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The Civilian

@tajiisawol.bsky.social
87 followers 45 following 3K posts

“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges…“

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 20h
Say what you want about Cruise as an actor, and about his performance as Digger, but until a few years ago, if you asked me whom I could envision as Odysseus in a full-throated film adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, I would have answered Tom Cruise.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Rene Girard's Theory of Mimetic Desire and Rivalry in Ari Aster's Eddington and John Steinbeck's East of Eden —
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm unfamiliar with Tom Sweet as an actor, but he was impressive as the adolescent Charles Trask in the episode of "Brothers" from the series East of Eden. He channels the frustration, resentment, and rage of the younger brother quite effectively, and painfully, in the short time he's on screen.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Cathy Ames, as recontextualized by Zoe Kazan in Netflix's East of Eden, feels less like Steinbeck's demonic Eve & more in line with Barbara Loden's anti-heroine Wanda. Fascinating cinematic full-circle, considering Zoe's grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 film & was once married to Loden.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
one thing that social media has implanted in my mind, as I read comments on certain charged topics and subjects, is the thought that I'm entirely unsure if we, collectively, as humans, are of the same species.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
choose to be extraordinary. dismantle the status quo.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm thinking The Star Chamber (1983) with Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook needs to remade.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Cornell
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Seated for Primetime with Robert Pattinson. Mainly here due to seeing the trailer last time I visited the theater. It brought to mind Oliver Stone and Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio, one of my under-the-radar favorites from the 80s.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
As a Steinbeck fan & someone w/ familial connections to Salinas, CA, I'm very much interested in the East of Eden series about to begin. I find Florence Pugh to be a commanding presence, and the against-the-grain casting of Chris Abbott & Mike Faist as the brothers, Adam & Charles, is intriguing.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
There has been a helluva lot of discussion about AI misalignment lately. But we are here today because of human misalignment, no?
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My 5-year-old daughter, just a few weeks into Kindergarten, is already sharing a self-narrative at home in which she will say she's not cute, that she's fat, that her hair isn't pretty, as well as not wearing certain clothes because of what other 5-year old girls are saying.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Amanda Seyfried is a very talented performer. She’s particularly excellent in her physical acting, utilizing the body as instrument in her portrayals of Elizabeth Holmes and Anne Lee.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I recognized my own symptoms, and remedies, when in discussions with the content of this helpful work.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I don’t know which is more painful: witnessing my 5-year-old daughter be rejected by a peer or her doing the same to another.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Have recently become quite interested in the Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos story. Started the series, The Dropout, with Amanda Seyfried as Holmes last night.
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Reposted by The Civilian
The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
“Is that a swastika on that man's face?” “No, it isn't. That's an ancient Hindu symbol meaning ‘all is well.’ It brings good fortune, luck and well-being.”
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I know I may not be speaking for everyone, but it has never been the rise of AI which has been truly alarming, but rather the dearth of human integrity.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Engaging with the skepticism unbound in Thomson's thesis on the impact of cinema brought to mind this passage from Thomas Mann's novella, Death in Venice: "A solitary, unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, has mental experiences which are at once more intense and less articulate 1/3
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that actor podcasts will be the decimation of movie love and appreciation.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"Pretty grim when a guy gets it and it wasn't even his fault." — John Milner, walking through the car graveyard with his charge, Carol, in George Lucas' memorable American Graffiti (1973).
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
My father was far from an avid filmgoer & fan, but he did take us to see American Graffiti at the drive-in in the late 70s. Along with Breaking Away, I think it primed my affection for the cinematic Bildungsroman. Yet, more than the movie itself, AG remains a favorite simply because of the memory.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Maybe The Odyssey reverberated so greatly because of the crisis of leadership we have today across all domains?
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Every time you hear Kawhi Leonard’s name going forward, a Russell Westbrook gets his wings.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Affectionate, clever, sweet, and entirely winning, Coyote vs. Acme was a memorable outing to the local theater for me and my daughter yesterday after school. Plus, I love Peter Lorre in anything he does.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Father-in-law in town from Vietnam asking his daughter why she spends so much time trying to make her 5-year-old daughter happy. Ah … grandpa.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
There's a tell that Jean Renoir is among Thomson's favorite filmmakers because when he is articulating an example to argue his point about movies and passivity he uses a plot turn straight out of Renoir's The River.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Last night, Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves pitched a complete game shutout. It was the 18th complete game by a starting pitcher in the majors this year. (No pitcher has more than one.) In 1986, there had been roughly 480 complete games by August 27th. Fernando Valenzuela finishing with 20 himself.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
As an '80s teenager who fell hard for New Hollywood filmmakers, Malick’s Badlands was a seminal movie-watching experience for me. At 13 or so, I wasn't entirely sure why the movie held me in thrall. It felt digressive, languid, eerie — occupying a strange space between real and unreal. But I recall
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Leading into the epics of The Iliad and The Odyssey we have class discussions around Excellence (Arete), Greatness, and Goodness. Culminating with the question of Can you Be Great without being Good? Typically, one of the better discussions with 14-15 year olds during the year.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Because she is named for a character in the epic, I attached my review of Nolan's The Odyssey to my daughter's backpack on her 1st day of Kindergarten to establish the requisite parent-teacher boundaries for the school year.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
youtube.com
Liam Lynch: United States of Whatever
YouTube video by mrWoot
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Some Favorite Films of the 1960— 1960: Rocco and His Brothers 1961: Leon Morin, Priest 1962: Ride the High Country 1963: 8 1/2 1964: Charulata 1965: Le Bonheur 1966: Blow-Up 1967: Mouchette 1968: “If …” 1969: Z
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Book 19 and how Odysseus received his name.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
As sometimes happens, Nolan’s film adaptation for The Odyssey is an example of a movie I enjoy discussing more than viewing.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
”’Eos rhododaktylos.‘ Rosy-fingered dawn. You're Greek, aren't you, Captain? Did you ever read Homer? We read Homer at the Point. In Greek. And, goddamn it, cinema is utterly incapable of conveying and capturing the weight and depth of such epic works!! You hear me, Stavros? Utterly incapable!”
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Since encountering, and engaging with, The Iliad & The Odyssey as a late teen, I've read them, first and foremost, as epics of strife & instability. Geographical. Cultural. Societal. Familial. Personal. The names of Achilles, "grief to the people," and Odysseus, "bringer of pain", seem purposeful.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
In Book 8, while Odysseus listens to a bard before the Phaeacian court sing of the Trojan Horse and how it allowed the Greeks to ravage Troy, the Homeric poets deploy an epic simile of stunning, radical empathy: equating the weeping of Odysseus to the weeping of a devastated Trojan woman.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Remember several years ago when Paul Schrader commented on the quality of New Hollywood cinema and how it wasn't because the filmmakers then were more talented, but that the audience was more sophisticated and serious? Do you think something similar can be said about the Homeric audience?
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
There was a part of me that wanted to see Michael Caine as Laertes, Odysseus' father.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
There's a scene at the end of Book 23, after Odysseus has killed the Suitors & revealed the secret of their bed to Penelope, where the two stay up all night talking of their respective trials during their separation. It is arguably the most tender of all the scenes in the epic and
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
At least this guy didn’t have to drag a wooden horse through the surf and sand.
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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Christopher Nolan, like a trickster, utilized Matt Damon’s movie star persona of inherent likability and respectability “(he’s the best of us”) as the villainous twist for Dr. Mann in Interstellar. His attempt to do something similar in The Odyssey, and with its hero, felt flat and lazy to me.
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