I would like to know how many people, like me, identify with Chris McCandless. I suppose most of us have a love/hate relationship with wealth and possessions. Sometimes I feel right on the edge of turning and walking away…like Chris. The closest I’ve come is walking away from good jobs because it just didn’t feel right. With nothing else lined up, I step into the unknown…somehow things have always work out. I think I’ve managed to stay a responsible parent through all my issues. Several years ago I ripped apart a dollar bill in front of my kids and threw it away. It was only a buck but they still talk about it. I’ve got a $50 bill in my wallet right now. I’d love to burn it…but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Chris gave away his $24,000 trust fund to charity, turned down a new car from his parents, burned his money, and wandered around the western United States meeting people and experiencing the land. His final adventure was living in the wilds of Alaska for several months. It’s not spoiling the ending to tell what happened, it was all over the news. When I say it was his final adventure, I mean it literally. He left behind journals, pictures, and friends to help tell his story.

“Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness…give me truth.”

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I know that world history is tainted throughout with racism, but I had no clue about what happened in Australia in the 1930’s. This is the true story of three girls who were taken from their homes because they were of mixed race and then put into a containment camp. Some of the crazy ideas that mankind has fashioned and executed are downright disturbing. Tearing children away from loving families can be a cheap way way to draw a tear, but that isn’t the focus of this show. It tells the inspiring story of Molly, a 14 year old girl, who escapes with her younger sisters and treks 1500 miles through the Australian Outback to get home. She knows the fence runs right to her village, so they follow it across the continent avoiding the police and rangers searching to capture them.

The girls perform superb. The documentary on the DVD about the making of this movie and history behind the story it as intriguing as the movie itself. The young actresses were picked from rural Australia and faced their own personal struggles as the movie was filmed. They are charming girls and if you follow-up the movie with the documentary you be that much more touched.

The images are beautiful, the story sweet, and the characters moving. It’s another good movie that inspires me to try and do a little more with my life.

If you know me, you’ll quickly understand why I loved this movie. It’s set in South Africa (hoe gaan dit my maat..dang I’m rusty), involves a boy’s passion with his camera, has a cast of troubled youth, addresses poverty, and has plenty of emotional drama. Two young friends find a dead body. One takes his gun, the other his video camera, and they each make use their new toys around the city. As a result, they branch into new directions in their lives which occasionaly cross throughout the movie, creating a nice conflict as the two friends face off from different sides of the track. A young white girl, carrying her own share of issues, becomes involved and introduces a nice flare of romance which does not bode well with her racist father.

This movie sparked several pages of journal writing for me. It touched on teenage issues, the inhumanity of poverty, and the whole Carpe Diem philosophy: what the hell am I doing with my life…wake up Warren! I enjoyed this show and it left me feeling flustered with some of the evils in the world but thankful for the life that I enjoy. I’d have to say watching this show helped make me a better person…or at least wanting to be a better person. Shows that can do that are certainly worth watching.

I must be in the foreign Holocaust movie mode. This one, unlike the last, didn’t just make me sad…it ripped my heart out. How a movie can make my throat tighten, tears well, and stomach knot while at the same time find sweet innocent ways to make me laugh I don’t know. I never would have thought a comedy/drama about the horrors of a concentration camp would ever work. But not only does it work, it excels.

The humor comes from a loving father doing everything he can to protect his young son from the nightmares around them. And maybe that’s why it gets me so much. It’s hard to see any child suffer. That alone is enough to choke me up. But throw in the idea that I have to watch my own children suffer and the knife twists inside me. I want to shield my kids from pain and suffering. I want them to be happy and feel like the world accepts and loves them. Yet there are places where that just doesn’t happen. So as I watch this show and put myself in the place of the father, it melts me. It inspires me to be a better parent to my kids. I certainly don’t face a fraction of his troubles. He shows how parent’s sometimes must resort to extreme measures…even put themselves in harms way if that’s what it takes. It’s hard to imagine the hardships people face around the world. I’m beyond fortunate in my life.

If you don’t sprechen deutsch prepare to read subtitles. It’s also long (2 1/2 hours) but, to it’s credit, I didn’t even realize that until it was over and I saw the time. It’s well done, I can see why it won an Oscar.

I can’t imagine having to escape from my country and start a new life in a hard new land…walking away from wealth and privilege to work on a farm. It’s something that I find myself sometimes wishing would happen to me. It would have to happen to me cause I doubt I’d ever do on my own. But something like that would be good for me.

Life is full of hard knocks. I learn through trial and mistakes. But rough times are not fun so when I watch people struggle in relationships, make poor choices, and push through their trials, I’d like to think that maybe I’m learning something from them. I’d rather learn from their mistakes than have to make them myself. As I experience heartache, anger, and frustration during a movie like this…maybe I’m growing a little bit. Maybe I’ll understand people a little bit better. Maybe I won’t be so judgmental. Maybe I’ll be a better person. With the amount of emotion this film pulled out of me, I have to think so.

There were a few points in this movie I was disgusted. It’s too easy for me to judge people sometimes and some of the choices they made and the things they said pushed my buttons. But I liked the characters and I didn’t want to be angry at them, so I had to let myself understand and empathize with them. Which wasn’t easy because some of the topics are ones that haunt me from my own life. But then, that’s why they pushed my buttons in the first place.

In the end, I resolved my issues with the characters. I certainly can appreciate that life is hard and we all do what we feel we have to in order to survive. We all hurt and feel pain and just want to be happy. Well, most people I know want happiness. Being torn from my home and family, thrust into a the middle of Africa, and then hearing the horrors that befell my loved ones left behind would wring out the best and worst in me. This was a very sweet movie and helped me forget about all of the stupid things I stress about…at least for a little while.

This movie surprised me. It didn’t get a lot of press and my expectations were low. But I’d seen some good reviews and thought it sounded interesting. Moments after I clicked play I remember thinking, “this could be really good.” It had a great start. Then I sat spellbound until the end. I had no idea I had just stumbled across a movie that would end up being one of my all time favorites. Then I watched it the next night again with my daughter. I dont’ know when the last time I even watched the same movie twice was, let alone one night after the other.

It filled me with passion. It angered me. It made me want to stand up and do something to help change the world. It’s an emotional roller coaster through flying daggers, bullets, blood, and mayhem. If you like action, conspiracy, government cover-ups, and seeing somebody stand up to The Man, then I think you’ll enjoy this movie. I just wish they would have played a longer version of the 1812 Overature during the first part of the show.

Make sure you see them all…series 1, 2, and the Christmas Special. I loved “Office Space,” but this even topped that one. I’ve had a boss kind of like David Brent…and that made it even more funny (and painful at times). The things he says…it’s so sad and pathetic it’s funny. My guess is that if you liked “Office Space,” enjoy Dilbert, and you laugh at dry British humor…you’ll love this one.

Note: Now they have an American version of the Office, which is also funny. But the British one is classic. Well worth watching.

I love photography and enjoyed the passion Busca-Pe has for taking pictures. This show, however, wouldn’t have needed the photography angle that to keep my attention. It is inspiring to hear stories of people who beat the odds and overcome the difficult situations that life has given them. (Especially for me…I have so much yet still find life to be tough.) I forget, all too often, how good I really have it…and every once in a while I need a movie like this to slap me in the face.

Wow, Ryan Gosling gives an amazing performance. This was an intense show which made me think of a bunch of different things; prejudice, cruelty, fear, Speaking out, fighting for your rights, and being assertive. On the outside, this show looks addresses these issues. But I thought the show was more about …beliefs. Specifically, in this case, beliefs about God. Do we question or don’t we? Do we hold on or let go? Do we sit passive or fight? Do we believe…or not? Maybe we just wish we didn’t believe….or maybe we hate ourselves because we do. Or, maybe we turn that hate towards the people who tried to convince us to believe in the first place? Now we hate them because we don’t want to believe…but we can’t help it.Along these lines, the show gave me some good food for thought. I feel pretty clean about growing up and changing my beliefs. I don’t feel anger or hatred, but watching this show made me look at it a bit and at least ask some questions of myself…I know it did make me upset about always being so passive in so many areas of my life.

Wow. This show was harrowing. It’s not for the squeamish or easily offended. It’s a frank look at a group of kids in Harlem and well beyond anything I saw or experienced in my sheltered life. I found myself thinking, this doesn’t really happen does it? It’s hard to admit that kids actually live in this type of an environment.It was depressing, sad, and eye-opening. I can get quite comfortable in my safe little corner of the world and forget about some of the rough things that happen on this planet. Sometimes it takes a movie like this to remind me that not only do I have a good life, but I have a responsibility to help those searching for something better. If you get this show, which I suggest, it’s contains mature themes and images.