The Day the Earth Stood Still

On the airplane I watched the remake...... just to see the Earth staying still, and to hear "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto." The Earth didn't stay still in the movie any more that my seat neighbor's toddler stood still for it (yes I traveled with a girl dancing on my lap), and Klaatu didn't need Gort, any more than we needed the remake. Having disposed of any obstacles that the original 1951 movie presented to making a cliché-only film, the directors made........... a barely glued together sequence of a clichés.

But then, last week the NYTimes printed a review of a biography of the Wittgenstein family. The biographer apparently did not realize that one of the biographed was the most important philosopher after Kohelet. With this observation one might have safely advised that the book be read for family gossip and entertainment only, or not at all. Instead the review ends with an ad hominem attack on the biographer's family morals.

Of making many books and movies there is no end, all is vanity.