Category: movies

Father’s Day

In honor of Father’s Day, here’s a re-post of a quote from How Green Was My Valley, that I originally posted a few years back:

There is no fence nor hedge around time that is gone. You can go back and have what you like of it, if you can remember. So I can close my eyes on my valley as it is today, and it is gone, and I see it as it was when I was a boy. Green it was, and possessed of the plenty of the Earth. In all Wales, there was none so beautiful. Everything I ever learned as a small boy came from my father and I never found anything he ever told me to be wrong or worthless. The simple lessons he taught me are as sharp and clear in my mind as if I had heard them only yesterday.

Philip Marlowe: Product of a Hard-Boiled Time

From “Murder, My Sweet“:

My feet hurt, and my mind felt like a plumber’s handkerchief. The office bottle hadn’t sparked me up, so I’d taken out my little black book and decided to go grouse hunting.

via Philip Marlowe: Product of a Hard-Boiled Time : NPR.

I’m pretty sure my mind has felt like a plumber’s handkerchief on occasion too. In fact, it may feel like that right now…

old DVDs

So I have a bit of a tendency to buy DVDs (and now Blu-Rays too), and then not watch them. I’ve got quite a few piled up. I haven’t really been buying many new discs though, so the piles aren’t really getting bigger, which is good.

Today, I picked one out and watched it — MirrorMask. It was really good! After watching it, I went to Amazon and looked it up. I don’t even remember buying it from Amazon, but apparently I did, because there’s a banner across the page saying that I bought it in April 2006. Wow. I had no idea how long I’ve been letting this stuff pile up!

Buster Keaton

I went into NYC today and saw The General at Film Forum, as part of their all-day Buster Keaton marathon. I would have liked to have seen one or two more films while I was there, but I didn’t want to stay in the city all day. I first became a fan of Buster Keaton when I was in college, a long time ago. I haven’t managed to see more than two or three of his films though.  I really need to rectify that. I think I should try to find time to watch Sherlock Jr. soon.

Charlie Chaplin

I was flipping through channels this morning, and landed on TCM right as the final scene in The Great Dictator was starting. That final speech is great:

We think too much, and feel too little.
More than cleverness, we need kindness.

And so on. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever seen this whole film, all the way through. I’ll have to see if it’s coming up again on TCM and set up my DVR to record it. Either way, that final speech is worth watching and re-watching.

After I originally posted this, a friend pointed me a Roger Ebert article on this film. It provides some necessary context for this movie, both in terms of Chaplin’s career, and the larger historical context. He mentions that the film “comes to a dead end” with this final speech, and that it “deflates the comedy and ends the picture as a lecture.” True enough, I guess, but I kind of like it.

How Green Was My Valley

I saw “How Green Was My Valley” yesterday at the Walter Reade. There’s a bit of narration at the beginning that I like a lot. Here’s a bit of it:

There is no fence nor hedge around time that is gone. You can go back and have what you like of it, if you can remember. So I can close my eyes on my valley as it is today, and it is gone, and I see it as it was when I was a boy. Green it was, and possessed of the plenty of the Earth. In all Wales, there was none so beautiful. Everything I ever learned as a small boy came from my father and I never found anything he ever told me to be wrong or worthless. The simple lessons he taught me are as sharp and clear in my mind as if I had heard them only yesterday.

I was going to file that away, and post it on Father’s Day, but I decided to post it now, while I’m thinking of it.

random 2008 lists

Here are a few random lists, of books & comics I read, and movies I saw, in 2008. I don’t suppose I have any good reason for posting these. I was just kind of bored with the Rose Bowl, so I started making lists. I’m not bothering to list anything I read or saw, but didn’t really enjoy, so you can assume that all these books/comics/movies are recommended to anyone who might have tastes similar to my own.

books I read in 2008:
1. Well of Lost Plots – Jasper Fforde
2. The Millionaires – Brad Meltzer
3. Zero Game – Meltzer
4. Areas of my Expertise – John Hodgman
5. Something Rotten – Fforde
6. Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
7. Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett
8. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
9. Idea Mapping – Jamie Nast
10. Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon
11. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
12. Death Masks – Jim Butcher
13. Bood Rites – Butcher
14. With No One as Witness – Elizabeth George
15. Certain Justice – P. D. James
16. A Taste for Death – James
17. Spirit House – Christopher G. Moore
18. Tales of Beedle the Bard – J K Rowling

some comics I read:
1. Coraline – Neil Gaiman / P Craig Russell
2. 21 Down – Gray / Palmiotti / Saiz
3. Teen Titans: Titans Around the World
4. Shadowpact
5. Fell – Warren Ellis / Ben Templesmith
6. a bunch of Hellboy and BPRD comics
7. Invincible (Vol 1-4, I think)
8. Kid Eternity – Grant Morrison / Duncan Fegredo
9. Challengers of the Unknown – Loeb / Sale

movies i remember seeing:
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
3. Stargate: Ark of Truth
4. Stargate: Continuum
5. Battlestar Galactica: Razor
6. Dark Knight
7. Hellboy 2
8. Iron Man
9. X-Files: I Want to Believe
10. Batman: Gotham Knight
11. Wall-E
12. Gone Baby Gone
13. No Country for Old Men