Skip to main content

An apology to Robert Redford

When I first saw Milagro Beanfield War many years ago, I viewed it as yet another great novel underserved during the screenwriting and production process.

I was crabby about some omitted details, details I had found poignant and key to the story as I interpreted it.

I was hypercritical of character development (or lack thereof in my opin), and felt less than enough time had been spent providing a basis for the viewer.

In short, I didn't like it.

Since I saw it for the first time, critiqued it to no end, and basically decided that what Redford did was a reflection of his Eastern seaboard roots vs deep immersion into the whole Northern New Mexico life/politics/Hispanic history/flavor, I've mellowed a bit.

I've begun to shun most critiques (literary and cinematic) as just that -- opinions often rendered by those that critique rather than risk creative failure by actually writing or producing or directing a book or movie.

That said, I'd like to alter my opinion of the movie, and offer my apology to Redford for allowing myself such a narrow view of his work. He took on a project of epic proportions. The book was big, the characters were complex, and the historical information was broad and now I realize impossible to capture and convey in a feature-length movie.

On second viewing just this past weekend, I was charmed and entertained and pleased by the movie. I was struck by the beautiful landscapes, the relationships, the story, the bittersweetness he'd managed to capture.

Making movies is a challenge at any point. Making one to please a book lover is nearly impossible.

But Bob did it. It just took me 21 years to appreciate his effort.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Experiencing system issues

Last night we booked my return flight from Rhode Island. The one I'll be taking once I've situated Daughter in her dorm digs. We used rapid rewards, which tends to take a little longer than other transactions. But still. We were on the phone for almost an hour. An hour! Really? And we had to give them the credit card number 5 times. For one flight and one rental car. I'm just sayin' you guys may be the best bet out there in terms of airline choices, but come on! At least provide fun Hold music if you're going to make people engage for that long. Seriously.

It might have been the moon

 The second Super Moon, also a Harvest Moon, just happened. On the same night I had my mini-meltdown. (see prior post). I've talked with several friends who reported intense emotions, mostly around stuff that needs to be released, resolved. When I think about my angst, and how intense it felt, I realize it was all about that kind of stuff. Old stuff, patterns, thinking, habits. So maybe the moon precipitated things. The bubbling up of angst and anger and icky stuff lasted all that night, but had calmed by yesterday morning. Thank gawd, because that was a morass of darkness, the likes of which I haven't experienced in at least a decade. The rest of the weekend has been pleasant. Uneventful. Full of errands, chores, a really nice walk this morning, yummy food, naps, etc. The one thing about energy that feels constant is that no mood lasts forever. Energy continually shifts and morphs, like the Universe knows too much, too long, of any one sentiment just isn't a good idea for ...

Too much of the wave

My new running shoes? Are killing me. My knees, my hips, it's ridiculous. As much as I loved their cousins, the single wave Mizunos, I don't love these, the double wave Mizunos. Which kind of sucks because: 1. The store I bought them from has a 30 day return policy, and it's been twice that. 2. I spent half again as much on a stepped up model assuming that extra technology would be twice as good for me and my runs and it turns out I was dead wrong. 3. My knees hurt. My hips hurt. I have a bad attitude that will probably go away by tomorrow when I don my old versions of the waves and go for a walk that feels just fine thankyouverymuch. But I see Advil in my future this afternoon. This isn't bad for other reasons including: 1. I may not have to give up running entirely, but I definitely need to give up the double waves. 2. I am not crazy. When I stopped wearing the shoes for a week? The pain went away. Completely. But I didn't make the connection betwe...