Category Archives: Movie Nights

The Hells of Others

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Gray country. Gray sky. Gray little man, in a gray suit. With a gray little soul, perhaps just coming alive.

The film is “The Lives of Others.”

It’s East Germany, 1984. Stasi intelligence officer Capt. Gerd Weisler is assigned secret surveillance of acclaimed playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend Christa-Maria Seiland. Weisler does so, the sole satisfaction in his life is exposing enemies of the state, squelching their treason, their careless talk, their poor jokes at the Chancellor’s expense. It’s a land where questions are as serious as a heart attack. “Name?” can be a prelude to a disappearance. Of course, they already know your name.

The Stasi’s motto is “Know Everything.” Every detail, every fact of life is painstakingly collected and leveraged over a populace in fear, too afraid to speak or make eye contact because they never know who’s watching, taking notes. Weisler is good at finding out things; he soon discovers that Georg is idealistic about socialism and loyal; almost deliberately refusing to see the reality around him. Weisler also learns that he was given his mission in the hopes that he would find something that could be used; a Party boss desires Christa-Marie, wants Georg out of the picture.

There is love and affection between Georg and Christa-Marie. The flat they share is an oasis of warm colors and feelings. Weisler weakens, begins to feel affection for them, even protective, their unseen gray angel. In his own life, he is so tightly wrapped he can barely breathe. Sex is bought from a “Party” girl prostitute who doesn’t even give him time to undress or share a moment’s imitation of tenderness. Why can’t he have friends, feelings like Georg and Christa-Marie?

A dangerous game is played in a dangerous land. The suspense for the viewer is as heavy as the oppression that covers the land. You know, the Germans know, this can’t end well. How can you escape the tentacles that are everywhere: coercion, deceit, betrayal, sacrifice. Can you stay a half-step ahead of the authorities and your own doubts?

Heartbreak. An ending. A wall cracks and then falls. Then another ending. And another. And the gray light looks a little lighter, a seed of redemption gives forth a tiny shoot. Perhaps, a beginning.

A Sonata for a Good Man. A powerful film.

Hot and fuzzy

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Let’s see, I laughed out loud several times at the over-the-top antics; smiled frequently at the clever movie parodies; giggled when the lads turned a tired cliché inside out; and had a great “aha!” moment at an especially subtle inside joke, so I guess you can say I found Hot Fuzz amusing.

Hot Fuzz is the latest collaboration from the team that brought us the comic zombie homage/thriller Shaun of the Dead. This time, instead of re-animating the undead genre, director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (from a screenplay written by Wright and Pegg) buddy-up to the high-explosive Bad Boys-style cop action films, playing the mis-matched partners investigating a series of extreme murders in a quiet English village that is, of course, more than it seems.

Pegg is the no-nonsense super cop, Nicholas Angel, banished to the sticks from London because his high-performance record and capabilities were making the rest of the police force look bad. His persona is nearly the exact opposite of the character Pegg played in Shaun. Frost, meanwhile, is Danny Butterman, the bumbling, lightly-regarded local constable who yearns to be like his heroes from the hundreds of action DVDs he owns. As with Shaun, the send-up is as much a homage as a parody as you can tell the team knows its source material well and is having a blast playing fast and loose with the touchstones.

There’s a lot of violence and blood in the film, but it’s more in the style of Monty Python and the Holy Grail rather than Friday the 13th. The language is too strong at times for it to be family fare, but it’s a lively and fun film with enough mystery to keep you guessing and a never-ending series of jokes and references to keep you laughing without turning into a farce like Police Academy. Pegg and Frost are great together, and the success of their previous film allowed them to bring in some familiar names and faces to play supporting roles (such as Jim Broadbent and the wolfish Timothy Dalton) or perform cameos (Cate Blanchett). One of the best moves was casting veteran Brit actor Edward Woodward (from the old The Equalizer TV series). I remember seeing Woodward in the ’79 version of The Wicker Man where he plays a by-the-book investigator contending with a very creepy group of pagans (one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen). In Hot Fuzz, however, Woodward gets to turn the tables on his earlier role — and seems to be having an excellent time while doing so.

As will you, I think, if you rent this movie.

The end of the war

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No, I haven’t set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, but the Fundamentals in Film class finally completed the Band of Brothers mini-series last week.

There were 10 episodes, plus the documentary “We Stand Alone Together”, in the mostly true-to-life story of E company, paratroopers of the 101st Airborne in World War II. With our bi-weekly schedule it took awhile to get through them all, even with watching two episodes each time. The boys were very excited to begin the series and were generally pretty riveted throughout with lots of questions and commentary. I don’t know yet what impressions it made on them (and I’m fully resigned that I may never know) but I know it will stick with me for a long time.

I debated with myself for some time before introducing the series to the class, and spoke with the fathers a couple of times about it. The language in the series is frequently extreme, and the violence is often sudden and explicit. On the other hand, it was a chance to feature some history lessons, introduce a more realistic and human sense of the “up close and personal” nature of war to a video game generation raised on “Halo” and “Doom”, and to impart some lessons in leadership and grace under pressure.

I dealt with the language issue right up front with the guys, explaining how it became a form of bonding for the soldiers who were undergoing severe hardships together, but even at that the men were aware that it wasn’t appropriate in general society and were careful of their language around women – a distinction commonly disregarded these days. I also reminded the young men that “out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks” – whatever comes out of their mouths communicates a lot more than just the words themselves. Finally, I directed them to pay attention to Dick Winters, the main character in the ensemble cast, and the way he controlled his words (even when wounded) and swore only for effect in getting his men moving again when they froze while out in the open and under fire.

Winters was also an example of leadership – a quiet man of faith, committed to the well-being of his men but also able to order them into harm’s way when needed, but with the tactical skills to keep the men alive as well. While not flashy or self-promoting, he quickly gained the universal respect and admiration of his men and his superior officers and his example was a model for men like Sgt. Carwood Lipton and in stark contrast to the “leadership” of Easy Company’s first CO, Captain Sobel, and to the company’s CO during the siege of Bastogne, Lt. Dike. Lipton’s leadership during the Battle of the Bulge — his focus on the men and the mission — gave the class a lot to talk about after we watched the Bastogne episode (a particularly gory and challenging episode that saw a lot of the men we’d come to know get killed or seriously wounded). That particular chapter also showed how it was possible for a group of men to do more than they thought was possible while under the harshest conditions.

It was also interesting for the class to see just how screwed up so many of the military operations became, from the errors on D-Day that led to so many of the paratroopers being dropped in the wrong place, without much of their equipment and groggy from the air-sickness pills they were ordered to take (for the first time), to the Allied High Command being caught by surprise at the Bulge and the 101st being sent in to Bastogne, again without proper equipment, winter clothing or even enough weapons and ammunition. Despite the almost catastrophic errors and miscalculations, the men on the ground succeeded thanks to their training, their character and the bond between them that allowed them to function as a highly-effective team. The mini-series often made me wonder how today’s media would have focused on the blundering (without acknowledging how massive and complicated the D-Day invasion was or the logistics of maneuvering several hundred thousand men in a short period of time in Belgium) and overlooked the successes.

Today the Battle of the Bulge would be the German equivalent of the Tet Offensive, and though the Viet Cong and the Germans both ultimately lost these battles decisively, the end result was dramatically different. Back then General McAuliffe was celebrated for his bold response of “Nuts!” when the Germans sent their surrender demands to his besieged forces; today he’d be criticized as a blood-thirsty maniac unconcerned about the soldiers he was keeping in harm’s way in the Belgian quagmire.

That’s not to say that Band of Brothers glorified the war. The series did an excellent job of portraying the hardships and sacrifices — and sometimes all-too-human failings and frustrations — of the men of Easy Company and the 101st Airborne. Especially in the later episodes when it was clear that the war was winding down and that the surviving members might just live through it after all, the loss of their friends and the apparent futility of the war weighed heavily on the men and, to some extent, on our film class. While there was little action in the episode where Easy discovers the Landsberg concentration camp (“Why We Fight”), it was one of the most powerful and affecting in the series. Combined with the last episode (“Points”) where Easy takes and occupies Berchtesgaden, these concluding segments did a good job of showing the costs, personally and nationally, of war for even the winners.

After we finished episode 10 and then watched the documentary “We Stand Alone Together” featuring interviews with the real Easy Company survivors (a very moving experience after having come to “know” their actor counterparts over the past few months), it indeed felt to me as if a long war was over. I was left with a deeper appreciation and admiration for what the men had sacrificed and achieved and knew that I would have a hard time measuring up under the same circumstances. I don’t know what the young men of the class got out of it, or even if I or they will be able to measure its affects over the next few weeks, months and years, but I don’t think any of us will be the same.

300 reasons

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I was among the 90 percent male audience at a 9:00 p.m. showing of 300 over the weekend. Some of the guys there were younger men and a few looked a little geeky and there were one or two older ones I might have pegged for still being in residence at their mom’s house, but most appeared middle-aged and normal — a category I hope the others thought that I fell into. Having read Steven Pressfield’s “Gates of Fire” and Frank Miller’s graphic novel that the movie was based on I’d been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest movie version of the Battle of Thermopylae (I even rented 1961’s The 300 Spartans, made when Hollywood thought “epic” also had to mean “plodding”). Here’s my brief review of the movie and some thoughts that have occurred to me since it ended.

Overall the movie was very good. The look of the film was definitely unique and strongly resembled Miller’s book, which was the intention. The “graphic novel” artistic treatment (and it is artistic) mitigated the gruesomeness of the ultra-violence to some extent, and while it was bloody (and came close to over-using the slow-motion) I felt it was a believable rendition of what hand-to-hand combat in close confines with sharp-edged weapons would be like. It’s definitely not a date movie unless your girlfriend also happens to like field-dressing roadkill, but there is a discernible plot and some inspiring and intense performances that makes this a good story. Additionally, it is a thought-provoking examination of duty, honor and patriotism that’s short on speeches and long on demonstration.

I was disappointed with the gratuitous scenes with naked women; the scenes fit within the story but appeared to be driven more by a marketing formula for the target audience than from story-telling license. The scenes between King Leonidas and his wife, and in the seductive blandishments offered by King Xerxes to the traitor Ephialtes, easily could have been shot with a bit more discretion. Not that this is a movie for younger teen males anyway, but the nudity definitely would be a distraction from the more laudable themes in the film. Otherwise “300” is an inspiring and entertaining movie for action film fans and those who will draw some conservative political allegories from the story.

While much is made of the battle being between a small group of free men and an invading slave army of a couple hundred thousand, I thought there was little effort to frame the historical significance of the effects on Western Civilization if the fledgling Greek city-state democracies had been absorbed the Persian empire. Ironically, Spartan society was probably less “free” than the Persians; while it is portrayed as an egalitarian meritocracy, it was also rigid in its laws and cruel — some might say eminently practical — in its single-minded warrior ethos. At the same time it made a religion out of exalting honor, duty and courage and “300” makes that point with all the subtlety of a Spartan xiphos.

King Leonidas is the standard-bearer and champion of this creed, even to the point where he breaks the rigid letter of the law in order to ultimately defend its spirit, standing firm against the alternating threats and flattering of his foreign enemy and standing in disgust at the treacherous collaboration of his own Council of Elders that sought accommodation and surrender to the apparently overwhelming enemy (based on the portrayal of Council, duty and honor weren’t universally revered in Spartan culture as the politicians manipulated events for their personal gain and grudges regardless of the cost to their country). For Leonidas, while freedom may be ripped from a Spartan’s dead fingers, it must never be willingly released due to fear, complacency or indolence.

The movie also helped me see another important point. The Spartan warriors are all very fit and well-muscled, conditioned to their “Spartan” existence of war and striving. While my own body bears little resemblance to theirs, I know that I was born with the same number of muscles in my body as they had; the difference is in how they developed what they were given. Similarly, I think we all start with the same capacity for faith, duty and honor within us and these, too, can be trained, exercised and built up to astonishing and awe-inspiring levels. When we do, even just a handful can change history.

Charmed, I’m sure

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Last month I posted a brief review of the move Everything is Illuminated because I like the unexpected, unconventional and beguiling nature of the story, the well-crafted scenes and performances, and the human insights that lingered in my mind for days afterward. I hadn’t expected to like the movie all that much yet I was totally won over. Since then I’ve thought about some of my other all-time favorite movies and realized that many of these shared distinctive characteristics with this film. The stories aren’t really related to each other, but they are all off-beat (non-formulaic) delights that surprised and charmed me and — as we head into a snowy weekend — I thought they might charm you as well.

My top three favorite movies may shift from time to time, but Local Hero will always be near the top of my list. Released in 1983, it stars Peter Reigert (post-Animal House) and Burt Lancaster and is directed by the estimable Scottish director Bill Forsyth (Gregory’s Girl, Comfort and Joy). Like all of the movies here it has a light, whimsical streak running through it. The story is that a large Houston oil company sends one of its acquisition specialists, McIntyre, to a small Scots town to purchase the town and, especially, its deep water port that they want to turn into a refinery. Part of the joke is that Mac isn’t even Scottish — his ancestors adopted the name when they got off the boat from Hungary because it “sounded American”.

Devoted to his job and his lifestyle, Mac sets out to complete his mission as quickly as possible but finds himself becoming enchanted by the place and ambivalent about his task. One of the special twists of the story, however, is that rather than being outraged and protective of their community, the locals can’t wait to sell it and become rich! There are several subplots as well and a great cast of characters (referring both to the actors and to the “townspeople” in the movie). The movie is quirky but not in a heavy-handed, off-putting way and it reveals itself little-by-little. The story is partly meant to be a commentary on American capitalism abroad, but this is done warmly and with wit; the scenes between Mac and an entreprenuerial Russian sailor are some of the best, though these are surpassed by Burt Lancaster’s small but vital role. Beautiful scenery, a beautiful story, and did I mention that there’s a mermaid as well?

I always link The Coca-Cola Kid with Local Hero in my mind because it also tells a comedic tale of what happens when American interests go abroad, but in a more allegorical manner. The screenplay is by an Australian and directed by a Yugoslavian, but culture clashes at the center of the movie, and the characterization of Becker (played by Eric Roberts in one of his less-twitchy roles) is more bemused than pointed. Becker is a hot-shot marketing guru from Coca-Cola, sent from Atlanta to Australia to boost sales in that country. (The movie was made without the fore-knowledge or blessing of Coca-Cola). When he discovers a populated valley in which absolutely no Coke has ever been sold he sets out to conquer, in the process meeting the patriarch of the valley, a cantankerous lord who bottles his own brand of soft drinks.

Greta Scacchi plays the love interest, again, somewhat as an allegory, as are several other characters who come and go with their own perceptions and assumptions about Americans set up in contrast with Becker’s assumptions of this new land. It’s a funny and generally gentle story with great music, including a terrific Coke jingle that the company should have adopted in real life. It’s a good companion movie to watch with Local Hero, but there are a couple of scenes with nudity so it’s probably not for kids (though the story wouldn’t be as interesting to them anyway).

A movie that is ideal to watch with the whole family is The Secret of Roan Inish. There are no big stars in the film, but it is directed by John Sayles, who’s work I’ve liked since “The Return of the Secaucus Seven” (another off-beat charmer that was later ripped off by “The Big Chill“). The story focuses on Fiona, a young girl sent to live with her grandparents on the Irish coast after her mother dies and her father and brothers go to work in an industrialized city. Her grandparents still live near the island that was the home of Fiona’s family going back several generations and the seat of the family’s mystical history and the setting for the mysterious disappearance of Fiona’s younger brother, Jamie, spirited away when he was an infant.

While that sounds rather dark, the story is anything but as Fiona and her cousin find themselves gradually unwrapping the nearly forgotten ancient secrets of the family and the mystery of what happened to Jamie. Rest assured, there isn’t a speck of evil in the story. In fact, one of the things that makes the film so unique in my mind is that it generates such a compelling drama without a single villain. The young actress who plays Fiona (Jeni Courtney) is amazing and easily carries the movie. I’m surprised that she hasn’t gone on to do other movies (“Roan Inish” was released in 1995). It’s a tremendous story of faith, love and character and an ideal experience for the whole family. Bake some bread, cook up a pot of soup, and eat while you watch the movie!

This is another movie that took me by surprise when we first watched it. The Emperor’s New Clothes is a “what if” story about what might have happened if Napoleon had managed, through the use of a body double, to escape from Elba and make it back to France. Rest assured, however you think this might have turned out, you’ll definitely be surprised by the story that unfolds. Ian Holm is fantastic as the two Napoleons and the story is a very funny and touching one with a bit of romance and adventure thrown in.

I’m not sure why we even rented it in the first place, but I’m glad we did. While the premise sounds predictable, the story is delightfully original and veers away from the cliched scenes and character reactions that you might expect. It’s not a “major” film but it is very entertaining with likeable characters and a seductive plot. If you rent it just sit back and relax and go with the story and you won’t be disappointed.

Fundamentals in Film: Black History Month

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I’ve been leading the bi-weekly “Fundamentals in Film” class for the current group of teenage boys for about a year now, and my focus has been to feature movies with strong, positive male role models demonstrating character, honor, courage and grace under fire (physical, mental, spiritual fire) and especially an ability to put others ahead of themselves. Many of the movies we’ve watched also opened a door for our group to discuss the larger social and historical context of the events depicted in the movie.

The movie that probably had the most profound affect on our young men was Glory, the story of the first all-black regiment in the Civil War. The discussion following the film drew the strongest reactions and the most spontaneous questions from the guys of any that we’ve had. Some months later we watched The Tuskegee Airmen, a similar story but brought “four-score” years into the future with the first U.S. squadron of black fighter pilots. Back at the beginning of the football season we also watched the original TV-movie version of Brian’s Song (gotta love Netflix!), the Gale Sayers/Brian Piccolo story, set in the late 1960s against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement.

All three films were based on true events (with some dramatic license) and as we bumped through the century or so that the movies spanned it was useful and interesting to see what things had changed, and what things remained the same, in our society and in the lives of the men profiled. I believe this has been especially beneficial for my group of young men who have grown up with little knowledge or exposure to the events that have led up to today and helped them to get a sense that, while it seems like certain events happened a long time ago, they really represent a relatively short and intense period in history (and it isn’t over yet). While the movies have been useful in describing and discussing this time, the history of the struggle wasn’t my main reason for introducing these films into the series.

For me, the essence of these movies still comes down to bedrock issues of honor, duty, respect and being willing to do the hard thing even at great personal cost for the greater good. The lessons of being a man that can be counted on, of being a man that can be a true friend, are universal and go beyond race.

The thing I’ve stressed with our group is that fear and hate are also universal and that no matter who you are or what “group” you belong to, there are always going to be those who have a degree of power and authority over your life that are going to look down upon and even hate you because of the way you look, the way you talk, the things that you believe or, especially for these young men, their age. Lynching and flogging may not be part of their lives but they are still going to be judged and dismissed because of what they appear to be. Their challenge, like those faced by the men in these movies, will still be to live their lives with courage and integrity and not give in to (and live down to) the lower expectations that others might have of them.

If they can do that I am confident that they will have little trouble in extending the consideration to others they meet, even if they appear to be different from them.

There was light, and it was good

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The Mall Diva is interested in just about any movie that features Elijah Wood so awhile back I placed Everything is Illuminated in our Netflix queue. I hadn’t heard of the movie when it came out in 2005, the on-line synopsis didn’t tell me much and the cover art was kind of weird, but I put it on the list and it eventually worked it’s way up and arrived at our house a couple of weeks ago. Last Saturday night my family got around to watching it. Perhaps because the film had come in “under the radar” so to speak, it’s affect was more powerful (at least for me).

The story is simple to summarize: Elijah Wood plays a young, introverted Jewish man obsessed with collecting artifacts of his life and his family’s history. He travels to the Ukraine to try and find the woman who helped his grandfather escape from the Nazis in World War II. He hires an interpreter, Alex, a young man who fancies himself a Ukrainian John Travolta ala Saturday Night Fever, and gets Alex’s grandfather in the package. The grandfather is a bitter, bigoted old man who imagines he is blind (even though he is the driver for the group) and has a demented seeing eye dog named Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr. (yes, two “Jrs.”). The story is essentially a road movie as they search for the lost village of Trachimbord, only this road runs through the nearly deserted Ukrainian country-side and their vehicle is a rattletrap Trabaunt. To say the film is a little quirky is like saying Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow is little swishy — but in both cases this works in a delightfully surprising way.

The film moves at a slow but not heavy-handed pace, “illuminated” by brief, almost surrealistic dialog, comfortable silences, perfect facial expressions, fabulous cinematography and Alex’s distinctive narration. It begins as an off-beat comedy and gradually morphs into an affecting drama. In the same way, you start out thinking the movie is one character’s story and it actually turns out to be another’s. Even the smallest roles are very well acted, leading to memorable scenes that still come back to me unexpectedly several days later.

The story doesn’t have the slam-bang plotting of so many movies today, but it still grips you and draws you in — if only to see what’s going to happen. Because it deals with the events of World War II we know there are going to be elements of tragedy in the story and in what is uncovered, but these are handled deftly without graphic and extended violence. Almost all of this is left to your imagination, and is all the more powerful for it. The story isn’t exactly heart-warming, but it is heart-stirring. I highly recommend it if you’re in the mood for a reflective, well-crafted movie with an extremely satisfying story. The language and some references are a little coarse in a couple of instances but the movie is generally appropriate for the family though it is not likely to resonate very much with younger viewers.

Friday Fundamentals in Film: Gene Kelly

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I’m going to take a little bit of a different approach with this FiF entry in that I’m not going to delve so much into the character themes in a particular movie, but I do want to call your attention to some treasures you might be overlooking.

I was doing some channel surfing the other night and came across Singin’ in the Rain on the Turner Classics channel. It was close to the beginning of the movie and I’d only ever seen snippets of the film, so I put the remote down and the Mall Diva and I settled in to watch. I’ve always liked Gene Kelly’s athletic dancing style and good-guy persona so I expected to enjoy the movie. What I didn’t anticipate was how much the Mall Diva would like it!

The phrase, “they don’t make them like they used to” definitely applies to Singin’ in the Rain and similar movies of that era that used the story mainly to create a link between one singing and dancing number and the next. For that matter, the singing and dancing didn’t even have to have much to go with the movie or the story at all and this is especially true with Singin’ in the Rain (even the title of this movie has very little to do with the story itself; I think it mainly serves to let you know that this is the movie with the great sequence of Gene Kelly dancing down a city street in a rainstorm). That just serves to make the movie even more of a refreshing change of pace from today’s films. Of course, it helps a great deal that the singing and dancing itself is exceptional.


They don’t make them like that anymore — and they don’t need to because they did it right the first time.

Kelly, as I’ve said, is brilliant but SitR also features a young Debbie Reynolds and a truly amazing performance by Donald O’Connor. I didn’t have much of a conception of O’Connor other than his later “Frances the Talking Mule” movies so it was an unexpected delight to see what gifted singer, dancer and physical comedian he was. The Diva and I laughed outloud at several of his antics, especially in his tour-de-force performance of “Make ‘Em Laugh”. While the plot of the movie is a puffy confection, the entertainment value is very high. If you haven’t seen SitR, don’t dismiss it as being an “old” movie; I think you’ll be as delighted in the experience as my daughter and I were.

Also, I referenced Kelly’s good-guy persona earlier. I’ve watched several of his movies and always liked his characters (though they were usually just variations on the same). He always played a decent, honorable guy that you couldn’t help but root for. Also, from what I’ve read about him, it sounds as if Kelly was a decent and stand-up guy in real life as well. One of the pleasures of watching some of these old movies is that they could (and did) feature nice guy heroes without feeling an obligation to add some character flaw to make him “real”. Okay, that may be necessary in dramas, but I can appreciate good schmaltz, too (which reminds me of the “Schmaltz Waltz” number in Kelly’s An American in Paris. In fact, a Gene Kelly trilogy of Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris and Brigadoon would be a nice collection for a film fan’s shelf (tough as it is to leave out Anchors Aweigh or On the Town).

I’m not saying that all old movies are great and all new movies are crap; there’s good and bad in every era. Truly good things, however, transcend eras and hold up. If you want an entertaining and uplifting diversion that leaves you feeling good about yourself and others then I highly recommend these three films.

Do you think Aesop might be Over Their Heads?

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The family watched Over the Hedge the other night. It was amusing enough, but I couldn’t help but notice a certain fable-like quality to the story. I wouldn’t exactly put this movie into the Fundamentals in Film series, I thought I’d share my observations.

If you haven’t seen the movie, the latest animated film from the people who brought us Shrek, it’s the story of a rather amoral raccoon, RJ (voice of Bruce Willis) who’s snack-thieving ways get him in big trouble with a large and implacable bear when he accidentally causes the bear’s food stash to be destroyed. To save himself, RJ must replace everything by a (literal) deadline. While on his quest he comes across a collection of naive woodland animals gently led by a turtle named Vern (Gary Shandling).

Vern and his friends have just awoken from their winter hibernation to find that their forest home has been encircled by a suburban housing development. Initially confused and terrified, they don’t know what to do. RJ, well-acquainted with the appetites and excesses of humans and seeing a way to con the other animals into helping him with his mission, convinces them that the easy life is at hand and all the delicious food they could ever want is literally on their doorstep.

Vern is slow but sensible and doesn’t trust RJ or the new life he promises, even though RJ initially delivers and the other animals are thrilled with the potato chips, cookies and pizza scraps they’ve tasted (“It tastes good, so it must be good for you!”). Vern wants to keep to their old ways and food, but he is ignored and even becomes the butt (literally) of the movie’s humor. The rest of the animals are soon enthusiastically racing through the neighborhood gathering food and following RJ’s directions without knowing his real purpose. Of course, disaster ultimately looms and is narrowly averted but not without everyone learning what is Really Important, blah-bitty blah blah.

I doubt that what I got out of this is what Hollywood intended, but I saw RJ as an allegory of liberal leaders eager to sway the people with goodies, tickling their ears with bright words and stuffing the public’s face with all manner of tantalizing junk to get them to vote with their stomachs while the liberals pursue their unadvertised, self-serving agenda. Vern, on the other hand, is the conservative advocating for the traditional, healthy ways of doing things, even if it’s more work and not as tasty. Just to make the allegory even more realistic, at one point Vern even temporarily gives in and goes along with RJ’s plan, thinking that if so many of the others want it it must be okay. In the end, tradition triumphs and RJ is converted.

Again, that’s probably not exactly the message the movie was trying to send (and someone with a different political view from me might be able to construct his or her own opposite allegory). Overall, though it is a funny and entertaining film that humorously skewers a lot of human foibles by presenting them from the animal’s viewpoint. It’s a little preachy, but well-leavened with physical humor and sight gags and clever references to everything from A Streetcar Named Desire to Pepe LePew. It also steals (RJ might say “borrows”) heavily from the earlier but lesser-known animated film, Hoodwinked (which I also recommend). Rent the movie and I’m sure you and your kids will enjoy it — and if you present it in the right way, they might even learn something, too!

Friday Fundamentals in Film: Secondhand Lions

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Secondhand Lions is both a great addition to this blog series and a well-received film by the young men in our bi-weekly viewing group. The viewing group has largely followed the order of the original class I taught a few years ago while the blog series has gone on to feature additional movies. This week I decided to overlap the two and feature the same movie in both. As such it was a change of pace for the class in that it’s not a war movie or a western, but a comedy. Even the movie makes many important points about honor, honesty and “what a boy needs to know to be a man.”

The story is about a young teenage boy, Walter (Haley Joe Osment), who has grown up without a father – and with a never-ending series of lies from his irresponsible and self-serving mother. In her latest scheme she dumps him for the summer with his eccentric great uncles, Hub (Robert Duval) and Garth (Michael Caine) McCann, about whom many local rumors and legends have circulated about their supposed wealth — and how they came by it. Walter’s mother has two objectives; get some time away without the responsibility of having Walter around, and the hope that Walter might find out where the brothers hide their money.

Garth and Hub don’t appear to be especially upright examples of virtuous men as they live in a poorly maintained house on a remote farm or ranch in the wilds of Texas and their main form of entertainment is taking potshots at the series of opportunistic traveling salesmen that come their way. As the days and nights go on, however, Walter starts to hear an amazing tale of adventure, courage, romance and justice spun out that almost sounds too good to be true, especially after his experiences with his mother. While Walter fears being abaondoned, his uncles (especially Hub) fear becoming useless. While Garth appears willing to settle down and act his age, Hub is still restless for his lost love and not ready to surrender to the expectations of old age. As Garth explains it to Walter, “A man’s body can grow old but the spirit inside of him doesn’t.”

Naturally their fears are mutually answered in each other, especially as Walter gets curious about the mysterious speech Garth says that Hub gives to young men on what they need to know to be good men. It could all get pretty syrupy but for a brisk plot and a series of great scenes that advance the story and message. In particular, the scene were Hub, Garth and Walter stop for barbeque at a roadhouse and have their meal interrupted by a young ruffian and his gang who decide to have a little sport with the “old men.” Viewing the youth as no more of a bother than a mosquito, Hub continues his discussion, telling Garth and Walter:

Here’s a perfect example of what I’ve been talking about. Since this boy was suckling on his momma’s tit, he’s been given everything but discipline. And now his idea of courage and manhood is to get together with a bunch of punk friends and ride around irritating folks too good natured to put a stop to it.

Naturally this means the rumpus is soon on, and the leader of the group asks Hub who he thinks he is. Suddenly taking the young man by the throat, Hub stares down into his eyes and delivers the second-best monologue in the movie:

I’m Hub McCann. I fought in two world wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I’ve led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses to swords to artillery and tanks. I’ve seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I’ve won and lost a dozen fortunes, killed many men and loved only one woman, with a passion a flea like you could never begin to understand. That’s who I am.

After administering a thrashing to the gang Hub brings them back to the farm to tend their wounds and they listen raptly (in sight of, but out of the hearing of, Walter and us) as he ultimately gives them “the speech” that Walter so longs to hear, but is still excluded from hearing. Later, after being confronted by Walter, Hub agrees to give the boy “just a piece” of the speech, promising to deliver the rest when he’s older. The part he shares is the number one monologue in the movie:

Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil. And I want you to remember this, that love…true love…never dies. You remember that, boy. Doesn’t matter if they’re true or not because those are the things worth believing in.

Ultimately Walter’s mother returns, accompanied by an unsavory new boyfriend. When the boyfriend outrageously steps over the line, Walter has to draw upon the seeds of courage and self-respect that have been planted over the past few months to face her (and get her to face herself) as he makes his case that his best hope for the quality of the rest of his life is to stay with his uncles instead of following her to Las Vegas. Since the movie is told as a flashback, Walter obviously stays with his uncles and grows up. We can assume that he ultimately hears the rest of the speech from Hub on “what a boy needs to know to be a man” but this is never shared with the audience except for the excerpt above.

Typically in this series I include a series of questions and points to ponder for readers to consider or share with others. There were some questions I asked the boys last night about the underlying themes of the movie (including some of the plot elements I haven’t covered here), but I think I will leave you with the same “homework” I gave to them. I told them the next time we get together they need to come back to me with at least one thing they think went into the rest of the speech we didn’t hear. If you want to help us out, leave your thoughts in the comments section below.