Howdy folks. Sorry for the extra-long delay in my blogging. It's a combination of writing all day (for my book) on one hand, and conversely, feeling that I don't have anything worth blogging about on the other hand. I've watched a truckload of movies in the past two weeks, but endless movie reviews must get boring (I should ask you guys; do they? Heck, I dunno. I just write them. I'm not on the "reading end"). Anyhow, here's some amazing news: The original Alice Cooper group is back together! You may have heard about it by now, and most fans our age know that it was a group, not just a singer named Alice Cooper, but yeah, they have a new album coming out, their first in 50 years! What other band has ever broken up, then gotten back together a half century later? Holy smokes. The first single was released this week, it's called "Black Mamba", and - as produced by Bob Ezrin - it has that classic "haunted" AC sound. The album is titled "The Revenge of Alice Cooper", and I can say I haven't been this excited for a record in a long time. I never thought nor expected this to happen. If they tour...well, I won't count my chickens, but I missed the 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour, the band's last, which was one year before I started going to concerts, so if they tour for this new album, man I'll be over the Moon...
There's one movie I have to review, so I hope you'll indulge me. It's called "The Homesman"(2014), and I saw it last night on Tubi. You don't expect anyone to make a Western in this day and age, must less a great one; the classic era for the genre was the late '40s through the early '70s (not counting Spaghetti Westerns which were horrible and I love to harp on them). There was a slight resurgence in the early 1990s (no, not "Unforgiven", that was horrible, too) with the all-time great "Tombstone", and also "Wyatt Earp", which was pretty good. But at any rate, while browsing Tubi, I came across this movie, which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank. Jones also directed, so it felt like it was worth a shot. If it was boring, I could always turn it off - right? - then look for something else. But, my fellow cinephiles, that turned out not to be a problem. It was riveting from Frame One, and you absolutely have to see it. "The Homesman" is not only one of the great Westerns of any era (and has all the Western elements you could want) but it's also one of the best movies period, of any style, that I've seen in a long time. I don't like most modern movies, as you know, but forget that for now. I can't tell you much about the story, but I'll give you the basics. Hillary Swank, who again shows herself to be a phenomenal actress, plays "Mary Bee Cuddy", an unmarried frontier woman of ability and means, who lives in the Nebraska territory. The year is 1854. The Territory is flat, wide open, and barely populated. Many of the pioneers who come there struggle or give up and leave. It's an especially hard place for women (excepting Mary Bee, who "is as capable as any man"), and three young wives have gone insane, for different reasons that I won't reveal. Their husbands can't cope, so straws are drawn by the local preacher (John Lithgow) to see who will ferry these ladies to a hospice in Iowa, five weeks away by wagon in the dead of winter. Through circumstance, Mary Bee gets the job. Upon leaving, she comes across Tommy Lee Jones, an old Army vet who's about to be hung for claim jumping. She decides he's worth saving, if he agrees to help her make the trek, which is gonna be harder than she thought. She decides it wouldn't hurt to have a man along.
That's about all I can give you without revealing spoilers. "The Homesman" apparently had a limited release, and didn't get much press, which is likely why you and I have never heard of it. But I'll say right now: Lion's Gate blew it, because everything about this movie screams "12 Oscar Nominations!" The photography is Spielbergian, as is the music. It has a pro-female theme for the modern era, without being woke or "politically feminist". Hillary Swank should've won her third Best Actress Oscar. There are many twists and turns, one of which is The All Time Spoiler Alert - don't even think about Googling it! Another involves Tommy Lee's character. If you liked him in "Rolling Thunder", you'll love this particular scene. "Homesman" is a five star film, and it doesn't drag at all. There are classic, single scenes with great charater actors like James Spader and Tim Blake Nelson. Finally, Meryl Streep makes an appearance, and her daughter, Grace Gummer, plays one of the crazy women. What a cast! What a story! What a movie! You need to see it, and you'll be glad you did, thanks to Tubi...
Since we mentioned "Tombstone", we can segue to the late Val Kilmer, who - I was fascinated to learn - was a Christian Scientist. When told he had throat cancer, he at first planned to forego medical treatment in favor of prayer and spiritual alignment with God (with the help of a Christian Science practitioner), and he did this until his children protested, at which point he acquiesced and underwent surgery. My interest in the subject is ancestral; my Dad's mother (my grandmother) was a Christian Scientist. She contracted tuberculosis in 1937, when Dad was 17, and she died a year later at age 53. Dad suffered through the ordeal with her, watched her get sick and eventually die. Only once did he tell me the terrible details, but mostly he couldn't talk about it, and there is no doubt it affected him profoundly. He was only a high school student at the time, and his mother wouldn't go to the doctor, preferring to rely on her faith and the Christian Science principles for healing. I've wondered if medical treatment would have done her any good. Tuberculosis, in 1937, was practically a death sentence anyway. The takeaway from this story, and Val Kilmer's, is a conundrum: what is "the right thing to do" when one is a Christian Scientist but has children? Is it moral to proceed on faith, knowing the possibility that forgoing medical treatment could lead to death? Dad tried to indicate indifference when I was a kid, but I know he loved his Mom dearly and was crushed when she died. Did she make the right choice, in following her beliefs, or was it a wrong (even selfish) decision because the result deprived a son of his mother? (In addition, Dad's father left before he was born, so losing his Mom left him parent-less at age 18.)
I am not trying to answer any of these questions, nor am I making a moral judgement on my Grandma Louise, and as I say, the probability is that she would've died anyway. Tuburculosis had a very high rate of mortality until streptomycin was discovered in 1944. My guess is that Louise, knowing the death rate of TB, resigned herself to her fate, and decided against medical intervention not only because of her Christian Science beliefs but also because she knew that her doctor could only postpone the inevitable. Thus, she chose to heal through alignment with the Highest Physician, Jesus Christ, and it didn't work out (in the physical sense, anyway). This is why many people malign and even mock Christian Science, because not all believers experience healing, and many with serious illnesses die. I have an opposite opinion. I'm not against Chistian Science, I certainly don't think it's foolish, and I'm actually amazed by it because, first of all, I love my Grandmother (even though I never knew her), and just as importantly, I am astounded by that level of faith, and aspire to it and believe I have it. I believe in God, and I believe in mind-over-matter, which is another way of saying that the human spirit is more powerful than the human body. I've also never really been a "doctor person". My last checkup was sometime in the Stone Age, and I've been blessed with mostly good health. I do have a few maladies like Dupuytrens (several fingers are bent out of shape) and a lifelong problem with hernias, but I've basically felt pretty good all my life, and I trust my body, and have just never "gone to the doctor" like you're "supposed to do" every six months or once a year, because my body tells me I'm healthy. And also, due to my highly unusual life story, and the fact that I've survived more than one near-death experience (by all rights, I shouldn't be alive), I have an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ and God the Heavenly Father. However I don't know if I could rely on faith alone it if I was diagnosed with a serious illness and had children who would be affected by my decision.
Anyhow, just because we're on the subject, it's important to point out that there are thousands of published testimonies on complete Christian Science healings. That's why I admire Val Kilmer, because he kept his faith, and he also tried to honor his children's wishes. I also respect my grandmother's decision, though I was not in my Dad's shoes as her son. Fortunately, Dad still had his grandma, a very strong woman who saw him through college and into the Air Force. Interestingly, though Dad said he "threw his Bible into the fireplace" after Louise died, when I was in my twenties he subscribed to The Christian Science Monitor, a paper noted for its honest and intellectually nuanced journalism.
A few more thoughts: I was once atheistic, and more specifically, religion was something I mostly didn't think about. It could even irritate me at times, in the days of Jimmy Swaggart and the like. But in my late 30s, when the reality of my life began to hit me, I became very interested in faith, and the mystery of the Holy Trinity. This was around 1998, when my memory was coming back. I learned that I'd survived near-death in extreme situations more than once, and I began feeling gratitude for that. My gratitude was directed at a general idea of God, but my belief became Christian-based when I started going to church with my Mom. I never went to Mass; we'd just go sit in the chapel, which was close to Mom's apartment (and is just across the street from my building). Then Mom got sick in 2005, and when she was in the hospital, I went to her church by myself, and prayed to Mary for Mom's healing. Mom of course died (of stage 4 throat cancer), but all of those solitary prayer sessions did something to me, and even though Mom was "gone", I still felt her presence, which gave me great hope and increased my faith, which now is the core of my existence. Getting back to medicine, you could say I'm kind of an unofficial observer, a "Christian Scientist on the sidelines". I believe in God, and I know God created me, put my spirit into my physical body, and therefore God knows more about me than any doctor. I believe that all disease (dis-ease) is "of the devil", and I am fascinated by mind-over-matter. The casual observer, who has only heard about it but not read Mary Baker Eddy's story or her philosophy may write off Christian Science as "superstitious nonsense" or worse, but it is actually a logic-and faith-based philosophy.
Anyhow, "good health to all". That's what I pray for. I thank you for reading, and I'll talk to you soon.
God Bless, and tons of love.