Wednesday, December 20, 2006
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE
Speaking of American movies, the ultimate American type of movie has to be the western. And the ultimate western, to my mind, is THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE, starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and had Lee Marvin as Liberty.
To me, this movie goes to the heart of America, because it's about the boundary between freedom, which is what we were founded on, and law which keeps us living in a civilized way.
A small town is terrorized by a bad guy named, not by accident, "Liberty Valence." He's what you get when somebody thinks that freedom is when they can do whatever they want without constraint. Kill and rob and probably other things that couldn't be named in a film of that era.
He's Liberty, but actually out of balance, not in Valence.
Tom, John Wayne, is the movie's "natural man." He wants freedom freedom from law and government just as much as Liberty, but is naturally good. He'll do whatever he wants or needs, but doesn't hurt other people unnecessarily. Like Liberty, he lives by the gun.
Enter Jimmy Stewart, the man who carried a law book instead of gun, determined to bring law n order to the wild west. He's just as much a threat to Tom's way of life as to Liberty's.
If you listen to the song, it's good at conveying the theme of the movie as well. In that sense, it's a terrific theme song for a movie because it encapsulates the movie in its lyrics, though without giving away the "secret" about who was actually the man who shot Liberty Valence.
To me, this movie goes to the heart of America, because it's about the boundary between freedom, which is what we were founded on, and law which keeps us living in a civilized way.
A small town is terrorized by a bad guy named, not by accident, "Liberty Valence." He's what you get when somebody thinks that freedom is when they can do whatever they want without constraint. Kill and rob and probably other things that couldn't be named in a film of that era.
He's Liberty, but actually out of balance, not in Valence.
Tom, John Wayne, is the movie's "natural man." He wants freedom freedom from law and government just as much as Liberty, but is naturally good. He'll do whatever he wants or needs, but doesn't hurt other people unnecessarily. Like Liberty, he lives by the gun.
Enter Jimmy Stewart, the man who carried a law book instead of gun, determined to bring law n order to the wild west. He's just as much a threat to Tom's way of life as to Liberty's.
If you listen to the song, it's good at conveying the theme of the movie as well. In that sense, it's a terrific theme song for a movie because it encapsulates the movie in its lyrics, though without giving away the "secret" about who was actually the man who shot Liberty Valence.
other than English language
Unlike most people, I don't insist that I have to understand what's being said in movies. Good action movies should be understandable even if you don't speak the language they're in. More personal types of movies are not as easily understood, but it can still be interesting to watch and gauge the emotional interactions of the characters without understand the specifics of the words they're using.
Of course, there're are subtitles, but these can be misleading. I once watched a string of Hong Kong movies and the English in their subtitles was pretty funny.
I recall once watching a movie on cable while traveling. Not only could I not figure out what language the movie was in (let alone understand it), I couldn't figure out what language the subtitles were in.
But I did enjoy seeing the people ride around on horses, killing each other. And at the end the armed men questioning the old man telling the story opened his robes to reveal he'd had both arms cut off. I suspect it was from some Middle Eastern country, but am still not sure.
Now, although India's "Ballywood" commercial film capital has gotten some attention following Hong Kong's, I've never been able to watch one for long. Maybe I just tune into that cable channel at the wrong time. But I've tried to watch Indian movies in both India and in other countries.
Whenever I switch to that channel, what's happening in the movie is that an overweight man and an overweight woman are singing and dancing, obviously about how much they love each other. You don't have to understand the words to figure that much out. So every time, I decide to relax and enjoy the Indian music, and I do . . . for a few minutes. But as a few minutes drags on into many more minutes . . . and the man and woman are still dancing and singing . . . I admit it, I just get bored with them. It feels as though they'll never stop singing and dancing and I just have to change the channel.
Maybe I'd enjoy an Indian movie if I watched it from start to finish. I was going to try to see one in a movie theater in Calcutta, but the line outside was jammed pack full of teenaged boys. And by "jammed pack," I'm not speaking metaphorically. It was obvious that Indian teenaged boys do not retain any body "space" with each other. They were belly to chest in a long line.
I'm sure there's guys out there that wouldn't mind spending a lot of time pressing the flesh with 15 year old Indian boys, risking their pocket getting picked without their even knowing it, but I'm not one of them. So I passed on that watching that movie.
Of course, there're are subtitles, but these can be misleading. I once watched a string of Hong Kong movies and the English in their subtitles was pretty funny.
I recall once watching a movie on cable while traveling. Not only could I not figure out what language the movie was in (let alone understand it), I couldn't figure out what language the subtitles were in.
But I did enjoy seeing the people ride around on horses, killing each other. And at the end the armed men questioning the old man telling the story opened his robes to reveal he'd had both arms cut off. I suspect it was from some Middle Eastern country, but am still not sure.
Now, although India's "Ballywood" commercial film capital has gotten some attention following Hong Kong's, I've never been able to watch one for long. Maybe I just tune into that cable channel at the wrong time. But I've tried to watch Indian movies in both India and in other countries.
Whenever I switch to that channel, what's happening in the movie is that an overweight man and an overweight woman are singing and dancing, obviously about how much they love each other. You don't have to understand the words to figure that much out. So every time, I decide to relax and enjoy the Indian music, and I do . . . for a few minutes. But as a few minutes drags on into many more minutes . . . and the man and woman are still dancing and singing . . . I admit it, I just get bored with them. It feels as though they'll never stop singing and dancing and I just have to change the channel.
Maybe I'd enjoy an Indian movie if I watched it from start to finish. I was going to try to see one in a movie theater in Calcutta, but the line outside was jammed pack full of teenaged boys. And by "jammed pack," I'm not speaking metaphorically. It was obvious that Indian teenaged boys do not retain any body "space" with each other. They were belly to chest in a long line.
I'm sure there's guys out there that wouldn't mind spending a lot of time pressing the flesh with 15 year old Indian boys, risking their pocket getting picked without their even knowing it, but I'm not one of them. So I passed on that watching that movie.
CITY LIGHTS
Way back when I watched a lot of movies, my other hero was Charlie Chaplin. I especially like CITY LIGHTS. Sure, it's pretty hokey in a way -- sentimental with that old-fashioned blind flower girl needing expensive eye surgery to see again. Yet by the time Charlie gets out of jail and the now-sighted girl now running a full sized flower shop understands that the rich handsome man who gave her the money for her surgery is the poor tramp . . . I am touched. So sue me.
And the entire sequence of Charlie saving the life of the drunk rich man who loves Charlie when he's rich but can't remember him when he's sober . . . is incredibly funny and well done. Great example of the state learning you can learn about through NLP.
And the entire sequence of Charlie saving the life of the drunk rich man who loves Charlie when he's rich but can't remember him when he's sober . . . is incredibly funny and well done. Great example of the state learning you can learn about through NLP.
CASABLANCA
My personal choice for all-time favorite movie has to be CASABLANCA. I'm a Humphrey Bogart fan. Ingrid Bergman is beautiful. The rest of the cast are terrific. It's well-written, highly dramatic and an important story.
Does the current generation love it as much as we baby boomers did? It worries me that they apparently don't. Its story is more timely now than it was when I watched it in the 1970s. Yet I wonder if current young adults even understand the conflict between love and duty.
Some Americans are now currently engaged in the war on evil, but many of us are back to ignoring it, running our Cafe Americains, focusing on our own emotional lives.
Yet new SS officers are preparing to enter our cafes. They'll wear headscarves instead of swazticas. And this time, Europe won't be in the fight before us. They're hiding their heads in the Sahara sand. There's no European freedom fighter in sight who're going to rally the band to play La Marseillase in defiance of the Nazis.
I'd like to think that the Capitain Louis of France still retain enough goodness deep inside them to join us at end, after the cafe has been closed and we commit ourselves to the fight against evil. I suspect most of the French and the rest of Europe will keep on drinking Vichy water, but I hope I'm wrong.
Does the current generation love it as much as we baby boomers did? It worries me that they apparently don't. Its story is more timely now than it was when I watched it in the 1970s. Yet I wonder if current young adults even understand the conflict between love and duty.
Some Americans are now currently engaged in the war on evil, but many of us are back to ignoring it, running our Cafe Americains, focusing on our own emotional lives.
Yet new SS officers are preparing to enter our cafes. They'll wear headscarves instead of swazticas. And this time, Europe won't be in the fight before us. They're hiding their heads in the Sahara sand. There's no European freedom fighter in sight who're going to rally the band to play La Marseillase in defiance of the Nazis.
I'd like to think that the Capitain Louis of France still retain enough goodness deep inside them to join us at end, after the cafe has been closed and we commit ourselves to the fight against evil. I suspect most of the French and the rest of Europe will keep on drinking Vichy water, but I hope I'm wrong.
Movies Galore and More
This blog is devoted to the subject of movies.
Of necessity, though not by definition or choice, I'm going to write mainly about "classic" movies. I hate to think about it, but since I haven't watched many movies since the early 90s, about all the movies I know about are now "classics," though technically to me that should apply only to movies released before my teenage years.
I'd watch more movies but currently just don't have time. And from what I hear about how many people take their cell phones to movies, I don't want to driven out of my mind by cell phones ringing. That drives me crazy in grocery stores -- while watching a movie I don't know what I'd do.
I'd go off on the subject of how cell phones make people crazy, but that's not really what this blog is about.
Of necessity, though not by definition or choice, I'm going to write mainly about "classic" movies. I hate to think about it, but since I haven't watched many movies since the early 90s, about all the movies I know about are now "classics," though technically to me that should apply only to movies released before my teenage years.
I'd watch more movies but currently just don't have time. And from what I hear about how many people take their cell phones to movies, I don't want to driven out of my mind by cell phones ringing. That drives me crazy in grocery stores -- while watching a movie I don't know what I'd do.
I'd go off on the subject of how cell phones make people crazy, but that's not really what this blog is about.
