"British Columbia or Columbia?" - THE ECONOMIST

The B.C. drug culture and trigger happy Narco-thugs continue to give our province a sorry-ass reputation in the Global media. The most recent example of ugly headlines is in the current edition of THE ECONOMIST. Here is how it begins:

If you wish to read the entire article, here is the jump: BRITISH COLUMBIA OR COLUMBIA? So if we are being compared to Columbia, what has been happening below the equator this week? Here is a taste:

Actresses perform among a display photos of people allegedly murdered or abducted by Colombia's security forces and paramilitary groups. The event was a part of a protest against state violence held in Bogota, Colombia on May 29, 2009. (AP Photo)

Since our federal police have not seen the need to organize anything resembling a Columbian death squad, and even the looniest of our left-anarchist "activists" have yet to resort to kidnapping, it is obvious that the ECONOMIST is punching below the belt.

DUST DEVIL - the 2006 Director's Cut

It takes two hours to watch a movie, but it took a shopping safari to the U.S. for me to locate a copy of this rare DVD set. Since acquiring DUST DEVIL -The Final Cut, I've invested an additional twenty hours or so reading about and compiling notes on the career of its South African born Writer/Director. Richard Stanley, is now something of a obsession, and a great career to study for insight into Independent film production.

DUST DEVIL, was originally completed in 1992, and immediately betrayed by the producers. They tried to cut and paste it for a general distribution in American, breaking their agreements with Stanley. In the end it got no distribution at all. Resurrected and now restored as a "Limited Collectors Edition" showcasing Stanley's work, it's a five disc, vest pocket marvel. Now you may scoff about "weasel words" of marketing, but how does only 9,999 copies for worldwide distribution sound? That should explain why I had to jump the border to score a copy for my collection. If you check out the Pros who did the superb job with this DVD release last September, http://www.subversivecinema.com/ you might get the final peak, because this puppy is already SRO and has shown up on EBay at $50+.

This is a "horror" film with several grisly scenes but it offers no genuine shudders. Let's NOT try to label it. DUST DEVIL is set in Namibia during the transition period when South Africans were forced by the U.N. to abandon their colony of South West Africa. This allowed the political arm of SWAPO to form a government. [Canadian cops are not mentioned, but we had a 100 man contingent of RCMP onsite, to oversee the handover of assets to black majority rule.] Into this confusion of a lost cause and lost power returns a "Nagtloper" or Night Walker, a shape shifting demon that the Herrero have long understood, but white's are quick to dismiss. The role was handled well enough by an American, Robert John Burke, who may have been cast at the insistence of MIRIMAX, the original U.S. Distributor. The Nagtloper of course begins to murder with studied ritual and claims trophies. The significant twist is that he seeks only those who have already lost the will to live. The highway of shame stretching back to South Africa runs through the shit town of Bethany. He senses, as do we, that the town itself has lost the will to exist. A bountious hunting ground indeed.

Director Stanley assures us in the ample bonus material, that his script is based on a series of unsolved killings that unnerved people in a region already numbed by the war against the SWAPO insurgency. The bonus goodies include a lengthy, and informative Production Diary and a DUST DEVIL colour comic. Most important is a "Work Print" disc, assembled from both finished scenes and rough dailies, which does show what might have been.

As the story itself begins to take shape, a savvy black police Sergeant, (in a memorable performance by Zakes Mokae) realizes that these are not covert military killings, but at that critical moment his white Boer colleagues pull out. He is forced to consult with the local witch doctor, (John Matshikiza) proprietor of the town's now redundant Drive-In movie theatre. A modern African, he resists the bush wisdom of his people. "Stop being a white man. Be a man." The clever forensic examiner (in a cameo role for Marianne Sagebrecht) comforts him with police science, but his frequent nightmares warn us that that he is losing his disbelief in magic.

I won't give away the story but I must note that there are plenty of catches for the film buff. Homage is everywhere. If you remember the train station in Once Upon A Time in the West, you'll smile. And if you loved the cemetery sequence in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with tough guy Tuco dissolving into tears with a noose around his neck, you'll chuckle when you see the DUST DEVIL heroine walk down the road, pumpgun on shoulder, leaving a blubbering hubby hand-cuffed to a Land Rover. Nuff!

This story plays out in a brilliantly lit landscape. Ostensibly a flat desert plain, the skills of the cinematographer reveal southern Namibia in all of its sun-baked splendor - rusty and folded sedimentary slabs, vast rippling dunes and an immense plunging canyon complex reminiscent of the Colorado. Stanley used helicopter and crane shots to great dramatic and aesthetic effect. The musical score, written by Simon Boswell, is superbly mated to the dramatic elements of the tale but also enhances our enjoyment of the journey through the Karoo.
This film delivers a good time, and I am enjoying Richard Stanley on several levels. There were just a few scenes I found a tad obvious, but in sum DUST DEVIL offers something fresh. Stanley is a craftsman who has demonstrated repeatedly that he will go to extraordinary lengths, make any sacrifice, to tell his stories in his own fashion. It's an admirable trait, and certainly worthy of our interest and respect. His work is well grounded in spite of the hazards thrown up by his itch to wander the globe. I think there is much more to this moviemaker than just cinema, and I plan to profile aspects of career, and specific projects, as soon as I have finished with the research.

Sidney Reilly - ACE OF SPIES

Sidney Reilly - The Legendary ACE OF SPIES

January 2, 2006
This morning I read a very interesting report from the NOVOSTI Russian New Agency. Boris Gudz, a famous Soviet Intelligence figure died on the weekend, having lived 104 years. Gudz was the last living participant in the Bolshevik counter intelligence sting called Operation Trust, which succeeded in exposing Sidney Reilly, a chameleon who had volunteered to work for the British S.I.S. in World War 1. Reilly was actually born S.G. Rosenblum, (photo to left - above) and was a Polish Jew who found the need to experiment with personal identity when business deals began to sour. Now he is forever the Anglicized "Sidney Reilly". Boris Gudz went on to serve his government long and well as an officer in OGPU and KGB. He became intimately involved with the SORGE spy ring in Japan, a story which I found even more absorbing than the Reilly tale.

Gudz worked as a consultant on a Russian TV series in 1967 called Operatsiya Trest, which broadcast in b&w. In 1967 there were already two books available in English which dubbed Reilly with the catchy title "Ace of Spies," but he really became famous as a television hero. In 1983 Thames Television produced a 12 episode mini-series starring handsome actor Sam Neill as the ACE OF SPIES. I missed its debut on PBS in 1984 but eventually caught a few episodes. I recall not liking it. For the curious, an episode guide is found here http://epguides.com/ReillyAceofSpies/

The Canadian Connection

I remained interested in the espionage figure and his role history and added several books about him to my research library. Fragments of disinformation or outright guessing, had placed "Reilly" in Toronto during World War 1, training as a junior officer in the "Royal Canadian Flying Corps". (Author Michael Kettle cleared that up, in 1983.) Canada did not have its own airforce in WW1. Our airmen trained under the auspices of Britain's Royal Flying Corps. Still, I thought the possibility existed that Canada did the British secret services a favor by giving him some Canadian profile. By letting him assume rank here and then embark from Canada, it would form a buffer of sorts between his busy years in New York and his future missions in Europe. I used the provisions of our federal Access To Information legislation to search the relevant record groups. It was not a hopeless proposition. In 1991 I did find 2/Lt. S.G. Reilly in records of our Department of National Defence. The Directorate of History (DHIST), had an index card in the Air History Section containing data extracted from his old military service file. I learned that on Nov. 16, 1917 he was added to the "RFC Canada roster of officers as Mr. S. G. Reilly, E03 on probation." A further note read, "He is included in Dec. 16, 1917 list of officers proceeding overseas." Note also the address he gave on his Canadian paperwork: 120 Broadway, New York City.

At the time I also consulted on "S.G. Reilly" with a friendly archivist at the National Archives. We confirmed that no duplicate RFC file, Assigned Pay or other records survived in our war archives. I could only conclude that the REILLY file had been pulled and destroyed years ago, which is more common in our archives than should ever have been permitted. Between 1989 - 92 I had fruitful correspondence with James Barros, scholar at the University of Toronto (now deceased), who shared my research interests. We agreed that much of what we sought, including material pertaining to the infamous 1950s Herbert Norman case, had been "weeded" (to use the polite term used by the old Security Service of the RCMP). Barros encouraged me to pursue the Canadian angle, but in fact I let Reilly drop.

The reality was that any research breakthrough on Rosenblum depended on gaining access to the great repositories of secret archives in Washington, London and Moscow. The Americans (bless them) did lead the way, opening a huge volume of espionage files years ago. When the crucial British and Soviet dossiers became available, well-placed scholars pounced, and have produced several superb new books which relegate all the others to the discard pile. The new biography by Cook, which I have not yet acquired, challenges the place of birth and his paternity. If you own the A&E box set of ACE OF SPIES, (shown at the top) you might wish to pencil out the words "True story" on the decorative slipcase. Or not. It's just a TV show after all.