Fall Movies and Job Lists

Friday I finally got out of the house to join my Movie and Lunch Club. Can I hear three cheers for human contact and stimulating conversation? There were fifteen of us and the only downer part of the whole afternoon was at lunch when I sat next to two sisters who both sent their food back for Mickey Mouse reasons and bugged the waitress about a million things I would have overlooked in a group that size. When will I ever learn? They’ve done that same routine in others restaurants and their antics always results in me feeling honor bound to tip higher to make up for their treat-me-special demands.

We saw Bridge of Spies and I usually marvel over how a movie’s plot summary can sum up a film in one or two sentences but I finally found a couple that missed the mark. IMDb wrote: “An American lawyer is recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to help rescue a pilot detained in the Soviet Union” and Rotten Tomatoes said: “Tom Hanks stars as the American attorney tasked with negotiating the release of a U-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down over Russia at the height of the Cold War in this historical drama.” Both of these quotes are true but they leave off half of the story! Before the secret negotiations even took place Tom’s character, a real-life lawyer named Jim Donovan, put his family’s safety at risk to defend an accused Soviet spy, saving him from the death sentence, taking the case all the way up to the Supreme Court. It was this spy that he ends up working out a deal to trade for our spy plane pilot plus an American student who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time while the Berlin Wall was being built. 

The Concourse, in their somewhat negative review of the movie, said: “The second half of the movie is a tense standoff of Donovan, and the U.S. government, and the East Germans, and the Soviets.” Their negativity seemed to be based entirely on the fact that they think director Steven Spielberg (68) has lost the creativity he had in his “younger days”---think E.T---calling the movie a “drama your granddad will love.” Jeez, how old do you think that reviewer is who wrote that? It’s a story based on actual historical facts which doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity if you’re going to tell the story faithfully. Yup, there were no car chases, no Rambo character was running around with guns blazing to save the day, no aliens, but if you remember anything about that era in our history you’ll find Bridge of Spies fascinating. Everyone in my Movie and Lunch Club has a lot to talk about after seeing the movie. Many had personal stories to tell that related to Berlin Wall, U-2 pilot Gary Powers and even the trial of Rudolf Abel. In other word, this bunch of grandmothers all liked the film.

New Topic: We had our first hard freeze last night. Fall is here and the landscape palette will be changing enough to finally catch my attention. I don’t know if it’s just me but so far this year the landscape colors seem bland. It’s no secret that fall is my least favorite season, in part because it represents a lot of work. When I was young that meant raking leaves, taking down the screens, window washing and putting up storm windows. Then after meeting Don fall meant helping him write up snowplow bids, getting his equipment out of storage and located on parking lots where he had contracts plus we had the whole “leaves and windows” chores to do at not just one house, but five. Now, my fall chores list just includes wrapping up the trips to the auction house, cleaning the garage and putting the deck furniture under cover. Oh, and making a list for my landscape service. This year that list is long because I want my yard looking really good in early spring in case I list it for sale then.

I love that I’m downsizing and could be physically ready to move in the spring, but I’m still waffling about leaving my social hub (the senior hall) behind to move closer to my family. So many women my age seem not to see their families as often as the like and they don’t have the excuse of distance that I can use to explain not being included in family events. I tell myself I found my way into a social life after Don died and one side of my head says I can do it again. The other side of my head tells me that the opportunities on the other end of town are just not there like they are just five minutes from where I live now. Oh, well, as my friend Scarlett O’Hara would say, “I'll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.” ©

Lincoln the Movie: a Widow's Impression

Watching the new movie, Lincoln, I fell in love with James Spader’s character W.N.Bilbo, a real-life figure from history. One reviewer called him a “rapscallion” who “worked under the table to sway delegates in the House of Representatives.” I’m not sure what that obscure word means in this century but he was a colorful character with a kind of cockiness that only comes from a healthy dose of self-confidence and he kept me guessing about his moral character and values. Another reviewer called W.N. Bilbo a “charismatic political operative” who worked for Lincoln and by today’s standards would be akin to a lobbyist. Regardless of how you describe the man, he was part of the “Gang of Three” that put pressure on lame-duck Representatives to get them to change their vote on the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution to end slavery and without the Gang of Three, the course of history would have been vastly different. It wasn’t a huge role in the film compared to some of the other parts but I was fascinated enough to come home and google the guy and read book reviews at Amazon, trying to decide if I have the concentration to tackle the 944 page paperback the movie is based on: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

I saw the film with the movie-and-lunch club from the senior hall but I had to skip the lunch in order to be at home for some scheduled warranty work on the house. That was a big mistake. It made me feel so alone not to have anyone to discuss the movie with. The dog didn’t care that I enjoyed the politics of how Lincoln pushed the amendment through and ended the Civil War, the arm twisting that went on and the unexpected warmth of Lincoln’s personality. The dog didn’t care that I was shocked to see the theater was filled almost to capacity at 11:30 on a Friday morning. The dog didn’t care that when Lincoln was pronounced dead at the end of the movie I had a flash-back to Don’s last day on earth and I had to fight back the tears. And the darn dog didn’t care that I will never look at another penny again without thinking of Lincoln’s passion for and skill at ending slavery.

It’s been a busy week----several appointments, shopping, the movie and lunch with my in-laws. At lunch I was telling my sister-in-law that trying to find and build new friendships is now my biggest challenge in widowhood. In truth I’m very lucky in that regard. I don’t have any of the more common widowhood challenges: financial hardship, being helpless about maintenance issues, dealing with the grief of children, or clinical depression. And I haven’t dealt with feelings of guilt since the first few months---the ‘shoulda, coulda, and woulda’ syndrome that applies to so many life-altering events. In the Lincoln movie they brought out the fact that Mary Lincoln suffered a great deal from feelings of guilt over the death of one of their four sons. Throw in her migraines, chronic depression and possible bi-polar disorder you have a woman whose life was not all it shoulda, coulda, woulda been had fate dealt her a fairer hand. Even so, she lived an extraordinary life during extraordinary times.

Mary Lincoln became a widow in 1865 and it took five years of her lobbying Congress before they granted her (by a narrow margin) a life pension---the same as the widows of Civil War soldiers had been getting since 1861 which she felt she deserved, her husband being the “fallen commander”---in her view. I find it mind-boggling that it took so long for Congress to agree. She was preceded in death by her husband and three sons and in widowhood she even spent time in an asylum for her erratic behavior. All this wasn’t brought out in the movie, of course, but if you’re history or political science buff and you go see the movie keep it in mind. Lincoln won’t disappoint you, but then I say that about all of Steven Spielberg’s movies. I don’t think he knows how to make a mediocre film. ©

Interview with James Spader on Lobbying for the 13^th Amendment can be found here.