Monday 10 January 2011

Conviction and Jackie the Dog...



The rabbit has never been invited to the pre-release screening of a film before. But he was today at 20th Century Fox offices in central London. The film is called Conviction and the rabbit got the invite as a lawyer and blogger.


The storyline is based on real life. A Massachusetts woman named Betty-Ann Waters (Hilary Swank) life was turned upside down when her older brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) was arrested for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983. She set out on an 18 year mission to have her brother's conviction quashed, putting herself through high school, college and, finally, law school. Does she succeed? Take a wild guess. The particularly interesting part of the story is that the appeal was one of the first to use DNA evidence



Did the rabbit get to the pre-release screening? Nope. Until very near close of business on Friday, it looked like that all was good for his attendance. Then at the last minute a case in Oxford arrived in his diary. The way it works is that there was no alternative to heading off to Oxford, which the rabbit duly did.




But the kind PR lady who arranged the rabbit's attendance at the pre-release screening has sent a load of promotional clips. Here they are - fresh as can be.




Four of them plus the trailer..



I will go and see it - even as a paying customer! But that is the story of how the rabbit nearly mixed with the cinematic great and good. Heigh ho...








Introducing Jackie the Dog. How cool is a dog in shades? Jackie' story has recently come to the rabbit's attention as causing offence to the Nazis in general and Hitler in particular. Now it takes little imagination to appreciate that the Nazis were not strong on self-deprecating humour. Jackie (a dalmatian as you ask) was taught by his owner's wife to raise his paw in a Nazi salute every time he heard the word 'Hitler'. This was not well-received in German government circles and historians have found thirty official files about the dog, despite the German government having other things on its collective mind at the time such as - erm - invading Russia.

Jackie's owner was a Finnish businessman named Tor Borg. His wife was an anti-Nazi German. Borg was reported by an informer to the German Consulate in Helsinki and summoned for interrogation.He said he had never done anything 'that could be seen as an insult against the Reich'

Oh no not much.. Happily he got away with it and there were no consequences, save to Hitler's 'dignity'.

11 comments:

JoJo said...

I'm from MA and I don't remember this story at all. How strange. 1983 you say? I was pretty wrapped up in me, myself and I, what with college and all.

sybil law said...

It looks like a great movie, but probably not enough to get me to the theater. Then again, NOTHING really gets me to the theater.
Love the dog story. I really don't know how that dog survived!

Instant Cash Uk said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
shirley baird said...

This looks like a really good movie. Hilary Swank is a great actor.

Petit fleur said...

I remember hearing about this... incredible. Our system is such a freaking mess, it's a wonder ANYthing gets overturned EVER.

I want to see it, but at the same time, it's all too familiar. A lot of our ex clients have been railroaded like that. It's heart breaking. Actually, I think there must be a stronger adjective to describe how wrong it is for someone to spend any time in an institution like our prisons... especially if they are innocent. Don't get me started on Leonard Peltier!

Not sure what to think of ole Jackie. But he/ she is lookin pretty bad ass in those shades!

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

Anti-Nazi dog is a win in my book.

tony said...

The anti-facist dog gave me Paws For Thought........

white rabbit said...

JoJo - I'd never heard about it until contacted by nice PR lady but I was a long way from MA at the time.

Sybil - You should you know. You'd enjoy it.

I copy and paste e-mail to Cash Whatever-It-Was UK...

'Get lost and don't plant your spam on my blog again'.

Shirley/Little Flower - I shall go and see it soon and I'll post a rabbit review.

DHG/Tony - An Anti-Nazi dog in shades... What's not to like? :D

Ms Scarlet said...

My old dog, Paddy [1978 - 1993], used to go into a barking frenzy whenever he heard the name 'Margaret Thatcher'. I don't know why.
Sx

Mahal said...

Humour wasn't the Nazis strong point (but then what was?). They had a list of newspaper editors that they were going to arrest when they invaded Britain (they got that one wrong too), which included the editors of the Beano and Dandy, children's comics aimed mainly at working class kids that included cartoons of Hitler and Mussolini!

white rabbit said...

Scarlet Blue - Welcome to my humble blog O distinguished blogger! Thatcher had the same effect on me...

Mahal - I'd quite forgotten that. Weird and pathetic in equal measure...