On April 10th I wrote about icons.

As we all know, the cinematic and television industry is in the business of  producing icons.  Some of them are good.  Some are bad.  Many of them are larger than life superheroes or supervillains who bear very little resemblance to real persons.

Much of what we see on a theater screen is fantasy.  Some movies paint life in glowing colors – full of beauty and romance with no hint of the dark side.  Other movies may be filled with death and violence.  Frequently, a cinematic production of today is nothing more than gunfire, explosions, and unbelievable car chases.

Some years ago I had a conversation with a friend who absolutely despised the movie The Sound of Music.  The lives it pictured were entirely foreign to his own life experiences, and he disliked the saccharine like quality of the performances.  On the other hand, my friend loved Alien, a movie about a repellant monster that somehow invades a space ship and proceeds to destroy, one by one, members of the crew.

Neither movie was realistic, but The Sound of Music was closer to real life than Alien.  Why did my friend hate the one and love the other?

“Different strokes for different folks” the saying goes.  Some movie patrons get a vicarious thrill out of sex and violence.  Others prefer to escape from the humdrum of daily life and be enveloped in visions of love and beauty.  A few moviegoers prefer what they believe to be realism, but time restraints force films to be episodic, and filmmakers sacrifice verisimilitude for drama.  Everything we see on the silver screen is an image.  It is not true life.

For myself, I prefer movies like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Four Feathers, Sergeant York, A Town Like Alice (mini-series), — and Pride and Prejudice (mini-series). 

My wife and I would snuggle-up on the couch and watch P & P at least once a year over the last 18 years of her life. 

What do you like?