A local tv station use to televise Wizard of Oz annually. Always on a Sunday because I'd always missed a section due to the family dinner hour. That movie started me on a reading adventure through every Oz book at the library.
The local jazz station (publicly supported & you can listen over the web) recently played Somewhere over the Rainbow - though sung by Eva Cassidy, not Judy Garland. Nevertheless it stirred up an old memory once again.
I am on the roof of my parent's house to hang laundry on the clotheslines. It's a beautiful San Francisco mid morning with sunshine and a mild breeze. But I am very sad and long for a happier place. I wish for ruby slippers . . . to click three times . . . to be elsewhere.
I don't remember why I was so unhappy but my childhood was not the best. I've had this vision many times. And the same emotions with it. Everytime I hear this song. Such is its power.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, June 23, 2008
Movie night
I am not a regular movie go-er. These days most movies seem to display pumped up testosterone more than anything else. Not something on which I'd want to spend a couple of hours and $10. Especially when movies show up on dvd in what seems like just weeks later. Not that I'd rent them then either.
When Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released, I made a point to see it. I've seen every previous Indiana Jones movies and always like watching Harrison Ford. So last Saturday – we had a hot spell and the house was an oven – I caught a late afternoon showing at the air-conditioned theater. Ah, relief from the heat!
Though I enjoyed it, I found some characters more like caricatures – the evil Nazis, the primitive natives, the greedy double crossing friend. I also winced at the HUMONGOUS footprint the movie made. In the chase through the Amazon, they plowed through a lot of vegetation. And imagine the cultural loss if all those native warriors were actually killed. I am always amazed by the wonton destruction of people and property in any movie. And the survival skills of certain characters.
Yeah, it's fiction – just a movie. That's not to say the destruction did not happen. How big a footprint does making an action flick like this actually leave?
A movie action does not make. I'd just like to see less action and more character or plot development. More thought. More balance. More shades of gray. Not just invincible heroes and ultimate villains.
Am I among only a few who wants this from movies?
When Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released, I made a point to see it. I've seen every previous Indiana Jones movies and always like watching Harrison Ford. So last Saturday – we had a hot spell and the house was an oven – I caught a late afternoon showing at the air-conditioned theater. Ah, relief from the heat!
Though I enjoyed it, I found some characters more like caricatures – the evil Nazis, the primitive natives, the greedy double crossing friend. I also winced at the HUMONGOUS footprint the movie made. In the chase through the Amazon, they plowed through a lot of vegetation. And imagine the cultural loss if all those native warriors were actually killed. I am always amazed by the wonton destruction of people and property in any movie. And the survival skills of certain characters.
Yeah, it's fiction – just a movie. That's not to say the destruction did not happen. How big a footprint does making an action flick like this actually leave?
A movie action does not make. I'd just like to see less action and more character or plot development. More thought. More balance. More shades of gray. Not just invincible heroes and ultimate villains.
Am I among only a few who wants this from movies?
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