It being summer and summer having the requisite American blockbuster movie… I was dragged to go see ‘Live Free or Die Hard’.

The movie doesn’t disappoint by living up to what you expect: cars are demolished, bullets fly, chase scences abound and the good guys always – somehow – win. If you turn your active brain off for about 2 hours it can even be fun.

With my last few synapses firing, I chuckled that while the movie was full of macho bravado, the movie played Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” twice.

For those that aren’t familiar with the song or would like to hear it again, here it is with an introduction:

As the above video mentioned, the song was one of the most favourite anti-war songs in the 60′s. But I think most people enjoy it simply for its outstanding quality and not the message its lyrics contain. Fascinating how we come full circle after 30 years and find that the song has relevance today.

Here is Fogerty’s on the inspiration and process for the song:

It’s a confrontation between me and Richard Nixon … The haves, the people who have it all. Not a positive image of the people who live up the hill, with their big cars. People I don’t respect. During the Vietnam War, these were the people who didn’t have to go to war. I was thinking about David Eisenhower, the grandson of Dwight, who married Julie Nixon. I always confused her with Tricia [Nixon]. I guess it’s easy to pick on somebody named Tricia. It sounds so silver spoon.

Anyway, I was showing the band the song. I didn’t have much. I knew the chord changes and could feel the energy. I had a title, “Fortunate Son,” but no song. Yet I was showing the band the structure, my normal gig as the musical director of the band.

So, I went into the bedroom, sat on the edge of my bed with a yellow legal tablet and my felt-tipped pen. Out came the song. “It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son.” I was screaming inside, very intense, but not saying a word. Out it came, onto three sheets of legal paper.

It took about twenty minutes. It was like vrooom — it just came right out.

I played that song at an antiwar protest. As I was walking in the hallway after our set, someone came up to me and told me what an awesome version we had played. I remember telling them, “Richard Nixon is a great inspiration.”

Nixon was always saying ‘peace with honor’ and ‘my country, love it or leave it,’ but we knew better ’cause the guy was obviously evil.

Here are the lyrics:

Some folks are born made to wave the flag;
ooh, they’re red, white and blue.
And when the band plays “Hail to the Chief,”
ooh, they point the cannon at you.

It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no senator’s son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no fortunate one.

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don’t they help themselves?
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale.

It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no millionaire’s son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no fortunate one.

Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes;
ooh, they’ll send you down to war.
And when you ask ‘em, “How much should we give?”
ooh, they only answer, “More, more, more.”

It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no military son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no fortunate one.

It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no fortunate one.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me;
I ain’t no fortunate son.

Rainn Wilson stars in his latest feature movie, The Last Mimzy. To not spoil it for you I’ll just mention that it is a combination of ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ and ‘Encounters of the Third Kind’. Here’s a still of Rainn from the movie:

The movie is set to be released after Naw-Ruz. Here’s the trailer:

Two years ago I wrote about the project to tell the story of the martyrdom of Mona, a Baha’i teenager, along with 9 other Baha’i women in Shiraz. At the time, I was hopeful but guarded in my optimism:

On the one hand, I know that Mel Gibson and company have oodles of money to throw around after the record shattering success of their movie. But on the other hand, Hollywood is notorious for being a black hole for such worthy projects.

There have been many false starts before to making a major motion picture directly related to the Baha’i Faith. But I’m glad to see that Jack Lenz and his team have gained momentum and are into pre-production. It seems more and more likely that this project will in fact be getting off the ground.

In fact, casting has already started. The role of Mona’s mother will be played by Shohreh Aghdashloo. The Oscar nominated actress is the most high profile person to be linked to the project, so far. Her involvement is fantastic as it will bring prestige to the movie. But if such high calibre actors are also cast for the other major roles… well, lets just hope Jack Lenz has secured some deep pockets to finance the movie.

Here’s the official ‘blurb’ :

“Mona’s Dream” is a feature film that tells the story of Mona Mahmudnizhad and her family. Mona was 16 years old when she was arrested in the Iranian city of Shiraz along with scores of other Bahá’ís. The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, had set out to rid their country and their revolution of the Bahá’í Community, the largest religious minority in Iran. Mona and her family were victims of their cruel and intolerant persecution. She and her father were arrested on October 22nd, 1982 and suffered intense psychological and physical torture for several months. Jamshid, her father, was executed on March 12th, 1983 and Mona and nine of her female companions were executed on June 18th, 1983 by hanging.

I didn’t know that she was arrested at the same time as her father, nor that he had also been killed. Follow this link to learn more about Mona and her life.

The official website for the movie is at Mona’s Dream. If you have your sound on, turn down the volume. You can keep up to date on the progress of the project by checking back at the website. And if you are interested to get involved by contributing your talent, contact Mehr Mansouri who is the casting agent.

To tide you over until the movie comes out, here is the video for the song “Mona with the Children”:

Many thanks to Lara Kearns who was kind enough to forward this information in a comment for the original post.