I plan on watching #86, Mutiny on the Bounty, later this evening. It’s kind of intimidating, what with being 3 hours and all…
Duck Soup. When I showed it to my dad–who is a fan of the “Ernest” movies–he laughed and said, “You’ll be begging for an Ernest movie by the time it’s over.” He wasn’t completely right, but it truly wasn’t the type of comedy I like. The plays on words grew predictable and old after a while, and again, I found the lack of a musical score to be disconcerting. I’m sure there was supposed to be some grand political allegory beneath all the gags, but I didn’t try to decipher it. At least now I can say I’ve seen a Marx Brothers’ movie.
Not to neglect current movies, I watched “Saints and Soldiers” today. I remember after it had finished filming, there was some controversy over the rating, because the MPAA wanted to give it an R rating. For most people, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but for its intended audience–the LDS population–it was huge. It is definitely a war movie, complete with the unease and gore factor just a couple notches below “Saving Private Ryan”. While it was made and distributed by and LDS film company, it stays away from explicit moralizing and LDS-specific themes. If you know that LDS folk tend to leave home for a couple years and serve missions, then you are on the same playing field as the rest of us with this movie. Zero cussing, zero sex scenes, but still portrays the moral dilemmas wars tend to present.
