Happy belated Veterans Day!
I watched The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)–one of the best movies about veterans ever made and well worth watching almost 80 years later.
Over a million American service members have laid down their lives for the country, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten. Here’s one veteran’s story.
Well, as soon as I said the leaves had not changed much, they started turning! We are supposed to have a cold snap this weekend, so I finished cleaning out the Florida room and moved the rest of the plants. Sadly, we did not use it much this year.
Anyway, I was talking to the boy the other day and he reminded me that I left out two very significant scenes in famous rainy movies. I was semi-horrified that I had, indeed, forgotten:
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in The Quiet Man (1951)…
and Robert Redford knocking the cover off the ball in The Natural (1984)…
Wonderful. But what else did I forget?
Oh, here’s a poem by Don Paterson about rain in movies!
I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face;
one long thundering downpour
right through the empty script and score
before the act, before the blame,
before the lens pulls through the frame
to where the woman sits alone
beside a silent telephone
or the dress lies ruined on the grass
or the girl walks off the overpass,
and all things flow out from that source
along their fatal watercourse.
However bad or overlong
such a film can do no wrong,
so when his native twang shows through
or when the boom dips into view
or when her speech starts to betray
its adaptation from the play,
forget the ink, the milk, the blood—
all was washed clean with the flood
we rose up from the falling waters
the fallen rain’s own sons and daughters
and none of this, none of this matters.
Smile, look up, repeat.
The maple tree leaves have turned in our neck of the woods, but the oak trees are just starting. We had a serious drought and there are consequences.
Leaf blowers have not really started yet–it will no doubt be a noisy Advent. C’est la vie.
This is a good explanation of why the leaves turn in the fall and “the colors of autumn fill the earth with a special beauty that reflects the artistry and creative power of God” from the John 10:10 Project.
And one last…
Here’s good news: In celebration of his birth centennial, TCM will honor Rock Hudson with a month-long tribute every Tuesday in November. He’s the Star of the Month! So check out the schedule on Tuesday nights.
Today we also celebrate the birth of Augustus Montague Toplady, Anglican cleric and hymn writer, in 1740. He is best remembered as the author of the hymn Rock of Ages, which we sing quite frequently at my church.
(He was as handsome as Rock Hudson!)
Toplady, we are told, underwent a religious awakening in August 1755. In his own diary, he wrote “I was awakened in the month of August, 1755, but not, as has been falsely reported, under Mr. John Wesley, or any preacher connected with him. Thought awakened in 1755. I was not led into a full and clear view of all the doctrines of grace, till the year 1758, when, through the great goodness of God, my Arminian prejudices received an effectual shock, in reading Dr. Manton’s Sermons on the 17th of St. John”. A man after my own heart.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.
Have a good Tuesday!
*Psalm 31:15
Yesterday was a rainy, yucky day and I felt lousy so I indulged myself and watched movies, starting with the wonderful The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). I was also inspired by an old DP blogpost which listed great movie scenes, so I thought I would do one with great movies with scenes in the rain, such as The Seven Samurai (1954)…
…The Public Enemy (1931)
…and then seventy years later, Road to Perdition (2002)
…the final scene in Cool Hand Luke (1967)
..and also the finale of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
…and the finale of Casablanca (1942) (okay–in the fog)
…and, of course:
And lest we forget:
Turn up the sound, watch them all. You’ll be glad you did.
I have a cold and am very stuffed up. I can hardly breathe. Such a bummer.
Meanwhile, October is almost over and I have not watched any movies on my list of seasonal favorites! Not a one. But I will watch The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). It’s such a good one.
I may not get much else done this week, but I will do that!
Hang in there and I will too.
I watched the documentary about Canadian actor John Candy, I Like Me, which is available on Prime.
It is directed by Colin Hanks and he certainly got all the cool kids to participate, including his father, Tom Hanks, plus Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara and many more. There is lots of archival footage. A lot of good film clips. But no one says anything that is really a surprise, except for maybe Macaulay Culkin, who being a child at the time, had a different point of view. We learn that John’s father died when he was 5, and that it very much impacted his life. He wrestled with his early death for his entire life. But aren’t we all coping with something? Coping never goes well when you self-medicate with alcohol and over-indulgence. And I think everyone already knows that Hollywood is a terrible place and it will chew you up and spit you out. Ultimately, the film just leaves you with a sad feeling.
Thankfully we can cheer ourselves up with a John Candy movie…
Thanksgiving is just around the corner!
Yes, that season is upon us–even the boy has a giant skeleton in his front yard. (He inherited it from his in-laws.) Well, to each his own.
Anyway, I had a nice weekend. Pizza night at the boy’s house. A couple of estate sales. A trip to Hobby Lobby. Mr. Smith and daughter #1 came over Saturday night for Chick-fil-a and a movie.
We watched The Man Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain (1995)–a favorite of ours from the good ol’ Harvey Weinstein Miramax days. It is a perfect movie–the kind they don’t know how to make anymore.
Highly recommended!
Sunday I went to church as usual and heard a good sermon on Philippians 2:5-11. We had our final Sunday School class on the Power of Story in the Works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I wish it were not over! I brought the twins new notebooks from the dollar store for them to draw/take notes/journal in. They were very pleased. After church we went to the bud’s soccer game which was very pleasant, even if it was a little on the warm side. We will be freezing soon enough.
After the game I went home and took it easy.
My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who bore my pain;
Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again.
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness,
And clothed me with His light,
And wrote His law of righteousness
With power upon my heart.
For every day I have on earth
Is given by the King.
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow Him.
It’s October! Zut alors! Last year at this time I was in beautiful Monument Valley with the OM and daughter #1.
Guess I’ll watch The Searchers (1956) this week…
Well, we must “live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” Who said that? Yes, of course, it was Thoreau in “Walden, or, Life in the Woods”.
Earlier in September, we were told by the Missouri Department of Conservation to be “bear aware” when hiking in the woods. So just as a reminder, here is where bears have been sighted in Missouri since 2020:
Yikes! Take care with those bird feeders and barbecues!
Here are Nine Hymn Lyrics You’ve Probably Misunderstood. We sing all these hymns in church. The author suggests that “something that was written 500 years ago can be confusing to a modern audience,” and maybe that is so. If so, “you can learn to sing these words with renewed faith as you come to better understand what they mean!”
And here’s a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke about Autumn:
How was your weekend? Since daughter #1 was out of town and I had no plans of my own, it was a pretty quiet one for me. There wasn’t even a good estate sale to go to!
I did watch some good movies…
Friday night I watched The Natural (1984) and it was great. Just great. I loved everything about it. Robert Redford was perfect as were all the supporting characters–especially Richard Farnsworth with his sad blue eyes.
The cinematography was exceptional, the music was perfect, the direction A+. The script was unusually restrained and, may I say, profound. I cried at the beginning. I cried at the end.
I also watched Tom Horn (1980) which is Steve McQueen’s penultimate movie and a favorite of mine. It also stars Richard Farnsworth.
Directed by William Wiard and adapted to the screen by Thomas McGuane and Bud Schrake from Horn’s own autobiography, it is a sad, serious movie about changing times.
I highly recommend both movies.
We went to church as usual on Sunday; the twins were great. Lottie took good notes–writing down the words she didn’t know for clarification later: “vindicate ungodly”. I hope her dad obliged!
We had a great sermon on Philippians 1:18-26 and a wonderful adult class on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
After church the boy and the twins and I stopped at the kennel to pick up Mr. Smith. He rode to my house with the boy and behaved himself.
(He was a little bedraggled from having played in his water dish.)
When we got home, the boy helped me move some furniture out to the curb where it will be picked up on Bulky Trash Pick-up day. So grateful for that help!
After they went home, I watched the livestream of the memorial service for Charlie Kirk–100,000+ (original estimates of 100K bumped to up to 300,000) people in a stadium and the President of the U.S. plus most of his cabinet and Elon Musk in attendance. Impressive. You can watch it on Youtube.
Yup.
Daughter #2 arrived back from the prairie and she picked up Mr. Smith and stayed for a glass of wine.
Happy Monday–have a good week!
Yesterday Robert Redford died in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah at the age of 89. He was never a particular favorite of mine, but it is always sad to see a Hollywood icon from the olden days die. He was undeniably handsome, but he had a cold, cynical look in his eye that made him less attractive to me than, say, Paul Newman. But I really liked him in The Sting (1973) and The Natural (1984)–two of my favorite movies.
Maybe I’ll watch The Natural. Sigh.
It’s been a sad week.
This is a good one about reading as the best way to rebel in a world that can glance at everything and gaze at nothing. “In our world today, many voices seek our attention. Influencers everywhere hawk their wares. How tragic if we develop the capacity to attune to everything but the Word of the Lord. The most radical, countercultural practice we can cultivate today is an intensity in reading and listening to the Scriptures.”
So watch an old movie, read an old book, read the Bible!
103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
(Psalm 119:103-105)
*Roy Hobbs in The Natural
