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October 2018 was a good movie month for us. Maybe for you too. Good movies invigorate me. They enlarge my small world and extend my vision far beyond Victoria. For me it's like flying across the Pond without having to sit for ten hours in a cramped airplane seat. At the same time, good movies shrink the large world and drop it into my lap like a big bag of buttered popcorn. Good movies uplift me as they confirm what is moral and upright. Bad movies would do the opposite, of course. I can tell you that the plush recliner seats at the theaters at Eden Prairie Center are top shelf and much better than the new "plush" seats at the Mall of America theaters. In any case, I recommend the following movies, each of them a true story except the last one. I've always preferred fact over fiction. You can't make this stuff up.
Unbroken: Path to Redemption. We saw the first Unbroken movie back in 2014, about Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who served in World War II and became a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp where he was brutally tortured by "The Bird." This second movie of 2018 tells the rest of Zamperini's story, about getting married, about "The Bird" returning to him in nightmares, and his battle with alcohol. Finally, he hears a message in the preaching of Billy Graham and once again becomes healthy in body and mind. The preacher in the movie is played by Will Graham, grandson of Billy.
Gosnell: America's Biggest Serial Killer. The real Kermit Gosnell is currently serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. He killed babies before they were born and after they were born. He stored dead babies and body parts in a refrigerator. His abortion clinic was a house of horrors and filthy dirty. A young female attorney by the name of Joanne Pescatore dared to take the case in 2013 against him and win it! At first, all of the press seats in the court room were empty because many journalists don't like to tell the real story about abortion. But eventually the facts of the Gosnell case were useful in selling newspapers and so the true story came out. Oh, yes, he also let women suffer and die. How was this Philadelphia "doctor" discovered to be a murderer? Because he ran a pill mill as well as an abortion mill.
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. He landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969. I'm sorry to say it didn't make the biggest impression on my life at the time. I do remember Neil Armstrong's words, however: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I remember thinking it was a rehearsed phrase, certainly not spontaneous, and not original to himself. So much for a girl on her way to graduate school at the University of Hawaii. In the October 2018 movie we get to know Neil Armstrong as a family man, a husband and father. Did you know he had a little baby girl, named Karen, who died just before her third birthday? He was terribly grief stricken and memories of his little daughter are always with him, including when he lands on the moon and releases a little bracelet, with Karen's name on it, into space where no gravity holds it down. Ryan Gosling, whom I love from The Notebook, played Neil Armstrong.
The Last Samurai. I know this is an old movie from 2003, but I only happened upon it in October 2018, accidentally, on one of my TV movie channels. I could hardly get my work done with it going in the background. Tom Cruise plays a U.S. army captain captured by the Japanese in the late 1800's. It's based on realities of the day, so maybe closer to truth than fiction. I was particularly impressed how Tom Cruise's character, Captain Algren, and Katsumoto, a leader of the Samurai, became friends. Despite their tremendous cultural differences, and that they were enemies at war, they developed a respect for each other. Captain Algren also came to respect the Japanese culture and returned at the end of the conflict to be with Taka, a sister in law of Katsumoto, whom he had come to love.
Cinderella. I don't know why this 2015 Disney movie was playing at theaters in October 2018 but there it was and there we were with family. The movie is better with real people rather than the animated version. Lily James is Cinderella. I remember her from Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (the 2018 movie we saw in July) and Darkest Hour, the 2017 movie featuring Winston Churchill. I love Cinderella, who often recalled the advice of her dying mother: "Have courage and be kind." After the prince finds Cinderella, and together they leave the clutches of the wicked stepmother, Cinderella turns to look into the eyes of the stepmother and says, "I forgive you." We need more of that in the world, including in Victoria. We need to have courage and be kind. ~Sue |
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From the Editor |
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Dedicated to the sunshine of truth, the moonshine of meeting deadlines, and the starshine of Victoria. |
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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Sue’s Album A symphony of photos and fewer than a thousand words at www.VictoriaGazette.com |
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November 2018 |
