movies | dual personalities

I may have mentioned that next week the OM, daughter #1 and I are heading out West to visit Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. The valley is considered sacred by the Navaho Nation, within whose reservation it lies. It is rather sacred to me as well. We are pretty excited.

Recently daughter #2 and Katie were reading this book…

…which included this…

How cool is that? IYKYK. I do love Pete.

In preparation for this trip, I am re-watching some of John Ford’s iconic films. First up was Fort Apache (1948) starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, et al. It is the first of Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy.

Next on the docket will be Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946) and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)–three of my all-time favorites.

Unrelated to this, I also recently watched The Human Comedy (1943) on TCM. Directed by Clarence Brown from a story by William Saroyan, it stars Mickey Rooney as high school student Homer Macauley, who works part-time as a telegram delivery boy in the fictional town of Ithaca, California, during World War II. The movie depicts the effects of the war on the Home Front over a year in Homer’s life in a series of vignettes involving himself, his family, friends and neighbors in his hometown, and his brother Marcus, a Private in the U.S. Army. Homer is thrust into some difficult situations, some of which are heart-wrenching.

Rooney handles it all with skill and does not overdo it. (He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.) He is really quite impressive and he carries the film like a pro.

This scene, which does not involve Rooney, but includes Van Johnson as his brother on a troop train, is a real emotional highpoint–the kind they were not embarrassed to attempt in 1943.

I have no doubt that many today would find this entire movie to be absolute hokum and too rah-rah America, but I did not. I pity them. We still sing this hymn at my church and I will always think of these soldiers from now on when I hear it.

*Dr. Seuss

5 Comments

September 18, 2024

Like peas and carrots

by chuckofish

One night recently when I was flipping channels trying to find something to watch, I came upon Forrest Gump (1994). After a few too many commercials, I remembered that I own the DVD, so I started watching that. I had not seen the movie in many years and I really enjoyed it.

An adaption of the novel by Winston Groom, it follows the life of an Alabama man with a low IQ named Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), who unwittingly participates in some of the major events of the twentieth century and interacts with several major historical figures in the process. It won six Academy Awards including the Best Picture Oscar as well as Best Actor and Best Director. It was a huge hit. The soundtrack which includes 32 songs from the eras presented was also a hit.

In a famous scene toward the beginning of the movie Forrest meets Jenny, his best friend for life, as elementary school children on a bus. No one else will let him sit with them. Later he meets his “best good friend” Bubba on a bus of army recruits headed for Vietnam. He also will let Forrest sit by him. It struck me that I too met my best friend Trudy Glick sitting on a school bus in Junior Kindergarten. I was so shy I couldn’t speak to anyone, but she spoke to me and we were best friends through second grade. I remember telling the boy when he was in middle school to be kind to people on his bus–it could mean a lot to someone. I think it took years, but he learned that lesson. It is an important lesson. God places people in our path and the least we can do is smile and move over.

At one point in the movie when Forrest is running back and forth across the country, he runs through Monument Valley…

…and actually that is where he stops running.

We are headed there in less than two weeks! I will probably watch a few more movies filmed in Monument Valley in preparation for this trip, but Forrest Gump was, unwittingly, a good place to start. I recommend it if you are looking for something to watch.

By the way, Forrest Gump’s favorite book was Curious George. Which reminded me of this:

Enjoy the day. Smile and move over.

5 Comments

September 3, 2024

Your children will be like olive shoots around your table*

by chuckofish

Look at that blue sky! Our little trip to Laumeier Sculpture Park on Labor Day morning was a success.

Mr. Smith got pretty worn out by the end, and had to be carried part of the way, but we all had fun.

I hadn’t been there in a couple of years. The twins had never been there at all and were introduced to the concept of “Sculpture”.

I don’t think they were that impressed, but enjoyed doing something different and seeing all the other dogs. Likewise Mr. Smith.

We went home and ate bagels and apples and then we watched the end of Ghostbusters, which we had started a few weeks ago. Then we played outside and then they played inside with Legos and then their dad picked them up. I collapsed.

It was a pleasant long weekend. Scottie Scheffler won the FedEx Cup! (He’s had quite a year–It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.)

And I watched a couple of good movies, notably The Undefeated (1969) with John Wayne and Rock Hudson and The Best of Times (1986) with Robin Williams and Kurt Russell.

I felt better after watching both of these movies, which is not something you feel a lot these days, you know what I mean?

Now I am getting ready for the arrival of daughter #2 and her famille on Thursday. Can’t wait to see these little firecrackers…

They’ve sure got the moves.

So, welcome, September! Stay positive! Pet a nice dog, take a walk in the sunshine, watch an old movie.

*Psalm 128:3

3 Comments

August 28, 2024

Minus One

by chuckofish

Godzilla Minus One (2023) is a Japanese epic kaiju film written, directed, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. Produced by Toho Studios and Robot Communications and distributed by Toho, it is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise and Toho’s 33rd Godzilla film. I would venture to say it is the best. Seriously, I thought it was great–made in the tradition of the best Japanese films (i.e. Kurosawa films) but with a thoughtful bow to the original Godzilla franchise of the 1950s.

Unfortunately, I viewed it at my friend’s house on her very large TV and was distracted by her incessant talking throughout. She was not riveted as was I. At one point, she fell asleep. So I guess it is not for everybody. But as soon as it becomes available on DVD, I will buy it and watch it again.

The actors are all excellent, in particular Ryunosuke Kamiki as the penitent Kamikaze pilot who has survived WWII and is wracked with survivor guilt.

All the characters are well-defined, highly distinguishable, and display significant development. That’s saying something for a “monster movie”! I also thought it was interesting that the movie is critical of Japan and its part in the war and in the manner it treated its citizens. The way the veterans come together to solve the problem and take down Godzilla is moving and patriotic.

Come to think of it this country has treated life far too cheaply. Poorly armored tanks. Poor supply chains resulting in half of all deaths from starvation and disease. Fighter planes built without ejection seats and finally, kamikaze and suicide attacks. That’s why this time I’d take pride in a citizen led effort that sacrifices no lives at all! This next battle is not one waged to the death, but a battle to live for the future. (Kenji Noda)

And there is a miracle at the end of the movie, complete with angelic singing, which made me very happy.

If you have Netflix, watch this movie! It is definitely the best movie I have seen in a long time.

3 Comments

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…