I’d
just like to let it be known that I really enjoy writing these
articles each and every week. It gives me a goodly amount of
pleasure to be able to have a venue to vent my spleen about a
varied amount of topics each week of the year. There are worst
things to do. For example, I can choose to be funny, humorous,
satirical, or serious. I can write about my wife, my life or
anything else that just happens to strike my fancy. It doesn’t pay
well, but it does require me to keep looking for something new and
interesting each week of the year. I tend to think of it as a sort
of mind exercise and hopefully it will help to keep me out of the
old folks home by causing me to keep on thinking year after year.
It also lets me poke fun at others as life continues to roll on
by.
This week I was reading in some newspaper a
column that was written by some big time movie critic. Now, let’s
look at this guy’s job. He/she actually gets paid to sit through
how many movies each and every week and then sit down and write a
review of what the movie was about as well as try to be objective
about reviewing the merits of said production. In this review the
columnist was writing about the new Planet of the Apes film that
has recently been released. While I have said that what I do is
basically have fun with the stuff that I write, I would imagine
that what this poor guy has to do would be shear misery.
For example, how do you sit down with a
straight face and try to write about a movie in which the apes
control the world and the humans are the ones in cages? To me,
that’s like trying to evaluate a place that sells hot dogs and
trying to decide what type of wine should go best, red or white?
This guy warns us in his column that we shouldn’t think too hard
and long about the fact that the apes speak English or can walk
upright. Is this all we should have problems with? Excuse me, but
I think the fact that some space guy manages to get himself flung
into some black worm hole in space and be transported thousands of
years into the future onto a planet that just happens to have air
and water as well as wild humans and civilized apes is a bit much
in and of itself, don’t you?
That along with the way that he somehow
manages to make good his escape on a rocket smaller than my
compact car. I mean, forget all the parts about the apes walking
and talking…..I’m filling in the gaps and finding just about
everything from the beginning to the end hard to believe. But, of
course we know that or should know that from the moment we walk
into the movie. I mean, the title should be enough to clue us in
to the fact that this isn’t a commentary on political life in
America. Trying to find some serious meaning and parallel to real
life in a movie like this is in my opinion laughable.
Fantasy movies are just that, fantasy. They
cannot, nor should they be compared to events that happen or
happened in real life situations. The columnist in this piece
tries to equate the treatment of the humans to the slave trade in
Africa. I hardly think there is any comparison. While I’m certain
the motives of movie reviewers are well and good, I am reminded of
a story about a baseball game in which the batter crossed himself
as he came up to bat. The catcher asked why he did so and the
batter replied…”So God will bless me and I’ll get a run”. The
catcher thought for a second and then said…”Why don’t you let God
alone and let Him enjoy the game?” Same goes for some of these
reviews…..quit trying to make more out of it than there really
is….it’s a movie…it’s a fantasy…most of us know the difference. At
least we should. Comments go to www.pearyperry.com
