Rent This!!

Last night (our weekly movie night) we rented this film. If you're in the mood for a little light-weight pass time, this is not your movie. But if you are interested in a piece of history - amazing history at that, you've got to see this.

It opens with some actual footage from a dark time in our world's history: Hitler and his awful obsession to obliterate from the earth every last man, woman and child who were of Jewish descent. His despicable SS army, bent on mowing down an entire nation of people, were merciless and seemingly born without a heart.

Now the remarkable part about this movie is that it is a true story. It is based on the book of the same name written by Nechama Tec about four Jewish brothers who escape the Nazis shortly after their parents are massacred on their family farm. The fourth brother is no more than a boy, but the three older brothers assume leadership of a band of Jews who escape the Nazis and fight back from the camps that they build deep within a forest.

This movie will stay with you - probably because the undertaking of leading an eventual 1200 Jews (including children and old folks) to safety from the Nazis was such an amazing feat. The group spent several years in the forest, eventually building a school and other facilities within their hiding place.

It's a violent movie, no doubt about that, as was the time period that was World War II. We probably aren't reminded of this time in history as often as we should be. It was certainly not something we wish to remember except to know that even today such genocide takes place in various parts of the world and we're left to wonder who will stop the carnage. But this era of extermination was probably far worse than anything that's taken place before or since.

To grasp the concept of the snuffing out of six million Jewish lives, think of the entire San Francisco Bay Area. That's roughly the population here. Think of those murdered men, women and children next time you find yourself in a major traffic jam. At a crowded mall at Christmas time. If all of those masses of people stuck on the freeways or crowded into a mall (multiplied hundreds of times over) were lined up and shot (falling into the mass graves they'd been forced to dig themselves) or led into large warehouse-like buildings - thinking they were there for cleansing - but instead were killed by a lethal gas. It gives us some idea of the magnitude of Hitler's atrocities.

And on that last, sad note, I do urge you to rent this movie. It is hauntingly brilliant.

You just can't make this stuff up...

This kind of rainy weather makes movie-watching pretty much guilt free. On Saturday we saw "W" - an Oliver Stone film. It was a REALLY great movie. Love him or hate him, you had to feel for George W. Bush when you see this movie - and let me just say that Josh Brolin NAILED him. As did Richard Dreyfuss with Dick Cheney. Anyway - there were instances during the film when you had to suspend belief because you know that no way did anyone have access to some of those private conversations as they occurred in the movie. But the upshot of the movie's premise was that even as a youth, "W" was a man who could never please his father and forever lived in the shadow of his brother Jeb. In fact, the whole Iraq business is viewed (from the movie's perspective) as another attempt by W to appease his father. If this theory is to be believed, it is an amazing place where we stand today as a country - at war for the better part of 6 years, thousands killed or maimed, the economy in the crapper - and all - again this is if you are buying the movie's premise - to prove to "Poppy" that "Junior" had the stones to take the country to war.

If you are a political junkie (like me) a very good book on the above subject is "Bushworld: Enter at your own risk" by Maureen Dowd. Dowd is a Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist with the New York Times and it's (in my late mother's words) - a HUMDINGER!

Yea for Asia!

On Friday we finally had the opportunity to see a REALLY good film...up for an Oscar and we definitely saw why. This is such a feel good movie, despite the abject poverty the orphans - or slumdogs - exist in -often falling into the hands of unscrupulous gangsters and thugs. This is one movie where you can expect to feel uplifted for having seen it. A truly remarkable story - albeit one that could probably never happen, but still. All the reasons for the character's knowing the answers to the questions given on India's version of "Do you want to be a Millionaire" were laid out, often in painful detail - except the very last question, which he answered correctly for the best reason of all: "Because it was written."

After the movie and then checking out furniture in San Jose at Oakridge Mall's Ethan Allen gallery, we took a short walk next door and had dinner at P.F. Changs. We ordered a wonderful "V.I.P. Duck" as well as my favorite lettuce wraps and our joint favorite, Shrimp with Walnuts. This had a different twist - honeydew melon balls mixed into the dish. Yummmmm-y!

It was a great day despite the stormy weather that blew in and out during the afternoon. It was my kind of way to stay in out of the rain!

Hooray for Holly-weird and other random thoughts

Last night we watched a REALLY straaaaaannge movie...we traditionally watch a Netflix movie on Saturday night and we often don't know what we're getting into. And last night's pick was a doozie. It's called "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (2007) and while it's a hard movie to "recommend" I do have to say that it was incredibly well done. Not that I am attempting to pass myself off as an expert on movie quality, but it captured the western genre as it must have been and not the romanticized version we often see. If I had to sum the movie up in one word, "haunting" probably best describes it. Brad Pitt starred as the outlaw Jesse James and Casey Affleck as the young Bob Ford who first idolized Jesse James and in less than a year after meeting him, murdered him by shooting him in the back of the head.

If movies were rated by the inability to get it out of your head the next day, this one goes way to the top of the list.

I thought of Rob (aka son-in-law #2) after the movie was finished and his comment after seeing "There Will Be Blood," which I had heartily recommended that he and Alyssa see last year. To say he didn't enjoy the movie is a gross understatement; he said something to the effect that "There's two hours of my life that I'll never get back!" I had something of the same response to the movie last night although - repeating myself - I do think it was beautifully made. And the music? Oh, goodness. Let's just say I'm not going to be purchasing the soundtrack anytime soon. It was, you know, kind of hard to dance to...