VIDEOS!--By Father David--(Just be sure it's a VHS & has PAL System!) DO964 3/80
1. MOST OF THE PAST 11 YEARS WE HAVE LIVED IN NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES without much or any movies or TV in our native tongue. Yet some of my best information or greatest inspiration that I have received & passed on to you has come from movies like "Don Quixote", "Brother Sun", "Lost Horizon Found", "Solaris", "War & Peace", "Earthquake", "Soylent Green", "Towering Inferno", "Cassandra Crossing", "Apocalypse Now", "Medusa Touch", etc., etc., & from which I've received some outstanding revelations!
2. I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A GREAT MOVIE-FAN ever since I was a kid, & I believe it was all part of God's educating me in the ways of the World!--I got enough training in the ways of the Lord at home & church, TTL!
3. WE'VE NEARLY ALWAYS HAD A TV even when camping! We had a tiny 12-volt battery-operated TV even in the Ark, our motor-camper, & enjoyed the news & movies when our day's work was done on the road!
4. WE EVEN HAD ONE OF THE EARLIEST OLD REEL-TO-REEL VIDEO-TAPE PLAYERS that dear Ho got us in the earliest days of the Family that he took movies of the Family with all over, & that I loved playing in the Ark when we couldn't see you in person!--It was inspiring!--Thrilling!
5. RECENTLY, AFTER YEARS OF THE FOREIGN TV with various hard-working translators, & often none, we finally broke down & bought a VCR with the new video-cassettes!--And it has been a real blessing & education as well as just plain leisure-hour entertainment for relaxation after a hard day's work!--Thanks to a generous gift from some of you in the Family!--GBY!
6. AT LAST WE CAN WATCH TV NEWS IN OUR OWN LANGUAGE, which has been one of the things we missed the most in foreign countries! We can also enjoy other educational, informational, inspirational & even just plain fun films in English via video!--And of course the children love it, & it is a great educational tool & entertainment for them!
7. WE'RE ALSO THRILLED TO WATCH YOU on videos from various fields of the World, & inspired by your happy shining faces & exciting stories almost in person!--You can't know what a great blessing this is to us who must be so isolated from you for security & privacy to safely continue to produce the Magazine & Letters of the Lord for all of you around the World!
8. SO FOR YOU WHO ARE STRANGERS IN STRANGE LANDS LIKE US, far from home & your native tongue, videos can be a great blessing & re-uniting bond of fellowship with loved ones far away, as well as a welcome source of information & child education.
9. THE LATEST VIDEO PLAYERS ALONE ARE NOT TOO EXPENSIVE NOW FOR SOME OF YOU, & they are surely worth it if you can afford it! You can be much more selective about what both you & your family watch on TV!--Or video!--And you can set your own schedule for TV times, early for the kids & late for you, & see what you wish when you wish!
10. YOU CAN EVEN CARRY IT IN YOUR CAMPER OR TRAILER WITH A SMALL TV as we did for years, & enjoy family fellowship, news & movies in your own language wherever you are! Carry the video tapes with you or rent them or have your family at home make them & send them to you! That's one thing the home folks could do for you, & they'd love seeing some from you if you--or they--can afford a camera too!
11. WHAT A PR & PROMOTIONAL TOOL TO SHARE WITH HOME, FAMILY & SUPPORTERS!--Just be sure you get one that's compatible with theirs!--Either PAL (Australia, China & all W. Europe except France & Greece) or SECAM (Russia, E. Europe, France & parts of the Near East, Orient & Africa) &/or NTSC (Americas, except E. & Cen. S. Amer.).--Or a combination like PAL/SECAM, common in Europe, or all three, the latest!--Your TV must be compatible with the system or systems you're using also, so beware!--And the tapes!--Ha!--The TV, video & tapes must be all of the same system you're using from home or wherever!--PAL, SECAM &/or NTSC--& all VHS!
12. ANYWAY, LOOK INTO VIDEOS!--You may be surprised you or the home folks can afford you one & send you tapes from home! Hallelujah!--Just be choosey about your tapes, as the following discussion suggests!--HAPPY VIEWING!--Dad.
13. (MARIA: YOU SAY YOU LIKE POPULAR MUSICALS WITH A HAPPY STORY & LOTS OF SINGING--singing & dancing & pretty girls & acting & music?--And you like classical ballets?) Particularly what they call the classical operettas. The old classics that are both acting & singing & dancing, music, happy story & even a little talk.
14. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THAT & STRAIGHT OPERA. Opera is all singing, & I don't care for those screaming sopranos & warbling contraltos all in foreign languages, the very very formal music. I like the music of opera if the people would shut up! I don't like to hear their singing, ha! There are very few operas that I really care for--esp. in a foreign language!
15. (MARIA: BUT YOU DO LIKE BALLET?) I love ballet, particularly the classical ballets, not modern ballet. I do not like the discordant horrible music of modern ballet, & mostly male dancers fucking each other & ugliness! It's horrible! Modern ballet is terrible! Modern ballet is just as bad as modern art & modern music & all the rest of it!--It's ugly & perverted!
16. YOU'VE GOT TO GO BACK QUITE A FEW YEARS TO FIND ANY MUSIC I LIKE! (Maria: You like the music of Perry Como...) The most modern music that I like is Perry Como & Bing Crosby & Andy Williams & the Big Bands & Orchestras, like Lawrence Welk & Kostelanetz, Montovani, Mauriat, etc. You've got to go back about 25-30 years at least, & preferably 50 years, to find the kind of music I like, I mean to find any real decent music with beauty!
17. THIS MODERN ROCK & ALL THAT NOISE, IT'S JUST NOT EVEN FOR THE BIRDS! I don't think the birds like it! (Maria: But shows like "Top of the Pops" sometimes are interesting just to see what's going on & the trend...) Well, maybe once in awhile.--I can't stand it very often. (Maria: You love ice skating...) Yes, I like those--ice ballets is what they are--with beautiful music & pretty dancers, of course-- not the noisy rock type.
18. (MARIA: BUT ARE THERE ANY OTHER KINDS OF MUSIC SHOWS YOU LIKE? You liked the Vienna Orchestra very much.) Very much, & particularly the scenes when they have some dancing! But why have just the Orchestra & just have to look at all those ugly musicians, when all you need to do is hear them, & you could be watching pretty girls dancing--pretty boys, too! I didn't like that as well as the other, but it was very good & interesting. It would have been better if it had more music & more singing & not so much yakking.
19. (MARIA: AND THEN YOU ALSO LIKE TRAVELOGUES.) Yes, when I'm ready to have time to watch television or videos it's at the end of the day after dinner when I'm too tired to do anything else. I've done my day's work & we're all just too tired to do anything but just relax & enjoy something. I don't like to watch something that's not enjoyable. I don't want heavy stuff all about what a miserable hell-of-a-mess the World is in at least not at that time of night!
20. I GET ENOUGH OF THAT OUT OF THE NEWSPAPER, the bare essentials, & I don't care too much about seeing it on TV! Just a few minutes of the TV news is usually enough, if it is the last half of the news, the international news. Nearly all countries have a half-an-hour of news in their major evening news program, but usually the first half of it is all national & local news, like the sad news about Britain & their many strikes & all their problems that we don't care to have to wade through since we aren't there. That doesn't affect us as much as the international news.
21. NOW IF YOU LIVE IN A LOCAL COUNTRY like England or France or Belgium or wherever you are living, you of course would be interested in watching all the news including the local news which affects you very greatly. Naturally you are very interested in all news, but we who are living somewhere else & are not much affected by that local news at all, we certainly don't want to see a preponderance of local news of another country in which we are not living & we're not that concerned about it. We prefer the international news which does affect us all in all countries all over the World.
22. I WOULD SAY A WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY ONCE A WEEK IS ALL WE NEED TO SEE, & we don't even need to see the daily news all about the sad news about Britain! If you would just tape the thirty minutes of that weekly news round-up every week, that's all the sad news we need to see!
23. I DON'T CARE ONE BIT ABOUT THESE TALK SHOWS! They bore me to tears & they are sickening & nothing but about problems! Everybody's got questions & nobody's got any answers & they are all guesswork! They are just a lot of university of empty blab!--And that includes the money programs & the whole bunch of others that have nothing but ugly faces & sickening talk!--All man's opinions--not God's!
24. THESE INTERVIEWS & DISCUSSIONS & BLAH BLAH BLAH I'M NOT INTERESTED in burdening & boring myself with when I'm too tired to worry about problems! I want to see something that's happy & that will cheer us up, happy music, happy songs & happy dancing & beautiful music & beautiful girls & nothing sad!
25. I DON'T USUALLY LIKE AMERICAN MOVIES MUCH! Most of them have sad endings & lotsa violence! I prefer the British movies. I like comedy if it is good comedy. I don't like it if it is just plain silly! That "Oh, Mr. Porter" was pretty silly, frankly. It wasn't their best British comedy by any means!
26. I LIKE FUNNY MOVIES IF THEY HAVE GOT GOOD HUMOUR IN THEM, not just slapstick comedy where everybody is batting each other around & acting like idiots! (Maria: Usually a story which incorporates humour in it, not just a comic show.) Yes! I despise all those idiotic movies like the Four Clowns, Beatles' movies, Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy, Keystone Cops, etc.
27. (MARIA: BUT YOU DO LIKE INTERVIEWS WITH TOP INTERNATIONAL FIGURES like Sadat...) Interviews with somebody very important like Sadat or Schmidt or d'Estaing or great national leaders, if they are World leaders, then that's a different story. What they have to say means something, even if it's some crazy U.S. President, at least it means something & it means that he is going to wreck the World! World leaders like Mrs. Gandhi, national leaders, heads of countries--I'm not too much interested in just what their ministers have to say, because they change frequently.--But heads of countries.
28. IF THERE'S SOMETHING REALLY GOOD ALONG THE LINE OF POLITICAL OR ECONOMIC MATTERS, something that's really illustrative, I should see those, but I don't like just sitting there discussing it! That's just a big waste of time, but if they are going to really show something, like that "Nuclear Nightmare" by Peter Ustinov, which was fascinating, because although he gave a constant continual running commentary, they were constantly showing you pictures of actual things & places & people & things that were happening, & not just people sitting around a studio!--(Also "Burke's Connections.")
29. THOSE STUDIO GAB-FESTS ARE JUST SICKENING & DISGUSTING & I don't care for them at all unless there is a World figure, a national leader of some kind participating, somebody that's really got something to say & it's important that they say it!
30. (MARIA: YOU CAN'T RULE OUT PESSIMISTIC FORECASTS & SAD ENDINGS ALTOGETHER, because sometimes they have a good purpose & you need to see them, like even some films against the cults for example. That one on the women robots was quite...) Yes, that was a very interesting movie & I'd even want to see that again, now that we've seen the end of it. I want to see it again to get the whole picture again, because it was a movie with a message & a message that we're interested in. It was really another blast against the cults. ("Stepford Wives.")
31. I'M INTERESTED IN ANYTHING ALMOST ABOUT THE CULTS. That Rastafarianism was sickening, but I'm glad I saw it just to see how sickening they are! And they are just demonology & demon worship, deviltry! You've got to see one of those once in awhile. Things on cults we have to see, whether we like them or not.
32. WE NEED TO SEE SOMETHING ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION & THE WAR, things going on in the international news, the war & Israel & Egypt & the Mideast & even Africa. We have to see those things, but we can get them mostly in the 30 minutes of international news out of the weekly news summary. Anything that you think will interest us. You know what we're interested in & you know the subjects that we deal with in the Magazines, anything that we are normally interested in along those lines like what we put in the WNs.
33. ANYTHING ABOUT THE WONDERS OF GOD'S CREATION ARE VERY INTERESTING & I'm very interested in things about science. I'm very interested in sci-fi, science fiction, space stories & anything about the supernatural, ESP, ghost stories, all things like that. Whether it's scientific documentaries or it's even a fictional movie, I still enjoy it. And that type of documentary is very good, especially if it is well illustrated. (Maria: You didn't like "Grizzly Adams" at all!)
34. I DON'T LIKE A PHONEY FAKEY ANIMAL STORY WHICH IS AS PHONEY AS YOU CAN GET! That whole thing is faked, really faked, with tamed domesticated animals used for wild animals, & the whole story is a lie, it isn't true, it never happened! Well, I guess you could say that about any fictional story, but when it pretends to be real, really pretends to be a true story about this guy out in the woods taming all these wild animals & it's so phoney & fakey, I don't like to watch it or have the children see it! They get the animals to come up & lick his hand because it is soaked with honey, & they come up & climb up his back because he's got a fish stuck inside his shirt or something.
35. THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF TRICKY WAYS TO MAKE ANIMALS CRAWL OVER YOU & PLAY WITH YOU & lick your hand! It's one of the tricks of the movies that they have been using for years, but I know those tricks & I just don't like anything that is that phoney! The kids seem to get a kick out of it, but it's so phoney I don't know if it's good for them!
36. IF IT'S A LIE, IT'S NOT GOOD TO TEACH THEM THAT! I had to even tell the kids during the show last night, I said, "It's not that easy. It just isn't that easy to tame animals. It's not that easy to play around with wild animals; it is very dangerous!" It's teaching them that, oh, they can just go out & pet grizzly bears & jump around & play with the leopard or whatever, & they will all be real playful & happy together in the great outdoors like a great big happy family!
37. WHEREAS THE LORD SAID, "I WILL PUT ENMITY BETWEEN THEE & THE ANIMALS & they shall fear thee, thou shalt fear them" & so on. "And thy blood will I require at their hand!" (Gen.9:2,5.) He said we are to take dominion over them, & that's when He even gave us animals for food to eat! (Gen.1:26 & 28;9:3.) I notice they kind of steered clear of that a little bit, even his catching a rabbit, because he is a pacifist hippie type. That kind of thing always appealed to hippies, living in the woods & the natural life.
38. IT'S SUPPOSED TO SHOW HOW YOU CAN LIVE AT PEACE WITH THE ANIMALS & AWAY FROM MAN: I mean, it's totally antisocial! He doesn't even want a woman! The Lord said it was "not good for man to live alone!" (Gen.2:18.) It's cracking up the lonely hermit life to be the greatest life in the World, & your only friends are animals!
39. HE DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO KEEP HIS DAUGHTER THERE, wouldn't even live with her or any woman! It's sickening! The last one was just ridiculous about that donkey race! I don't like silly movies, ridiculous movies, movies that are obviously untrue & couldn't happen, never did happen & are just ridiculous slapstick comedy! Now that doesn't mean that I don't like fiction.
40. I LIKE HISTORICAL FICTION, OR SCIENTIFIC FICTION, something that has some basis in fact & is believable. In other words, it may not have happened yet but it could happen. Scientific programs, scientific documentaries about things that are important to us, I like. Well, I may not like every one, but we can't always be that choosey.
41. I LIKE THINGS ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND US & WILDLIFE, the elements, & about the wonders of God's creation & science. I think you know pretty well what I like. I don't like Westerns or gangster movies at all! I don't like violence! I do not like movies about violence at all! Once in awhile you can't escape just a little mild violence or something, & sometimes if it's something really historical where they've got to bring in a war or some thing, you can't help it.
42. BUT PREFERABLY I DON'T CARE FOR WAR SCENES OR SHOOT'M UPS or any kind of violence, cowboys or gangsters. I don't like them at all & I don't like the children to see them. I don't like any kind of violence if we can possibly avoid it. I don't even like the violence that was in "Huckleberry Finn"! I didn't like the lying & the deceit & the running away from home & his other escapades!
43. A LOT ARE ADULT FILMS THAT, OF COURSE, WE WAIT until the kids have gone to bed before we see them. We can't have everything for children. But what is supposedly designed for children like "Grizzly Adams" & "Huckleberry Finn" should be good for them--not phoney & full of lies & untrue & abnormal or unnatural! His relationship with those animals is just not normal & natural.
44. NOW ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING MOVIES SENT US WAS A LONG DOCUMENTARY ABOUT WOLVES & that was just absolutely fascinating, I could watch that again! And the kids were fascinated too. And that was actual fact about wild animals, not all that phoney stuff about them being so pleasant & happy & playful & blah blah!
45. IN SOME OF THOSE SCENES IN "GRIZZLY ADAMS" HE WAS TAKING SOME BIG CHANCES & they were really dangerous, but to pretend all the time like he is enjoying it & happy & laughing & playful when he's probably scared half out of his wits that the next one is going to take a swipe at him or bite him or something, is really a bad example for children, because truly wild animals are not very well ever domesticated to where they are so tame that they are not dangerous!
46. I DON'T LIKE THE KIDS TO SEE MOVIES THAT PRETEND THAT WILD ANIMALS ARE PERFECTLY SAFE & playful & harmless. Life is not like that in the wild; it is very hard & the animals are very dangerous! The documentary on the ostriches was fascinating, factual, on actual animal life. I even enjoyed the stuff about the underground world of worms & the bugs & under sea movies, wonders of creation!
47. (MARIA: THE SERIES OF FAMOUS BIBLE CHARACTERS LIKE DANIEL & MOSES, the kids were fascinated with those, they wanted to see them over & over!) Well, they were pretty good for the kids, but I wish they hadn't brought in so much fictionalisation & so much phoney stuff that wasn't even so, wasn't even true! In the Daniel story they depicted the Israelites as hard working slaves. The Israelites were slaves like that in Egypt, but they were not slaves like that in Babylon or Medo-Persia. They were dislocated people, displaced people & whole populations moved to the other places, but they were not such horrible horrible slaves like is portrayed there.--I like the Truth!
48. (MARIA: BUT AT LEAST THESE PROGRAMS MADE THE BIBLE CHARACTERS COME ALIVE for the children.) Yes, yes. In any kind of Bible movie you can't be too choosey & picky about Bible stories. Any kind of Bible stories you can be thankful for, no matter how poorly dramatised or poorly acted, but of course nothing can compare to reality, the actual truth of the Bible!
49. (MARIA: "BILLY JACK" WAS AN AMERICAN FILM, BUT ONE THAT WAS REALLY SIGNIFICANT.) Yes, it was so parallel, it had a lot of meaning to us who lived & dealt with young people & hippies & went through a lot of the same persecution. No, I'm not going to rule out American films entirely by any means. They managed to put out a lot of good musicals: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra & all those dancing, singing & happy story comedies, etc.
50. THAT KIND OF BELIEVABLE COMEDY & FUNNY SITUATIONS I LIKE, but not the slapstick comedy which is just silly, ridiculous unbelievable junk, kind of the stuff that the Marx Brothers used to do. That kind of junk I don't care for. (Maria: But some of the happiest type movies are the old ones, even the American ones.
51. (MARIA: ONE OTHER THING THAT YOU MENTIONED WAS THE INTERNATIONAL SPY INTRIGUE type thing. You don't like just the plain old "Hawaii Five-O" detective.) No, well, I used to be fond of "Hawaii Five-O," mostly because of its local, pretty tropic scenes & Hawaiian girls. I think that's what was the biggest attraction for me. I'm fond of the Tropics, I was raised in the Tropics & Miami Beach, & it always brings back fond memories when I see a place like that. I enjoyed the scenery almost as much as anything in "Hawaii Five-O," but I don't care too much for that kind of police story with suspense & chase & so much violence!
52. I USED TO LIKE "THE MAN FROM UNCLE". There was always a lot of science fiction in it. Then I like believable real spy stories either based on fact or similar to the facts of the day & the time. (Maria: The British do some of those real well.) Those spy stories are very interesting & you learn a lot of things from them about being a fugitive & a refugee & an exile, & what not to do & how to escape things & get away from people, etc.
53. I LIKE THOSE VERY MUCH, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'VE GOT GOOD ACTORS in them that are really doing a good job like "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" & a lot of other stories like that. I like the believable real stories about real life, the way things really happened, like "The Journey," with outstanding actors like Yul Brynner & Deborah Kerr, that have real meaning to them.
54. ALTHOUGH IT HAD A SAD ENDING IN ONE WAY, IN ANOTHER WAY IT WAS A HAPPY ENDING. The only way it could end was with his death, because he was like a converted Russian who didn't like the war & he didn't like what he had to do. He was miserable, & about the best way out for him was to get shot! So even though it had a sad ending, it was a beautiful film & well-acted & had a message.
55. HERE'S A SOLDIER WHO HAS TO BE A SOLDIER even though he doesn't like to be a soldier & he doesn't like to be cruel but he's forced to be, & in this case he saves some people & their lives & lets them go, & sacrifices his life for them. Well, that was a good moral, a good story that really had some meaning & message.
56. IT'S ALWAYS EDIFYING IF IT'S A STORY THAT INSPIRES YOU & lifts you up & makes you admire someone's character & ability & sacrificial spirit. In a way, he did something like the Lord did: He died for those people really, in order to let them go.
57. "QUINCEY'S QUEST" WAS AN AMAZING PARABLE, an actual parable about Jesus! I'm convinced that the producer had Christ in mind, because here was one of a group of broken dolls who goes to appeal to the Santa Claus god to have mercy on the broken dolls, the sinners, & not throw them in the fire, & he meets different types of people along the way: The perfectionists who are so hard on others: "We are the perfect ones", the self-righteous scribes & Pharisees. Then he goes through all these transformations, several different lives, survives death several times, & deals with the Devil, the witch, & at last obviously lands up in Heaven!
58. IT WAS REALLY A KIND OF PARALLEL TO THE GOSPEL STORY. It was very good & the kids loved it. There was a little violence in it, but it wasn't very bad. (Maria: That was also to prove a point.) It was kind of simulated violence really. It wasn't really violence. (Maria: Protest against war.) Yes, anti-war, etc. I like movies that really have an ideal & a message, good old-fashioned ideals & good old-fashioned messages of heroism, & particularly of course:
59. I LIKE THE MOVIES IN WHICH GOOD ALWAYS TRIUMPHS OVER EVIL. I don't like these new ideas of movies where evil always triumphs over good in the end, the Devil's own message! (Maria: Even the short hour-long British stories are sometimes really good.)
60. YES, THOSE BRITISH SERIES, WE LOVED TO FOLLOW THOSE old-fashioned British series, "Upstairs Downstairs" & "The Edwardians" & the "Golden Bowl" & some of those historical-fiction type stories, genuine pictorialisation of the life & times of that day & the kind of people they were & the way they dressed & their background.
61. I LOVE HISTORICAL FICTION, & I LIKE HISTORY BETTER YET. If it's strictly historical that's even better, but at least if it's historical fiction I like them. I've always liked historical fiction. Nearly all of Sir Walter Scott's books were historical fiction & I read every one! It helps even the children to understand history & the way people dressed & looked in those days & how they lived.
62. THE TRUER TO LIFE THE THING IS, THE BETTER. Now that can't be true of Sci-Fi of course, but you can make Sci-Fi believable. I was very fond of "Star Trek"--I think that was one of the best series, & almost every segment had a real message. I'm almost convinced that Christians produced "Star Trek", because they had a very moral application almost every time & they were idealistic, they often talked about God & they brought out the supernatural time & time again & they were very very believable & not just ridiculous things like that "The Alien." Oh, that was the most sickening horrible thing!
63. I'D CALL THAT A SCI-FI HORROR STORY, stuff like that that's unbelievable & ridiculous & there's no point in it, no story, no real message, I mean there's a story without a message, nothing! It's a ridiculous untrue story that's got no message & sickening violence!
64. BUT A STORY CAN BE FICTION & STILL BE TRUE-TO-LIFE & HAVE A MESSAGE & be realistic & believable, you know. You can identify with it. That's the amazing thing about drama: If you can identify with it, & if it's so true-to-life that it's really believable & you can almost believe the story they are telling you is true, that's good drama! But this junk that is either so silly & ridiculous that it's totally unbelievable & there's no point in it & no message, no moral, nothing, just a lot of ridiculous action & violence & whatnot, I don't care for!
65. I LIKE GHOST STORIES & SUPERNATURAL STORIES & weird stories & things like that if they are somewhat believable--even sometimes when they are almost unbelievable--if they are at least close to the truth. A lot of the Bible is pretty weird & far out & almost unbelievable, but it's true just the same! Well, there's a tremendously wide variety to pick from!
66. I LIKE LOVE STORIES, ROMANCE, SEX, PRETTY GIRLS, & you can get a lot of those without violence. I don't care for those in which the main action is hard porn & violence. I would rather have the main action sex & romance & love making & the joys & sorrows of love, & of course with a happy ending if possible.
67. SOMETIMES A STORY CAN HAVE A SAD ENDING BUT A MESSAGE, & have a very beautiful pathos & sadness that's true to life, like "Billy Jack," for there again is a man who gave his life for his people. That's always noble & admirable, a man who sacrificed. Look how many stories have that theme: "The Journey", "Quincey's Quest", "Billy Jack", "Lost Horizon", "Bro. Sun", "Green Eyes", etc.
68. YOU NATURALLY ADMIRE SACRIFICE & HUMAN NOBILITY. Movies that exalt the cardinal virtues of man & the things that are good & bring out the best, that kind of movies I like. I don't like this pointless ridiculous silly innocuous, insane, insipid drama that goes nowhere! Now those musicals are usually comedies, like Sinatra & Kelly in that musical "Anchors Aweigh", but it was a little bit true-to-life about the life of a sailor &
69. IT HAD LOTS OF NICE HAPPY MUSIC & SONGS IN IT & a sweet little romance & it was very believable & it wasn't too silly. It was really good. Most of it was very good & most of those musicals that they have sent us like that we have liked very much. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas", that was beautiful, too. Now to go back to the news:
70. I'M NOT THAT INTERESTED IN THE SAD BRITISH NEWS & watching the ship sink! It's too depressing & it's the same old thing every time, more labour strikes! Labour & welfare state are wrecking Britain & sinking the ship & it's going down the drain & I don't even like to watch it! But international news we have to watch. We've heard enough about Britain's sad fate anyhow in the newspaper.
71. I LIKE TO SEE THE IMPORTANT DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT WORLD NEWS EVENTS, but not hours of British labour strikes! I need to see the documentaries about World events & significant World news that are not just all talk, unless they are a World leader or World figures doing the talking. I don't care for these discussion shows that are just yak-yak-yak! (Maria: The interview with the captors of the hostages in Iran was very...)
72. YES, THE NEWS SHOTS OF THE EVENTS IN TEHRAN, the news shots of the war in Afghanistan, news shots of any kind of World news that's of significance, the interview with the Shah, all of those things are very very interesting. Then the science documentaries & the travelogue documentaries. Some of the nuclear documentaries were very good, especially like that "Nuclear Nightmare"!
73. THE "BRITISH NUCLEAR" THING WAS PRETTY INTERESTING, but even though it's not a discussion program right in the studio with several people, if they just go from person to person & they are yak-yak-yakking & all you're getting is their opinion on things--you're not really seeing any action or anything--it's not that interesting, it's pretty boring unless, as I say, they are outstanding World leaders whose word has some significance & they are going to affect World history.
74. SO THOSE THINGS & WILDLIFE & THINGS ABOUT THE CREATION & SCIENCE & ALL THAT SORT OF THING I LIKE VERY MUCH & I think they're good for the kids, educational. And then I would say the fiction movies, the feature films, story films, good ones, group those into maybe two different classes, generally speaking: Pure entertainment & serious movies.
75. YOU JUST SIT THERE & ENJOY THE MUSIC & the happy song & dance & funny story & romance, etc., just pure light entertainment that you can just relax by & enjoy; or the serious movies that are very true-to-life, that are either historical fiction or genuinely life-like or science fiction, things that are possible perhaps in the future, etc. It's got to be realistic & believable & not just ridiculous.
76. NOW THIS "BLAKE'S SEVEN" IS VERY INTERESTING, I like it & I was very fascinated by the "Tomorrow People" about the girl priestess. I like things about spirits & ghosts & things like that. I like things about the future, even if they are fictional & not likely to happen, because it's interesting to know what man thinks might happen or hopes might happen or fears might happen.
77. MAN'S IDEAS I THINK TELL A LOT ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE, by what they think about the future, if they have any hopes for the future or they are hopeless, etc. But I like to see good win. That's one thing I like about romance: Love usually wins in the love stories. Well, not all love stories, but anyway...
78. BUT FOR JUST PURE ENTERTAINMENT WHEN I DON'T WANT EVEN TO HARDLY THINK, I prefer the music & dancing & pretty girls & musicals & light operas. When I say light opera I mean operetta, which does not mean that heavy Italian or German type of opera, those old heavy serious classics. I don't care for those, they are too boring. You've got to be a real opera buff to enjoy them. Some of the music I like, but it's all in Italian, French or German.
79. I LIKE MORE THE MUSICAL COMEDIES, & you can watch ballet anytime with such beautiful music & the dancing & all. I even liked the Casino Stage Show, although I think I would have rather seen one naked girl up close dancing than 50 naked girls half-a-block away on a huge stage & all covered with those spectacular costumes!
80. NO MATTER HOW SPECTACULAR A GIRL'S COSTUME, IT IS NOT NEARLY AS PRETTY AS THE GIRL HERSELF & she looks a lot better without all that junk on! But anyhow, it was very interesting & good music. They've sent us a lot of good movies already, & there were very few of them that I didn't like. So most of their choices were good.
81. THERE WAS A PREPONDERANCE OF AMERICAN MOVIES which they probably sent because they thought they were the greatest & the best, whereas a lot of those British movies are very good, especially the British spy stories are very good, & British historical fiction about past history & Britain & the days of her glory. They are very very interesting & very good.
82. AND I PREFER ACTUALLY TO HEAR BRITISH SPEECH by far than to hear American slang, because the British really know how to use their language, it just is a pleasure to hear! I'm talking about the upper-class British, the highly-educated British. They speak so you can understand them. The low-class British, even the middle-class British & those northern British of those industrial cities you can't even understand them, you can't understand half of what they say! (Sorry!)
83. THEY SPEAK A KIND OF COCKNEY OR A DIALECT OR VERNACULAR that is just almost un-understandable, incomprehensive! But the well-educated high-class British still speak good English & you can understand them, & I like to hear good English. "Railway Children" was beautiful!
84. "RYAN'S DAUGHTER" IS VERY BEAUTIFUL & A CLASSIC, an excellent story, & here again is a man giving his life for love, the only way out & very noble, & had in a sense a noble ending. "My Fair Lady" was just beautiful, excellent film! She's one of my favourite actresses & he is also. Her name was--not the horrible Katharine Hepburn--but Audrey Hepburn.--And Rex Harrison, he's one of my favourites! Oh, that was terrific!
85. I LOVE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES, they are excellent & always interesting, & a lot of times they bring in something scientific, & they seldom ever have much violence. I like mystery movies where the solution is always after-the-fact. You never see the violence, you don't have to suffer through it--you hear about it, but that's all, & you never have to witness it or see it or anything, but all you do is witness the genius of the detective in solving the mystery, Alfred Hitchcock!
86. ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES REAL THOUGHT & IS AN INTERESTING MYSTERY, I LIKE. I like that type of mystery story where I don't have to go through the agony of the slaughter & the killing & the violence. I liked that story about "Death on the Nile". Now there was too much violence in it to suit me, but most of the violence was after-the-fact & the person was already dead when they found her, they didn't have to usually go through it; but the solving of the mystery was very interesting, I like that sort of thing & it makes you think, & then it's always interesting to be guessing who's who. (Maria: Character studies...)
87. "DEATH ON THE NILE" IS A BEAUTIFUL STUDY OF CHARACTERS, personalities & with excellent top actors & actresses. Of course you can't always get that sort of thing, but "The Journey" was like that & "My Fair Lady" was like that--they were really outstanding! When you've got real top-notch actors & actresses, you've almost always got good movies & good stories, because they just won't act in some thing silly & stupid & idiotic & ridiculous & unbelievable, but good actors & actresses like to act in something that is really high in ideals & character & story & message. Well, that's my opinion on movies whether they be on television, video or cinema.
88. AND I THINK THAT TYPE OF MOVIES ARE GOOD FOR THE FAMILY BECAUSE THEY ARE REALLY INSTRUCTIVE OR INFORMATIVE, they are educational, they are inspirational & they are entertaining, & when it comes night & before we go to bed & we're too tired to work anymore, a little light entertainment like that or even some heavy entertainment that takes your mind off your own problems & work & takes you into another world for a little while, is kind of a welcome change of scenery that kind of eases the tension when you are too tired to do anything else. That's what I always said about TV or movies.
89. I ONLY WATCH TELEVISION WHEN I'M TOO TIRED OF EVERYTHING ELSE & when I have been studying & reading & praying & working all day long, why, I'm almost too tired to eat dinner sometimes; but after dinner I certainly don't want to go back to work on something that requires a lot of mental strain & I've had enough! It's time to relax & time for recreation, it's time to play, time to enjoy life a little bit, & I believe in having fun!--Amen?
90. I ENJOY MY WORK, BUT TOO MUCH OF IT, ALL WORK & NO PLAY, MAKES DAVE A VERY DULL BOY, & you know me! I stick pretty well to a schedule. When the day is done & the daylight has faded, I quit my work & do something else & we have dinner; & then we just relax after dinner & visit with the Family & have a little chat or talk or something, or we watch a movie or whatever. Nothing heavy. So I think it's good for the Family, & besides it's a medium of education & information & inspiration & entertainment. So that's my opinion on television, videos, cinemas, movies, whatever you want to call them! PTL!--Maybe it's escapism!--So?--Let's go!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family