Best 2018 movie scene

Thanks to Steve Sailer, I learned that the Coen Brothers were coming out last Friday with a new Western on Netflix. This scene split into two parts is the best I have watched in some time. I wish they started the first clip a couple minutes earlier, but you'll get the idea.  It's just so real, so un-PC, and reminds us how heroes used to be portrayed by Hollywood: fearless, capable, and chivalrous.   

HBD on the big screen

It's fun to see life and art conforming to the HBD view of social reality. The script for The Social Network could have been written by someone from this corner of cyberspace. We see Internet innovation dominated by young white males. Especially Jewish ones. Not a woman or NAM in sight. But the innovators are nerds who cannot get a date until their creativity brings recognition and social status. They hit it off with smart Asian girls in particular. Ethnic differences are portrayed as well. You have high-minded, athletic WASPs and shrewd Jews. Good stuff--didn't look at my watch even once.     

The Hangover: Speaking of funny, I saw "The Hangover" this weekend and laughed myself silly. Yes, I know it's wild and vulgar, but funny is funny.

There are two kinds of funny movies: funny-stupid and funny-clever. When I say clever, I don't mean some intelligent message. That's asking too much. I mean creative and well-crafted like Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." This movie is funny-clever.

If you're sensitive about vulgarity, skip the photos that are shown during the credits. Depraved guy that I am, I can take just about whatever is thrown at me, but Zach Galifianakis' erect penis was a bit much.

You gotta purdy mouth: I just watched Deliverance at Netflix. If you haven't seen it, you've got to. What a treat. I enjoyed it so much, I didn't even mind that they demonize hillbillies. Now, I need to read the book by 1966-68 Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress, James Dickey. (He plays the sheriff). I am usually bored by action movies, but not if they're intelligent like this one. And it's quite beautiful as well (except for the hillbillies, of course).

Some beautiful neo-realism: I was in the mood for classic film this past week, so I watched Umberto D and The Bicycle Thief by director Vittorio De Sica. The latter is now available online at Netflix. I'm no movie critic, but if you like simple stories of ordinary people shot in beautiful places like Rome in black and white; if you have a soft spot for kids and dogs, and if you don't mind a slow pace, I bet you'll like these. Don't get me wrong--they have a lot of emotional power, but the director is in no hurry to get you there. These films, however, are not long. They run about 90 minutes each. In my opinion, you cannot make a movie too short.

Four good movies you probably have not watched: I've had such a streak of good Netflix films lately, I thought I'd recommend them. Two of them were religious, so you'll probably only appreciate them if that's your thing. Ostrov (The Island) is a Russian movie that does a good job of capturing the feel of Orthodoxy. The Gospel of John is no work of art, but I like how Christopher Plummer's narration follows the last gospel almost word for word. Plus, Henry Ian Kusick gives a joyous quality to Jesus' words, in contrast to, say, the heaviness of Max von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told .

Religious folks and great literature fans alike should enjoy two movies based on novels by my favorite author, Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first one is a BBC miniseries, Crime and Punishment starring John Hurt. And my favorite of the bunch is a 2003 Russian production, The Idiot. The movie is based on a less well-known Dostoevsky novel. When guys like Mel Brooks call someone Prince Myshkin, they're referring to the main character in the story.

Dostoevsky's stories are probably more meaningful to Christians, but you can't be one point behind Tolstoy in the Western Literature ratings by appealing only to people of faith (Human Accomplishment). Godless Freud claimed that The Brothers Karamazov was the best novel ever written.

The actors really stand out in this production. One inconsequential note: this is a mini-series that takes up four DVDs.