Curated by Stuart Fogarty stuart@admaticallycom for AFAO'Meara Advertising, Streamabout The Video Agency and Admatic Ireland.
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This is a 2020 Documentary and it's on Netflix, which is about, well, as it says. But in exploring the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X it's more interesting because it remembers the time. Civil Rights, Ali, Black Power and of course, the Nation of Islam. It's also great for those, like me, who really knew very little about the man. And it brought about the 're looking' and probably, reopening of the case. 3 men were jailed around the time. 6 episodes but very watchable. Malcolm X was on the opposite side to Martin Luther King's non-violence and clearly a very interesting (and likeable) man. Well worth a look!
Now okay, it's a shoot em' up movie with a US sub, seal teams and a Russian coup but as they go, it's one of the better ones. 2018 based on a book 'Firing Point' and it features Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman. You won't think about it for days afterwards but it's a good way to lose a little time on Netflix. At least for an hour and a half, you can think you too could be part of Seal Team 6. Go save the President!
There's great reading in books like these. Not only are they true historical, but written like good 'Boys Own' stories (novels). So you learn as you read and they're an easy read. There's a few writers like the great Max Hastings, Simon Sebag and recently Sinclair McKay who write like this, but Beevor's 'Stalingrad' was probably the one that defined the genre. 1998 and it's about Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 German invasion of Russia and how Hitler so nearly got it right. His stunning start to the invasion, the hold up at Stalingrad and his ultimate defeat by fighting on two fronts. But it was a close call. In a way, it puts today's suffering into some perspective - and a view of the apocalypse. All of it is not good. One is left wondering was it really D-Day that ended the war or the Russians invasion into Germany? The Russians lost about 24 million in the war, the Americans about 400,000 so the scale and the crimes, in this book are beyond belief. If you're looking for a good read, here you are.
