a vestige of thought...

Monday, January 21, 2008

War and Peace

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr Day. That means we get the day off. Woot. In honor of this great peace-loving American, Sam and Heather figured what better way to celebrate than to spend all afternoon watching war movies? So late last week they drove to Nicholasville and rented three movies, which we are currently in the process of watching. I, being the blood and gore lover that I am, have been watching from my bed with a pillow nearby.

Our first film was Empire of the Sun. This Steven Spielberg movie from 1987 tells the story of a British boy living in China during WWII who gets separated from his parents and spends four years in a Japanese POW camp. It features a 13-year-old Christian Bale and (briefly) Ben Stiller in his early 20s. I liked this one because I didn't need my pillow. Favorite quote: "Help me, I'm British!"

Next we watched Rescue Dawn. A much more recent movie, it stars an older Christian Bale as well as Steve Zahn (whom I can never seem to get used to in serious roles). This movie was... weird. It was about an American pilot during the Vietnam War who got shot down over Laos and then had to survive for several months before he was rescued. Highlights include someone catching a snake and raw and lots of hacking through the jungle with a machete while it was raining. It was, however, based on a true story. Also, I find it ironic that while Christian Bale tends to play very American characters (Batman, Jack in Newsies, Laurie in Little Women) he was, in fact, born in Wales.

The last movie that Heather and Sam watched was Das Boot. The whole thing was in German which meant that--unlike the other movies--I couldn't do something else and listen without really watching. I fell asleep in the first 20 minutes or so and woke up about half an hour later to realize that I had no idea what was going on. So I left and played a very intense game of Canasta with Tiffany and Heidi (two girls who live down the hall from me). Apparently I didn't miss much. Heather just reenacted the whole thing (most hilariously) in about three minutes (as opposed to the three and a half hours that the movie lasted).

The end.
posted by Christy at 9:52 PM

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