Movie Moment: Hey! It's --- Ian Holm

And Belated Purpose Statement: “Hey! It’s…:”

I am a fan of actors and actresses who are very versatile, and who often get second-billing in the credits. They are the ones who may not notice in the “talk about them on the way home from the theater” way the first or second or third time you see them in a movie, but sooner or later you start saying “Hey it’s…” Folks like Gary Oldman, and our former “hey it’s” guy, Sean Bean.

In this case, hey it’s…Ian Holm! Like Mr. Bean (heh heh) his most famous role was in Lord of the Rings, as Bilbo Baggins. (Whose name I always like to say like Gandalf says it when he’s chewing him out). But the man has been in a ton of movies! Some of them I did not remember him in – had to look up pictures to remind myself what he looked like in the role – dang chameleons!

The movies I have seen Ian Holm in:
Alien – the android Ash
Chariots of Fire – Sam Mussabini
Hamlet – Polonius (this was the one with Mel Gibson)
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Baron Frankenstein (the dad)
The Madness of King George – Dr. Wills
The Fifth Element – Father Vito Cornelius (he’s a good comedian!)
The Day After Tomorrow – Frozen scientist
Garden State – Zach Braff’s dad
The Aviator – Professor Fitz
Ratatouille – Skinner (the evil French chef! – comedy again!)

Movies I would like to see Ian Holm in:
Brazil
From Hell – the Jack the Ripper movie with Johnny Depp
eXistenZ
Lord of War

Watch out for Ian Holm – you never know where he’ll turn up!

Belated Purpose Statement: Better Living Through Zoology

In my house live two creatures who, left to their own devices, are driven by instinct to form a pack with similar animals and hunt down and kill moose. They might go after other game, but really, they want moose. Look into their eyes! You can see it...."Moooooose."

But through the magic of domestication, they accept Jeni and I as one of them. We are part of the pack, and on our better days, leaders of the pack (vroom, vroom).

Everyday they greet us at the door with wagging tails. They follow us around from room to room, just wanting to be near. They accept us as we are, and love us even when we're crabby or impatient or smell bad or don't pay enough attention to them.

These are the animals I see everyday, and miss when they aren't around. They are a huge part of my life - a source of joy, comfort in hard times, and devoted despite my imperfection. The fact that they are relatives of wolves and African wild dogs just adds to the wonder of it all. It is a great gift and a grave responsibility to live in a world with dogs, whales, kangaroos, and tigers. The 85 lb. lab named Bernice, who looks like a small polar bear, and the dumpy red mutt named Rose, who looks like a potato grew red hair and came to life - the Eeyore to Bernice's Tigger - remind me of this every day.

And then there's the cat... she doesn't show up on film for some reason. The Druids believed cats were the reincarnated souls of wicked people. Can't imagine where they got that idea...

Belated Purpose Statement: Movie Moment

I love movies.

They are the twentieth century art form - a fantastic blend of all the arts of drama, stagecraft, music, art, and photography. A collaborative effort of (usually) hundreds of people to create a lasting work. They can be ridiculous or sublime.

Basically, I really love movies, and like talking about them. This seems like a good place...

And as long as we're here, did you know Gary Oldman was in "The Scarlet Letter?" The 1995 one with Demi Moore and Robert Duvall? The one that was really, really, bad? The one that completely changed the ending of the book, and I'm not saying the end of the book was good, because it wasn't, and I'm still not sure what exactly happens in it, but still, it wasn't what happened in the movie.

I hadn't thought about that movie for years (thank God), but I was looking at Oldman's filmography after being impressed by him again in "The Dark Knight" and lo and behold, there's the "Scarlet Letter." I remember the one redeeming part of that terrible, terrible film being the guy who played the minister, and there's the reason - because it was Gary Oldman.

Other Gary Oldman favorites: "Batman Begins" (of course), "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (make sure to include Gary in your 'people who have played werewolves' list), "The Contender", "The Fifth Element", "Lost in Space" (shut up - I liked it!), "Air Force One", and "Leon: The Professional."

Can't Believe I Haven't Seen These: "Immortal Beloved" (Beethoven!), "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (Dracula!), and "JFK" (Lee Harvey Oswald!)

Belated Purpose Statement: Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #6 - "Wanting to have their ears tickled" - 1 Timothy 4:3-4

A couple of weeks ago I was struck with the idea that there are a lot of verses in the Bible which are difficult. To paraphrase F.F. Bruce in "Hard Sayings of Jesus", some verses are difficult because we don't know what they mean, and some are difficult because we know exactly what they mean.

As an experiment, I read through the Sermon on the Mount with the youth group, and asked them to mentally keep track of how many times they thought to themselves, "Golly, I hope Jesus doesn't mean that exactly like it sounded." We came up with about 20 - in just three chapters.

We all have our favorite Bible verses that bring comfort and meaning to our lives. But I think that it is a healthy exercise to confront those parts of scripture that make us distinctly uncomfortable. Finley Peter Dunne said the job of the newspaper was to "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable." (He was being sarcastic when he said that. It was his way of saying the media of the time had assumed too much power for themselves.) But I think that phrase describes the role of the Bible pretty well - it is the role of the prophet, or the prophetic text, in a nutshell.

So here's a Bible verse that freaks me out, and encourages us to look closely at the other verses that afflict us as well:

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires; and will turn their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." - 1 Timothy 4:3-4

Paul's challenge to Timothy in this situation is "Preach the word!", "endure hardship," and "do the work of an evangelist." Not a bad challenge at all.