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

I feel happy tonight because of some information I received, unofficially, about a future award that My Stretch of Texas Ground will be getting. The success the film is having at the festivals is incredible. On the one hand, I realize it is a very controversial movie- and to the extreme, especially for today. Hollywood used to make controversial movies, but not any more. For instance, there was The Deer Hunter and Coming Home; both were anti-war movies, Did you know that in Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman that for the raid on his Native American encampment, which gets mercilessly savaged by the Cavalry, that they got Vietnamese actors to play the parts of the natives in order to send a message? 

And, the ironic fact is that one of the very first talking movies was an anti-war movie. I am referring to All Quiet On The Western Front, starring Lew Ayres, from 1930, which was an American movie about three German soldiers in World War 1 who experience the horror, inhumanity, and gruesome deaths of that war. I don't compare my movie to it qualitatively, but I do compare it inspirationally.

And the truth is, there is really nothing controversial about My Stretch of Texas Ground because, at heart, what it does is mourn the loss of human lives. It points to the fact that  "hundreds of thousands and more" have died in the post-9/11 wars, which is not in dispute. So, what is so controversial about mourning the deaths of men, women, and children? And for the record, I mourn for the Americans killed in these wars as much as anyone else. I am very affected by it, and that's why every time the film gets some recognition, I am moved. 

Please take a look at this. It is the menu page for the upcoming DVD of the film. There will be three choices: to watch the movie, to watch the trailer, and to watch a 15 minute commentary by yours truly. I think it's a great shot of Jeff Weber, Christian Stokes, and Jeremy Stein. And,  I think this scene is the most creative writing I did. The objective of the scene was simply to introduce Butch and Nelson, Joe's deputies, but I wanted to convey that they were more than his deputies, that they were his friends, and they really were more like brothers to him. 

So, how could I do that without being obvious about it and  "on the nose"? And then it hit me: I'll have one of them be insolent to Joe, right to his face, and get away with it.  If that doesn't convey brotherhood, what does?