What is Best in Life

This review is full of spoilers, so if you like classic westerns crossed with classic war films, Fort Apache is fine cinema and you should watch it first. Check it out and then come back to check out this post if the ending outrages you!

Fort Apache is the first movie in John Ford’s cavalry trilogy. A strange mix or westerns and war films, the movies in the Cavalry trilogy are all fine films (though not as close to my heart as “pure” westerns) and Fort Apache may be my favorite. Though having a rambling plot and a bit of the usual Fordian flaws (most notably the somewhat overdone comedic elements), it is still a strong and assured piece of film-making. Along with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it is also John Ford’s strongest statement of his “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend” philosophy.
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This is by far my most reviled post.  And while I realize this is a sensitive subject, I feel I should leave the post up anyway so hopefully some people will at least understand my reasons for not voting (and I hope that people realize I’m not trying to make you think my way, but rather explain why I act the way I do).  I have also included the comments that were lost in the website move by a friend of mine who quit talking to me in response to this post (which is fine, everyone has a right to decide that someone else’s ideological values are too at odds with their own for continued association).  Though I feel his responses were a bit heavy on the selective reading, faulty logic and name calling (though it is not fair to criticize them after the fact, so judge for yourselves) they still provoked a good continued discussion of the ideas in this post and are a good example of what the usual response is to my stance on voting.

It’s election season, and thus the usual broadside of intolerance against my refusal to vote has been directed my way. Now I realize that my choice not to vote is a touchy subject, but I thought I’d outline my reasoning here just a bit since I don’t think I don’t know a lot of people who really understand (I’m just looking for understanding, not agreement–I try to stay away from proselytizing in any form) my position on voting.

So while I don’t expect anyone to follow my lead, or even agree with me, I do hope that maybe if I’m lucky I might get moved up to a few places above “puppy-stomper” on everyone’s shit-lists. If not, I suppose all this will blow over in a month or two…I managed to bounce back from being held personally responsible for Bush getting elected to a second term after all!
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