Movies, Mom & Me

1. Who's watched:  M & G
2. Mentions:  None
3. Commentary:  My mother used to be a Clint Eastwood fan with her sister, once they began living close to each other in their latter years. They saw them all of Eastwood's stuff, the old and the new. I never figured out if my mother was truly an Eastwood fan or her sister's fan and thus willing to do anything that would bring her closer to her sister.
       At any rate, although I've seen very few Eastwood movies, I saw this one, I can't remember where or why, when it first came out, and was surprisingly impressed. So, when, one evening, some years ago, my mother suggested that we "rent a Clint Eastwood movie", this is the one I picked. Good choice. Aside from Morgan Freeman being in it, she loved the idea that a gunslinger could get old and have trouble reestablishing his former skills in a stab at morality. Since I bought the movie about a year ago, we've seen it a couple of times. Every time she sees it, she either says, "Your Dad would have liked this," or, "You know, I'll bet Jean would like this one, we should have her over sometime to see it. Wouldn't that be fun!"

Labels: action, adventure, drama, violence, western

# posted by gail @ 18:00    0 comments    email......this post

1. Who's watched:  M & G
2. Mentions:  *1* *2*
3. Commentary:  This was the other movie I ordered for Mom's birthday. Truth is, I could only vaguely remember whether she had a marked interest in it. As it turns out, she did. When I cued it, she remembered, almost immediately, having seen it.
     "Oh," I said, "I hope it isn't one of those movies you only wanted to see once."
     "Oh, no," she replied, "I think I remembered liking this movie."
     She loved it, maybe even more than How the West Was Won. We saw the movies back to back and she even mentioned, regarding the portrayals of Native Americans, "Yes, now this seems more realistic."
     Since I'd never watched the entire movie, I settled down and was surprised, pleased and inspired. "Well, Mom, that's what I'd like to do, figure out how to be completely self-sufficient, in landscape similar to that."
     She looked at me approvingly. "I know what you mean," she said. "So would I. Even with all the problems and difficulties."
     I know we'll be watching this one again...probably every time I have multiple Abandoning Fantasies.

Labels: adventure, biography, period, western

# posted by gail @ 13:20    0 comments    email......this post

1. Who's watched:  M & G
2. Mentions:  *1*
3. Commentary:  This is one of my parents' historical favorites. I remember watching it in the theater but discovered, upon rewatching it (I got it for my mother's birthday this year) that I'd misremembered quite a bit of it and apparently mixed it up with another movie that featured the great prairie land grab, which isn't covered in this film. My mother, who has become much more sophisticated about the depictions of Native Americans in movies, although there is actually little in this film but N.A. hearsay, was unsettled enough by what it included to voice her objections. Otherwise, we both enjoyed the sprawl, became surprisingly involved in the stories, loved some of the individual performances (Will Geer's, in particular, as the patriach of a river pirate family and Carroll Baker's surprisingly subtle performance as a pioneer wife). I was intrigued by the Civil War sequence, as well. My mother devoured the entire movie and breathed a satisfied sigh through a satisfied smile when it was over. "Let's start that again," she said. Luckily, we had another movie which she was equally anticipating, Jeremiah Johnson. This movie will be one of those "snowy/rainy day when I'm baking" movies, I'm sure. I don't think I'll become as fascinated with it as I have The Ten Commandments, of which I often find myself needing a fix, but I don't think I'll ignore it when I'm playing it for Mom, as I do some movies.

Labels: adventure, dad-favorite, drama, mom-favorite, period, spectacle, western

# posted by gail @ 13:18    0 comments    email......this post

1. Who's watched:  M & G
2. Mentions:  *1* *2* *3* *4* *5*
3. Commentary:  I know, I should be ashamed of how much I love this show. There's a lot of stuff involved: The time period; living on Guam when it first aired; knowing someone who became an instant and serious devotee of the series and what it represented, etc.
       I'm not sure why my mother likes it, but I know she does. It has an hypnotic effect on both of us.
       Although each of us, separately and together, have watched many episodes of this series many times, neither of us had seen the pilot, so that was a treat.
       I think, too, one of the reasons we bond over this series is that both of us have a bit of the monk in us.
       I know the story behind the series and know that, in some serious ways, its existence is a travesty to Bruce Lee, the man and the force. I keep this in mind when I watch it.
       My mother is not concerned with politically tainted considerations. She just likes the shows. She mistakes David Carradine for his father. Interesting, because I think they look nothing alike, nor do they act alike, especially in this series. At some point his father is in the series, playing and itinerant preacher. His brother Robert plays the preacher's mute sidekick, Sunny Jim. Another brother, Keith, plays Kwai Chang Caine as a teenage aspirant.

Labels: me-favorite, TV, western

# posted by gail @ 01:58    0 comments    email......this post

1. Who's watched:  M & G
2. Mentions:  *1*
3. Commentary:  This is one of those movies neither Mom nor I had seen but it was one of my father's/her husband's favorites. So, one day I found a classic video rental store in Prescott (What a find!) and we spent the weekend watching 'old' movies, including our first viewing of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and this movie, with which we were both taken. I didn't realize it was such a dark story. As well, I found myself enjoying Gary Cooper, who's performance in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town was a little too over the top for me. Plus, one of the disturbing things about Capra movies is that the same actors keep showing up, playing essentially the same roles...Beulah Bondi, for instance; and the guy who plays drunken Dix also plays addled Uncle Billy. It's eerie...like, you're not watching a movie, you're spying on another dimension.
       I think we've watched it a couple of times since I bought it.

Labels: dad-favorite, drama, suspense, western

# posted by gail @ 08:33    0 comments    email......this post