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What was nutty was that the movie folk were trafficking in illusions in a real world but the real world thought that its reality could only be found in the illusions. Two sets of maniacs.

—Lancelot

Apparently, in 1995 the Vatican composed a list of 45 "great films." Who knew they were into movies? Two of my favorites made the list: It's a Wonderful LIfe and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Fans of Mickey Mouse will be pleased to note that Fantasia also made the list.

A few weeks ago I reviewed Revolutionary Road, an absolutely rotten movie about the "meaninglessness and hopelessness" of ordinary life. A few nights ago I again watched It's a Wonderful Life which also deals with the meaninglessness and hopelessness of ordinary life yet stands in stark contrast to the aforementioned movie which will not be named—ever again.

In much the same way as the characters in that other movie, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) cannot seem to "shake of the dust of this crummy old town" and escape his perfectly ordinary life. Something always stands in his way: handling the business after the death of his father, marrying the woman he loves, giving his own money to the people who need it and forsaking his honeymoon, etc. Yet he longs for something different; he tells his soon-to-be wife that he doesn't want to get married, ever, to anyone: "I wanna do what I wanna do."

But, unlike the characters in that other movie, George's struggle is opposite theirs. The characters in that other movie struggle to satisfy their own egos, the rest of the world be damned. George struggles against his ego for the sake of others and finds out in the end just how much good one ordinary man can do for those around him when he simply does the right thing regardless of the cost to himself. Sounds a bit similar to this first-century Jewish guy I heard about once who wanted the cup to pass from his own lips but did the right thing anyway.

(Hat tip: Eric Sammons)

Over the weekend I saw Revolutionary Road and it is quite possibly the worst movie of all time. Even though the cast was the same as in Titanic, Revolutionary Road was a far worse movie. In Titanic, Kathy Bates played the Unsinkable Molly Brown, but in this case she helped sink Revolutionary Road. Some movies start bad and get worse as they go, but there is typically a limit to their badness. In this case there is no limit to the badness.

I shall put it in mathematical terms: Let b(x) be a function of the badness of a movie. As each minute, m, of the movie Revolutionary Road, R, goes by, the limit of the movie's badness approaches infinity:

I would describe the plot but there was none to be found. Neither were there any interesting characters. In addition to these shortcomings, the bad acting and silly dialogue only compounded the badness of the movie.

The core of its badness, however, lies not in the bad acting or silly dialogue, nor even the lack of a plot, but rather in the whining characters who lament their ordinary lives, yell at each other about how they hate their ordinary lives, and have adulterous affairs and abortions to compensate for their misery. I tolerated these characters for an hour and a half, waiting for something to happen. I complained bitterly and Angie suggested that we turn it off, but with only twenty-eight minutes to go I was committed to see the end. For waiting to see the end I should be committed.

Put simply, there was nothing revolutionary about Revolutionary Road. Its theme has shown up in countless movies over the years. The characters believe that they are special in some way and will one day rise above the "meaninglessness and hopelessness" of suburban life, as Leonardo DiCaprio's character put it. In the end, however, the characters turn out to be perfectly ordinary. In that sense, I suppose the movie is revolutionary as the characters make a full three hundred sixty-degree revolution starting from ordinariness, through a belief that they are extraordinary, then to a realization that they are ordinary.

Revolutionary Road is not director Sam Mendes's first foray into the meaninglessness and hopelessness of ordinary life. His feature film directorial debut was American Beauty which, unlike Revolutionary Road, had a plot and decent acting. American Beauty follows the same ordinary-is-bad-and-we-should-rise-above-it theme, and at one point, Mena Suvari's character quips that "there is nothing worse than being ordinary." The blurb from IMBD sums up the theme of these movies fairly well: "Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend." The major difference in American Beauty, apart from the presence of a plot and the decent acting, is that there are no abortions but rather an attempt at statutory rape in order to escape the confines of suburbia.

Ten years ago I would have said that American Beauty was an inspiring film. I would have said it because I believed the myth that the ordinary is repressive. But what would it have inspired me to do? Have an affair with a real estate agent? Blackmail my boss for a year's salary, go to work at a fast food joint, then attempt to seduce my teenage daughter's friend? Move to New York and live on the street with drug dealers? Have a closet homosexual shoot me in the back of the head? In hindsight, none of this is terribly inspiring. What exactly was I thinking?

I have no idea what I would have thought of Revolutionary Road ten years ago; I may actually have liked it. But ten years of real life, being a husband, and fatherhood change one's perspective. I like this kind of movie less and less all the time.

I like these movies less and less and I like the ordinary more and more. Embracing the ordinary, instead of resenting it, I am free to find pleasure in very many things instead of being miserably bound to only one thing, namely hating everything ordinary. For the sake of argument let us consider a good steak. A steak is a very ordinary thing, simply a piece of a cow. If one does not embrace the ordinary he cannot enjoy the steak. In fact he must not eat the steak and instead must fight like hell to avoid eating it perhaps, if we are to follow the examples in our aforementioned movies, by committing adultery or seducing a teenage girl. Why not save yourself the trouble and instead stay with the woman you married and act like a grown man should toward teenage girls? This way you can have your steak and eat it too. Living without steak is not a life I care to imagine. To find contentment in the steak, that is, in the ordinary, is the thing that is truly revolutionary and beautiful.

Other than Paint Your Wagon, has Eastwood ever made a bad movie?

I saw Gran Torino last night, and it has got to be the best movie I have seen in a couple of years. It is as good as Unforgiven and maybe better, which I do not say lightly.

For me, the climax of the movie is Eastwood's line, "You know, Thao and Su are never going to find peace in this world as long as that gang's around." The priest then asks, "What are you gonna do, Walt?" Walt replies, "Whatever it is, they won't have a chance."

Despite the violence, foul language and racial slurs, it is, much like Flannery O'Connor's work, loaded with Christian themes, namely Our Lord's example of "no greater love." Ultimately, Walt becomes a messianic figure who overcomes the gang and gives Thao and Su an opportunity for peace.

Awesome movie.

I've been wanting to write something in Spanish just for fun. Though I'm not very good with the language I have made the following lame attempt. If you don't speak Spanish, read my translation and those of Google and Babelfish in parallel. My apologies to native speakers for grammatical errors or just generally sounding stupid.

Me gusta mucho mirar peliculas y creo es muy importante para mirarlos. Yo aprendo mucho cuando miro peliculas. Por ejemplo, aprendí un poco español cuando miré Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Butch y Sundance son bandidos de los Estados Unidos que van a Bolivia para escaparse la policía. Entonces para robarles a bancos, ellos deben aprender español.

Los bandidos aprenden muchas frases españoles, por ejemplo «¡Esto es un robo!» y «¡Manos arriba!». Pero, los dos no hablan bien el español así que deben leer sus frases de un papel. Butch lee del papel pero Sundance toma corregir los errors de Butch. Él le dice a Sundance en inglés «¡You're so damn smart, you read it!»

Despues de Butch y Sundance roban a muchos bancos, la policía boliviana los llama «Bandidos Yanquis». Ellos otra vez deben escaparse la policía así que conseguen trabajos legales. Irónicamente ellos se hacen guardias de el dinero por la nómina de una mina de oro. Cuando Butch y Sundance traeniendo el dinero de La Paz a la mina, ¡otros bandidos bolivianos roban a ellos! Butch les dice a los bandidos bolivianos «El dinero no es nuestro» pero un bandido boliviano le dice a Butch que el dinero ahora es suyos.

Así que si quieres aprender mucho, mira peliculas. Si quieres aprender español, mira Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Because I am currently swamped with writing for school so have no time to give form to any blog-worthy ideas I currently have yet feel the need to publish something more often than Shannon, I offer this as a follow-up to an entry I published in mid-October.

Last night I watched Into Great Silence (Die große Stille in German (the English title isn't quite a literal translation)) on EWTN. This documentary gives us a rare glimpse of life inside la Grande Chartreuse, one of the largest monasteries of the Carthusian order. The Carthusians are one of the more ascetic orders, and consequently there was very little dialogue. I am impressed by their dedication to silence, chastity, and poverty. Sometimes I think that, if I were not married, that I could live the monastic life. To dedicate the entire day to prayer and service is a beautiful vocation. However, a look at their schedule convinces me that the monastic life is probably not for me. But, I now have a deeper respect for the men and women who can devote themselves to God in a much more complete way than the laity. It's definitely worth a watch.

Nights when I have trouble going to sleep I watch movies from my DVD collection, mainly because TV sucks so bad. I watch old favorites mostly—The Great Escape, The Caine Mutiny, Better Off Dead, Apollo 13. But last night was The Right Stuff. It put me to sleep long before Yeager broke the sound barrier. I woke up during John Glen's historic earth orbit and went to bed. But no matter how much of the movie I miss, I always manage to stay awake through the greatest movie narration of all time:

There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. The demon lived beyond a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it "the sound barrier."

Then they built a small plane, the X1, to try and break the sound barrier. And men came to the high desert of California to ride it. They were called test pilots. And no one knew their names.