In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
BORN AGAIN
'The album became a monster. It just ate up everyone's life."
That's Bruce Springsteen talking about "Born to Run," which 30 years ago catapulted him from a cult artist with a small but rabid East Coast following into a superstar.
Looking back on the eve of the release of the "Born to Run" 30th anniversary box set, which The New York Post got an exclusive sneak peek at this week, it's easy to say that "Born to Run" is a watershed moment - a record with unstoppable force and charisma that established Bruce as the premiere musical icon of his generation.
But in the summer of 1975, it was turning into something of a nightmare.
Bruce wasn't an unknown at the time - a local legend on the Jersey Shore and a journeyman working the Eastern Seaboard club circuit, he'd made two records for Columbia, "Greetings From Asbury Park" and "The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle." Wordy, Dylan-influenced and freewheeling, they'd helped expand his following, but they hadn't exactly set the world on fire. When he went to make his third record, the writing was on the wall.
"If this record didn't make it, it seemed obvious to us that this was going to be the end," says E Street Band guitarist "Miami Steve" Van Zandt, in "Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run," a documentary on the making of the record that's included in the anniversary box, along with a 1975 show at London's Hammersmith Odeon. The set hits stores Tuesday.
Live, Bruce was a force of nature, who dependably slayed audiences and won rabid converts. But that energy wasn't translating to the records, and everyone knew it.
"The record company was confused," Bruce later said. "The kids in the audience were going nuts, but the record wasn't selling. It got obvious that we needed a rock 'n' roll record."
CBS wanted him to record with session musicians, but he insisted on working with the E Street Band, fellow Jerseyites who'd cut their teeth in clubs along the shore. Constant gigging had turned the band into a high-performance machine, and Bruce had come up some magnificent songs. But the recording sessions were stumbling, and things were getting desperate.
Begun in the winter of 1974-75, and derailed initially by technical problems, the sessions were still going when summertime came, as Bruce, a near-pathological perfectionist who knew the unfolding record's potential, endlessly tweaked arrangements, rewrote lyrics and re-recorded tracks.
"The thing about Bruce is that he has a very hard time letting go of things, and that's especially true of things he knows are good, because if it's good it can get better," says Dave Marsh, the veteran rock journalist and Springsteen biographer. "I would hear the tracks and my reaction was basically, 'It don't get no better,' and Bruce's reaction was, 'I think I can do this better.'"
Meanwhile, a single version of the title song had been sent out to radio stations and was creating heavy-duty buzz around the upcoming record, even as Bruce and company were pulling their hair out trying to finish it, working until dawn every morning at the Record Plant on West 53rd Street.
"The record was legendary before it was even finished," Marsh says.
Right up until the end, making the record was like pulling a molar with pliers - when it came time to master the disc, a process that involves taking the recorded tapes and turning them into an actual record, Bruce rejected one attempt after another. At one point he even decided to scrap the whole thing and release a live record instead.
Hearing this, Jon Landau, now Bruce's manager but then a co-producer, went ballistic. After he read Bruce the riot act, Springsteen relented and the release date was set for October 1975. To generate some pre-release buzz, Columbia had Springsteen do a five-night stand, two shows a night, at the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village, and flew in journalists and tastemakers from around the country. It was a publicity masterstroke - Bruce killed, and the buzz grew into a deafening roar.
"Everybody who saw those shows had a sense that history was being made," says Allan Pepper, the Bottom Line's co-owner. "For weeks afterward, every artist who played the club - and I'm talking about some formidable artists - paled in comparison to that guy. It was in the walls of the club. It hung in the air for weeks and weeks afterward."
When "Born to Run" was released two months later, the verdict was unanimous: Springsteen had delivered a classic.
"Born to Run" "shuts down every claim that has ever been made for him," wrote Greil Marcus in Rolling Stone, likening it to "a '57 Chevy running on melted-down Crystals records."
Other rave reviews, platinum sales, expanding crowds and the famous (or infamous) twin cover stories in Time and Newsweek followed. The Boss was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.
FOX Sweeps Away 'Arrested,' 'Kitchen'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Time to restart those vigils for "Arrested Development." And while you're at it, light a candle for "Kitchen Confidential" too.
The two FOX comedies have been shelved for the remainder of sweeps -- "Kitchen Confidential," in fact, hasn't aired since the first week of October -- in favor of repeats of "Prison Break," which have performed better in the 8 p.m. Monday hour than either "Arrested" or "Kitchen" this season. The network says the comedies will return Dec. 5, following the close of sweeps.
Starting Monday (Nov. 14), the previous week's "Prison Break" will air at 8 p.m. ET, followed by a new episode at 9. That pattern will continue through Nov. 28, when the show has what FOX is calling its "fall finale." The remainder of the season will air sometime next year, although it hasn't been scheduled yet.
The scheduling change comes a few days after "Arrested Development" returned to meager ratings from an October hiatus driven by the baseball playoffs. Back-to-back episodes of the show drew a little more than 4 million viewers, a little below its season average. In the previous two weeks, repeats of "Prison Break" had averaged 5.9 million viewers in the 8 p.m. hour.
The underwhelming lead-in also hurt Monday's "Prison Break," which had its weakest showing since late September.
Five episodes of "Arrested Development" have aired thus far this season, while "Kitchen Confidential" has run just three times. Neither show was part of the midseason lineup FOX presented to advertisers last spring.
Robocop Gets a Re-Make
It seems no past money-making movie is going to be left untouched in Hollywood's re-make race, as Sony preps Robocop for a re-deux. Moviehole.net says Michael De Luca (Zathura) is working on re-telling the story about a police officer who gets upgraded to law-enforcement machine, after being gunned down in the line-of-duty. The original 1987 film's starred Peter Weller and its box-office success prompted two sequel films, a handful of television movies and an animated series. Some of the original film's crew are even said to be taking part in the Robo-remake that will see the story re-set to the beginning, no doubt with hope for lucrative follow-up films.
"Housewives" Drama at People's Choice
Desperate Housewives is a drama--the people insist.
For the second year running, the campy ABC soap has earned a People's Choice nomination in a category reserved for grownup talk. This time around, the fashionable Housewives will go up against CBS' gruesome CSI and NBC's brutal Law & Order: SVU for honors as Favorite TV Drama.
Overall, Angelina Jolie nabbed the most nominations, three, as the field for the 32nd annual People's Choice Awards was announced Thursday in Hollywood.
Regularly tabbed in the tabloids as the woman who pushed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's marriage off a cliff, Jolie remains in high regard among the People's Choice public (a sampling of men and women aged 18-54, whose likes determined the nominations). Jolie is among the top three finalists for Favorite Female Movie Star, Favorite Female Action Star and Favorite On-Screen Match-Up, a nomination shared with Pitt for Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Pitt also was nominated for Favorite Leading Man. Aniston, who didn't launch any new product during the survey period, wasn't nominated for anything.
Meanwhile, back on Wisteria Lane, the rivalries can become more entrenched now that Teri Hatcher, and only Teri Hatcher, has been nominated among the residents. Hatcher, who lost out on Emmy night to costar Felicity Huffman, must merely dispatch with Jennifer Garner of ABC's dying Alias and Jennifer Love Hewitt of CBS' sapling Ghost Whisperer to claim her trophy as Favorite Female TV Star.
At the Emmys and the Golden Globes, Hatcher and the Housewives company competed in the comedy categories, where ABC thought the show matched up better. It was not known how or why the drama queens ended up in the drama race at the People's Choice Awards, but the classification was not without precedent. Last year, the show was honored as Favorite New TV Drama.
To be sure, the Favorite TV Comedy race is not the power category at the coming People's Choice Awards. Underscoring the broadcast networks' inability to mount many recent sitcom hits, the three nominated shows are either dead (CBS' late Everybody Loves Raymond), old (Fox's That '70s Show, eight seasons and running) or really, really old (Fox's The Simpsons, 17 seasons and running).
Help for the genre may be on the way in the form of the nominees of the Favorite New TV Comedy race: UPN's Everybody Hates Chris; CBS' How I Met Your Mother; and, NBC's My Name Is Earl. Then again, Joey didn't exactly usher in a golden sitcom era after it was the people's pick in this race last season.
Up for Favorite New TV Drama: ABC's Commander in Chief, the fall's most-watched new show; CBS' surging Criminal Minds; and, Fox's Prison Break.
Not making the cut in any category: Anything or anyone on the WB; ABC's breakout hits Lost and Grey's Anatomy; Julia Roberts, who laid low in 2005 after winning Favorite Female Movie Star in January; and, Tom Cruise, who self-immolated after scoring a Favorite Male Movie Star nomination last year.
Categories falling out of favor with show producers were two music ones, Favorite Remake and Favorite Combined Forces (a cute name for a duet or trio). Both were in play at last year's show.
Winners will be determined by Internet voting at www.pcavote.com. The virtual polls opened Thursday. On Nov. 28, eight more categories, including Favorite Movie, will be added to the online ballot.
The results will be announced in a CBS telecast on Jan. 10--a Tuesday, the better to avoid a Sunday confrontation with Desperate Housewives. The Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson will host.
Here's a rundown of the nominees for the 32nd annual People's Choice Awards:
Film
Favorite Female Movie Star: Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman
Favorite Male Movie Star: Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, Samuel L. Jackson
Favorite Leading Lady: Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Renée Zellweger
Favorite Leading Man: Jamie Foxx, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler
Favorite Female Action Star: Jennifer Garner, Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Favorite Male Action Star: Matthew McConaughey, Brad Pitt, The Rock
Favorite On-Screen Match-Up: Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt in Mr. and Mrs. Smith; Chris Rock & Adam Sandler in The Longest Yard; Vince Vaughn & Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers
Music
Favorite Female Performer: Kelly Clarkson, Faith Hill, Gwen Stefani
Favorite Male Performer: Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Usher
Favorite Group: The Black Eyed Peas, Destiny's Child, Green Day
Television
Favorite New TV Comedy: Everybody Hates Chris, How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl
Favorite New TV Drama: Commander In Chief, Criminal Minds, Prison Break
Favorite TV Comedy: Everybody Loves Raymond, That '70s Show, The Simpsons
Favorite TV Drama: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: SVU
Favorite Reality Show (Competition): American Idol, Fear Factor, Survivor
Favorite Reality Show (Other): Extreme Makeover, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Supernanny
Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host: Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien
Favorite Daytime Talk Show Host: Ellen DeGeneres, Regis Philbin & Kelly Ripa, Oprah Winfrey
Favorite Female TV Star: Jennifer Garner, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt
Favorite Male TV Star: Ray Romano, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland
Miscellaneous
Favorite Funny Female Star: Drew Barrymore, Ellen DeGeneres, Queen Latifah
Favorite Funny Male Star: Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Will Smith
Ray Romano headed back to CBS in guest spot
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Six months after his hit Emmy-winning TV comedy ended its run, "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Ray Romano will return briefly to prime time in a guest spot on fellow CBS show "The King of Queens," the network said on Thursday.
Romano, once U.S. television's highest-paid sitcom star, will reprise his "Everybody Loves Raymond" role as sports writer and family man Ray Barone on an episode of "The King of Queens" slated to air on November 28, near the end of Nielsen's ratings "sweep."
Romano made three previous "cross-over" guest appearances on "King of Queens" while his old show was still on the air, according to CBS. His Barone alter ego is a buddy of Doug Heffeman, the lead character on "Queens" played by Romano's real-life pal and fellow comic, Kevin James.
On the upcoming episode, Raymond joins Doug for a boy's night out when Doug's wife, Carrie ( Leah Remini) takes a trip with her father.
James has made guest appearances on "Everybody Loves Raymond" in the past, but not as his "King of Queens" character, a CBS spokesman said.
"Raymond" was the top-rated comedy in prime time when it left the airwaves in May after nine years on CBS. The show twice won an Emmy Award as television's best comedy series, in 2003 and again in 2005.
"King of Queens" is nowhere near as popular as "Raymond" was, but it consistently finishes first in its Monday night time slot, averaging nearly 10.5 million viewers a week.
Leftover 'Chicken' still tempting at box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Zathura," "Get Rich or Die Tryin"' and "Derailed" will try to knock "Chicken Little" off its perch at the box office this weekend, but Disney's computer-animated hit will likely fend off the challengers.
After bowing to $40 million last weekend, the first homegrown film from Disney's animators should drop less than 50% its second week in theaters, giving it a $22 million-$23 million weekend gross and the top spot for its sophomore session. The G-rated film also might take a bite out of Sony Pictures' highly regarded family film "Zathura," from director Jon Favreau.
"Zathura" -- a PG-rated sci-fi adventure adapted from a Chris Van Allsburg book, as was 1995's "Jumanji" -- has benefited from strong reviews and attendance at sneak previews during the past few weeks. Unfortunately, the film is in the unenviable weekend spot between "Chicken" and next week's sure-to-be-monster-hit " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." That might not bode well for "Zathura," a movie that relies more on old-fashioned filmmaking than the usual special effects extravaganzas.
Starring Tim Robbins and a cast of young, unknown actors, the movie revolves around two brothers who are propelled into space while playing a mysterious board game they discover in the basement of their old house.
"Zathura" will likely open in the $12 million-$14 million range, though prognosticators hope that a film with this much heart will catch on with family audiences and stick around through Thanksgiving.
Paramount Pictures' "Get Rich" debuted Wednesday, grossing an estimated $3.6 million. Based loosely on Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's life as a gangster-turned-rapper, the film, from director Jim Sheridan, bowed to weak reviews, but that might do little to dissuade its primary audience from seeking it out.
"Get Rich" is looking to follow in the steps of Eminem's "8 Mile," which was a resounding success. The film is unlikely to gross anywhere close to the $51 million "8 Mile" attracted in its opening weekend in 2002, more likely scoring in the $12 million-$14 million range over the three-day weekend and getting into the $20 million range for its first five days.
Former Miramax Films chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein are looking to capitalize on Jennifer Aniston's star power for "Derailed," the first wide release under their new Weinstein Co. banner.
The $22 million film, from Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom, centers on an adulterous couple, played by Aniston and Clive Owen ("Sin City"), who are blackmailed and tortured after being caught together in a hotel room. The R-rated thriller might cross into the low-teen millions for the weekend.
In limited release, Fox Searchlight will bow "Bee Season," starring Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche and newcomers Flora Cross and Max Minghella. The PG-13 film, from directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, is based on the book by Myla Goldberg that revolves around a dysfunctional family caught up in the daughter's efforts to become a spelling bee champion. "Bee Season," which played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, has drawn mixed reviews. It opens in five markets.
Focus Features will debut the most recent Jane Austen adaptation, "Pride & Prejudice," from director Joe Wright. Starring Keira Knightley, the film, which already has scored big in the U.K., will open in 215 sites in the U.S. The PG-rated film already has been the beneficiary of largely positive reviews.
Cash's Daughter Upset With Mom's Portrayal
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Kathy Cash, one of Johnny Cash's five children, was so upset about how her mother is portrayed in the upcoming movie "Walk the Line" that she walked out of a family-only screening — five times.
She thinks the movie, which opens nationwide Nov. 18, is good and that performances by Joaquin Phoenix as her dad and Reese Witherspoon as her stepmother, June Carter Cash, are Oscar-worthy.
But she also said the film unfairly shows her mother, Vivian Liberto Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife, as a shrew. Actress Ginnifer Goodwin plays her in the movie.
"My mom was basically a nonentity in the entire film except for the mad little psycho who hated his career. That's not true. She loved his career and was proud of him until he started taking drugs and stopped coming home," Kathy Cash said.
Vivian Liberto Distin died earlier this year as a result of complications from lung cancer. She and Cash were married 13 years and had four children together. He pledged to remain faithful to her in his song "I Walk the Line."
Kathy Cash also said the movie fails to include any meaningful scenes with the children or show the pain she and her three sisters endured during their father's fight with drugs and their parents' divorce. She says it portrays Johnny Cash's father too negatively.
"Anyone who wants a good sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll movie is gonna love it," she said. "I'm anticipating dyed-in-the-wool fans objecting to a lot of stuff."
John Carter Cash — Johnny and June's only child together and an executive producer for "Walk the Line" — says his half-sister's criticisms have merit. But he says it's OK to take some license and that, in the bigger picture, the movie succeeds in telling his parents' love story.
"I'm compassionately understanding," he said, adding, "the point of the film is my parents' love affair."
Connery Honored by American Film Institute
LOS ANGELES - Sean Connery will receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, its highest honor for a career in film, the institute announced Thursday.
The award will be presented to the Scottish actor June 8 in Los Angeles.
Howard Stringer, chairman of the AFI Board of Trustees, called Connery "an artist of the highest order."
"Though best remembered for creating one of the great film heroes of all time, his talents transcend typecasting," Stringer said. "His body of work not only stands the test of time, but illuminates a career more extraordinary than James Bond himself."
Connery portrayed agent James Bond in six films from 1962 to 1971. He appeared in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" in 2003.
Connery is the 34th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, which was established in 1973.
Past recipients include Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep and George Lucas.