11/11/04

LC041111

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Recruiters are pounding the pavement to find future soldiers,
but in a time of war, it's a tough task.

Luis Cuevas>> Even though I knew that the Marines were a combat
fighting force and that one day I might have to go to war, I
don't think I was mature enough to understand what war actually
was. I mean, actually having to shoot somebody, actually
getting shot at.

Val>> And then, how do young people seem to know so much about
war when they've never seen it?

>> There's only way to be born, but because of mankind, there
is hundreds of ways to die.

Val>> These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Veterans Day this year lands in a week of some of the
most intense fighting ever in Iraq. Also intensifying are
recruitment efforts by the military, but getting young people to
sign up while casualties mount abroad is a tough task and
critics say that recruiters often target poorer neighborhoods.
Kevin Smith takes a look at all sides of the recruitment issue.

Kevin Smith>> The escalating battle over the military presence
at Los Angeles County high schools has many fronts. JROTC drill
classes.

>> "So are all you guys eleventh graders?"

Kevin Smith>> A Marine Corps recruiter working students at
lunchtime.

Sgt. Timberlake Pierce>> "The biggest difference between us and
a trade school is that you get paid while you're going to
school."

Kevin Smith>> Army recruiters addressing high school classes.

Irene Inouye>> "This law is just one of the insidious ways that
the military is invading our schools."

Kevin Smith>> Protesters who want to reduce the military
presence in high schools.

Luis Cuevas>> I would see, you know, the recruiters come in
their uniforms at school. They looked sharp, they looked cool.

Kevin Smith>> And those like twenty-two year old, Luis Cuevas,
who joined the armed forces and fought in Iraq. Since the Iraq
War, the attention to the military's presence in Los Angeles
high schools is hardly academic. Bud Jacobs, who oversees
special programs, says the military has a place there.

Bud Jacobs>> I don't think it is evil in and of itself. I
think that it has to be tempered. It has to be balanced.

Kevin Smith>> But he also welcomes the scrutiny.

Bud Jacobs>> I think it will bring to light the other side of
what the risks are.

Kevin Smith>> The school district says it tries to walk a fine
line between allowing interested students access to military
recruiters and programs on the one hand while making sure no
student gets coerced into participating on the other hand.

Thane Opfell>> We represent an economically challenged
community and, if a career in the military is a solution for
them financially, let them exercise that choice.

Kevin Smith>> Each school decides for itself whether to have
JROTC, which stands for Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps.
Thirty schools, like James Monroe High School in a low-income
part of the San Fernando Valley, embraced the program, but not a
single public school on the affluent west side of Los Angeles
offers JROTC. While some students choose to participate in
after-school drill classes, the basic program consists of
classroom and physical education.

>> "Okay, let's say you put aside twenty bucks a week."

Kevin Smith>> Instructors insist JROTC is not designed to
recruit students and very few participants wind up in the
military.

Col. Ted McDonald>> The recruiters recruit, we teach
citizenship, and that's the truth there. We teach them how to
give speeches, how to do job interviews, how to take tests, how
to study for tests.

Kevin Smith>> The school district likes JROTC because the
government pays half the cost of each instructor, but opponents
argue that two million dollars a year spent on the school's
share of JROTC could be put to better use like hiring music or
art teachers and they claim that students aren't always given
free choice.

Irene Inouye>> Many schools throughout the district, they're
getting involuntarily placed into JROTC and these students say
they didn't ask for it.

Bud Jacobs>> If the PE classes are overcrowded, they are given
the option of going in. The policy is that the kid is to be
asked if he wants to go into JROTC.

Student>> "Does it pay for your college tuition?"

Sgt. Daniel Rincon>> "I mean, there are a lot of different
benefits, you know. Going to college and getting an education,
technical skills."

Kevin Smith>> In contrast to JROTC, actual recruiting on high
school campuses is far more direct. Marine Corps Sergeant
Daniel Rincon makes his rounds at Monroe High several times a
week. What does he emphasize?

Sgt. Daniel Rincon>> What their plans are. Seeing maybe the
Marine Corps can help them in any way we can help them. It will
be through school, technical jobs. Some of these kids look at
the military as their last resort or, you know, something that
they could fall back on.

Kevin Smith>> The No Child Left Behind Act signed by President
Bush in 2001 states that schools must give the same access to
military recruiters as they give to college or business
recruiters.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> In response to student-faculty protests, some
schools like heavily Hispanic Roosevelt High in East Los Angeles
have limited military recruiting.

Irene Inouye>> You used to have military recruiters inside the
campus talking to students any time they wanted, but now there
is restriction so that it's equal access for military recruiters
and college recruiters.

Kevin Smith>> Anti-military protesters complain that the
military is now targeting poor Hispanic students.

Sgt. Daniel Rincon>> We don't target groups. Basically we go
out and we talk to different individuals, no matter their race,
their background, their ethnicity, whatever. We give them that
opportunity.

Kevin Smith>> The law also requires schools to provide
recruiters with names, addresses and phone numbers of high
school students, but students also have the right to ask schools
not to release their data.

Marco Valencia>> They're just getting our information. They're
basically stealing it. They're not asking us for permission.
It should be the other way around. If we want to go to the
military, we should give our consent to them.

Kevin Smith>> Protesters credit the school district with a
decision this year to extend the Opt Out window from two weeks
to two months.

Bud Jacobs>> There was concern that the parents were not
getting enough information in making an informed decision and
not given enough time.

Sgt. Eric Corn>> "When I decided to join, I made the decision I
wanted to be a mechanic. In the Army, that was something they
could do for me."

Kevin Smith>> Back at Monroe High, Sergeants Eric Corn and
Timberlake Pierce are making their pitch to a tenth grade class.

Sgt. Timberlake Pierce>> "We have to protect our country, so we
have to have soldiers who fight, go to combat, but those
soldiers pick those jobs."

Student>> "Do girls fight like the same way as guys do?"

Sgt. Timberlake Pierce>> "No female has a combat job. I have a
weapon. Me and Sgt. Corn both have weapons. I know how to fire
my M16."

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> Several students seemed intrigued, though some
had concerns about Iraq.

Student>> It's an interesting program and everything, but I'm
not a very violent person (laughter) and I don't think that it
should be used in the way we're using it right now.

Student>> I kind of think I want to go to the military, but
before, I'm just thinking about college.

Student>> Going to the army to get money for college, that's
the only reason I'd go in.

Kevin Smith>> Sergeant Pierce says she tailors her message to
each school.

Sgt Timberlake Pierce>> Here education plays a big part and a
lot of students don't have the funds to finance their education.
Where you go to other areas, education and money is not a
problem. Their parents are well off and they can afford that,
but it's that adventure they're looking for.

Kevin Smith>> But adventure has its risks. Student concerns
about combat duty in the Middle East are perceptive.

Sgt. Timberlake Pierce>> We're not going to say, oh, no, you're
not going, because they most likely will be sent over there to
do a tour.

Luis Cuevas>> That's right before we're going to on to a raid,
one of our daily patrols.

Kevin Smith>> The risks weren't so clear to Luis Cuevas when he
joined the Marines in 2000 after graduating from Eagle Rock High
School. Luis liked war movies and the chance to travel appealed
to him.

Luis Cuevas>> Even though I knew that the Marines was a combat
fighting force and that one day I might have to go to war, I
don't think I was mature enough to understand what war actually
was. I mean, actually having to shoot somebody, actually
getting shot at.

Kevin Smith>> But then the call came in early 2003 that Luis
was heading to Iraq with one of the first companies deployed
there. During the initial U.S. invasion, his company engaged in
severe fighting.

Luis Cuevas>> The First Sergeant who was in charge of our
company, when that blast hit, you just saw his helmet come off
his head. His helmet was off and his head was leaning like this
and really thick blood was coming down from his head. I had to
kill people. I mean, the enemy. I killed the people who were
shooting at me.

Kevin Smith>> After spending seven months in Iraq and serving
out his four-year hitch this past June, Luis has mixed feelings
about his decision to join the Marines. He's now attending
Pasadena City College with funds provided for his Marine
service.

Luis Cuevas>> If you want to be physically challenged or even
mentally challenged, yes, it's great. If you're looking forward
to the benefits, it's great. If you want to travel, it's great.
I really don't know if I would do it again if I knew the things
that I know now. That's what I would tell those kids. Think
long and hard.

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Val>> If you want a simple, honest and often perspective on
war, just ask children. That's what a UCLA filmmaker did and
the results were so insightful and touching that we just had to
share it with you on this Veterans Day. Jennifer Glos's piece
is called "War on Their Minds: Voices of American Kids".

>> When there's a war, it becomes part of your everyday life
because you see it everywhere and you hear sad stories. It is
like a big thing. You can't just ignore war. It affects me in
the way that I know like people from my country are dying.
People are dying.

>> It's really confusing. I think it's way more confusing than
like calculus or any type of math that we try to solve.

[Film Clip]

>> It seems so effortless just to take one thing away. Like
there's only way to be born, but because of mankind, there is
hundreds of ways to die. I think about that a lot.

>> I don't know.

>> They do it. They have issues with talking things out and
they have to fight them out.

>> Insecurity, greed, power.

>> So they can protect America and protect all the states
inside America, you know, like Ohio, Illinois, all those states,
Missouri.

>> They want land. They want oil. They want money.

>> People, they want to be the top. They want to be
everything. They want to be the big shots. They want to be
everybody. They want to be the sky, the moon, the sun, the
grass. They want to be everything.

>> All war really is is like, if you can't solve it
politically, we can't buy the other country out, we can't make a
treaty, so we'll just have to kill all of them so that way
they're not bothering us anymore.

>> I think war is pointless.

>> I think actual actions of war are bad, but sometimes the
result is good.

>> There's World War II.

>> The Revolutionary War.

>> The Civil War. I mean, slaves wanted their rights. If I
was a slave, I would have fought too.

>> Sometimes the only way to do the right thing is to have war.

>> First I drew a helicopter dropping a bomb, and this is Iraqi
Freedom. Because we're not always killing people just because.
It's for a reason. Over here, people are holding up a white
flag to say that they need help because they don't want to be
bossed around. Then here's like a rescue ship and they're
coming to free them.

>> We hear different things and we don't really know what to
think.

>> I don't think there's any reason for the war. President
Bush wants to do it.

>> He can't talk with other people that he has problems with.
He thinks the best answer is war and killing and murdering and
sending other people to die for him.

>> Our President, he'll only go and kill someone if he thinks
they're going to be a threat to us, so if I had to shoot someone
or I had to kill someone, then I know it would be for a good
cause.

>> I feel like he did it just so he could prove it to his dad
that he's a big boy. I think his dad already knows he's a big
boy when he stopped wearing pull-ups.

>> I actually wanted to go to the Marines when I was little. I
used to watch the movies. Well, Mom, why are they shooting all
the people? She said they fight for our country. They fight to
save us. I'm thinking in my head that must be good. I want to
be a good guy.

>> Now it's different because ever since Bush became our
president, our perspective has changed about war. Right here,
he was innocent. He was just standing there in Iraq. He was
shot right in front of his son. If I go to the war, somebody
will lose a family because of me.

>> If it is about freeing Iraq, it's kind of high and mighty of
us Americans. We want to free you, little country. I know.
How is it our place to do that?

>> We can't go in to do the right thing, to take out these
dictators and establish democracy. I don't think world peace
will ever be possible because, if we won't go in to do the right
thing, who will?

>> They're getting their freedom by the Americans and usually
good people always win.

[Film Clip]

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Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm
Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. First up this week is the bio pick,
"Kinsey". It tells the story of sex researcher, Alfred Kinsey.
Starring in the title role is Liam Neeson. Co-starring is Laura
Linney and John Lithgow in this movie that's written and
directed by "Gods & Monsters" Bill Condon.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Andy Klein of
CityBEAT and ValleyBEAT, and Scott Foundas of Variety and the
L.A. Weekly. Scott, what did you think of "Kinsey"?

Scott Foundas>> I think this is a terrific picture, Larry.
It's a biography of Alfred Kinsey whose landmark book, "Sexual
Behavior in the Human Male", sort of sparked the sexual
revolution in America and spoke about relationships and human
sexuality in a way that hadn't been done before. But that
sounds sort of scientific and forbidding.

What's wonderful about the film is that it's very warm and
surprisingly funny and an unconventional bio pick in the sense
that it really studies Kinsey through his work and through his
research rather than sort of giving you the childhood, teenage
years, adult years, something like we had with "Ray" a couple of
weeks. It's rooted in a really tremendous performance by Liam
Neeson and an equally fine one by Laura Linney as his wife and a
terrific ensemble cast all the way around, including Lynn
Redgrave and Peter Hutton and Peter Sarsgaard.

But I think what I liked most about the film is the way that the
writer-director, Bill Condon who previously made "Gods &
Monsters", sort of identifies Kinsey as an American pioneer in
this. All of his research is being done at Indiana University
and the film has a very sort of lyrical Midwestern setting
that's also quite counter to the subject matter, but it works
wonderfully.

Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Andy?

Andy Klein>> I agree with most of what Scott said. I'm a
little less enthused, but I think it's just because, for
whatever reason, I didn't connect with this film as much as you
did. Indeed, Liam Neeson is amazing. I mean, if you can
imagine Liam Neeson playing sort of a geeky character, you know,
almost as if he shrunk into himself and gotten smaller. It's
very impressive, and Laura Linney's part which is much more sort
of a softer performance and very, very subtle. Also, John
Lithgow, I think, has to be mentioned. He plays Kinsey's father
and is just a loathsome character. So it is a really
entertaining film. I found it a little drier than Scott did,
but I still enjoyed it no end.

Larry Mantle>> Next, we also have a bio pick, "Finding
Neverland", telling the story of writer J.M. Barrie's creation
of the character of Peter Pan. Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet are
the stars.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> Well, Andy Klein, how did you find "Neverland"?

Andy Klein>> I found "Finding Neverland" really entertaining
and, frankly, I guess if I was disappointed at all, it was
because I love Johnny Depp so much, as you know, and he's really
good here, but it's not a flashy performance. He's right. It
shouldn't be a flashy performance. He plays James M. Barrie,
the author of "Peter Pan", and the whole hook of the film is
showing how his friendship with this family, a mother, Kate
Winslet, and her four little boys, becomes important in his life
because his marriage isn't very happy and his career is not
going well.

In order to sort of create an imaginary world for these boys to
help them out, he helps himself out and it ends up inspiring,
you know, what continues to be one of the great enduring
classics. It's very nicely made. It's directed by Marc
Forster, who did "Monster's Ball" that Halle Berry got an Oscar
for. The acting is all on the button and the design is very
nice as well. It just didn't have as much magic as I would have
loved.

Larry Mantle>> Scott, what did you think of "Finding
Neverland"?

Scott Foundas>> It didn't have any magic for me, Larry, not
really. Just a couple of moments. I thought this was sort of a
dreary, almost anesthetized, Masterpiece Theater telling of J.M.
Barrie's life. You know, it was sort of way too hung up on
having all of these scenes where you were supposed to see, okay,
well, this is the moment in which he thought of this scene for
"Peter Pan" and this is the moment where he thought of that
scene for "Peter Pan". I think it really rings false to anybody
who's ever written or done any kind of creative work because
often your best ideas come to you in the shower or sitting on
the toilet or something like that.

This movie is very programmatic and I never really felt I was
watching real people. I thought that Johnny Depp and Kate
Winslet, who can be two of the best actors in the movies today,
were just very tempered and very sort of inert.

Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, the children's favorite,
"The Polar Express", directed by Robert Zemeckis. It stars Tom
Hanks in multiple roles.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> "The Polar Express", Scott?

Scott Foundas>> Well, I think, no pun intended, Larry, this is
a big train wreck of a movie (laughter). I mean, coming just
ten days after "The Incredibles", it's hard to imagine, you
know, a better counter example of, you know, the polar extremes
of CG technology. I mean, this is a film that no expense has
been spared. It's elaborate animation that's sort of actually
drawing over live action. They call it motion capture
technology.

The film has utterly no charm, no magic, and no really
imaginative use of this CG landscape. I mean, most of the time
when you're watching this film, you could just be watching a
live action movie. It's just sort of a live action movie with
brighter colors and, you know, a few trickier camera moves. I
just found that the whole agenda of the film is a Christmas
movie where people whose only idea of Christmas is as
copyrighted by the Disney Corporation or a big department store.

Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Andy?

Andy Klein>> I basically agree with Scott that it's not very
good. I don't agree on all the specific criticisms. I actually
thought the use of the design was very good. But indeed,
there's almost no magic here. You can feel them straining for
magic and there's nothing worse, except maybe failed whimsy,
than failed magic, so that gets irritating.

It's very drawn out and there's also the issue that this process
has caused the characters to look really kind of freaky.
There's something about this waxen, almost human look that they
would have been better off going with even more stylized
characters or with actual live action people. But it roars, and
it blunders, and it strains and it feels like a hernia is
breaking up.

Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks so much for joining us for another
edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3
KPCC joined this week by critics Scott Foundas of Variety and
the L.A. Weekly, and Andy Klein of CityBEAT and ValleyBEAT.
Please join us again in a couple of weeks for our next edition
of FilmWeek on Life and Times.

Val>> Remember, you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek every
Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. on KPCC 89.3. And that's our
program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times,
thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

Every time a plane lands or a truck comes across our borders, we
risk being invaded by foreign species.

>> Where we would normally expect to see the forest of sea
grass filled with fish and other small animals moving about
within the eel grass bed, we found none of that. We saw this
bright green plant that we'd never seen before.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.