September 2002 Volume 83 Number 8 "serving the protectors"
Edited by John Ballantyne

The Sum of All Fears

This slick and disturbing film about nuclear terrorism is based on a novel by Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger).

Ben Affleck stars as CIA intelligence analyst and superhero Jack Ryan (a role previously played by Harrison Ford).

The story kicks off with a shady South African arms dealer (Colm Feore) getting his hands on a long-lost nuclear weapon.

He flogs it off, at a huge profit, to a group of right-wing terrorists led by Dressler (Alan Bates) – a group bent on provoking a war between Russia and the US.

Not long afterwards, the Russian leader dies and is succeeded by the obscure Nemerov (Ciaran Hinds).

But US president Fowler (James Cromwell) smells a rat.

He summons CIA chief William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) and special agent Jack Ryan (Affleck), the junior agent who has been researching Nemerov, to investigate further.

The story’s plot is a convoluted one. But the suspense is gripping and, since September 11, the subject-matter can no longer be dismissed as over-the-top fiction.

The concluding nuclear attack and tit-for-tat retaliatory responses are particularly gruesome and terrifying.

Signs

Farmer Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) is unsettled when he discovers a message encoded in an intricate pattern of circles and lines carved into his crops.

As he investigates the mystery, he uncovers things which not only turn his world upside down, but also alter forever the lives of his brother (Joaquin Phoneix) and children (Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin).

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan takes moviegoers on a roller-coaster ride of scares and thrills, interspersed with some moments of dry humour.

This solid science-fiction thriller hints that the ultimate cause of the crop signs mystery may be far deeper than the popular explanation of extra-terrestrial visitors coming to Earth for harvesting purposes.

(In real life, however, there was a very down-to-earth explanation for the famous rash of crop circles that appeared some years back. It had nothing to do with the supernatural, but was part of a very elaborate and ingenious hoax.)

Mel Brooks puts in a convincing performance.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Sidda Walker (Sandra Bullock) is a successful young dramatist whose new play is about to open on Broadway.

Flushed with success, she gives an unguarded interview to Time magazine.

But Sidda’s mother, Vivi (Ellen Burnstein), after reading the interview, is so furious that she disowns her daughter, takes down her pictures and refuses to attend her wedding.

Three of Vivi’s lifelong friends – the “Ya-Ya Sisterhood” – try to heal this rift.

Caro (Maggie Smith), Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan) and Necie (Shirley Knight), travel to New York, take Sidda to dinner, slip her a Mickey Finn, and spirit her off to Louisiana in the Deep South.

Together, they help the young playwright unravel the truth about her complicated and egocentric mother, find forgiveness and acceptance, and let go of her painful past.

First-time director Callie Khouri (writer of Thelma and Louise) unfolds the narrative, using flashbacks triggered by a scrapbook that Caro, Teensy and Necie show Sidda.

In the scrapbook are recorded the hopes, dreams and disappointments that they shared with Vivi.

Along with the veteran cast members are some younger stars, Ashley Judd (who plays the young Vivi in flashbacks) and Sandra Bullock.

Sometimes the film verges on the melodramatic, but beneath it all there is an appealing warmth as well as moments of hilarity.

The Navigators

The Navigators is a simply told but powerful story about a group of South Yorkshire railway track workers at the time British Rail was privatized in the mid-1990s.

As they listen to their boss explain the new company’s “mission statement” and watch a slick corporate video, the workers are at first slow to realize how completely their lives are to be transformed.

Soon, however, they have to make some difficult choices: take their chances with redundancy cash and life as casual agency workers, or else work for the new company under the new rules.

The Navigators focuses on five men – old friends who have managed to be there for each other when times are tough.

For them the consequences of privatization and the destruction of the permanent employment are not just financial, but personal.

“If you’ve ever worked with a gang or group,” says director Ken Loach, “everybody takes the p… out of everybody and everybody has their own peculiar characteristics…

“In a way, when you lose your job, you lose that as well, that whole social richness of working with a group of people you know” (The Advertiser, 8/8/02).

Where once the men had been unified by camaraderie, now they are just individuals scrambling for work.

Director Ken Loach has long been famous for his true-to-life productions.

His first documentary, Kathy Come Home, led directly to a change in Britain’s homeless laws in 1966.

His other famous productions include Kes (1969), Riff Raff (1991), and My Name is Joe (1998).

The Navigators is no mere political rant. It is compassionate, tragic and at times achingly funny.

The film’s superb ensemble cast includes Steve Huison (The Full Monty), Joe Duttine (Pie in the Sky), Tom Craig (Where the Heart Is).

Special Movie Offer

For your chance to win one of 10 double passes to Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (valid until Sept 11), put your details on the back of an envelope and send it to Ya Ya Sisterhood Comp, SA Police Journal (168).

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