Dr. Zhivago

Watching this movie was also triggered by my reading Stalin's Daughter and thinking "I've heard of this movie / book for decades, but don't really know what it's about." And then I was at the shower for Angela and one of the love song clues was "Lara's Theme" - I knew right away it was from Dr. Zhivago . . . but how? From crossword puzzles?

So I finally borrowed it from the library. And then I kept renewing it because I didn't have time to watch it. And then Louie and I started to watch it, but had trouble with our DVD/Bluray player. Then I watched it on my laptop . . . and after two hours was only at the intermission!!!

In that first half of the movie, I was confused. Why does Lara become her mother's boyfriend's lover? She is initially uncomfortable with him and he's a creep! Then when I ran out of time, I decided to read the summary version on Wikipedia. Ah. That helped. But it also made me decide to NOT read the book. I feel as though I have a better understanding of the storyline (by no means a thorough one!) and I do not have a burning need to read Pasternak's original work <nor the translated version in English since I don't read Russian!!>

I liked seeing the young Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, etc. I liked getting a sense of the historical perspective. 

Here's a blurb from Wikipedia (10.7.16) on the novel:
"The plot of Doctor Zhivago is long and intricate. It can be difficult to follow for two main reasons: first, Pasternak employs many characters, who interact with each other throughout the book in unpredictable ways, and second, he frequently introduces a character by one of his/her three names, then subsequently refers to that character by another of the three names or a nickname, without expressly stating that he is referring to the same character. To avoid this confusion, the summary below uses a character's full name when the character is first introduced."

Outbreak

I finally watched it! I've had this movie home for over a year . . . (Our Adventures kids watched it before Christmas break LAST year) and have finally viewed it. It's over two hours long and goes incredibly well with the book "The Hot Zone" (which I read last year). The movie stars Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and many others! What a great cast. I'm glad it's fiction, and I hope we never ever have to deal with such a deadly virus. Last year, the ebola outbreak was so timely and relevant to our students' study of viruses. Great movie, though I got a bit tired of Dustin Hoffman's "angry yelling man" character . . .

Daddy Long Legs

First, I need to say that I am horrible about movie blogging . . . as in, I shouldn't even bother trying! It's not that I watch many movies. It's just that watching them is usually more of a kick-back, relax, escapism moment. However, I blogged about the books related to this movie AND I grabbed an image of the cover, so I'm impelled.

I don't find Fred Astaire to be very attractive, but he is an amazing dancer. I like more old-fashioned movies too. But the movie is quite a bit different from the book and I'm not a huge fan of older guy attracted to younger gal. Still, it was fun to watch.