Check out last night’s reaction from Lone Survivor author and former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell when CNN’s Jake Tapper says that watching Peter Berg‘s Lone Survivor imparts a sense of “hopelessness” about the deaths in the Afghanistan War. To which Luttrell responds, “You’re telling me my guys died for nothing?” Luttrell’s equation is more or less “these were good guys who were loyal, strong and true, so their deaths can’t be futile — their deaths have to ring with honor.” Really? Okay. Question for Luttrell: Did the 58,000 U.S. casualties during the Vietnam War die for something? If so, what was that?

A 1.9 Daily Mail article by an anonymous BAFTA voter states — are you sitting down? — that “the voting process is based less on artistic merit than on a combination of coercion, trend-following and pot luck.”

“Maybe 100 films released over the past 12 months have a realistic chance of winning a BAFTA, and probably 70 to 80 of those are released in the last two months of the year,” the author says. “[And come December] you have 50 or 60 films to get through. In less than a month. With Christmas in the middle. And a deadline of January 3rd to vote for your five nominations in each category. It’s just not possible to watch them all. So which ones rise to the top of the pile? The ones you’ve already heard about. And the ones that have already started winning.

The most recent assessment of Robert Redford‘s chances in the Best Actor Oscar race has been “forget it…he refused to campaign, too proud to get out there and hustle, might not even be nominated,” etc. And he might not be. But earlier today award-season handicappers told me they’ve picked up insect antennae vibrations telling them that tomorrow night Redford might actually win the Golden Globe for Best Actor, Drama. Because…I don’t know why. Because the star-struck HFPA voters are more attracted to the idea of Redford, the ultimate glamorous movie-star of the ’70s and ’80s, being crowned on their stage than the Texas-accented, hard-charging, presumed-to-be-in-the-lead-as-we-speak Matthew McConaughey? Or…I don’t know, because Redford is more glammy than Bruce Dern? One thing you can probably count on: Unlike Dern, Redford will almost certainly not wear orthopedic comfort shoes to the Globes.

This recently posted Nebraska trailer is the first I’ve noticed that actually lays the theme of Bruce Dern‘s Best Actor campaign on the table, to wit: “Your life can have a vigorous and perhaps even triumphant final act, even if your 70s.”

I’m so far behind the curve on Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa‘s Milius (EPIX, premiering tonight) that I’m almost having trouble writing about it. The big debut happened ten months ago at South by Southwest, but I’m not doing that festival any more. The doc has been viewable on a private Vimeo link for a while now. Did I watch it? Of course not. But two nights ago I finally caught up with this workmanlike, good-enough portrait of legendary director-screenwriter John Milius at a special invitational screening at USC’s Eileen Norris theatre complex.

The doc’s recounting of Milius’s life and career is clean, straightforward and comprehensive. We all know that Milius’s fame is related more to famous dialogue than anything else — “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” “Well, do ya feel lucky, punk?,” the title “Apocalypse Now,” etc. And the doc dutifully recounts this. That’s my only problem with Milius — it feels dutifully outside rather than inside. It doesn’t really swim in the raging rapids (as well as the serenity) of Milius’s adventures and philosophy. It just sets up the camera and comfortably points to Milius and his pals and says “See those guys? They’re talking about the rapids.” It’s a doc that says “this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened,” etc.

This Wolf of Wall Street f-bomb video is a half-decent ADD summary of the film itself. The important comparison, of course, is with the various Scarface compilations. Indiewire/The Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth says there are 522 fucks in Wolf; a commenter below the Scarface video claims there are 218 in that 1983 Brian DePalma film; the Wiki list says 207. Wolf is the new all-time champ, but the first runner-up surprises me — Spike Lee‘s Son of Sam.