[click image, full length movie].
I got a call tonight from one of my Tea Party Christian friends, my second cousin, clear down on the complete opposite end of this state from me. When I told her I thought I was about as good as anyone could be in times like these, she said, "You know, wouldn't it be nice to just let all those Republicans and Democrats just fight each other to death so we could have a decent world?" That's all we said about politics.
We talked about heart things, about families, about loss, about love, about health. I told her about how much it hurts not to be able to go be with my dad... the whole story. We talked about our long gone and beloved Uncle Cliffy. We talked about her Bible group meetings. We talked about smoking cigarettes and having cocktails on the back porch. Before she hung up she told me in no uncertain terms that she was mailing me a check in the morning and I am to use it to go spend a couple weeks with my father. "It's not a loan. I want this for you. I want it for your father. You just start packing your bags and get down there."
People aren't caricatures. They aren't cartoons.
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I hadn't read the book, so when I saw this version of the film coming on a couple of months ago I sat down to watch it. The title was vaguely familiar, but I was confused by the plot line when it started. I was thinking it was about politics etc. Then I realized the movie I was thinking of was The Mouse that Roared.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I enjoyed the movie greatly and watched it again this past weekend, so it was ironic that right after watching the second time I stumbled across the /slashcontrol movie site and it was top billing.
Except for some hamming up of the archetypes that I don't even remember Steinbeck being THAT over the top with, that was seriously, seriously well done. Think of Malkovitch in Dangerous Liaisons and contrast with him in this. Fucking awesome.
ReplyDeleteMalkovich was good in it, but it's such a great role. My favorite Lennie is, I think, Randy Quaid (opposite Robert Blake's George). His portrayal made me cry.
ReplyDeleteRandy Quaid is a transcendentally good actor. He yanks my esophagus out of my throat every time. He is a RADICALLY better actor than his brother, the supposedly cute one, and so is radically more attractive to me than his cute brother.
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