mini-reviews and thoughts on this and that

Foreign movie we really liked, John Rabe (2009). A dramatic presentation of the leadership of Nazi party member and Siemens power plant manager John Rabe who helped save 200,000 Chinese lives during the Japanese "Rape of Nanking." Life is certainly complicated when the hero of the story is a Nazi party member, who does the right thing on such a large scale. We had previously enjoyed the acting of Ulrich Tuker in Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (2000). The second movie is in English but John Rabe is primarily a German movie with English, French, Japanese, and Chinese dialog as well. My interest in the Japanese atrocity came from Iris Chang's book on the subject (my review) and a documentary made in her honor (my review).

In anticipation of the forthcoming movie, I spent this weekend re-reading the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows. It's my 3rd or 4th time through. I don't think it was her best work. It reads too much like an Inspector Gadget cartoon, when any situation calls for a convenient tool for a solution, one appears magically. I guess this is abuse of the deus ex machina. But it is a children's book, which means there are no rules. And she did make plenty of money off of it. Despite all that, I am still gripped by the impact of love in the story in the family relationships. The expressions of pride in the kids by the adults halts me every time I come to those parts. Now I am ready to see the movies, parts 1 and 2 when they hit the screen. I'm sure all the kids will re-read this last book as well, so that we can complain about what was left out and unnecessarily changed. I did understand the story better this time.

Our last family movie night was at Niantic Cinema to see Secretariat. It wasn't terribly different from Seabiscuit, but with a more family friendly rating. But I do like the true stories based on extraordinary events or freaks of nature, which Secretariat was. The record race he ran in the Belmont, that still hasn't been touched, happened in my lifetime. That intrigues me.

When I'm not reading or watching movies, I'm enjoying the autumn rituals of Connecticut, all things apples. Watching the cider press at Clyde's in Mystic, picking the apple's at Scott's in East Lyme, buying pumpkins at Holmberg's in Gales Ferry, visiting family at Aiki Farms in Ledyard. God is good to me.

From Oct 24, 2010