Into The Wild - revisited

Last night I watched the movie Into The Wild again and remembered that I wrote about it here.  I still love this movie - everything about it, the characters found while filming on location, the music, the scenery.  It rates right up there as one of my all time favorite movies.

More about the real Chris McCandless here.

I don't pretend to understand what motivated this kid, in fact I think he might have been a little crazy.  I like heat, food, soft pillows and clean sheets way too much to live the way he did.  But still...the adventurer in him, along with his love of great literature is irresistible.

Violence over Benjamin Buttons

I read this weekend on CNN that a shooting took place in a movie theater. It seems someone was talking and for that took a bullet in the arm. At first my sympathies were with the shooter. I know, it's an extreme measure, but come on, people talking in the movie theater does lead to any number of extreme thoughts - most of which are never acted on - thank god. For most of us we might turn our head slightly in the direction of the talker, alerting them that we are on to them and annoyed. If that doesn't work maybe we will turn and make eye contact with the chatterer. I don't know about you, but shhing is a major move. Now, if the movie theater is nearly empty and a senior couple sits down near you and you start to hear "What did she say?" or mutterings along those lines we might decide to pick up and move elsewhere, but usually because we don't want to appear rude or hurt their feelings we will put up with it. It's that damn humanitarian in us. Having said that I think talking in the movie theater deserves to be dealt with severely (how about some bouncers sitting every few rows to deal with it for us?). There have been times in my life that if I had a gun with me....well, maybe, just maybe...No, no, I wouldn't do it. Come to think of it, why did the guy bring the gun into the theater in the first place?

Anyway....the shooter lost my sympathies. The movie where this tragic event took place was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons". This is a slow moving three hour film. Beautiful, artsy, moving story, yes. But yeah, I said 3 hours. 3 hours! By the time this movie ended my popcorn had been gone for 2 hours and 54 minutes. I had applied lipstick, hand lotion, had 4 pieces of gum, took my coat off, put my coat on, checked my cell phone for emergency messages twice (nothing), found a couple of candy cane kisses in the bottom of my purse, ate them slowly, whispered to my sister more times than I can remember and laughed out loud when she said she felt like she was being tortured. I almost wish someone had shot me.

Obviously the shooter was bored and annoyed too and just looking for something to end his own torture. But why take it out on the poor smuck was was suffering right along with him? Shoot at the screen, shoot out the projector. I think the report said the shooter was at the movies alone, on Christmas. Kinda sad. He didn't have anyone to talk to. Can you imagine sitting through a 3 hour movie, alone and with no bag of tricks (a purse) to go through to occupy your time?

Movie makers should take note - keep the movies to 1 hour and 45 minutes, throw in a car chase, a sex scene and a street fight and everyone leaves happy and keeps their guns in the holster.

Burn After Reading

Saw the movie this weekend and although it was as expected - a quirky dark comedy by the Cohen brothers - it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. Although I laughed every time John Malkovich spit out the f-bomb, which was quite a bit, the plot left a lot to be desired and I noticed during the film that I was mostly just enjoying watching great actors act.

The most frustrating character for me was played by Francis McDormand. Couldn't they have given her more motivation than wanting a man and plastic surgery? Not necessarily in that order. Okay, well maybe there is some truth about that in all women, (it's not just me...is it?) but for a smart movie created by smart men I wish they would have gone a bit deeper with her. It was all a bit too shallow to sustain any real humor. I didn't even feel sorry for her - I just kinda got tired of who she was. **Note to self....don't dwell too much about wanting a man and plastic surgery lest your friends/family won't feel sorry for you.

The CIA agents constantly mispronouncing "big" words was funny and naturally there were a couple of pretty gruesome scenes that were in keeping with the Cohen style. Although I wouldn't sit through it again, it was a pleasure watching Clooney, Pitt and especially Malkovich do what they get paid the big bucks to do.

Superhero movie?!

I don't know if I was exhausted because it was a long movie, or because it was nearly midnight when it was over or if it was because the Joker (Heath Ledger) was so dang frightening. Loved 'The Dark Knight' but it could have been called 'The Joker'. I've never seen a superhero movie quite like it.

Into the Wild

Favorite scene from the movie...Holbrook and Hirsch on the rocks. Holbrook says with tender wisdom "...from the bits and pieces I've put together from what you've told me about your family, your mother and dad, and I know you got your problems with the church too - but there is some kind of bigger thing that we can all appreciate and it sounds like you don't mind calling it God - but when you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines on you..." and then the clouds break and the light shines through a beautiful rainbow and they laugh together, so deeply connected to each other in that moment, but they know it won't last.

• The music - much of it written and performed by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. His voice hits you from the opening scene with it's deep baritone timbre and haunting lyrics.


• The scenery - shot on location around the country including Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, California, South Dakota. It is so stunning and real it's almost hard on the eyes.


• The literature - Tolstoy, London, Thoreau - great quotes and beautiful narration throughout the story.


• The young girl he sings a duet with on stage (Angel from Montgomery - love the Bonnie Rait/John Prine version of that song too).


• Real acting - Hal Holbrook's eyes in the scene in the truck saying goodbye. Those red brimmed eyes, full with tears, but not overflowing really get to me. Can that moment really be acting? A heartbreaking moment of one friend saying goodbye to another that I'll never forget.
  
• The heartbroken sister - who has to do a balancing act between her parents world and their grief and her brother who she longs for. In many ways she is far more insightful about her brother than he is about everything else. She also comments about her mother's pain. She says "I fear for the mother in her, instincts that seem to sense the threat of a loss, so huge and irrefutable that the mind balks to take it's measure" which is brilliant and beyond what a young girl her age should have understood about her mom.
  
• Emile Hirsch transformation on screen from boy to man - I read he lost 41 lbs. Loved how he portrayed Christopher's nature, how silly he was, the scene where he is eating the apple, singing "Trailers for Sale or Rent", his kindness towards people who fall in love with him throughout his journey, his passion.


• Movie better than the book - that rarely happens.
  

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;

There is a rapture on the lonely shore;

There is a society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more...

-Lord Byron

The Martian Child

Great quote from the movie (below) and loved watching John Cusack and Joan Cusack. Certainly worth the price of a dvd rental. Despite rather bleak reviews, I thought the story was touching and entertaining in a light-hearted warm family film kinda way. I've heard the book is very good.

"...you and me here, put together entirely from atoms that have been part of millions of other organisms before they became us. Sitting on this round rock with a core of liquid iron. Held down by this force, that so troubles you, called gravity. All the while spinning around the sun sixty-seven thousand miles an hour and whizzing through the Milky Way at six hundred thousand miles an hour. In a universe that very well may be chasing its own tail at the speed of light. And amidst all this frantic activity, fully cognizant of our own eminent demise, which is a very pretty way of saying we all know we're gonna die, we reach out to one another. Sometimes for the sake of vanity, sometimes for reasons you're not old enough to understand yet, but a lot of the time we just reach out and expect nothing in return. Isn't that strange? Isn't that weird? Isn't that weird enough?"

Eastern Promise

Viggo Mortensen has given me a whole new appreciation for the beauty of tattos. Pretty good movie too.