Godfather.

In our string of movie watches, we've recently watched Rebel Without a Cause, The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather, and The Godfather, Part II.

Now, I hear Part III of The Godfather is not worth watching, so I'm not necessarily going to rent it unless someone would recommend it. As for the first two Godfather movies, both were very good and yet excessively long. It appeared to me that the first was more of a traditional, gunning down kind of Mafia flick, whereas the second was much more vindictive, insidious, two-faced kind of conflict. We always spotted when oranges would pop up in the movie, knowing that shortly after someone was going to die. (I was unaware of this connection before Trevor mentioned it... they appear A LOT in the second movie.)

We had an interesting discussion after Rebel, wondering, why is he without a cause? To me, he seemed to be the only character without an agenda, he was just having to react to his surroundings.

We have The Grapes of Wrath on hand... I'm hoping the movie is better than the book... I had to read that book twice and the first time, as an 8th grader, was painful enough to sort of scar me for a while from reading any more Steinbeck. I have subsequently read Of Mice and Men, and I hear that East of Eden is good, but it hasn't exactly topped my must-read list...

movie update. reflections on life in the wild vs society

my quick movie update.

the newest have included:
It Happened One Night - this one I found to be hilarious. A different kind of humor being a movie made decades ago, but very enjoyable.
Sunset Boulevard - a second viewing, a bit Citizen-Kane-ish mixed with Dickens.

I also watched for the first time Into the Wild. Now that is one incredible movie. Depressing and beautiful at the same time. Cinematography... amazing. I highly recommend it... a good movie to think about the lure of a simple life, away from society and all its ugly trappings of competition, money, materialism, consumerism, corporate ladder climbing, bureaucracy, image, familial expectations, and gluttony of everything cheap and worthless...
This simple life is found in solitude, simplicity, and being in the wild of nature...

and yet it's incomplete. The need for community is still there... man is not meant to be alone.

My goal is to live a life in community with others, to enjoy the shared experiences, while boycotting everything ugly that is (occasionally or often, I suppose it depends on your perspective and experience) found in society - the love of money, little regard for the effect our choices have on our world, and little regard for the fragility of the human soul... there needs to be more simplicity, communality, gentleness and love...

I watched this movie with a few friends, two of whom up my hippie cred by their presence around me... and a week ago, we built a compost bin for their yard together. Community + Earth Consciousness + Holy Spirit = Doing Good Things Together with the Love of Christ. YEA!

comings and goings.

My dear friend Anya from Belarus left yesterday and Lord-willing arrived safely in Kiev, Ukraine about 2 hours ago. We had such a wonderful summer together. I took her to some neat places, most in Kentucky, which included the following highlights... (I recommend checking out every place listed below if you find yourself in the area!)

-The Historic Kentucky Theatre
-The Lexington Farmer's Market
-Shakertown
-Poor Richard's
-Keeneland
-Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge
-Miguel's at the Gorge
-Laurel Lake
-Natasha's Cafe
-Common Grounds
-Alfalfa's
-Henderson State Park in Destin, FL
-The Track in Destin
-Fudpucker's in Destin
-Costa's BBQ in Birmingham, AL
-The Jam House in Scottsville, KY (owned by Mennonites, so they're not on the internet)

As for our movie list, here are the newest additions:

-Lawrence of Arabia
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-The Philadelphia Story (seen in the Historic KY theater!)
-The Graduate
-Singin' in the Rain

I can recommend them all... the cinematography of LoA was amazing... fascinating story.

My apartment is quiet and a bit lonely now without her. I tried to explain to Alyosha that Anya left but he gave me a blank sad puppy dog look of incomprehension...

AFI Top 100

A few summers ago, Lauren and I started to tackle AFI's Top 100 movies. We used this list from 1998 and were starting to take a chunk of it. We took in movies like:
-Goodfellas
-All About Eve
-Annie Hall
-The Godfather
-Taxi Driver

Now, several years later, my Belarusian friend Anya was eager to watch classic American films... so I have now picked up the AFI Top 100 list and we are tackling many of them thanks to an unlimited monthly rental subscription through the mail. I'll be keeping track of the new movies in the sidebar. So far, we have watched:

-Psycho
-Midnight Cowboy
-Tootsie
-Chinatown
-North by Northwest
-Casablanca
-Citizen Kane
-Some Like It Hot
-Bonnie and Clyde
-The Wizard of Oz
-Doctor Zhivago

I'm also hoping to hit the ones that made the revised 2007 list.

Anyone have favorites on the list? Favorites *not* on the list? Leave it in the comments!