Today's happiness -- My DVR. Today is Robert Redford's 85th birthday, and TCM marked the occasion with 24 hours of his movies. Unfortunately, I have a pesky old job and can't just sit and spend my Wednesday watching movies. So I loaded up my DVR with ...• War Hunt (1962) Redford's first major film role. I saw it once, in the middle of the night, before we had VCRs or DVRs, back when I was living with my parents. He plays a soldier during the Korean war. He and another soldier, played by John Saxon, befriend an orphaned Korean boy. Only John Saxon is a psycho and not healthy for the boy to be around. That's all I remember about it. Oscar-winning director and frequent Redford collaborator Sydney Pollack was an actor back then. That's how they met. That alone makes it an important film.
• The Candidate (1972). As smart and ambitious a film about American politics as I've ever seen.
• The Way Were (1973) The ill-fated romance of Katie and Hubbell. One of my favorite movies, but likely the first to go for space. I forgot it's available OnDemand, and I do have the DVD somewhere.
• The Natural (1984) Baseball is a metaphor for life.
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) I know it's not a perfect movie, but it's possibly a perfect piece of entertainment.
Happy birthday, Bob. Thank you, TCM. Thank you, Anthony Wood (he invented the DVR).
Each day in August you are to
post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it
doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a
great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in
our lives, our communities, and the world.
