The Civilian
@tajiisawol.bsky.social
“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges…“
Just a gentle reminder that Doc solved the case, personally took out some really dangerous dudes, AND reunited a father with his daughter.
Bob, not so much.
Bob, not so much.
December 22, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Just a gentle reminder that Doc solved the case, personally took out some really dangerous dudes, AND reunited a father with his daughter.
Bob, not so much.
Bob, not so much.
First thing on the first day of her holiday break, my 4-year-old got me out of bed to do take after take after take after take of a scene she had sketched out based on her interpretation of Elf.
Around Take 35, I was this-close to walking off the set like Keitel in Eyes Wide Shut.
Around Take 35, I was this-close to walking off the set like Keitel in Eyes Wide Shut.
December 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
First thing on the first day of her holiday break, my 4-year-old got me out of bed to do take after take after take after take of a scene she had sketched out based on her interpretation of Elf.
Around Take 35, I was this-close to walking off the set like Keitel in Eyes Wide Shut.
Around Take 35, I was this-close to walking off the set like Keitel in Eyes Wide Shut.
“I’m not saying you have to be a Christian to be an American; I'm saying something simple and truer: Christianity is America’s dream," says the guy who demonizes groups of people at every turn for political expediency.
December 22, 2025 at 2:13 AM
“I’m not saying you have to be a Christian to be an American; I'm saying something simple and truer: Christianity is America’s dream," says the guy who demonizes groups of people at every turn for political expediency.
That not one reporter ever asked Vance directly how he could square his comments about Ohioan Haitians eating their neighbors’ cats & dogs w/ what he wrote about on the influence of philosopher Rene Girard and his conversion to Catholicism in his essay, "How I Joined the Resistance" was inexcusable.
December 22, 2025 at 12:03 AM
That not one reporter ever asked Vance directly how he could square his comments about Ohioan Haitians eating their neighbors’ cats & dogs w/ what he wrote about on the influence of philosopher Rene Girard and his conversion to Catholicism in his essay, "How I Joined the Resistance" was inexcusable.
JD Vance, like his mentor, Peter Thiel, weaponizes his knowledge and understanding of Rene Girard’s philosophy of the scapegoating mechanism and mimetic rivalry. That Thiel, himself, once studied at the feet of Girard is treachery. That Vance wraps himself in Catholicism while doing it is heinous.
December 21, 2025 at 11:43 PM
JD Vance, like his mentor, Peter Thiel, weaponizes his knowledge and understanding of Rene Girard’s philosophy of the scapegoating mechanism and mimetic rivalry. That Thiel, himself, once studied at the feet of Girard is treachery. That Vance wraps himself in Catholicism while doing it is heinous.
JD Vance is 10x more dangerous than Trump and if allowed to stay in power will wreak thousand-fold the damage.
December 21, 2025 at 9:29 PM
JD Vance is 10x more dangerous than Trump and if allowed to stay in power will wreak thousand-fold the damage.
It’s becoming clearer as I get further into James Jones’ The Thin Red Line how significantly Malick, and his film adaptation, altered Witt’s character arc from the novel. Almost to the point of nullifying the major theme of Jones’ work. This is creating some cognitive dissonance for me.
December 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
It’s becoming clearer as I get further into James Jones’ The Thin Red Line how significantly Malick, and his film adaptation, altered Witt’s character arc from the novel. Almost to the point of nullifying the major theme of Jones’ work. This is creating some cognitive dissonance for me.
I'm trying to think of other American actors who had an impactful role in more than one American war film since the 1970s, and while I'm sure there are some I'm not entirely sure if any of them were more memorable and haunting than John Savage in The Deer Hunter (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998).
December 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I'm trying to think of other American actors who had an impactful role in more than one American war film since the 1970s, and while I'm sure there are some I'm not entirely sure if any of them were more memorable and haunting than John Savage in The Deer Hunter (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998).
knowing who you don't want to be is not the same as knowing who you want to be
December 21, 2025 at 7:19 AM
knowing who you don't want to be is not the same as knowing who you want to be
It may be a valuable box, an attractive box, a well-constructed box, a reliable box, an enduring box, a box that many others possibly envy and desire, yet …. at the end of the day, it’s a box.
December 20, 2025 at 8:21 PM
It may be a valuable box, an attractive box, a well-constructed box, a reliable box, an enduring box, a box that many others possibly envy and desire, yet …. at the end of the day, it’s a box.
Well, this is quite different . . . the relationship of Witt and Welsh in the novel and the film.
December 20, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Well, this is quite different . . . the relationship of Witt and Welsh in the novel and the film.
You gotta dig the irony that the color of the car which upends Tim the Christmas Adventurer is white.
December 19, 2025 at 10:45 PM
You gotta dig the irony that the color of the car which upends Tim the Christmas Adventurer is white.
“What difference do you think you can make? One single man in all this madness. If you die, it’s gonna be for nothin’.”
Great stuff here between Welsh (Sean Penn) & Witt (Jim Caviezel) from Thin Red Line. And I love that Witt doesn’t answer. Evokes, for me, something of the Nazarene before Pilate.
Great stuff here between Welsh (Sean Penn) & Witt (Jim Caviezel) from Thin Red Line. And I love that Witt doesn’t answer. Evokes, for me, something of the Nazarene before Pilate.
The Thin Red Line (1998) - 'Welsh & Witt Talk' scene [1080p]
YouTube video by Screen Themes
m.youtube.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:52 PM
“What difference do you think you can make? One single man in all this madness. If you die, it’s gonna be for nothin’.”
Great stuff here between Welsh (Sean Penn) & Witt (Jim Caviezel) from Thin Red Line. And I love that Witt doesn’t answer. Evokes, for me, something of the Nazarene before Pilate.
Great stuff here between Welsh (Sean Penn) & Witt (Jim Caviezel) from Thin Red Line. And I love that Witt doesn’t answer. Evokes, for me, something of the Nazarene before Pilate.
“Eos Rotodoctolos. Rosy-fingered dawn. You’re Greek, aren’t you, Captain? Did you ever read Homer? We read Homer at the point. In Greek.”
December 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
“Eos Rotodoctolos. Rosy-fingered dawn. You’re Greek, aren’t you, Captain? Did you ever read Homer? We read Homer at the point. In Greek.”
Send the world a hug ...
December 17, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Send the world a hug ...
Saw a clip last night from an actor’s roundtable where Jesse Eisenberg was being asked about David Fincher’s numerous takes for a scene. Robert Duvall, at the table, had a hard time hearing and asked the interviewer about the question. After he explained it, Duvall commented, “Stanley Kubrick
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December 17, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Saw a clip last night from an actor’s roundtable where Jesse Eisenberg was being asked about David Fincher’s numerous takes for a scene. Robert Duvall, at the table, had a hard time hearing and asked the interviewer about the question. After he explained it, Duvall commented, “Stanley Kubrick
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Check the character names of two protagonists from James Jones’ novels:
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
December 17, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Check the character names of two protagonists from James Jones’ novels:
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
Similar shots from the Edenic openings to Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005):
December 17, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Similar shots from the Edenic openings to Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005):
Vocabulary pairing for today —
grandiloquent vs laconic
grandiloquent vs laconic
The Master - Freddie meets the master
YouTube video by Paulo A
m.youtube.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Vocabulary pairing for today —
grandiloquent vs laconic
grandiloquent vs laconic
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's beach scene in From Here to Eternity is genuinely iconic, but upon watching the film I sensed the real love story was in Lancaster's Sergeant Warden for Montgomery Clift's Private Prewitt.
December 16, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's beach scene in From Here to Eternity is genuinely iconic, but upon watching the film I sensed the real love story was in Lancaster's Sergeant Warden for Montgomery Clift's Private Prewitt.
It’s tough navigating the political waters of society when one person’s treasure is another’s trash.
December 13, 2025 at 8:50 PM
It’s tough navigating the political waters of society when one person’s treasure is another’s trash.
From James Jones’ The Thin Red Line:
December 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
From James Jones’ The Thin Red Line:
James Jones’ sardonic dedication to The Thin Red Line:
December 13, 2025 at 5:30 PM
James Jones’ sardonic dedication to The Thin Red Line:
Last night, I stumbled upon an extraordinary essay on Malick’s The Thin Red Line by Simon Critchley from twenty years ago. He adroitly argues how The Thin Red Line is a war film like Homer’s The Iliad is a war poem, yet it would be too simplistic to read the film as simply anti-war,
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December 12, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Last night, I stumbled upon an extraordinary essay on Malick’s The Thin Red Line by Simon Critchley from twenty years ago. He adroitly argues how The Thin Red Line is a war film like Homer’s The Iliad is a war poem, yet it would be too simplistic to read the film as simply anti-war,
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