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Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
New Jonathan Demme biography spotlights director's clashes with powerful stars — and his humanity
Before he set his sights on Hollywood, Jonathan Demme studied to become a vet. Movies may have mesmerized him since childhood, but animals were his 'parallel obsession,' writes film journalist David M. Stewart in 'There's No Going Back,' an uneven biography of the Oscar-winning director of 'The Silence of the Lambs.' In the end, chemistry classes proved too hard, and only one animal sustained Demme's interest long enough: the Alligator, the University of Florida newspaper that let him contribute film reviews. A career as a veterinarian was abandoned in favor of the movies. Demme, who died in 2017, forged a career defined by films that centered voices from society's ever-shifting margins. He spotlighted women ('Swing Shift'), Black people ('Beloved') and HIV-positive gay men ('Philadelphia') in narratives that celebrated their trials through an empathetic camera lens. Interspersed among Hollywood projects were documentaries such as 'The Agronomist,' on Haiti's only independent radio station; 'Right to Return,' about Hurricane Katrina victims fighting to access their homes again; and 'Stop Making Sense.' Demme himself witnessed the difficulty those at society's fringes faced entering spaces men (often white) had claimed and refused to relinquish. His grandmother retold rose-tinted stories of building aircraft equipment during World War II before being forcibly relegated back to her domestic life. Growing up Miami's Overtown neighborhood, Demme saw how Black people created their own unique 'music and communal energy' during segregation, a culture he would repeatedly honor in his own films. After college, Demme landed a publicity job at United Artists. During a chance encounter chauffeuring François Truffaut around, the master auteur told the desperate factotum that he had an eye for directing. Demme insisted he wasn't interested in being a director, even after the French filmmaker inscribed his copy of 'Hitchcock.' 'Yes, you are,' was Truffaut's reply. Despite these early protests, Demme moved west to Hollywood, working for B-movie producer Roger Corman on films such as the 1971 bike picture 'Angels Hard as They Come' and the salacious 1973 prison escape story 'Black Mama White Mama' before he directed 'Caged Heat' with a feminist take on the women-in-prison film that embraced satire and progressive politics. Demme directed socially conscious projects during the 1970s, tackling the disenfranchised and forgotten through action and comedy tales. 'Crazy Mama,' about a housewife intent on exacting vengeance on the men who murdered her husband, highlighted Demme's desire to recognize women's ongoing struggles against a patriarchal world. 'Fighting Mad' and 'Citizens Band' (subsequently titled 'Handle with Care') touched on corporate greed, ecological destruction and finding human connection in small-town America. 'Melvin and Howard' won two Oscars and was nominated for a third. But in an experience that would unfortunately repeat itself, the Goldie Hawn-produced 'Swing Shift' was a deeply demoralizing project for Demme. He had wanted to make a 'feminist perspective of women during wartime,' writes Stewart, while Hawn had imagined the film as a sugary rom-com. The veto power Hawn had meant the entire ending was reshot, mostly sapping Demme's dream of its political message. A decade later, Demme would suffer similar strife on the set of 'Beloved,' quarreling with Oprah Winfrey over aspects of characterization in the supernatural slavery epic. ( Winfrey told Stewart that she was banned from viewing the dailies for a brief period.) But creative comfort was found, as Demme repeated over the years, in music. There was his Talking Heads concert film 'Stop Making Sense' and several Neil Young concert films; 'Something Wild,' a Melanie Griffith movie he made after 'Swing Shift,' prominently featured Jamaican singer Sister Carol and her cover of 'Wild Thing.' Still, it was his passion for female protagonists who were 'reliable in a world of lying men' that also fueled his output, if only partly dealt with in Stewart's shorthand approach. 'The Silence of the Lambs,' 'Rachel Getting Married' and 'Ricki and the Flash' each etched, in equal parts, the strength and vulnerability of a different women — battling the criminal justice system, besieged by addiction and estranged from family — who reject victimhood as an option. 'There's No Going Back' stresses it's not a definitive biography but an effort to 'understand Demme as a filmmaker.' If Stewart can be forgiven for the light detail on Demme's upbringing for this reason (only a few pages), he is less absolved for his inconsistent, often abridged, treatments of Demme's films and what messages to glean from a long view of the director. Patchy approaches — 'Rachel Getting Married' gets some dissection with minimal production detail, while 'The Silence of the Lambs' gets extensive production detail with no film analysis — doesn't help extract Demme's thematic throughlines as a filmmaker. To end the book with his passing and without any final remarks only compounds this problem. What does somewhat redeem 'There's No Going Back' is the detail given on Demme's lifelong activism. Starting first with the freedom of expression movement, Demme moved to documenting Haiti's transformation from a dictatorship to a democracy in several energized documentaries. If political connections aren't always made back to his dramatized films, appreciating how Demme championed voices from the likes of Haiti and in the aftermath of Katrina does at least highlight his lifelong advocacy of society's most forgotten — on- and off-screen. When Demme was a young boy, his mother told him to write about the movies he so ardently watched 'to uncover the secrets behind the magic.' It may be an unfortunate irony then that this same advice Stewart recounts proves largely absent in 'There's No Going Back.' While well-intended and admiring, the biography often proves facile, showing difficulty reckoning with Demme's oeuvre and its deeper political and cinematic lessons. The book has still set some of the groundwork for a future project that may more adeptly synthesize life with art. Smith is a books and culture writer.
NBC News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
'You'll always be my friend': Trump and Ron DeSantis put aside rivalry at 'Alligator Alcatraz'
There was no evidence of the onetime rivalry between President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis Tuesday as they came together in a common cause: opening an immigrant detention center in the swampy heart of Florida. Trump and his top deputies visited the Everglades, where Florida officials delivered a win for his anti-immigration agenda and positioned the state on the forefront of his crackdown. The facility, which Republican leaders dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' is set to house 3,000 detainees and took just eight days to construct. 'It might be as good as the real Alcatraz,' Trump told reporters Tuesday. 'It's a little controversial, but I couldn't care less.' The push behind 'Alligator Alcatraz' is not only to keep Florida aligned with Trump on immigration but also to reposition some of the state's biggest Republican players politically. DeSantis, for instance, fought vocally with Trump during the 2024 presidential primary; during the visit on Tuesday, however, he and Trump praised each other. "You are my friend, and you'll always be my friend, and we may have some skirmishes, even in the future. I doubt it, but I will always come back, because we have blood that seems to match pretty well," Trump said. 'I think it is a 10,' Trump added of his relationship with the governor. 'Maybe a 9.9… We get along great.' DeSantis, unprompted, quickly chimed in with a reminder that he endorsed Trump as soon as he exited the presidential race in early 2024. 'The thing about it is, I endorsed him,' DeSantis said. 'Raised one of his PACs millions and millions of dollars.' The comments came as Trump and DeSantis, along with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, toured the facility in a made-for-TV presentation of the opening of what is one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the country. A number of the media outlets on the tour were Trump-friendly organizations, who asked questions that praised the president or allowed him to hype his agenda. One reporter asked him to weigh in on the 'disastrous handling of the border' by President Joe Biden's administration, while another had him comment on how his 'beloved New York City may well be led by a communist soon.' 'What's your message to Gov. Gavin Newsom?' right-wing YouTube personality Benny Johson asked. Trump responded that the 'first thing' the California governor, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, should do, 'is come here and learn something.' The political undertones of the event were hard to ignore. Among those invited by Trump to attend was Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican running for governor in 2026. At the same time, DeSantis' wife, Casey DeSantis, continues to eye a competing run for governor. During a roundtable discussion Tuesday, Donalds — sitting just a couple of feet from DeSantis — said he 'commended' him for his work to combat illegal immigration. The moment represented political foes setting aside their feud, at least for the day. The idea for Alligator Alcatraz was hatched last month by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a close DeSantis ally, but it received national traction when DeSantis did a live tour of the facility Friday on 'Fox and Friends,' which caught the Trump administration off guard. Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski supported the facility but wanted the Tuesday opening to be the formal public rollout, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. 'DeSantis upset Noem and Lewandowski with his Fox News tour of the detention site,' a Republican operative familiar with the process said. 'Noem wanted an event for Tuesday and didn't want anyone having eyes on the site and needed to push until Tuesday because she was traveling.' The Republican operative said that Noem's staff asked DeSantis not to do the Fox tour. 'The DHS team asked DeSantis not to do his Friday event,' the person added. 'DeSantis did what was best for DeSantis and got out in front of the stronger, angering both Noem and Lewandowski.' Another source familiar with the matter told NBC News the ire did not stem directly from the White House, but from Lewandowski. 'He lost his s---,' the person said. Lewandowski and DeSantis' political team did not return requests seeking comment. The White House called the assertion 'fake news.' 'Leave it to the Fake News NBC to write about baseless gossip following a hugely successful event with President Trump, Secretary Noem and Governor DeSantis at Alligator Alcatraz,' White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. 'Here's the real story that the state-of-the-art facility will play an important role in fulfilling the President's promise to keep Americans safe and deport criminal illegal aliens.' 'The President is grateful to work with both Secretary Noem and Governor DeSantis on this project,' she added. Still, the event signaled that DeSantis was publicly rekindling his relationship with Trump, and to some degree was seen as a boon for his attempt to again regain national political footing for a potential presidential campaign in 2028, even as Vice President JD Vance is widely seen as the current frontrunner. 'No one thought Trump would so closely embrace DeSantis today,' a longtime Florida operative who was at the event said. 'We didn't think he would try to undercut him or insult him, but Trump was over the top in his praise today. I don't know what that means, but it was a good day for Ron DeSantis.' The Everglades facility has given DeSantis and the state's Republican leaders, including Uthmeier, a boost to their fundraising efforts, even as Democrats have decried the effort as cruel to those accused of being in the country illegally. ''Alligator Alcatraz' is a callous political stunt,' said David Jolly, a former Republican member of Congress now running in 2026 as a Democrat for governor. 'Florida's most pressing challenge is the housing affordability crisis created by Republican leaders, not immigrants working to support our state's economy.' Since the announcement of the facility, there have also been protests — including one on Tuesday for the opening — and a lawsuit filed by environmental groups concerned over the impact it could have on the Everglades. The facility was made possible by DeSantis using emergency powers he first enacted in 2023. The state built what amounts to a tent city, hiring a dozen vendors and seizing land from Miami-Dade County over local leaders' objections. The facility is housed on a little-used airstrip that includes a runway that DeSantis said can be used to quickly fly undocumented immigrants to third countries if deportation is deemed appropriate.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
City of Huntsville provides public with information on recent uptick of alligator sightings
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — The City of Huntsville said that their has been an uptick of Alligator sightings recently. Just like deer or snakes or even the ducks in Big Spring Park, alligators are a fixture in Huntsville's wildlife landscape. According to the city, wetlands, which are the homes of alligators are located in areas on both the east and west sides of Redstone Arsenal. Officials told News 19 that there have also been sightings recently in the Aldridge Creek area in south Huntsville. City officials are reminding residents that alligators do not want people in their homes just like people do not want alligators in their homes. 'You really just need to leave them in their environments,' said Jasmine Murree, program coordinator at Huntsville Animal Services (HAS). There have been no instances of alligators attacking or harming people in Huntsville, but sightings have been on the rise in recent years as developments have expanded near their natural habitats. Last month, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) confirmed that an alligator was euthanized in south Huntsville after acting abnormally. The City installed cautionary signs along the walking trail on Haysland Road in 2021 alerting people to the presence of alligators. More signs have been installed since then in other areas that are popular with alligators. 'We absolutely do receive calls and emails about alligators,' Murree said. 'Animal Services doesn't handle that but we do contact the game warden and usually if they are just going about their business and acting normally, they will remove them safely away from populated areas.' In 1938, Alabama became the first state to protect alligators. Almost 50 years later, alligators were removed from the endangered species list, though they remain a federally protected species. The City is providing a few tips to residents if they encounter an alligator: Don't feed them, this is illegal Be aware of your surroundings when swimming Don't allow pets near areas where alligators are known to be According to wildlife officials, alligators have a long history in Huntsville, the animals have gathered attention in recent years as sightings have ticked upward. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
The clones of Bruce the shark
The only scare in this movie is the scuba diving photographer's attack, a scene lifted by John Sayles three years later for 'Alligator.' Advertisement Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton reprise their roles as the Brodys and the Mayor of Amity. Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and the original's uncredited co-screenwriter, Howard Sackler, tackle the script. In the director's chair is Jeannot Szwarc, whose prior film, 'Bug,' starred pyromaniacal killer insects. (They blow up real good!) Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up This is the best of the sequels, which isn't saying much. But it has one of the greatest taglines ever slapped on a poster: 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.' In the 'Jaws' canon, this film kicked off the shark's obsession with getting revenge on Chief Brody's family. His adolescent kids Mike and Sean are trapped on a boat while Bruce tries to eat them. They're so obnoxious you'll wish he had. Advertisement Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid) and Calvin Bouchard (Louis Gossett Jr.) deal with a killer shark that invades a crowded marine park in Jaws 3-D. Universal Pictures 'Jaws 3-D' (1983) I could still perceive 3-D back in 1983, which was a blessing and a curse. The early 1980s gave us endless characters in 3-D: Jason from 'Friday the 13th,' the 'Amityville Horror' house, and yes, Bruce the Shark. Mike Brody is now played by Dennis Quaid. He works at SeaWorld alongside This abomination exists solely for the 3-D effects, which look hilarious in 2-D. Bruce attacks SeaWorld at one point, busting through the protective glass tank and sending glass into the audience's lap. In the must-see climax, the shark gets blown up, sending his jaws flying out of the screen. It looks as if Bruce sneezed and his gigantic dentures flew out. 2/2/1987 Edgartown, MA - Jaws: The Revenge films a scene on Martha's Vineyard on February 2, 1987. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff) David L. Ryan/Globe Staff 'Jaws: The Revenge' (1987) Widely considered the worst film in the series (sorry, folks, 'Jaws 3-D' deserves that title), this was the first PG-13 'Jaws' film. Lorraine Gary returns as Mrs. Brody. So does the incarnation of the shark from the original 'Jaws.' It has a vendetta against the Brody clan, and who can blame it? '[W]hat shark wouldn't want revenge against the survivors of the men who killed it?' asked Roger Ebert in his brutally funny Sean Brody gets his arm ripped off before being devoured. As a result, Mrs. Brody goes out of her way to protect her remaining son, Michael, including shooting at the shark with a pistol. Another Michael, Michael Caine, infamously couldn't accept his Oscar for 'Hannah and Her Sisters' because he was on Martha's Vineyard filming this movie. Caine cops to never having seen the finished product. 'However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!' he said. Advertisement The only bright spot here is Mario van Peebles's Rasta character, Jake, who comes complete with a Ja- fake -an accent and dreads. Jake was popular enough for the studio to reshoot his final encounter with Bruce. In the movie, he dies; on VHS and DVD, he miraculously survives. Though impaled in the movie version, Bruce gets a far more ignoble demise in the home video version—he simply explodes for no reason . Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Miami Herald
13-06-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Alligator escaped poachers, but lived with cord slicing its jaw, FL video shows
An alligator that narrowly escaped poachers in Florida was left in an agonizing predicament when a cord cinched to its head began slicing off its nose, a YouTube video shows. The alligator was discovered at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park near Gainesville, leading to a risky rescue operation. 'He had a rope that was tied around his top jaw,' trapper Ron Sanderson reported in the video shared June 7 by Gatorland. 'It was actually so tight that it had grown in and it's messed up his bone on his top jaw. So we were able to capture it and remove this (rope) and it's just amazing that somebody would do this on purpose to this alligator.' Closer inspection revealed it was a bungee cord and serious damage had been done to the alligator, Gatorland officials reported. The cord was likely tied to the alligator during a 'very illegal' attempt to catch it, the park reported. There was also evidence someone had been hand feeding the alligator, officials said. Sanderson reports it took about an hour to trap the alligator, and a Gatorland veterinarian determined the wound would likely heal on its own, the video reports. The alligator, now named Bungee, will live out the remainder of its life at Gatorland, the video reports. The 110-acre theme park in Orlando is known as 'The Alligator Capital of the World.'
