WATCHING:
Legends of the Fall
Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond

Second time around on this movie; I think I liked it better this time.

A story of family, loss, guilt (Pitt is unable to prevent his younger brother from dying in WW!) and how circumstances change everything.

Julia Ormond comes to the Montana ranch of a father (Hopkins) and his three sons (Pitt, Quinn and Henry Thomas). She is to marry the youngest (Thomas) but he goes off to war before they are wed. With Thomas gone, both Pitt and Quinn are attracted to the woman, both for different reasons.

Hard to really sum up the book in a short review like this; there is so much going on that is not said.

Beautifully photographed (outside of Calgery, CA, just east of the Rockies). It’s worth a watch for that alone.

All movies

I watched Legends of the Fall – for a second time – yesterday, and right afterwards, I read the Jim Harrison novella upon which the movie was based.

How to compare…

The movie is a little over two hours long; the book is only about 80 pages. Most of what’s in the movie is in the book, but often in very different ways. For example, there is an ambush scene near the end of the movie, and one of the ambushers’ – a ranch hand – part is in the book, but not as part of this particular ambush. In the movie, he does what – in the book – had taken place at least a decade ago for wildly different reasons.

And Susannah – played by Julia Ormond in the movie – comes out to Montana from Boston to marry the youngest of three sons in a family in the movie version. In the book, she comes out to marry the middle son (Brad Pitt). And they are actually married; in the movie, after the death of the youngest son (they never married), Ormond becomes romantically involved with Pitt, but they never marry.

I don’t know why I first picked up the book – it was before the movie came out. Just one of those things – I got it for $1 at a local thrift store (The Brown Elephant) when I was living in Chicago. That was over 20 years ago.

When the movie finished yesterday, I just figured it was a good time to kill an hour and finally read the book (actually, it’s one of three short pieces in the book of the same name).

Overall, I think I liked the movie better than the book, and that’s unusual. The book was somewhat disjointed, and – for all its brevity – went on at times, such as about the route taken by a schooner the main character (Tristan) was on. And the movie has lush cinematography (it won its only Oscar for this), and it focuses on an area of the country that I find incredibly beautiful: The eastern edge of the Rockies up near the US/Canadian border (it was supposed to be northern Montana; actually filmed just west of Calgary). We went to Glacier National Park a few years ago; I want to go back!

But both the movie and book were satisfying, in somewhat different ways.

Google is well known for being very, ummm, persnickety, about its landing page, and I understand its concern.

Yet in the wake of yet another mass shooting – this time including the murder of 5- to 10-year-old children – Google actually added load to its sacred page as a note of condolence to all those affected by the tragedy.

It’s just an image (a vigil candle); no link. Just a message when you mouse over the (subtle) image that the company is thinking of the community.

One could get all cynical about this placement, but I’m not going there. Just a nice gesture that kind of sums up what many of us are thinking/feeling. No judgement, no links to calls to action. Just an indication of just how unique this situation is, and how – at least for one day or so – everyone is touched by what happened in Newtown, CT.

According to Mayan legend, today – Dec. 12, 2012 – is supposed to be the end of the world.

Or is it Dec 21? Whatever. (Update: Yep, 12/21, not 12/12. Well…same message, different day. Apocalypse Then.)

Well, I’m not buying it. It’s almost 5pm and we’re still around…and listening to REM’s excellent – and appropriate It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it’ll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right – right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

— Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe

Yeah, I’m not really taking the “end of the world” seriously.

If I’m wrong, won’t really matter what I write here, ja?

At some point, the video below will/might die. I hate embedding anything that is not mine, just because I can’t guarantee that (whatever) will be here tomorrow. *sigh* You’ve been warned.

That said, an awesome (to me) mashup of REM’s End of the World cover videos. The good, the bad, the ???

WATCHING:
Lawless
Starring: Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain

A story about Moonshiners in Appalachia before/after Prohibition, this was a (sadly) pretty boring movie.

Yes, there’s the one holdout, the crooked government official (Guy Pearce, in a very androgynous role) and so on and so on.

Just not that much fun.

The soundtrack – on the other hand – is great. Movie? Not so much.

All movies

My iPhone (4s) seems to be sucking battery power like never before.

Not quite sure why.

Have to track down when iOS6.0.1 went in, or if it’s something else (all Wi-Fi, dropped to 12% battery life in less than one day with NO use. Eep!).

It’s always something…

Could it somehow be related to the iTunes 11 installed recently? Hmm…interesting thought…