Subject: So ... a theory of mine.
From: Steven Gabriel (sgabriel@willamette.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 01 2000 - 19:18:55 EST
(warning the following message is completely un-related to Salinger except
in the spirit of the themes discussed)
Lurker be my name, but I have a theory to share. Perhaps it will interest
some people, or perhaps not. Oh well. I noticed a lot of posts the past
month regarding American Beauty but didn't read them due to lack of time,
and having not seen American Beauty. Well, I saw it. I also watched "The
Thin Red Line" this morning. It's a beautiful movie, one that I feel I
must watch every 6 months or so, and I was due. The Thin Red Line is a
movie that never fails to make me cry while bringing a large smile to my
face at the very same time. Some people understand this, but most simply
think upon Thin Red Line as another version of Saving Private Ryan, with
lots of silly dialogue and occasional pans of birds and pretty trees
during the fight scenes. I'm hoping some of the former are here.
The point? There is one, trust me. I was struck by certain striking
similarities between American Beauty and Thin Red Line, and I need someone
to bounce these off of. It's my theory that Thin Red Line was at least
present in the mind of writer of A. Beauty as he wrote. Why? Firstly,
both movies really approach the same message, or variations of the same
message. In TRL we have: "All things shine." In AB we have a character
(Ricky) who in spite of all the ickiness surrounding him says: "Sometimes
there's so much beauty in the world I feel I can't take it." When I
began to watch TRL I took an interest to the relationship
between Witt (the private that gets shot in the end of TRL, that acts as
our primary guide into another world of beauty behind the one most would
noticed in the face of war) and between the two sagely characters of AB
(Ricky Fitts and Lester -- Lester being the up and coming sage, Ricky
having found his way there already). Lester begins AB talking about his
death. So does Witt. Witt walks around with an ethereal smile, an
inability to fear life, and wonderful presence and awareness of the glory
out their in the world that makes him very similar to Ricky.
Now at this point this was all just silliness going on through my head
while getting in the mood to watch the masterpiece I had before me (TRL).
But halfway through the movie I was thrown back at these ideas by the
appearance of a dead bird. AB has a dead bird scene, where Ricky is
filming a dead bird, he says he does it because it's beautiful. Well,
there are at least a few dead birds in TRL. At one point one of the
narrator's tells us (and I can't recall the exact quote): "One man
notices a dead bird, and laughs, but death laughs back at him. Another
man notices a dead bird and sees the glory." Something like that. It
struck me not only how similar the scenes were but also just how similar
my reaction to both movies is. Both thrill me with a certain emotion that
I adore. The same electric thrill that goes through me when I notice the
beauty in the ripples of the creek I walk over every day or my eyes water
at the beauty of the fat, silly rain drops that fall on me from the old
but wonderful oak trees outside my home.
Has anyone made it this far into my post? Rather silly stuff I know, but
it is interesting enough for me to write it, even if no one comments.
Should anyone be interested though, let me know if you feel about these
movies the way I do. Even if you don't, what do you think about my idea
regarding connections between them?
And if you haven't seen TRL yet ... I hope my email at least piques your
interest. It's a very subtle movie, but still it overwhelms me everytime
I watch it. Don't have expectations of it, or I fear the whole movie will
wash over you with no moments of beauty passed onto the viewer. Some just
don't see what I see when I watch it, oh well.
S.
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: Steven Gabriel -- sgabriel@willamette.edu :
: http://www.willamette.edu/~sgabriel :
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: "Sitting quietly doing nothing, :
: Spring comes and the grass grows by itself." :
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