[Spooks] Shortwave at the movies

[spooks@mailman.qth.net]

Fellow SPOOKster's:

Jumping in on this late, but...

Let's not forget Jonathan Demme's tribute to the '70's CB craze -- (also, I 
believe, his directoral debut) the quirkily funny "Citizen's Band,"  retitled 
"Handle With Care."  CB is the star of this movie, about a group of strangers 
who have relationships with each other via CB but don't meet until the end of 
the movie.  

The funniest subplot involves a trucker who has a wife on each end of his 
cross-country run.  They meet each other finally -- with hiliarious results!  
The main character, played by "American Graffiti" alumnus Paul Le Mat (Candy 
Clark, another one, is also in it) is a REACT monitor who rescues this same 
trucker when he hears his distress call on channel 9.  He gets disgusted with 
all the non-emergency traffic he hears from newbie yahoos (including his own 
girlfriend, who has taken on a sexy alter ego via CB), and by the end of the 
movie, heads out with a baseball bat to "clean up the band," destroying 
offending operator's equipment.  

At the climax, all the previously anonymous CB'ers come out from behind their 
handles and fantasy identities to rescue him.  I think that's what 
happens...it's been a long time since I've watched it!  

And, of course, there's lots of CB action in those horrible "Smokey and the 
Bandit" movies.

There was also a movie with John Travolta that came out a few years ago.  I 
can't remember the title, but Travolta plays a man with a brain tumor that 
for awhile gives him special powers.  Forrest Whitaker plays a fat, lonely, 
painfully shy ham radio operator, shown with his rig a couple of 
times...almost his only human contact.  Too bad one of the few movies to 
feature a ham operator portrays him as a pathetic loser.  Not the way to 
attract people to the hobby!

--Mary Villano

PouncerSpy@aol.com