ARTS & FILM

Roman Ruins at Leptis Magna, Libya. The site is considered to be the most well-preserved ancient Roman city in the Mediterranean. Photograph: Doug McKinlay/Getty Images

By MARK VALLEN

Reports circulated on June 15, 2011 that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would not rule out bombing ancient Roman ruins in Libya if it knew Muammar Gaddafi’s soldiers were hiding military equipment in them. For those who appreciate the importance of Libya’s Roman archeological sites, the most well preserved in all the Mediterranean, this is worrying news. The gravity of the situation is perhaps best summed up by an online TIME Magazine photo essay originally titled, “See Libya’s Roman Ruins Before Nato Bombs Them“, but apparently quickly changed by the magazine’s editors to the less provocative, “Libya’s Roman Ruins.”

Woody Allen: Still in search of that elusive masterpiece

By Robert Fowler, WSWS.ORG
3 June 2011

The opening of Woody Allen’s latest release is wastefully spent on three and a half minutes of cinematography pandering to the supposed universally accepted wisdom that Paris is the most romantic city in the world. Perhaps this is some type of tribute to the opening of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1982). Allen is of course a self-confessed Bergman admirer, but, sadly, Woody’s latest offering is anything but as memorable as the Swede’s masterpiece.

ARCHIVES: ARTICLES YOU SHOULD HAVE READ THE FIRST TIME AROUND, BUT DIDN’T

Editor’s Note: The persistence of Hollywood blockbuster movies based on famous cartoons, and the popularity and re-emergence of Spiderman, now as a major Broadway production, justify a second look at this fine analysis.

Spiderman, directed by Sam Raimi  [2002]

By Alex Lefebvre, WSWS.ORG | Originally published: 21 June 2002

Spiderman, based on a 1960s Marvel comic strip, tells the story of a young man using his spidery powers to fight crime in New York. The 2002 release of this movie has achieved remarkable popularity and, as the mass media never tires of mentioning, box-office success. Cinema executives and pundits seem somewhat surprised: Amy Pascal, the chairwoman of Columbia Pictures, said: “Everybody identifies with him [Spiderman] … Lucky for us.” Time noted on May 20 that of those who saw the movie on opening night, “95% said they would recommend it to a friend; 70% said they would have to pay to see it again. (You usually have to bomb Baghdad to get that kind of approval ratings).”