At the same time, it may be more informative to think about all the contenders. If nothing else, that may give a more rounded picture of my obsessions. (I think that's a joke.) No single movie can say everything, after all.
I emailed the question to Son 1 and Son 2, asking them:
If people were having this discussion about me after I was gone, what would they SAY was my favorite movie?...
Does either of you have an idea how you'd answer the question, based on knowing me for a bunch of years? There's no wrong answer, because it's all about what impressions you've gotten from me over the years. (And those could be anything.) But I'm curious.
If you've got a quick, shoot-from-the-hip answer, go with that. Don't overthink it.
Son 1 ignored the email. Son 2 sent back two possible contenders, which I will identify when I get to them, below.
A word about how I came up with this list: I've seen a lot of movies, over the years, so I started by making a list of movies that I have referenced in this blog. That gave me a good starting point, but I realize just now as I am writing this that it leaves out some spectacularly good work. Because it just so happens that I never wrote about them, I left off of my list classics like "The Godfather" and "The Producers", both brilliant films. So if I had composed my long-list differently, is it possible that one or both of these might have made it to my short list?
It's possible, but not—I think—in an interesting way. What's interesting about my father's love for "The Red Shoes" is how it sheds light on the major themes in his life. And while I love to watch the dramas of Michael Corleone, or Max Bialystock—or hell, even Rick Blaine or Charles Foster Kane—their lives are definitely something Other, something that is happening Out There. There's no real resonance In Here, except for the resonance that every moviegoer feels (which is why they are all such popular movies). So in that sense, doing an initial filter by considering movies that I've written about here isn't a bad way to proceed.
With all that in mind, here are the six movies that particularly jumped out at me, as I pondered the list of movies I have discussed in this blog.
Realistically there is no world in which "Threesome" could actually rank as my favorite movie. It is too slight a movie, and there are too many powerful contenders. But it makes the short list for a couple of reasons. First, my marriage to Wife has put me in that situation more than once. (With Boyfriend 1, Boyfriend 4, and Girlfriend 1, to be specific.) Second, in fact the titular threesome doesn't work in the movie and it never worked well in real life either; so in a sense the movie successfully captures the disappointing gap between romantic fantasy and practical reality. And third, for obvious reasons this is not a movie I can ever discuss with anyone in real life. That I have to keep it a secret just makes it that much more important to me.
I discuss the movie and my reactions to it at somewhat greater length in this post here from five years ago.
Again, this movie is a little too one-dimensional to have a serious claim as my favorite, but God I love it! And yes, there's a personal connection. Nick Naylor has a brilliant ability to manipulate people using only words—his "golden voice," as Daniel Webster once put it—and I know how that feels. I have no idea whether I'm as good at it as he is, because I've never tried to be a flack for something as deeply compromised as the tobacco industry. But in my own small way, when I've had to convince Wife not to drive her car off a bridge because some psychiatrist rated her intelligence as "normal" (yes that really happened), I've appreciated my own gift with words. And so I'm in awe at what Nick Naylor can do.
I discuss the movie in considerable detail in this post here, from nine years ago.
I actually don't know what personal connection I have with this movie (if any). I wasn't raised Catholic. For that matter, I never actually discussed the movie itself in this blog. (But I referenced one of its memes to support this post here, from almost three years ago.) But it is one of the two movies that Son 2 identified as possibly my favorite, and I have to admit that I have great affection for it. But why? Maybe because the whole plot turns on an obscure bit of theological doctrine? Maybe because the Unseen World (God, Heaven, angels and demons … you know, that Unseen World) is, yes, played for laughs (as is everything else) but it is never treated disrespectfully. Maybe because the cast is stellar and the script-writing is wickedly funny. I don't actually know. But it made my short list even before Son 2 weighed in, and his opinion only confirmed mine.
Now we are getting into the heavy hitters. Not only is it a great film, but I feel a very direct personal connection to it. When Wife and I were young marrieds, this was "our movie," the one that told our story in a special and personal way. I talk about it in more detail in this post, from nine years ago.
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)
I wasn't sure whether to list this before or after "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," so I made my choice using the same principles that judged Hesiod a better poet than Homer. (See The Contest of Homer and Hesiod.) Despite Homer's fame and glory, the judges decide that "Hesiod's work on agriculture and peace is … of more value than Homer's tales of war and slaughter." In the same way, I decided to list a movie that shows healthy people in healthy relationships after (therefore more important than) a movie that shows sick people in sick relationships.
As for the personal connection? I can never watch this movie with dry eyes. George Bailey fails in every single thing he does … well, except for being a good husband, a good father, and a good man. Those goals he hits squarely.
And it's like I said in my very first "movie meme" post: When George Bailey cries triumphantly, "Isn't it wonderful? I'm going to jail!" I realize that in the grand scheme of things my own troubles don't amount to much.
When I first broached the question about my favorite movie (back in August), I remarked that this was the only movie I had already referenced in three different posts. I suppose this one makes four. It's also the second movie that Son 2 suggested as possibly one of my favorites. But at the time I had not analyzed why it should be … other than that I keep returning to it over and over. What's the personal connection?
I think it is that Lawrence is who I wish I could be, more than any of the others. Lawrence has all (or most) of my strengths, and he is notably not afflicted by the weaknesses that I most hate, by the weaknesses and failings that make up my Shadow.
On the first hand, Lawrence is a scholar who loves to travel. He is good at languages and maps. He is learned about classical history, and his deep study has also given him insight into military tactics. He is an outsider wherever he goes, and so it isn't particularly hard for him to integrate into the Arab band that he ends up leading. Of course he sticks out like a sore thumb, but who cares? He stuck out like a sore thumb in England too, and he would stick out anywhere. Why not become an Arab, if it could help some larger cause?
At the same time, he has an enormous physical courage. He has moral courage. He may be diffident, but he's not shy. All the faults (like cowardice, timidity, and fragility) that I have identified as part of my Shadow are faults that Lawrence simply doesn't have! Of course he's got faults of his own, and a Shadow of his own. No man is perfect. But when I love him as a character, I'm looking at my own faults and not his. It is with reference to my faults that I judge him superior to myself, not with reference to some disinterested perspective held by God. I don't have access to God's perspective, after all.
And his achievements are great enough that even his social awkwardness is forgiven by those around him. He can attract men—powerful men—because they want to be associated with his victories. Next to those victories, his personal oddities are of no account. As he tells Allenby, speaking of the Arab tribal leaders,
"They'll come [to the war]. But the best of them won't come for money.
"They'll come for me."
Ahh … if only.
No comments:
Post a Comment