Movies

During my prime time days, I was an intense movie fan.  Every week, the United Fruit Company in Changuinola, Bocas del Toro would bring in the latest movies for the entertainment of its employees.  The entrance fee to the club where the movies were projected was free.

Artists like Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, Dick Bogarde, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Richard Burton and many others were on the silver screen every week.  One of movies I will never forget was “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on the book, “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” penned by French writer Pierre Boulle.  The classic motion picture was brilliantly acted by William Holden and Alec Guinness.

After I got married, I gradually distanced myself from the movies, mainly because the costs of going to the theater was too expensive and the streets began to get dangerous at night.  I would rent rent a movie now and then, but not on a regular basis.  Then out of the blue came Netflix to Panama.  I gave it a shot and so far I’m pretty satisfied.  The price is unbeatable—$7.99 per month for a database of thousands of pictures.

Credit: Netflix Inc.

Yesterday was an exciting day.  I was able to download the Netflix app from iTunes for my recently acquired Apple iPad.  I had deferred doing so, mainly because I was busy with a business consulting project and was also reading the instructions manual of the gadget.  The process of setting up an iTunes account was a breeze, although I was a bit hesitant providing  my credit card information.  Read too many horrible stories about credit card fraud.  But I had no choice if I wanted to stream motion pictures with my tablet.

Shortly after downloading the Netflix app, I was enjoying my first motion picture on a tablet.  Certainly for me it was a historic day.  The name of the motion picture was The Hindenburg (1975) performed by George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft and William Atherton.

Picture of the ubiquitous Apple iPad.  Credit: Apple Inc.

This film is a compendium of the facts and fiction of the events leading up to the disaster of the aircraft that took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located next to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey. For dramatic effect, sabotage was chosen as the cause, rather than electricity lashing out at a couple of tons of hydrogen.

It was not an excellent picture, but at least it was entertaining and was based on a historic event.  The disaster was the subject of spectacular newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison’s recorded radio eyewitness report from the landing field, which was broadcast the next day.

The real cause of the fire remains unknown, although a variety of hypotheses have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The incident shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the end of the airship era.  Adolph Hitler attributed the cause of the tragic event as an “Act of God”.  Maybe he was predicting the fall of the Third Reich, also as an “Act of God.”

The LZ 129 Hindenburg begins to fall after catching fire on May 6, 1937. Fatalities: 36. Survivors: 62. Credit: Wikipedia Encyclopedia.

I have other Apple apps on my list, but Netflix had the honor of being the first downloaded application on my juggernaut.  Soon there will be others, you can bet on it.  Good Day.

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