Movies: January 2006 Archives

Glory Road

The unfortunate truth of sports movies is that at some level they all seem to be derivative of the Bad News Bears. Bad News Bears or not I still enjoyed Glory Road. The movie tells the story of the 1966 Texas Western basketball team who won the NCAA championship. The story is about more than just a game, it is a story about race in America. You can read a bit more about the story behind the movie on the wikipedia entry on Don Haskins .

It's a pretty good movie, it is predictable, but it told a great story without glossing over all the details. I give it three and a half stars out of five.

I'm so glad to not live in the "good old days" America depicted in this movie.

Saved!

by MGM (Video & DVD)

I watched Saved! last weekend. Having grown up in church it all seemed eerily familiar. I loved the movie even though it's a dumbed down teenie-bopper movie and it's plot is pretty thread bare. So why did I love the love the movie? It's because this simple minded movie contains a great commentary on modern, evangelical Christianity, it explores the dichotomy between appearances and reality and most importantly the characters reminded me of the best and worst in myself.

Best of all, the movie really brought one simple message, what really matters in the end was people who act in love without reservations.

I was listening to the local classical music station and happened to hear the haunting song that is used in Ken Burn's documentary, "The Civil War." For some reason I needed to find out who wrote the song and when. I discovered that the song is called "Ashokan Farewell". It was composed by Jay Ungar in 1982 and recorded in 1983 by "Fiddle Fever" on their album entitled "Waltz of the Wind". There is a FAQ to go with the song that explains it's origins. The song plays for 59+ minutes of the 11 hour documentary. It's no wonder that song instantly calls up black & white images civil war dead strewn on battlefields for me.