Finally, a US court has figured out what the definition of "equal" means! Or at least come closer to it. This really is good news, and I'm especially heartened to hear Nightline say that while 55% of Americans oppose gay marriage, only 20% think it's worth creating a constitutional amendment over it. I do hope that Massachusetts is a turning point, but it's probably going to take a while to realize that having a gay couple marry will have no impact on their own marriage.
I still really don't get why anyone cares though. Are 55% of Americans really so full of hate that they really want to make it that much more difficult for people who love each other be recognized as a family? It's really ironic that here in Portland this weekend, an apparently gay man (the news reports usually include interviews with his male "partner"), was removed from life support at his mother's request, over the wishes of both his sister and his partner, and apparently his own wishes. While I personally agree with the decision of the mother, the fact is that if they could have gotten married, it would have been the partner's decision. Justice was NOT served in this case. And over the years, there have been far worse injustices committed, simply because people seem to believe that hateful blood relatives have more rights than the people you actually care about, when you don't care about the people they think you should.
In all fairness, I think that most of the 55% who oppose gay marriage aren't really thinking about the consequences. They take their rights and priviledges for granted because that's just the way it's always been. And, as in the case above, their thoughtlessness and ignorance is killing people.
Master and Commander, the new "seafaring of olde" movie, starring Russell Crowe, is, as the reviews I've seen have pointed out, not a typical swashbuckler of Errol Flynn's days. And at almost 2 and 1/2 hours, it would probably be mind numbing if it were. Instead, it's more a character study of life at sea and playing cat and mouse, hunter and hunted, between warships.
One thing I will warn you about up front, as it surprised me: it's not a movie for the squeamish. They do not shy away from the realism of medicine in 1805, and it is not for the faint of heart! It is, however, also not excessively gory --- and that is one of the great strengths of the movie as a movie, and for the actors in question: the ability to make a couple of scenes as intense as they are without actually showing the operation in detail.
The movie is very well done, special effects every bit as good as modern technology allows, and yet I expected more. While a good movie, it's not a great movie, as I'd hoped and expected.
Perhaps, even in this lengthy of a movie, they attempted to tell too much of a story. We got a decent look at a lot of characters, but the primary focus of the story, well, there wasn't one. On the surface, the story is about two captains of warships chasing and hunting each other, much like many of the submarine movies about WWII, but as with those, the story is actually about the people on the one ship we're on.
The primary story of these character studies is about the captain and doctor, who are old friends, yet, while there is conflict between them, the relationship is not explored very deeply. Certainly not enough to justify a critical decision in the last quarter of the movie.
Still, there's a lot to like about the movie --- the stories are interesting, the view of ship life appears very realistic, these is tension and suspense, and there's even an amusing twist at the end. I give it a 7.
Boy, was I in for a shock.
Different People is not at all light-hearted. On the surface, it's a classic tale of two people meant for each other, whose circumstances preclude them from actually getting together. The title couldn't be more apt either: Eric, openly gay son of a liberal singel mother; Cal, closted son of activist fundamentalist Christian parents --- whose father worked with the Anita Bryant anti-gay campaign no less. Cal, as would be expected in a dramatic story, runs himself through the ringer, but the depths to which he sinks are told in a level of detail that makes you wonder just want Orland himself must have gone through growing up, or who he's associated with, to be able to achieve. His description of how someone feels who is unhappy with themselves, their decisions and their lives is spot on. It was hard not to completely break down crying while reading his story.
Interwoven with Cal's story, is Eric's story --- buff, beautiful, well adjusted, and yet his life is no picnic either, and he makes his mistakes as well, though he doesn't sink quite to the depths that Cal does.
At risk of telling too much, despite the intense story, it's not a tragedy, and the story ends on an upbeat note. It even has a believable upbeat ending, although I suspect the circumstances that lead to it are all too rare in real life, and the vast majority of people who get buried as far as either Cal or Eric, for that matter, do, don't have an "upbeat ending". But it does at least leave us with hope: hope that if it's reasonably possible for these two to dig themselves out of the cavern they've dug for themselves, there's hope for the rest of us to get out of the potholes of life that we dig for ourselves.
These stupid lawsuits that blame the companies for the actions of individuals are blights on the legal system --- they're one small step up from the ambulance chasers seeking deep pockets to win the lottery. It made no sense to sue tobacco companies (I remember hearing about tobacco and cancer when I was a kid in the 60's! The claim that "the smokers didn't know" is BS), and it makes even less sense for the gun industry, where safety is a common issue.
If you want to sue the parents who don't lock up their guns or teach their kids how to handle them, fine, but it's not the gunmaker's fault that the parents didn't do their job and it's certainly not the gunmaker's fault when outlaws misuse guns they probably stole in the first place.