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Finished with films 9 and 10 last night. As usual I don’t really know what to say. They’re great… will I buy myself a copy so I can watch them over and over? I don’t know yet. That will depend on whether I keep thinking about them for the next few weeks as much as I have been the last week or so. I’m extremely impressed with the writing, more than anything else. The way the commandments were worked into the story lines was really pretty amazing. The fact that you can’t see right from the beginning of the film which commandment(s) it deals with means you are going to have to think about these movies, not just let them wash over you.

As I said, we returned yesterday from our trip to Phoenix, which ended up being a few hours longer than we planned. Thick fog on the roadway and our own dawdling on the way home forced us to stay overnight in Fillmore, UT. Of course, that is the end of the trip and not a good way to start telling the story. WE left the morning of the 9th at about 5:30, which was pretty good, since we planned to leave at 5:00. Half an hour late is great when you have to get two sleepy kiddos ready to go.

We drove to Las Vegas and across the Hoover Dam, expecting to have to wait at the security checkpoint there, but in the end they just waived us through, no big deal. There were a couple of large vehicles (RV’s etc) stopped for inspection, but it didn’t take long at all.

We stopped in Kingman, AZ for lunch, and I am glad we did, as we discovered a fun place to eat with great rootbeer. If you ever happen to be in Kingman, check out Mr. D’z on Route 66 next to the park with the old steam engine. We stopped there because we thought Jonathan would have fun playing on the train, but the food at the diner was great and they brew their own rootbeer, which has a sort of vanilla-caramelly flavor to it… very very good.

We drove through the desert between Kingman and Phoenix, Erica was starting to get tired of the driving, as were the kids, but I quite enjoyed the desert scenery. There were thousands of Joshua Trees, lots of Saguaro cactus and some pretty cool rock formations. I wouldn’t reccomend the drive just based on the scenery, but if you’ve got to get to Phoenix from Utah, it’s not bad.

We finally arrived in Phoenix at about 6pm and found our hotel. My parents had asked them to hold a room for us so check in was just a matter of handing over the credit card and signing the receipt. We brought all our stuff from the car and took a couple of minutes settling into the room, then went straight to my brother Jordan’s apartment. I had initially booked a hotel that, based on maps, looked like it would be close enough to their place to make it convenient, but Jordan suggested one that was quite a bit closer and in a much better part of town so we ended up going with that. We later on drove down to the area where the first hotel was and were glad we’d not stayed there. The hotel itself looked fine but it was a pretty rough area. As Jordan put it, Phoenix is growing like crazy, but it is rotting from the inside out as it grows.

Continue reading ‘Phoenix Trip’ »

Back from our trip to Arizona now, so I can comment on films four through seven. My comment is: very interesting. In case you couldn’t tell, I am having a hard time finding much to say about these movies. It’s not that they haven’t made an impression on me, because they have. I just haven’t been able to put into words the thoughts I’ve had in relation to the movies. On vacation while trying to fall asleep at night I kept thinking about the situations the characters found themselves in. What would I do? How could I possibly ever find myself in those situations? Let’s face it, after all, they are pretty rare complications, at least in the world I inhabit. But maybe in Poland people often find themselves with such huge issues in their lives. Or, and I think this is much more likely, maybe the writers were trying to get the viewer to examine his own small problems in relation to the huge problems the characters in the movies experience… painting a small picture on a huge canvas. I still identify most with the first film, but part seven also is taking up some pretty serious cpu time in my head. It deals with a young girl who had an illegitimate child, but her mother claimed the child as her own and raised her that way. The real mother eventually grows tired of the arrangement and kidnaps the child, planning to start a new life far away. The really intriguing part of the situation for me is what the little girl, who must be around seven, must think about suddenly finding out that the woman she thought was her mother is actually her grandmother, and her sister, who she loves and enjoys as a sister, is her mother. The film doesn’t go into that terribly much, it would have to be longer than an hour to satisfactorily tie up that thread as well as the main story, but it is interesting to think about. Sort of simlar to the debate on whether or not to reveal to adopted children that they are adopted. I’ve never really had to face this sort of a choice, where there are probably an equal number of pros and cons to either side, and no clear correct decision.

I watched the first three films last week and again reacted strongly to the first. Maybe I connect with that story so well because I am closer in my own life to the situation in the movie. It’s about a computer-enthusiast father who is raising a son on his own. It’s tied to the “thou shalt have no other gods before me” commandment and the computer becomes something of a god for the father and son, with disastrous consequences. I’m obviously a computer enthusiast myself and I hope to be able to impart some of that love of technology to my own children. Jonathan already loves playing with the computer and even little Marissa seems to be interested in the screen and the keyboard. I hope I have never elevated my respect for the solid facts and logic of the computer world above my respect for deity.

The second and third films don’t connect so strongly with me, but I really enjoyed them. Both dealt with adultery, friendship, loss. I’m excited for the second disc to show up today or tomorrow so I can keep watching.