Day 2 - a movie that helped you get through the hard times, or one that jumps out at you after your loss.
This movie doesn't quite describe my grief or anything, but it is my favorite movie of all time. The Razor's Edge with Bill Murray. Basically, I love anything with Bill Murray in it, and this one is one of those movies that knocks it out of the park. Humor. Drama. Buddhism. I think W. Somerset Maugham is my favorite writer, or definitely in the top ten. I love the makes of his books. Anyway, there is so much to love in this movie, but my favorite line by far, which I remind myself of daily, is a line uttered after the main character's true love dies.
I thought (she) was my reward for trying to live a good life. Uh uh. There is no payoff - not now. Not ever.
Basically, every aspect of that movie moves me in some way or another. The traveler in me. The Buddhist. The writer. The reader. The seeker. The lover. The compassionate person. The friend.
And having just looking up on IMDB what that quote was exactly, I found out that Bill Murray agreed to be in Ghostbusters if Columbia Pictures would make this movie. And you can tell, without a doubt, that he believed in this movie.
The Razor's Edge is one of my fave books, too--love Somerset Maughm. I've never seen the movie, I'll have to put it in my queue immediately :)
ReplyDeleteBill Murray was a theology major in college. His sister was a theater major. His sister, Nancy Murray, is now Sister Nancy Murray, a Carmelite nun. She and I sort of used to share an office.
ReplyDeleteAs to the question at hand, I didn't have a movie for a long time, though there were movies I avoided on other people's say-so. About a month ago, we watched "A Single Man" on DVD, and after the first 10 minutes, which is all monologue, Alan looked at me and said "You feel this way." It was spot on.
Oops. Not a Carmelite nun. Just a nun.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen it. I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of a movie that really stands out for me right now. But, while I was pregnant I had first seen a preview for Life As We Know It (the new one with Kathryn Heigl and Josh Duhamel and a gorgeous baby girl who they become caregivers for after the girl's parents die). Initially, I thought this looked adorable and couldn't wait to see it, I can't help but love chick flicks.
ReplyDeleteNow when I see the previews for it it breaks my heart and makes me cry every time.
Mary Beth, it is not like the book, per se, but a different beast all together. THough the book is magnificent too. Did you see the Painted Veil version with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton? Amazing.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, I love that. I had no idea, which is strange because I really do love everything he does. What was his sister like? His brother is also in Razor's Edge, and in Groundhog Day, perhaps the most Buddhist movie ever made.
Angie, totally would make me cry too. Sounds sad, but I also found Juno, Knocked Up and those movies after Lucy's death so sad and I was drawn to them like a moth to light.
Oh, his sister was a piece of work. The reason that I wound up in her office, which was in a church rectory, is that she had sustained a leg injury from- I shit you not- dancing too much at religious celebrations and was forced by her order to go to some nun retreat house to chill out for a while so she didn't party too much and do herself too much more damage. Run-on sentence, that, but she was a walking run-on sentence herself. She is warm, energetic, very funny, and typically speaks in someone else's accent. I was working there not long after "Charlie's Angels" came out, and there's a picture somewhere in the rectory with Bill Murray and all the Angels being played by nuns. Did I somehow forget to mention all this to you in our correspondence?
ReplyDeleteAs to "Groundhog Day", which is awesome, I recently watched it again and got downright hysterical (crying, not laughing) during the scene where he tries repeatedly to save the old homeless man and can't do it. Somehow, that part of the movie had never registered with me before- that no matter how many times we're here and how many ways it plays out, death is not ours to stop.
I watched Terms of Endearment about 6 months after my son's stillbirth. I don't know why. I knew what was coming, but I couldn't change the channel. When the daughter dies, and the mother says, "I'm so stupid. I thought when she left I'd be relieved" (or something like that)....... holy shit.
ReplyDeleteWe knew our son was sick for two days, and I spent two days in the hospital listening to his heartbeat. I hoped for something, anything, to keep him alive, but I knew it would not happen. And while I loved listening to his heartbeat and wished I could stay in the hospital and listen forever, part of me just wanted to get on with it already. Then I watched that fucking movie. I was so glad it was 1am and I was watching it alone so I could be the sobbing, I can't breathe mess I needed to be.
What About Bob?
ReplyDeleteRe: Bill Murray, the original Saturday Night Live began when I was in high school in the mid-70s. My mother thought it was awful. But one night she was dying to go to the movies (& our town only had one theatre), so we went to "Stripes" together. She LOVED it, & LOVED Bill Murray. Go figure. ; ) I think she has seen just about every one of his movies.
ReplyDelete