DVD Viewing

Here (below) is a quick overview of some of the DVDs I have watched recently. All were borrowed from the public library. These are not necessarily in chronological order.

"The Wages of Fear" was a DVD I picked up by chance. I had been thinking of another movie, which was a remake of this 1953 B&W film. It was pretty long and deep. Dialogue in French. Very arty. No happy ending.

 

I like to have some comedy to ease the tensions of life and clear my brain.  Watching Season 1 and Season 2 of the old TV series, Get Smart definitely clears out your head. Would you believe that our library only has seasons 1 and 2 but not the other 3? I watched these back-to-back (that turned out to be something of a challenge).

One Day on Earth was another one that I found in the library. I remember hearing about it and it looked interesting so I took it home.  It is a documentary, a series of events happening around the world to document 10-10-10 (October 10, 2010). I watched it on 10-10 (2013), another reason I got it.  I liked it so much that I watched it a second time and tracked down a similar movie ("Life in a Day" - which I have yet to watch).  "One Day on Earth" made me feel so connected to all the people around the world. It was awesome because it showed so many different kinds of people doing different things, showed birth, death, weddings, music, etc. Highly recommended!!

Another, sort of light, TV series I watched was Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners. Because it was from the 1950s, it is in B&W. No problem for me. Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) is always getting himself in trouble. I love his wife's character, Alice. She doesn't let him push her around but loves him nonetheless because she knows he's only trying to get ahead (but he can't win). For some reason, Disc 4 is missing from the Library-hopefully it will be returned soon so I can actually see all 39 episodes.  The set is pretty beat up and I have suggested they invest in a replacement copy. "Bang! Zoom! To the moon...."

Lost in Translation is sort of a meditation on mid-life crisis, marriage, and the meaning of life. The movie is set in Tokyo. Because of the age difference between the Bill Murray character and Scarlett Johannson, it reminded me of the Pygmalion story. I also think there were some similarities with Michael Caine's Educating Rita.  I liked that despite the flirtations between the two leads, their relationship remained chaste as they struggled to make sense of their individual roles as spouse in their own marriage. I liked the ambiguous ending because you can contemplate the different potential futures depending on how the relationship impacted them.

I almost forgot this film: Drive. It was pretty weird and violent. I didn't really care for it. To me, it seemed like a long, bad modern TV plot. I'm not sure why I got it.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wages_of_Fear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart
http://www.onedayonearth.org/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1687247/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honeymooners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Translation_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(play)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educating_Rita_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_(2011_film)