I saw the movie of this story when I was a kid and yet I can still see the swaying cable bridge breaking loose and people falling into the canyon below. Funny the things that memory holds onto. Wilder won the Pulitzer for this story of the local monk's persistent quest to find out why God allowed those particular five people to be on that bridge when it collapsed that day in Peru. The author has each of the five victims move into the first person to narrate their life stories up until the point of their deaths. And their lives are interesting. In the beginning of the last chapter we begin to understand Brother Juniper's alarming obsession with fate. He goes so far as to develop a chart to diagram the value of people's souls which he graded based on their goodness, religiousness and other qualities. As he saw the enormity and uselessness of the chart he unconsciously realized a great chasm between faith and fact. Unfortunately for him, he comes to the attention of the Inquisition
3 MOVIE REVIEWS
RECKLESS. This is a "Masterpiece Theatre" production (2004) starring two of my favorite British actors, Robson Green and Richard Kitchen. It is a lighthearted story with sad undertones. Young doctor (Green) takes job at new hospital to be near his aging, ill, grouchy, -yet endearing - father (a role Clint Eastwood could play well). Then the young doc falls in love with an older woman who turns out to be the wife of the head of surgery (Kitchen) -- his boss!
Unfortunately the story moves so slow that my impatience won out. The actors play their parts skillfully and are good enough to carry a poor script. It's just a shame they had to.
PS: The accents are a real challenge, but that's part of the charm of British movies.
TRACES OF STONES. This is an old (1966) German movie with English subtitles. Although it won a critics award at the Berlin Film Festival, it isn't a very good movie. It's a rather trite, predictable, chauvinistic love triangle that I could do without.
NINE QUEENS. A movie from Argentina about some small time "grifters" planning "the big heist." Movie reviewer, Roger Ebert, called it "A thriller that can best be described as a more complicated 'The Sting'" which doesn't say that it is a good movie, only a complicated one. I didn't finish it. If the movie doesn't grab my attention in the first 20 minutes or so, I don't finish it.
Unfortunately the story moves so slow that my impatience won out. The actors play their parts skillfully and are good enough to carry a poor script. It's just a shame they had to.
PS: The accents are a real challenge, but that's part of the charm of British movies.
TRACES OF STONES. This is an old (1966) German movie with English subtitles. Although it won a critics award at the Berlin Film Festival, it isn't a very good movie. It's a rather trite, predictable, chauvinistic love triangle that I could do without.
NINE QUEENS. A movie from Argentina about some small time "grifters" planning "the big heist." Movie reviewer, Roger Ebert, called it "A thriller that can best be described as a more complicated 'The Sting'" which doesn't say that it is a good movie, only a complicated one. I didn't finish it. If the movie doesn't grab my attention in the first 20 minutes or so, I don't finish it.
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