10 Random Movie Quotes

I have a million movie quotes tucked away in my brain:  here are 10 of my favorites:

1. No matter where you go, there you are. – Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

2. Who invented liquid soap, and why? – Gib Gibson (John Cusack) The Sure Thing

My name is Gladiator - Maximus (Russell Crowe) Gladiator

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. – Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) Gone with the Wind

Here’s looking at you, kid. - Rick (Humphrey Bogart) Casablanca

So let it be written, so let it be done! – Ramses (Yul Brynner) The Ten Commandments

Wax on, wax off. – Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) The Karate Kid

I haven't lost my temper in forty years, but pilgrim you caused a lot of trouble this morning, might have got somebody killed... and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't, I won't. The hell I won't! - G.W. McLintock (John Wayne) McLintock!

Candygram for Mongo. – Bart (Cleavon Little) Blazing Saddles

Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! – Han Solo (Harrison Ford) Star Wars IV: A New Hope

"The Help" - A Bit Flawed But Worth Seeing

Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her mother (Sissy  Spacek) head for a luncheon with their maid Minny (Octavia Spencer) bringing up the rear with one of her famous pies.

I finally got around to seeing The Help yesterday. At 11:45 a.m. the theater was packed! Word-of-mouth  (and blog) has really provided great (and well-deserved) advertising for this film, based on the best-selling book about the pre-Civil Rights South by Kathy Stockett.

This look at the de-humanizing of black people by the white people they work for is quite compelling. The "help" consists of black maids who serve as housekeepers, laundresses, cooks, maids and child-rearers for white women who have neither the time nor inclination to perform these duties for themselves. Although the maids are paid, their status has changed little since the age of slavery.

Their story is related primarily by Aibileen (Viola Davis), who tends to Elizabeth Leefolte (Ahna O'Reilly) and the child she neglects. She is joined by her friend Minny (Octavia Spencer), who has the misfortune to "do for" the Holbrook household, headed by the vile Hilly (Blythe Dallas Howard).

The white women they toil for six days a week for less than minimum wage are the hoi-polloi of Jackson, Miss. society. Immaculately clothed and coiffed (usually by the maids), they spend their time hosting luncheons and raising funds for African children while ignoring the needs of people right under their noses.

The leader of this pack is the aforementioned Hilly, a honey-drawled racist who has a way of steamrolling everyone into doing her bidding and truly believes that blacks are a sub-species.

The catalyst of the story is Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), a recent college graduate who sees the injustice of the maids' plight and persuades them to share their stories for a book. Reluctant at first, and rightfully fearing retaliation, Aibileen and Minny finally agree. Skeeter sells her book idea to a New York editor (Mary Steenbergen), with the proviso that she add a dozen more maids' stories to the two she has submitted.

One maid's desperation leads to her arrest for theft (at Hilly's request), and her unjust treatment and the increasing violence against blacks - including the assassination of Medgar Evers - bring more maids to the fore to share their stories.

And what stories they are; raising white children while leaving their own at home in the care of someone else, being denied the use of the toilets in the white families' homes, and being treated as less than human in a hundred different ways.

The Help is beautifully told, both in story and cinematically. The acting is superb throughout, although Davis, Spencer and Howard take it to another level.

The major problem with the film is that is uses a very wide brush to paint the story. All the maids are caring and noble, and loyal to a fault. All the white women are shallow trophy wives who blindly follow where Hilly leads. There are no nuances, no gray areas. Hilly is so unceasingly horrible that you really appreciate Minny's flaky form of revenge.

Skeeter is just too perfect; the only person in all of Mississippi who cares about black people who play such an important role in the lives of the whites, the only one willing to risk breaking the law to present their problems to the world. We are never told what makes her different from her peers or why she's so determined to fight the system she was raised with.

The highlight of The Help is Sissy Spacek, who plays Hilly's not-quite-all-there mother. She's having a grand old time with her small role and provides just the right amount of humor.

In spite of its faults, The Help brings to light a very bleak chapter in America's history and lets us relate on a very human level.

Let's Drop a Bomb on the F-Word

Is the f-word all his fault?

In the 1939 Civil War classic "Gone With the Wind," Clark Gable (above) played the dashing Rhett Butler, who rank the blockade of no-profanity in films by telling Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Mr. Gable can't take all the blame, of course. Margaret Mitchell wrote the words (without the "frankly"), screenwriter Sidney Howard included them in the script and director Victor Fleming saw to it that they got said. Even though Rhett's farewell line is the most famous, "damn Yankees" was also heard in an earlier scene at Twelve Oaks. Two uses of "damn!" What were they thinking?!

It's hard to believe that a word that seems almost innocent today could be the cause of such furor. If the censors hadn't changed the rules shortly before the movie was released, Rhett may not have given a darn.

I usually think that progress is a wonderful thing, but look at what Mr. Gable started. In the classic mode of "give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile," films became bolder and bolder in their use of once-forbidden words. Finally, someone decided that it was time to drag the f-word out of its Anglo-Saxon backroom and let it sound proudly and profanely onscreen.

Many film makers turned their backs on the great movies of the past, which relied on story-telling and talent rather than how many profanities could be squeezed in.

By 1970 what was once shocking was common in mainstream cinema, although limited to R-rated films. But the inch became a mile again, and now you'll find the f-word in PG and PG-13 movies as well. No sense keeping the kiddies out of the loop seems to be Hollywood's philosophy.

Television could have taken the high road, but profanity can be found just as easily on your TV set as in the multi-plex. Junior can get quite an education while channel-surfing for cartoons.

Like it or not, the f-word has become part of our popular culture (although it's not very popular with me). But let's confine profanity to the R rating where it belongs. Parents should be confident that the movies they take their kids to are appropriate. TV executives, it's time to clean up your act. Remember the Golden Age of Television? Bring it back, darn it!

One Thing and Another

Here's a Nifty Craft Project from Ginger



 Isn't this a great idea for a jewelry organizer? Go to Gingersnap Crafts to see how she did it - without spending a cent!

Ginger is one of the many creative bloggers out there on the Interweb whose talents I envy and admire. I copy many of their ideas and tutorials into a folder for future use. Yes, I know I should be using Pinterest, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I did manage to make a craft that was extremely time-consuming and complicated and expensive and...OK, I'm lying. I made an origami bookmark corner courtesy of Fabric Fascination. It was so simple that I figured I could handle it, but I won't bore you with a picture.

My goal, and I do have one, is to take the time to complete some of the great projects that I've found in Blogland. I'm going to start with baby steps, but eventually I'm going to make a quilt!



Aroma-Scope Smells of Disappointment

I saw Spy Kids: All the Time in the World this morning with my youngest son and four of my grandchildren. We paid an additional three dollars per ticket for the 3-D and Aroma-Scope version (touted as 4-D) because I thought the kids would get a kick out of it.

The young ones liked the movie well enough, and the rest of us appreciated the nod to the old Spy Kids movies (which were vastly superior to this one). The 3-D was OK, though not in the Avatar class, but the Aroma-Scope was a huge let-down. 4-D, hah!

Along with our 3-D glasses we were given scratch-and sniff cards with eight numbered squares. When a number appeared on the screen we were to scratch the corresponding number on the card to experience the smell of what was being depicted on the screen. The smells were supposed to range from bacon to dirty diapers (oh, joy), but each square on the card smelled like air freshener - the same air freshener.

Aroma-Scope smells, all right, so save your money and wait for the DVD. Your nose will never know the difference.


Thank you to all my new blogger friends who've taken the time to visit me and leave wonderful comments. And special thanks to my first followers, Beverly and Montanagirl! I'm starting to feel like a real blogger!