Also
@President_Lincoln a question I asked earlier how is gerrymandering in Blue Skies?
Apologies for not getting to this sooner. As per OTL, in the 1960s, a series of "one person, one vote" cases were decided by the Supreme Court, which resulted in a mandate of redistricting in response to the results of each census. Prior to these decisions, many states had stopped redrawing their districts. As a result of the periodic need to redistrict, political conflicts over redistricting have sharply increased. Gerrymandering is thus, unfortunately, still an issue ITTL as of 1979. As time goes on, however, this will become an area where advocates for reform may focus their efforts.
Mr. President, you forgot about this year's movies like Rocky II, Moonraker, and Mad Max. And you forgot also to include Michael Jackson's Off The Wall which was introduced the same year. Are they better ITTL?
Don't worry, my friend. I didn't forget. I simply like to keep my Pop Culture updates relatively brief. Included here are details about the films and music you mentioned...
Rocky II - Sports Drama. Written by, directed by, and starring Sylvester Stallone. The film also features Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess Meredith. The film centers around Rocky Balboa struggling to adjust to his newfound fame and family life. He is then challenged to a much-anticipated rematch with Apollo Creed. Development of
Rocky II began in 1977, after Stallone completed the screenplay. Though United Artists was initially reluctant to allow Stallone to direct, he refused to be involved with the production unless he was given the green light. The studio eventually gave in. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its characterization and Stallone's performance. It grossed $200 million worldwide and $85 million in North America, making it the third highest-grossing film of 1979 domestically and the second highest-grossing film worldwide. As far as sequels go, it's pretty darn solid.
Moonraker - Spy Thriller. Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Written by Christopher Wood, adapting the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. (Adhering much closer to the plot of the original novel than the film of OTL),
Moonraker, the 11th film in the 007 Franchise sees MI6 Agent James Bond (Julian Glover) engage in a deadly game of Cold War espionage with Sir Hugo Drax (James Mason).
Drax, an enigmatic British industrialist, is entrusted by Her Majesty's Government to develop a new, state of the art ICBM for the United Kingdom's nuclear defense deterrent in the Cold War. It is claimed that the missile, codenamed "MOONRAKER", will make Britain safer, and less reliant on the United States. After a Ministry of Supply security officer working at the project is shot dead, M assigns Bond to replace him and also to investigate what has been going on at the missile-building base, located between Dover and Deal on the south coast of England. Strangely, all of the rocket scientists working on the project are German. At his post on the complex, Bond meets Gala Brand (Lois Chiles), a beautiful police Special Branch officer working undercover as Drax's personal assistant. Bond also uncovers clues concerning his predecessor's death, concluding that the man may have been killed for witnessing a submarine off the coast.
Drax's henchman Krebs (Richard Kiel) is caught by Bond snooping through his room. Later, an attempted assassination by triggering a landslide nearly kills Bond and Brand, as they swim beneath the Dover cliffs. Drax takes Brand to London, where she discovers the truth about the Moonraker by comparing her own launch trajectory figures with those in a notebook picked from Drax's pocket. She is captured by Krebs, and finds herself captive in a secret radio homing station—intended to serve as a beacon for the missile's guidance system—in the heart of London. While Brand is being taken back to the Moonraker facility by Drax, Bond gives chase, but is also captured by Drax and Krebs.
Drax tells Bond that he was never a British soldier and has never suffered from amnesia: his real name is Graf Hugo von der Drache, the German commander of a "Werewolf" commando unit. Disguised in an Allied uniform, he was the saboteur whose team placed the car bomb at the army field headquarters, only to be injured himself in the detonation. The amnesia story was simply a cover he used while recovering in hospital to avoid recognition, although it would lead to a whole new British identity. Drax remains a dedicated Nazi, bent on revenge against England for the wartime defeat of his Fatherland and his prior history of social slights suffered as a youth growing up in an English boarding school before the war. He explains that he now means to destroy London, with a Soviet-supplied nuclear warhead that has been secretly fitted to the Moonraker. His company is also selling the British pound short in order to make a huge profit from the disaster.
Brand and Bond are imprisoned where the blast from the Moonraker's engines will incinerate them, to leave no trace of them once the missile is launched. Before the launch, the couple escape. Brand gives Bond the coordinates he needs to redirect the gyros and send the Moonraker into the sea. Having been in collaboration with Soviet Intelligence all along, Drax and his henchman attempt to escape by Soviet submarine—only to be killed as the vessel makes its escape through the waters onto which the Moonraker has been re-targeted. After their debriefing at headquarters, Bond meets up with Brand, expecting her company—but they part ways after she reveals that she is engaged to a fellow Special Branch officer.
Above: Julian Glover as James Bond (
Moonraker would mark Glover's fourth turn as 007); Lois Chiles as Gala Brand; James Mason as Sir Hugo Drax.
Moonraker was well-received by critics and fans of the series. Especially praised were the script and the performances, with Glover and Mason in particular "shining", according to critics. Though an early draft of the script would have featured Bond going into outer space (to try and capitalize on the
Star Wars craze), Wood and Gilbert decided to keep the film more grounded, both literally and figuratively. Wood was inspired by research he had done into "Operation Paperclip", the integration of ex-Nazi scientists into the West following World War II, in particular to work on the American space program. He was also inspired by recent increases in Cold War tensions, which made a nuclear detonation over London feel all the more real to his audience once again, he surmised. The only real critique against the film was that (for some) it lacked the globe-spanning scope that some had come to expect from a Bond film. Set entirely within the United Kingdom, the novel and the film both feel like a "love letter" to England, with the White Cliffs of Dover serving as a key symbol in the plot. The film also helped convince Glover to remain with the character for the time being, though he would now work on a film-by-film basis.
Mad Max - Dystopian action. Directed by George Miller and starring a debuting Geoffrey Rush as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse. Principal photography for Mad Max took place in and around Melbourne and lasted for six weeks. The film initially received a polarized reception upon its release in April 1979, although it won four AACTA Awards. Filmed on a budget of just $400,000, it earned more than US$100 million worldwide in gross revenue and set a Guinness record for the most profitable film in history. The success of
Mad Max has been credited for further opening up the global market to Australian New Wave films. Originally, Rush's roommate, fellow young actor Mel Gibson was attached to the project. Gibson eventually dropped out, however, after an automobile accident just before filming was set to start left him with a broken leg. He passed the part on to Rush, whose turn was seen as suitably laconic and brooding. Rush would return as Max in 1981's
Mad Max 2 and 1985's
Beyond Thunderdome.
And an album...
Off the Wall was the fifth studio album by Michael Jackson. Released on August 10th, 1979, the album was Jackson's first with Epic Records. Crafted from a singular blend of disco, pop, funk, R&B, soft rock, and even Broadway ballads, the album contains lyrical themes of escapism, loneliness, liberation, hedonism, and romance. It also features songwriting contributions from such artists as Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and David Foster. From the album, four singles: "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough"; "Rock With You"; "Off the Wall"; and "She's Out of My Life" would all reach the
Billboard top 10. The first two even went to number one. A major departure from Jackson's earlier work,
Off the Wall seemed to represent a breakthrough for the burgeoning "King of Pop". He finally seemed to be leaving his Motown past behind and forging a unique identity for himself.