Djibouti, a review
Posted: 25 November 2010 12:44 AM   [ Ignore ]
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Spoilers within, so if you didn’t read it .... And at the end I cast the movie!
I think Elmore is havin fun. His growing mastery of his craft, even at 85, has given us a multilayered banquet of sweet reading.
The surface of the book has a beautiful, smart, accomplished woman—go figure—who shows up in Djibouti with a constellation of people revolving around her, most of them suckers for her, this Dara Barr, this Oscar-winning documentarian – Muslims; pirates; her man Friday, Xavier, the African cameraman who likes the ride being near her; a sort of soldier of fortune billionaire who likes boats and his vavavoom young girlfriend; two al Qaeda killers, one of whom even likes Dara though he wants to take her out for good; the U.S. Government; navies; a special prostitute; a big old boat full of liquid natural gas; and a Brit Arab who wants to turn in two Qaedas to the U.S. government for up to $25 million. The human parade goes on, those with big plans and small, killers and stealers, big money, big ideas and those who are just plain maniac killers.
Which brings me to the underlying message of a deadly serious Elmore Leonard. There are two simple passages that show his utter disdain and even mockery of al Qaeda, those jihadist monsters, those religious pretenders, those mad dog killers who don’t have a clue or a flag or an economic or political agenda, and just want to kill and blow things up. Like Animal on “The Muppets,” though in deference to Animal, he didn’t really blow anything up ... or much.
In a simple dismissive back handslap of Jama Raisuli or James Russell, the born in America, African-American gone rogue al Qaeda, like even he doesn’t know why, Elmore writes on page 202 of the hardback:
“First go back to Hunter’s place for binoculars. Then drive up to the Kempinski to watch the entrance from a spot in the trees. Being a terrorist was a pain in the ass when you weren’t spreading terror.”
Talk about a dumb-ass way of life.
Then on the last page when Russell gets his comeuppance, ingeniously with his own violence turned on himself, we read:
” ‘What do we tell the police,’ Dara said, ‘he committed suicide?’ ‘He’s been tryin to all his poor-ass life,’ Xavier said. ‘It finally took.’ “
His poor-ass life, indeed. Bang, gone. Just a few words for a guy thinks nothing of killing 5 guys with 5 shots, plus his lover prostitute, his gay friend Hunter, Buck the billionaire’s muscle. He really think he’s gonna get the virgins?
The other thing was that Billy the billionaire, who wanted to blow up the LNG ship 12 miles out of Djibouti only so that al Qaeda didn’t take out the port and a big part of Djibouti by blowing it up close in, didn’t quite get to it first, so that when Jama used a cell phone to blow it—with an explosion many times the Hiroshima bomb—Raisuli didn’t even care that it couldn’t blow up Djibouti, figuring he might not get another chance to blow it at all. Because that is what he does. Boom and bang.
This has a very heavy dose of Dara and Xavier, and Billy and Helene, and Harry and Idris, and Qasim and Jama and the rest being themselves, talking cool and funny, stream of consciousness, some romance and intoxicants, including khat that the pirates chewed to get the courage to steal ships and all the men in Djibouti chewed. The dialog is wonderful, as usual.
And while Dara and Xavier see this go from a documentary on pirates who see the imperialist powers as ruining their waters and deserved to be pirated, to a maybe documentary maybe feature movie on something else, like who is really behind the pirates and getting a cut of the pirates loot, like European lawyers who handled details and planning, and conservative Muslims and al Qaeda jihadists, then so be it. Got to go with the footage you get, where the story goes, fill in with other stuff for seamless continuity. Dara’s been there before. And where this review ends, well, I’m gettin close to it.
Now for the real fun: who plays whom in the movie:
Elmore has cast some: He made it clear in the book he wants for Dara Naomi Watts, and for Jama Will Smith, and for either Idris or Harry, Omar Sharif. If those get hit by a bus, my second choices:
Dara: Either the gorgeous, maybe too gorgeous, Angelina Jolie, who is dynamite in anything and has played a blonde if needed, and our old TV friend Karen Sisco, Carla Gugino, who has the chops and looks and cool to do it. Both are closer to Dara’s 36 years than Naomi, too. Blondes Charlize, Uma and January Jones in the wings.
Xavier: He’s 72 and 6-foot-6, but who leaps to mind is Dennis Haysbert, who is tall and has that basso profundo, or Denzel Washington, though he’s not tall, or Djimon Hounsou. But maybe Morgan Freeman would be perfect.
Jama, James: Will, but I also like Mos Def, who’s always good, or Forest Whitaker, who can milk the quirky roles. Don Cheadle would be good but may be too old, though Whitaker is older. What about Ice T (“Law & Order: SVU”)?
Idris: Could be Denzel too if Haysbert is Xavier, or Samuel L. Jackson or Djimon Hounsou.
Harry: If not Sharif, who strikes me as old, either Ashraf Barhom (“The Kingdom”), Mark Strong (“Body of Lies”) or Naveen Andrews (“Lost”). One of these or Kal Penn (“House”) could play Qasim.
Billy: This cries for George Clooney—Elmore even mentioned George and “Syriana” while talking about casting people. Or Gary Oldman (“True Romance”: “He musta thought this was white boy day.”), Tim Roth (“Lie to Me”: “I can’t wait for tomorrow ... ‘cause I get better lookin every day.”) or Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”: “Hopeless emptiness. Yes, that’s very good. People get the emptiness, but most people don’t see the hopelessness.”)
Helene: This really cries for the stunning Olivia Wilde (13 on “House”), or if not, Mila Kunis (that ‘70s show),  Emily Blunt, Scarlett Johannson or Jessica Biel.

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Posted: 18 January 2011 07:38 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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Wow, the silence is deafening.
Nobody? Nobody bit on at least throwing your own ideas out on who should play whom.
I was hoping to get some fun exchanges going and see what all yinz guys and girls thought of who should play the roles.
C’mon, now. Lemme have it. You loved my picks, you hated them. You hate the review. You hate life in general. Whatever. I can take it. Whom would you cast?

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Posted: 19 January 2011 06:37 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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begging is beneath you john
also remember there is a disconnect
while elmore is hip deep in the movies
plot lines twisting in and out of what picture
it wants to chili palmer it’s way to the surface
reality becomes fantasy in heads of character
the film made from the elmore leonard novel
never ever is as good as the novel itself

while we are at commentary social
political judgment relativistic
ideas formed to fit context
a device to sell books
hard fought victory
satisfies deeply
fun to watch
waiting

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Posted: 20 January 2011 10:37 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]
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Begging? That’s not accurate, son. Been there, done this before. Just surprised no one wanted to offer his or her own film cast for an Elmore book. They have in the past.
I had thought your writing was long on style and short on substance. Now I’m thinking it is short on both substance and style and long on structure or sculpture or geography. (Short lines growing gradually to long lines then diminishing again to shorter lines till it is just one word.)
But I tend to go along with my nun in 5th-grade on this. She said if you can’t say it or write it, you don’t know it. Hate to see anyone use words so cryptically and mysteriously that they communicate with no one. Tells me if we don’t know what you are talking about, you probably don’t either.

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Posted: 21 January 2011 06:33 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]
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now now johnOB be nice
when you beg for a response
you have to expect the cryptic
style and content are very much
part of the equation, the discipline
the first thing I thought when I read
your critique of my humble offerings
“so’s yer old man”, I changed it
“....yer old lady” for your nun
then realized you wouldn’t
get the reference honey
at least we’re having
a little fun punning
squeezing words
contemplating
the stars
in your
eyes

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Posted: 21 January 2011 10:33 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]
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Now who’s begging, son?
We all know nonsense when we see it.
You may have missed your true calling, as a graphic artist, with all those sideways pyramids you construct.

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Posted: 21 January 2011 04:28 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]
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you
know
nonsense
we have limits
my marksmanship
does not compare to
hot kid or james russell
but I do appreciate
a well sung nose

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Posted: 26 January 2011 11:39 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 7 ]
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now I’m begging you
accept Joelle Carter
as dara barr

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Posted: 27 January 2011 05:49 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 8 ]
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Joelle Carter—not bad. Now her, I like, son. And her sidekick on “Justified,” Natalie Zea, both of whom have/had a thing for Raylan, and he for them. Two extremely hot tomales and pretty good actresses. Not sure Joelle could pull off Dara, but nice to have her in the mix; she has that feistiness besides the beauty.

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