From Sis.
I thought Revolutionary Road war kind of a yawner except for the performance of Kathy Bates’ son...the crazy one. I think he has a best supporting actor nomination for his role. - LOVE!
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Reply From Bro.
Yeah, I had the very same reaction last nite to R.R. but I think it's the first Kate Winslett movie I've seen. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what year the action was happening in - what war or wartime D.Cap served in - Europe during and/or after WWII or the Korean War. There's a Buick in it with 4 header openings in the side and a 1960's windshield but the homes and total absence of African Americans made me think 1950's. And the early dialog says he's been back(?) for 7 or 8 years.
What else has the crazy ex-math guy been in? He was perfect, just as his dad turning off his hearing aid at the end was perfect….
…And when D.Cap told Winslett he was a longshoreman or whatever at the party at the first, I was still thinking "political activity" movie.
Winslett struck me as more attractive than either Theron or Cantrell when I saw her at the SAG Awards. But the whole deal about abortion - I kept remembering the lesson I learned in "hey, fuckhead, it's her body!" when Helen got preggy (and Dad flew up to Cambridge to talk her out of the abortion and into marrying me) in the spring of 1963; but then D.Cap was 5 to 10 years older in the movie than I was in 1963. Anyway, I was certainly mentally prepared for Winslett’s….performing a self-induced abortion.
If the movie was supposed to be happening during or after 1960, SNCC was already registering black voters in Mississippi, and although it was 1962-3 before (white) SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) got to Miss., white America - at least in Massachusetts - was aware of what was going on in Miss. I may have told you that I heard MLK give a sermon in a church in Cambridge in the spring of 1960 or 1961, and almost drove to Miss the following summer instead of back to San Antonio. My memory of how I felt listening to the sermon, was that this was one very brave (and committed) man; which of course I now feel about Obama. Then last week I saw the 2004 movie "Boycott" about Montgomery and MLK in 1956; a really fine movie.
If kids these days are going to get their history from movies like Revolutionary Road, the best movies need to make it clear, very clear, whether the action occurs in the 1940's, the 1950's, or the 1960's.
- Much Love
