God On Film

 

Cecil B. de Mille had two stabs at filming The Ten Commandments, both gargantauan affairs, the second (the first is a silent film) coming in at approaching four hours. Channel 5 did their bit for religiosity on the box at Easter by showing the 1956 talkie. It has its merits although the special effects seem, by modern standards, vaguely comical. Never mind, it still looks opulent and, for all its length, it fair rattles along. Nor can one criticise the scene-stealing efforts of Heston and Brynner in the two principal roles. I have a soft spot for this sort of Hollywood excess and Easter is the right time for what we might term, God - the Movie. 65/100.

I followed up my creditable efforts in the gale at Royal St. David's by assuming that I was all set to take the Royal Pype Hayes apart. Think again Pig. The usual middling golf was all I could manage and the pattern repeated itself on a visit with the QMT lads to Forest of Arden last week - we've got some vouchers we're using up. We played on the second course at F of A, the Aylesford, which I think is a tidy enough test. It was in commendable nick and I played really quite adequately on fourteen holes but allowed the others to debase my card. Back to The Royal Pype Hayes this evening - could this be time for that long-awaited breakthrough? No, would be the answer you are searching for. Old dogs and new tricks come to mind.

The war in Ukraine rages on and it is impossible to feel other than a disenfranchised observer. It is beyond my powers as commentator but its effect on domestic politics does strike me as noteworthy. In one of those horrible twists of political fate, this immoral war has come to the rescue of our own immoral Prime Minister. It is tempting to fall into the trap of saying that at such a time of international (not to mention economic) crisis we should not be indulging in squabbles about the leadership of the Conservative Party. Tempting yes, but wrong nonetheless. I watched the shameless scoundrel Johnson in parliament last week. He would have us believe that he was just too pig ignorant to understand that the parties he attended were in breach of the regulations he so consistently ordained for the rest of us. He is not that stupid. Bloody liar.