Got him to watch a couple of classic, classics. One from the 70's and one from the 60's. Both war films. The day after the 4th, while we were both nursing headaches of grand proportion (why? It's a mystery), he asks "wanna watch a movie?" I must have signaled ok because the next thing you know he was flipping through the library looking for a film. "How about this?" he asks. I look up, squinting through the sunlight I see he's on Redux. I manage an "ugh, not that one. The other one." And just like that were watching
Apocalypse Now - Theatrical Version.
I had warned him that this is NOT a traditional war film it's a little surreal, so don't expect a lot
Black Hawk Down type of firefights. Alright. 2.5 hours later, a fifteen minute snooze on my part and I get a "That was not what I was expecting." What were you expecting?" "Not that." We get deep sometimes and this is one of them times. It's hard to say if he liked the movie, there were aspects he was really into. He couldn't wait to meet Kurtz - Him: "Are we ever going to see Kurtz?" Me: "I don't remember." So the build up of the Col. worked very well for him. I think he was a little let down when the Col. turned out to be a fat guying laying in bed, talking about snails but it's his first time seeing the movie. I'm cutting him some slack.
Something about
Apocalypse Now he sure as hell liked and that's how it all looked. He kept mentioning how films today don't look like this, that this looks "real". He's brought this up a few times now about movies from the 70's/80's. I guess he likes the on location filming. Well, they were really in the jungle filming this on a real river with real helicopters and real explosions so....Something else he said: "When people would talk about movies being art I never really understood what they meant." What about the
Lighthouse? "That was black and white."
If he needs to see it again to get more into Willards journey, I get it. It's not an easy film to grasp especially if you've grown up in the MCU. I think he'll watch this again, just on visuals alone, but he may skip the cow scene. He did not like that. I have no clue what he'd give this so I'm gonna middle ground it and say
*******
Next we started
District 9 but as soon as he heard the guy talking with an accent he said "Is it gonna be like this the entire movie?" "It sure is." "Lets watch something else." He'll watch a movie in a foreign language with subs before he'll watch a movie in English with a heavy accent. Worked for me as the next movie in my library, alphabetically, is one of my all time favorites and that's what he chose. "How about
Dr. Strangelove?"
YES! YES! YES! How about it? One of my all time fav's. A movie I absolutely HATED the first time I saw it so if you hate it just watch it again.
He didn't hate it, at least that's what he told me (I think he was trying not to offend me), but I'm not sure satire is his thing. At least Cold War satire. Is the threat of nuclear war and total destruction even a thing anymore? I didn't get the impression that he thought this entire scenario was plausible, whereas I think it's entirely plausible. If you don't buy the premise are you gonna get the humor?
He thought Gen. Turgidsen was funny and so was the Good Dr. but I'm not entirely sure he followed everything as I did have to explain a few things like "You know, OPE, POE was on the bathroom wall in
Raising Arizona..." and once I did there was a big, interesting "Ohhh!"
The scene he remembers from his yute is Major Kong riding the bomb which he always thought looked ridiculous. He has come around on that scene after watching how it was set up but did it save the movie for him? I think it was a case of too little too late. My guess is it's a
but that's me giving it a curve. I sure hope he watches it again.