Movie time: 300, Hearts in Atlantis

Picture: on the way to the ball game in Odon last night.

With the temperatures in the teens and the winds a-howling, was a good morning to watch a movie with lots of blood and gore and violence. '300' did the trick. Diane, after reading the description on the cover, thought maybe I'ld be watching this one by myself. By, lo and behold, she sat through the whole thing and in the end admitted that it was a good movie. And it was. turned out to be much more than blood and gore and violence; turned out to be about courage and honor and freedom and love and the saving-of-western-civilization-from-the-eastern-hordes. My oh my. Didn't realize that Leonidas (whose name was shared with my maternal grandfather) and his band of 300 had such a heavy duty to the fate of mankind. Or at least the fate of western man. Wonder how the Iranians would rate this movie? The Spartans were doing battle with the armies from Persia led by Xerxes. Persians, as you know, are Iranian's ancestors.

The other movie, Hearts in Atlantis, we watched Friday afternoon. Coming of age movie set in 1960. Coming of age means it's about youngsters and in this movie that would be eleven year olds. Or a particular eleven year old boy and his relationships with his friends, especially a beautiful young girl (with whom he shares a first kiss, one which the old man in the movie says he will compare every other kiss to). Other important relationships include that with his mother and an older man who rents a room in their house. The old man is played by Anthony Hopkins. Excellent movie with drama, suspense, love, laughter, adventure.

Time for a walk in the cold. World still turns. Btw, does anybody else think this has been a particularly windy winter? (And I don't mean because of all the politicians roaming the country and filing the airwaves with blow...)