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Reviews
Crossroads (1986)
Blues in the Twilight Zone
If you've missed this one, you've missed very entertaining performances by Ralph Macchio and Joe Seneca. The story weaves the blues travelers down "hwy 65", where, with the help of one of the best soundtracks Ry Cooder has done for movies, you really do enter the "bluez zone". Great cinematography, taking advantage of light and surroundings, to lend that 'other world' feel. You can almost hear the Rod Serling voiceover when certain characters are introduced into the timeline. If you dig the Robert Johnson legend, like music, especially blues, and you like listening to 2 of the premier rock guitarists of the past 20 years (Steve Vai and Ry Cooder "cuttin' heads"), you will enjoy the heck out of this story. You wont find it on DVD yet. Cable channels used to play the heck out of it back in the late 80's and early 90's. It was on sporadically in 2001-2003. All of you out there with PVR's (Tivos/Replays), do a search, and archive this wonderful gem! Let the rest of us know when and where we can see it!
500 Nations (1995)
A most excellently researched documentary on Native North American Culture
Well, I certainly was NEVER bored with this documentary. 500 Nations brings a lot of emotion to the surface. It is an honestly presented, and meticulously research history of the native cultures of North America, and the effect upon them of the invasion of the white Europeans. When I say "honest", it is disturbing at times, and parents should be warned that, while accurate historically, it also pulls no punches in showing the highly organized and cultured tribes of the Americas being brutalized by ignorant european invaders. You can also sense that the white europeans would have been so much better off, had they truly wished to live with the Nations as brothers instead of conquerers. Our society is less today than it might have been, had the europeans brought more to the relationship that genocide, destruction, and disease to the Nations. IMHO, the best documentary on some of the Nations who called North America their home, long before Vespucci decided to give the land his name.