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Characterisation (law)
Title: Characterisation (law)
Subject: Conflict of laws, Conflict of divorce laws, Conflict of contract laws, Capacity (law), Borrowing statute
Collection: Conflict of Laws
Preliminiaries
Incidental question
Conflict of laws in the United States
Hague Conference
Definitional elements
Forum non conveniens
Lex causae
Lex fori
Forum shopping
Lis alibi pendens
Connecting factors
Lex domicilii
Habitual residence
Lex patriae
Lex loci arbitri
Lex loci rei sitae (or Lex situs)
Lex loci contractus
Lex loci delicti commissi
Lex loci actus
Lex loci solutionis
Lex loci protectionis
Proper law
Lex loci celebrationis
Choice of law clause
Dépeçage
Forum selection clause
Substantive legal areas
Succession (Forced heirship)
Hague Trust Convention
Anti-suit injunctions
In conflict of laws, characterisation is the second stage in the procedure to resolve a lawsuit involving a foreign law element. This process is described in English law as classification and as qualification in French law. In those cases where a different result would be achieved depending on which of several possibly relevant laws is applied, this stage of the process reveals the relevant rule for the choice of law but it is not necessarily a simple process (see the incidental question). The first stage is for the court to determine whether it has jurisdiction, where appropriate confronting the problem of forum shopping.
Which law will be applied to characterise? 2
The process 3
Exclusion of the foreign law 4
Modern approach 5
Once the forum court has decided that it does have jurisdiction to hear the case, it then must characterise or classify the cause(s) of action. This is regarded as the most important and difficult problem in conflict of laws as trade and travel between states have become the norm and the effects of broken promises, defective goods, traffic accidents, and marital squabbles are no longer confined to the sovereign territory of one particular state or nation. But local laws are usually enacted to satisfy domestic interests by legislators who focus on keeping the support of their constituents rather than on harmonising their own laws to conform to international principles. This reflects a prevailing tension between legal unilateralism and multilateralism. Hence, every law has both a territorial and a personal application so it is applied by courts within the boundaries of the state yet, as an aspect of the social contract, it also claims to bind those individuals who owe the government allegiance, no matter where they may be.
Which law will be applied to characterise?
Characterising by reference to the lex causae (the law identified in the choice of law stage of the conflict process as the one to be applied to determine the case) would be problematic. Although it may appear logical to allow the whole of the lex causae, including its characterisation rules, to apply, it actually produces a circular argument, i.e. the lex causae is to apply to the process of characterisation before the process of characterisation has led to the choice of the relevant lex causae. So the conflict rules of the lex fori (the domestic law of the court dealing with the case) are usually applied even though, in extreme cases, the application of only the substantive provisions of the foreign law by the forum court could produce a judgment that neither the lex causae nor the lex fori would normally have produced. Nevertheless, in Macmillan Inc. v Bishopsgate Investment Trust plc [1996] 1 ALL E R 585, the most recent English case, Auld LJ. accepted that, ". . .the proper approach is to look beyond the formulation of the claim and to identify according to the lex fori the true issue or issues thrown up by the claim and the defence".
There are several cases when characterisation is not made by the lex fori:
choice of law clause (lex voluntatis)
subsequent characterisation (which is a problem of the lex causae)
real estate or immovables (when lex situs applies)
unknown legal institutions
law of nationality (when lex patriae applies)
international treaties
The court is required to analyse the pleadings prepared by the parties and to assign each component element to the most appropriate juridical concept or category. The rules of any given system of law are arranged under different categories, addressing procedure, status, contract, tort, divorce, nullity, etc. For each category, there is one or more choice of law rule(s). Hence, for example, all questions as to the status of a person before a court, viz. an infant or adult, legitimate, legitimated or illegitimate, married or not, mentally incapacitated or not, bankrupt or not, etc. will all be governed by the person's personal law, namely the law of nationality (the lex patriae) or habitual residence in a civil law state, or the law of domicile (the lex domicilii) in a common law state.
Characterising laws as either procedural or substantive is necessary, but this part of the process can be abused by the forum court to maximise the use of the local law.
The generality of the characterisation process is not, and cannot be, a wholly scientific process. It is always a matter of interpretation. For example, if A who is a national of Arcadia, dies having made a valid local will leaving land situated in Barsoom to C who is domiciled in Catilage, how is the issue to be classified? One might say that any rights that C might have are vested by the will that was made in Arcadia (i.e. the lex loci actus). Equally, the right to succeed to title might be an aspect of C's status as the oldest surviving male heir under Cartilagean law (the lex loci domicilii). Or it may be a matter for the law of Barsoom since all matters of title to land must be adjusted by the lex situs as the law of the place where the land is situated. Thus, completely different judgments might result depending on how the forum court characterises the action. One of the most enduring solutions to this problem was proposed by Savigny (1779–1861). He argued that it was always necessary for the court to find the "natural seat" or "centre of gravity" for the case by identifying the largest cluster of "connecting factors" to a particular legal system. If all courts adopted such an international outlook, he reasoned, this would eliminate forum shopping by producing the same choice of law no matter where the case was begun. Unfortunately, the theory has not delivered the desired results. Forum shopping remains a problem, and neither legislators nor judges have been able to agree on characterisation issues, producing classifications that extend rather than reduce international divergences. In an attempt to avoid obviously unjust results in particular cases, some judges therefore created a number of public policy exceptions to justify decisions "on the merits". Ernest G Lorenzen commented that this strategy was a warning that there must be serious problems with the rules if policy exceptions were the solution.
Exclusion of the foreign law
Because the early system of connecting factors was mechanical and inflexible, the results could offend a court's sense of justice. For example, with the development of the motor car, the classification of the cause as tort required the application of the lex loci delicti commissi rule. In France, the Cour de Cassation's insistence on this linkage frequently barred or severely limited relief for French parties injured in states that had no developed law for the compensation of such victims. Consequently, the lower courts used a variety of judicial devices to avoid the injustice. In the U.S., the New York Court of Appeals set a national trend in Babcock v. Jackson, 240 N.E.2d 279 (N.Y. 1963), when it decided to abandon the lex loci delicti rule completely. Most jurisdictions have not been so radical, preferring to retain the framework of categories and choice of law rules but leave public policy in place as the avoidance device.
This exception provides that states will not apply any 'foreign' law that offends the deeply held principles of the forum state's legal system. For example, it would be considered improper to give enforcement to a law that defined the status of a person as a slave or as in the possession of another, e.g. for the purposes of sexual exploitation. In cases involving alleged immorality or injustice, this rule has been criticised as susceptible to abuse, for a court could characterise almost any statute or rule as being offensive to the public policy of their state. Less controversial are bars to any cases that would give extraterritorial effect to laws which are confiscatory, seeking to collect taxes owing in another state, or penal, i.e. laws that are designed to punish the party committing the wrong, rather than to compensate the party that suffered loss or injury. This can sometimes lead to a fine balancing act between claims for compensatory and exemplary damages. States traditionally will not apply the penal laws of other states in civil suits, just as one state would not apply the criminal laws of another state against a person charged with committing a crime.
In the U.S., the concept of governmental interest analysis was developed by Brainerd Currie and is favoured by many American conflicts writers. Currie focused on each state's substantive rules rather than on a metaphorical test for the seat of the legal relationships and assumed that governments are less interested in what happens within their territorial boundaries than in the well-being of their subjects. The methodology he proposed relies almost entirely on the personal nexus between the litigants and the states. However, there is no single test for this nexus at an international level. Some states use the concept of domicile, others nationality, and the remainder citizenship; and definitions of domicile vary from state to state. So this methodology has never been accepted outside the U.S. Further, if the litigants are from different states, relying on one personal law rather than another may be arbitrary. To cope with this difficulty, Currie advocated that the lex fori should be applied whenever his method produced what he called a "true conflict". Critics have therefore alleged that Currie's approach is nothing more than a complex pretext for not applying foreign law when there are two or more personal laws.
Modern approach
Given that the characterisation system and the choice of law rules were operating in an inflexible way, the solution has been to allow the growth of judicial discretion within both parts of the system. Hence, most legal systems have opted for what English law calls the proper law approach, i.e. the identification and application of the law that has the closest connection with the cause(s) of action. It is accepted that the words have the same apparent spirit as the older approach, which requires some caution in their evaluation. In theory, this flexibility will preserve an international outlook and multilateral approach by the courts and, outside America, the results are not unencouraging. In the U.S., however, the test now adopted is termed the most significant contacts test or, in a slightly modified form defined in the Second Conflicts Restatement, the most significant relationship test. But, because different courts have interpreted these impressionistic phrases in different ways, there has been little judicial consistency.
Currie, Brainerd. (1963). Selected Essays on the conflict of laws p. 180.
Lorenzen, Ernest G. (1947). Selected Articles on the conflict of laws. pp. 13–14.
Savigny, Friedrich Karl Von. (1849). System des heutigen römischen Rechts". Vol. 3, pp. 121–26.
All WorldHeritage articles needing clarification
Human rights, Privacy, Person, Citizenship, Illegal immigration
United Kingdom, Latin, Society, Mediation, European Union
Law, Nationality, Statutory law, Human rights, Jurisprudence
Conflict of divorce laws
Nationality, Society, European Union, Conflict of laws, Jurisdiction
Conflict of contract laws
Nationality, Conflict of laws, Language, United Kingdom, Capacity (law)
Capacity (law)
Common law, Nationality, Contract, Criminal law, Culture
Borrowing statute
Conflict of laws, Private international law, Characterisation (law), Incidental question, Renvoi


Under new ownership. They have no clue about customer service. Raised prices and do not accept checks or visa on less than 15 dollar purchase. Find another place. Old ownership was wonderful.
Posted by Michael M. from Yelp on February 04, 2015. Brought to you by binglocal.
Since 1997, Beaverton Fashion Cleaners has been providing Drycleaning Plants, Except Rugs from Beaverton.
Beaverton Fashion Cleaners can be found at Sw Allen Blvd 12525. The following is offered: Laundry Services. The entry is present with us since Sep 10, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Beaverton there are 22 other Laundry Services. An overview can be found here.


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Home › Leadership›Careers
Preparing for the leadership challenges that await
By Catherine Wolfe
Early in my career, I embarked on a soul-searching exercise to help me define who I wanted to be, what I was willing to pin my reputation on and what skills I needed to develop to be true to my vision and succeed.
While earning my master's degree in organizational leadership, I began to understand the value of servant leadership — a belief that the manager is really the servant of the employee, there to help the employee accomplish their job. That focus lead me to define how I work and interact with my team, the larger Toshiba organization and our communities.
Because business is rarely black and white, but rather gradations of gray, business subtleties can tax leaders as they face today's challenges, some with ethical, moral and social implications. To address these challenges, leaders must have a clear idea of their values, their performance objectives and the skills they need to embody to be successful.
Doing some upfront, difficult work to pinpoint their position can provide a compass from which leaders can act, determine their communications platform and then identify skills to develop along with goals to achieve their objectives.
For this journey, here are a few tips to serve as a guide.
Know what makes an effective leader
Before any steps can be taken, businesspeople should know the characteristics that will transform them from merely a manager into an effective leader.
Something to consider is what makes a great leader great. For instance, great leaders are accessible; someone who employees can approach with issues. A great leader is not cowardly, but courageous. "Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better," said former President Harry S Truman. Also, a great leader does not deflect, but is accountable for their actions. John C. Maxwell, a leadership authority, said, "A good leader is someone who takes a little more than his share of the blame, and a little less than his share of the credit."
The leadership platform
Every great leader needs clear-cut values, and everything a leader says should communicate these. A platform, or the building blocks for principles, is essential. When shaping a platform, managers can think about whether it encompasses these ideas:
Personally motivating — a platform should be something that is inspirational.
Fits expertise — a leader should be well-versed in their chosen topic.
Makes a compelling story — a compelling story will ensure a captive audience.
Resonates with the audience — a platform is something the leader cares about but also something the audience cares about.
A great way to look for a platform is where a leader's values and their organization's objectives meet. For example, a company's mission might be centered on customer-focused partnerships, and a leader might choose her platform on the idea that the customer always comes first.
Another important step in ensuring leadership success is to set clear goals. Goals help define objectives to work towards and will serve as motivation that sets the standards for self-satisfaction with leadership performance.
Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted.
Determine communication skills that need to be honed
For the audience's endorsement, a leader should be compelling, confident and charismatic. According to the Harvard Business Review, there are many communication techniques that a charismatic leader can use.
For instance, using contrasts in statements can make a point bigger and better. When former President John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," he clarified what he was not saying to make his argument stronger. Another tactic is the use of rhetorical questions to encourage engagement. Geico uses them in advertisements, like the television commercial that poses the question, "How happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to Geico?" A humorous answer leads the audience to the conclusion that saving money leads to happiness.
In the end, following these four steps alone won't make someone an effective leader. Desire, hard work and dedication are vital. As coach Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers once said, "Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work."
Catherine Wolfe is senior director of corporate and strategic communications at Toshiba America Medical Systems, where she is responsible for research and communications activities. Wolfe has contributed to the successful promotion of several of Toshiba's leading products, as well as the company's reputation and sales in diagnostic imaging. She has written numerous articles and spoken at industry conferences on leadership communications, marketing and customer satisfaction topics. Toshiba America Medical Systems is a leading provider of diagnostic medical imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions, such as CT, Cath & EP Labs, X-ray, Ultrasound, MRI and information systems.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's a girl for Jersey Shore alum JWoww (AKA Jenni Farley) and fiancé Roger Mathews. For their first daughter, they went with a unique pair of names—Meilani Alexandra. Meilani is a Hawaiian name that means beautiful sky, and hasn't broken the top 1000 in the U.S. (except, perhaps, in Hawaii itself). And Alexandra is a classic name that means defending men—it's a top 100 baby name here in the U.S..
I love the two names separately, but not sure they work as well together. With Meilani, I would pick a nature middle name, like Lily, Rose, Pearl or Wren.
Tell us: What do you think of JWoww's new daughter's name? Would you put Meilani and Alexandra together? If you're still looking for the perfect baby name for your baby, check out our baby naming tool, or email me at lamilbrand@gmail.com for advice. And don't forget to like In Name Only on Facebook to keep up with the very latest in baby names.
Naming your baby can be a daunting task. Here's how to know you've picked the right name.


Angel is a playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker from the Boston area. His diverse cultural background is a major influence in his work. Angel attended the New England Institute of Art where he received his AS in Television Broadcasting. He also attended the Emerson College Graduate Screenwriting Certificate Program. Angel earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University in 2010.
Ameriqueno Drama A young Puerto Rican farm wife travels to 1960s NYC with her children to build a new life after a devastating loss.
Fragment Comedy ⋄ Drama Isiah is an ad exec on the rise. As he prepares for an interview that will take him to the next level, he gets a hard slap in the face from the other side of the mirror. Flec challenges all of Isiah's perceptions about himself and tries to free him so he can reach his true potential.


These mini cuban naan pizzas might just be the easiest dinner yet! Slow cooker fresh pork roast paired with ham, naan bread, swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles! 15 minute dinner.
Today's recipe is sponsored by our friends at Smithfield!
I took a classic sandwich and turned it into pizza . . . made with mini naans.
It's the ultimate mash up!
Tender fresh pork, thinly sliced ham, tangy pickles, stringy swiss cheese, and fluffy naan <– Oh my yum.
In case you missed it, here at Show Me the Yummy, we're all about Easy Recipes for Yummy Food.
Who doesn't LOVE easy recipes that taste delicious?
Today's recipe totally fits the bill.
The main event? Smithfield Sweet & Smoky Marinated Fresh Pork Roast.
Once you get home from work, you're literally 10-15 minutes away from getting dinner on the table.
Step One: shred the pork roast.
Step Two: lay out mini naan bread on a baking sheet.
Step Three: spread dijon mustard on the naan.
Step Four: add some cheeeeese <– swiss, please!
Step Five: layer on sliced ham.
Step Seven: bake until the cheese is melty and delish.
Step Eight: throw on some pickles and maybe a little drizzle of hot sauce and a sprinkle of cilantro.
Step Nine: eat allllll the mini cuban naan pizzas.
Like. We're seriously obsessed with these. You can't get easier than this and I just LOVE the combination of sweet and smoky pork, gooey cheese, fluffy naan, savory ham, and tangy pickles!
Do you want more easy recipes using this pork? Show Me the Yummy!
These mini cuban naan pizzas might just be the easiest dinner yet! Slow cooker pork paired with ham, naan bread, swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles! 15 minute dinner.
Cook fresh pork roast according to package directions.
Shred cooked pork roast directly in your crockpot.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Place naan onto prepared baking sheet.
Spread naan evenly with dijon mustard, then layer on cheese, ham, and pork.
Bake in preheated oven for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese has melted.
Top with pickles, hot sauce, and cilantro.
This recipe can EASILY be doubled, tripled, etc.
Thanks again to Smithfield for sponsoring today's post!
These little pizza bites are so awesome!
Love a naan pizza and this idea is great!
Naan is my fav and these are right up my alley! YUM!
Thanks Tieghan! Naan is the best!
Love Smithfield products! This looks like one awesome pizza!
OMG! These are making me drool!!
This is so awesome and looks so tasty.


The freakishly bizarre antic of Tom Cruise (View Video here and another Here) have their roots in the notoriously criminal Scientology Corporation's highly debilitative "auditing" and 'Training Routines' which Scientology subjects its customers to, a process specifically designed to turn people's minds in to pudding solely to make them pliable enough to endlessly hand their money over to the criminal enterprise without question.
In Carl Sagan's book Demon-Haunted World Sagan wrote that Scientology's conman messiah L. Ron Hubbard had developed a written procedure for driving people insane, and the antics of Tom Cruise, Kirsty Alley, and to a lesser degree John Travolta - not to mention numerous glass-eyed robotic cult followers in Clearwater, Florida, and Los Angeles, California - it would appear that Sagan was completely correct.
While Scientology undeniably drives some of its customers absolutely insane, the origins of that insanity rest with L. Ron Hubbard, a man so ponderously driven by drugs, alcohol, and sexual problems that his insanity continues to be perpetuated among Scientology's ringleaders, crime bosses, and customers.
This is why the notoriously criminal Scientology Corporation hates the mental health industry so much. L. Ron Hubbard was profoundly insane, ending his life screaming about invisible murdered space aliens that infested him which he called Body Thetans, part of the endless bait-and-switch bunko frauds that Scientology sells to its customers.
The Scientology Corporation's core criminality driven by Hubbard's mental problems resulted in Scientology creating another one of their seemingly endless fake fronts, this one called their 'Citizens Commission on Human Rights', a name that's rather ironic given the criminal enterprise's massive human rights and civil rights violations involving their Rehabilitation Project Force prison system for its customers who attempt to flee.
We look at Tom Cruise on the movie screen and what we see isn't an actor attempting to play a role but a profoundly insane cultist, a cultist whose notorious lunacy has virtually ruined his career. But the origins of what has made Tom Cruise what he is today, the origins of the criminal enterprise's fake front 'CCHR,' everything started with the profound insanity of L. Ron Hubbard, a man who fled Federal prosecution for his racketeering, domestic espionage, blackmail, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, forging bomb threats et al. which culminated in the Operation Snow White Federal indictments, an operation which Scientology continues to commit against society today.
Don't blame Tom Cruise for his insanity. Blame L. Ron Hubbard.


Colchicine has been traditionally used for the treatment of gout: to ease symptoms of acute gout and for the prevention of its exacerbations, especially during the first few months of treatment with allopurinol or means that promote the excretion of uric acid. In this capacity, Colchicine has no no viable alternative to the present time.
In case of acute gout, Colchicine causes an impressive reaction, most likely due to reduced expression of inflammation caused by the urate crystals. This is achieved by running several different mechanisms, including reduction in the motility of leukocytes. We must understand that among these mechanisms, there is nothing like analgesia, as there is no decrease in the concentration of serum uric acid, or increase of its excretion from the body. Moreover, Colchicine has an anti-mitotic effect.
In case of acute attack of gout, treatment with Colchicine should begin as early as possible, and the effects of actions can occur within the first 12 hours.
In order to avoid complications you should use Colchicine only after consulting your doctor.
Pills or capsules are swallowed as a whole, with liquid.
In case of an acute attack of gout you should at first take 1 mg of Colchicine, then 0.5-1.5 mg every 1-2 hours until relief of pain. The total dose adopted for the day, should not exceed 8 milligrams of Colchicine On the 2nd and 3rd days of treatment the daily dose is 2 mg (in two doses). On the 4th and subsequent days you are prescribed 1 mg a day (in the evening). Re-treatment of an acute attack of gout can be conducted not earlier than in 3 days.
In order to prevent acute gout attacks in the first few months of treatment with uricosuric means you should take 0.5-1.5 mg of the drug daily or every other day (in the evening) within (usually) 3 months. The same dosing regime is used for other indications.
hypersensitivity to the active ingredient Colchicine.
CNS: depression, neuropathy, peripheral neuritis.
Digestive system: pain in the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, malabsorption syndrome (deficiency vitamin B12), disruption of the normal functioning of the liver.
Hematopoietic system: neutropenia, aplastic – anemia, myelosuppression, agranulocytosis, leukopenia. Thrombocytopenia develops in the background of a long reception.
Allergic reactions: urticaria, morbilliform rash.
Other side effects: disruption of the normal functioning of the kidneys, temporary alopecia (hair loss), azoospermia, myopathy.


A Hollywood blockbuster opening in cinemas this week features scenes shot with Brad Pitt in Croydon.
War Machine opens in UK cinemas and on Netflix on Friday (May 26).
Scenes were filmed over two days in September and October 2015 in Addington Palace.
The scenes in the Croydon mansion can be seen in the trailer. It shows Sir Ben Kingsley, playing the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, with Brad Pitt, who plays American army general, Glen McMahon.
In the trailer, Pitt tells Kingsley that Nato is about to embark on a new direction to build Afghanistan into a free and prosperous nation.
The film is described as part reality, part parody with Brad Pitt depicting a born leader's "march into folly".
A Camden pub also hosted the production, playing a Paris bar.
Addington Palace is a Grade II listed building, often used for weddings. Their website says the 18th-century mansion was chosen for filming because of its "resplendence and grandeur".


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Peter Goumas, 80
SOUTH DENNIS — Peter Goumas, 80, of South Dennis, formerly of Ansonia, Conn., passed away peacefully on April 23, 2008, at Cape Cod Hospital surrounded by his family.
Peter was born in New Haven, Conn., on April 29, 1927. Son of the late Sidney and Catherine (Jacobs) Goumas, Peter attended Ansonia public schools. At Ansonia High School, Peter excelled in baseball, track, basketball and football. Due to World War II, Peter's athletic and academic career was cut short when he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard prior to his senior year in high school.
Stationed in St. Petersburg, Fla., Peter received a hardship discharge in 1946, upon the sudden passing of his father and returned to Ansonia to operate the family grocery business. Soon after, Peter met his future wife, the only love of his life, Shirley Finer, of Shelton who he married on May 27, 1950.
Peter was a sports enthusiast and avid New York Giants baseball fan. One particular thrill of Peter's was when he somehow sneaked into the Giants' clubhouse after they clinched the pennant in 1951, on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Round the World" and shook Bobby's hand. Peter also coached his sons' Little League and Biddy Basketball teams.
After leaving the grocery business in 1968, Peter embarked upon a new career as a banker. He was also active in the community, serving as president of the Ansonia Board of Education for several years during the 1970s. In November 1990, Peter was inducted into the Ansonia High School Hall of Fame. He retired in June 1992, and by proclamation of the mayor, was named Ansonia's Community Banker of the Year.
Peter and Shirley moved to Cape Cod, where he worked part-time for Doane, Beal & Ames Funeral Home for several years. A religious man, Peter drew great strength from his faith. After moving to the Cape, he was an active member of Our Lady of the Cape, where he also served as a Eucharistic minister. Peter was also well-known in the Nauset High School sports community as his grandsons' biggest fan at their sporting events. Peter's love of sports was surpassed only by his love of his family.
He is survived by his loving wife, Shirley; one daughter, Christine Seymour of Brewster and her former husband Kip; three sons, Mark and his wife Gwen, of Oxford, Conn., Doug and his wife Patricia of Bedford, N.H., and Gregg, of West Hartford, Conn.; and his sister, Helen Landry of East Providence, R.I. He is also survived by 10 grandchildren, Elizabeth, Taylor, Connor and Cameron Seymour of Brewster, Alexandra and Faith Goumas of Oxford, Conn., and Gabriella, Alexa, Nicole and Eli Goumas of Bedford, N.H. He was predeceased by his son, Peter, and daughter, Elizabeth.
A funeral service in Connecticut is scheduled for Wednesday, April 30, and a memorial service will be held on Friday, May 2, at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of the Cape Church in Brewster.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Peter's memory may be made to the YMCA of Cape Cod, PO Box 188, West Barnstable, MA 02668.
© Copyright 2006-2019 GateHouse Media, LLC. All rights reserved • GateHouse Obits02


The Regions' legal and immigration experience paired with hands on agricultural knowledge allows for a full picture perspective.
We are the recruitment, immigration and pastoral care specialists for regional New Zealand offering a comprehensive wrap around service for your regional New Zealand employment journey.
Changes to New Zealand's immigration policy now provides work visa holders with a 21-day grace period should their visa application be declined.
The process of securing a work visa requires a lot of blood, sweat and paperwork, from all parties involved – the visa applicant, the employer and the immigration lawyer. But when the work visa is issued sheer elation is experienced by all. The hard work has paid off!
But that feeling of elation can also turn to one of despair if a subsequent visa application is declined.
Fortunately, the New Zealand Government has made some changes to the policies surrounding declined visas. Ben De'Ath, managing director of The Regions, looks at what these changes mean to work visa holders.
If you have employed a holder of a work visa, they are eligible to work in New Zealand for a period of one year, with the option of extending the work visa for a further 12 months. But this extension is not always guaranteed. This has meant that for some work visa holders, their employment has been terminated overnight leaving both employee and employer in an extremely difficult situation.
However, welcome changes announced by Immigration Minister, Iain Lees-Galloway, have taken place.
Now, if a work visa has been declined, pursuant to the updated Immigration Instruction I 1.15 and I 1.20.1, and the last visa has expired, the applicant has a three-week grace period where an interim visa will still be valid. This allows the work visa holder to continue living and working in New Zealand on the same conditions as their last interim visa and, allows you, the employer, some breathing space to find an alternative employment solution if required.
This is a not so subtle favour to work visa holders who stay in the same job with the same employer and apply to renew their work visas. This means if a visa is declined, and the interim visa had work rights, the 21-day grace period also has work rights.
Equally, if a work visa holder is changing jobs or employers, or changing their status from visiting or studying to working, they will only have visitor visa rights.
This news has come as welcome relief to many dairy farmers who have experienced recent visa declines of their migrant farmworkers and assistant herd managers. This 21-day grace period now allows the farmer to challenge the basis of the decline while having their employee remain legally working.
We commend the Immigration department for taking this long-standing policy feedback onboard and addressing the impossible situation both employers and employees were placed in when they were required to cease work with a moment's notice following visa declines.
In cases where the Immigration Officer has engaged in questionable process, rationale or decision making in reaching their decline, the most likely scenario post-visa decline will be to file a request for reconsideration, and gently ask the assessing branch to ensure they complete the request within the 21 days. While the applicant may still be declined following their reconsideration, the 21-day period will allow both employer and employee to plan accordingly and contemplate how they will go forward, should the request for reconsideration be declined.
At The Regions, our immigration and legal expertise enables us to help both farmers and farmworkers through the work visa application process and, if required, through the process of challenging a visa declined. From our experience working in the industry, it is our belief that if a visa has been declined and the applicant is of good health and character, it is likely they will be able to attain a work visa to start and/or continue working on a New Zealand dairy farm.
Our team can guide you through the process and advise you on whether you or your employee is permitted to continue working in the period following a declined visa.
Official Website The Regions | Copyright © 2018 All rights reserved.
Nadine is a country girl from Germany who has been backpacking New Zealand herself, so knows all about the daily struggles Backpackers might experience. With a master's in International Human Resource Management, a bachelor's in Business Psychology and ten years of working experience Nadine knows how to support our clients by recruiting short-term staff as a Recruitment Resourcer. In her free time Nadine likes exploring the outdoors and working with animals.
Originally from the Philippines, Bettina came to New Zealand in May 2015 to be with her husband. She has extensive experience in hiring and human relations being the hiring manager and teacher trainer for almost three years at an online ESL company back in her hometown.
She started working for Ben De'Ath in the spring of 2016 and currently works as a Pastoral Care Coordinator at The Regions focused mainly on the Northland area.
In April of 2018, Bettina and her husband welcomed their first child, Alonzo. Being a wife and a mother, when she has free time, she spends it in reading books and creative journaling.
Bianca has over 10 years of experience working in event management and operational roles across diverse industries. Her multitasking and operational skills provide support to our team and help keep company operations running smoothly.
Bianca is a Waikato girl who graduated with a Degree in Communications, she has returned from one year traveling and volunteering Across Asia to join our team at The Regions.
Alexandra comes from Germany, she grew up in a rural area in Rhineland-Palatinate. She is an educated office communication clerk trained in secretary, marketing and HR. Experienced working for the Office Administration and accounts in the logistic industry for 12 years in Germany.
Due to her recent Experienced in working on dairy farms in Australia and New Zealand she is now enjoying working as a Recruitment Resourcer to support our clients with proficient farmworkers. In her free time she loves travelling, spending time with friends and her partner.
Sana was born and raised in Hamilton. She graduated with a degree in Law and Social Sciences majoring in Environmental Planning and Political Science from University of Waikato. She is also a registered lawyer as of August 2018. Her past work experiences include legal advice, real estate and human resource recruitment. In The Regions, she manages the recruiting of foreign farm workers and liasing between immigration and pastoral care team. Aside from work, Sana is an avid traveller and loves spending time with family and friends.
Richard is a fourth generation dairy farmer from Hauraki Plains where he has several dairy farming investments. He has interests in dairy farming operations in Canterbury, Missouri USA and the south of Chile. Richard owns and runs a dairy farming supervisory business which oversees the daily operations of around 35 dairy units in the greater Waikato region, and also provides dairy consultancy services. Richard is also a director on another large scale privately owned NZ based dairy farming business comprising 13,000 cows. Richard brings critical thinking and creativity to assisting the rapid growth business in his role at The Regions.
Richard formerly held a role as an External Monetary Policy Advisor to the Reserve Bank.
Roger is a Partner at KPMG Hamilton and a market leading accountant and adviser In the Agribusiness field. He brings a wealth of experience with him and his focus in his role at the regions on governance and future vision, adding to the existing strong capability in The Regions Management team. Roger knows the region well having lived in the Waikato all his life. Roger has worked with our Managing Director Ben on several different ventures in the past 10 years.
Alexandra is from the Philippines with a background and experience in design, photography, and advertising. She has a degree in Multimedia Arts and finished her Honours in Hamilton. She is behind The Regions' website and social media marketing materials.
She is passionate in her field and will explore more on her craft in the future.
Sonja comes from a family of farmers, growing up in the Waikato on the family dairy farm. As a teenager her family moved to a sheep and cattle farm at Tauwhare, where she lives today.
Sonja started her career in an engineering company responsible for the office administration, accounts and payroll. She then moved overseas and has travelled Australia, Europe and US acquiring a strong understanding of multicultural perspectives in communities and work environments.
Sonja returned to NZ and the family farm to provide her children with the opportunity to experience rural life.
Jessanli stayed most of his life in Philippines and moved to New Zealand last November 2014 to study International Business. Though he worked in the banking business back home as a Marketing Assistant/ Appraisal and Background Investigator for almost 5 years, he believed that further education and experience will help him gain professional competence.
Currently he is a Client Services Coordinator who looks after filipino farmers in processing their visas and following up how they're settled in New Zealand.
Originally from Philippines, Victor moved to New Zealand in 2014 to study. He has been working with Ben since 2014 to maintain and implement effective pastoral care policies and procedures. He is managing the Pastoral Care Team that provides pastoral support to enable an efficient and effective integration of immigrant candidates into New Zealand. He is also currently completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Immigration Advice.
When not at work, Victor enjoys going to the gym and spending time with his wife Miko.
Gina was a psychologist, a university professor and a Human Resource consultant of various companies in the Philippines. She came to NZ together with her 4 children on August 2014 in order to join her husband, Jason who worked in a dairy farm. In NZ, she shared her psychology skills by supporting people with intellectual disability. She also worked as Candidate Care Manager and Marketing agent of recruitment companies bringing in Filipino workers.
Currently, she is our Client Services Coordinator and Pastoral Care person for Waikato region. She supports the workers in their visa processing and makes sure that they are able to settle well in their jobs and with NZ life in general.
Rose had variety of roles in her 18 working years from Philippine banking sector to NZ mortgage industry. Her strong interest in documents preparation & review plus her passion in helping candidates are among her key points of being one of the pastoral care team players.
She welcomes new learnings in immigration & recruitment industry. Handling new and existing candidates with care and keeping them are very important in her daily task.
During free time, she loves cooking & baking for her daughter, Angel, enjoy playing badminton on Friday nights with her husband, Adel.
Gilbert is from the Philippines and he arrived in New Zealand in spring of 2015. He is a graduate of BS Psychology with relevant work experience in HR, Recruitment and Employee Relations.
Since early 2016, Gilbert has been working alongside Ben in delivering services to meet clients' requirements and supporting farm workers in their immigration and HR needs. He is currently the Executive Assistant to the Managing Director.
Gilbert is living in Hamilton with his wife Katrina and their 6-year old daughter, Sasha.
Raveena is from the Cream of the Country, Morrinsville and has grown up in a community surrounded by dairy farms. She completed her LLB at the University of Waikato and is admitted as a Solicitor and Barrister of the High Court New Zealand. She has previously worked as a Law Clerk in a private practice law firm in Hamilton which dealt with a range of different areas of law. From this experience, along with learning lots of administration work, she also gained a detailed understanding behind how the law processes in work in practice.
Outside of work she enjoys cooking and spending time with her family and friends. Alongside this she has a big interest in the fashion and beauty industry.
Louise is a full-time student studying Bachelor of Laws in Waikato University and is now currently on her second year. She just recently joined the Immigration team of the Regions as a part – time Admin. She was from Dunedin but she moved to Hamilton to be with family and to continue her studies after taking a gap year. On her spare time, she enjoys cooking and love babysitting her niece and nephew.
Kristine and her family lived in dairy farms across Southland and Otago region. She graduated from University of Otago with a Bachelors Degree in Management and a Post Graduate Diploma in Commerce. After graduating from the university, she started working as an administrator for dairy farms.
One of her responsibilities is managing the end to end recruitment of foreign dairy farm workers. She has been recruiting Filipino dairy farmers for the last 4 years. She also previously worked for Immigration New Zealand. She is married to a dairy farmer and have 2 children.
Denise is a dairy farmer's daughter from Patetonga on the Hauraki Plains. She is currently juggling the roles of Immigration Administration, completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Immigration Advice, wife, mother to four children and lifestyle/hobby farmer.
Denise has a Master's Degree in Social Science, speaks Spanish and Japanese having lived in Argentina and Japan and an employment history that includes the Embassy of Chile, Immigration New Zealand and Inland Revenue.
She has travelled extensively in her pre-children days and in the bit of free time that she does have she enjoys gardening and horse riding.
Sam is a graduate of Otago University holding a Bachelors Degree in Applied Science. He has many years of experience in the telecommunications industry, primarily in customer facing roles in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
He completed his immigration training in his home region of Hawkes Bay before acquiring full NZ Adviser Licencing in 2015. After practicing in a small firm in Hastings he now joins The Regions team bringing his service expertise and a 'can-do' attitude.
Sam loves to travel. He has traveled extensively throughout South-East Asia, Latin America and Europe, including living and working in London for two years.
Having worked for Immigration New Zealand as well as in private practice law firms specialising in Immigration Law for a number of years gives Bevan a wealth of experience critical to the work of The Regions.
He enjoys the problem solving aspects of the role and improving the internal systems of The Regions so that the process runs as smoothly as possible for clients and candidates. Bevan, along with Ben, is also an Otago Law school graduate having studied Law together in Dunedin.
Outside of work, Bevan enjoys travelling throughout New Zealand and abroad, and spending as much time as possible with his dog, Max.
Fleur is our Key Account Manager for the Southland and South & West Otago regions. She is based in Mossburn where she and her husband James Lower Order Sharemilk 1100 cows. They have a team of migrant Nepalese working alongside them, so Fleur has a good background in working with migrants and supporting their visa and life requirements.
After graduating from the University of Otago, Fleur spent 4 years working in the corporate world in the cities and chose to come back to dairy farming 8 years ago. Fleur and James have three small children and are both very active in their growing farming business.
Michelle and her husband Pete have been dairy farming for 27 years, their dairy farming career has taken them to the Waikato, Hauraki Plains, Southland and Waihi where they are currently farming.
Whilst in Southland Michelle and Pete employed Filipino staff on their 220 HA dairy farm. Michelle comes from a governance back ground having been Chair and Trustee for several Not for Profit Boards.
Michelle has three adult children who are have careers associated with the primary sector, she enjoys spending time with family and friends and travelling.
Julie has a background in dairy farming and administration. Julie and her husband started off self-employed on a dairy farm near Morrinsville. After a few years Julie, her husband and other family members joined a partnership and moved to a bigger farm near Te Awamutu milking 1000 dairy cows, she and her team employ 3 full time Filipinos.
Julie has two children who love to explore farming life and being in the big wide open spaces of the country. In her down time, Julie loves spending quality time with her family and friends relaxing, and having a good laugh.
Leanne grow up just outside of Geraldine on a parents dairy/beef farm. She always love been outside on the farm, after finishing school she went dairy farming, where she met her husband. 10 years ago they moved up to island Ashburton here my husband and her milk 1300 cows hiring five Filipino. Outside from the farming and recruitment life I have two boys which one is sport mad that keeps us busy.
Steph is our Key Account Manager for Manawatu, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa. She studied Sport and Exercise at Massey University and went dairy farming as a summer job in 2007 and has never looked back.
Steph has been involved in dairy farming and working with Filipino farm staff for 10 years, and has been active in farm staff recruitment for almost 3 years. She now lives in Opiki with her husband Kristian and their three children on the family dairy farm where they milk 1900 cows.
Previously a client, Shannon is our Key Accounts Manager for the Hauraki Plains and Surrounds. She studied Hospitality Management and landed in the Hotel industry where she was involved in a large portion of recruitment spanning over her seven years service.
Shannon and her husband James along with their two children, Karstyn and Bryah are Contract Milking on a 900 cow farm in Ngatea. They're also shareholders in two other companies with farms spanning across the Waikato, Canterbury and Southland regions in New Zealand and Missouri, USA.
Ben is a graduate of Otago University Law School, and now finds himself putting his education to use servicing the NZ dairy farming sector. Ben is a market expert writing columns and article's on regional NZ labour shortage and Immigration policy needs and realities.
When not at work, Ben enjoys time with his wife Patricia, playing Basketball, Rugby and the fun humour and intensity of Christopher (5) and Sebastian (2).
Patricia is a company Director passionate about her family and the philosophy of continual improvement. She is an Industrial & System Engineer graduated from the "Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra" one of the leading universities in Bolivia.
She has 4 years experience as process and HR support in the "immigration and recruitment" industry. She works at The Regions improving the company operations and processes.
She speaks Spanish, English, basic French and Portuguese. Patricia is married with Ben and they have 2 boys Christopher and Sebastián.


Introducing our new park crests!
As part of our OP125 celebrations last year, we designed a brand new set of park crests — and they're hitting the shelves this summer!
Continue reading Introducing our new park crests!
Gearing up to celebrate our 125th anniversary has us digging through archives in search of vintage photos and documents. Over the course of the year, we'll be sharing our discoveries in our OP125 blog series.
This month, we're taking a look back on a collection of Ontario Parks vehicle permits dating back to 1957. Purchased and displayed on the front dash of a vehicle, these permits would give people unlimited daily vehicle entry to all Ontario provincial parks.
What's new on Ontario Parks' shelves in 2016?
We've got something for everyone this season!
Here's a sneak peek of what you might find in our Park Stores this summer.
Continue reading What's new on Ontario Parks' shelves in 2016?
Noticed the dainty purple flower adorning the 2016 summer pass for Ontario Parks?
It may surprise you to learn that when Ontario Parks staff discovers that flower in a park, they often rip it out by the roots.


These classic style boots from Anine Bing are fan favourite! Updated in a croco leather finish there is nothing these boots can't do. They feature a refined pointy toe, low stiletto heel and are super comfortable for everyday wear.


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Savannah – jednostka osadnicza w Stanach Zjednoczonych, w stanie Teksas, w hrabstwie Denton.

CDP w stanie Teksas

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


A classic mince pie recipe with additional dried fruit and a touch of booze.
Rub the flour and butter in a bowl until it forms a crumb like consistency.
Add in the sugar and one large egg, and mix together.
Combine, place in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 10 minutes.
In a bowl, mix together the mincemeat, dried cranberries, ground almonds and a splash of brandy.
Roll the pastry out to 2-3mm thick and use a round cutter and cut out 16 circles and a star cutter to cut out 16 tops.
Place the circles in the bottom of a muffin tin and put a teaspoon of mincemeat on top. Then place the star on the top.
Glaze the top of them with the other beaten egg and place in a preheated oven at 200C for 15-20 minutes.
Once cooked, allow to cool for 15-20 minutes then dust with icing sugar.
When you go a bit mad with the icing sugar!


Commenting on the announcement made by Secretary of State for Justice Kenneth Clarke on civil justice reforms, Andrew Tucker, head of Personal Injury for Irwin Mitchell, said; "This is a bleak day for access to justice in Britain and a double whammy for the consumer.
"The Government's proposals will force consumers - irrespective of their means - to pay some of their legal fees even if they win and will deter them from bringing perfectly legitimate claims. At the same time, it is slashing the legal aid budget so the public will effectively lose out twice. This is even more extraordinary when the level of claims is falling and the people who will suffer the most are the most seriously injured - those who should be able to rely on the law for help, irrespective of their means.


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Our Demands
Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Security – JEDIS
Communication to Total's employees
Action consensus
Checklist of materials for the action
Affinity groups and buddies
COVID recommendations
In recent years, citizens around the world have taken to the streets en masse to demand ambitious and righteous climate and social policies. Progress is barely visible and profound, systemic change is far from being achieved. Meanwhile, the climate is literally derailing before our eyes and the living conditions of more and more people around the world are deteriorating.
Historically, mass actions of civil disobedience have often had a positive impact on major changes. People chose to resist and break the law to demand profound change. That is exactly what Code Red wants to achieve. Let's end the era of fossil fuel capitalism and build a sustainable and social just future, together. We need you!
"By deliberately breaking the law, we are part of a long history of social struggle. Where legitimate resistance from citizens challenges the power of corporations that put shareholders and profit above people and nature"
Code Red action consensus
Extreme weather, floods, soil erosion, rising fuel and energy bills and rising prices for basic necessities. Our dependence on fossil fuels is taking its toll, to say the least. Oil, gas and coal are directly implicated in human rights abuses in the South and fuels numerous conflicts and wars around the world.
The climate, energy, social and economic crisis is driving the working and middle classes into poverty. The most vulnerable become even poorer because of huge energy bills. Meanwhile, big fossil companies like TotalEnergies make enormous profits. These multinationals are key players in the history of the current climate crisis. This history is one of land grabbing, persecution and colonialism. For years, they have worked to influence our societies with their poisonous green propaganda and crony capitalism. Their climate-destroying actions are even rewarded by our politicians through financial bonuses and various subsidies. The workers in this sector, who depend on their jobs for income, are kept in the dark about their future.
Time is running out and the challenge is enormous, but a viable future is still possible. That is what we are fighting for. For a society where the big polluters are held accountable for their actions, where everyone has fair access to energy and where citizens and workers are supported to move away from fossil fuels. A society that relies on renewable energy, combats pollution, makes us independent from dubious regimes and creates more peace. A society where the climate transition is not made on the back of the working class and with opportunities for paid work for all. A society with a better distribution of wealth, fundamental rights for all, lower energy bills, a better quality of life and a good future for our children.
#StopTotal – Why TotalEnergies?
Code Red's first major mobilisation targets oil and gas giant TotalEnergies. Why?
With the third largest refinery in Europe and the largest network of petrol stations in Belgium, this fossil giant manages to make billions in profits. Despite the harsh reality of the climate crisis and the scientific consensus on its causes, TotalEnergies continues to invest blindly in the extraction and marketing of fossil fuels.
TotalEnergies is much more than a symbol. Their corporate history is directly linked to (neo)colonialism, stealing natural and personal resources, spreading disinformation (including greenwashing) and projects that are devastating to the environment and climate.
Big polluters like TotalEnergies have determined our future for too long. By acting together, we can all put an end to this.
Climate criminal
50 years ago, even before the Meadows report in 1972, Total knew. Total knew very well that their activities would create an unlivable world. A world in which 1-1.5°C warming would be guaranteed a few decades later. That is the world we find ourselves in today.
And yet, if one were to believe the many advertisements, one would think that TotalEnergies is fully committed to climate and renewable energy. In reality, the company is still investing heavily in fossil fuels. Fossil fuels still account for 90% of the company's business and 75% of its investments. TotalEnergies' new climate plan is completely contrary to the goals of the Paris climate agreement nor in line with the recommendations of the International Energy Agency.
TotalEnergies is not only depriving young and future generations of a liveable future. It is also holding households and small and medium-sized enterprises hostage in a fossil-fuel-based system with rising energy and fuel prices. Why? Simple: profit. Thanks in part to those high prices, the French multinational had a record economic year last year with no less than 13.5 billion euros in profits.
Cynically, on top of these gigantic profits, many of the big polluters also receive a lot of tax money. For instance, heavy industry in Flanders receives up to a billion euros a year in offsets, exemptions and subsidies without even presenting a proper climate plan. Moreover, someone has to pay for all those rebates to the industry. Households and SMEs pay a disproportionate share of the cost of energy policy through their energy bills. The big polluters pay little or nothing.
Neocolonialism and human rights
"If we look at Total's history, we see (the complicity of states that allowed) a company (… ) that colonised Africa for exploitation, that collaborated with officially racist political regimes, that corrupted dictators and political representatives, that conquered territories through military intervention, that moved assets to tax havens and infrastructure to free-trade zones, that pressured oligarchic regimes and put their populations deeply in debt, that polluted vast areas to the point of endangering public health, that subjugated political regimes that are theoretically sovereign, that enslaved populations,… (or to direct deliberative processes)
Excerpt from the book "What is TOTAL the sum of?" (Alain Deneault)
Fossil fuel extraction remains a source of human rights violations around the world, often perpetuating a logic of colonial exploitation.
The EACOP project in Uganda and Tanzania, for example, aims to drill more than 400 wells and exploit an oil reservoir of more than a billion barrels. And this in an area of exceptional biodiversity, where more than 100,000 people are to be displaced for the construction of the world's largest heated pipeline (1,500 km). This is TotalEnergies' answer to the social and environmental crisis! Local communities, human rights- and environmental activists are doing all they can to oppose the pipeline. But they face increasing pressure and threats as they speak out against the commercial and political interests behind EACOP. Human rights violations are on the rise, as are repression and harassment of journalists.
Fossil fuels are also often closely linked to wars and conflicts. For example, in the context of Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine, TotalEnergies continues to hold onto its fossil assets in Russia. In doing so, the company feeds Putin's war chest and risks becoming complicit in war crimes.
TotalEnergies was warned more than 50 years ago by its own experts about the possible link between fossil fuel production and global warming. Yet TotalEnergies has remained fully committed to fossil fuels. Moreover, all fossil multinationals invested heavily in propaganda and lobbying to keep the climate problem off the public and political agenda. Thus, they deprived us of precious decades to tackle the climate crisis.
In the beginning, climate denial was the fossil industry's most effective tactic. Until the severity of the climate crisis could no longer be denied. Then they switched to more sophisticated but equally dirty, delaying and distracting tactics to keep pumping oil and gas. Total's rebranding campaign to TotalEnergies is a good example. Which attempts to brand the company as a pioneer of the energy transition, while in reality it mainly continues with its climate-damaging core business.
Social and climate: same battle
Energy bills are exploding and so is the price at the pump. Inflation is already 9%. Two million people in Belgium can count on the social tariff. For others, meanwhile, the annual energy bill can reach as much as 2,500 to 3,500 euros. But not everyone is in the same boat. In fact, there are some big winners in this crisis. The big winners are the big fossil companies. Thanks to the war in Ukraine and the sharp rise in energy prices (which started as early as 2021), they are making record profits and channelling them to shareholders. The case of TotalEnergies is exemplary: the oil and gas company posted profits of €13.6 billion in 2021, up more than 40 percent from 2019.
One crisis is the common thread: the crisis of a system in which the profits of a few multinationals are more important than people and the planet. The consequences are clear: growing inequality, the overexploitation of natural resources and climate collapse.


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1980s, Action-Adventure, Comedy
Airplane! (1980) / Top Secret! (1984)
June 17, 2019 filmfreedonia1970s, Cold War, David Zucker, disaster movies, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, movie parody, Robert Hayes, social satire, Val Kilmer, war movies 3 Comments
Directors/Screenwriters: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Coscreenwriter on Top Secret!: Martyn Burke
Known collectively as ZAZ, the writing and directing team of brothers David and Jerry Zucker and pal Jim Abrahams started their careers in that comedy Mecca, Madison, Wisconsin, where they were key members of a satirical sketch troupe called the Kentucky Fried Theatre. The burgeoning American, Canadian, and British fringe comedy scenes of the 1970s became a proving ground for so many of the talents who would become stars in in the 1980s, but ZAZ were some of the relatively few from such scenes who found their place behind the camera. They graduated to the big screen in collaboration with John Landis on the 1978 film The Kentucky Fried Movie, and soon were given the chance to make their own movie. The trio decided, rather than simply offer a string of sketches as they had in their previous outing, they would present a mostly coherent lampoon of a specific type of movie and use it as a scarecrow to hang their jokes on. ZAZ, with their encyclopaedic sense of pop culture and authentic streak of movie buff fondness for the sorts of films they would nonetheless ransack for camp and kitsch, decided to take a whack at sending up the disaster movie genre that had been huge business throughout the 1970s for Hollywood. The resulting concoction, Airplane!, released in 1980, was a hugely profitable hit and quickly became enshrined amongst the most beloved comedy cult films.
By comparison, ZAZ's 1984 follow-up Top Secret!, a panoramic swipe at spy, war, and Elvis movies, gained a comparatively muted response and lingered more quietly on video store shelves and occasional TV showings, although it too eventually gained veneration. The trio also stumbled with their attempt to create a TV series, Police Squad! (1982), but gained their revenge when they adapted it as a movie, The Naked Gun (1987), and scored another popular hit that birthed two sequels. After tackling a script written by others on Ruthless People (1986) whilst still a team, the trio split to take on solo directing works: Abrahams tackled Big Business (1988), Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1990), and the more ZAZ-like Hot Shots! films (1991, 1993). Jerry Zucker proved the most willing to go off-brand with the supernatural romance Ghost (1990) and Arthurian tale First Knight (1995), before stalling with Rat Race (2001), a tribute to one of the ZAZ stylistic influences, Stanley Kramer's It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). David directed the first two Naked Gun entries, worked with the creators of the very ZAZ-like TV series South Park on BASEketball (1998), and later took over the Scary Movie franchise from the Wayans brothers, before undoing himself somewhat with the right-wing patriotic screed An American Carol (2008).
With Airplane!, ZAZ reinvented the movie parody genre, one that had only known sporadic stabs anyway over the years, and which was generally left to television, which could speedily assimilate and produce a send-up and move on. A good feature-length lampoon, by contrast, had to amass decades' worth of clichés and points of reference to work. Bob Hope had made his name in movies poking their tongues out at other movies, with the likes of the horror movie burlesques The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940), the Western-disassembling farce The Paleface (1950) and its Frank Tashlin-directed sequel (1952). Jacques Tourneur's The Comedy of Terrors (1963) had made sport of the gothic horror revival of its day and the Carry On films had often revolved around making fun of familiar genres, from historical epics to spy movies. ZAZ spurned however the relatively traditional approach of many of these, for they also channelled the bristling linguistic and behavioural anarchism of the Marx Brothers, frenetic zaniness of H.C. Potter's Hellzapoppin' (1941), the free-for-all aesthetic of MAD Magazine, the protean, associative strangeness of Looney Tunes, and the provocative black comedy of Harvard's National Lampoon, which was also trying to leverage a turn to the big screen around the same time as ZAZ.
ZAZ's immediate forerunners as Jewish wiseacres turned comedy auteurs had been Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, who had many of the same influences. Allen had leveraged his own movie career with genre-specific send-ups like What's Up Tiger Lily? (1966) and Take The Money And Run (1969), whilst Brooks, with the Western survey Blazing Saddles (1974), had kicked off his own popular imprimatur as a movie satirist with a willingness to distort cinematic reality through a jarring blend of retro mores and contemporary attitude, even with meta-movie twists in Blazing Saddles. Where ZAZ went one better than him was in adopting an ever faster pace of gag deployment, and in adding an extra zest of panoramic social satire. One reason for ZAZ's success in this regard lay in their eager embrace of simultaneous styles of humour: Airplane! maintains its giddy rush of gags simply by trusting that one funny thing is as good as another. For lovers of older movies, the impact of the ZAZ style, like that of the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000, can be a mixed blessing, as it can be hard to appreciate the particular pleasures of the sorts of movies they aimed at without feeling a little hectored. And yet, unlike the Monty Python team, who with their films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979), liked to deconstruct stories in time with assaults on social conventions, ZAZ maintained a less cynical affection for the movies they liked to pull apart, and honoured despite their sarcasm the basic story logic of such models.
Undoubtedly, the greater part of Airplane!'s success lay in the way it offered a machine gun volley of jokes without rhyme and scarcely any reason, a velocity of laughs that made Brooks look positively lackadaisical. But the pace of humour disguised other, deftly organised principles. One smart move was in avoiding directly mocking any particular entry in the '70s disaster cycle, instead taking as its basis a lesser-known progenitor to give it a proper narrative backbone. Arthur Hailey, who had written the novel Airport that was filmed in 1970 and kicked off the disaster movie craze, had dabbled in the theme of aerial crisis years earlier, with the Canadian TV play Zero Hour, adapted into a film starring Dana Andrews in 1957. That film, with its story of a war-damaged flying veteran pressganged into landing a passenger plane after its aircrew go down with food poisoning, offered a perfect narrative structure, because it allowed the disaster situation to be at once static and open-ended. Airplane!'s power derives from the way, despite every impediment it throws in his path both plot-wise and comedic, it still credits protagonist Ted Striker (Robert Hays) with a traditional hero's journey as he tries to overcome self-doubt and trauma and win back his stewardess girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hagerty) in the course of saving the day, an aspect enabled by Hays' skill in both delivering deadpan humour and evoking everyman empathy. But perhaps the deepest source of Airplane!'s specific pep lay in its driving sense of ironic contrast, between the slick neatness of Hollywood narrative and the bizarre lilt of modern American life circa 1980.
The Kentucky Fried Movie had already unveiled ZAZ as a team with a delight mixed with derision for the commercialised accoutrements of the '70s lifestyle obsession, spawned from the team's old habit of leaving their VCR recording late-night TV and making sport of the esoterica they found that way—Zero Hour being such relic. Airplane! is obsessed with many of its characters as free-floating bodies of unhinged wont, from Capt. Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves) as a discerning reader of Modern Sperm magazine and advanced-studies purveyor in paedophilic overtures, to his wife in bed with her equine lover, and the rank of people delighting in a chance to deal out some brute force to a hysterical woman. The famous early gag of two announcing voices on a Los Angeles airport PA system, whose disagreement over what the various zones are for soon shades into an argument over the woman getting an abortion, exemplifies this aspect: drab functionalism warps into a deeply personal spat over the fallout of sex and intimacy, inspired by aspects of Airport. ZAZ consciously set up two ways of experiencing movies in opposition. The old, square, WASP style was represented by the cadre of actors once regularly cast as stern and serious types, including Leslie Nielsen, Graves, Lloyd Bridges, and Robert Stack. They collide with a more contemporary landscape, one infected with a polyglot of rich and perverse players. Stack's adamantine action man Rex Kramer, once a battler of enemy nations during "The War," is now reduced to calmly hacking his way through a score of pestering new age proselytisers.
The Airport films had already displayed distinct aspects of knowing camp, which made sending them up, like the Roger Moore-era James Bond films, a difficult task as they were already in essence self-satires: nobody could take Helen Reddy as a singing nun entertaining a deathly ill Linda Blair seriously. Airplane!'s dichotomous strategy helped it pull off the trick. Many '70s disaster movies fed parasitically on a faded ideal of movie glamour and star power, casting former big-name performers and finding creative ways of killing them off. ZAZ by contrast dug up actors to get them to repurpose their images, ironically doing better by such actors and even transforming Nielsen and Bridges into late-career comedy stars. This approach rewarded viewers who also remembered and delighted in those old, cheesy movies, and even ones that weren't that old – Nielsen's presence was directly inspired by his contribution to The Poseidon Adventure (1972) – but worked just as well if you didn't: I dare say that as a kid watching Airplane! (when I knew it by its Australian release title, Flying High!) was the first time I'd encountered many such performers and conventions, thus also making it a kind of miniature film school. It also contrasted the more traditionally comedic, hammy, neo-vaudevillian shtick Brooks was keeping alive. Not that Airplane! suppresses that shtick as an influence. The film's most perpetually quoted exchange, "Surely you can't be serious!" "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley," is so pure in channelling those roots you can easily imagine Groucho and Chico Marx uttering it, but it's given a very specific quality here via Nielsen's utter conviction in delivering the punchline. Only a highly professional actor with decades of experience in the soul-weathering art of making terrible dialogue sound vital could truly do it justice.
Some of this explains why immediate precursors to Airplane! didn't gain nearly so much traction. Neil Israel's Americathon (1979) had a very similar pitch of exacerbating zeitgeist trends with a strong dose of randy, post-yippie smart-assery, but it had an inverse proportion of political and lifestyle satire to pop culture joking to Airplane!, and its shots at the latter aspect were too vaguely observed to offer the same frisson. James Frawley's The Big Bus (1976) beat Airplane! to the punch in mocking the disaster movie craze with a very similar approach including casting self-satirising stars and mixing in a panoply of genre movie influences. Indeed, it took on some common touches with enough effect ZAZ didn't have to bother with them, like the smarmy lounge singer act, but played a much cleaner game and lacked the later film's all-encompassing licence. ZAZ's twists tend not to just take a cliché and reproduce it for smirking recognition but build on it, like the notion of a couple of non-English-speakers in the midst of disaster causing contention for the crew here offered via the two black men (Norman Alexander Gibbs and Al White) who speak only in incredibly dense jive argot. This is then given further layering by making the unlikely translator for their native language Barbara Billingsley, the mother from Leave It To Beaver, and then having them regaled by The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno (1974) songstress Maureen McGovern in the guise of a singing nun whose version of "Respect" inspires profuse vomiting.
One further aspect of Airplane!'s special brilliance lay in the way ZAZ revealed themselves as proper filmmakers, with ready ability to balance comedic performance with cinematic movement. They shift nimbly between set-ups to give each joke its necessary space in a way that strongly contrasts the tendency of today's comedy filmmakers like Paul Feig to indulge rambling pseudo-improvisation and any-shot-will-do indolence to contain the humour. Some of Airplane!'s best gags, like an airline mechanic (Jimmy Walker) tending to the plane like a gas station hand in the background of a functional scene, or a mockery of beatifically smiling faces leaning into frame as they listen to a beautiful song including one man descending from overhead, depend on a poise of visual exposition beyond many comedy directors. Airplane!'s willingness to go off-brand in sourcing its laughs, if one that from a certain standpoint refuses to obey any ground rules and so seeming a touch mercenary, nonetheless helped to free up its reflexes rather than merely offer a checklist of honoured cliches. As well as disaster movies Airplane! sidesteps to take swipes at old war movies and then-recent hits, most hilariously illustrated by Ted's flashback recollection of meeting Elaine in a seedy nightspot, the Mogambo, "populated by every reject and cutthroat from Bombay to Calcutta – it was worse than Detroit." This sequence ticks off such familiar flourishes of the old movie dive bar as the sexy sauntering legs accompanied by saucy jazz (the owner of the legs here blowing a lick on a trombone) and two soldiers getting into a fight over a card game (except the uniformed battlers here are a pair of girl scouts).
This skews unexpectedly into a mockery of John Travolta's famous dance scene from Saturday Night Fever (1977) as genuinely ebullient as it is pitiless in excavating the postures of contemporary urban warrior fantasy encapsulated in the model, as well as its dodgy showmanship, knowing full well the Travolta vehicle sold the notion of the modern cowboy as a duellist on the range of slick moves and quick sex. Airplane! incidentally depicts once-suppressed subcultures becoming conversant with each-other, an idea made into literal jokes with the Jive dudes and the sight of a nun and a kid each reading a magazine on the other social subset's lifestyle, but extended throughout the narrative more implicitly as ZAZ obey Terry Southern and Lenny Bruce's project for American satirical comedy as an unveiling of the basic hungers of US society in a way unadorned by high-flown cant. Johnny (Stephen Stucker) is deployed later in the film to wield shafts of camp anarchy ("Fog's getting thicker!" "And Leon's getting laaarrrrgggeeer!"). In perhaps the film's funniest and filthiest sustained gag, Elaine has to refill the plane's inflatable Automatic Pilot (Otto) in a literal blow-job that leaves the intruding Rumack bewildered and concludes with both lady and dummy smoking in suggestive bliss. This scene works as a totally random excursion into sexy humour but incidentally offers a sharp capsule summary of the Airport series' preoccupation with contemporary sexual mores: Elaine getting it on after a fashion with Otto is also an act of sensual liberation commensurate with Ted's recovery of his manly mojo.
Some jokes don't fly so well now. Ted's account of his and Elaine's stint trying to school a remote African tribe takes a poke at white self-congratulation as Ted suggests his "advanced Western teaching techniques" help the tribe learn basketball when they clearly, instantly grasp and master the game, but also feels a bit graceless in taking on racist cliché. ZAZ's tilts at '70s licentiousness also mediate the looming spectre of '80s Reaganism. The many pot-shots at the about-to-be-President, including a running joke based on his 1940 film Knute Rockne, All-American ("Go out there and win just one for the Zipper!") bespeak ZAZ's suspicion that the desire to vote for Reagan was also the desire of an America tiring of contemporary lunacy to live in an old movie. Indeed, David Zucker's later conservative turn suggests he might have empathised with it even then. The mid-film pause for a sing-along as stewardess Randy (the splendid, astonishingly underemployed Lorna Patterson) comforts heart transplant patient Lisa (Jill Whelan) sees her belting out Peter Yarrow's internationalist anthem "River of Jordan," an affirmation of general idealism hilariously undercut by not noticing she's knocked out Lisa's IV tube. Here ZAZ identify with lacerating exactitude not just silliness of the model scenes in Airport 1975 (1974) but also the way the '60s version of poptimism became supplanted by Me Decade obliviousness.
Similarly, Kramer's rampage through the pestilential proliferation of airport badgerers depicts exhaustion with the whole panoply of consciousness-raising and social issue-mongering. Airplane! ends gleefully with Ted landing the plane safely and the pompous Kramer continuing to explore the nature of trauma over the radio ("Have you ever been kicked in the head with an iron boot?") past the point of necessity, and the lifestyle aspect is given its last wink as Otto gains an inflatable mate and takes off to the wild blue yonder. Elmer Bernstein's ingenious score gives the film a deal of cohesion as he imbues even absurd scenes with a dramatic tenor equal to that of the square-jawed old actors, and sends the film out with a grandiose march that underlines the carnivalesque sense of all-American good-humour. Top Secret!, when it arrived four years later, was already contending with a different social landscape. The old-fashioned values ZAZ had made fun of were regaining currency in mainstream movies; Ted Striker's redemptive arc soon became that of John Rambo and John McClane and Martin Riggs. The kinds of old spy and war movies the story was based in had already been bundled together with extra lashings of action and spectacle as well as wry knowing in the Indiana Jones films.
The film's Elvis stand-in, Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer, making his movie debut), has made his name performing trend-riding, sub-Beach Boys hits. The opening credits depict a music video for his hit song "Skeet Surfin'", a ditty explaining the pleasures of blasting clay pigeons whilst hanging five, complete with random shots slicing off beach umbrellas and bringing down hang-gliders. Nick is invited to East Germany to participate in a cultural festival being held by the local Commie Nazis as a last-minute substitute for Leonard Bernstein. The festival is being staged as cover for a plot to unleash a device that can wreck NATO warships, a device invented by the imprisoned Dr Paul Flammond (Gough). Flammond's daughter Hillary (Lucy Gutteridge) is an agent in the underground although he thinks she's in the Stasi's hands. Nick becomes involved when he saves Hillary from an assassin during a ballet, arrested by the authorities and imprisoned, where he encounters Flammond and learns of the plot. He and Hillary make contact with a resistance cell led by an agent who proves to be Nigel (Christopher Villiers), the man Hillary grew up with whilst shipwrecked on a desert island but whom she presumed to be dead. Together they launch a mission to rescue Flammond from prison, but of course someone in the resistance ranks is a mole.
The relatively substantial plot and carefully developed visual and verbal parodying clearly advances on Airplane!. But there remains a similar free-form mix of jokes, with gags based in such random epiphanies as revealing men's ballet costumes, with a ballerina prancing upon a raft of bulging crotches. One of the most magnificently odd sight gags in movie history comes half-way through when Nick and Hillary sit in a park with a giant statue of a pigeon, upon which flying men land and defecate. Other jokes are based in more specific reference points: Omar Sharif's spy character Cedric is trapped and crushed in a car a la Goldfinger (1964) only to turn up later stumbling along encased in the crumpled metal. The standard moment in Westerns where some horses are stampeded to forestall pursuit here sees Nick shooing off a herd of waiting pushbikes. Ian McNeice appears as Cedric's underground contact who poses as a blind seller of novelties and party tricks, several of which he inflicts on the hapless spy in the name of covering their communication. Despite the German setting, Nigel's underground cell is filled with French resistance warriors whose names are all Francophone clichés: "This is Chevalier…Montage…Detente…Avant Garde…and Déjà Vu." "Haven't we not met before, Monsieur?" The unfortunate member Latrine constantly turns up in a state of bloodied suffering.
The horrors of repression and torture are often found to be less terrifying than some more prosaic forms of torment — after a terrible dream of being back in High School, Nick is blissfully relieved to awaken and see he's only being whipped by Stasi thugs. Said thugs are a terrifying prospect: "Bruno is almost blind, has to operate wholly by touch. Klaus is a moron, who knows only what he reads in the New York Post." Top Secret!'s relative failings in comparison to its predecessor take a little teasing out. Whilst it offers a similar survey of familiar actors mocking their stock personas, including Sharif, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Cushing, and Michael Gough, most of their contributions aren't as sustained or clever. Whilst Top Secret! still takes a time-out for a send-up of a recent popular hit, in this case The Blue Lagoon (1980), it's a reference point that offers no similar opportunity for a discursion as dynamic as the Mogambo dance. Where the very end of Airplane! gives the film's comedy and its relative straight aspects a perfectly entwined send-off, Top Secret! seems more to just stop. Whilst the film still contains some good riffs contending with sexual mores and perversities (the Anal Intruder) and satirical jolts, it lacks the cohesive comic substrata that aspect offered in the earlier film.
That said, other aspects of Top Secret! improve on Airplane!. The running jokes are developed with more patience and sneaky wit, like the constant difficulties with language and translation in regards to both languages and spy codes. The choice of tethering a send-up of films based in geopolitics to the fantasy vision of Elvis Presley's movie vehicles (particularly Harum Scarum, 1965), with their implicit promise of carefree deliverance through worshipping the beautiful idol of rock'n'roll, turns Top Secret! into a sustained interrogation of America's place in the world at the height of renewed Cold War tensions. Top Secret! offers American leadership in the post-WWII era as a sustained act of show business. Nick repeatedly makes an impact upon the hidebound East German establishment by dint of his rocker showmanship, beating a Soviet tenor to the punch in performing for a ritzy audience, winning over everyone except the fuming military chiefs (even the elderly house band quickly adapts to a rock ethos) and rocking out a pizza parlour when the resistance fighters demand proof he's not Mel Torme. Nick's performance at the festival sees him cranking up James Brown's theatrical desperation with gestures like trying to hang and gas himself. By contrast the East German anthem is a hymn of sinister caution ("Forget it, the guards will kill you, if the electrified fence doesn't first") set to the music from a Wisconsin high school's song.
The cultural satire here echoes a lot of overt propaganda issued around this time about the west's free and easy attitude compared to the browbeaten tenor of the eastern bloc, with the twist from ZAZ that acknowledges Nick's espousal of freedom was considered quite a distance from what a lot of western leaders felt desirable too just a few years earlier. By implication ZAZ consider Hollywood moviemaking and pop music potent forms for creating a mythology for combating repressiveness whilst also perhaps blinding people to the west's own failings in this regard. That's a frontier of satire ZAZ mostly shy away from, except when Hillary, explaining her own father's narrow brush with political collapse as an immigrant to the US: "He was one of the lucky ones, he managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency," and decries how disengaged US youth is: Nick can only protest in counterpoint that his high school history class once spent a week in Philadelphia. The alarm over Reagan's rise mooted in Airplane! is now solidified: Cold War politics are now plainly being administrated as if in an old movie in broad strokes of morality. Meanwhile the returned Nigel delights Hillary as she measures up various parts of his anatomy and aggravates the nonetheless understanding Nick, although Nigel seems to be harbouring pretty happy memories of being ravaged by the sailors who rescued him from the island. Of course, Nigel turns out to be the mole in the unit, obliging him and Nick to fight it out.
By comparison with Airplane!'s targeting of films still fresh in the public memory, ZAZ felt Top Secret! might have stumbled in comparison by taking movies greatly receded in pop culture's rear-view mirror. This aspect nonetheless reveals the second film as a work more deeply ensconced in a film buff's sensibility, and casual gags hide riches for fellow travellers. Like Cushing's Swedish book store owner, first glimpsed with a huge bulging eye glimpsed through a magnifying glass only to lower the glass and prove to actually have a huge bulging eye: this works as a casually surreal visual joke but also happens to recreate and mock an image from a couple of Cushing horror vehicles. A glimpse of a looming telephone Kemp's army bigwig picks up turns out to actually be ridiculously large rather than a product of dramatic forced perspective. Whilst Airplane! showed ZAZ had abilities as visual jokesters, Top Secret! is a much freer, far more deftly staged work of physical comedy and moviemaking style, closer to the style of Richard Lester (to whom Top Secret! nods by tossing in a singing horse that warbles "A Hard Day's Night"), with some touches even approaching the likes of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, with reaches of staged comedy Airplane! only briefly reached for in moments like the plane crashing through a terminal window.
The film's very start offers the sight of Cedric and a German soldier battling atop a train, with Cedric ducking to allow his foe to be swatted off by a bridge only for the bridge to crumble around the soldier. Nick's introduction sees him trying to paint the rural landscape from his train window and proving to have skilfully recreated the motion blur. The Resistance's battles with the Germans sees the hulking, cigar-eating Chocolate Mousse (Eddie Tagoe) knocking out squads of enemies with improbably good shooting. Later he causes a German armoured car to swerve off the road with his shooting, although it takes the car slightly tapping a parked Pinto to cause a devastating explosion. A stop at a train station as Nick and his manager Martin (Billy J. Mitchell) sees the platform itself start rolling away leaving the stationary train and a passenger chasing after it, in a poke at the set-bound action of a lot of classic Hollywood movies. Kilmer and Gutteridge perform a ridiculous traditional dance whilst arguing politics, a very Brooksian touch. The to-and-fro dashing of the Resistance fighters pauses to become a Broadway kick routine. A German soldier tossed off the prison battlements hits the ground only to shatter like a plaster statue. One of the best violations of the fourth wall in any movie comes when Nick rattles off all the improbable events that's befallen him and Hillary, and she acknowledges, "Yes, it all sounds like the plot of some bad movie." Whereupon she and Nick stand stiff and awkward with their gazes turning ever so nervously towards the audience.
Kilmer's physicality and authentic movie star lustre are invaluable to the movie's energy, Kilmer performing Nick's dance moves and dashing through the comedy action scenes with a gusto no other film's ever asked of him, not even his sorry outings as Batman and The Saint. His performance of "Straighten Out The Rug" in the pizzeria sees Nick do a breakdance spin so well he saws a hole in the floor, whilst dancing guys swing rag doll partners around their heads. Kilmer is almost too much the real deal for a burlesque. The brilliantly strange climax sees Nick and Nigel fall off a truck as they fight it out and plunge into a river where they engage in an underwater fist fight in a sunken Western saloon, a sequence that must have taken some extraordinary effort to achieve. Nick knocks out his foe and strides out through the swinging doors to the Bonanza theme. The very end feels abrupt in a way that suggests problems with editing, and indeed ZAZ did leave a lot on the cutting room floor, but it does honour its models again as Hillary contemplates with sad wisdom, like many an old war movie heroine before her, whether to stay in the fight or wing away to a new life: "Things change. People change. Hairstyles change. Interest rates fluctuate." The fight for freedom in a world where an actor or TV celebrity can be elected president goes on.
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3 thoughts on "Airplane! (1980) / Top Secret! (1984)"
A brilliant breakdown of both movies, Rod. I've had a long-standing friendly argument with a pal over which is better – I always said I love them both, but like Top Secret! just that much more. But in none of my arguments did I ever encapsulate my side as well as you did here: "By comparison with Airplane!'s targeting of films still fresh in the public memory, ZAZ feltTop Secret! might have stumbled in comparison by taking movies greatly receded in pop culture's rear-view mirror. This aspect nonetheless reveals the second film as a work more deeply ensconced in a film buff's sensibility, and casual gags hide riches for fellow travelers." As you know, I love movies going all the way back, while my friend can't take anything before, say, 1960. One wonders where one gets such friends. In this case, it was… film school.
On top of being on-point and in-depth, this was a fun read, any three or four of the scene descriptions sparking the urge to sit and watch both films immediately.
Roderick says:
Urgh, eek, argh, forgive me for taking a while to get back to you, Rob. Yes, one good thing about writing up a comedy — you can spice the essay with plenty of good quotes. I'm interested in you and your pal's schism over the funnier film. I've wavered back and forth over the line on it myself (although your friend loses all arguments by default with his pre-1960 ignorance).
isaac32767 says:
That was a very fun read, with some good political insights. But all the references to "the Stasi" are kinda misleading. East Germany ("Better Government Through Intimidation") bears little resemblance, even satirical, to any real-world state. Instead, it seems to be run by a cadre of Hollywood Wehrmacht officers who've wondered over from the set of Where Eagles Dare. This, of course, meshes nicely with the absurd band of French Resistance fighters who are misplaced both geographically and chronologically.
My favorite bit is where Brett's character turns out to have a rubber stamp that says "Find him and kill him."


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