Movie Review: "True Grit" (2010 version)

Growing up at the tail end of the western movie era, there is something nostalgic for me about watching cowboys and indians or sheriffs and outlaws on the big screen. Some of my favorite television characters were Matt Dillon, Kitty and Festus. When "Silverado" came out in the '80s, I applauded the return of the western genre, but there have been very few westerns made since that time.

So when my husband suggested that we go see "True Grit" this afternoon, I wasn't opposed to the idea, even though "The King's Speech" was the next movie I planned to see. Somehow I missed the original "True Grit" and had the story line confused with "High Noon." I'm glad now that I did not know the story, because it was all fresh and unexpected.

It was one of the best movies I've ever seen. I was there, in that town on the edge of the frontier. I was 14-year-old Mattie, saddling up for an adventure, only mildly aware of the potential dangers ahead.

The story deals with vengeance, redemption, honor, and determination.

All of the acting was superb, especially Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn. Phenomenal! He was completely believable. Matt Damon made an exceptionally fine Texas Ranger. Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross was great, too. All of the minor characters, most of them outlaws, were absoltuely convincing. The casting was perfect.

And the writing was outstanding -- never too much. Sometimes I expected more information, because movies these days tend to spoon feed the audience, but I was pleased that this script did not attempt to explain self-evident details.

I expected the movie to be violent, but it was even more violent than I thought it would be. I also expected it to be suspenseful, and it definitely was. What I did not expect was humor, but it was full of humor as well. Cogburn's ramblings and his frequent squabbles with LaBoeuf were priceless.

When I walked out of the movie theater, I wanted to walk right back in again.

Some Quotes on Life and Writing

Pit your daily determination, discipline, grit, and sense of duty against the debilitating emotions of fear, dread, confusion, and procrastination.
-- Lloyd D. Newell. Oct. 17. 2010 ("Music and the Spoken Word")

There isn't time to talk about someday writing that short story or poem or novel. Slow down now, touch what is around you, and out of care and compassion for each moment and detail, put pen to paper and begin to write. - Natalie Goldberg

Don't quit. It's very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it's very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can't get fired if you don't write, and most of the time you don't get rewarded if you do. But don't quit. - Andre Dubus

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. -- Pablo Picasso

Nothing keeps a poet in his high singing mood like unappeasable hunger for unattainable food. -- Joyce Kilmer

Life began for me when I ceased to admire and began to remember. -- Willa Cather

I am always surprised at what I find in myself, and this to me is the most rewarding part of being a writer. -- Doris Lessing

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top. ~English Professor (Name Unknown), Ohio University

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie

Publication - is the auction of the Mind of Man. ~Emily Dickinson

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. ~Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 19 August 1851

An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere. ~Gustave Flaubert

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted. ~Jules Renard, Journal, 10 April 1895

I do not like to write - I like to have written. ~Gloria Steinem



And one exquisite stanza of a poem by Ezra Pound (not necessarily about writing):


What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross.
What thou lovest well shall not be reft from thee.
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage.

Change the Page...Write About Anything!

Late Sunday night, two stories due for the newspaper tomorrow -- the perfect time to blog. At least that is my M.O.

Anyway, I have one recent quote to share:


Frank Layden , Utah Jazz president, on a former player:
"I asked him, 'Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?'
He said, 'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.'"

Love it! Utah's own Yogi Berra.

Here are some famous Yogi Berra quotes:
As a general comment on baseball: "90% of the game is half mental."[17]
On why he no longer went to Ruggeri's, a St. Louis restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."[18]
"It ain't over till it's over." In July 1973, when Berra's Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the National League East; the Mets rallied to win the division title on the final day of the season.[19]
When giving directions to Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home, which is accessible by two routes: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."[20]
On being the guest of honor at an awards banquet: "Thank you for making this day necessary."[21]
"It's déjà vu all over again". Berra explained that this quote originated when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hit back to back home runs in the Yankees' seasons in the early 1960s.[22]
"You can observe a lot by watching."[23]
"Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours."[24]
Responding to a question about remarks attributed to him that he did not think were his: "I really didn't say everything I said!"[25]
On the death of George Steinbrenner, the New York Times quotes Berra as saying "George and I had our differences, but who didn't?"[26]

Random Thoughts (not procrastinating)

I'm not procrastinating this time -- I'm just relaxing, or chill-axing, as my daughter Emily says.

I think I have one, maybe two actual people out there who read this blog so it's almost a private exercise like writing in a journal. Who can explain the inclination to publicize our thoughts or to eat in restaurants with total strangers or sit in movie theaters with hundreds of people we've never met, laughing and, sometimes, crying together? I can't, except to say that we definitely like being part of a pack, no matter how much we value our individuality (and I certainly value mine.)

So many random thoughts recently with so little time to flesh them out for blog entries.

Full Body Scan vs Intimate Pat Down: Is this really necessary? We all accept a certain amount of risk when we fly, or when we drive down the street, or when we step out the front door. I would be more at ease knowing that they are using El Al interrogation techniques on suspicious individuals than knowing that everyone on the flight has been seen naked or felt out. Neither method will detect items hidden internally. There is no fool-proof method.

When you cross nto the United States from Canada, the border agent asks a series of questions like: What was the purpose of your visit? Did you purchase anything while you were in Canada? etc. On our recent trip, the agent also asked what time our ship was scheduled to depart -- not because he wanted to know, but because he wanted to see if we were really on that ship. He wanted to catch us in a lie, if we were doing anything criminal. Maybe TSA agents could be similarly trained. That's how they do it in Israel, and they've been dealing with jihadists a lot longer than we have. El Al is the world's most secure airline because of its security protocols.

Snow:
Last weekend we had 15 inches of snow overnight with no media fanfare. For the past 24 hours we've been anticipating a major blizzard, which materialized on cue at 5pm and fizzled out (at least temporarily) about midnight after eight inches of accumulation. Now some of the windows in our house have oval frames of snow on them like fake flocking. This is the perfect kind of weather to have just before Thanksgiving because it makes you grateful for basic things like shelter and family and warm socks.

Hair color and the hijab:
I was shopping at Walmart recently and got in line behind a small Muslim family in the express lane. I noticed that the woman was wearing a simple hijab, or hair covering scarf. I could not see even a strand of her hair, so when I noticed what they were buying I was surprised: three boxes of hair coloring product. WOuld I color my hair if no one would ever see it outside of my own household? Probably not, but I admire her for it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Musings While Procrastinating

This is my relatively simplistic cell phone. It has a camera I do not know how to use and very few other features, which is just fine with me.


I have two stories overdue at the newspaper, so you know I am going to blog because I am a terrible, terrible procrastinator!

We had picture perfect weather for a few days last week, but now it is cold and blustery outside. Everything is wet.

I've officially decided that flowering pears are my second favorite trees when all lined up along the edge of a road. All of the roads leading to our house are lined with them. In the spring they're covered wth blossoms and in the fall they're multi-colored oranges and reds blended with green. One medium-sized leaf can be blotched with all three. Gorgeous! Of course maples are stunning and much taller and they bend over the road, while pears grow straight up, so maples would have to be my favorite. (Reminds me of my son, Tom, and how he always used to list for me his favorite foods, especially when food items moved positions. The foods he's always disliked: celery and onions.)

Why does every human being on the planet (myself included) carry a cell phone? I can count on one hand the number of people I know who do not use cell phones, and I admire them. Cell phones are everywhere and not just in pockets or at the bottom of purses (where mine usually is). Who needs to be in constant contact? It reminds me of the "nuclear football" the Secret Service carries around with the president in case the United States should come under attack.

It's like we can't be alone anymore and we won't be inconvenienced. If I want to call you, you must be availabel to talk to me N*O*W!!! My phone was dead this morning and I was momentarily panicked. I plugged it into the electric socket in my van as I ran errands, comforted by the knowledge that it was recharging. When you need a cell phone, you really, really, really need one, but most of the time you simply don't. (My son,Tom, for example, just interrupted this blog post to call me from his cell phone to ask me a minor cooking question.)

And who needs a cell phone / mini-computer / GPS unit all-in-one? My husband does. When he hands me his phone to place I call, I look at it dumbfounded. When he hands it to me to see something on the screen, the image always disappears before I've seen it because I touch some button on the the edge somewhere, or tilt the screen to its side. It drives me crazy! All I can say at such times is "I hate your phone!"

If it were up to me, we would have dials again and cords, just to keep it extra slow and anchored in one place. And when you stepped outside you couldn't hear the phone ring and when you went for a ride in the car you really couldn't hear the phone ring and you were free.

Nothing else to kvetch about...Don't make we focus on my articles! Alas, I must go.

No One Asked My Opinion, But I'm Giving It

Once or twice a year I get to express myself at the ballot box.

I haven't been interviewed by any polsters this election, but I have a lot more than usual to say. On local matters I'll say it all at the polls, but here are some of my stream-of-consciousness opinions (unsolicited) on a variety of other political figures:

on Nancy Pelosi - She SHOULD be ashamed of several things: suggesting that that protesting "Tea Partiers" were wearing swastikas, motivated by racism; linking arms with other Congressmen to march up the Capitol steps through a crowd of angry protestors with an oversized gavel in her hands to pass hugely unpopular welfare reform, a 2000+ page bill no one had read. She did not have to walk up the steps beaming from ear to ear - it was just one more way to demonstrate her power.

on Christine O'Donnell (Delaware senate candidate)-- I believed the early anti-hype about her (her shocking lack of experience, etc.) but when I heard her speak so eloquently and with conviction, I was reassured that she would be a good senator. The polls indicate she will not win.

on Meg Whitman (California gubernatorial candidate) -- A whore? Oh come on! I am extremely impressed with her on every level and can NOT imagine how Jerry Brown could possibly win. He is the west coast version of Joe Biden and a total joke. If Californians are stupid enough to vote for Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown, I hope the federal government will not bail the state out as it continues its inevitable decline. Elections have consequences, as the saying goes.

on Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) and Karen Angle (Nevada senate candidate) -- I'm sure Harry is a fine man, but he's always wrong politically and has to go. Karen Angle has been unfairly criticized becasue she is a normal citizen and not a lifelong political hack. I will admit that when I first heard her interviewed on the radio by Laura Ingraham I was not impressed with some of her positions, but I hope she wins (and I think she will, barring election fraud, which is a very real possibility.)

on Marco Rubio (Florida senate candidate) -- Wow! I heard him speak for the first time a week ago and he is definitely a future presidential candidate. His biography is inspirational all by itself. He should win today.

I hope Obama's senate seat goes to Kirk in Illinois and that all of Ohio goes Republican.

From sea to shining sea, people are justifiably enraged! Thank goodness for midterms!!!!!!

Some Intriguing First Lines from Literature

As a reader, I love a really good first line, because great writing inspires me to read and to write. Here are some celebrated first lines from a variety of novels:

Call me Ishmael. - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. - Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. - George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

I am an invisible man. - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. —Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. - J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. - Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)

Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. - Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605; trans. Edith Grossman)

I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. - Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911)

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. - Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. - W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944)

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. - Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. - Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)