This is Not a Hallmark Christmas – Christmas in Baltimore
So this is Christmas? This holiday season I submit for your approval Barry Levinson’s first theatrical release: Diner. The film’s events occur between Christmas night and New Year’s Eve in 1959. Yes, many of the characters are Jewish. Like Trading Places and Die Hard, Christmas serves as the backdrop to all that occurs. Plus, there’s a scene in a manger. So there! Diner operates on many levels as a nostalgic period piece, comedy, coming-of-age drama and hang-out film. It’s more than just a dialog-heavy “guy film” of all-night bull sessions with French fries and gravy. While it certainly earns its R rating, it is not Porky’s.
Diner was released in 1982 and the ensemble cast is full of young actors on the cusp of stardom. It stars Steve Guttenberg as Eddie, Mickey Rourke as Boogie, Kevin Bacon as Fenwick, Daniel Stern as Shrevie, Ellen Barkin as Shrevie’s wife Beth, Tim Daly as Billy and Paul Reiser as…Paul Reiser. Oh, sorry, I mean Modell. The principal characters are all college-age friends struggling to enter adulthood and be better men. Billy is returning home to Baltimore from graduate school for the holiday and Eddie’s impending wedding. The wedding is the primary storyline for the movie, but along the way, we hang out with them at home, the pool hall, the movies, their jobs, and the diner. We get to know them, their relationships, dreams and doubts as they enter adulthood. As scripted, the characters are already well drawn, but the actors bring so much more to their roles as they work off each other. The performances are consistently solid.
Do you know of Angel Studios?
If you don’t, they are a new independent (of Hollywood) Studio. New in the sense that they haven’t been around since before WWII. They are the studios producing uplifting and encouraging films and series, such as The Chosen, Sound of Freedom, and Sound of Hope. They are a Christian-based business, so other than content necessary to depict the horror of real events, their content should be safe for children of all ages.
They have released seven films already, and two more are due in theaters by the end of the year. They also have a barrage of stand-up concerts under the label “Dry Bar Comedy.” They top it off with several series, some live-action, some animated, for children.
A Perfect Little Movie: “That’ll Do, Pig.” And Its Wallace Statue Counterpart in Stirling Scotland.
The year was 1995, and the late Mr. She and I had just been to see one of the very few movies I’ve ever designated as “perfect.” By that time, we’d been living on our small farm in the country for nine years, and the movie was Babe. (Not the 1992 movie about the baseball player starring the late John Goodman; rather, the one with the pig.)
Thistle Mean Something
From time to time, I’ll check out some YouTube videos of Gen Zers and Millennials who react to movies for the first time. Generally, they react to jump scares, sad moments, or plot twists from films like Jaws, Alien, Vertigo, Schindler’s List—what have you—like any other human being would. Sometimes they seem to be confounded by revelations or plots that are more complex…as we all sometimes are. And sometimes they simply don’t catch obvious symbolism when it’s presented because many of the reviewers may not have been very good students of history, may not have a good deal of life experience, haven’t traveled, or feel it’s more important to display action figures and plush toys on their bookshelves rather than say… books.
One seemingly universal response from the movie reactors is the moment in Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart” when young William Wallace loses his father and brother who have been killed by the English. At the funeral, a young girl, later in the film to be Wallace’s wife, presents young William with a thistle. In just about every instance, the movie reactors on YouTube respond with an “Ah…isn’t that sweet?” or “She’s giving him a flower.”
Cinerama: Winning the West
How The West Was Won couldn’t be made today in its original form, either technically or creatively. That’s a shame. It’s not like America was in a state of perfect harmony in 1962, but we were a proud, confident nation back then. With breathtaking Cinerama photography, audiences saw primordial America as a natural paradise. Small bands of native tribesmen and white traders were a modest burden on that land. As the timeline progresses (roughly 1835-’85) there’s awe for the thrilling struggles and physical achievements of the settlers and our young nation. Yet there’s also a sad nobility about the defeat of the native American that’s not sugary, not faked; it came from the heart of a nation that was mature enough to understand both sides of history’s truth.
That both-sides attitude would be almost inconceivable in today’s culture. This was 1962, so to be sure, it was slightly liberal for its day. Hollywood was going through one of its periodic (justified) fits of conscience about being “fair to the Indians”. By today’s standards, this epic falls far, far short of that standard. But by the standards of its time, it depicts the inevitable, tragic parts of the conquest of the American west in terms that seemed fair for ‘62, a step forward for Hollywood’s standards of historical honesty.
Sharpe’s Eagle–The Battle of Talavera
It was the first of Bernard Cornwell’s “Richard Sharpe” novels to be published, although it ended up, over the decades, being eighth in the chronological order of our hero’s history.
It was set in July of 1809, amidst the Battle of Talavera, an iconic bookmark during the Peninsular War between the Napoleonic armies and those of Britain, Spain, and Portugal.
I cannot recommend the ITV “Sharpe” series highly enough. (You can begin your adventure on Amazon, here.) Yes, the production values are dated, and sometimes pretty crummy. But the episodes have so much “heart” that such quibbles seem petty, if not downright irrelevant.
Emily Litella America
The incomparable Gilda Radner played a character, Emily Litella (1975-1979), on Saturday Night Live back in the day when it was funny. The character would provide commentary on the news of the day as she heard it. The problem was that she was hard of hearing. Thus she would rant on and on about something for awhile until the news anchor corrected her over what the story was actually about. Having been corrected, Emily would invariably say, “Oh…that’s different. Never mind.”
Here is a sample of the various topics she misheard:
