dual personalities

Tag: Ben Hur (1959)

April 15, 2019

“Go back to your oar, Forty-One.”*

by chuckofish

On Sunday as I was leaving church, the rector asked how I was doing.

I said, “I’m busy and unfocused.”

He said, “Well, try to pull it together this week.”

Okay then. That is my plan.

But even the best-laid plans go oft awry. We went to see Ben Hur (1959) at the movie theater last  night. It was in one of those small theaters where all the seats are big recliners, and I thought, “Oh no, I will fall asleep for sure! And the OM will fall asleep in 5 minutes!” But when the lights went down and the Miklós Rózsa music came on, we were all riveted.

I had virtually forgotten what seeing a movie at the movie theater was like! Movies–especially a spectacle like Ben Hur made in the Golden Age–were meant to be seen on a big screen! You can see everything–from the smallest detail of the incredible costumes…

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Those leopard-skin boots!

…to the facial expressions in the more intimate scenes…

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Everything packs a greater punch.

Unfortunately, the digital feed (?) was messed up and the movie was unwatchable after the intermission. Such a bummer! We were given ticket vouchers for another movie, but it was very disappointing, because it really was so great. The OM, the boy and daughter #1 all agreed that they would go again to see another classic movie on the big screen. If you get the chance, I highly recommend you do too.

And now it is  back to the salt mines. Have a good week and try to focus!

*Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins)

 

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April 7, 2017

Savior, let me walk with thee*

by chuckofish

Well, here we are about to enter Holy Week and I haven’t watched even one of my favorite lenten movies! I guess I will have to make up for lost time this weekend…I think I will probably work my way through Jesus of Nazareth, Franco Zefferelli’s epic 1977 mini-series…

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This film still looks like a Rembrandt drawing, doesn’t it?

…and, of course, finish up with Ben-Hur (1959) on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I am, after all, a creature of habit.

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Sidenote: They remade Ben-Hur last year–did anyone see it? I didn’t think so. It was, indeed, the summer’s biggest box office bomb, and one of the biggest flops of 2016. When is Hollywood going to figure out that you can’t/shouldn’t try to re-make classics? No one wants to see a digitized chariot race.

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Please. We want the real thing.

Anyway, this Sunday is Palm Sunday and I am the Narrator of The Passion of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew which is very cool. In my world anyway.

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Wall painting by Hippolyte Flandrin, early 19c.

Here’s a little Buechner to get you in the mood for Palm Sunday:

“Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord,” the cry goes up. There is dust in the air with the sun turning it gold. Around a bend in the road, there suddenly is Jerusalem. He draws back on the reins. Crying disfigures his face. “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace.” Even today, he says, because there are so few days left. Then the terror of his vision as he looks at the city that is all cities and sees not one stone left standing on another – you and your children within you – your children. “Because you did not know the time of your visitation,” he says. Because we don’t know who it is who comes to visit us. Because we do not know what he comes to give. The things that make for peace, that is what he comes to give. We do not know these things, he says, and God knows he’s right. The absence of peace within our own skins no less than within our nations testifies to that. But we know their names at least. We all of us know in our hearts the holy names of the things that make for peace – real peace – only for once let us honor them by not naming them. Let us name instead only him who is himself the Prince of Peace.”

–Frederick Buechner, A Room Called Remember

And hopefully the boy will catch up on his sleep.

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Probably not.

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Have a good weekend!

*Fanny J. Crosby, “Close to Thee”, Methodist Hymnal

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April 3, 2015

This and that

by chuckofish

Well, it’s Good Friday.

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Good Friday, BCP)

My Holy Week has been less than focused. It has been busy, busy at work, and I’m afraid I’m not the multi-tasker I once was–the result being that I am exhausted in the evening. I fell asleep during everything I attempted to watch this week, from Shogun (1980) to Peter and Paul (1981).

Last night I participated in the “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?” vigil, as I always do.

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In past years I have been late signing up so I always get stuck in the 4-5:00 a.m. or 5-6:00 a.m. slot., but this year I had the 9-10:00 p.m. slot which was a piece of cake in comparison. Which isn’t exactly the point–it being easy–but I was grateful anyway.

Tonight, of course, I will start Ben Hur (1959).

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Last year daughter #1 was home and we watched the whole thing at one sitting, but I think I will watch until the chariot race and finish up on Holy Saturday.

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What’s the rush?

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And don’t forget: Wolf Hall starts on Sunday night on Masterpiece Theatre! Mark Rylance looks right for the Thomas Cromwell part anyway.

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In past film renditions he has always been played as an evil, and therefore porcine, politician.

Leo McKern in 'A Man For All Seasons' (1966)

Leo McKern in ‘A Man For All Seasons’ (1966)

Please. I am hoping for the best. We shall see.

Also, tomorrow is our pater’s birthday. He would have been 93!

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Love this pose!

A toast would be appropriate and perhaps some bagpipe tunes.

And FYI there will be a lunar eclipse on April 4th!

Have a wonderful Easter! Hopefully the OM will accompany me to church on one of his two annual visits. Then we’ll meet the boy and daughter #3 at my flyover university’s faculty club for brunch. No cooking for me.

 

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