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Monday, September 5, 2011

Two Really Good Flicks!!

This will be short, but I had a few things whirling around inside of my head...so I wanted to share them. I watched two great movies this past weekend.  I don't know if you call what follows a review, but I have a thought or two about each that I wanted to share.

The first was "The Tillman Story", a documentary about former NFL star, turned national hero Pat Tillman. The military lied to Tillman's family about how he died (he died of fratricide...or "friendly" fire).  The film is about the family's search for the truth and their attempt to get the government to admit the cover up (SPOILER...the government doesn't).  Two thoughts.  First, watching this story made me want to be a better person.  Not a better American or a better Atheist (it seems that Tillman was an atheist), but a better person!  Tillman seems to have been an honest, heroic guy who loved life and lived it to the fullest.  The other thought I had about the movie was that conspiracies and lies are so hard to cover up.  This was a story about one family exposing a military cover up of the death of one guy (albeit, a famous guy) and they completely busted them on it.  Towards the middle of the movie, they receive an internal document from an anonymous source that gives "new life" to their investigation.  The government is made up of so many people and it's extremely difficult to get that many people to keep a secret.  It's just one more reason to laugh at Area 51 cranks and moon landing deniers.  Somebody would have come out with credible evidence if either one of these groups had a leg to stand on. Anyway, it's a great movie...watch it!!

The second movie was "Red State" by Kevin Smith.  I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith's films (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, etc).  This is a story about a very fundamentalist Christian family who make the Westboro Baptist people look tame. There's a kidnapping and a stand off with the Feds...it's crazy!!  The movie is great and a real departure from Smith's other movies.  Red State is a movie made by a moderate Christian (Smith) calling out the extremist whacko Christians (you know, the ones who shoot people outside of abortion clinics and protest military funerals).  It's exactly what you don't see happening in the Muslim world, where so many (including non-Muslims in our country) always seem to be apologizing for them.  Smith does anything but that here...the movie is awesome!!

I watched both of these movies twice this weekend (really working hard on that book, huh?).  Do yourself a favor and check them both out.  You won't be sorry.  Like I said at the beginning, this is a short post...but it's all I have right now. Okay, back to that book...

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