# 70 A Clockwork Orange

I found the book to be fascinating when I read it two summers ago. When I first saw the movie at 18, I couldn't get through that scene (that has repeatedly been praised as a display of Kubrick's brilliance) where Alex is joyously crooning "Singing in the Rain," while a woman is being gang raped in front of her husband by Alex and his gang. Perhaps now that it has been 6 years I have either grown darker, more accustomed or numb to all the bad shit in this world or maybe I'm better at recognizing themes and how the shock value of certain things can better show those themes than simply talking about it. Is Alex psychologically ill, a lost cause or a promotion of anarchy? Is he curable? Was the government right in trying to make bad deeds repulsive to him or were they taking away his free will? When he "recovered" will he be able to control his urges and simply suppress them like we all do when we have bad thoughts? Or will he go back to his own ways? Is Alex a reflection of the "young people" of the world or how the young people will become as this planet evolves into a place where freedom has grown to become a blessing but also a curse in some instances? Something that is able to raise this many questions is a winner in my book because then it has become more than a book or a movie, it has become a real work of art. While I doubt I would be able to sit a watch A Clockwork Orange again, because the rape and violence was a little unsettling. I am glad that I was able to watch this movie and feel as though I really understand the message. This movie is as good as the book and Kubrick is probably the only person who could've made it so.

# 32 The Godfather Part II

While Part II doesn't compare to the original, it was OK. That's right. I said The Godfather Part II was simply ok. It just couldn't hold my attention the way the first was able to and the saving grace of the movie was easily Robert De Niro as the young Vito Corleone. I love the type of sequels where you learn "the roots" of a .
character. But the whole thing with "present day" Michael just wasn't very attention grabbing. I understand the whole theme of "heavy is the head that wears the crown," and the parallels between father and son (how both were fueled by vengeance and did what they felt was best for those around them ) but I suppose the problem was that I held Part II to the same standards as the original, when if I were to appreciate Part II in singularity and apart from the original, I would be able to say that it's a great mafia movie. But I didn't, so I can't.

Early yesterday morning, Kiel left. He is in Florida for training now and is due in the crappy Middle East in about a month. So I have to finish getting the house ready for the packers and movers and our moving out (which is official one week from today). Grrrr.... I just have to keep myself busy and hopefully the next seven months will pass quickly.

#84 Easy Rider

Holy crap!!! This movie was amazing! It's very easy to do a hippie movie showing hippies as peace and love and blah blah blah but to show hippies living in a conformist world and seeing how that world reacts them....WOW! Billy and Wyatt have just made a lot of money because of a cocaine deal, so they decide to load up their motorcycles and go to New Orleans to experience Mardi Gras. On the way they meet George (Jack Nicholson) who decides to tag along and basically sums up the movie with an epic quote:


"I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em."

People ARE scared of what they don't understand and people who live in a conformist society and love to spout of rules of society and the ideals of America seem to get really pissed off when people want to exercise that freedom and not live life in a conformist society. Eventually George is murdered by some square hicks in Louisiana and when Wyatt and Billy leave New Orleans to go "retire" in Florida, they are shot off their bikes by some redneck hicks, proving how dangerous intolerance and ignorance can be.

I loved this movie (the soundtrack was pretty bomb too, but it's no secret that I love 60's stoner music). Kiel...not so much. He thought the movie was boring, even though it had a hippie commune, a whore house, Jack Nicholson and an acid trip in a cemetery! Oh well. Hopefully Kiel goes out and get's me some beer. The next couple nights are the last nights I have to get tispy with my sweetie for the next 7 months.

# 28 All About Eve

I did like this. The story is classic, but I have to wonder if the story is a classic because of THIS story? The story of a older actress who befriends a young fan....turns out this fan is a wolf in sheep's clothing who is using her friend with the goal of taking her place. Margot seems paranoid about her jealous feelings towards the sweet young Eve, but it turns out her paranoia is validated. Through in Marilyn Monroe in one of her first films and you have a movie with comedy and drama. Not to mention we all have to chuckle when the ending rolls around and hope that Eve gets her one- upings. Kiel and I watched this while we started packing up all of our clothes and linens. Two weeks from now Loki and I will be back in Maryland. Three days from now, Kiel will be on a plane to Florida. I may be able to see him at Thanksgiving, but I have learned as a military wife to not put much stock into anything until it has already happened.

I have my next goal for 2011 lined up. Some of you have heard of it...some of you haven't. But it's going to be big. And it's going to take a lot more commitment than watching some movies. I will sort of announce it it soon, but I have to admit part of me is very scared to actually announce what I plan to do because once I tell everyone what I am doing, I can't back out of it.  But here's a hint- it involves religion. And don't just limit your thinking of religion to Christianity- think larger than that.

My First Attempt at Intolerance (#49)

A three hour silent film.....Grrrr what a challenge. The General was only 75 minutes! I could only get through a little more than a hour before my mind gave up and my attention started wandering to everything else going on around me. The message is good. The central conflict is intriguing (Intolerance vs. love and compassion). And I like how they use four mini movies inside a larger movie to show intolerance throughout history. I also love how the director used color in the movie. It wasn't black and white, instead it used other colors so it was sepia or green. I just couldn't focus on it! I will try again once I get back to Maryland. Perhaps after things settle a bit and I'm running around like a chicken with her head cut off (at least not all the time), I will be able to sit though such a long movie.

#18 The General

So this was another first for me. I had never seen a silent film before watching The General today. I LOVED IT! How adorable is Buster Keaton?! I just wanted to give that little goofball a hug! Silent movies really show off an actor's mastery of their craft. Anyone can say a line, but silent film actors were able to convey their lines with their faces, bodies and actions in ways that just aren't done anymore! It was nice to curl up with Kiel and watch this wonderful movie about a Southern Train Engineer turned soldier and hero for the woman he loves during the Civil War. LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT!!!


In crappy news. Kiel is leaving a day earlier than we were initially told (yet again proving that saying "Military wives write things in pencil because they always change.") You know what is worse than a deployment, though? Anticipation. We are waiting for the deployment and that sucks and makes everything tense. Once it happens, I will be sad and depressed for a few days (probably to a much less dramatic extent than before...can't be a total weepy nutcase/shut in with a baby to care for...that's just ig-nant) and then I will just sort of go on auto pilot and do what I need to do. Then when it gets closer to Kiel coming home, that crappy anticipation will kick and turn every minute between then and Kiel coming home into weeks. But then he will be home and all will be right in the world. I'm just trying to focus on everything that needs to be done and when my mind turns to the fact that in 9 days my husband, best friend and father of my son will be gone.... I just focus on June, when he will back.

#89 The Sixth Sense

I know, I know, I know! I'm probably the last 20-something American to see The Sixth Sense. You know why it took me so long? Being that this was the first M. Night Shyamalan movie, so it was the first to really introduce the world to his crazy twist endings, I already knew the ending. I knew about the freaky kid seeing dead people (seriously, how many times has that been spoofed?), and I already knew that Bruce Willis was a ghost! Still....it was on the list. I did enjoy the movie. I was watching extra hard to see how Bruce Willis could be walking around with his family and other people and think he was interacting with them (that was pretty crazy, but pulled off nicely) and I did cry a bit when Bruce was saying his goodbyes to his wife while she slept. So it was a good movie, can't deny it. I enjoyed watching it (I do love a movie that makes me jump) and it was a nice break from how hectic my reality has gotten. My journalism class is the most confusing fucking class in the world. Just when I was feeling so confident about my skills as a writer and how after I graduate I will possess the capabilities to type my way to a nice paycheck....I take this fucking class. This class is the exact reason why I will never be a journalist. So many AP rules contradict the writing rules I have learned since middle school!!! I try to make sure I do everything correctly and then get a fucking D on my paper!!! WTF?!?! Not to mention Kiel deploys in 10 days, making me more emotional than usual, we have a memorial service tomorrow for a fallen EOD Warrior/ American hero/ Badass (making me weary of Kiel leaving) and I have to try to get the house straight, do a paper for an English class and keep an eye on my son who has now discovered the joys of walking and falling on his face.

At times like this, one may think that this goal of mine is just too much. But being able to slip into a movie that has been considered great for a couple of hours....can give me a much needed break from my hectic reality.

# 67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I've never actually seen a movie with Elizabeth Taylor (aside from her cameo in the Flintstones movies). So I have to say I have committed the folly of underestimating someone before actually seeing their work. She is a phenomenal actress!!!! Richard Burton was incredible as well! I may have to rent Cleopatra just to see them in action together again! Aside from that....that's where the majority of my praise for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ends. The movie is complex, confusing and I found myself googling the movie after it ended because I just could not understand what happened. Did they have a son? Did they not? Did they and was he dead? Was it all just a game? Then I googled it for some better perspective and it just left me even more confused but all the more certain of Burton and Taylor's acting because the characters George and Martha were off their freaking rocker! George Segal was impressive as well (and very good looking...just saying....the first movie I ever saw him in was Look Who's Talking and he was middle aged by then). Sandy Dennis was wonderful as well, she really was able to pull of the vulnerability and naivety of the character Honey. But seriously. All of these characters were some crazy drunks! If I were there, my drunk ass would've left well before dawn because all that drama and fighting would've been killing my buzz.

# 26 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Absolutely beautiful!!!! If there wasn't a better movie to display why our Senators and Congressmen need term limits! Young and idealistic versus Washington Politics. The story hasn't changed even 70-something years later! I felt the urge to watch this movie, being that in a few weeks "Mrs. Anderson goes to Washington," (as well as "Mr. Loki goes to Washington") and because I am currently applying for a internship at the Democratic National Committee for while I am home. The story is about the ideals that we learn in the innocence of our childhood. How our age and our own desires corrupt those views. We are taught as children that we should do good things for our fellow man. Be charitable. Share (although views of "sharing" and helping those less fortunate would go against our Capitalist society, and I'm sure the fact that the children in the movie were pooling their money together for their camp would probably be deemed Socialist nowadays, huh?). But we need to stop letting our own wants and needs and greed cloud our mind and simply do what is right and what is best for our fellow man. Amazing movie. I certainly have a new movie to add to my list of favorites. And might I add that Mr. Smith was sitting on the left side (meaning that our hero was a Democrat!).

# 73 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I'm really not a fan of Westerns. They just have never been my favorite genre. I like the movies The Quick and the Dead and Bad Girls  (I know they aren't the best movies in the world, but one of them has Sharon Stone as a cowgirl, and Leonardo DiCaprio before he started taking himself too seriously and the other one is about gun toting whores! What's not to love?!) but that's about it for me and Westerns. They just seem so serious, macho and in many ways cliched. But I LOVED Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! I never picture Robert Redford to really be one for comedy but he and Paul Newman were hysterical! The movie was funny without trying the jam the aspect of being funny down the audience's throat (When you have two cowboys trying to rob a bank in Bolivia and neither of them can speak Spanish, you don't have to try very hard). Newman and Redford were a great duo and there weren't any parts where I had to basically force myself to pay attention.

With this movie- I have viewed 25 of the the AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time!! I'm on my way, but with the move back to Maryland steadily approaching and the fall semester in full swing, it's only going to get tougher and tougher. But I'm going to bust my ass to get the remaining 75 films viewed before January 1, 2011. I have a huge goal for next year and if I can accomplish this year's goal, my confidence will be boosted and I will feel (more) ready to tackle my goal for 2011, but if I can't do it...how in the world will I ever be able to tackle the huge goal I have for next year?