conflict, contact and combat.
 | | Sylvester Stallone plays Rambo on the set of "First Blood."Sunset Boulevard/Corbis, via Getty Images |
|
I realized something this week. |
I had never seen "First Blood." I've seen several subsequent installments in the Rambo series, but never the original film. Somehow, I thought I had. But while reading a series retrospective, I realized I didn't recognize any of the scenes from the first movie. So I picked up a copy and gave it a watch. |
The later Rambos, from "First Blood: Part II" to the most recent film, are unambiguous action movies, with all the explosive excess you'd expect from a 1980s blockbuster. First Blood has action. The high point of the first act, for example, is Rambo's jailbreak, where he tosses cops through glass and runs through the station like a feral animal. |
(Here I'll say that Sylvester Stallone is an incredible physical actor, with an uncanny ability to impart realism to otherwise unrealistic action scenes. He throws himself into the role with such force that by the end, you believe he is a former Green Beret, capable of doing real damage to a human being.) |
Later, we get a guerrilla warfare set piece, several impressively large explosions and a well-staged car chase. Again, this film has action. But most of it is fairly quiet. Rambo foraging in the forest and trying to escape the police and soldiers who have come out in force to stop him. Brian Dennehy as the police chief, barking orders and nursing an Ahab-like desire to capture and kill Rambo. Richard Crenna as Rambo's old commanding officer, there to explain the man and his experiences. |
It's this stillness, the extent to which the movie takes time to breathe, that makes "First Blood" compelling. The film doesn't end with a shootout; it ends with Rambo's sobbing catharsis, at night, in a darkened office, the results of his one-man rampage all around him. |
"Rambo" has been a synonym for gung-ho, jingoistic action for as long as I've been alive. But this first movie is something very different. It's about a broken man, unable to cope with what he's seen and what he's done. I'm honestly surprised by how much I was affected by it. |
I made the case that Trump has only one playbook for winning an election and he's trying to recreate it for 2020. |
| In Hillary Clinton he had a distinctly unpopular opponent who, like him, divided the electorate along starkly partisan lines. She was undermined by a foreign government that stole and released damaging information on her campaign, as well as a federal investigation that tied her to scandal with regular updates and revelations. Clinton also faced — and Trump had the advantage of — news media that couldn't distinguish between ordinary, if unseemly, political misconduct and truly extraordinary transgressions. |
| All of this — including third-party candidates who split the anti-Trump vote, a Clinton campaign that didn't compete for vital constituencies, and the president's own campaign of innuendo and racist demagogy — was just enough to win him a slim victory in the Electoral College. And while Trump still brags about his "historic victory," he is clearly aware of the unique conditions that drove his unlikely win. It's why he has devoted the past year to trying to recreate them. |
Gary Saul Morson on the Russian journalist and novelist Vasily Grossman in the New York Review of Books. |
Radley Balko on the conviction and death sentence of Toforest Johnson in The Washington Post. |
Rebecca Traister with a fascinating essay on how she writes about sexism, in The Cut. |
If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to friends. They can sign up here. If you want to share your thoughts on an item in this week's newsletter or on the newsletter in general, please email me at jamelle-newsletter@nytimes.com. |
 | | National Gallery of Art, in Washington.Jamelle Bouie |
|
I haven't taken many pictures this week, so I grabbed one from the archive. I took this earlier in the year while on the rooftop of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. I think of this photo as kind of a joke — a big, blue chicken and a woman clad entirely in blue, as if they're both from some village where all things are various shades of blue. There's also some nice compositional symmetry, which I always like. For this, I used a digital Leica range finder and a 35 mm Zeiss lens. |
Now Eating: Mark Bittman's Roasted Broccoli Salad With Tahini Dressing |
I'm home after traveling and eating out all week. I desperately crave vegetables, and so at some point this weekend I'm going to make this salad, to serve with some pan-fried white beans and freshly baked pita bread. I'm going to give you this recipe unaltered, but I plan to roast the broccoli at a higher temperature (450 degrees) and for longer (about 25 minutes) so that it is crispy and a little charred — the way I like it. I'll also double the cumin (which I'll toast and grind from seeds), since 1 teaspoon really isn't enough. |
- 1½ pounds broccoli, trimmed and cut into large florets
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup tahini
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
|
Heat the oven to 425°F. Put the broccoli on a large rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with your hands to coat, then spread out the florets in a single layer. Roast, undisturbed, until the color starts to brighten, 5 to 10 minutes. |
Scatter the onion on top, stir and turn with a spatula to combine the vegetables, and return to the oven. Roast, stirring once or twice more, until the onion has darkened a bit and you can just pierce a piece of broccoli with a thin-bladed knife, 5 to 10 minutes more, depending on how big the florets are. (You can prepare the salad to this point up to several hours in advance and refrigerate. Either return it to room temperature or serve chilled.) |
Put the remaining oil in a small bowl with the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and some salt and pepper. Whisk, adding water 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dressing becomes smooth and coats the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the seasoning; add more lemon juice if you'd like. |
Transfer the broccoli to a platter or individual plates, drizzle with the dressing, and serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled. |
歡迎蒞臨：https://ofa588.com/
娛樂推薦：https://www.ofa86.com/
沒有留言:
張貼留言