Half of the Brain :
the place all those random thoughts that flit through my head each day go to die

lowbrow chow
im just a movie nut-- sometimes i like the artsy, indie flicks. sometimes i'm partial to those brainless hollywood blockbusters or canned, formulaic comedies; then of course there's all those 80's classiscs.

my DVD collection is growing to beyond epic proportions-- there is, however, a short list of those films that I can watch over and over-- the films I grade papers to, or transcribe notes to, sometimes I even write to them because they are so familiar by now they blend into the background.

Moulin Rouge
Pulp Fiction
The Rookie
Shawshank Redemption
Apollo 13
(don't laugh) Varsity Blues
(don't laugh even harder) A Few Good Men

the current film on the box is Moulin Rouge and-- as the elephant love-medley scene winds down--it strikes me that in it's own way it's a combination of those artsy indie flicks, canned hollywood formulas, and 80s classics. But beyond that I'm trying to figure out why the films on my forever list are there... hmmmm

Apollo 13 is easy-- I've always been a space nut. I even like the bad space movies. But then you put together a good space movie with Howard at the helm and Hanks, Sinise, and Bacon in front of the camera, how could it miss. But I think what really gets me about 13 is "the deep blue hero shit" (that's the phrasing that Owen Wilson's character in Armageddon uses to characterize their save-the-world- mission). But more engaging is the fact that despite the hollywoodized storytelling, the Apollo 13 events happened. What's the catch phrase... ordinary people doing extraordinary things?. I see it every day and most extraordinary people don't get movies made about them, but those everyday stories are just as inspiring.

A Few Good Men is on the list because of my "Few Good Men Theory"-- D and Me and all situations, summed up more or less (metaphorically, of course) by scenes from AFGM-- "Does Aunt Ginny have a barn? Maybe we could hold the trial there. I'll sew the costumes and maybe Uncle Goober can be the judge. " " You don't want the truth because, deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall." "What I do want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform and with your Harvard mouth extend me some fucking courtesy" "You and Dawson, you both live in the same dreamworld! It doesn't matter what I believe. It only matters what I can prove! So don't tell me what I know, or don't know! I know the LAW! " "You can't handle the truth!" "My client's a moron, that's not against the law." "Dave, Sherby doesn't think the Navy hangs people from yardarms anymore." "Well, sir, like everybody else, I just followed the crowd at chow time, sir. " "You gotta trust me, Sherby. You keep your eyes open, your chances of catching the ball increase by a factor of ten."


with Moulin Rouge, I'll be honest, it's Ewan McGregor's voice-- I am not an auditory person, but that singing voice though not particularly technical hits a chord with me, but beyond the voice. . . it occurs to me that the one thing that my list of films have in common is some central sentiment. In Shawshank Redemption its friendship, faith and perseverence and yes, I'm still bitter that Forrest Gump got the best picture nod that year. Varsity Blues--trusting in the idealism of youth. In the Rookie it's the recapturing some of that youthful idealism. In Pulp Fiction it's the metamorphises of the characters and their compelling, "everyman" natures even though most of us will never know anyone as overthetop as Travolta, Jackson, Thurman, and Willis in that movie.