dual personalities

Tag: movies

August 23, 2024

Réflexions

by chuckofish

I have had a quiet, contemplative week–no visits from rambunctious twins or feisty dogs. No severe weather or noisy street construction. Sigh. In other words, nothing very exciting to write about.

I did a lot of puttering around in my home and in my yard. I caught up with some “desk work”. I went to the Dollar Tree to buy candy. I watched some bad movies. Ye gods–The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), despite an all-star cast including Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Giulietta Masina, Edith Evans, Danny Kaye, etc., was unwatchable.

As Vincent Canby wrote at the time, “[Bryan] Forbes, who persists in making conventional films of unconventional properties…moves his cameras around quite a lot, but there is really little he can do to hide the fact that “The Madwoman of Chaillot” is—as it was 20 years ago—an incredibly precious theatrical conceit, just the sort of thing somebody might think would make a great Broadway musical comedy. As we all know, it didn’t.”

We also watched Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), which I had not seen since it came out, lo, so many years ago.

It is successful in getting across the horror of war, especially a war in that part of the world, but it was unrelentingly violent. Also, despite it having a great cast, I could not tell who anyone was. The characters were practically indistinguishable. The sound and the editing were impressive (they won Oscars) but only made it harder to watch, as did the frenetic cinematography. Impressive in its own way–I watched the whole thing–but I don’t need to watch it again, ever.

Here are three things to remember as we seek to build God-centered homes where sound doctrine is the foundation and our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.

And this is a great one from John Piper. I love it when he really gets going on a topic! “‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’ You cannot be neutral to Jesus Christ. There is no neutrality in dealing with Jesus. If you are not for him, you are against him. If you are not seeking to gather faith and obedience from those around you, you are scattering people away from him.”

And forgive me, here’s Jiminy Glick…

Yes, it was a slow week, but I did go over to daughter #1’s house last night for a glass of wine and to let Mr. Smith practice his balancing act…

Have a good weekend!

4 Comments
August 21, 2024

Curved in the flesh of temptation*

by chuckofish

In my ongoing search for something to watch, I spent two hours viewing Duel in the Sun (1946) the other night. It was a more enjoyable melodrama than last week’s Suddenly Last Summer, but really, once again, the over-acting and the sexual turmoil became almost comic.

The story goes that producer David O. Selznick wanted to top the great success of Gone With the Wind (1939) and he let out all the stops on Duel in the Sun. The script is attributed to Selznick himself, “suggested” by a novel by Niven Busch, but he couldn’t leave the script alone and kept revising it as the movie was shot. There is even a “preface” which is narrated by none other than Orson Welles. The lurid technicolor and the overblown score by Dimitri Tiomkin contribute to the mess, but they also make it more watchable. I found myself humming the main theme days afterwards.

There are a lot of stars in the movie, led by the producer’s wife, Jennifer Jones, who chews the scenery with aplomb as an orphaned halfbreed who experiences prejudice and forbidden love while living with her white relatives on a large ranch in Texas. Joseph Cotton plays the “good” (boring) older brother and Gregory Peck plays the “bad” (exciting) younger brother. Lionel Barrymore plays their crippled, racist, cattle baron father and Lillian Gish is his long-suffering, southern belle wife. Walter Huston plays a wild-eyed preacher. Really there are no likable characters in this story and that is the main problem. People are either weak in a bad way or strong in a bad way. The only mediating character is played with some subtlety by Harry Carey. His part is minor and appears to have been mostly cut. I’m not sure who “Lem Smoot” actually was. He seems out of place in this emotional mish-mosh.

I remember seeing this movie as a child and being moved by it, probably because I had no idea what was actually going on and the music was exciting. I can’t say I really understood what was always going on now 60 years later. Interestingly, it is the first movie Martin Scorsese saw as a child and it had a great impact on him at the time as well. I wonder what the twins would make of it?

Well, you win some, you lose some. Back to the drawing board. Any ideas?

*Walter Huston as “Jubal Crabbe, the Sinkiller”

6 Comments
August 14, 2024

No blushing here

by chuckofish

I am reading Jeremiah these days and it is just too relevant to our world today.

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.

–Jeremiah 8:12

Speaking of blushing, I watched a movie which I had DVR’d on TCM–Suddenly Last Summer (1959)–which seems all too apropos for our time. I had not seen it since I saw it on television long ago as an adolescent who really had no idea what was going on. I understand now what all the sturm and drang was about, dreamed up by Tennessee Williams and adapted for the screen by Gore Vidal.

The plot centers on Catherine Holly, a young woman who, at the insistence of her wealthy aunt, is being evaluated by a psychiatric doctor to receive a lobotomy after witnessing the death of her cousin Sebastian Venable while traveling with him the previous summer. Elizabeth Taylor stars as Catherine and Katharine Hepburn co-stars as her aunt, the mother of the dearly departed Sebastian. They compete outrageously throughout for the over-acting prize while Montgomery Clift lurks nearby as the surgeon who has been engaged to do the lobotomy, looking as if he is concentrating hard on remembering his lines. Of course it takes place in New Orleans. There is even a Venus Fly-trap symbolizing fill-in-the-blank. Thankfully, the doctor has his doubts about who is the actual crazy person and (spoiler alert) it all works out in the end.

It must have been pretty shocking back in 1959 and not surprisingly it did quite well at the box office, but I have to agree with the New Yorker critic who called it “a preposterous and monotonous potpourri of incest, homosexuality, psychiatry, and, so help me, cannibalism.”

Now, of course, all that incest, homosexuality and cannibalism is perfectly normal and we church-going types are the “weird” ones. C’est la vie.

Funnily enough (or not) no one won any Oscars that year for Suddenly Last Summer. It was the year of Ben-Hur…but what a hilarious selection of Best Actress nominees!

I would have voted for Doris Day.

2 Comments
August 13, 2024

Let ‘er buck

by chuckofish

Today we celebrate Annie Oakley, born Phoebe Ann Mosey in 1860. She was an American sharpshooter and became a international celebrity, performing in Europe before royalty and other heads of state, when she toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

There have been several movies, a TV show and a famous Broadway musical dedicated to her life. Indeed, when I was growing up, every child knew who Annie Oakley was. That is probably not the case anymore, although as a female hero, you can’t do much better. Oakley believed that women should learn to use a gun for the empowering image that it gave and I concur, but that is hardly a popular opinion these days.

Anyway, I will toast Annie Oakley tonight. I just watched Hidalgo (2004) which features Annie Oakley as a minor character. This is a good movie about the famous long-distance rider Frank T. Hopkins, and I enjoyed watching Viggo Mortensen effortlessly ride a horse, which as I have previously noted, is rare these days.

So if you are not in the mood for Annie Get Your Gun (1950), I recommend Hidalgo.

This is a good suggestion: Embrace the World’s Miraculous Absurdity. Also, the Bible includes several lists of sins. This article helps us understand those sins by reversing them.

And Katie went to her first soccer practice…

Girlfriend, I hear ya.

3 Comments
August 6, 2024

One equal temper of heroic hearts

by chuckofish

Today we toast the great English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, born on this day in 1809. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign. A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplace in the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw” (which I use all the time), “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

So let’s all read some Tennyson poems today!

(From Ulysses, read the poem here.)

And who can forget this classic?

Speaking of heroic hearts, aIthough I am not watching the Olympics and he is a professional, I was happy to hear that Scottie Scheffler won the Gold for men’s golf, coming from behind in a record-tying final round. He cried during the playing of our National Anthem.

“I would say first and foremost I’m proud of the country I’m from. I’m proud to be American. I got emotional the other night watching the gold medal ceremony for the women’s gymnastics. I take tremendous pride in coming over here and representing my country,” he said after his round.

Thank you, Scottie.

FYI it is also the birthday of Lucille Ball, Robert Mitchum, Ella Raines, and M. Night Shyamalan. So watch an old movie! And, as always, look out for bears!

4 Comments
August 1, 2024

“What ho, Tashtego!”

by chuckofish

Today is the first day of August! Where did July go? It is Herman Melville’s birthday once again! Hard to believe that our 200th birthday party for Herman Melville was five years ago! It was our best party ever.

Well, let this be a reminder that every day is a good day to read Moby-Dick.

“Heaven have mercy on us all — Presbyterians and Pagans alike — for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”

And here’s another movie recommendation: Naughty Marietta (1935)–nearly 90 years old and still fresh and entertaining. Based on the 1910 Victor Herbert operetta, it was the surprise hit of 1935. Its key song, “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life”, became a hit and earned Nelson Eddy his first gold record. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, received the Photoplay Gold Medal Award as Best Picture, and was voted one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1935 by the New York film critics.

The Jeanette MacDonald–Nelson Eddy duo went on to make seven more films together, all of which are worth watching. The music is wonderful, but the stars themselves, in all their black-and-white glory, are appealing and natural. You would never know this movie is almost an antique!

Meanwhile the boy and his family are having super fun at the beach…

…and the prairie girls are trying on hand-me-down Halloween costumes from their cousins…

Sunrise/sunset…what ho, Tashtego!

2 Comments
July 31, 2024

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

by chuckofish

The world is a clown show but that does not mean that we have to be surly. The joy of the Lord is our strength. As a wise man once said, “We are not called simply to fight with the evil around us, but rather we are called to fight this evil with a song in our hearts.”

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Since we can’t watch the news and the Olympics are another clown show, I have been watching–you guessed it–old movies. Recently I watched Sergeant York (1941), a film I had previously written off as patronizing folksy hocum with Gary Cooper winning an Oscar for perfecting his aw-shucks persona. But this true story of a Tennessee farm boy, who is transformed from a n’er-do-well to a conscientious objector to a hero in WWI, really hit me differently this time around. It was the highest grossing film of 1941 and I can see why now. Of course, it is a Hollywood propaganda film aiming to gain support for America joining the war effort, but they do it well. They also handle York’s Spurgeon-esque conversion experience directly and unapologetically as it is central to the story. I enjoyed it and I recommend it.

I also watched I Know Where I’m Going (1945), a production of The Archers–Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The story is about a young Englishwoman (Wendy Hiller) who goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, wealthier fiancé. She thinks she knows what she wants, but when the weather keeps them separated on different islands, she begins to have second thoughts–most of them to do with Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), a dashing local laird home on leave from WWII. It is a very romantic story of the type no one has been able to tell on screen for 50 years. Although Hiller is not a favorite of mine, I enjoyed it very much. The rest of the cast is wonderful.

And here’s good news: it’s time to set your DVRs because TCM’s Summer Under the Stars, where they celebrate a different star each day in August, starts tomorrow! Here’s the schedule. William Powell starts off the month on August 1.

So watch an old movie, keep cool and make lemonade (or a margarita).

This lemonade is insane!
3 Comments
July 29, 2024

Hillbilly rock etc.

by chuckofish

We made it to Jefferson City on Friday and the Marty Stuart concert was superlative! Our seats were front and center and we could really see everything. It wasn’t too hot and there was a nice breeze. Marty, Cousin Kenny, Handsome Harry and Chris Scruggs were rockin’. Before the concert we also managed to have a lovely and relaxing lunch at the Les Bourgeois Vineyard in Rocheport on the Missouri River.

Can’t do much better than that.

We spent the night in JC and then we drove to Boonville where we dropped daughter #1 off at a DAR Regent workshop. The OM and I then drove home where I went to a good estate sale at the kind of house I like best–one where someone has lived a long time and has a lot of stuff like my stuff. Best is when I can figure out whose house it was. (I did.) I usually find something. I got some books and a Christmas present.

We picked up Mr. Smith at the kennel, but it was pouring rain and he freaked out, becoming enraged by the windshield wipers. I talked him down from the ledge and we made it home, thankfully, without wrecking the car, and daughter #1 retrieved him after returning from her DAR workshop. He was happy to be back home again and at his post…

I went to Sunday School and church as usual where we had a trombone accompaniment (with piano) to our hymns, It was different, but surprisingly effective. I was also pleased to hear that my old colleague Abram Van Engen, the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities and chair of the English department at my former flyover university, is going to give a talk at church in a couple of weeks about his new book, Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church. He is a fellow admirer of the Puritans. I ordered the book and look forward to reading it.

I watched Red River (1947). Did you? Walter Brennan won three Academy Awards, but he really deserved one for his portrayal of Nadine Groot. A terrific and layered performance. John Wayne is iconic and Montgomery Clift at the beginning of his career was never better.

Anne had a good take on the anti-Christian display and general debauchery at the opening of the Olympics with good links to other comments. “I like telling my 10 & 7 year-olds, “We’re skipping this because those are men dressed up like women” and seeing the look of revulsion on their faces. God’s created order is pretty straightforward to kids.” We’ll try to keep our sense of humor and as usual just turn off the telly, keeping in mind Romans 1:24-25.

Meanwhile we will be girding our loins and staying inside this week as we have this to look forward to…

Jealous of the boy and his fam who are in Hilton Head…

Have a good week! Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

2 Comments
July 25, 2024

“Give me a condor’s quill!”

by chuckofish

Unlike the narrator of Moby-Dick, I have no great topic to write about today (see above quote), but only some odds and ends of my small life. But I do love that image of a condor’s quill.

Tomorrow the OM and daughter #1 and I are heading to Jefferson City (woohoo!) to see Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives in concert. While in town we will visit our favorite winery down there and other old haunts. I was pleased to see Marty visiting with Robert Duvall…

Speaking of Red River Valley, Saturday is the National Day of the Cowboy, so you will want to plan accordingly. We will toast my ancestor John Wesley Prowers and watch Red River (1948) which is our tradition.

If I was in Oklahoma City, I would, of course, go to the celebration the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum has planned, but we do what we can.

In other news, maybe you have noticed that there is nothing to watch on TV and, if you do watch–even streaming platforms–you are inundated with ads and more ads. And political ads. So the OM and I are watching (on DVD) the Hillsdale College series on WWII with Victor David Hanson. It is intellectually stimulating and the politics is 85 years old. After watching last night’s episode, we watched Operation Pacific (1951) with John Wayne as a submarine commander in WWII. Not the greatest movie ever, but entertaining and diverting. If I was in a submarine in WWII, I would want the Duke as my commander! (The freckle-faced kid below is Martin Milner of Adam-12 fame.)

Meanwhile here is something good to read about Mothering in today’s world. “Mothering is a fraught profession in the modern world. The stakes are high to do it right. If you’re going to ‘waste your intellect’, as my own mother so kindly put it, you’d better have exceptional children to show for it. Or at least a podcast.”

So learn something new, call your mother (or mother substitute), watch a cowboy movie, and listen to some good music:

Live for the glory of God and the good of others.

3 Comments
July 16, 2024

Grace and peace to you

by chuckofish

We had a pretty quiet Monday, because we had to change our plans when daughter #2 was afraid she had torn her retina. She had to go to my eye doctor (everything is okay) while I stayed home with the prairie girls. We had lunch and played a little and read some books…

…and watched part of Heidi (1937) with Shirley Temple, which was a big hit.

Both girls were riveted. And with good reason!

I am behind in my Bible reading and in general, but this by Carl Trueman is encouraging: “I went to Europe expecting to be somewhat discouraged by what I would see. I returned exhilarated. The LORD is not done with his people yet…”

And I guess Marilynne Robinson has a new book out: Reading Genesis. Like I said, I am behind, but this is good news to me. “In her essays, as she defends the philosophical frameworks that once made religious belief almost universal, she is impatient, even testy, with what she finds reductionistic in most descriptions of the world today. You get a sense that she just wants to write about grace but finds herself needing to argue for the idea that something like grace can even exist. Her defense of the grandeur not only of the world but of each human being, her defense of the testimony of “felt experience,” is everywhere in her essays.” Robinson has engaged with a pantheon of “older theological writers”, especially John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards. Of course she has! Good grief.

Well, may you take the truths you hopefully heard preached from the pulpit of your church on Sunday and may they sustain you through this week. (I wrote this blog post during “quiet time” with Katie while she “pretend-read” this book.)

2 Comments