An Exchange of Words: David B. Coe’s Weblog

One of my favorite directors has passed away.  Sydney Pollack, who directed The Way We Were, Out of Africa, Tootsie, The Firm, Absence of Malice, The Electric Horseman, Three Days of the Condor, and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, among his many credits, died yesterday of cancer.  Different directors excel at different things, of course.  I think that no one does spectacle like Spielberg (for instance, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saving Private Ryan); Peter Weir excels at bringing striking imagery to his films (Think Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously, Galipoli).  Sydney Pollack was simply a terrific storyteller.  His filmmaking was never flashy, but never once in watching one of his films did I find myself questioning any of his artistic choices.  His films were seemless.

Pollack also produced many well-known films, and he got his start as an actor.  And in fact, whenever I think of Pollack, the first thing that comes to mind is a scene that Dustin Hoffman prevailed upon him to act in Tootsie.  Those of you who have seen the movie might remember the scene in which Hoffman’s character barges into the office of his agent, played by Pollack, and demands to know why he hasn’t been getting any acting jobs.  The resulting argument over how difficult Michael is to work with, remains one of the funniest five minutes you’ll ever see in any movie.

In any case, I’ll miss Sydney Pollack the actor and Sydney Pollack the producer.  And I believe that Hollywood will be poorer for the loss of Sydney Pollack the storyteller.

As I’ve mentioned in this space many times before, we live pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  It’s not that there’s nothing around, but ours is a small college town in the midst of rural Tennessee.  It’s at least a 25 mile round trip to a decent grocery store.  If we want organic foods, the round trip is closer to 100 miles.  A big bookstore?  Also 100 miles, particularly if we want an independent.  Same with music stores, and Thai food, and any edible sushi that doesn’t involve a Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.  There’s a small movie theater here in town, but it’s at least a forty-five minute drive to the nearest first-fun movie theater that offers enough movie choices for a family of four.

Not surprisingly, we do a lot of shopping on the net.  And, also not surprising, we figured that NetFlix was made for people like us.  Any DVD we want is just a click away.  Free postage, a flat fee for as many movies as we can watch.  What could be better, right?   

I should pause here to say that I have no complaints about how NetFlix works, or about their customer service.  Anytime I’ve called, the people I’ve talked to have been polite and helpful.  The movies arrive just when they’re supposed to.  We send back a movie, and before we know it, there’s another one in our mailbox.  Another movie.  Just sitting there, waiting to be watched.  It’s probably a good one.  I mean, we put it in our queue, right?  It ought to be good.  It’s probably one we’ve been talking about seeing.  We know that we really ought to watch it.

Have you ever been caught in traffic while riding in a taxi?  Your eyes keeping flicking to the meter, and every few seconds the fare increases, even though you haven’t moved at all.  You know the feeling, right?  Well, that’s how my wife and I are starting to feel about NetFlix.  Between work and stuff for the kids and just the general demands of keeping the household running, we barely have time to sit and talk to each other, much less watch a movie.  But the movies are just sitting there.  You can almost hear them ticking like that freakin’ taxi meter — that flat rate doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.  If we watch a movie every weekend and maybe even a second on a Wednesday night, it’s a great deal.  But after a couple of weeks, that movie gathering dust next to the telephone is getting pretty darn expensive.

I was up until 11:30 last night watching “The Good Shepherd.”  It was a decent movie.  At one point I know that I really wanted to see it.  But that was before it had been sitting in my house for three weeks.  That was before I realized it was two hours and forty-eight minutes long.  I used to like movies.  Now they feel like homework.  Another one arrives and immediately I start trying to figure out when I’m going to get done with it, when I’m going to turn it in.

I sent “The Good Shepherd” back this morning.  I don’t know what the next title in my queue is, but I know it should be here by Friday or so.  I just hope it’s short.

Today’s music:  Branford Marsalis (Renaissance)

We saw “Stardust” last night (for those of us living in the boondocks, NetFlix really is a wonderful thing….), and I have to say that I thought it was a terrific movie.  For those of you who would tell me that the movie isn’t nearly as good as the book, I have no doubt that’s true.  I love Neil Gaiman’s work, and I have every intention of reading it.

But this, it seemed to me (and I do say this without having read the novel yet), was one time when Hollywood got it right.  The movie is funny, suspenseful, well acted, visually stunning, and a tremendous amount of fun.  Watching Robert De Niro as the closeted Captain Shakespeare was a particular treat.  We were an audience of six — three adults, a 20 year-old male college student, and two younger girls, ages 12 and 10.  All of us loved it.  That’s saying something.

If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

Today’s music:  Jerry Douglas (Under the Wire)