Charlie Sheen.....

Now,
I have thought long and hard about this post and weighed the pros and cons of posting it. For a long time I didn't want to post it because if anyone knows anything about me they know I hate the media frenzy over celebrities. I feel that when cable news stations clog up hours upon hours with celebrity crap we the society are being fed dope to keep our attention away from anything important. My case in point with this is the death of a very close friend of mine. My friend, who's name I will not give, was killed when a bomb exploded near his convoy in Iraq. Six soldiers lost their lives that day and America just didn't seem to car. And why is that? Because that very same day Anna Nicole Smith died and since she was a halfassed celebrity my friends, and his brothers in arms, were completely ignored when they should have been honored as all fallen heroes should be.
But.... since I am a closet Charlie Sheen fan, I feel it is my duty to push past all the crap being fed to us by the media and sometimes by Mr. Sheen himself and declare why I am a Sheen fan. Now more importantly I have only one subscriber and no avid readers so in no way can I be hurt by posting this. So enough with the stalling and on with the writing.
Now according to IMDB Charlie Sheen has been in several productions other than two and a half men but most of those productions I admittedly wouldn't waste time on because I'm afraid they would tarnish my image of Charlie Sheen and I try and avoid that at all costs. So for me the last movie that Charlie Sheen was in that I would have wasted time to see would have been Terminal Velocity. Now most people would state that this was probably the beginning of the end, but then most people don't examine movies like I do. Sure Terminal Velocity was not Oscar material but it was a action flick that was at least worth to note compared to the absolute crap that comes out today. But to reach true Sheen gold you have to reach back, way back to Cadence with Laurence Fishburne.
Cadence is a film about a soldier who reels from his father's death and gets arrested for destroying a bar and getting tattoos on his hands, destroying military property for those who don't understand, and he has to do his time before being sent to Vietnam. Sheen, who is also accompanied by Martin Sheen, has to serve his time in an all black prison wing during the height of the Civil Rights movement. Through out this film Sheen's character builds a foudnation for himself and at the end of the film realizes that his cellmates are more than a color, more than inmates, and most of all his friends. A good film to say the least, you should go out and rent it today.
Still this is not Sheen's best, not by far. Some would say the best lay in Wall Street, and the sad tale of Bud Fox. In this flick Sheen stands up against Michael Douglas in a true tribute to the 1980s and the never ending flow greed and corruption and walked hand in hand with the so called Reagan years. This film, directed by Oliver Stone, is a stand out film that brings the best out of Sheen and the worst in Douglas as the quote "Greed is Good" sets the tone for the entire film. Nominated for an Oscar Douglas surely takes the cake for the film but let us not forget without Bud Fox, there would have been no Gordon Gekko.
Wall Street was not the first film between the powerhouse director Oliver Stone and Charlie Sheen. The first was a outstanding film about one soldier's experience with the Vietnam War called Platoon. This is hands down Sheen at his best as he plays Chris who is a volunteer soldier who arrives in Nam with an idealized vision of the war. Through out the pace of this film there is a set tone that allows Chris to at first fumble is way through the war and then set to learn from the seasoned vet Sgt. Elias. Stone also uses Sheen's deep voice to narrate the film through letters sent home by Chris, Sheen is a throw back salute to his father Martin Sheen in the classic Apocalypse Now, a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Platoon is a staggering vision of the Vietnam conflict that's rarely seen and rarely understood through the eyes of America. Sheen is a stand out in this role and just a vision of things to come as for America there is no way but up for Charlie Sheen.
But my favorite film with Charlie Sheen would have to be the first film I saw him in. This film was not only a rocket point for Sheen's career but also helped start the career of the late Patrick Swazye, Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Grey. The film is called Red Dawn and for real children of the 80s this is a film that not only played on America's fears of the cold war but also placed fighting the war in the hands of American children, an act not seen since the years of the Vietnam war. Red Dawn might not be listed in the pages of Oscar history, but it is a fundamental page within my history and thus why it is so important to me. This film deals with small town America and the small town people who almost next to nothing about Russia about the cold war and even less about the near panic between the "two biggest kids on the block." This film is by far my favorite Sheen movie, the second being Young Guns (Just cause I love Westerns), and the main reason that I just don't pay attention to the media hype about Sheen and just continue watching his movies.
Now about that. You know when Mel Gibson got drunk and made a few jokes at the expense of other races or religions, I didn't care. When Alec Baldwin barked at his child about manners and then called her a disgusting little pig, I still didn't care. When Tiger Woods crashed his car and thus his life, I really really didn't care. Why? Because it was none of my damned business. I have enough things to worry about in my life and so I just cant stop and watch the epic downfall of another person, celebrity or not, because I'm trying to not fall down the same hill. Stop helping the machine, stop watching the news about Sheen, stop reading the articles, just stop it! It doesn't help you, it won't help him, and it sure as hell doesn't help me. Pay attention to the real damn news. How about you read about the falling health care crisis, or about rising gas prices, hell let's talk about unemployment!
And in conclusion I saw these celebrities are people, rich people, but people none the less. People screw up, they get drunk, they drive, they have meltdowns and they go to rehab. Life will not stop and start at their beck and call and sadly whether or not Two and a Half Men airs again will not hold any life long answers for you. But then on the other hand, Mr. Sheen stop helping them. Stop posting a video blog with you ranting and raving over all the bullshit handed to you. We all know its not fair and we're even more aware that this is only happening because your dad is Martin Sheen and you have a little fame under your belt but you're not helping your cause or ours by calling the trolls names one by one. Just give it up and take care of business.
By the way, if you're wondering what my favorite Sheen scene is, it is in Red Dawn. Jed and Matt are sitting on a ridge and watching the sun go down. One of their own has just been killed and Matt is checking on his brother and for a moment both of them grieve in ways that only heroes can grieve in. Its a heartfelt scene that leaves you hurting when you see how it all ends and how it all concludes in a snow covered park on one dark night. Go rent Red Dawn, you'll forget everything you've seen about Charlie Sheen.

Thanks
J.