Stuff That Would Bore My Sisters, 10

Yul Brynner in Kings of the Sun, 1963.

Sisters, do you ever question my choice in movies? So do I. Whatever the reason, there is much to be learned from many of them. The older ones are closer to the ideals that I understand, the ideals that seemed important to my grandparents, to my teachers when I was a kid. To my daddy. Daddy also watched all the Elvis movies, but I don't want to go there. I enjoy listening to Elvis. I will leave it at that.

I've seen documentary type shows on the history of movie making. The beginnings and the progression make sense. Kings of the Sun makes sense. A group of Mayans (powerful group of people who lived in Mexico long ago) escape takeover by sailing north across the Gulf of Mexico where they nearly go to war with Plains Native Americans.

The two tribes' leaders fight over a woman. The Mayan king is too chicken to do what makes sense with leading his people and with communicating his feelings to his woman. The Plains chief teaches him a wiser way to lead - and almost steals the dude's woman because he has the spine to tell her how he feels, stand up for her. In the end, they fight together to defeat the ruthless 'evil' tribe that followed the Mayans across the water. The Mayan king learns that the sacrifice of all is enough for 'the gods,' so they don't need to shed innocent blood anymore. Many lessons within.

The newer movies, like The Dark Knight (is that the title of the latest Batman movie?), are good examples of how the ideals of the younger generation are in many ways the same - but a hero is needed, and few people know how to be one. And they are lost, waiting around for someone else to do something instead of looking inside themselves to ask 'how can I be part of the solution?' Maybe they think it has to be someone famous or rich. Nothing wrong with famous or rich heroes, but the rest of us can be, too.

In The Dark Knight movie, I also heard a lot of excuses for people who let themselves be led. Most of the characters had some kind of financial reason for not using their own minds, for not questioning their own judgment or the judgment of the person instructing them. And they didn't seem to notice their own inability to think for themselves.

Or maybe making excuses to just 'go along' has become the socially acceptable thing to do.