A cinematic meditation on fireworks
The fireworks start early this week on most PBS stations when “POV” presents the 2017 documentary “Brimstone & Glory” (airs locally at 11 p.m. Tuesday on GPB, 3 a.m. Wednesday on WTCI). Directed by Viktor Jakovleski, the film focuses on the central Mexican town of Tultepec, where many people make their living in makeshift fireworks factories and where, over the decades, dozens have been killed in accidents and explosions.
Every year, the town throws a National Pyrotechnic Festival. These aren’t safe displays seen from a distance. The camera lingers on explosions, bursts of artificial fire and the delicate dance of descending embers. At times, “Glory” seems to put viewers inside the explosions.
It also chronicles the ancient roots of the festival, which honors San Juan de Dios, the patron saint of fireworks makers who is said to have rescued patients from a burning hospital while never getting singed.
The centerpiece of the festival and the film is the act of constructing enormous bull sculptures and stuffing them with explosives. Burning Man has nothing on this.
Some critics have found “Glory” magical and mesmerizing, while others have complained that the loud party goes on for too long.
ME TOO, CIRCA 1944
A timely film about an incident from more than 70 years ago, “The Rape of Recy Taylor” (9 p.m., Starz, TV-MA) recalls the story of a black woman raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944. Rather than suffer in silence, Taylor spoke up about her ordeal and her assailants, challenging the Jim Crow justice system of her time.
SUMMER STAPLE
Arguably the most enduring seasonal movie ever, the 1959 melodrama “A Summer Place” (8 p.m., TCM) is a guilty pleasure, a period piece from the “Mad Men”-era that has been referenced in many other movies.
A tale of love, lust, repression and class snobbery, the movie featured a theme song that evoked the genteel life of an island summer resort. Covered both with lyrics and as an instrumental, the song was reduced to insipid elevator music used to ironic effect in other films. It accompanies a make-out scene in “Animal House” and a dystopian moment in “The Omega Man.”
When the guys from Barry Levinson’s “Diner” go to the movies, they see “A Summer Place.” John Waters brazenly copied a scene from the movie in his 1974 underground comedy “Female Trouble” and themes from the film resonate in Waters’ “Polyester.”
While the movie’s score became synonymous with “square” culture, the Delmer Daves movie is almost heavy-handed in its messaging: Sexual repression and class snobbery will lead to misery, alcoholism, divorce and early death!
The film’s teen stars Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue battled demons as adults, but not before Dee became the subject of a song from another touchstone summer stage and movie musical, “Grease.”
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Mel B goes “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” (8 p.m., NBC, repeat, TV-PG).
› A new judge arrives on “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› Virginia is for lovers on “The Bachelorette” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Competitors participate in the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games (8 p.m., ESPNEWS), live from Seattle.
› Darius and Grace bury the hatchet on “Salvation” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
› Emergencies don’t make way for Valentine’s Day on “9-1-1” (9 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› Plum takes stock on “Dietland” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
› A death in the family joins Morland and Sherlock in grief on “Elementary” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
› Ten beauties grovel on “The Proposal” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
› Christy mulls a change of sponsors on “Mom” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Illusionists audition on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG).
› Making ends meet on “Man With a Plan” (8:30 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-PG).
› Los Angeles qualifiers of “American Ninja Warrior” (9 p.m., NBC, repeat, TV-PG).
› On two helpings of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (CW, TV-14), Greg Proops (9 p.m.) Marisol Nichols (9:30 p.m., repeat).
Kevin McDonough can be reached at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.