GBO NEWS: DACA & Social Security; Hole-y ‘Bucket List’ Films with an Alzheimer’s Nazi Hunter, a Terminal Dog Lover & More
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations — Our 24th Year.
September 7, 2017 — Volume 17, Number 10
Editor’s Note: GBO News, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generation publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. You can subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge simply by sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. You’ll receive the table of contents as e-mail, just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org.
In This Issue: Decent Americans for Compassionate Action (DACA).
1. GEN BEATLES NEWS: *** “Jack Rosenthal, Times Journalist and Civic Leader, Is Dead at 82,” A GBONews Remembrance; *** “Brooks,” new blog site of Rodney A. Brooks of Washington Post, Next Avenue, Black Enterprise and others.
2. GOOD SOURCES: *** National Science Academies Study: Nursing Home Risk Higher Than Thought; *** “Health Savings Accounts Won’t Help Most Older Adults,” Issue Brief from Justice in Aging; *** “Trump’s War On Dreamers And Other Immigrants Is A War On Social Security,” by Nancy Altman, Huffington Post.
3. THE STORYBOARD: *** “When You Can Expect Social Security Reform,” by Chris Farrell, Next Avenue; *** “How I Keep the Topic of Aging Fresh,” by Paula Span, New York Times “Insider” column on covering the generations beat; *** “Brain Health for a Song–Aging and the Arts,” by Dawn Davis, Caribbean Today; *** “Rapid Aging of U.S., Latin America Mean ‘Race Against Time’ and Poverty, by Kent Paterson, NMPolitics; *** “Study: Race Bias Doubles Suicide Consideration by Chinese Elders in U.S.,” by Zhihong Li, Sing Tao Daily; *** “Super-Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Made Possible by Brain Scans,” by Lisa Esposito, US News & World Report; *** “A New Age of Aging: How Tech Can Ease the Trials of Getting Old,” by Frank Browning, California Magazine.
4. THE SILVER SILVER SCREEN: *** Legacy Film Festival of Aging in San Francisco (Sept. 15-17); *** Bucket Lists With Holes in Them: *** “The Hero” (Sam Elliot); *** “Youth in Oregon” (Frank Langella); *** “Mr. Pig” (Danny Glover); *** “Remember” (Christopher Plummer). *** “The Bucket List” (Moran Freeman, Jack Nicholson). *** And one Spanish winner “Truman (the Dog) that holds water. (Forget the Alzheimer’s Nazi Hunter—Really — Lili Tomlin to the Rescue.
1. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** “Jack Rosenthal, Times Journalist and Civic Leader, Is Dead at 82,” was the headline for Sam Roberts’ thoughtful New York Times obituary on Aug. 24. GBONews readers know that this e-pub doesn’t include many death notices. If it did in our particular field, it might become difficult to include much other news. But Jack was something special to the generations beat, a warm and enthusiastic early sponsor of Dr. Robert N. Butler’s effort to support journalism on aging. He died from complications of pancreatic cancer.
A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his terse and perceptive editorial writing for the NYT in 1982, Jack had previously served, Roberts tells us, as “the principal editor of a landmark 1968 federal report on urban riots that found an America moving ‘toward two societies, separate and unequal.’” That 265-page report, the historic Kerner Commission Report (officially from the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders) was led by Gov. Otto Kerner Jr., of Illinois, under President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was formed to investigate the causes of the racial uprising in 1967. Jack wrote the chapter titled “The Future of the Cities.”
In the Kerner report on race in America, Roberts explained, “Jack concluded that if the nation chose integration as a goal, it would require more federal spending to mitigate segregation’s impact and deprivation in urban neighborhoods, while also expanding opportunities for better housing, jobs and schools.”
Jack had been a “spokesman and strategist for Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during the 1960s civil rights upheaval, oversaw the editorial page of The New York Times, where he championed criminal justice reforms and spotlighted the challenges of an aging population, and The Times Magazine.”
Robert’s writes, “He later nurtured numerous civic ventures, including raising millions of dollars for victims of the 2001 World Trade Center attack as president of The New York Times Foundation.” Also, less dramatically to be sure, in that capacity, he funded the development and implementation of the Age Boom Academy program to train reporters in the coverage of aging. That goes back at least to the 1997 seminar for age-beat reporters from both the United States and Japan, through Dr. Butler’s International Longevity Center. The Age Boom program now continues at Dr. Butler’s alma mater, Columbia University. (In fact, he served as editor of the Columbia Spectator newspaper in his 1947-48 senior year, working with what he called his “junior reporters,” such as Max Frankel, who would go on to become executive editor of the NYT and among many accomplishments recruit Jack.
Jack would edit the Times Magazine from 1993 to 2000, and then “retire,” becoming president of the paper’s company foundation until recent years. He also served as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Philanthropies and helped found that organization’s ReServe program, which Roberts’ story notes, “has connected more than 2,600 adults 55 and older with full-time jobs in government and nonprofit private agencies in 12 states.”
On a personal note, Jack and I had never connected except in passing over the years until I participated in the 2016 Age Boom program in New York. While we sat together through the first day’s agenda of panels and discussions, we struck up a warm and engaging exchange. He’d been following GBONews and our efforts with the Journalists in Aging Fellows program, and, ever the editor, he picked at my thoughts and perspectives on the day, especially concerning the growing diversity of the older population. It was really our first chance after years of only glancing encounters, to share ideas, observations and our mutual penchant for slices of humor on Jewish wry.
It wasn’t rye bread, but a cookie—in one of those incidental, usually forgettable gestures–that wedged open the door between us that initial morning and showed me something of the caring that took Jack beyond the point of professionalism in his rich career. After a break in the schedule, I returned to the conference table to find that he’d deposited a cookie from the morning coffee service at my spot. Kind of silly, perhaps, but it was the sort of endearing act of thoughtfulness that can move a relationship from collegiality to candor. We traded quips and observations about the program, of course, but I also enjoyed sharing a little about my background, such as in the civil rights movement, my very tiny part compared with his significant role. Any journalist has to admire the likes of Jack Rosenthal, but in my case, I’ll miss that hope of sharing a cup again with someone who began, in person and some subsequent e-mails, to become a friend and compatriot in this old journalistic world.
A final note for those who participated as an Age Boomer over the years and got to know Jack in his many supportive roles for the program. The Age Boom Academy will hold a memorial service on November 3, 9 a.m., at the Harvard Club in New York City. For more information about this contact Ruth Finkelstein, [rf2526@cumc.columbia.edu] associate director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center and Age Boom director.
*** “Brooks,” is the new blog site of Rodney A. Brooks, who has written columns for the Washington Post and USA TODAY, as well as articles for PBS Next Avenue, Forbes.com, Black Enterprise and others.
One recent post is “Declining Black Homeownership Has Big Retirement Implications,” (Aug. 22): He wrote, “Homeownership among African Americans has declined to levels not seen since before passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a major concern among economists and financial planners. Chief among the long-term concerns is the impact this black homeownership trend will have on the already grim outlook for African Americans and their preparation for retirement.”
Other pieces have included “Why Do So Many Pros Go Broke?” (after careers in the National Football League and “The Retirement Crisis Facing African Americans.”
2. GOOD SOURCES
*** National Science Academies Study: Nursing Home Risk Higher Than Thought: More than half (56 percent) of those now ages 57 to 61, will stay in a nursing home at least one night during their lifetime, according research by the RAND Labor and Population program with funding from the National Institute on Aging. It was published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous studies have corroborated the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate that about one-third (35 percent) of aging Americans will need at least brief continuing care in later life.
Lead author, Michael Hurd, said in a National Academies release, “This information could help people make better decisions about how they or their loved ones will pay for the care they are likely to need.”
The research team analyzed 18 years of data from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal project of the National Institute on Aging and Social Security Administration. Although they found that the cost of nursing home care for most people will be relatively affordable — about $7,300 per person over a lifetime – about one-third currently in the 57-61 age group will spend any of their money on nursing home care over their lifetimes, and 43 percent will be completely covered by private or public insurance, mainly the Medicaid poverty program.
For those who were admitted to a long-term care facility, the average stay was 272 nights. For 10 percent of the study group, the stay was longer — more than 1,000 nights. “Out-of-pocket spending was similarly skewed, with five percent of older Americans needing long stays costing $47,000 or more over their lifetime,” said the summary.
But the shift toward shorter stays is relatively recent, with stays of 21 or fewer nights increasing from 28 to 34 percent from 1998 to 2010. Hurd explained the increase may reflect Medicare and Medicaid efforts to control costs through quicker hospital discharges of patients to nursing homes, where rehabilitation costs are lower.
Hurd noted, though, that the rate of nursing home use could well rise and increase pressure on Medicaid to cover the costs, as the U.S. population ages. Expect more people needing costly ongoing care for dementia, for example. Hurd suggested that policymakers consider changing government-subsidized health care.
“People think of Medicaid as being for the indigent, which is true at younger ages,” he said. “But Medicaid is the most important payer for nursing homes, covering a greater proportion of costs than individuals and families pay out-of-pocket. At older ages, Medicaid is an insurance program that many of us may need to use.”
Hurd added, “Long-term care insurance is only taken up by 11 percent or 12 percent of individuals in their early 60s. It’s not popular because of uncertainties over what the insurer will pay out, the coverage and the cost. I think people should be prepared to use the societally provided insurance, which is Medicaid. It’s the best of a not-very-good situation.”
For a copy of the full study, contract Warren Robak, robak@rand.org, 310-451-6913.
*** “Health Savings Accounts Won’t Help Most Older Adults,” is a new issue brief from Justice in Aging (previously, National Senior Citizens Law Center), by Staff Attorney Amber Christ: “Many recent proposals aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act included the expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Proponents contend that HSAs will make membership in high deductible health plans affordable. This paper looks at how HSAs work under current law. Further, in order to analyze how expanding HSAs to cover health insurance premiums would impact affordability for low and moderate income older adults, it then examines how HSAs would have functioned under one proposal, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), had it become law. It finds that the combination of HSA contributions and premium costs can easily reach 20 to 30 percent of an older adult’s income, and are not a path to affordable health care for most older adults.”
The issue brief stresses, “Over half of individuals age 40 and up have multiple chronic conditions, and three out of four adults age 65 and older have multiple chronic conditions. Approximately 71 percent of the total health care spending in the United States is associated with care for individuals with more than one chronic condition. Accordingly, older adults fall squarely in the category of those who spend beyond plan deductibles. They use care because they need it and are less likely to be price shoppers,” who can pick over the best health care buys.
With Congress back in session Christ expects HSAs to come up in new health care-reform proposals in coming months: “This paper shows that the HSA proposal in BCR A and other similar legislation does not solve the affordability issue facing low and moderate income older adults seeking health care coverage in the individual markets. The tax benefits are minimal and the expectation that these individuals can contribute significant amounts is unrealistic in light of their income.”
*** “Trump’s War On Dreamers And Other Immigrants Is A War On Social Security,” by Nancy Altman, Huffington Post (Sept. 2): “Immigration is a net plus for Social Security’s financing. Because immigrants are generally younger, they contribute currently and do not draw benefits until far into the future. Ironically, undocumented workers contribute even more. They are prohibited from receiving Social Security, even when they can prove that they have contributed and so earned those benefits, just like the rest of us. The Social Security Administration has estimated that undocumented workers pay billions of dollars to Social Security each year, but earn no benefits as a result of those contributions. If Trump has his way and cuts immigration in half, Social Security will lose $2.4 trillion over the next 75 years. In contrast, if immigration were doubled, Social Security would gain around $5 trillion over the next 75 years.”
Altman writes as one of the leading progressive sources on social insurance. The president of the advocacy group, Social Security Works, she was Alan Greenspan’s chief policy aide on the Greenspan Commission that reached the 1983 compromises, which stabilized Social Security. She’s also the author of The Battle for Social Security (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), and co-author of Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn’t Going Broke and How Expanding It Will Help Us All (The New Press, 2015). Reporters might file her e-mail in their contact list: naltman@socialsecurity-works.org.
GBO’s editor would only add that according to the Social Security Administration, while undocumented immigrants extract about $1 billion a year from the program in benefits—they pay in $13 billion annually. Gee, gotta wonder if Melania Trump paid taxes for the year she took U.S. modeling jobs here before she was made “legal.”
3. THE STORYBOARD
*** “When You Can Expect Social Security Reform,” by Chris Farrell, Next Avenue (Aug. 29): The author of Unretirement (Bloomsbury, 2014) asks, “The system faces a financial shortfall, so will Washington step up?” He interviewed Nobel laureate and MIT economist Peter Diamond at Boston University’s recent Retirement Research Consortium held at the National Press Club in DC. Diamond’s answer: Given the turmoil, Washington will likely kick the can down the road.
O’Farrell writes, “Social Security isn’t broke and won’t go bankrupt. That said, a serious financial deficit looms for Social Security in the early 2030s. If history is any guide, however, odds are that nothing will be done to shore up Social Security’s finances until then.”
He adds, “I find the lack of legislative action on bolstering Social Security’s finances a national disgrace. Yet, after listening to Diamond, perhaps delay isn’t the worst outcome. I still prefer erasing the financing gap sooner rather than later. But more time lets supporters of Social Security convince voters that reducing benefits is the wrong approach — especially the conservatives’ proposal to raise the Full Retirement Age from 67 to 70. This takeaway is reinforced by Diamond’s analysis of the 1982-‘83 Greenspan Commission, the last successful effort to shore up Social Security.”
*** “How I Keep the Topic of Aging Fresh,” by Paula Span, New York Times (Sept. 4): It was a pleasure to see the paper devote one of its page 2 “Insider” columns (behind-the-scenes insights into the paper’s editorial process) to Span and her first-rate “New Old Age” column, which appears twice monthly in the “Science Times” section. Span took on the feature in 2009, after Jane Gross, who had started it as a daily blog the previous year, left the paper.
Span, who also that year published her book, When the Time Comes: Families with Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions, (Grand Central Life & Style books), admits in her “Insider” piece that on beginning the Times column, “I figured I could probably keep it going for three years or so. Then, I’d run out of things to say about aging and caregiving. Wrong.” Today, she writes, “The list of subjects I hope to tackle keeps lengthening.”
Ha! After 45 years on, off and back to this topic, and after literally decades of working with hundreds of reporters who fell into the age gap, I could have told you that would happen. The generations beat is, hmm, infectiously complex. In the case of Span, it happened to the one of our best. If you’re not following her columns, I regard them as a model of the best writing in the field, capturing the range of health and social issues, including the public policy complications, and personal demands on family members and their older family members.
Many GBONews hounds will find much of Span’s “Insider” column to be familiar as she describes for the paper’s broad audience how our subject spins and anchors itself like a spider web to unexpected topics, often via reader suggestions. And I, for one, was pleased to see that Span, who also teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, was able to share something of our process on the generations beat with her national audience.
While checking out her Tuesday columns, also shift your gaze over to the columns by the indefatigable Jane Body, who writes weekly for the “Science Times” section on a wide span of health issues, many on growing older. Okay, you may be saying, plugs for signature writers at the New York Times—pretty obvious, right? But do you actually read them? If not, give their pieces a chance to speak for themselves.
Some Good Headlines
*** “Brain Health for a Song–Aging and the Arts,” Caribbean Today by Dawn Davis, ( Aug 31). New American Media cross-post. Could doctors prescribe music or art to forestall the effects of dementia? Researchers at a recent conference say yes—the worst is not inevitable.
*** “Rapid Aging of U.S., Latin America Mean ‘Race Against Time’ and Poverty,” NMPolitics/New America Media , News Analysis, Kent Paterson, Posted: Aug 30, 2017. Link: http://tinyurl.com/yc4hrg2y. Global experts agreed at a recent conference that the rapid aging of the U.S. and Latin America call for stronger action to secure elders’ health, income and dignity in old age.
*** “Study: Race Bias Doubles Suicide Consideration by Chinese Elders in U.S.,” Sing Tao Daily/New America Media , News Report, Zhihong Li, Posted: Aug 27, 2017 Link: http://tinyurl.com/yd7mfckm. New research shows Chinese elders in the U.S. who experience racial bias consider suicide at twice the level of those who did not experience discrimination.
*** “Super-Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Made Possible by Brain Scans,” US News & World Report/New America Media , News Report, Lisa Esposito, Aug 17, 2017. Link: http://tinyurl.com/y83nwxcy. New Alzheimer’s research and an early-detection “Tool Kit” aim to expose secrets of dementia and the disease’s impact on more diverse population groups.
*** “A New Age of Aging: How Tech Can Ease the Trials of Getting Old,” California Magazine/New America Media , Commentary, Frank Browning, Posted: Aug 14, 2017. Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycaezps4. Will Big Brother Tech stop Gramps from falling or spy on him, too? Frank Browning casts his sharp eye on the pros and cons of gizmos for our aging world.
4. THE SILVER SILVER SCREEN
Have you seen “Truman” (the dog, not the president)? There’s a reason that our screening group for the Legacy Film Festival on Aging in San Francisco next week (Sept. 15-17) chose it over Hollywood dramas triggered by a terminal diagnosis with such graying icons as Sam Elliot, Frank Langella Danny Glover and Christopher Plummer.
*** A “Bucket List” Full of Schlock: Before I delve into the more naturalistic, engaging and, frankly, creative European approach than the Hollywood formula–even for a film on the end of life–I should note that being asked to join the film festival’s board this year has afforded this movie buff to see enough productions to realize not only how prescribed U.S. films are on this subject, but also how manipulative of the public’s grasp (and misunderstanding) it is of what people may experience at life’s end.
Each of the American films has worthwhile performances and, occasionally, even deeply moving moments, but they follow a predictable calculation (including the need for some twist at the end). As I screened movie after movie, I realized that even the better ones might be subtitled, Where the Bucket List Meets the Road Picture.
What I’d call the “Shlepp Trek” scenario begins, of course, with a diagnosis, usually cancer, but of a largely asymptomatic sort enabling the protagonist(s) to fly to Katmandu or do the brew-pub scene in Oregon in search of reconciliation in an estranged relationship. There’s a journey—planes, trains and mainly automobiles–with carry-on emotional baggage in tow. There’s a child, or younger family member, generally with a lingering parental conflict. There is usually sex, drugs (prescription or otherwise), rock ‘n’ roll – or maybe just regrets for its waning.
I have to admit that although “bucket list” has proliferated in the American idiom since the 2006 film of that name (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) unexpectedly over-brimmed its box-office pail, the movie hadn’t been on my list until now.
As the pattern repeated itself in other movies, I relinquished the requisite 97 minutes to watch the flick on demand. If you haven’t seen “The Bucket List,” it’s pleasant and about as memorable as your last bucket of overpriced popcorn. And, yes, it did set the formula well enough for Hollywood to have invested in subsequent vehicles with roles for aging box-office stars, especially the “grouchy” males of the species. It’s all there in the Ds: the diagnosis (in this case two), the denial, the drive (or for Freeman and Nicholson, the sky dive), the dad, the daughter, the death, of course, and a sentimental attempt at depth.
Wikipedia records, “Roger Ebert, who had thyroid cancer, criticized the film’s portrayal of cancer sufferers, writing in his one-star review that ‘The Bucket List’ . . . thinks dying of cancer is a laff riot followed by a dime-store epiphany.”
*** Sam Elliot’s “Hero”: The better ones, such as this summer’s “The Hero,” directed by Brett Haley, proffers an Oscar-potential breakout role for Sam Elliott as the underappreciated Hollywood western stalwart, “Lee Hayden,” about to turn 70. I have to admit that when he’s on screen, particularly in several long closeups, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Elliott’s face. His emotional power flickers compellingly whether from the inward reflection at the slightest narrowing of his eyes, or the mood-changing turn–up or down–at the corners of his mouth. I had to keep me watching to see what might burst or sigh out of him next.
I could go on about his looming affair with the much younger woman (Laura Prepon). Old Hollywood sexism or more modern in her initiative and his questioning of why she’s interested in an elder of the Hollywood tribe?
For a refreshingly age-appropriate pairing, see “The Congressman” (2016). It’s certainly a much weaker film that “The Hero.” Death is taking a holiday from this script, including no diagnosis, but rather it’s a “Mr. Smith” leaves Washington tale, written and directed by former Congressman Robert Mrazek. In it, “Rep. Charlie Winship” (Treat Williams) has a candid, life-after-disappointments romance with “Rae Blanchard” (Elizabeth Marvel, who actually is marvelous in this role).
In “The Hero,” my partner, Susan, and I found the conflicted relationship with his daughter, “Lucy,” to be significantly flawed in the casting and directing of Krysten Ritter as too cold and selfish to be very sympathetic as the angry young adult, whose famous father was never there for her. Their reconciliation scene by the shore tries crabbing in way too much to be very genuine at all. (“The Hero” did revive our appreciation of the far more well-developed and compelling depiction of a dad-and-daughter relationship in 2008’s “The Wrestler” with Mickey Rourke.)
As for Sam Elliott, although “The Hero” has much merit, I’d also recommend seeing his supporting role with the deliciously quirky Lili Tomlin in the comedy “Grandma” (2015), beautifully written and directed by Paul Weitz, with its many-layered relations across three generations of women. Their multigenerational dysfunctions include the strains between Tomilin as a post-hippie, lesbian grandmother estranged from her tough corporate-executive daughter (Marsha Gay Hardin) and confused granddaughter, “Sage” (Julia Garner), who’s angry at both, as they spin up and out of LALaLands’s Laurel Canyon.
*** Go West Dying Old Man: The road angst continues with an outstanding performance by Frank Langella as a physician and stern family patriarch, age 80, newly facing his own demise in “Youth in Oregon” (2016 but in general release his past winter). Directed by Joel David Moore, the film rolls cross-country as Langella’s “Dr. Engersol” is chauffeured to Oregon by his patience-tested son-in-law, “Brian” (ably performed by Billy Crudup). Their Northwest passage is for the good doctor’s last visit to a lifelong friend, who plans to end his abjectly painful cancer by taking advantage of Oregon’s assisted-suicide law. Following his own bad news, “Dr. Ingersol” has announced his intention to follow suit.
The end-of-life scene with his friend, also a doctor, is presented sensitively. But the episodic script drags then lurches forth with the ducks at the nature preserve and the bar scene in which midlife Brian tries reconciling with his estranged son, “Nick” (Alex Shaffer), and more that should be less.
***A Silk Performance from a Sow’s Ear: Once again, in “Mr. Pig,” directed by Diego Luna, a graying star, Danny Glover, provides a brilliant and richly nuanced performance in a rambling story about lifelong pig farmer, “Ambrose.” He finds himself reckoning with his immanent death and trying to save his foreclosed home, the only legacy he can leave for his – yes – estranged daughter, “Eunice” (performed by the otherwise appealing Maya Rudolph with unfortunate flatness).
*** “Remember” & the Nazis? Fergetaboutit: In “Remember” (2015), Atom Egoyan, also the director of memorable films, such as “The Sweet Hereafter,” built this bizarre star-turn around an excellent and often subtle performance by Christopher Plummer as Holocaust survivor “Zev Guttman” and with Martin Landau in one of his, sad to say, final roles.
The diagnosis this time is not hospice-ready, but dementia. The irritating mess of a story is about – ready – Zev as a Nazi hunting Alzheimer’s-patient. Really. Plummer actually has moving scenes, although one of the better moments has him playing Wagner’s “Interlude.” Turns out, and I hadn’t known this before, Plummer is a concert-trained pianist. And Wagner? There’s your tip-off to the nutty denouement of this cartoonish saga of a dementia patient who only remembers when the script says he needs to–but never recalls his own real name. His task: to stalk the cruel Auschwitz guard and kill him. Except that a true Jew would never play Wagner, right?
So Plummer’s character isn’t the Jew he’s pretended to be in America for decades, but the partner in genocide of the man he’s stalking, and they end up shooting each other in a struggle over one gun. The whole twist, of course, is that it was all set up by Landau’s wheelchair bound character, the actual Holocaust survivor.
Huh? This got made. Oh, yeah, there’s a little girl, not related, but a sentimental touch. I have to wonder whether the Venice Film Festival jury rationalized it somehow as a grim farce when it gave the fame-filled production an award. Oh, well.
A lot of these films are what passes for “indie” productions, but the repetitive patterning leads me to surmise that when it comes the dramatic topic of facing our mortality, the notion of creative independence soon gives way to thoughts of distribution deals. That comes with the Hollywood territory, of course, but the terrois of European filmmaking takes on similar themes with genuine depth and creative freedom. Think of “Amour,” the richly challenging 2012 Academy Award winner (Best Foreign Language Film) by director Michael Haneke.
*** ”Truman (the Dog)” a Spanish Treat: For all of Hollywood’s leaky buckets, there is more relief to be found in Madrid. The Spanish release, “Truman,” by director Cesc Gay, is a charming and unstintingly honest film told without manipulative sentimentality. It is richly moving on many levels and yet quietly wistful without the pre-ordained American angst (or gunplay).
Many of the prescriptive elements are there: the diagnosis, the old buddy who flies in from Canada, strained past friendships and loves, the son (not estranged but thoughtful, loving). Yet this film is much less about death and dying — or, at least, as much about it as about devoted dog ownership–as about living honestly with our inevitable human condition. That is, it’s very much about what matters in living. I appreciated that it presents affection between men, between men and women, between man and best friend, without the forced sexual tensions that both infect and sell so many American movie screen staples. There is sex, in this case, mix poignantly with the sorrow.
This often humorous feature depicts the abiding relationships of Julián–newly diagnosed with terminal cancer—to a lifelong pal, to his family, to past loves, and to Truman, his (and mankind’s) best friend. There isn’t room here for me to go into much more detail. Instead, I’ll defer to the Los Angeles Times and NPR critic Kenneth Turan, who wrote, “It sounds paradoxical but, if done right, films about a life ending can be the most life-affirming films you’ll see. ‘Truman’… is definitely done right.” Really, it’s the feel-good movie about terminal diagnosis, not to mention enduring pet ownership.
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The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online. JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2017, JNG. For more information contact GBONews Editor Paul Kleyman.
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