Back when Hollywood still viewed Catholicism

...as a force for good in the world, it produced The Trouble with Angels. Released in 1966, I just recently saw it for the first time. Probably run of the mill kid fluff at the time, I was really impressed with its treatment of Catholicism in general and the religious life in particular.

The plot is simple: two rambunctious girls attend four years at an all-girls Catholic school run by an order of religious sisters. Watching this movie struck a chord with Wifey and me, because my wife was the rambunctious redhead at a school just like this one. My wife started laughing when the eldest retired sister was asleep at the dinner table. (I thought maybe she had died, so I didn't get the joke. But her school was, like in TTwA, also the Motherhouse of the order, so she had elderly nuns asleep at the table all the time.)

Haley Mills plays Mary Clancy, the antagonist of every prank in the movie. Rosalind Russell is stunning as Reverend Mother. The Trouble with Angels is a character study. The charm of the movie lies the growth into maturity of Mary Clancy and her friend Rachel Devery, along with the softening process as Mary begins to see Reverend Mother as less the dragon who thwarts her "scathingly brilliant ideas", and more the strong, devoted woman who quietly but passionately loves her Lord and her girls.

It's a fun movie to watch and the kids enjoy it. Unlike its changing-with-the-times hip and vapid sequel, which should be avoided like bells on Good Friday, I highly recommend The Trouble with Angels.

It takes one tough Panda to oust Luke Skywalker as a 4-year old's (and his 3-and 2-year old brothers') favorite movie hero

I have to say, this is one movie I could watch with the kids on a continuous loop for a month. (Good thing for me, 'cause that's practically what it is. Unfortunate for wifey.)


http://www.kungfupanda.com/

Das Boot, part II

So I did finally finish Das Boot. Wifey fell asleep long before it was finished-- big surprise; she's lucky to make it fifteen minutes into any movie and this one was considerably long. Besides, she likes movies that contain a lot of talking. She needles me about "it must be a guy thing" regarding movies that I watch where the main characters can have entire conversations with few, if any words. (See just about any movie by Sergio Leone.) I found it worth the two-disc plod. As one reviewer said, you find yourselves rooting for the crew even though they were fighting for Nazi Germany. The irony of the movie is strong, and to describe that in any detail would be to give away the ending for those who have not seen it.

Das Boot part I

Well, the TV's broken, so I can't finish watching the latest movie in from Netflix. I had started watching Das Boot, about a German submarine in WWII, the officers' disillusionment with the Third Reich, and the cat-and-mouse games they played with the British. Very long, but so far so good. I pick up on visual homages in movies, and I believe a scene from Pixar's Finding Nemo was an homage to Das Boot. When the whale appears behind Marlin and Dori seemingly out of nowhere, filling the screen, it's just how the sub appeared in the beginning of the movie. Nice touch. I'll give more feedback when I finish the movie