Thanks for mentioning that. I’d completely forgotten that. But then again I was 16 when Roots came out.
Fiddler is finally free.
A bit of a bump, because my wife and I just watched An Officer and a Gentleman tonight. We rented it on Amazon. It has been decades since we saw it. I liked the training scenes but the love story was a bit over the top sappy. Louis Gossett jr did a good job as the drill instructor. A few times when marching the class he called the commands out incorrectly, but I doubt it’s anything that would be noticed, and it certainly wasn’t egregious. Richard Gere and Debra Winger both gave solid performances. Gere was 33 and Winger 27 when it was filmed. They’re now 75 and 69. I saw this in the theaters when it first came out.
We then watched on YouTube when Gossett was awarded the Oscar. The presenters were Susan Sarandon and Christopher Reeve (standing tall; this was some 12 years before his 1995 equestrian accident that left him paralyzed). Gossett was the first African American ever to be awarded the supporting actor Oscar, and the first to win any Oscar since Sydney Poitier’s Best Actor in 1964.
An Officer and a Gentleman. It was enjoyable enough tonight.
As he is also in the Roots clip you posted earlier, R.I.P. to John Amos as well. I believe he passed back in August.