1. I volunteered to turn the reunion registration forms into a couple of lists. One is a list of people who've registered. The other is a list of who is coming to dinner and their menu selections.
This is exactly the kind of volunteer work I enjoy most. I'm making a contribution and am able to do it behind the scenes and from home.
I thought today about Bridgit. She has volunteered to help out a kitten rescue organization by writing rescue stories for their Facebook page. Her work will help the organization have an appealing online presence and help find homes for orphaned cats. Bridgit lives a ways away from the facility, but the organization can send her pictures of and outlines about individual cats and Bridgit will turn them into stories.
Bridgit's volunteer work and my experience helping out the reunion committee from home has got me thinking about other volunteer work I might do -- and do it the way I enjoy.
2. I mentioned the other day that I watched Lee Grant's documentary movie about the lives of Kirk and Michael Douglas (A Father, A Son: A Hollywood Story).
I also mentioned that I didn't think I'd ever seen a Kirk Douglas movie.
I remedied that this evening.
First, I not only watched Kirk Douglas, but also Lee Grant, in director William Wyler's movie Detective Story (1951).
The movie centers around an 8-12 hour period of time in the detective room of the 21st Precinct in New York City.
Much like the television show, Barney Miller, perpetrators and victims from all walks of life come through the precinct, ranging from a shoplifter to a serial burglar to a one-time thief (and desperate lover) to an illegal abortion doctor and more.
The movie moves quickly, alternating between scenes of hilarity and danger and moving between several subplots.
At the center of the story is a rigid, quick tempered, sometimes abusive, haunted detective, Jim McLeod, played with verve by Kirk Douglas.
As the movie develops, Detective McLeod work on a case raises suspicions in his supervisor, Lt. Monaghan. The lieutenant does some investigating and suddenly the McLeod's private life, his marriage, and his detective work collide.
I'll leave it at that, except to say that this collision forces McLeod to come to grips with himself as a detective and as a human being. He faces an existential crisis.
3. I wasn't quite done with Kirk Douglas tonight after watching Detective Story.
I turned to Paths of Glory (1957), a movie Kirk Douglas's own production company made, independent of the major studios. Kirk Douglas hired Stanley Kubrick, then in his late twenties, to help write the screenplay and direct the movie.
It's a WWI movie, shot in black and white, alternating between stark scenes from the trenches and of combat in No Man's Land and opulent scenes from the palatial structures where French generals make decisions about war strategies and angle to burnish their reputations and receive promotions.
Kirk Douglas plays the role of Colonel Dax, ordered by his superiors to capture and hold a German stronghold with undermanned and exhausted troops.
In the aftermath of this attack, the movie dramatizes a court martial hearing and its outcome.
I don't want to give what happens away, but I will say that throughout the movie, I kept thinking about Breaker Morant.
Both movies portray soldiers as scapegoats, pawns put to trial as a way of covering up the corruption of their superiors. Both movies also contrast the brutal conditions of combat with the detached comfort of the lives of the officers at the highest levels of command.
Neither movie uplifts its viewers.
Both are brilliantly written, directed, and acted.
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