you're always sorry

 
[continued "spoiler alert" for Shoot The Moon - this is the last post about that last scene]

        Albert Finney, the ex-husband who gets battered at the end of the movie, is the same actor who portrayed the lawyer Julia Roberts' character worked for in Erin Brockovich.

Under one of the videos about this movie, one commenter had typed in, 

"What did I just watch?!"

        That was kind of how I felt.

In an earlier scene, one of the children is unhappy with the dad (Finney's character) and he says to the daughter, "I'm sorry."

        She points out, "You're always sorry."

Something I noticed after I went back and watched that last scene again was: before he gets in his car and drives on his path of mad destruction, he and his ex-wife are standing together, talking.  Talking about how good the tennis court is, and how we're being "grown up" about the divorce, etc.

        Her boyfriend who built the tennis court, Frank, joins them and they're all friendly, and being nice.  Making an effort.

        George compliments Frank on the tennis court - "great work."

        Frank asks George if he would like something to drink.

        Frank says he has to go and starts moving toward his car.

                And the second time watching this, I realized through the whole friendly-getting-along scene, George is looking around - over there, over here, down there... then he looks at his companions again, his ex-wife and her boyfriend, then he looks around some more.

The looking-around is easy to miss if you aren't trying to specifically spot something - I wanted to see, When did he turn from being friendly and conciliatory and peaceful, to being Crazy-Destruct-o-Monster?

...And watching it a second and third time, I came to the conclusion the guy was planning, in his mind, the whole time while pretending to get along with everyone.  He was looking around, planning where he was going to drive - first, then second, then next, and next... planning how much destruction he could perpetrate in a short period of time before he was stopped.

        I thought about that for a while.

-30-

anger habit

 

Albert Finney and Diana Keaton are in the above photograph from the 1982 movie, Shoot The Moon.

----------{disclaimer / alert} -------------- I'm going to talk about the ending scene of this movie, so if you think you want to watch it and be surprised, don't read this post; just check back with Blue Collar Lit. tomorrow. Thanks. ----------------------- [end of disclaimer / alert]

_______________________________

--------------------------------------------

I saw this movie when it first came out, in Boston. I think I went because Diane Keaton was in it, and I liked her in Annie Hall and Manhattan.

        Well, Shoot The Moon is no Woody Allen comedy - it is a drama about a couple that's getting divorced.  Critics liked it; not so much audiences.

It is very well acted and good in every way, in how it tells the story.  But it's a sad story.

The crazy thing for me was, seeing the whole movie on You Tube now, I totally did not remember at all the final, shocking scene.  (Thought maybe I was traumatized by it and it became one of those "repressed memories" or something....)

        Throughout the movie, you can see that these people truly did love each other and still do, in a way, but they just cannot get along.

        Resentment has built up over the years.  

        They have four children.

        Anyway, as the movie goes along:

the husband has a secret girlfriend

the wife finds out

they're both mad

he leaves the family home

they both hire lawyers and get on with divorce proceedings.

The wife, Faith (Diane Keaton)  has a tennis court built on the property.  The contractor she hires becomes her boyfriend.

        So then the husband George is all, like, mad because - well - he can have a girlfriend, but his ex-wife may not find love again... seems to be his attitude.

George's anger problems become apparent as the movie goes along.  He doesn't hit his wife, but he breaks some dishes, breaks a door down to get in the house, hits one of the kids.  

        Is his anger uncontrollable?  Or does he choose not to control it?  Like it's his privilege to have his way, and to throw a fit if he doesn't get it....?

After each event of anger and violence, either physical or verbal, the husband and wife at some point show love and consideration for each other again, and try to get along.

------------------------------ As the ending scene went, when George gets in his car and starts it up... I was shocked because I didn't remember that scene at. All.

There's a party going on, with lots of guests, at the family home where Faith and the four children live.  The party is outside, at night, by the tennis court.  There are lights all over, and tables of refreshments, somebody is playing some music, it's kind of relaxed and informal, people mingling.

Faith and George are talking.  Being nice.  She says he will have to come over to play tennis sometime and bring his new girlfriend (I can't remember her name).  But Diane Keaton says they're invited.  

You can tell both ex-wife and ex-husband are kind of feeling their way in the conversation, trying to create a new tradition of social friendship, since they aren't in their romantic relationship anymore and they each have a new love interest.  They are trying to "move on" and be "grown up about this."

Just trying, you know?

  

And when they say good-night and he goes and gets into his car, turns the ignition, lights on, he backs up - and starts barreling straight for some building - a barn, or garage, or large shed of some kind. 

        You think he's going to crash into the building and harm himself that way, but then he veers and starts driving all around the party area, crashing into picnic tables, and parked cars.  He doesn't look out for anyone, people are running, you see the guy with the guitar take off...  Fence around the tennis court - he drives straight into that, putting a big dent.

Then he finally crashes into something, I don't even know what it was, but a lot of stuff comes crashing down, and he and his car are buried under some of it, so the car is finally stopped.

Faith's boyfriend, then, the contractor, runs over there, fueled by anger and outrage, he starts picking up the big pieces of debris off the car and flinging them aside so he can get at George.

        He whacks the car with a chair, then throws the chair aside, hauls George out of the car and beats the hell out of him.

I was thinking there could kind of be three reasons the contractor was hitting George:

1. George was destroying the lady's property and spoiling her party

2. George destroyed the tennis court which he himself, (the contractor), had built.

and 3. to stop George from doing further damage.

-30-

you're the one

 

pineapple-cucumber salad

-----------------------------------------

__________________________

in a bowl:  pineapple chunks or slices

on cutting board:  cucumber slices

sprinkle on the cucumber slices:  lemon pepper, and garlic-and-herb mix

put cucumbers on top of the pineapple

sprinkle over:  grated Parmesan

        enjoy

- - - I invented that.

_____________________________

------------------------------------------------

        Thinking about the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

        Sometime in the early 1990s I drove out to the western part of the state where I live, to attend a meeting of educators, for the association I worked for, & take notes.  At the same time, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was scheduled to appear in that area.

        I went to their show - it was great, and afterwards I stood in line to meet the band members and - maybe buy something, I don't know - a T-shirt?  A cassette?  It was something, and the line was kind of long, but it was moving, so I thought, What the heck, I can meet the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members.

        Mostly you just say "Hi, great show!" and shake hands if they want to, and keep it moving, but one guy was kind of loquacious - he was sitting behind the table and he looked up at me and spoke in a friendly, outgoing manner and then told me I looked like Juliette Lewis.  

        She was an actress - I don't know if she still appears in movies, but at that time, she had been in several, including the Woody Allen film, Husbands And Wives, which I had seen.

        Of course I said, "Oh! - Thank you!" although I didn't think I looked like her, but it seemed like he was trying to give me a compliment, while "keeping it light" - like, not getting too personal.

Perhaps he told every girl she looked like some actress.

:  )

Kind of in that same time period, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played a show at the State Fair, which is in the town where I live.

        I was in the audience for that, and I loved it - it was great.

Afterwards, one of the band members was walking past where I was, down in the section in front of the stage - I went over and said to him I loved the concert, it was terrific, and I added, "In the 80s, I worked at a country music radio station, here, and I played so many of your songs!"  

And he said, as if he was pleasantly surprised, "Oh! - you're the one!"

In the decades since, I've heard other artists in - music, movies, book-writers, etc. - when someone says to them, 

I just bought your book,

or 

I have all your albums,

or 

whatever - they say, "Oh, you're the one!"

...being gracious, and humorous, and humble.

So - that's a thing, in the entertainment business.

        Of course, in the early 1990s when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guy said it to me, I thought he had just come up with that on the spur of the moment.... LOL

Juliette Lewis; Woody Allen, in the 1992 film Husbands And Wives

-30-

hey, hey, hey - that's what I say

 Taylor Swift and Mick Jagger performing "Satisfaction" onstage!

        you tube

        Taylor Swift & Mick Jagger - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

        (@Taylor Swift Tour Extras)

Her introduction is too long at the beginning, but the song is worth waiting for.

This was during her 2015 tour.

-30-

heaven holds a place for those who pray

 In The Graduate, the situation is Benjamin Braddock has just graduated from college, and he doesn't know what he should do next:

graduate school?

job?

find a girlfriend and contemplate marriage?

The thoughts he's having about it start to get kind of existential, like he cannot see a point to anything - he feels lost, directionless.

        His parents, at the beginning of the movie, are real happy that he has graduated and had good grades and was a "track star."  They throw a party for him, and all their friends are there, telling Ben how proud they are of him.

One asks, "What are you going to do now?"

Ben:  "I was just going to go upstairs for a minute."

A little later in the movie his parents' viewpoint seems to be changing, a little.  His mother tentatively asks where he goes at night; his dad tells him relaxing in the pool is OK for a young man, but after "a few weeks, I'd imagine he'd start to think about getting off his ass."

        Out on a date, Ben confides to the girl his insecurities about what to choose next in his life, saying, "The rules don't make any sense to me - they're being made up by all the wrong people.

        No! - I mean, no one makes them up, they seem to have made themselves up."

-30-

the superstar in rent-a-car

 

Last winter when the Reiner murders occurred in Brentwood, I thought, Wow, this is going to be the biggest trial since O.J.

        But that's wrong.  That was just a first impression that I had.

        The eventual trial - if it comes to that - of Rob Reiner's son Nick will be in the news, certainly, but it won't be nearly as big as the O.J. Simpson trial was in the '90s.

One difference, perhaps the main difference, is that O.J. Simpson was far more famous than Nick Reiner.  Nick Reiner was not famous at all, until the horrific murder of his parents.

In the Simpson case, the most famous person involved was the suspect.

In the Reiner case, the most famous person involved is one of the victims.

And the fame-spotlight and news coverage follows the suspect.

        The suspect is the person who is still alive that you can follow.  There's going to be no news about the victim - they're dead.

It's interesting to contemplate the fame of O.J. Simpson.  He represented a variety of talents and ideas and dreams that are attractive to many people.  He apparently could be this, that, or the other in private, but on the Big Screen of the public imagination he was a hero.

-30-

"just the Robinsons' affair"

 Mrs. Robinson calmly asking Benjamin, "Are you armed?" - just so funny.

These are - not - gun people.

        I have thought, since the first time I saw The Graduate, that while it's a movie that's considered to be kind of representative of 1960s America, it doesn't show my idea of the 1960s.

And I have a sort of awareness, or recognition, that my personal idea of "the Sixties" is probably sort of - 1968 to 1975.  That's a perspective probably common among people in my age group.

        Director Mike Nichols made The Graduate during the year 1967, and so the clothes, hairstyles, and even people's attitudes are more typical of the early '60s, which for a lot of us would be sort of - 1957 to 1966.  (Maybe 1967 was stood alone as an evolution point....)

Mike Nichols

-30-

a quick drink before you go

 

Towards the end of the movie The Graduate, the song "Mrs. Robinson" plays - I noticed today it has the Bo Diddley beat.

(Or, anyway, I thought it was the Bo Diddley beat.  But I Googled, asking "AI," and he - or she - or - it - told me I was right!  It said the version of the song on the album is more in a folk-rock style, but the version in the movie does, indeed, use the Bo Diddley beat.

        Yay!  I liked being right!  Then I thought, Oh, I shouldn't allow myself to enjoy being "right" too much, I don't want to turn into one of those people yelling about 'liberals' on the Internet. - ['I'm right I'm right Imright!!!!!!!"])

------------------------ Below is a description of one of my favorite scenes from this movie; if you think it might be a "spoiler" and you would rather be surprised later when you see the movie, then stop reading here, & join us tomorrow.

It isn't that much of a spoiler - this movie is not a thriller or horror movie - if you watch it from the beginning, you are going to kind of know where it's going....

Benjamin Braddock drives fast back to the L.A. suburb where the Robinsons live, because Elaine's parents are trying to keep her away from Ben and make her marry someone else, but Ben and Elaine are in love. 

So he drives there, goes to their house, hurries up the stairs, looking for Elaine, and gets to her bedroom and goes in and finds her mom, Mrs. Robinson in there, packing clothes in suitcases.

Mrs. Robinson shows no surprise at seeing him and says, with unnervingly calm aplomb, "Hello, Benjamin," while walking past him.

She picks up a telephone receiver.

Benjamin:  Where is she?

Mrs. R. (into the phone) - Hello, get me the police, please.

Ben:  Where is Elaine?

Mrs. R, to Ben:  I'll be with you in a moment Benjamin.

Mrs. R, into the phone:  Do you have a patrol car in the vicinity of 1200 Glenview Road? (pauses to listen) - Good.  We have a burglar here.

(pause) - Just a second, I'll ask him.  (she tilts her head back a little, from the phone receiver and addresses Benjamin) - "Are you armed?"

He just stands there and stares at her.

Mrs. R (into the phone) - No, I don't believe he is.  Thank you.

And hangs up.

Ben:  What have you done to her?

Mrs. R:  I think we have everything quite under control now Benjamin.  Would you like a quick drink before you go?

Ben:  You can't stop me from seeing her, Mrs. Robinson, I'll find her.

Mrs. R:  I'm sorry we won't be able to invite you to the wedding, Benjamin, but the arrangements have been so rushed.

Ben (getting mad) - What the hell have you -

[sound of car skidding to a hasty stop, outside]

Mrs. Robinson (sighs) then says:  I don't think you'll have time for that drink after all.

--------------------------------------------------

-30-

presence

 

There's a thing called screen presence.  Anne Bancroft has it, in The Graduate.

Bette Davis has it, in All About Eve.

-30-

"swaggerer"

 

        In the movie The Graduate, the main character, Benjamin Braddock (portrayed by Dustin Hoffman) has an Alfa Romeo "Spider" - an Italian sports car, that his dad gave him for his college graduation present.

(Nice, right?)

       Saw this movie a few times over the years, but there's a line in it near the beginning that I never noticed before this week.  The guy says it kind of fast, and there's party chatter in the background.

"That your car out front?  That little red wop job?"

        

        Whoa!  Way to slide a racial epithet into the conversation in a smooth, genial way.  Really, every time I've seen that movie, and I never noticed that before.

  I Googled it, just to make sure it's still a word that exists because I've never heard anyone say it except Archie Bunker on "All In The Family" and the party guest in The Graduate.  It comes up when you Google:  it says 'wop' is an "ethnic slur."

(They say ethnic slur; I say racial epithet.

Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.)

------------------------  [Internet] ----------- "Wop" is an offensive ethnic slur used against people of Italian birth or descent.  It can also refer to the popular 2011 hip-hop dance song by J. Dash....

+  Ethnic Slur:  Used in the United States since the early 20th Century to insult Italian-Americans.

+  Etymology:  Derived from the Neapolitan dialect word guappo (meaning a swaggerer, brawler, or tough guy), which came from the Spanish guapo.

...

+  Military Abbreviation:  Historically used in World War II records to designate a wireless operator.-------------------- [end / Internet excerpt]

        Great, now we have to Google "wireless"...it's some kind of radio, right?

-30-

a little worried

 

The poster for the 1967 movie The Graduate said, "This is Benjamin.  He's a little worried about his future."

It's an invitation to wonder how "Benjamin" will work this out. ...

-30-

are you here for an affair, sir?

 In The Graduate, when Benjamin Braddock takes Mrs. Robinson up on her offer to see him if he wants to call her, they meet at the Taft Hotel in Los Angeles.

        The clerk behind the counter asks Benjamin, "Are you here for an affair, sir?"

Benjamin (astounded) - What??!

        Of course, the clerk meant "affair" as in an event, like a wedding reception or whatever.

----------------------------- Benjamin is very nervous and shy and awkward and out of his element - (his "element" being school and his parents' house....)

As he and Mrs. Robinson sit at a table in the bar, he tries to order her a drink when a waiter walks by - putting up his hand with two fingers extended, to catch the waiter's attention, but he doesn't say anything and the waiter doesn't see his signal, and keeps walking.

Benjamin (apologetically, to Mrs. R.) - "He didn't see me."

Mrs. Robinson (calmly, firmly commanding) - "Waiter." (waiter turns around and comes over, attending to her) - "I will have a martini."

Yes.  Yes, indeed she will.  And there will be no two ways about it.  (lol)

-30-

days of August

 

4 things that happened and live murkily in my memory - two of them during the month of August:

December, 1967 -- the feature film, The Graduate appeared in theaters.

August 26 - 29, 1968 -- the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, accompanied by massive anti-war protests.

August 15 - 18, 1969 -- Woodstock, 3 Days of Peace and Music in upstate New York.

September 24, 1969 -- the trial of the Chicago 7 began.

-30-

police riot

 

Jerry Rubin

Abbie Hoffman

Tom Hayden

Bobby Seale

Judge Julius Hoffman

        The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is on Netflix.

        Recommended.

                It could be good to watch this back-to-back with Best Of Enemies - that debate documentary with Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, also on Netflix.

-30-

"a little secret, just the Robinsons' affair"

 

Simon and Garfunkel wrote - and sang - all the songs for the movie, The Graduate.

On You Tube, a video titled:

Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel- Lyrics

channel / uploader:  @Tina05vs1

The song plays with scenes from the movie.

Enjoy.

-30-

reason will always fall short

 
Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in The Graduate

When the movie The Graduate came out, I was nine or 10 years old, and I remember seeing an advertisement in the newspaper for it.

        When I was seventeen or eighteen years old, the History teacher in high school told our class about The Graduate.

        I think he kind of went through the whole movie, and was very enthusiastic and exuberant about the ending scene.  He was laughing and smiling and was just so into it. ...

        And - my memory is uncertain, but I believe he mentioned to us that the music in the movie was written and performed by Simon & Garfunkel.

A few years later, while I was living in Boston, I went to see The Graduate at a second-run movie theater.

Then several decades went by wherein I didn't watch The Graduate.  And now, in recent years, I see it every time it comes onto Amazon Prime Video.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

On You Tube, there are a bunch of videos analyzing The Graduate. 

A viewer comment under one of them says:

----------------- Reason will always fall short when grappling with the level of beauty and mystery emanating from sublime works of art.  "The Graduate" is no exception.  It remains, and always will remain elusive.  In the finest sense of the word. -----------------------------------

The film's director, Mike Nichols, said "It's the great American danger we're all in.  That we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it."

_________________________________________

-  "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.

    Aren't you?"

-30-

unexpected, ongoing noise

 I was listening to (and part-time watching) a 1970s situation-comedy on You Tube, and there was a scene where the husband-and-wife main characters had a disagreement in the kitchen and they start throwing dishes on the floor real hard, so that they break.

It's played for laughs, of course, but it caused me to remember a sort of incident that happened many years ago, which I did not find funny, but rather, puzzling and dismaying.

        I was a student at Boston University, and part of my financial aid was my being in the Work-Study program, where you work for a professor.  I typed a lot of stuff for this guy, who was originally from Poland and came to America after World War II.

 

He invited me to rent an apartment in his basement in the Brookline home where he and his wife lived.  He said, Get a roommate, because there are two bedrooms.  He wanted two rent checks, not just one.

        I found a roommate, and we moved in.  It was very nice, for students who aren't making a living yet.  An apartment in the "basement" doesn't sound too fancy - but it was good.  The windows were partially above ground, so we had sunlight, and although there wasn't any air conditioning, our space was plenty cool in the hot, humid Boston summertimes, just naturally, from being partly underground.

It was fine.

        Then one night when I was home alone - my roommate spent some nights at her boyfriend's apartment (they got married later so it's ok) - suddenly I heard all this noise of crashing, banging, breaking dishes coming from upstairs on the main floor.

I was like, 'What the - - - ?!...?'

        I exited my small bedroom, and went out into the living room - dining room area where my stereo and record albums were, along with sofa, dining room table, and art prints on the walls...

I looked up at the ceiling - as if I'm going to be able to see what's going on,..lol 

The crashing and banging and smashing continued... the wife was yelling at the husband, in an exasperated, distressed, desperate tone, and I heard him say calmly, "I don't ever hear you talk to your friends this way...."

        I was a little scared, and intimidated, and kind of embarrassed.

I lived there for two and a half years, and that was the only time that occurred, at least when I was home to hear it.

I found it weird.

I didn't grow up in a home where people threw things or broke dishes.

I didn't know what to make of it.

        I didn't really "know" either the husband or the wife.  I worked for the husband, at school, and felt comfortable to be in his office in the School of Public Communications (SPC).  It felt just normal, and OK.

When I met his wife, I did find her vibe to be a little scary.  She seemed tense with a lot of anger, and spoke like Katharine Hepburn.  (This is not a knock on Hepburn, I'm just saying, that - certain - accent....I never knew if it was real, or put on.)

-30-

time out of mind

 ---------------------------- [excerpt from Chronicles, by Bob Dylan.  Simon & Schuster, 2004.] ------------------------

I didn't know what age of history we were in nor what the truth of it was.  Nobody bothered with that.  If you told the truth, that was all well and good and if you told the un-truth, well, that's still well and good.  

Folk songs had taught me that.  

As for what time it was, it was always just beginning to be daylight and I knew a little bit about history, too - the history of a few nations and states - and it was always the same pattern.  

        Some early archaic period where society grows and develops and thrives, then some classical period where the society reaches its maturation point and then a slacking off period where decadence makes things fall apart.  

I had no idea which one of these stages America was in.  

There was nobody to check with.  

A certain rude rhythm was making it all sway, though.  

It was pointless to think about it.  

Whatever you were thinking could be dead wrong.

-30-