"Once" is forever
Wednesday January 2, 2008
Categories: Culture
On New Year's Eve, Julie and I rented the film "Once," a handmade musical set on the streets of Dublin. It is hands down the most wonderful film I've seen since I can't remember when, and I can't urge you...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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watching honorable people behave honorably
Nice! Adding it to the queue - thanks.
I found the movie "The Holiday", particularly the Jack Black/Kate Winslet storyline, endearing for much the same reason - the characters are fundamentally decent people, and that's pretty rare these days.
I've been a fan of Glen Hansard and his band 'The Frames' for many years. They are one of the best live rock acts I've ever seen. And although I don't perhaps like "Once" as much as you do, Rod, it's definitely one of the better films of 2007 and is well worth a look. One caveat: there are quite a few F-bombs dropped during the film. This is no doubt realistic -- I've worked in bands with Irish musicians and a lot of them do talk like Glen does in the movie. But if you're a viewer who may be sensitive to such things, take this into consideration before watching, so you won't be taken by surprise.
Thanks for the caveat, Rob G. I suspect the f-word within a generation will be like "crap," and not cause convulsions and hysteria and blushing. It will even be heard from the pulpit, and likely already peppers a lot of the sermons in "emergent/emerging" churches.
It has more uses and ways it can be used than possibly any other word I can think of.
But I am not looking forward to that day, as our language and writing and speaking skills already border on the illiterate or subliterate, and the last thing we need is for the f-word to come in and wholesale take over a lot of the words in our speech. Sure, we'll be able to communicate, but it's still a debasing of the language.
I'm still pulling for "set" as the most versatile word.
"Honorable people behaving honorably?" When people talk about honor hold onto your wife or your wallet because they are after one or the other.
Eric, I agree wholeheartedly. The debasing of language in any manner is a bad thing for society.
Rod, I just watched this as well. Very very fine film. I was so glad and relieved with how the author handled the plot. The protagonists were very honorable people. The music was transcendent. I've love the scene where they play on the piano in the music store. My 16 year old musician does that all the time at Guitar Center here in Dallas. Very fine film
I also recommend the Savages about young people caring for an aging parent. It's an interesting film, but very sad in many ways.
I saw "Once" last summer, and it was charming, Rod. Good soundtrack, too.
billh, I saw "The Savages" on New Year's Day. My brother and I are taking care of our aging mother, though, thank God, she is not dying, nor in a nursing home, but I could definitely relate to the sad and funny story.
I also recommend "Juno," which is written by a former stripper. It may not be the "Little Miss Sunshine" of 2007, but it is close.
I used to get "The Weekly Standard," because a conservative friend got me a subscription. There were some great articles, but the ideological slant became tedious after a while. However, someone needs to stand up for Israel's right to exist, since virtually everyone to the left of center has jumped on the ridiculous anti-Israel bandwagon.
Alicia, re: the Savages, I loved the line by the son character about why they were caring for their dad despite the fact he'd be a pretty big louse as a father, "We're doing the right thing and taking better care of him than he ever did of us." This is going to be a very important character test of us baby boomers. I commend you and your brother for taking good care of your mom.
Thanks, billh. I also loved the lack of sentimentality of the story. Don't want to say too much, for those who haven't seen it, but there were also some very funny moments. If you haven't seen it, "Away from Her" starring Julie Christie, is also excellent.
I saw it when it was in the cinema but do not remember many occurrences of the f word. Maybe I'll watch the copy I bought my mum for Christmas before I head home from my break and see if my sensitivity is any higher.
O.k it in my queue now, it looks sappy, is this a chick flick?
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