6 Terrific Movies You Should Watch

Here in New England, we're dealing with another week of miserable below freezing temperatures.  There's not much to do but make some soup and pop in a good movie.  Tens of thousands of studio theater movies have been released since the '20s (and equally as many indie films) so there are plenty from which we can choose.  One attribute good movies share is telling a quality story.  I've thought about some of the best movies I've seen in my life and compiled a brief list of the ones that have touched my heart and haunted my mind. 

Suture [1993]

Starring Dennis Haysbert, Mel Harris, Michael Harris and Sab Shimono

Synopsis: Clay visits his half-brother Vincent in Phoenix after the two meet at their father's funeral. Clay remarks to Vincent how similar they look.  Vincent then uses this exceptional resemblance against his brother. He plants his identification on Clay and then attempts, unsuccessfully, to murder him. Clay awakes from the accident with amnesia and a badly burned face.  He is told that he is Vincent, and is accused of committing the murder of his rich father. Clay sets out to find the truth, his memory and his identity, but he is looking into the life of someone else.

I saw this movie once as a teenager, so it’s been equally as long since I’ve watched it.  However, the aspect of this film I found to be fantastic, and have always raved about, was the casting of the brothers Clay and Vincent.  In reality, the actors look nothing alike (Haysbert is black and Harris is white) so the audience is asked to accept the idea that they’re nearly-identical characters, and this made for an effective storytelling technique.  Outside of that, the plot was exciting and the story was wonderfully told.

You can watch the trailer here.
 

The Pact [2012]

Starring Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien and Mark Steger

Synopsis: Annie does not want to return to her childhood home for her abusive mother's funeral until her sister Nicole goes missing.  Annie reluctantly goes back to their mother's house to sort things out but is tormented by a malevolent presence in the house.  She finds herself falling deeper into a complex mystery that becomes more muddled with the more she learns.

Horror movies are by far my favorite genre but I find most horror movies fail to deliver.  The Pact, however, reeled me in with fright from the very beginning.  Throughout the movie there were many plots twists and moments of suspense that kept me engaged.  The ending was wonderfully unexpected and terrifying.  I actually pulled my blanket up to my eyes as I watched!

You can watch the trailer here.
 

La Vie est Belle (Life is Beautiful) [1997]

Starring Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi and Giorgio Cantarini 

Synopsis: In 1930s Italy, a lighthearted Jewish bookkeeper, Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting the woman of his dreams.  The two marry, have a son and live together happily until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido pretends that the Holocaust is an elaborate game played on an enormous level and that the grand prize for winning is a tank. 

This movie is one of the most touching films ever made.  It is incredibly heartbreaking yet has countless moments of hope, humor and faith in humanity.  At the time I saw La Vie est Belle I had been traveling extensively so to this day I don’t know if it was heavily promoted.  My friends and I popped into a Canadian theater to watch it on a whim just to avoid the rain.  I’m so glad we did.  We were all in silent awe and reverence when we left.

You can watch the trailer here.

Departures [2008]

Starring Masahiro Motoki, Ryôko Hirosue and Tsutomu Yamazaki 

Synopsis: Daigo Kobayashi is a cellist in an orchestra that dissolves and finds himself unemployed. He and his wife decide to move back into childhood home so he can look for work and they can start a new life.  Daigo answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" believing it involves work within a travel agency, but learns it's actually the position of a funeral professional.  His employment requires him to prepare deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life.  While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes pride in his work and begins to develop a new appreciation for life.  

My husband and I watched this movie on the recommendation of a friend.  It was one of the best movies we had seen in a long time.  The film was profound and even comical at times as Daigo struggles to accept his new position.  It’s important to remember as you watch the film the stigma that exists towards people who handle corpses.  I don’t find there is such a stigma here in the US so you really needed to shift your perspective to fully appreciate the story.

You can watch the trailer here.

The Wrong Box [1966]

Starring John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman,  Peter Sellers

Synopsis: A tontine (financial arrangement) is established for a dozen children.  Money is put in for each child to grow with interest, and the last survivor is to get the inheritance.  One by one, members of the group (comically) meet their demise until only two brothers are left. One brother is watched by his nephews who will keep him alive at all costs, while the other lives in ill health and poverty as the only support of his grandson. Statues and bodies are switched, in the wrong boxes until everyone is sure someone – maybe, hopefully – has died.

Like Suture, I saw this movie as a teenager and have thought back on how much I enjoyed it.  The Wrong Box has classic British comedy with constant hysterical nonsense.  Time has faded my memory on specifics (although I do recall some silliness about an egg,) but I know I laughed throughout the duration of the film.  If you like British comedies I can say with confidence that you will, too.

You can watch the trailer here.

 

Captain’s Courageous [1937]

Starring Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore and Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: Spoiled child, Harvey, is expelled from school.  After his father speaks with Harvey’s schoolmaster, he decides to take his son on an ocean liner cruise because he feels some quality father/son time would do Harvey good.  Harvey falls off the boat into the Atlantic when he tries to impress other boys on the cruise about his father’s wealth and status, but is rescued by a Portuguese fisherman who brings him aboard his fishing boat.  Harvey is unable to bribe the crew into returning him to the distancing ocean liner, and when he tries to convince them of his father’s status they simply laugh.  Not being able to contact anyone, (as it was the 1930s), Harvey finds himself having to work hard instead of receiving things on a silver platter as he had been accustomed.  

I own a copy of this movie and have seen it countless times.  The character development is absolutely amazing.  Though the concept of hard labor makes good character is a long-standing theme, that predictability doesn’t negatively impact the story.  It is heartwarming, comical and moving.  There is no other movie I love more than this one.

You can watch the trailer here. 

Have you seen these movies?  Do you have more to recommend?  I'd love to know your thoughts.

Creationism and Darwinism Aren't Mutually Exclusive

Science has taught us the Earth is billions of years old and we’ve learned that over the course of this time many changes happened to the planet’s surface, atmosphere, oceans and land.  The slow but constant change is what we know to be evolution.  Earth saw mass extinctions, collisions with space debris, changes in climate, formations of continents and bodies of water, and a balance of the right gasses, all of which give us a habitable planet.  

I am a religious girl – Roman Catholic, but I also cannot refute science so they have been balanced in my life.  I accept the truths of science and I accept the truth of my religion, without bias, without conflict.  So the debate between Darwinism and Creationism has always perplexed me.  If God created everything then it stands to reason that he created evolution, too.  Why did these two concepts have to be mutually exclusive?  

A few years ago I was reading the Book of Genesis.  These are the first pages of the Bible and I’m sure you recognize the opening line: “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and Earth”.  The passage then proceeds to list all of God’s other creations.  At this moment, I had an epiphany.  I realized the first chapter of the Bible actually describes the process of evolution.

Cool, huh? 

I know; there are discrepancies.  Firstly, the order of God’s creation isn’t completely in line with the actual order of evolution.  This has provoked the dinosaur argument among my acquaintances: “Why aren’t dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible?  The absence of them alone tells us the Bible is wrong.”  [*Sigh*]  The Bible is not an encyclopedia; it is a manual for spiritual living written for a specific culture in a manner that allowed that culture to understand the message. The people of Biblical times did not have the capacity to understand the world around them as we understand it today.  So dinosaurs (and amoebas and black holes for that matter) are absent from the Bible because knowledge of their existence was absent.

Also, the Bible, though inspired by God, is written by man.  Of course we’d fluff it up with those bits about having dominion over all creatures and being made in God’s image.  We are egotistical beings, and we have an awareness of our existence.  Making claims that we’re dominant and god-like serves to justify our greedy and selfish actions (which are very ungodly, indeed).  

In the Bible, creationism is cut and dry.  God created, it was good, on to the next action item.  Evolution, however, does not occur on a straight line but rather branches out and grows in tandem with other instances of evolution.  Nonetheless, the parallels between creationism and Darwinism exist. To illustrate my point, I condensed the first chapter of the Book of Genesis and explained how it supports the theory of evolution.

Have I still got your attention?  Good. 

The Book of Genesis [1:1 – 1:31] – Condensed and Paralleled with Darwinism

God created the heavens and the earth

This is the Big Bang. Easy.

God created light

This is actually intended to be different from sunlight as it has a more spiritual nature.  The Bible states the Earth was a formless void until God intervened so let’s look at this parallel little differently. Imagine God manipulated the Earth, as a potter manipulates the clay on his wheel.  He works it, reshapes it and at times, dissatisfied, recreates a new piece using the same mass of clay.  This is what’s happening with the Earth.  It heats to a fiery ball and cools to total ice.  It is being worked and reworked to perfection.

God created day and night

Our planet spins.  If it didn’t, one half would be desert and the other would be snow and ice.  Life would be difficult even impossible in such extremes.

God created the sky

Our atmosphere formed and all of the gasses in it balanced to the breathable air we have today.

God created the dry land of the earth and the seas

Water started condensing in liquid form, great continents and mountains formed.

God created the sun and moon

The moon is not as old as the sun and Earth.  It coalesced from fragments of Earth and other space debris when Earth and a planetoid collided.  So although not in accurate order, the Bible does state that the moon was created after Earth, which is accurate.

God created fish, amphibians, and birds

God created mammals and all other land species, such as insects and reptiles

The first life on Earth occurred in oceans and clearly this concept existed in Biblical times since the Bible states the first life as fish.  Science teaches us that animals evolved thusly: single-celled organisms, multi-celled organisms, invertebrates, fish, amphibian, reptile, bird then mammal. When we look at the order of life the Bible’s order is a little off, as both land and sea animals evolved simultaneously on Earth, but it’s pretty darn close considering the concept of evolution was several millenniums away.

God created humans

As with evolution, humans were the last creature to appear on Earth. 

God creates a cycle so the Earth and all its creatures are self-sustaining

Spore formation began and sexual reproduction was born!  Yea, sex!  This allows all living things to go forth and multiply.  Changes in environment and available food sources caused species to alter characteristics in order to adapt to the world around them.

I hope you can see the parallels.  In the Bible we see Earth’s creation developed from a careful, methodic strategy to not only establish but ensure the planet was well-balanced and teeming with life.  Kind of sounds like evolution, right?  It’s important to remember God is omnipotent.  He would know all life on Earth needed to happen gradually and so he allowed for a slow and methodical change - evolution.  The Bible even states this, it says so in scripture.  God said:

"Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear."

"Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." 

"Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." 

The keyword I want you to focus on is “let”, which is starkly different from “God created”.  “Let” is one simple word that tells us God didn’t wave a magic wand and - poof - things appeared. Rather, “let” tells us that God asked the world to create the remaining elements and biology on its own.  When God commands, nothing refuses.  Hence, God created evolution.

Lastly, let’s remember that God blessed everything.  Religious or not, we are blessed, lucky, fortunate (what have you) to be given such a beautiful world.  Let’s not squabble so much as to how it got here because regardless of our origin, we are an intricate design of this planet, and we need to foster harmony within it.

Neil deGradde Tyson, American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, beautifully articulates the same point with a scientific language.  I leave you with it.