Notable Quotables - 03/19/1990
Hunting Down Red October
"Will there be any
reviews aside from this one that don't begin or end with the observation that
the Cold War is over and therefore this movie is anachronistic?"
- Wall Street Journal film critic David Brooks, March 1.
"If you're miffed
because the Cold War's over, Ceaucescu's dead, the Sandinistas lost the
election in Nicaragua and it seems like there's no one around to hate any
more, then maybe The Hunt for Red October is just the thing....This
is a Reagan youth's wet dream of underwater ballistics and East-West
conflict."
- Washington Post film critic Desson Howe in the "Weekend"
section, March 2.
"The Hunt for
Red October...is a leviathan relic of an age that no longer exists....And
that it lurches into view as a Cold War anachronism is, in fact, the picture's
most fascinating feature. It makes it irrelevant in an astoundingly up-to-date
way."
- Washington Post film critic Hal Hinson in the "Style"
section, March 2.
"Though the movie
is carefully set in pre-Gorbachev 1984, the fantasy that the Soviets might be
planning a first-strike nuclear assault on the United States simply doesn't
tap into our current fears."
- Newsweek film critic David Ansen, March 5.
"The Hunt for
Red October is the first movie in history to be perestricken.
The blow is by no means fatal, but there is no escaping the feeling that the
impact of the movie, even though it takes place in the more globally paranoid
pre-Gorbachev era, is sapped by new realities...Now, detente is a happier
prospect than nuclear detonation, and some of the speeches in Red October
carry a tone of hollow desperation - rather like a Pentagon admiral arguing
today against cuts in defense spending."
- Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Desmond Ryan, March 2.
Yasser Arafat, Freedom Fighter
"He knows that
Yasser is a freedom fighter just like he is."
- Former AB White House reporter Kenneth Walker on Nelson Mandela's embrace
of PLO leader Yasser Arafat on Fox's Off The Record, March 3.
Waste in the White House
"Sununu Old CW:
Brilliant chief of staff. New CW: A walking toxic-waste dump."
- Newsweek "Conventional Wisdom," March 12
Those Ruthless Westerners
"Despite the
assurances of politicians that a united Germany will eventually provide a
better life for all, East Germans are increasingly resentful of what some see
as the ruthlessly competitive society next door."
- NBC reporter Peter Kent on the February 22 Nightly News.
Better Late Than Never
"I wish I'd done
this before I'd run for President. It would've given me insight into the
anxiety any independent businessman or farmer must have....Now I've had to
meet a payroll every week. I've got to pay the bank every month....I've got to
pay the state of Connecticut taxes....It gives you a whole new perspective on
what other people worry about."
- Former Senator George McGovern on his first-ever business venture owning a
Connecticut hotel, in the March 1 Washington Post.
Please Make Us Pay More for Government
"Nobody likes
taxes, but the sacrifices to restore fiscal sanity are hardly burdensome - a
5 percent per year cut in inflation-adjusted defense spending, a tax on
gasoline and an annual tax increase of 1 percent. America would still have the
lowest overall tax rate of any Western industrial nation."
- U.S. News & World Report Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Mortimer
Zuckerman, February 26.
"Well, the price of
a first class stamp may go up to 30 cents. Everybody is complaining, but wait
- 30 cents is a bargain when you compare it to what other countries
charge....It is a little like the price of gasoline, which is cheaper here
than almost anywhere...A bigger federal tax on gasoline would bring down the
deficit, but our leaders say it is politically impossible to raise the
taxes."
- NBC commentator John Chancellor on the March 8 Nightly News.
Top This, Christic Institute
"Some of the
[S&L] wrongdoing may even be traced to the CIA. According to the Houston
Post, the intelligence agency had connections with 22 now failed thrifts,
whose oficers used depositors' funds for loans to CIA operatives involved in
'gunrunning, drug smuggling, money laundering, and covert aid to the
Nicaraguan contras.'"
- Time staff writer Christine Gorman in the March 12 issue.
America's Just Like South Africa
"Many white
Americans felt their fears were justified this week when they learned that one
in four young black men in this country is a criminal....23 percent of the
young black men in America are behind bars, on probation or on parole. As
surely as an assembly line, America turns thousands of innocent black children
into castoffs....It's one of the accomplishments of America's system of
apartheid."
- CBS This Morning co-host Harry Smith, March 2.
No, America's Just Like Romania
"In the mid-60s, it
seemed as if [our] curve of moral passion would sweep up everything before it.
We might have looked to ourselves as most of Eastern Europe has looked to us
on television the past four months. Instead, we look like savage
Romania."
- CBS Sunday Morning cultural critic John Leonard quoted in the
March 12 Washington Post.
Or Like China?
"Chinese leaders
felt that they had exhibited a tolerance no government in Washington, Paris,
or Moscow would have shown. It is fair to ponder how we would react if
hundreds of thousands of people took over Lafayette Square in Washington,
D.C., for seven weeks."
- U.S. News & World Report Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Mortimer
Zuckerman, March 12 issue.
Leaning Right is Wrong?
"So far, Steve
Forbes hasn't shown his father's dramatic flair. In fact, he might be leaning
in the wrong direction. Steve Forbes' politics are highly conservative, very
Reaganesque."
- USA Today business writers Kevin Maney and Pat Guy, February 26.
High School History Lesson
"I really didn't know why the Berlin Wall was built. Today, Channel One told me...I didn't know (Sir Winston) Churchill pretty much provoked them to build the wall." - High school sophomore Melissa Rollins on new TV news service for schools, quoted in the Boston Herald, March 6.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Jim Heiser, Gerard Scimeca, Stewart Verdery, Dorothy Warner; Media Analysts
- Kristin Kelly; Administrative Assistant
