With the passing of Alan Rickman I am compelled to call out what I consider his most compelling and successful film role. There are many, many characters that Mr. Rickman brought to life on the silver screen including, of course, the conniving kraut Hans Gruber who blew up Nakatomi Tower in a grim foreshadowing of terrorist tactics. But his greatest achievement, in my mind, was his role as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the horrible Kevin Costner vehicle, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It is show biz rumor that at the early test screenings of the film the audience cheered Rickman and rooted for him to kill Costner in the final sword fight - the producers had to go back to the editing room and cut out chunks of Rickman's scenes to make him less appealing and even after that butchery it's a toss up as to who to support - the tortured charismatic sheriff or the bland American interloper.
I came into this wicked world in the early 1960's and as a result I have born witness to America's 50 Years of Failure which includes the modern age of mass shootings by psychotic men who "go off" on a given day, for no reason at all (except "guns"), and kill scads of innocent bystanders. Back in August of 2019 a KOTCB blog post titled " Reciprocity City " explored a young gunman named Patrick Crusius who drove 9 hours through the west Texas flatlands to shoot up El Paso, TX The KOTCB has commented on many of these shootings, bombings and knifings over the years - The roots of the Boston Marathon Bombing , the Emanuel AME Church shooting , Syed Rizvan Farook and his bride Tashfeen Malik , Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooting , Nick Cruz lovesick Parkland shooting , the Iranian, PETA activist, Vegan Bodybuilder, YouTuber's attack on Google and now this very oddly timed and placed "lone wolf" attack on Walmart shoppers. This list
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