Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

We have received another review, this time from Alan Ng of FilmThreat.com, and I would have to say that it is mixed. He said "the well-meaning intentions of the film are clear," and I appreciate that very much. Then he suggested that it has the makings of a pretty good action film, but it comes off more like a political soap opera. But actually, there is quite a bit of action, and the action we have isn't bad: There are fights, kidnappings, car crash; you even see a truck do a reverse 180. For a low budget film, there is quite a bit of action. And the message decrying war and the terrible carnage from war, is strong, and you could even say it's heavy-handed. But time-wise, it does not comprise very much of the movie. Mostly, it is an exciting thriller based on the approaching and inevitable collision between two very capable men.
And some of his criticism I don't think was fair. For instance, at the marine filling station, Senator Cruthers, played brilliantly by Mike Gassaway, jokes around with the attendants, whom he thinks are Hispanic, but they are really Arab. And, he calls them Poncho and Pablo, and Alan Ng referred to that as "racist slang." But, the truth is, the way Mike Gassaway played it showed no meanness at all, not the slightest bit. He addressed one of them as, "my brother.".So, how racist could it be?

Alan fairly and reasonably criticized the lighting in the last third of the film, but actually, it's a matter of coloring, not lighting. Some scenes were shot DAY-FOR-NIGHT, in broad daylight, and then had to be made to look like night, and it's very difficult. We really should have shot all of them night for night, and it wasn't my decision to do otherwise.

Nonetheless, I have a very talented editor now, Jeff Stolhand, who is tackling that problem to get it as good as it can be.

Let's look at Alan's closing statement: "Fundamentally, My Stretch of Texas Ground is trying to do some good and force us to empathize with (victims of) a war happening on the other side of the planet and with a group of people we see from TV satellites. But if you’re going to go out of your way to alienate your intended audience, then you’re preaching to the choir." Of course, I wasn't trying to alienate; I was trying to affect- on a very humane level. President Trump said something last night that is one of the best things he ever said, which is that the 150 people who would have been killed in the planned attack that his generals wanted, "have families." And, it's really the same message delivered by Abdul Latif Hassan. So, there is really no reason for anyone to feel alienated by it, and that includes you, Alan. I'm hoping that after you sleep on it, you'll see it that way.