Friday, November 11, 2005

"It's not the money's fault it was stolen."

I am watching the news right now, and they are covering a Chicago Veterans' Day event. Some woman being interviewed said this:
"If our soldiers were not over in Iraq, then the Iraqis would be here."
You all know how I feel about the war, and I respect other opinions about it (well, some anyway), but even the biggest supporters of the war have to admit that this lady's statement is just goofy.


Anyway, here is a movie recommendation: I watched the movie Millions yesterday, which is available on DVD now. Millions (official site) is directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later) but you would never know it. All of those movies are very dark, but Millions is an uplifting, beautiful story of hope and love. The plot centers around a little 7 year old kid living in suburban Liverpool whose mother has recently died. He is obsessed with the saints and can name all the saints and their birth and death dates, and he frequently has conversations with them in his imagination. Anyway, one day a giant bag of money falls on him, and he thinks it is from God, but it is really from a train robbery. The rest of the movie deals with the little boy's attempts to give the money away to the poor, while his brother just wants to spend it. They have to get rid of it because the movie is set one week before Britain switched over to the Euro, so in a week the money will be worth nothing.


Anyway, the direction by Boyle is absolutely gorgeous, and the little kid is amazing. It is heartwarming, funny, sad, beautiful, and a testament to one person's ability to change the world.

9 Comments:

At 12:11 PM, Blogger Tom posited...

i have a question, and it doesn't apply to this post, in fact, i havent even read this post yet...
ok, is Underworld's "Born Slippy" the song that plays at the very end of Trainspotting after Ewan McGregor's character has stolen the money and he's talking about how he's going to change and have a big screen tv and health insurance and all of those things? because when i hear that synth at the beginning of the song, i also hear E.M.'s voice in my head, and it seems to me that it was that part... one my favorite movies, btw.

 
At 12:14 PM, Blogger Tom posited...

and yes, that lady is obviously dillusional and doesn't understand the motives of the party that she supposedly belongs to...

 
At 12:37 PM, Blogger CoachDub posited...

Yeah, Tom. That is the part in Trainspotting -- when he is running away with the money. I always think of that when I hear the beginning of the song too. Underworld' song "Dark and Long (Dark Train Mix)" is in the movie, too, in the scene where the baby is crawling on the ceiling.

 
At 12:38 PM, Blogger CoachDub posited...

But again, this movie, Millions, though directed by Danny Boyle, is 180 degrees from Trainspotting, but still great. (See how I brought it back to the post...)

 
At 12:56 PM, Blogger P "N" K posited...

Hehe, that was an interesting comment. I have no idea what she means either. Maybe that all Iraqis are terrorists or something? I'd guess so. Wowza.

Open mouth, insert foot, don't care.

 
At 1:20 PM, Blogger CoachDub posited...

I think she might have classified documents showing that Saddam was amssing a huge Iraqi army on the Canadian border, ready to invade us. But when we bombed Bagdhad, the Iraqi soldiers had to return home. The stupid liberal media has suppressed this info though.

 
At 3:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous posited...

I also just saw 'Millions' (gotta love Netflix--if you use it properly, you can't really forget about anything you want to see).

The film's brilliance is really in how it both sweet (but not syrupy) and edgy. Also, it's not that often I see a film with such sympathetic male protagonists (granted, the main one was a kid, but still)...

 
At 4:11 PM, Blogger markymark posited...

this is totally unrelated, but i'm anxiously awaiting the imminent post on the demise of Arrested Development. anyone else?

 
At 8:58 AM, Blogger CoachDub posited...

Oh, it will be coming, but the wounds are too raw right now.

 

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