Ed Rampell
LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell
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“Alphaville” totalitarian fears still relevant decades later
April 30, 2014Almost 50 years later, the prescient Godard's sci fi classic takes on a whole new dimension as a parable of the NSA national security surveillance state.
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“Cesar’s Last Fast”: The last shall be first
April 21, 2014Jesus may have had a Last Supper but Cesar Chavez had a Final Fast.
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“The Death of Klinghoffer”: controversial history in opera
April 4, 2014Composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman specialize in expressing 20th century historical events in opera The rarely staged Death is the most controversial, dogged by criticism and cancellations.
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“The Unknown Known” grills Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq war snow job
April 1, 2014The film focuses on Rumsfeld's return to that post of defense secretary during George W. Bush's disastrous presidency at the behest of his longtime crony, Dick Cheney.
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“Obama Spy Drama”: Big Bro’ O is watching you
March 25, 2014Obama Spy Drama has some of the funniest politics since W.C. Fields' Klopstokia in Million Dollar Legs and the Marx Brothers' Freedonia in Duck Soup.
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Oscars, shmoscars, here are the 2013 Progie film awards
March 11, 2014In an attempt to draw attention to films of social significance with progressive content, I developed The Progie Awards. A collective of international film writers nominates films and actors for these awards.
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“Stand-Off at HWY #37”: Mixed loyalties, motives in great Native drama
March 5, 2014Ramirez courageously unleashes the dogs of war and sets her characters on a collision course. And as they head for the brink, she struggles to rein them in.
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“Billy Budd”: sex, revolution and sea in jaw-dropping opera
March 4, 2014In 1888 Herman Melville began the philosophical novella Billy Budd. Perhaps one could say that composer Benjamin Britten and his librettists E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier "completed" it with their adaptation.
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