Shawshank Redemption is a film about the prison life of Andy Dufresne, convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. Andy learns to adapt and even thrive in prison, yet somehow always looking for a way out.
This is not your average prison. We don’t necessarily see hard labor. Instead the prisoners seem to have alot of free time outdoors to converse. They even get to see movies in a darkened room. Contraband is somehow easy to get to, yet a poster of Rita Hayworth can take a few weeks.
Like a worn our cliche, the warden is corrupt. He accepts bribes from construction companies to back off from highway bids for prison labor.
The thing that drives Andy is hope. Hope that one day he would gain freedom. With this hope, Andy is persistent. As the prison librarian he wrote letters to the powers that be in gaining funds for the library. And he didn’t give up, even when he got a one time gift.
What we learn from Andy is that escape, whether it is physical or mental, comes from time and pressure. That and a big poster to hide your tracks. Andy used small rock hammer to tunnel out of his cell and then through a sewer pipe. He crawed through the equivalent of 5 football fields of human waste for freedom. And who could forget seeing him emerge from the pipe and stand up with his arms raised high in the pouring rain? It was the personification of redemption.
The tagline for the movie is “Fear can hold you prisonor. Hope can set you free.” This is incredibly true. Wikipedia’s article describes how prisoners can become institutionalized, thinking that life inside prisons is normal. Sometimes prisoners will try to stay in prison by committing crimes on the outside once released. They are unable to function outside of the prison walls.
Yet Andy never let himself to become institutionalized. He always looked for hope on the outside.

I managed to catch Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine movie via Tivo.
This movie isn’t just about the shooting at Columbine High School. Its more or less an examination of our violent society. Moore contends that it was this violent society that caused Dylan and Klebold to commit their murderous rampage.
The movie dealt primarily with gun control, which is always a hot topic among Americans. NRA members are fearful of their gun ownership rights being slowly taken away. While those who are for some degree of gun control see automatic weapons as being unnecessary for hunting or self defense. I would tend to agree with the latter. It only takes one bullet to kill a deer or intruder. Why is it necessary for the NRA to find a reason for Joe American to have access to such leathal weapons. Falling Down anyone?

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
-2nd Amendement, United States Constitution

I’m of the belief that a well regulated militia doesn’t necessarily mean machine guns for the average citizen.
The movie came across critical of US military actions, especially while interviewing a spokeman at a bomb making factory near Columbine. Moore is arrogant toward some military actions which HAVE to be done to protect our domestic security. The military takes care of business so that I can live in a free society.
Another interesting part of the movie was celebrity interviews. Moore attempted unsuccessfully to get an interview with Dick Clark in regards to a welfare program. Dick refuses the interview and promptly tells and aid to close the car door and drive away. Clark comes across much different in candidly in person rather than how is shown on American Bandstand, New Year’s celebrations, and the $25,000 Pyramid. Dick appears to be a grumpy old man refusing to deal with real life social issues which he might have a hand in.
Moore also interviews Charlton Heston. Moore was granted an interview by saying he was a NRA member (not a lie) and was interested in talking about gun control. During the course of the interview Heston walks away. One has to realize how the mighty have fallen, at least with Heston. Heston was once a burly gun toating action start intemidating people with questions like “Do you feel lucky, punk?” Yet now he is now a feeble old man, suffering from Alzhemier’s Disease.
Moore obviously has an axe to grind with the current Bush administration. I wish he wouldn’t have put up red herrings like overseas war to try to connect it with the Columbine shootings. Moore is particularly unhappy and really should think about moving to Canada or elsewhere if he dislikes America so much.

I stumbled upon Fox’s sitcom, The War at Home tonight. Fox is generally known as a maverick station always pushing the limits. The War at Home is no exception. Tonight’s episode featured the parents trying to figure out if their teenaged daughter was having sex. During the course of the show the issue of sex was dropped, and marijuana use was the topic of discussion for the rest of the show. It seems that the father had a pot stash which turned up missing. The rest of the show involved showing the younger teenaged son buying pot and the other two teenaged kids implying they had smoked pot. The mother ended up finding pot in her son’s room, but wasn’t shown disciplining her son. Instead the next scene showed the parents saying “You’re sure you flushed the pot?” At the end of the episode the grandmother is shown smoking pot which garnered the biggest laugh of the whole show.
Since when is drug use funny? The show touched upon how pot will lead to much harder drugs, but the main line of the story was that pot use was funny.
I can remember watching 9 to 5 as an afternoon movie, with the pot smoking scene completely cut out. Many times it still is cut out today. Yet Fox thinks that pot use is not only acceptable to air on Sunday night (when most families are watching), it also makes a point to tell America that pot use is hilarious.

Devil’s Playground documents the real life events in Amish teenagers’ lives during their rumspringa. At the age of 16 Amish teens are given the chance to experience the outside (non-Amish) world and decide if they want to live the rest of their lives as Amish.
After their period of rumspringa the vast majority (90%) decide to return to their church. This is not too surprisingly since many Amish communities practice shunning (excommunication). Families disown their children who decide to live in the “English” world. Church leaders teach that those on the outside culture are condemned to hell.
The documentary follows the lives of several Amish teens including Faron Yoder. Faron is shown experimenting in chrystal meth and tells about his experiences as a drug dealer. It is only after he is threated that he decides to go clean (for a time) so that he can narc on the other drug dealers.
Another older formerly Amish woman is shown talking about her depression which she says started around the time she turned 16. Ultimately she decided to leave the church so that she could attend college. (Amish have no education past the 8th grade; higher education is seen as prideful). When she left her church she was shunned and her family cut off communication of her in hopes that she would return to her Amish roots.
Having been restricted for the first 16 years of their lives, it is not surprisng that many Amish teens let loose and go wild during their rumspringa, moreso than a typical American teenager. Local police confirm that the wildest and largest parties are thrown by Amish youth. For Amish boys is means drinking in excess, driving cars, smoking, and sometimes experimenting with drugs. During rumspringa Amish boys tend not to wear their traditional Amish clothing, while the girls tend to keep their traditional bonnets and plain dresses. The movie shows the surreal scenes of Amish girls with bonnets at a drinking party and local concert.
The Amish truly live “off the grid.” Faron is shown hooking up a battery to his television so that he may play video games. An Amish home is shown, with gas lamps and 13 Bibles, but no television or electricity.
The Amish are very caught up in tradition especially with worship, sometimes to the point that the tradition itself becomes more important than the act of worship. For example, during Amish worship services, when a man reads from the Bible, the women turn their back to him and stare toward the wall. No one knows why they do this, not even the Amish themselves. Women explain its because their mother did it, while their mother’s mother did it and so on…
During the worship services men and women sit segregated from each other. You will be very unlikely to see an Amish church, as the Amish worship in houses and barns. Most Amish houses are built with a big basement to accomidate church worship services which might take place there from time to time. The film didn’t show Amish worship services and only showed a handful of Amish adults. Amish usually don’t want to be filmed.
Devil’s Playground is one of the few Amish related documentaries which I’ve seen. It is worth watching for viewers interested in the subject. The movie does contain strong language and shows scenes of drug abuse.

MTV’s The 70’s House premired this past week. I caught a rerun of it (big surprise, MTV). It’s a good fresh idea for MTV otherwise lame lineup. The premise: take a group of 20somethings, take away all modern technology, and put them in a house decked out in gear from the 70s. If the participants are caught making references to post 70s lingo, they could face expulsion. Last resident in the house wins a bunch of HP stuff, a new 2005 VW Beetle, and a trip to Europe.
This week’s episode shows the contestants moving into the house. None of them knew anything about what they were getting into. They were told they were going to star in an MTV reality show, but little else about the show. “I thought I was going to be on Road Rules,” said one contestant.
Later in the episode the participants were required to play basketball in full 70s basketball gear (we’re talking tight uniform..short shorts, knee socks, Converse All-Stars) against an all-star high school basketball team. It was more or less a battle of who was going to be embarrassed the most.
The participants of the series show very little character development. We know very little about them, whereas with other MTV reality shows, such as Real World and Road Rules, we find out all about the personal lives of the show’s participants. This probably isn’t all that unexpected. After all, the real star of the series is the house itself.
Then there’s Dawn, who acts as a hostess to the group, getting them decked out in the latest 70s fashions, taking up any contraband 2000 era gear, and directing the daily activities for the group. Dawn plays the part to a tee.
A hilarious part of the show happens whenever a bell is rung. The kids have to stop wantever they’re doing and do the Hustle.
What is amusing about the show is that the participants of the show have no concept of the 70’s. One proclaimed that she had never seen an 8-track. Others seemed confused over the rotary phone. The kids had a difficult time giving up their modern technology. One participant claimed that his iPod was “his life.” Another guy said that his cell phone was “his baby,” and he didn’t know if he could live without it. This made for good dramatic programming.
The series is different and fresh compared to the usual junk you see in MTV like Real World and Pimp My Ride.

“The Goonies“ and “Stand By Me“ are two similar movies from the mid 1980s. Released in 1985 and 1986 respectively, both tell the stories of two sets of kids in search of fame and fortune. For “The Goonies”, it was the journey to find a real life treasure which would allow them to save their community. For “Stand By Me”, it was discovering a dead body so that they would have fame throughout their community.

Both movies are similar in plot and characters, although Goonies is told from a child’s perspective, while Stand By Me is told from an adult looking back on his childhood.
Origins of the Plots

Both movies start off with a treasure map. The Goonies discover a treasure map among discarded museum artifacts and decide to find the treasure. In Stand By Me, Vern had made a treasure map after burying a quart jar of pennies. He had lost that map after his mom threw it out. While searching for the jar of pennies he overheard where the Bower kid’s body lay.
Similar Characters

The Dreamers

Each of the movies has a dreamer. In The Goonies, Mikey Walsh (played by Sean Astin) was the dreamer who urged the Goonies to dream big dreams, to try to find the treasure which would save their community from land developers.

In Stand By Me the dreamer is Gordie Lachance (played by Wil Wheaton), the writer and narrator of the story. He has a vast imagination and can tell some unique stories. He doesn’t necessarily urge the gang to find the dead body of Ray Brower. During the movie he remarks, “Going to see a dead kid, maybe it shouldn’t be a party.” While the Goonies saw the reward at the end being worth the journey, Gordie saw the journey itself as reward enough. Quote:

“There was more, and that we all knew it. Everything was there and around us. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.”

Although nearer toward the midpoint in the movie, Gordie admits that seeing the body of Ray Brower was becoming an obsession.

The Outcasts

When you put a group of kids together, there will always be the weak one who is the butt of most of the jokes for the rest of the kids. For the Goonies it was Chunk Cohen (played by Jeff Cohen), whereas for Stand By Me, it was Vern Tessio (played by Jerry O’Connell). They were allowed to be members of the gang because of what they brought to the table. During the chase scene it was Chunk who had the super Sloth on his side, while Vern was the one who overheard the discussion which started the journey to find Ray Brower’s body.

Interestingly enough both Chunk and Vern (who both had amazing or “boss” stories to tell) had trouble getting in to their gang’s hideouts. Chunk was forced to do the truffle shuffle to gain entrance. Vern, forgetting the secret knock, was let into the treehouse by the (sometimes unwilling) grace of the rest of the boys.
Both boys are self described as “fat.” “Sure, spit at the fat kid,” Vern proclaims during the course of the movie. Chunk calls himself Chunk, although the source of the name is a mystery, whether or not it was given by himself or his peers. I’m thinking the latter.

Food is a major interest for both Chunk and Vern. Vern asks “What am I supposed to eat?” when his food falls into the campfire. Similarly Chunk is seen going after ice cream in a freezer where dead bodies are stored. He is also seen beginning a friendship with Sloth based on a Baby Ruth chocolate bar. Perhaps this love affair with food for both boys was a reaction for being an outcast from their peers. Consequently becoming overweight because of this obsession with food might be the reason they continue to be ostracized by their peers.

The Big Brothers

In Stand By Me flashbacks show Denny Lachance (played by John Cusack) a quintessential big brother. Always willing to show love and genuine interest toward his younger brother, Gordie. Tragically Denny was killed in a jeep accident. How or why is not important, at least to the storyteller.

Throughout the movie Chris Chambers (played by River Phoenix) takes up the role of big brother, where Denny left off. We see his role as encourager and protector in this quote:

“It’s like God gave you something, man. All those stories you can make up. And He said, this is what we got for you kid, try not to loose it. But kids loose everything unless there’s someone there to look out for them.”

Similarly Brand Walsh (played by Josh Brolin) plays the role of protective and sensible Goonie big brother. His character is less developed compared to Stand By Me’s Chris Chambers. Brand constantly urges the Goonies to go home, rather than trying to find some mythical treasure. By contrast Chambers’ character in Stand By Me is the prime instigator in the adventure, even going to the point of urging an unwilling Vern to go along in the journey.

The Smart Alecks

Somehow a comparison to Corey Feldman’s characters in each film is inevitable. The Goonies’ Mouth and Stand By Me’s Teddy Duchamp both are outspoken. This outspokenness tends to generate problems for both characters during the course of the film. We see this in the Goonies when Mouth mouths off to the Fratelli’s during the scene in the abandoned restaurant. Similarly this is seen in Stand By Me when Teddy insults the junkyard owner and Ace’s gang.

The Villains

Both sets of villains, whether it is the Goonies’ Fratelli’s, or Ace’s gang in Stand By Me, want what the kids want. Its the discovery of the Ray Brower’s body or the treasure that drives this group of adults to go after the youthful main characters.
The Ending

The Goonies, being a Steven Spielberg inspired film, showed the kids’ parents showing up at the end of the movie in a joyful reunion. Yet in Stand By Me, the parents are nowhere to be found at the end of the movie. The viewer even gets the impression that the Stand By Me kids would be in trouble for lying to their parents about where they were for the weekend. For at least a couple of the kids in Stand By Me, the parents are not exactly the best role models. Teddy’s father abused him by holding his ear to the stove, while Chris’ father was a drunk and fired guns during his drinking binges. By contrast the only abusive parent in The Goonies is Ma Fratelli who regularly slaps her sons into submission.

In fact, most of the adults in Stand By Me are shown in a negative or neutral light. Gordie’s parents were shown to be negative (“Why can’t you have friends like Denny?”) toward Gordie. Grocery store owner was shown to be neutral in the blissful ignorance of not really knowing anything about Gordie, yet knowing all about how his older brother “sure could play football.” Contrast this with scenes of happy reunions with parents at the end of The Goonies.
Stand By Me might just be the anti-Goonie.
Filming Locations

If it seems like Stand By Me and The Goonies have similar wilderness scenes it’s because they were both filmed in Oregon.
Theme Song

Goonies R Good Enough by Cindy Lauper portrays the movie as an upbeat kid’s movie. The lyrics inspire hope…telling the listener that it’s ok, because you’re “good enough.”

By contrast “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King tells a tale of a foreboding future with mountains falling and darkness in the land. However not all of Stand By Me’s soundtrack is as foreboding as the title track. Rockin’ Robin, Yakety Yak, and Lollipop are all similiar upbeat songs of the 50s.

Eighty three days fall between two of the biggest events of the summer 1977. On May 25th of that year Star Wars opened. Then on August 16th, at the end of the summer, Elvis Presley died.

Those 83 days were when two sets of generations overlapped. The Elvis generation was my parents’ generation. Years later we still see those aging Elvis fans devoted to collecting the Elvis memorabilia and making pilgrimages to Graceland. After all 50,000 Elvis fans can’t be wrong.

Sure, you can visit Graceland; sign your name on the wall outside; and weep at the gravesite. At one time you could even attend a concert which would show Elvis on a large screen and have a live band playing with him. Elvis the Concert they called it. But there is nothing bringing back Elvis himself after the summer of 1977. As time goes by, like the Civil War widows of yesteryear, those who have seen Elvis live in concert are slowly dying out. No one born after 1977 knows what it is like to see Elvis in concert for the first time.

On the other hand, one can still experience the same reaction from seeing Star Wars for the first time in a movie theater. This one particular movie has spawned a whole generation of fans. The sequels, Star Wars Prequels prequels, TV specials, the McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy tie-ins…Star Wars is sometimes everywhere, depending on your chronological proximity of the opening date of the latest Star Wars movie.

Star Wars is from my generation. We all remember seeing it for the first time. We remember collecting and playing with our action figures. It was a major part of our childhood experience.

So I wonder, did Elvis ever see Star Wars? It was a well known fact that sometimes Elvis and the Memphis Mafia rented out Memphis cinemas for late night showings of movies of Elvis’ choosing. Could it be that during those 83 days Elvis saw the biggest movie of that summer…or even that decade? If it did happen, it would have been a real life Jetsons Meet the Flintstones.

And if he did see it, what did he think of it? Did he relate to Han Solo’s independent attitude and how he was able to taking care of business|take care of business in a flash? Or did Elvis identify with Luke Skywalker who had an older man telling him what to do…much like how the Colonel told Elvis himself what to do? Skywalker and Presley did have their rural backgrounds in common. Elvis grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi and started out as a truck driver, while Luke grew up as a farmer on Tatooine, a dusty desolate planet. Both found fame and fortune through their unique abilities.

After seeing C-3P0 say “We’re doomed” did Elvis have some premonition about how his own life would end weeks later on an upstairs toilet of Graceland?

Or perhaps the more appropriate question is, did George Lucas ever see Elvis in concert? The King had been wearing capes long before Darth Vader. Did the caped jumpsuits inspire the costumes in Star Wars? Was the color white “in” for jumpsuits as well as for Stormtroopers’ uniforms?

1977 was a year of titanic icons. One icon’s life was slowly coming to an end, while another icon was just getting started. If these two titans ever met in a darkened Memphis movie theater is anybody’s guess.

With Survivor and the Amazing Race being on hiatus, I’m finding other reality shows to watch these days. Two of these reality genre shows stand out in my mind.
30 Days
Remember Morgan Spurlock, the guy who ate McDonald’s everyday for 30 days, thereby making himself fat and depressed? Well, he’s at it again, living a fish-out-of-water life for one month in 30 Days. Episodes like binge drinking and Christian in a Muslim family should make for some interesting documentaries.
This week’s episode involved Morgan and his girlfriend living on minimum wage for a month. They were forced to find cheap housing, live from paycheck to paycheck.
There was something peculiar about this episode. No doubt Morgan has made lots of money with Super Size Me, which was nominated for an Oscar. I’m sure he and his girlfriend have been living well off. It was somewhat laughable to see him scrounge enough money to pay the light bill. His girlfriend’s bellyaching over beans and rice…and crying over free furniture. Crocodile tears. The thing is they knew they were going to return to their normal rich lifestyles after a month. Rich lifestyles which are more extravagent than you or I have. So there was no need to get emotional about it. There was a way out for them after this social experiment was over. However many people on minimum wage have no way out. There is no way to truly experience minimum wage unless you are in that situation.
Morgan does have an agenda. In Super Size Me it was to show how unhealthy we as Americans are. In this episode of 30 Days it was how free healthcare is nonexistent. It was the emergency room visits which put Morgan over the top and into debt by the end of this hour long moral fairy tale. The moral of the story? Be thankful for what you have.
Hell’s Kitchen
Gordon Ramsay is a world renound chef. He’s been named Britain’s best chef several times in a row. Now he is master chef in the reality tv show, Hell’s Kitchen. 12 contestants will be put through the ringer. Last chef standing wins their own restaurant.
What is so funny about this show is the contestants came into the show knowing it was called “Hell’s Kitchen” and seemed to be surprised on how hard Ramsay was being on them. The early morning wake up calls; No air conditioning while cooking; The harsh language; the pressure of cooking at a fancy restaurant without any training whatsoever. Watching them cringe at the pressure was entertainment enough.
The week’s show had a patron at the restaurant vomiting at their table over the food. When was the last time you saw this happen? The truth is you don’t. Most people make it to the bathroom before puking. Plus no one actually eats enough bad food at a restaurant and pukes immediately at the table. The diner did it because the cameras were around. Milking it for drama purposes.
What is funny is that the service and food at Hell’s Kitchen has been poor several days in a row. You’d think that word would get around and it would be difficult to find patrons each night at the restaurant. Not so. The restaurant always has plenty of customers. Maybe its the chance to be supporting actors in the latest reality show. Maybe the food is free.
And a word about Dewberry. (Yes, that’s his real name.) This 33 year old bakery worker wants his own restaurant, yet we find out in the 2nd episode that he hates touching raw seafood (ie Squid). I foresee a problem here, Captain D.
Dewberry is a fallible human being. We’ve all felt as hopeless and helpless as Dewberry sometime in our life. Dewberry’s comment “[Ramsey] is trying to make me better than what I truly am” speaks volumes about his self-esteem. It is this self defeating attitude which is a self fulfilling prophecy. Dewberry was the 2nd person kicked off the show. No one, not even Dewberry, was surprised at this.
Hell’s Kitchen is Survivor in the kitchen. We see the contestants being yelled at and cracking over the pressure. All of this provides for some good entertainment, if not interesting drama.

The movie Rudy is based on the true story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger whose dream was to play for Notre Dame. Everyone, including his family, friends, and even clergy told him that he’d never do it.
Rudy was small and didn’t have the physical body for a premier football program like Notre Dame. None of his older siblings had gone to college. He had been told that he wasn’t smart enough for college and that he should go to a technical school instead. Yet he overcame obstacles to play his senior year for 27 seconds for Notre Dame. He was carried off the field on the shoulders of his team mates. Since 1975 no other player has been carried off like this at Notre Dame.
One of the more memorable quotes comes from one of Rudy’s mentors, Fortune. He tells Rudy this as he is about ready to quit, after he has made the team, but may be unable to dress for his last game.

You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have nearly a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football team in the land for 2 years. And you’re gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself.

Sometimes the toughest person to convince is yourself. We tend to put alot of high expectations on ourselves. We get anxious when we don’t meet those expectations in our own minds. Sometimes its best to remember that we don’t have to be perfect in order to accomplish our goals.
In the movie Rudy meet another football player who is disastisfied that he is playing for Notre Dame. He says he would have preferred to play for other teams, but he chose Notre Dame because his father was an All-American there. This player doesn’t even try anymore. He says the coach keeps him on because he is a legacy.
The moral of the above exchange is some people remain ungrateful for their gifts. Rudy would have done anything to play for Notre Dame, yet this other player could care less. Eventually this player says that it was Rudy who convinced him to stick it out his senior year.

Firestarter is a 1984 movie which deals with telekinetic abilities. The storyline involves a government experiment in which 10 participants are given injections of experimental drugs which would give them psychic abilities. Eight of the experiment participants died or committed suicide. Two lone participants, Andy and Victoria, survive.
Victoria’s psychic abilities are never discussed in depth. We only know that she can read Andy’s mind. Andy’s abilities are shown to be extensive, including moving inanimate objects, causing people to go blind, and mind control. Andy and Victoria have a psychic bond and get married and have a child, Charlene “Charlie.” Charlie inherits dramatic psychic abilities from her parents. She is able to start fires, sometimes out of her control, on any objects or persons which she hates. Andy and Victoria try to control their child’s abilities. Their home is filled with fire extinguishers.
Eventually the government becomes wise to this family’s psychic abilities and tries to capture them. Victoria is killed by government agents, sending Andy and Charlie on the run from the agents.
This was Drew Barrymore’s next big role after E.T. Many of her fans no doubt went to see Firestarter thinking it would be another cutesy E.T. movie and instead got a psycholocial thriller. There is nothing cutesy about this movie.
Andy is played by David Keith, who could have easily been a 80s version of Patrick Swayze in mannerisms and speech.
The movie itself could have been developed more. Instead of having a large portion of the movie being Andy and Charlie’s capture by the government, instead it should have been how they escape from the government. It’s a good 80s movie and decently done for its time.