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Carlos Marighella's avatar

Great coverage of the convention. Now I'm really looking forward to the Democratic National Convention.

I read the novel "The Sum of All Fears," but I did not see the movie because when I read the reviews, I didn't like the changes that were made. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Palestinian terrorists get their hands on a nuclear weapon and detonate it in Denver during the Super Bowl. They do it because Jack Ryan finally comes up with a plan for bringing peace to the Middle East that actually works, and the terrorists decided to start a war between us and the Russians just as the Cold War is ending (the novel was published in 1991). They did this because us and the Russians worked together on the peace plan.

The most interesting part of the novel was a German Marxist terrorist who was still on the run, and he fled to Lebanon to hide among the Palestinians. He was friends with their leader because they worked together back in the day. I always found that whole relationship between the Palestinians and European radicals to be fascinating, because I wonder about the potential for culture clashing.

However, as far as thriller novels/movies about terrorist attacks during the Super Bowl go, I still like the film version of "Black Sunday" better because that movie showed Bruce Dern in his most unhinged performance ever.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Love Bruce Dern.

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

He's good in Hitchcock's Family Plot, and kooky Barbara Harris works well with him. Hitchcock was awesome at casting and it shows in Family Plot. Hitchcock even found a role for Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much and it worked! That's amazing!

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BookWench's avatar

Bruce Dern was always good at playing slightly squirrelly guys.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Tragic guys, too. "Coming Home" and "Nebraska."

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Nowhere Man's avatar

He gets pretty unhinged in "Silent Running". Good in "The Driver" too.

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