Monday, February 23, 2009

I need inspiration.

I have been reading today all about the Oscar celebrations and the Academy Awards. For some reason it seems people are more interested in what the stars are wearing as opposed to whether a film has been or good not. I’m sorry; all this Oscar stuff is such crap. I haven’t seen any good movies in awhile. I certainly have seen anything to inspire me. Movies just don’t do that anymore. It’s not enough to be entertained. I think a good movie should leave you feeling overwhelmed and exhilarated. Books do that. The good ones sure do. When I think about all this talk about economic recession and a possible depression, I think about John Steinbeck’s great novel, The Grapes of Wrath. It won Steinbeck the Nobel Prize for literature. If you haven’t read it, put it on your bucket list. I have to read that again this year. The book was written in 1939 and the movie followed in 1940. Both became classics. I think I will read the book and see the movie again. I need inspiration.
The movie, which is about an American farm family struggling in the Great Depression, has a wonderful scene at the end, where Tom Joad’s Ma, played by Jane Darwell, gives her famous speech about the suffering, endurance and survival of ordinary people: “I ain't never gonna be scared no more. I was though. For a while it looked like we was beat. Good and beat. Looked like we didn't have nobody in the whole wide world but enemies. Like nobody was friendly no more. Made me feel kinda bad and scared too, like we was lost and nobody cared.... Rich fellas come up -- and they die, and their kids ain't no good -- and they die out, but we keep on coming. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out, they can't lick us. We'll go on forever Pa, ‘cause we're the people…”

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