There are only a few movies that will make me stop my mindless channel surfing and Cool Hand Luke is one of them. Cable had it on heavy rotation this last weekend and when I hit upon I knew I was going to be late for a dinner party at a friend's house. No way can you leave right in the middle of Luke eating those eggs!
Great movies and great books are like that. You can see or read them again and again and you always get something new out of them.
And that's what we are all trying to do right? Live the life day to day and get something meaningful out of it. See the rerun that is our life and hope to catch that spark, that moment of pleasure that makes you pause and say, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Yeah, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
3 comments:
Hey, Mark--so true about rewatching or rereading old favorites. We find something new in them every time, not only because, once we know how the plot will resolve itself, we can allow ourselves to focus on other (enriching) details, but also because we change, personally, from one viewing or reading to the next.
For example, my blood pressure was much lower and my enjoyment level much higher when I recently watched BABEL for the second time.
***SPOILER ALERT***
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Once I knew I didn't have to worry about every kid in the movie ending up dead as the result of a stupid adult decision, I was able to fully appreciate the extraordinary sound editing and film editing as well as the subtle time-sequence games the director played with our swimming heads.
Oh, to spin a novel (and better yet one that eventually becomes a film!) the equivalent of your COOL HAND LUKE and my BABEL. Write on!
Mark,
My husband has never seen this movie (can you believe it?) so we put it on the top of our Net Flix queue. I couldn't wait to watch his face during the "egg scene". And for any of us that have a decent character sitting around in jail, awaiting the aid of our sleuths, then that movie is not one to miss for dialogue and a sense of dirt, boredom, labor, and fellowship.
Hi Mark,
Movie-wise, it's NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION. I cannot get tired of watching it, and have probably memorized every line of dialogue. For books, it's RED DRAGON by Thomas Harris. I've read it many times and would have no problem reading it again. I remember the first time, I would stop occasionally and look at Mr. Harris' picture on the back, and wonder what was going through his mind when he wrote what I consider one of the scariest books ever.
BTW, my wife's favorite movie of all time is COOL HAND LUKE. If it's on, I'm not allowed to speak. :-)
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