Quote of the Day (Gary Silverman, on Screen and Political Sequels)

“A citizenry that would want to sit through Fast and Furious 7… could probably handle a Clinton Administration 3 or a Bush Administration 4. For all we know, it might even look forward to a star turn by Hillary’s daughter, Chelsea, or Jeb’s son, George P. They are both waiting in the political wings, you know, polishing their acts.”—Gary Silverman, “Hollywood Learns Originality Does Not Pay,” Financial Times, May 30-31, 2015

Quote of the Day (Gary Silverman, on the Vietnamese Forgotten After the War)

“In the end, Vietnam came to be seen as some sort of bad trip, to borrow an expression from the drug culture of the day. It was easier that way. The Vietnamese were no longer people who bled when you bombed them. They became more like figments of our collective imagination. Out of sight, out of mind and finally out of harm’s way.” —Gary Silverman, “The U.S. Has Forgotten About the Vietnamese,” Financial Times, Apr. 25-26, 2015

(This is one of the indelible images of the fall of Saigon—and, for all intents and purposes, the end of the Vietnam War—on this date 40 years ago: U.S. Marines throwing Vietnamese back over the American Embassy wall in Saigon.)