2011_5_2 Death, the Sublime
“Departures” is a story about an ex-cello player from Tokyo, Daigo, who returns to his hometown in rural Japan, Yamagata, to start over in the house his mother left to him when she died. His wife Mika was quite willing to leave Tokyo, or at least she tells him she is. Later we learned differently. He needs employment of course, so not long after they settle in he goes to an establishment he thinks is some kind of Travel Agency called DEPARTURES. But it turns out the owner was looking for a trainee for encoffinment, a person to perform the ceremony of preparing a dead body for its “send off,” which is performed in front of the family. It is a practice that has largely disappeared from the big cities of Japan but is still alive in the rural areas. He of course is horrified at the very idea of working with dead bodies, but he needs a job quickly so he decides to take it but keep it secret from his wife, which works for a little while; but when she finds out she is repulsed by him, because he’s touched dead bodies. His employer and mentor on the job had told Daigo “You were born to do this.” He has begun to believe it. Since he refuses to look for other employment she up and leaves him, going to live with her mother.
His journey from an ex-cello player who performed in concerts to a master of enconffinment is fraught with doubts, upsets and gradual improvement in his craft, as it eventually connects with his artistic bent. The first body he cleans, a very pretty young woman, shocks him by having a penis; the second is an old women who has been dead for two weeks, which makes him retch; and in another case he gets caught in a family squabble about the victim’s death.
The owner of the business, Sasaki, a man in his fifties, befriends Diago and considered him his apprentice and brings him along slowly and patiently, being a very understanding mentor to the young man who never expected to be in this circumstance. He keeps telling Daigo he was born to preform this service. The owner isn’t a warm and fuzzy kind of guy, but he is soberly caring and affectionate in his fashion. He shares a meal with Daigo and tells him to remember “the living eat the dead.” He is obviously pleased with how his young apprentice treats the deceased, reverently, with grace, and utmost skill and sense of beauty and ritual. He will make the grade. Eventually Daigo sees himself as “the gatekeeper to the next stage.” As William Blake said as an old man, “Death is like moving to the next room.”
I loved the movie for dealing with a taboo subject, for its sensitivity, and for portraying the Japanese aesthetic sense, which permeates everything to one degree or another.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
To Kill or Be Killed
2011_6_06 Kill or Be Killed
One of the great features of NETFLIX is it helps you catch up on films you missed when they were first released. “Descending Angel” was a HBO film that was released in 1990. I have no recollection of it at all, even though it stars George C. Scott and Diane Lane, a very lovely actress. I decided to order it to check it out and I am sure glad I did but for reasons I hadn’t anticipated. It was a story that looked back at the Second World War, and it reminded me of the novel by Jonathan Littell, THE KINDLY ONES, especially the opening chapter called “Tocata,” where a justification of the Holocaust was offered by an ex-Nazi, a German Officer, who managed to blend end with population at the end of the war. The main character of “Descending Angel,” Florian Strola (George C. Scott) who made it to the U.S. after the war, becoming a very successful antique dealer, was a Romanian Nazi collaborator and a now a prominent member of the local Romanian community. He has successfully covered up his past, just like the German officer of the novel, to the degree even his adult daughter, Irina (Diane Lane), knows nothing about it, seeing him as a survivor of Buchenwald, and that’s all, which was the story he has spun to cover his tracks. But trouble comes in the form of Michael Rossi (Eric Roberts), a young man Irina has fallen in love with and who she brings home to meet her father, hoping to get his blessing. The two men do not hit it off. He then meets a bitter survivor of the camps who witnessed the truth about Florian and his Iron Guard: he actually participated in the slaughter of local Jews. The Bishop at Florian’s church opens a file in the basement of the church and let’s Rossi read it; it further implicates Florian. When Rossi finds out the truth of Florian’s background he confronts the older man who explains what he did this way: “ Things were different then. I was in a world where there were only two kinds of people, those who killed and those who were killed. You have to understand that!” But Rossi finds the old man’s attitude a moral outrage; he has no patience with the old man, as such a rationalization turns his stomach. But it is exactly the explanation offered by the German Officer, albeit with more detail and shrewdness. When I first read the justification, which was so thoroughgoing and stated with such certainty, I was blown away by it. How could the human mind be so morally wayward as to accept the conditions of the Holocaust?
For the sake of comparison with Florian here is a portion of his explanation of why he did what he did.
“What I did, I did with my eyes wide open, believing that it was my duty and that it had to be done, disagreeable or unpleasant as it may be. For that is what total war means: there is no such thing as a civilian, and the only difference between the Jewish child gassed or shot and a German child burned alive in an air raid is one of method; both deaths were equally vain, neither of them shortened the war by as much as a second; but in both cases, the man or men who killed them believed it was just and necessary; and if they were wrong, who’s to blame...I do not regret anything; I did my work, that’s all…I probably did go little far too far toward the end, but by that point I was no longer entirely myself, I was off-balance, and anyhow the whole world was toppling around me. I wasn’t the only one who lost his head…”
And like Florian, the German Officer became respectable, married, had a family and became a successful businessman in, of all things, lace manufacturing.
The rest of “Descending Angel” was rather predictable, with Florian paying a heavy price for his big lie. But the main point of the movie for me was the monstrous justification both characters offer for their actions during the war. Yet, I would not like to be caught up in a similar circumstance. How do I know for an absolute certainty that is a killer isn’t hidden inside me? I don’t. We all have to recognize this as a possibility.
One of the great features of NETFLIX is it helps you catch up on films you missed when they were first released. “Descending Angel” was a HBO film that was released in 1990. I have no recollection of it at all, even though it stars George C. Scott and Diane Lane, a very lovely actress. I decided to order it to check it out and I am sure glad I did but for reasons I hadn’t anticipated. It was a story that looked back at the Second World War, and it reminded me of the novel by Jonathan Littell, THE KINDLY ONES, especially the opening chapter called “Tocata,” where a justification of the Holocaust was offered by an ex-Nazi, a German Officer, who managed to blend end with population at the end of the war. The main character of “Descending Angel,” Florian Strola (George C. Scott) who made it to the U.S. after the war, becoming a very successful antique dealer, was a Romanian Nazi collaborator and a now a prominent member of the local Romanian community. He has successfully covered up his past, just like the German officer of the novel, to the degree even his adult daughter, Irina (Diane Lane), knows nothing about it, seeing him as a survivor of Buchenwald, and that’s all, which was the story he has spun to cover his tracks. But trouble comes in the form of Michael Rossi (Eric Roberts), a young man Irina has fallen in love with and who she brings home to meet her father, hoping to get his blessing. The two men do not hit it off. He then meets a bitter survivor of the camps who witnessed the truth about Florian and his Iron Guard: he actually participated in the slaughter of local Jews. The Bishop at Florian’s church opens a file in the basement of the church and let’s Rossi read it; it further implicates Florian. When Rossi finds out the truth of Florian’s background he confronts the older man who explains what he did this way: “ Things were different then. I was in a world where there were only two kinds of people, those who killed and those who were killed. You have to understand that!” But Rossi finds the old man’s attitude a moral outrage; he has no patience with the old man, as such a rationalization turns his stomach. But it is exactly the explanation offered by the German Officer, albeit with more detail and shrewdness. When I first read the justification, which was so thoroughgoing and stated with such certainty, I was blown away by it. How could the human mind be so morally wayward as to accept the conditions of the Holocaust?
For the sake of comparison with Florian here is a portion of his explanation of why he did what he did.
“What I did, I did with my eyes wide open, believing that it was my duty and that it had to be done, disagreeable or unpleasant as it may be. For that is what total war means: there is no such thing as a civilian, and the only difference between the Jewish child gassed or shot and a German child burned alive in an air raid is one of method; both deaths were equally vain, neither of them shortened the war by as much as a second; but in both cases, the man or men who killed them believed it was just and necessary; and if they were wrong, who’s to blame...I do not regret anything; I did my work, that’s all…I probably did go little far too far toward the end, but by that point I was no longer entirely myself, I was off-balance, and anyhow the whole world was toppling around me. I wasn’t the only one who lost his head…”
And like Florian, the German Officer became respectable, married, had a family and became a successful businessman in, of all things, lace manufacturing.
The rest of “Descending Angel” was rather predictable, with Florian paying a heavy price for his big lie. But the main point of the movie for me was the monstrous justification both characters offer for their actions during the war. Yet, I would not like to be caught up in a similar circumstance. How do I know for an absolute certainty that is a killer isn’t hidden inside me? I don’t. We all have to recognize this as a possibility.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The End od the wallader Saga
2011_5_12 The End of the Wallander Saga
In THE TROUBLED MAN Kurt Wallander, Henning Mankell’s chief detective and ace investigator, is up against a clever Navy man, a retired commander of submarines that prowled the depths of the Baltic Sea. Interwoven with this spy story and contest between wits and wills, is a lot of personal stuff dealing with Wallander: his relationship with his daughter, Linda, and Klara her baby, his first grandchild; his long-lost girl friend from Latvia who is dying of cancer; his contact with old friends and associates who help him with his case; and his neurotic preoccupation with growing old and worrying glimpses of frightening mental deterioration. He’s only 60 but he talks like he is older than that, plus the thought of death unhinges him often. He’s concerned about mental lapses, short blackouts, and persistent problems with his memory. The anxiety that these concerns bring on keeps him, when he is away from work, in a state of debilitating gloom. Living alone is no help, so he gets a dog for company. These are all traits that have been present all along with the man, but things seem more acute and moving toward a crescendo of some kind. Only when he is involved with a case do his faculties brighten and come into play and he becomes proactive, energized, moving forward and less subject to the Blues.
Wallander’s introduction to the Commander is at his 75th birthday party at his home. The two men, neither feeling very social, retreat to his study, at which time the Commander, whose name is Hanak von Enke, relates unsolicited a story about a trapped foreign submarine back in 1980, while the Cold War was still with us, that has bugged him over the years, disturbed him because he has never gotten an explanation from higher ups what happened and why it happened. Wallander doesn’t understand why his telling him about this incident but he listen and tries to remember all the details. The Commander had the sub in a position where it could not get away without detection; it was in Swedish waters and he was about to force it to surface so they find out who dares snoop in Swedish waters. But suddenly he receives word from Command Center to back off. He questions the order but they tell him to just do it and of course he obeys the command and sub gets away. Wallander notices that he seems rather nervous while he relates these events, as if he was in danger for some reason. He also catches a glimpse of a man outside under a streetlight. Could it be the house was under surveillance? The next day Hanak von Enke disappears while he is taking his morning walk. Foul play is suspected, but no body has shown up. A few weeks later his wife, Louise, also disappears and her disappearance is equally perplexing. However, a short time later her body is found in some bushes and some classified material is found in her purse in a secret compartment. The verdict is she committed suicide because sleeping pills are found at the scene. The scene doesn’t smell right to Wallander but those papers in her purse force him to consider the idea that she could have been the Russian spy. Her suspects murder but he has to wait to find out how it was accomplished.
The story of the mysterious sub back in 1980 is more a diversionary tactic than anything else to throw Wallander off the scent. Von Enke knew damn well whose sub that was and it wasn’t the Soviets. As for Wallander, as he gets sucked into the case and the more he finds out the more things are not what they seem, but he can’t quite put his finger on what is going on. But when one of the Commander’s best friends mentions a tiny island off the coast of Ystad and that anyone could disappear there and never be found. The remark was innocent but Wallander decides to check it out and sure enough the Commander is living in a cottage on the island. Another long conversation ensues. When Wallander mentions the documents found in his wife’s purse Hanak launches into a long explanation about he has suspected her for a long time. He goes into detail about his suspicions. Wallander is close to being persuaded. Hanak advises him to se a CIA Agent in Berlin named George Talboth.
Talboth, a slick 72-year-old ex-operative, backs Hanak’s story about suspecting Louise as the Russian spy. He said for years they had tried to find a female but never turned one up. But on the way back to Sweden the detective had one of his flashes, where he sees the true nature of the case. He understand he has been barking up the wrong tree, so he goes back to the island, only this time he takes Hanak’s best friend with him, a man named Sten Norlander, who he stations outside the cottage. So Kurt confronts him with his new theory. He tells the Commander the submarine wasn’t Russian; it was American and he has been a spy for them for many years because he probably felt Sweden would need the protection of the most powerful nation on earth in case of a Soviet incursion. As for Louise’s death it was murder. An ex-member of Stasi in East Germany had told him they developed a kind of poison that could be put in sleeping pills and could not be detected. It was used when they eliminated someone and they wanted it to look like suicide. He probably instructed the CIA to take care of his wife. As we all know spying is a ruthless business. Hanak went to the fridge to get a beer but when he turned around he had a gun. Before Wallander could respond he puts it in his mouth and fires. But the bullet only goes through his mouth and cheek. At this point Sten has entered the cottage. Kurt tells him to keep pressure on the wound and he’ll get help, but he hears two gunshots before he reaches his boat. He runs back and finds Sten, who had heard everything, had shot his best friend in the forehead and turned the gun on himself. End of story.
When the bodies were found there was nothing there to indicate Wallander’s presence in the room. After all he was there while he was actually on vacation. No one would expect him to be there. He spent the next 8 months putting together his final thoughts on the case. It ended up being 212 pages and he mailed it to the detective in charge of the case, who had become a friend. He didn’t sign it but he’d know who wrote it. Otherwise he saw Linda a lot and delighted in his new granddaughter. He was also aware that he was slipping toward darkness; all the symptoms were growing more intense and more frequent. Eventually Alzheimer has its way with him. He lived on to 70 but he was no longer the Kurt Wallander we had all come to know and appreciate.
I suppose Alzheimer fits with his depressive personality, but even so I wish he could have gone out in a gunfight or by a heart attack while playing with Klara out in the garden, like Brando in “The Godfather.” On the other hand I knew what was coming, as there are plenty of indications how he was going to turn out. He will be missed.
In THE TROUBLED MAN Kurt Wallander, Henning Mankell’s chief detective and ace investigator, is up against a clever Navy man, a retired commander of submarines that prowled the depths of the Baltic Sea. Interwoven with this spy story and contest between wits and wills, is a lot of personal stuff dealing with Wallander: his relationship with his daughter, Linda, and Klara her baby, his first grandchild; his long-lost girl friend from Latvia who is dying of cancer; his contact with old friends and associates who help him with his case; and his neurotic preoccupation with growing old and worrying glimpses of frightening mental deterioration. He’s only 60 but he talks like he is older than that, plus the thought of death unhinges him often. He’s concerned about mental lapses, short blackouts, and persistent problems with his memory. The anxiety that these concerns bring on keeps him, when he is away from work, in a state of debilitating gloom. Living alone is no help, so he gets a dog for company. These are all traits that have been present all along with the man, but things seem more acute and moving toward a crescendo of some kind. Only when he is involved with a case do his faculties brighten and come into play and he becomes proactive, energized, moving forward and less subject to the Blues.
Wallander’s introduction to the Commander is at his 75th birthday party at his home. The two men, neither feeling very social, retreat to his study, at which time the Commander, whose name is Hanak von Enke, relates unsolicited a story about a trapped foreign submarine back in 1980, while the Cold War was still with us, that has bugged him over the years, disturbed him because he has never gotten an explanation from higher ups what happened and why it happened. Wallander doesn’t understand why his telling him about this incident but he listen and tries to remember all the details. The Commander had the sub in a position where it could not get away without detection; it was in Swedish waters and he was about to force it to surface so they find out who dares snoop in Swedish waters. But suddenly he receives word from Command Center to back off. He questions the order but they tell him to just do it and of course he obeys the command and sub gets away. Wallander notices that he seems rather nervous while he relates these events, as if he was in danger for some reason. He also catches a glimpse of a man outside under a streetlight. Could it be the house was under surveillance? The next day Hanak von Enke disappears while he is taking his morning walk. Foul play is suspected, but no body has shown up. A few weeks later his wife, Louise, also disappears and her disappearance is equally perplexing. However, a short time later her body is found in some bushes and some classified material is found in her purse in a secret compartment. The verdict is she committed suicide because sleeping pills are found at the scene. The scene doesn’t smell right to Wallander but those papers in her purse force him to consider the idea that she could have been the Russian spy. Her suspects murder but he has to wait to find out how it was accomplished.
The story of the mysterious sub back in 1980 is more a diversionary tactic than anything else to throw Wallander off the scent. Von Enke knew damn well whose sub that was and it wasn’t the Soviets. As for Wallander, as he gets sucked into the case and the more he finds out the more things are not what they seem, but he can’t quite put his finger on what is going on. But when one of the Commander’s best friends mentions a tiny island off the coast of Ystad and that anyone could disappear there and never be found. The remark was innocent but Wallander decides to check it out and sure enough the Commander is living in a cottage on the island. Another long conversation ensues. When Wallander mentions the documents found in his wife’s purse Hanak launches into a long explanation about he has suspected her for a long time. He goes into detail about his suspicions. Wallander is close to being persuaded. Hanak advises him to se a CIA Agent in Berlin named George Talboth.
Talboth, a slick 72-year-old ex-operative, backs Hanak’s story about suspecting Louise as the Russian spy. He said for years they had tried to find a female but never turned one up. But on the way back to Sweden the detective had one of his flashes, where he sees the true nature of the case. He understand he has been barking up the wrong tree, so he goes back to the island, only this time he takes Hanak’s best friend with him, a man named Sten Norlander, who he stations outside the cottage. So Kurt confronts him with his new theory. He tells the Commander the submarine wasn’t Russian; it was American and he has been a spy for them for many years because he probably felt Sweden would need the protection of the most powerful nation on earth in case of a Soviet incursion. As for Louise’s death it was murder. An ex-member of Stasi in East Germany had told him they developed a kind of poison that could be put in sleeping pills and could not be detected. It was used when they eliminated someone and they wanted it to look like suicide. He probably instructed the CIA to take care of his wife. As we all know spying is a ruthless business. Hanak went to the fridge to get a beer but when he turned around he had a gun. Before Wallander could respond he puts it in his mouth and fires. But the bullet only goes through his mouth and cheek. At this point Sten has entered the cottage. Kurt tells him to keep pressure on the wound and he’ll get help, but he hears two gunshots before he reaches his boat. He runs back and finds Sten, who had heard everything, had shot his best friend in the forehead and turned the gun on himself. End of story.
When the bodies were found there was nothing there to indicate Wallander’s presence in the room. After all he was there while he was actually on vacation. No one would expect him to be there. He spent the next 8 months putting together his final thoughts on the case. It ended up being 212 pages and he mailed it to the detective in charge of the case, who had become a friend. He didn’t sign it but he’d know who wrote it. Otherwise he saw Linda a lot and delighted in his new granddaughter. He was also aware that he was slipping toward darkness; all the symptoms were growing more intense and more frequent. Eventually Alzheimer has its way with him. He lived on to 70 but he was no longer the Kurt Wallander we had all come to know and appreciate.
I suppose Alzheimer fits with his depressive personality, but even so I wish he could have gone out in a gunfight or by a heart attack while playing with Klara out in the garden, like Brando in “The Godfather.” On the other hand I knew what was coming, as there are plenty of indications how he was going to turn out. He will be missed.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
You Can Go home Again
2011_5_05 You Can Go Home Again
Peter Weir made one of my favorite thrillers, “Witness.” He has a reputation of being one of the best directors to come from Australia. But he hasn’t made a movie in seven years. His ‘comeback’ choice for a movie was a script based on a fantastic true story, a prison break followed by a long trek home. However, this was no garden-variety escape from prison; this prison was a Gulag, one of 450 concentration camps that Joe Stalin had built in Soviet Siberia, and the long trek home was a 4000 mile walk through formidable and punishing environments. A small band of multinational prisoners manage to escape in the middle of winter and begin a walk in a southerly direction and with no compass to guide them. The title of the movie says it all, “The Way Back.” The subtitle could be “Absolute Determination.”
The journey began in 1941. After fleeing the guards and dogs they first had to walk through the frozen forests of Siberia; then negotiate Mongolia and the Gobi Desert; and then, last but not least, they had to cross Tibet and the Himalayas, finally ending up in Darjeeling in Northern India.
The natural leader of the group was a young Polish officer named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) who was in the Gulag because his wife was tortured and forced to say he was a spy. He knew how to survive in the wilds and his will to survive was an example to the others, who were more inclined to give in to starvation and exhaustion. There was an older American in the group they called “Mister” (Ed Harris) and a Russian criminal, Valka (Colin Farrell), the only man in the band who possessed a knife, a weapon and tool that would come in handy during their journey. Another Russian was an artist who recorded their journey with drawings all along the way south. A Russian teenager who started with the group was lost in a blinding snowstorm and froze to death. A young Polish girl, Irena (Saoirse Ronan), was picked up along the way. Mister thinks they should leave her, for she would be a liability to the group, but he ends up having very fatherly feelings toward her. She made it as far as halfway across the Gobi Desert where her frailness was no longer equal to the task and she dies. Valka had left the band early on, once they are out of Siberia. He wanted to return to Mother Russia and had decided to take his chances there. He was quite a character as well as being ruthless inside the Gulag. His body is covered with tattoos, including a large picture of Stalin on his chest. He nearly kills one of his fellow travelers who spoke ill of the dictator. Valka said Stalin robs the rich and gives to the poor, which was a rather naive view of the Soviet tyrant. Farrell plays him with steely-eyed intensity and with a touch of madness.
Naturally, food and water were always in short supply. The band ate bugs, sucked on tree bark, enjoyed snake meat, and once even feasted on a deer. Their clothes were in tatters by the end of their ‘long march.’ Their shoes were pitiful, the cause of bloody toes, which was a constant problem for everyone.
One thing my wife appreciated in the story was the least hint of lust after Irena joined the band. She was treated as one of the group, period. But they are all saddened by her death. Sex was the last thing on the men’s minds; it was a luxury no one could afford.
My wife saw the movie with me right after she had watched “Survivor” on CBS TV. As a result the movie grabbed her emotionally right away. She was attentive all the way and in tears a couple of times. I could not resist teasing her a bit about survival as a parlor game played by scantily clad young women and young six pack males on a tropical Island while all of them struggle for the big bucks at the end of the rainbow, as opposed the reality of survival as the real thing, an honest-to-god life or death struggle, as “The Way Back” exemplified and illustrated.
Peter Weir made one of my favorite thrillers, “Witness.” He has a reputation of being one of the best directors to come from Australia. But he hasn’t made a movie in seven years. His ‘comeback’ choice for a movie was a script based on a fantastic true story, a prison break followed by a long trek home. However, this was no garden-variety escape from prison; this prison was a Gulag, one of 450 concentration camps that Joe Stalin had built in Soviet Siberia, and the long trek home was a 4000 mile walk through formidable and punishing environments. A small band of multinational prisoners manage to escape in the middle of winter and begin a walk in a southerly direction and with no compass to guide them. The title of the movie says it all, “The Way Back.” The subtitle could be “Absolute Determination.”
The journey began in 1941. After fleeing the guards and dogs they first had to walk through the frozen forests of Siberia; then negotiate Mongolia and the Gobi Desert; and then, last but not least, they had to cross Tibet and the Himalayas, finally ending up in Darjeeling in Northern India.
The natural leader of the group was a young Polish officer named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) who was in the Gulag because his wife was tortured and forced to say he was a spy. He knew how to survive in the wilds and his will to survive was an example to the others, who were more inclined to give in to starvation and exhaustion. There was an older American in the group they called “Mister” (Ed Harris) and a Russian criminal, Valka (Colin Farrell), the only man in the band who possessed a knife, a weapon and tool that would come in handy during their journey. Another Russian was an artist who recorded their journey with drawings all along the way south. A Russian teenager who started with the group was lost in a blinding snowstorm and froze to death. A young Polish girl, Irena (Saoirse Ronan), was picked up along the way. Mister thinks they should leave her, for she would be a liability to the group, but he ends up having very fatherly feelings toward her. She made it as far as halfway across the Gobi Desert where her frailness was no longer equal to the task and she dies. Valka had left the band early on, once they are out of Siberia. He wanted to return to Mother Russia and had decided to take his chances there. He was quite a character as well as being ruthless inside the Gulag. His body is covered with tattoos, including a large picture of Stalin on his chest. He nearly kills one of his fellow travelers who spoke ill of the dictator. Valka said Stalin robs the rich and gives to the poor, which was a rather naive view of the Soviet tyrant. Farrell plays him with steely-eyed intensity and with a touch of madness.
Naturally, food and water were always in short supply. The band ate bugs, sucked on tree bark, enjoyed snake meat, and once even feasted on a deer. Their clothes were in tatters by the end of their ‘long march.’ Their shoes were pitiful, the cause of bloody toes, which was a constant problem for everyone.
One thing my wife appreciated in the story was the least hint of lust after Irena joined the band. She was treated as one of the group, period. But they are all saddened by her death. Sex was the last thing on the men’s minds; it was a luxury no one could afford.
My wife saw the movie with me right after she had watched “Survivor” on CBS TV. As a result the movie grabbed her emotionally right away. She was attentive all the way and in tears a couple of times. I could not resist teasing her a bit about survival as a parlor game played by scantily clad young women and young six pack males on a tropical Island while all of them struggle for the big bucks at the end of the rainbow, as opposed the reality of survival as the real thing, an honest-to-god life or death struggle, as “The Way Back” exemplified and illustrated.
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