I'm Done

I hate it.  I’m totally fed up with it.  I’m talking about violence.

As you know, I love, love, love the movies!  I see at least one a week.  AMC has the Tuesday matinee for seniors for $6.  So, yesterday, I went to see The Master.

Another eagerly awaited epic by Paul Thomas Anderson starring a pretty decorated threesome:  Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phillips, and Amy Adams.  Of course, epic means LONG...as in two and a half hours long.  It better be really compelling!  I should’ve read the Time review first....he captures it in the title.  There Will Be Boredom.  A take-off of Anderson’s movie, There Will Be Blood.  It was and I swear I almost walked out three times in the first hour but decided to stay after Hoffman finally came on.

Make up your own mind.  Most of the critics loved it...the fans who write reviews loved it.  But that’s not my point today....that’s just an aside.

As much as I love the movies, I abhor going to AMC and Regal where they show 30 minutes of previews before they ever get to the feature.  The preview to Brad Pitt’s new movie, Killing Them Softly, was disgusting....grotesque...all violence.  I almost choked on my popcorn.

I just don’t get it.  He and Angelina are the world’s biggest do-gooders but they can put out some of the most violent movies on the market.  Hell, they met playing a married couple who are world class assassins in their secret private lives.  Yeah, they love to play spies, criminals, cops, thieves, Nazi hunters....you name it.  I know they’ve played better roles like Angelina as Marianne Pearl in one of the most horrific real life stories and Brad as Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s General Manager in Moneyball.

But, you’d think that as “enlightened” as they are in their life choices, it might carry over more often to their movie choices.  God knows, they don’t need the money!!!  But, I applaud them for their humanitarian efforts....Angelina for her work with the United Nations on Refugees and Brad for the Make It Right Foundation that is constructing 150 homes in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.  And, that’s just a fraction of the causes they actively support.

But, the bottom line for me is that I just don’t for the life of me understand how violence is entertaining.  I hate it.  I can’t watch it; I often find it sensational and depraved.  I don’t want to spend a dime of my money perpetuating that unfortunate reality that violence makes money.

Yep, I know.  I’m a pollyanna.  I don’t get war either.  I understand that some wars were “necessary” although I could argue that, too.  Yes, I know we need to have a strong military.  But, I find the wars we are currently in are just not necessary.  We are not the Police of the World and, God knows, our democracy is imperfect at best.  True democracies emerge from the people not from a huge military presence.

These wars are over oil.  Geez....turn down your thermostat and drive a hybrid!  Get a wood burning stove.  Open the windows, turn on the fan.  Wear thermals!!  Do we really need to get involved in conflict after conflict and watch our young men and women come home maimed or in body boxes?

So, that’s it.  I’m done with violent movies.  The ones I can stomach at the big movie theaters are diminishing by the week.  And, now, I can’t even watch the previews!!!

Sad to say, thoughtful movies usually don’t make the big money so there are fewer and fewer of them.  I’ll be there, though.  There’s nothing like a great story brought to life on the big screen.  By the way, don’t miss the French film,  The Intouchables!  Best movie of the year!