Crossroads (1986)

One of my first R rated movies and also one of the last, for a long time. Coming from a fairly restricted upbringing, I turned this movie into a type of crossroads of my own. I wore out the soundtrack cassette, infusing into me as much individuality and revolution as I could muster at the time. 

Take chances, follow your passion, get hurt and use it to deepen emotions... These things I held onto in my young mind and used them to the best of my ability. Watching the movie again so many years later, those lessons are still there and again I take them in through the music. There's something magical about revisiting musical milestones.

side note: I just read that Steve Vai's musical awakening came from the West Side Story Soundtrack! That soundtrack was my musical awakening too and the first album I ever bought. Too bad I didn't pick up a guitar...

Gone with the Wind

The second half spends very little time on the war, because the story is ready to move onto the Reconstruction era and the continuing soap opera that is Scarlet's life. She would have it no other way, so the rest of the characters and the audience endure her pouts and schemes as she orchestrates her whims to a fevered pitch. As much as I loath her character, there is something to say for tenacity. 

Just think what she could have accomplished with a conscience.

As for the war and wanting to understand this time period better, I believe there is much to glean from GwtW, even with its soft sell of the South. Brotherhood and honor abound and war may start out with grand ideals on each side, but in the end, the broken, defeated men lament what it was all about. 

What again were they fighting for? Oh yeah, Tara. dirt.

Miller's Crossing

When a man's an empty kettle, he should be on his mettle and yet I'm torn apart, just because I'm presumin' that I could be kind of human...

The heart is a tricky thing, when you're a thinking man. It gets in the way and then all that thinking has to work double time, to offset the mess of mercy. 

My, isn't Tom smart. They should have called him Alexander, since he solves the puzzle by expertly pulling that Gordian knot out of its pole pin. Yeah, he's thinking circles around everyone else, but you know what happens with unknotted knots? They unravel... and the ties that bind are no more.

Barton Fink

I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream...because you see the thing is gone from me. *

Each line of dialogue in my head is audible, as is the cry of the fishy Mundt, "I'll show you the life of the mind!" 

But, watching the cursor blink on and off on this white screen, I'm at a loss. 

Do I love the film? Yes! 

Am I both disturbed and enthralled by it? Most definitely. 

Do I see all the explorations of high brow vs. low brow, Hollywood's machinations and writer's block as a type of hell? I think so. 

But, can I find a way to write anything about it? No, not really.


* Daniel 2:3,5