Perhaps you’re a normal American. You Stand With Ukraine. Maybe you have the blue and yellow flag next to your name on Facebook and Twitter. You don’t even mind that our government is giving arms to Ukraine to ensure that the war is as long and as vicious as possible.
Well I do mind.
“But, Max!” you exclaim in horror. “Russia brutally invaded a neighboring country in order to reconquer and dominate a former territory!” That is true. Russia is definitely the bad guy; but that doesn’t mean that Ukraine is the good guy. By that logic, the Confederate States of America were the undeniable good guys in the Civil War.
I do not support Ukraine. I absolutely do not support Russia. I support peace.
You don’t have to choose sides in a foreign war. Just like you don’t have to choose sides in a fist fight outside a bar. If you do end up rooting for one of the fighters because he looks more dashing in his green tee-shirt, please don’t hand him a crowbar. That’s never the right thing to do.
Neutrality is the sane choice and the moral choice. Captain Harry Morgan understands that well enough.
“To Have and Have Not” takes place in French Martinique, 1940. Captain Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) earns a meager living taking tourists out fishing on his boat.
After Germany conquers France, quiet little Martinique becomes a war zone. Nazi-aligned Vichy take over. And they are trying to stamp out the French Resistance.
Morgan’s friend asks him to illegally transport some Resistance fighters. The Captain turns the offer down flat. Morgan has more important things on his mind.
Captain Morgan wants to make love, not war. He just met an alluring young American – Marie Browning (Lauren Bacall) – who is stranded on Martinique without a way home.
But Marie is no damsel in distress. She is adventurous, self-assured, and she’s falling in love with Captain Morgan.
I like all four of the movies that Bogart and Bacall made together. But “To Have and Have Not” is the first and the best.
Lauren Bacall went from a teenage model to a timeless superstar in 90 minutes. It isn’t just her looks (incredible) or her sincere attraction for Bogart (intense). It was her excellent acting.
Marie isn’t a bombshell, she’s a real woman. I love the way she expresses passive-aggressive jealousy when a pretty Resistance fighter is flirting with Morgan. Marie lands a gig as a hotel lounge singer. She knows she can do it but she expresses just the right amount of stage fright on her first night.
Morgan pays a lot more attention to Marie than the war. And rightly so.
But the war won’t leave him alone. After an arrogant Vichy officer steals all of Morgan’s money, the broke Captain is forced to take the job for the Resistance.
And here’s where director Howard Hawkes really surprised me. He doesn’t turn “To Have and Have Not” into a propaganda film like “Casablanca.” Captain Morgan never has a change of heart and he never joins the cause.
However, Hawkes shows us what made World War II uniquely horrible. Innocent people around the globe – from London to Manila, from Leningrad to Nanking, from the Caribbean to the Sahara – were forced to participate.
Thank goodness there is nothing like that in today’s world. We have no need to participate in the Russia/Ukraine war. We should stop arming Ukraine and simply root for peace.
