Re-Post from 7/1/11
I want to acknowledge Peter Falk’s passing this past week in light of his Columbo TV character’s being a POPULIST icon.
I celebrate him for Columbo, relentless nemesis to the Gucci’d “above the law” types who tried to use power and money to cavalierly escape responsibility for profound crimes against humankind.
I celebrate the Columbo series’ enactments of takedowns of the down and dirty high and mighties, since we are now seriously in the Season or maybe we should call it Age of the “High Functioning Sociopath” (so defiantly in your face in Bushworld and, alas, even more in your face in Obamaworld -- Dems as amoral as Repubs, duh), with our economy captured by them, our quality of life and that of our children and their children, etc., drastically diminished by them, and the massive gratuitous violence (with millions of innocent victims killed, maimed or displaced) perpetrated by them -- with NO risk to them, by the way, except their immortal souls. (I find myself praying more and more for an especially horrendous hell for this wealthy criminal ruling class.)
We desperately need populist heroes, in real life and in art! We need them, past, present and future.
In the Columbo shows those amoral murdering monsters did their best to finesse their way out of horrendous deeds, but Columbo was like the proverbial terrier with a bone. We as viewers enjoyed the ultimate justice, the comeuppance of the smug, mendacious, callous, deadly and always privileged villains. Columbo wasn’t ever dazzled and conned by the money, the power or the fame of the sociopathic gamesman or gameswoman. He would sniff out their guilt early on and hover, hover, hover, question, question, question and then, “just one more thing” ... question. What was such a kick was watching their preliminary dismissal of Columbo as a non-threatening crass, working class, in-way-over-his-head, amiable schlub change to begrudging respect and fear as the sociopaths realized their ingenious, perfect-crime blueprints were not Columbo-proof.
Falk’s character counterpointed the moral shamelessness of the guilty upscale criminal with his own shamelessness at being a non-rich, working class Joe, clunkily invading golden-gated communities to uphold justice. Columbo would at times awkwardly gush over the opulence, the fame, the power he would stumble upon, while at the same time assert pride over the satisfying symbols of his world, that clunker of a car, say, or even a good deal on a less than $20 pair of shoes. He felt comfortable and entitled to show up anywhere despite, as one character declared, “looking like an unmade bed.” He was a "substance" not style kinda guy. The ever-present and ridiculous for Southern California raincoat, the ever-nursed “would you mind not smoking that here” cigar and a never-present gun!
God bless you, Peter Falk. I can use the catharsis of still seeing your Columbo give it to the smug, mendacious rat bastards, even if it is all on the small screen. Thank God for my Columbo DVD collection.
Sometimes I think Dennis Kucinich comes close to being an answer for me to a political, IRL Columbo. He’s got the stance and appearance, plainspoken moral sense, and more of a humble life style than many Washington politicians who turn my stomach so. We shall see if he as an anti-war populist can sincerely stay separated from the crony peer pressure of that amoral and betraying, privileged Congressional pack and accomplish serious justice on behalf of the vast majority of human beings here and abroad being brutally economically and militarily violated by the rat bastard, sociopathic ruling class.
Alas, Dennis, those are BIG, less than twenty dollar Columbo shoes to fill.
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Nice post. I first heard the appearance of "an unmade bed" applied to the old NY Post columnist Samuel Grafton back in the 1940's. The Post was then a fine liberal newspaper well before it slumped into the pile of dung it has now become. Grafton was a wonderful commentator and I still remember his wonderful poetic description of the sound of the overflight of a military jet as "miles of ripping cloth".
Love Mr. Falk.
r.
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Glad you did this re-post: Some time back Woody Guhrie wrote a lyric about how "a two dollar shoe don't fit my feet..." Back then he was looking for a job to put food on the table and have enough left to by himself some "ten dollar shoes." R&R ;-)
His best ones were his earliest ones. His suspects always seemed to be respectable, unlike the ones Kojak went after at the same time; but they didn't get by him.
He was pretty good in the Princess Bride and the Brinks job too FWIW.
He was pretty good in the Princess Bride and the Brinks job too FWIW.
His best movie was The In-Laws, "Serpentine."
I never "got" Columbo when the show was the Sunday Mystery Movie in the 1970's but now I record them on ME TV on Sunday nights. Columbo is awesome. Some of the best television writing.
And nowadays Sally Struthers is still out there fund-raising (who is it for?) UNICEF?
God-willing that you'd have the time to become the
contra-Ayn Rand, Libby.
You certainly are blessed with talent, and you've enjoyed (I guess) a better life than Rand's paranoid flight and salvation from Stalinist Russia.
Read and rated--near the Red River Valley!
God-willing that you'd have the time to become the
contra-Ayn Rand, Libby.
You certainly are blessed with talent, and you've enjoyed (I guess) a better life than Rand's paranoid flight and salvation from Stalinist Russia.
Read and rated--near the Red River Valley!
Loved Peter Falk! Missed this the first time around! R
Sad that since you wrote this Kucinich lost his Congressional seat through deliberate Republican gerrymandering in Ohio.
:) If only Columbo were alive today. Isn't it predictable how they made Kucinich appear to be an oaf and then they destroyed him.
I'm up for Jesse Ventura. Maybe we could get him to body slam Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein on public TV. On the White House lawn and in a cage, of course. A little bit of the Hunger Games for the masses in our dystopian corporate state reality. I'd pay big bucks to watch that.
I'm up for Jesse Ventura. Maybe we could get him to body slam Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein on public TV. On the White House lawn and in a cage, of course. A little bit of the Hunger Games for the masses in our dystopian corporate state reality. I'd pay big bucks to watch that.
Agree, we need more "anti-heroes" as role models.
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its interesting that the media has discovered the concept of a sociopath & research is ongoing... they are treated with a bit of curiosity & fear now, sort of like gayness a generation ago. its a new journalistic topic. several new remarkable books on the subj. awareness increasing. scientists increasingly interested. possible to study objectively with neuroscience tools like brain scanners. they are not really exactly monsters. the truth is more subtle. it seems to be something like fire-- a useful servant, a terrifying/catastrophic master when out of control.... it appears they sometimes do well in positions of authority. it appears to me if they are mixed with a moral environment, their "disability" can fade into the woodwork. in an amoral environment, its like raw kindling for a fire. it reminds me of the concept of "leverage" in finance-- it appears to be somewhat similar.... so, in this again, "we are our brothers keeper...." .... planning to post on this also in the future sometime, have a bunch of links, just looking for a good excuse.....
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