Fall”. German actress Sandra Hüller plays a successful novelist named Sandra Voyter. She is married to an unsuccessful writer named Samuel Theis played by Samuel Maleski. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that the actors share the first names of their characters or if the part was written for them or what. They have an 11-year-old son Daniel who is visually impaired.

Early in the film, Daniel finds his father has fallen from a third-story attic window to his death. The question is, did he fall accidentally? Was this a suicide in which he jumped? Or did Sandra push him out the window?

After some meetings with her lawyer and interviews by the police, the film jumps one year later to a trial in which she is charged with the murder of her husband. The majority of the film is a courtroom drama in which we try to form our own opinion as to what really happened.

The visually impaired boy is the only witness to events and his recollection has varied between interviews with investigators.

Through the testimony in the courtroom, we gradually come to understand the deeply troubled marriage. Sandra is German but had agreed to live in France even though she is not happy there. Samuel is frustrated by his own lack of success and jealous of his wife’s success. One of her most successful books is based on an undeveloped idea that Samuel had. She testified that he agreed to let her develop the story but when it was a big success, it only furthered his sense of failure.

Samuel blames himself for their son’s visual impairment. It was caused by an accident a few years ago. He was supposed to pick up his son after school but forgot. Samuel sent the babysitter to pick up the boy late and as the boy ran to meet her, he was struck by a car. There is tension because Samuel blames himself for the accident. Sandra blamed him but claims to have gotten over it. It is unclear how much the boy blames his father for his condition.

In Samuel’s unsuccessful attempts to come up with a winning story idea, he decided to begin making audio recordings of his everyday life hoping to find inspiration. Sandra was aware of some of these recordings but not aware of a very key recording that was made a few days before his death. Samuel recorded a bitter argument between the two of them unbeknownst to her. The recording was played in open court.

As the audio recording was being played in court, the film shows us the scene as it actually occurred right up until the point when the argument became physical. It then switches back to the courtroom where you can only hear what happened but not actually see the truth. You can hear items crashing and the sound of a physical struggle. We only have Sandra’s testimony as to what was going on during the crashing sounds.

I thought that the scene depicted during the playing of the audio recording was one of the most realistic and believable portrayals I had ever seen of a domestic argument. It was not the usual over-the-top melodramatic shouting match that you typically see depicted in film or TV. It was a pointed conversation between people in a deeply troubled marriage trying to understand each other’s position.

That scene was so well-written that it is the major reason why this film is my favorite screenplay of the year. The rest of the story is quite compelling and well-written as well.

The dialogue is a combination of English and French with English subtitles. In the home, she and her husband spoke English because her French was poor and his German was poor. In the courtroom, the proceedings take place in French however Sandra eventually insists on speaking English and using an interpreter.

I was fascinated by the significantly different courtroom procedures used in France. It is vastly different from what we are accustomed to in American and British courtroom dramas. When a witness is on the stand, the prosecutor and the defense have the opportunity to turn to the defendant and begin questioning them about what the witness just said. The defendant can immediately rebut testimony.

Both the prosecution and defense are given great leeway to expound their theory of the case while questioning a witness. To the extent that American dramas reflect American courtrooms, normally such exposition would be met with an objection, “Is there a question in that statement?” Only once during the proceedings did the judge admonish the defense attorney to “Save it for your closing arguments.” American court proceedings seem to be totally limited to a question-and-answer format except for the opening and closing statements yet in this courtroom, the attorneys had much leeway to argue their case.

I have no idea how accurate was this depiction of French courtroom procedure. Nor do I know how accurate American TV and film dramas depict our actual courtroom procedures. My only experience of real courtroom proceedings was the hours I wasted watching the O.J. Simpson trial which could hardly be construed as an ordinary proceeding.

Throughout the film, as my opinion wavered back and forth as to Sandra’s guilt or innocence, I was worried that the film would end with us not knowing what really happened. For now, I will say I was initially satisfied with the ending but upon further review, I had some doubts. I won’t explain that because it would spoil too much. See the spoilers section at the end of this episode only if you have seen the film.

None of the cast were familiar to me. Their credits are all French and German films Sandra Hüller gives an outstanding performance which has earned her lead actress nominations for both Oscar and Golden Globes. Note that she also stars in the nominated film “The Zone of Interest” but that is the one film that I’ve not yet been able to see. I’m really looking forward to her performance there even though it did not receive any acting nominations. I’m a bit surprised she did not receive a SAG nomination.

In addition to the Best Picture nomination, writer-director Justine Triet is nominated as Best Director and along with co-author Arthur Harari is nominated for Best Original Screenplay. The film has earned 7 BAFTA nominations. The film was awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or which is the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The boy’s service dog was also awarded the Palme Dog at Cannes – seriously that sounds like a joke I made up but there really is such an award. Who knew? It also has an Oscar nomination for Film Editing for which I have no opinion. IMDb lists 191 total nominations and 66 wins.

It opened in August in France and October in the US. On an estimated budget of $6.6 million, it has earned $4.5 million in the US and Canada and nearly $28 million worldwide.

This was my second favorite nominated film this year and tied with “American Fiction” for my favorite screenplay. I highly recommend it. It is still being shown in theaters and is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and YouTube.

Next week, I will review the hit film Barbie and another film closely related to it. Guess what… I’m not talking about Oppenheimer! Tune in next week to find out. Stay tuned after my typical acknowledgments and closing remarks for some spoiler-filled comments about this week’s films.

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Okay, here we go with the spoilers. Do not proceed unless you’ve seen the movie or don’t care if the endings are spoiled.

I said that “Past Lives” should have resonated with me more because I was much like Hae Sung who had an ongoing crush on his junior high school sweetheart Rosie. Like Hae Sung, many years after Rosie and I parted ways I had the opportunity to see her again and to meet her new husband. There was only one part of that parallel to my life that touched me emotionally. At the end of the film, Nora bids farewell to her visiting childhood friend, walks back to her apartment, hugs her husband, and begins sobbing uncontrollably.

If you’ve heard my Episode 22 in which I read my award-winning story “The Reunion” you will know that after bidding farewell to Rosie, her husband, and the school where we spent our teen years, I cried all the way home. But I never thought about what Rosie’s reaction might have been. I wondered if she went home, hugged her husband, and cried as well.

Let’s talk about the ending of “Anatomy of a Fall.” The boy Daniel returns to the witness stand after hearing of all the turmoil between his parents which was played out in open court. Among the things he discovered was that Sandra claimed that at one point, she had found Samuel unconscious and he had vomited up a large amount of aspirin which she claimed was a failed suicide attempt. This bolstered her claim that the fall from the third-story window was a successful suicide attempt and she did not murder her husband.

The boy recalled that his dog got sick at about that time and had to be taken to the vet. He concluded that the dog had eaten some of his father’s vomit before Sandra discovered him unconscious. The boy deliberately gave his dog an overdose of aspirin to see if it reacted the same way. It did. This led him to conclude that his father really had attempted suicide. There was still the possibility however that Sandra had given Samuel the overdose.

The boy then relates a story about a conversation he had with his father on the way to the vet with the dog. The father was explaining that the dog had been loyal and served him well but he needed to prepare for the fact that someday the dog would no longer be with him. It was obvious to us the audience and to Daniel that Samuel was really talking about the day when his father would no longer be there. Daniel concluded that his father was preparing him for the day when he might be successful in his suicide attempt.

Based on Daniel’s testimony, the jury believed it and acquitted Sandra.

I was pleasantly surprised that the ending was unambiguous. At least I felt that way for a time.

Shortly after seeing the film, I read a review by Adam-Troy Castro who is a famous science fiction and horror author. He publishes a brief movie review on his free Patreon page every day. His review of the film convinced me to rethink the ending and now I’m not so sure my initial assessment was correct.

When Daniel and his mother are reunited after the trial, it is an awkward reunion. One might have expected that Sandra would thank her son for “telling the truth”. But that did not happen. It leaves you wondering. Did Daniel make up the story about his father trying to prepare him for the day when he would be gone? Did he lie to save his mother? If he did lie, was it simply to avoid the loss of both parents? Was he sympathetic to her that she suffered an unhappy marriage? Did Daniel blame his father for his blindness?

That kind of ambiguity which can at one moment make you believe one version of events and then again make you doubt them indicates a very cleverly crafted piece of writing.

It would’ve been disappointing if the film simply left you hanging without an opinion one way or the other of what really happened. But this clever bit of storytelling gave you a simple explanation but hinted that there might be a different conclusion. So I was not at all disappointed by the ambiguity. Rather, I was intrigued by it.

Okay. that’s it for our spoiler cast. See you next week as we continue Contemplating Life. Fly safe everyone.