Saturday, June 22, 2024

Three Beautiful Things 06-21-2024: Debbie in Juneau, Brian Checks In, I Watch *Minority Report*

1. I enjoyed the handful of pictures and a video Debbie sent me from Juneau. I loved seeing photos of her reunited with Laura and TR (Babes with Axes bandmates) and a picture of the scene at Katie's wedding (Katie is the band's fourth member). The video featured a bunch of people performing together at the wedding reception. In the clip Debbie sent, the musicians were performing the mighty song, "Hush". Hearing it led me to play Deep Purple's mighty recording of the song and to play a short Deep Purple concert for myself. 

I don't know just yet what my future will be with alcohol. Currently, even though I'm not restricted from consuming a very moderate amount, I'm abstaining. Today was the first day since my surgery that I thought having a drink would be fun because I've had this thing in the not too distant past of enjoying the pairing of a dry gin martini with listening to Deep Purple. I experienced a mild yearning for a martini this evening. 

2. Debbie's brother, Brian, called me today for a quick check in to see how I was doing. I appreciated his call a lot and was happy to report that things have been going very well over the last nearly six weeks. 

3. I decided today to go in a different direction in my movie viewing and rented Minority Report. It's a futuristic science fiction quasi-political thriller about a police unit, called Precrime, that draws upon foreknowledge provided by three psychics (or "precogs") to apprehend would be murderers before they commit crimes the precogs have seen happen in the future. Thanks to this unit, operating in Washington, DC, over its six years of existence, no murders have occurred in the city -- or so it seems. 

The movie gets complicated when the precogs reveal that the chief of Precrime, played by Tom Cruise, will murder a man he's never met. 

And, with that revelation, the movie becomes a thriller as Chief Anderton flees, the rest of the Precrime unit chases him, and Chief Anderson suspects he's been set up. 

I like watching movies from time to time that are different from what I usually watch and I'm glad I took this detour just so I could see how Steven Spielberg told this story and what he did technically to create the world of Washington, DC in 2054. 

I wanted to experience the intrigue and fascination with this movie so many reviewers of it have written about. 

But, I didn't. 

It wasn't because of Tom Cruise whose performance was terrific. 

It wasn't because of Steven Spielberg who imagined and brought to life a compelling picture of Washington, DC in 2054. 

I guess the movie's exploration of crimes being known in advance and what happens when flawed humans corrupt this means of preventing murders just didn't do much for me. 

In other words, I don't think the movie failed me. It's a terrific piece of moviemaking.  I think, for whatever reason, I failed the movie simply by not having much interest in the story it told or how it dealt with the philosophical question of predestined futures in conflict with human free will. 

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