Good Book, Bad Movie

They are, however, unrelated to each other. The good book (not The Good Book) is Stephen Hunter's American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman. I agree with many of the commenters that the style Hunter takes to write the book is a bit distracting, but on the whole it's a good tale of a story I'd never even heard of before. Hunter was a regular on the temporarily hiatused Tony Kornheiser show on WTEM radio in DC, and one of the most eloquent people I've ever heard. His description of the events of 9/11 remain the best overview of the attacks I think I've ever heard.

The book, which I haven't finished, certainly highlights Hunter's knowledge and appreciation of guns, the culture of shooters & law enforcement in the '50s, and the hazyness of a gunfight. Again, the jumping back & forth between parts of the story is a little hard to live with, but on the whole it's a good book.

The movie, on the other hand, didn't do it for me. I got 7 Days in May from Netflix a few weeks back, on the assumption that Burt Lancaster + Kirk Douglas=good movie. I was pretty disappointed, on the whole. The acting was fine, and I think the story had the germ of a good movie in it, but the various subtexts of the movie are so typically liberal as to be caricature. The overly aggressive, treasonous military, the bucking that stereotype marine colonel, the Soviets who can be our friends if we just try peace, the decent, honorable president, etc.

I found myself agreeing heartily with some of Lancaster's lines as the general planning a coup. He suggests repeatedly that the Soviets can't be trusted, and they're simply playing games by signing treaties. And I think the character was correct. The President argues that we have to try, and peace is the only answer, and kumbaya, and all that nonsense. I imagine the director Frakenheimer was a typical Hollywood leftist, and another apologist for the Soviet Union. The problem is the movie has no subtlety - there's no depth to the military men, only secret plots and barely hidden fascism.

So if it was on your rental list, I'd skip it.