Cinema

Cinema                                                 1185

Thursday, June 23, 2005-1:50 P.M.

Yesterday, I whiled away the time at my father's house by watching movies.  He's a movie buff, and has literally over 1,500 titles on VHS tape.  He has shelves built into a walk-in closet to house all of them, and I was notified that upon his passing, I will inherit them.  Oh boy.

I watched "Monster's Ball" last night, a film I actually bought for him last year when I was down here in Florida (I visit for a month or so each year).  It was quite a dark film, and it showed an ugly part of the South...the racist, poor, violent stuff that nobody likes to talk about.  I find it funny that "the Bible belt" has the highest incidence of prejudice, violence, and ignorance, not to mention poverty.  Of course, that's not to say that our urban centers in the North don't have those things, think of the murder and violent crime rates in New York, Detroit, Washington and Philadelphia; but in the South, it seems to be more focused on, perhaps because of the smaller populations.  Regardless, it is my belief that every stereotype has a root in truth, and upon my visits to the South, I've found them to be quite truthful.

For instance, in Biloxi, Mississippi, I did a joke that I do every night, about Halloween.  I say that normal folks have normal Halloweens.  Your mother puts a sheet over you, cuts a couple of eye holes, and you go as a ghost.  I was the fat kid, so my mother put an afghan over me and sent me out as a couch.  The joke gets a nice laugh.  I follow it up with the line "I tried that joke in (insert southern state here), and they said 'Hell, we do that now!'"  It's a Klan reference, and it always gets the laugh.  Well, I was in Mississippi, so I decided instead of using a different state, which I would do, I used Mississippi itself.  It got probably the biggest laugh of the evening, because it's TRUE.  Black folks and white folks alike got a chuckle out of it, and frankly, that's sad.

Life imitates art, and that's unfortunate.  See a good movie today, if you can.  I promised my precious wife Pamela that I wouldn't see Star Wars III without her, and it's killing me.  I will, however, probably see Batman Begins this weekend, because I'm a huge comic book fan and can't hold off.  Besides, a nice, air-conditioned theater is what I'll need to escape the Georgia heat.

See a nice movietoday.  I recommend "The Terminal" if you're going to rent, or check out "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" which is on HBO this month.  And don't forget the popcorn!

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY