We have recently watched a few movies: Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp with Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, and Deborah Kerr, and Sully, with Tom Hanks. (And Rock A Doodle, which is kind of sad to admit... 😁 )
Rebel Without a Cause was different than I thought it would be. I thought it would involve some guy in a leather jacket who is too cool for school and doesn't follow the rules. Instead it's about a (pretty weird) kid who can't fit in and can't make friends even though he tries, and instead ends up as a target for bullies. Through it all, he tries to maintain his sense of honor, although his situation continues to get worse and worse. There's also an under-running current of inadequate fathers. Overall, a kind of depressing, but interesting film, with quotable lines. ("You're tearing me apart!")
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp was good. It's basically about the life of a British career soldier (played by Roger Livesey) who was accustomed to the old honorable way of waging war, and who learned early in his life that "right is might". Those who fight fairly and with honor win. He befriends a German soldier (played by Anton Walbrook, who later went on to play the impresario in The Red Shoes). Near the end of his life, he sees the rise of the Nazis, and must come to grips with the new way of waging war. Of course, there is a romantic interest in the film, an intelligent and opinionated woman played by a young Deborah Kerr (from The King and I). Anton Walbrook is one of my all-time favorite actors, and Eric and I both really liked Roger Livesey. Livesey was a British stage actor who was only in a few movies--his home audience didn't enjoy the rough quality of his voice, something Eric and I really liked. He did a phenomenal acting job in this movie, looking very convincing as he aged. (Anton Walbrook's old-man makeup wasn't quite as good.)
And I guess here's the whole movie! We saw the restored version, which if you can get it, I would recommend. The Technicolor in the restored version is among the best of any movie I have ever seen!
We also saw Sully, which was a very satisfying movie about Captain Sullenberger's emergency landing on the Hudson river. It felt realistic (kind of freaky!), and was not very long (hour and a half), but was just as long as it needed to be. At the end, they had the real passengers and the real Captain Sully there, and he seemed more pleasant and more like a real person than how Tom Hanks had portrayed him. It might have been necessary to have Tom Hanks as sort of distant at first for the story arc, though I'm not sure.
Also we watched Rock a Doodle because Eric had never seen it and I had seen it several times as a kid. It was funny to see Eric making fun of different parts. Something that will always surprise me is Don Bluth's ability to get famous voice actors and regular actors for his movies... Jodi Bensen, Charo, Gilbert Gottfried, Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp!), Jimmy Stewart, Phil Harris, and John Cleese. It makes it seem like the movies will have some credibility! Haha.
Anyway, in other news, Eric and I went sledding yesterday on the hill behind our apartment, and then we went to eat at Grunauer, an Austrian-German restaurant that Eric had a gift card for from Matt for Christmas. It had a really cool, classic atmosphere, with jazz music playing.
I got Pork Schnitzel, which turns out to be a lot like tonkatzu, a Japanese breaded pork cutlet. Then we went out to do some grocery shopping, and got one of our pictures framed. I got Eric a copy of a painting we like at the Nelson for Christmas, The Pearl of Great Price.
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On our way home, we tried Jack in the Box's tacos. They were pretty much how people described them. Cheap, but not bad!
Anyway, I think that is all for now. Have a great Sunday!
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