BEFORE: Sidney Poitier carries over from "The Defiant Ones", and in case you hadn't noticed, I'm back on something of a literary track. I figure by now you school kids have had a chance to settle in with your new English teachers, and it's time to get back to helping you with your book reports. Based on the number of hits my posting got, I'm assuming that quite a few of you had "The Great Gatsby" on your summer reading list. Happy to oblige - my review was in fact even shorter than the Cliff's Notes, and probably much more insightful. Tonight's film is also based on one of those thingies we used to have before movies were invented.
AFTER: I'm really still reaping the rewards of this past February's "31 Days of Oscar" marathon from TCM. I know that's when I added "Doctor Zhivago" to the list, along with "The Agony and the Ecstasy", and several more films that are coming up in the next week. They all just sort of stuck together and floated to the top of the list around the same time. Cream rises, I suppose...
This film is about a man who feels indebted to a group of nuns, and how you feel about religion will probably determine whether you view his situation as being involved in a charitable venture, or being punished in a form of prison. I guess in the end there's really a fine line. Prisons take many shapes, and not all of them are cells with bars on the windows.
But let's be generous tonight and regard Homer Smith's work with an order of Eastern European nuns (who somehow got transplanted to the Tuscon area) as an act of charity and self-fulfillment. He offers to fix their roof in exchange for the water they offer him, and this leads to them demanding (not requesting, demanding) that he build them a chapel.
This is the dirty little secret about religion, and charities in general. No matter how much money and time you devote to them, they always demand more. I hate to sound cynical, but this is at least part of the reason I'm no longer part of the Catholic church. ("I just went to church and gave them some money LAST week, what do you mean I've got to go again?") My parents have been working for the church in my hometown for decades, and they're not even close to being done.
As George Carlin famously said on this topic: "You shouldn't be giving money to the church. The church should be giving ITS money to you." Have you SEEN the Vatican? Michelangelo frescoes aside, they have one of the largest collections of Renaissance art there - they would auction some of it off if they were really serious about raising money and feeding the hungry.
Charitable organizations are not that much better than religions. Why? Because of all the mailed requests they send out for money, which costs them money. I need to know that when I donate money to a charity, it's not just going to be spent in postage for soliciting more donations. So when it's tax time, that reminds me to donate some money so I'll have a deduction for the current year, and I go through my mail and pick 5 worthy (in my opinion) charities. I write five checks, and I'm done for the year. But if I get too much mail from any particular charity, that affects my decision-making, and they could be off the list.
But again, let's assume that Homer Smith got something out of this process as well, that it wasn't just as one-sided as it seems. He built the nuns a chapel and taught them better English, and what did he get? A sense of purpose, perhaps, or pride in his accomplishment. Friendship? Perhaps, with the nuns and with the community at large. If I were him, I'd be pissed when the nun said, "God built the chapel." Hell no, Mother Superior, a man built the chapel! Can a brother get some respect?
I never dealt with German nuns, but I had a German grandmother, and the work ethic displayed in this film was evident in her personality as well. She moved in with my parents after my grandfather died, and she hated it when I acted lazy or slept late over the summer - she'd whack my bed with her cane and yell at me to get up and mow the lawn. I couldn't wait to be old enough to get a summer job and be out of her reach - in the end that made me want to work. Ooh, now I see what she did - well played, Grams.
In the end you need to find the thing that motivates you, and take pride in your work at the same time, no matter if you're painting the Sistine Chapel, or building a wall, or working a booth at Comic-Con. Money also helps, of course, but if you can't get that, you can live off the pride and the sense of community that you foster. Yeah, right.
Also starring Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis, Pamela Branch, Stanley Adams, Dan Frazer.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bulldozers
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