dual personalities

We’ve always been big fans of Robin Hood in this house. When the boys were little, he loomed even larger than Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers, at least most of the time. With Errol Flynn’s perfect film  “The Adventures of Robin Hood” to view over and over

and a poster of N.C. Wyeth’s Robin hung over a bed

how could they not want to be Robin Hood? Is anyone cooler? When boy #2 was three years old, he chose to be Robin Hood for Halloween. A good friend made the cap, which was beyond my meager sewing talents, but I made the brown jerkin. Here is Robin at the SLU playgroup with his best friend, who was dressed as a railwayman (albeit it’s hard to tell in this picture). Note that back in the day it was okay to carry weapons: Robin has both a bow and sword.

In fact, the little tikes paraded through the SLU corridors, even interrupting classes to get candy. Famously, our little Robin Hood went into his father’s class and shot the teacher (aka Dad). Ah, such innocent times. They’d probably arrest the child now. Be that as it may, some things never change. Here is the same tike all grown up, but still dressing as his favorite for a Halloween party.

Alas, Robin’s mother is a bad photographer, so the picture is very blurry, but you get the idea.

As Howard Pyle wrote in his Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, “So passed the seasons then, so they pass now, and so they will pass in time to come, while we come and go like leaves of the tree that fall and are soon forgotten.”

May the rest of your weekend be merry!

While my dual personality got into the spirit of Halloween (pun intended), I watched a completely unrelated movie. Well, actually, last night I tried to watch “The Woman in Black” on Netflix, but it was too scary so I switched to something else. Anyway, surprise, surprise! I went to see Brad Pitt’s “Fury” — and — drum roll — really liked it.

Brad, grim and exhausted

Okay, I did have a few complaints. Shall we get those out of the way first? When the film starts, a tank team, headed by Mr. Pitt, pulls into camp and unloads  the corpse of one of its members, who just got killed in battle. There’s a similar scene in “12 o’clock High” only in that movie they don’t show the clean up in the plane afterwards. Logan Lerman, who looks like a 14 year old choir boy (and a very cute one, I might add), is the new replacement, but he’s freaked out and can’t kill because he was “trained to be a typist”. Brad then forces him to shoot a German prisoner in cold blood.  So, NO, that doesn’t fly, especially since it’s 1945. I mean, what kid growing up during WWII would ever say the things that Lerman says — out loud in front of veterans? And, of course, “the cure” is ridiculous, too. But once we get past that, the movie is really quite good.

“Pretty soon, killing Germans will not make you feel sick!”

What was good about it? Despite all the hype about the ultra-violence, this film was actually very restrained. The director lets one or two icky shots cue the viewer in to the realities of war so that he does not have to bathe us in blood for the whole movie. The action scenes are extremely well done, often dark, and not overly gory (unless I’m just jaded).  And there’s NO SHAKY CAM! Nor does the the movie really fall prey to the usual cliches; however, it does capture soldiers’ fatigue, filth (which is not overdone), anger, despair, and grim resignation.

Interacting with German civilians — so tricky

There are real characters, who develop or reveal themselves, AND some of them believe in God (gasp). In fact, toward the end of the movie, Shia LaBeouf’s character says, “Here’s a Bible verse I think about sometimes. Many times. It goes: ‘And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send and who will go for Us? And I said: Here am I , send me!'” Under the circumstances, it’s particularly effective. Anyway, much to my surprise, I give this movie two thumbs up. The direction and music were great and the performances excellent.

Stay tuned for a special Sunday post, if I can get the technology working: Merry Melville of the Green Wood (then and now).  In the meantime, have a great Saturday!

*line from “Fury”