Showing posts with label Buckley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buckley. Show all posts
Monday, November 26, 2018
Sunday, March 25, 2012
On the Death Of Priscilla Buckley At Age 90
National Review is reporting that Priscilla Buckley died this morning at age 90.
She lived a long, happy, productive, generous life.
The sister of legendary National Review founder William F. Buckley, Priscilla Buckley has been described as the "backbone" of the magazine that came to be the bible of the modern conservative movement in America.
She was a wonderfully accomplsihed editor and writer in her own right and by all accounts an incredibly kind and caring person.
Priscilla Buckley worked largely behind-the-scenes to help make National Review what it is today. She served as managing editor of the magazine for many years but her influence extended far beyond her title as her brother relied heavily on her as he built the National Review empire and fueled the conservative movement to prominence.
William F. Buckley assumed the public role -- becoming the look, the sound and the face of National Review and American conservatism. Meanwhile, Priscilla woked behind the scenes, bringing the pieces together and making sure that every edition of National Review was complete, well-written, thorough, accurate and in the hands of its appreciative readers in a timely fashion. She moved the copy, met the deadlines and completed the day-to-day work that is so vital to the success of any publication.
And thankfully she also mentored many writers and editors who now follow in her fottsteps.
RIP, Priscilla Buckley.
She lived a long, happy, productive, generous life.
The sister of legendary National Review founder William F. Buckley, Priscilla Buckley has been described as the "backbone" of the magazine that came to be the bible of the modern conservative movement in America.
She was a wonderfully accomplsihed editor and writer in her own right and by all accounts an incredibly kind and caring person.
Priscilla Buckley worked largely behind-the-scenes to help make National Review what it is today. She served as managing editor of the magazine for many years but her influence extended far beyond her title as her brother relied heavily on her as he built the National Review empire and fueled the conservative movement to prominence.
William F. Buckley assumed the public role -- becoming the look, the sound and the face of National Review and American conservatism. Meanwhile, Priscilla woked behind the scenes, bringing the pieces together and making sure that every edition of National Review was complete, well-written, thorough, accurate and in the hands of its appreciative readers in a timely fashion. She moved the copy, met the deadlines and completed the day-to-day work that is so vital to the success of any publication.
And thankfully she also mentored many writers and editors who now follow in her fottsteps.
RIP, Priscilla Buckley.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Top Ten Conservative Movies
National Review has selecetd the best conservative movies as chosen by readers and noted conservative film buffs. here are the top ten:
1. The Lives of Others (2007): “I think that this is the best movie I ever saw,” said William F. Buckley Jr. upon leaving the theater (according to his column on the film). The tale, set in East Germany in 1984, is one part romantic drama, one part political thriller. It chronicles life under a totalitarian regime as the Stasi secretly monitors the activities of a playwright who is suspected of harboring doubts about Communism. Critics showered the movie with praise and it won an Oscar for best foreign-language film (it’s in German). More Buckley: “The tension mounts to heart-stopping pitch and I felt the impulse to rush out into the street and drag passersby in to watch the story unfold.” — John J. Miller
2. The Incredibles (2004): This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement. A family of superheroes — Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl, and their children — are living an anonymous life in the suburbs, thanks to a society that doesn’t appreciate their unique talents. Then it comes to need them. In one scene, son Dash, a super-speedy runner, wants to try out for track. Mom claims it wouldn’t be fair. “Dad says our powers make us special!” Dash objects. “Everyone is special,” Mom demurs, to which Dash mutters, “Which means nobody is.” — Frederica Mathewes-Greene writes for Beliefnet.com.
3. Metropolitan (1990): Whit Stillman’s Oscar-nominated debut takes a red-headed outsider into the luxurious drawing rooms and debutante balls of New York’s Upper East Side elite. One character, a committed socialist, falls for the discreet charm of the urban haute bourgeoisie. Another plaintively theorizes the inevitable doom of his class. A reader of Jane Austen wonders what’s wrong with a novel’s having a virtuous heroine. And a roguish defender of standards and detachable collars delivers more sophisticated conservative one-liners than a year’s worth of Yale Party of the Right debates. With mocking affection, gentle irony, and a blizzard of witty dialogue, Stillman manages the impossible: He brings us to see what is admirable and necessary in the customs and conventions of America’s upper class. — Mark Henrie is the editor of Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman.
4. Forrest Gump (1994): It won an Oscar for best picture — beating Pulp Fiction, a movie that’s far more expressive of Hollywood’s worldview. Tom Hanks plays the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results. Forrest’s IQ may be room temperature, but he serves as an unexpected font of wisdom. Put ’em on a Whitman’s Sampler, but Mama Gump’s famous words about life’s being like a box of chocolates ring true. — Charlotte Hays is co-author of Somebody Is Going to Die If Lilly Beth Doesn’t Catch That Bouquet.
5. 300 (2007): During the Bush years, Hollywood neglected the heroism of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — but it did release this action film about martial honor, unflinching courage, and the oft-ignored truth that freedom isn’t free. Beneath a layer of egregious non-history — including goblin-like creatures that belong in a fantasy epic — is a stylized story about the ancient battle of Thermopylae and the Spartan defense of the West’s fledgling institutions. It contrasts a small band of Spartans, motivated by their convictions and a commitment to the law, with a Persian horde that is driven forward by whips. In the words recorded by the real-life Herodotus: “Law is their master, which they fear more than your men[, Xerxes,] fear you.” — Michael Poliakoff, a classicist, is vice president for academic affairs at the University of Colorado.
6. Groundhog Day (1993): This putatively wacky comedy about Bill Murray as an obnoxious weatherman cursed to relive the same day over and over in a small Pennsylvania town, perhaps for eternity, is in fact a sophisticated commentary on the good and true. Theologians and philosophers across the ideological spectrum have embraced it. For the conservative, the moral of the tale is that redemption and meaning are derived not from indulging your “authentic” instincts and drives, but from striving to live up to external and timeless ideals. Murray begins the film as an irony-soaked narcissist, contemptuous of beauty, art, and commitment. His journey of self-discovery leads him to understand that the fads of modernity are no substitute for the permanent things. — Jonah Goldberg
7. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006): Based on the life of self-made millionaire Chris Gardner (Will Smith), this film provides the perfect antidote to Wall Street and other Hollywood diatribes depicting the world of finance as filled with nothing but greed. After his wife leaves him, Gardner can barely pay the rent. He accepts an unpaid internship at a San Francisco brokerage, with the promise of a real job if he outperforms the other interns and passes his exams. Gardner never succumbs to self-pity, even when he and his young son take refuge in a homeless shelter. They’re black, but there’s no racial undertone or subtext. Gardner is just an incredibly hard-working, ambitious, and smart man who wants to do better for himself and his son. — Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
8. Juno (2007): The best pro-life movies reach beyond the church choirs and influence the wider public. Juno was a critical and commercial success. It didn’t set out to deliver a message on abortion, but much of its audience discovered one anyway. The story revolves around a 16-year-old who finds a home for her unplanned baby. The film has its faults, including a number of crass moments and a pregnant high-school student with an unrealistic level of self-confidence. Yet it also exposes a broken culture in which teen sex is dehumanizing, girls struggle with “choice,” and boys aimlessly try — and sometimes downright fail — to become men. The movie doesn’t glamorize much of anything but leaves audiences with an open-ended chance for redemption. — Kathryn Jean Lopez
9. Blast from the Past (1999): Revolutionary Road is only the latest big-screen portrayal of 1950s America as boring, conformist, repressive, and soul-destroying. A decade ago, Hugh Wilson’s Blast from the Past defied the party line, seeing the values, customs, manners, and even music of the period with nostalgic longing. Brendan Fraser plays an innocent who has grown up in a fallout shelter and doesn’t know the era of Sputnik and Perry Como is over. Alicia Silverstone is a post-feminist woman who learns from him that pre-feminist women had some things going for them. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as Fraser’s parents are comic gems. — James Bowman is a movie critic.
10. Ghostbusters (1984): This comedy might not get Russell Kirk’s endorsement as a worthy treatment of the supernatural, but you have to like a movie in which the bad guy (William Atherton at his loathsome best) is a regulation-happy buffoon from the EPA, and the solution to a public menace comes from the private sector. This last fact is the other reason to love Ghostbusters: When Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) gets kicked out of the university lab and ponders pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities, a nervous Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) replies: “I don’t know about that. I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results!” — Steven F. Hayward is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
1. The Lives of Others (2007): “I think that this is the best movie I ever saw,” said William F. Buckley Jr. upon leaving the theater (according to his column on the film). The tale, set in East Germany in 1984, is one part romantic drama, one part political thriller. It chronicles life under a totalitarian regime as the Stasi secretly monitors the activities of a playwright who is suspected of harboring doubts about Communism. Critics showered the movie with praise and it won an Oscar for best foreign-language film (it’s in German). More Buckley: “The tension mounts to heart-stopping pitch and I felt the impulse to rush out into the street and drag passersby in to watch the story unfold.” — John J. Miller
2. The Incredibles (2004): This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement. A family of superheroes — Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl, and their children — are living an anonymous life in the suburbs, thanks to a society that doesn’t appreciate their unique talents. Then it comes to need them. In one scene, son Dash, a super-speedy runner, wants to try out for track. Mom claims it wouldn’t be fair. “Dad says our powers make us special!” Dash objects. “Everyone is special,” Mom demurs, to which Dash mutters, “Which means nobody is.” — Frederica Mathewes-Greene writes for Beliefnet.com.
3. Metropolitan (1990): Whit Stillman’s Oscar-nominated debut takes a red-headed outsider into the luxurious drawing rooms and debutante balls of New York’s Upper East Side elite. One character, a committed socialist, falls for the discreet charm of the urban haute bourgeoisie. Another plaintively theorizes the inevitable doom of his class. A reader of Jane Austen wonders what’s wrong with a novel’s having a virtuous heroine. And a roguish defender of standards and detachable collars delivers more sophisticated conservative one-liners than a year’s worth of Yale Party of the Right debates. With mocking affection, gentle irony, and a blizzard of witty dialogue, Stillman manages the impossible: He brings us to see what is admirable and necessary in the customs and conventions of America’s upper class. — Mark Henrie is the editor of Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman.
4. Forrest Gump (1994): It won an Oscar for best picture — beating Pulp Fiction, a movie that’s far more expressive of Hollywood’s worldview. Tom Hanks plays the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results. Forrest’s IQ may be room temperature, but he serves as an unexpected font of wisdom. Put ’em on a Whitman’s Sampler, but Mama Gump’s famous words about life’s being like a box of chocolates ring true. — Charlotte Hays is co-author of Somebody Is Going to Die If Lilly Beth Doesn’t Catch That Bouquet.
5. 300 (2007): During the Bush years, Hollywood neglected the heroism of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — but it did release this action film about martial honor, unflinching courage, and the oft-ignored truth that freedom isn’t free. Beneath a layer of egregious non-history — including goblin-like creatures that belong in a fantasy epic — is a stylized story about the ancient battle of Thermopylae and the Spartan defense of the West’s fledgling institutions. It contrasts a small band of Spartans, motivated by their convictions and a commitment to the law, with a Persian horde that is driven forward by whips. In the words recorded by the real-life Herodotus: “Law is their master, which they fear more than your men[, Xerxes,] fear you.” — Michael Poliakoff, a classicist, is vice president for academic affairs at the University of Colorado.
6. Groundhog Day (1993): This putatively wacky comedy about Bill Murray as an obnoxious weatherman cursed to relive the same day over and over in a small Pennsylvania town, perhaps for eternity, is in fact a sophisticated commentary on the good and true. Theologians and philosophers across the ideological spectrum have embraced it. For the conservative, the moral of the tale is that redemption and meaning are derived not from indulging your “authentic” instincts and drives, but from striving to live up to external and timeless ideals. Murray begins the film as an irony-soaked narcissist, contemptuous of beauty, art, and commitment. His journey of self-discovery leads him to understand that the fads of modernity are no substitute for the permanent things. — Jonah Goldberg
7. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006): Based on the life of self-made millionaire Chris Gardner (Will Smith), this film provides the perfect antidote to Wall Street and other Hollywood diatribes depicting the world of finance as filled with nothing but greed. After his wife leaves him, Gardner can barely pay the rent. He accepts an unpaid internship at a San Francisco brokerage, with the promise of a real job if he outperforms the other interns and passes his exams. Gardner never succumbs to self-pity, even when he and his young son take refuge in a homeless shelter. They’re black, but there’s no racial undertone or subtext. Gardner is just an incredibly hard-working, ambitious, and smart man who wants to do better for himself and his son. — Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
8. Juno (2007): The best pro-life movies reach beyond the church choirs and influence the wider public. Juno was a critical and commercial success. It didn’t set out to deliver a message on abortion, but much of its audience discovered one anyway. The story revolves around a 16-year-old who finds a home for her unplanned baby. The film has its faults, including a number of crass moments and a pregnant high-school student with an unrealistic level of self-confidence. Yet it also exposes a broken culture in which teen sex is dehumanizing, girls struggle with “choice,” and boys aimlessly try — and sometimes downright fail — to become men. The movie doesn’t glamorize much of anything but leaves audiences with an open-ended chance for redemption. — Kathryn Jean Lopez
9. Blast from the Past (1999): Revolutionary Road is only the latest big-screen portrayal of 1950s America as boring, conformist, repressive, and soul-destroying. A decade ago, Hugh Wilson’s Blast from the Past defied the party line, seeing the values, customs, manners, and even music of the period with nostalgic longing. Brendan Fraser plays an innocent who has grown up in a fallout shelter and doesn’t know the era of Sputnik and Perry Como is over. Alicia Silverstone is a post-feminist woman who learns from him that pre-feminist women had some things going for them. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as Fraser’s parents are comic gems. — James Bowman is a movie critic.
10. Ghostbusters (1984): This comedy might not get Russell Kirk’s endorsement as a worthy treatment of the supernatural, but you have to like a movie in which the bad guy (William Atherton at his loathsome best) is a regulation-happy buffoon from the EPA, and the solution to a public menace comes from the private sector. This last fact is the other reason to love Ghostbusters: When Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) gets kicked out of the university lab and ponders pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities, a nervous Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) replies: “I don’t know about that. I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results!” — Steven F. Hayward is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Recommended Reading
My holiday reading this year has been quite plentiful and I'm happy to recommend some of my favorites:Audition by Barbara Walters - I've written a bit about this already.
Yes, it's a very clever title. But it's also a very substantial book - big, thorough, detailed. This is a true autobiography and it proves to be exceptionally compelling. Yes, Barbara tell us almost more than we ever wanted to know and she makes it a point to name names. But isn't that better than teasing us and leaving gaps in her story?
Deconstructing Sammy - Investigative reporter Matt Birkbeck tell us how Sammy Davis' fortune was squandered by Sammy and a cast of notorious sycophants and scoundrels. It's a sad tale that is sometimes hard to take. But it's told with such searing honesty that you can't stop reading. And so you witness the deconstructing of Sammy and his entire estate and you experience the ugly underbelly of show business. Like watching a calamity unfold and not being able to do anything to stop it.
The Legs Are The Last To Go - Diahann Carroll (pictured) tells her incredible story - from Harlem to Broadway to Hollywood. One of the most beautiful women in the world tells us what drove her to succeed and how she endured a string of bad marriages, racism, chauvinism and the rigors of a life in show business. In what is more of a memoir than an autobiography, Carroll chooses key points in her life and gives us observations and insights with surprising candor.
The Reagan I Knew by William F. Buckley - This is the book that Buckley was writing at the time of his death. It's a sweet, tender scrapbook of letters, speeches, recollections and anecdotes that gives us a rare peek into the private Ronald Reagan from a man who knew him as a friend and as a fellow soldier in the long fight to gain a conservative majority for our nation. Reagan's decency, sensitive and true grace shine through on nearly every page in this knowing tribute.
Don't Mind If I Do - George Hamilton's memoir surprises us with the story of a southern boy who learned so much from his strong-willed, high-flying momma and his talented dad. It's an unexpected story that reveals a guy who's smarter, craftier and wittier than a lot of people might think. In the end, you may actually take Hamilton more seriously than he seems to take himself. But, don't be fooled. Charm is a deliciously seductive deceiver.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Burden Of Knowledge
In the wake of the Great Man's death so many good William F. Buckley stories are circulating and they comfort us and help us to keep the memory of WFB alive. Here's one that we heard this morning:
In 1970 WFB appeared on the popular Laugh In TV show and was asked by comic Henry Gibson: "Mr. Buckley, you are almost always shown seated. Does that mean you can't think on your feet?" And WFB replied: "No, it's just hard to stand up with the weight of all that I know."
In 1970 WFB appeared on the popular Laugh In TV show and was asked by comic Henry Gibson: "Mr. Buckley, you are almost always shown seated. Does that mean you can't think on your feet?" And WFB replied: "No, it's just hard to stand up with the weight of all that I know."
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
WFB, 1925 - 2008
As the father of the modern conservative movement in America William F. Buckley did more to advance the positive values of individual liberty, decency and simple common sense than anyone of his generation. He was more than a great thinker and communicator. He was also a consummate liver of life - a passionate man who was fully engaged; someone who showed us that an American could, indeed be a Renaissance man. Though his scholarly language often challenged us, the thoughts behind his words were rooted in the most basic American notions and virtues. He mainstreamed conservatism and made it meaningful and accessible to everyone. And, he showed us how to live an honorable life. He took to heart the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: "A man should share in the action and the passion of his times at the cost of being judged not to have lived." He lived.
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