ST ch 19 French 75s, Greasy Thumb Guzik

[Mark Kohut]

So, we differ and maybe I’m too accepting.

Here’s  to pluralism.

On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 12:08 PM Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm just not a fan of PTA, other than Boogie Nights, and I find nothing in
> his movies that echos or resonates about America or the world the way
> Pynchon does, or even, for that matter, the old doc The World at War (which
> I'm currently rewatching) does. In an interview, he said that Benicio del
> Toro actually helped craft the plot of the latter part of the movie, which
> is "inspired by," not an adaptation of Vineland. So I don't see PTA as
> anything approaching the deliberate craftsmanship of Pynchon.
>
> On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 11:53 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Anderson’s movies’ tones are not  literally the decade they are set, imo.
>> Look at the Master, Magnolia, others. They are thematic thematic tones
>> resonating beyond their present.
>>
>> In OBAA it is the eternal present of America from the sixties to Tiffany,
>> imo.
>>
>> I think one reason Anderson is a fan and has had his artistic vision
>> shaped by TRP is to try to emulate that poised both sides/times now.
>>
>> See Lawrence and H Rap Brown among others on violence and America.
>>
>> On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 11:37 AM Robin Landseadel via Pynchon-l <
>> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I understand what you are saying about the initial setting of the movie
>>> in the Obama era. Of course, no names are named. However, the historical
>>> POV of most of the movie is in the present tense, or at least a present
>>> tense. Thank you for mentioning Assata Shakur and Fred Hampton. That would
>>> be more on-point, in that regard you are right as regards French 75. The
>>> point of 24fps was to document police actions against protesters, something
>>> that was happening a lot at Earth First and associated rallies in the
>>> Emerald Triangle in the late 1980s/early 1990s, lots of folks circling the
>>> scene with handheld videocams.
>>>
>>> > On 05/11/2026 8:17 AM PDT Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Saw One Battle After Another a couple of days ago. "French 75" appears
>>> to be a group modeled after the SDS or Black Panthers but set in the
>>> present tense rather than the late 1960s/early 1970s like 24fps.
>>> >
>>> > French 75 appears to me to be modeled after more violent groups like
>>> The Weathermen and BLA, and Perfidia clearly referenced Assata Shakur, who
>>> died about a week (if I remember) before OBAA had its theatrical release.
>>> The violence of these groups was a response to the FBI's assassination of
>>> Fred Hampton and the excesses of the Nixon administration and COINTELPRO.
>>> To set a similar group ahistorically in the tepid years of the late Obama
>>> period seems politically tone deaf to me. It's not something that Pynchon
>>> would ever do, and certainly didn't do in Vineland. That's one of my many
>>> objections to the movie.
>>> >
>>> > Laura
>>> >
>>>
>> --
>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>