....and the winner is...
The last couple of entries. Have. Incorporated some of my favorite or at least some popular movie quotes. When I tried to bend the message to fit in a line it seemed to come out sort of lame from time to time. Truth be told if prizes were. Given for this sort of things there are times when I could have been a contender—but probably. Not this week. In a perfect universe or in a galaxy far far away these. Cute. Little things always work out heaven but. Is this heaven? No it’s Iowa or a mindset that. Ggrew up there and lived there for half a century.
Anyway getting to today...It’s a Thursday and in honor of. The little segments when the movie people get their award and. Give a. Little. Speech...it’s “Thank You Thursday. In keeping with. This notion I thought I’d say thank you to the folks (and the messages in five of my favorite. Films of All time. When I started to narrow down my list it became evident that this was. Going to be hard because my list changes depending upon my mood...I almost gave up, but did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
So Starting at number 5...
JAWS
Who doesn’t like a good fish story? Well given the fact that. The Old Man. And the Sea is one of my favorite. Books, it. Probably goes to reason that.Jaws in on my list. The ideas in this movie that are keys in finding or seeking peace and joy and strike me are the idea that ego and money will often warp our sense of what does and does not constitute the “public good.” The mayor really believed for a moment or two threat he was doing. What was best for the people in his community especially the economic welfare. A second theme was that of an unlikely crew getting together to try to save the day. The “drinking” scene showed how people can eventually. Come together but there is always some sort of posturing involved and in terms of peace and joy it is sometimes necessary to recognize that and either account for it or ignore it. Of course there. We’re some humorous moments including pulling a license plate out of a shark’s gut and determining it might have. Come up from a gulf state. finally the survivors ended up humbly using barrels to kick their way back toward shore. The movie didn’t end with.a hero having a parade. If you are seeking a parade...well...peace and joy are probably. Going to be elusive.
Number. 4.
STAR WARS
Which One? The concept mostly. The first one was this quirky little zen cowboy in space love story and since it had this. Focus on a spiritual power (the force) it fed my sense of inner strength and that’s always a big thing for me in the movie arena. The family dynamics in the movie were interesting and the Campbell/Ericksonian psychological themes were very well demonstrated. Again the inner war and the outer. War and the methods of influencing the situation were the most critical elements and the special effects for the time were of course fabulous...Oh and one more thing about Jaws and Star Wars...the dramatic music was of course priceless.
The Top Three...now is when it gets tough because like. I said. These things are so mood dependent. Here are some that didn’t make the top five...but would appear on the list sometimes.
Caddy Shack
The Blues Brothers
It’s a Wonderful Life
Forrest Gump
A Few. Good Men
The. Quick and the Dead
TheWizzard ofOz
Ghost Busters
Back to the Future
Cool HandLuke
And there are a few more
Now back to my list.
Number. Three
The Princess Bride...
It’s a story. Within a story and life is often just that way... a story within a story. It’s a boy meets girl boy connects with. Girl boy loses girl. And then boy almost doesn’t get girl but does in the end love story.... The sarcastic sense of humor. Displayed throughout reminds me that seeking peace and joy often means poking a. Little fun at conventional wisdom or at least reframing. It and keeping a sense of humor is critical. Again, an unlikely band of heroes saves the days and the fact that they were respectful foes at one point and then ended up working together to avenge injustices also makes me smile. The grandfather reading to the grandson is a wonderful inner generational touch and the fact that there was a noticeable.change in the. Little. Boy about relationships (okay mostly kissing) was pretty well done and of course that because this was a fairy tale sort of the happy ending was nice. One asapect of the film that I believe gets missed is the treatment of the whole. Dread. Pirate. Roberts “swap.” What. A nice way to point out that it is so often what really. Exists that people get to know and understand. It is the appearance that counts.
Number Two
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Well you’d better get busy living or get busy dying.... okayI do like the idea that we need to pursue peace and joy and collect positive experiences as often as possible. In this film we once again have one of my favorite themes. We have. External barriers to choice and moving forward, however. Brewing. Below the surface “freedom and hope are internal and need to be self-directed—again much like peace and joy these are only things your internal compass can point you toward. The injustice in our systems and the redemption or payback of course is appealing to my sense of fairness. Red (the man who can get things) realizes that. His learned skill. Of using the prison system has made it hard to work in. The ‘free world.” The movie also shows us how willing some folks are to exercise power over others. Hard work and patience is rewarded in this movie in several scenes and in the lives of many characters. The symbolic nature of crawling through a sewer adds to the joy felt by those cheering on Andy and reminded me that often some really uncomfortable. Stuff happens right as you reach another stage or part of your growth.
AND MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME...
If you spent much time. Reading this blog you know. Certain things. My favorite bat as a kid wasn’t named.Rosebud, however I do have a thing for baseball and I am from Iowa. I undersatand farming and family dynamics around farming. I went to a school where some books were “banned” and so... of course the winner is..
FIELD OF DREAMS
Baseball is a complex and intricate game that takes specific skills to play very well and yet its a backyard sport that almost anyone can play at some level. There are individual battles between pitchers and batters and the batter stands alone against a whole field of folks much. Like we do in life sometimes when we deal with complex situations that are changing constantly. There is a lot of failure in baseball, yet at the end of a game someone has “won” and it’s. Not a player it is a team. Oh and I’m just getting started.
The movie is about a guy that wanted to make. Amends with his father who loved baseball, but never got the chance to see how much his son really. Loved. The game. The plot was about making something happen because you believe in it no matter. What. Others may choose to. Believe. The James Earl Jones speech about Howe baseball has been a constant in our country and how people will come always strike me as beautiful because he is telling his new friend Ray that he has backed the right horse and reminds all the witnesses that Americans have belie3ved in the sanctity of the sport for a very long time. Ray, the farmer,son, baseball nut is rewarded for his beliefs and yet misses the point until.Shoeless Joe Jackson asks “did you build this for you? That reminds me that a lot of good deeds get done. Because the doer wants to be seen as doing good things not because they are something that matters to our fellow man (or in this case the ghost of a missed parent). Finally...and you really have to watch these films. Because I don’t do them justice here...the simplest aspect of the game—playing catch— as a bonding experience between father and son becomes a perfect final scene becauseit’s a baseball thing anyone can do with any other person but you can’t really do it by yourself. Maybe that’s something we overlook from time to time. There is not much we can do without connection with others and one of us has to believe in that strongly enough to make it happen and invite the others to join in.... but not Ty Cobb.
Well...to summarize I want to thank you all for reading this far down and. I want to thank all the writers, directors, popcorn makers, actors and whoever attempts to clean. the sticky stuff off the theater. Floors for giving us these and all the other films you love. Creating our own realities is. Hard work and. Sometimes we need to spend an hour or two in someone else’s. Reality to gather the strength to keep at it... However, rest assured that if you work. For an environment where. Peace and joy. Are pursued and. Prized—well if you build it. People will come yes if you build it they will come.
Look for a podcast tomorrow at
Or go ahead check it out today and come back tomorrow for more new content LOL
No comments:
Post a Comment