Movies to watch

Since the best thing I can do to while away the endless dreary hours these days is to watch as many movies as I can, I have been watching a lot of trash, interspersed with a few gems that make it all worthwhile. One I watched recently, which gave me a fresh perspective on people I thought I knew a lot about, was The Butler – based on the life of Cecil Gaines, who escaped from a Georgia plantation in 1926, the days when white owners could still rape and murder black employees (though not nominally slaves) with impunity, got a few lucky breaks and learnt to wait at tables in posh hotels, then became butler – and eventually head butler – at the White House, the highest 99% of blacks could rise during their working lives, serving under Presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan, living through momentous changes brought about by Kennedy and Johnson, suffering (though not entirely lying down) through Reagan’s terms, witnessing great improvements in American law and society and mores, becoming estranged from and later reunited with his elder son who joined first the Civil Rights movement and then went into politics, losing the younger in Vietnam and his beloved wife in old age, and living long enough to be felicitated by the first Black President. Anybody interested in history from an uncommon angle should not miss it, regardless of what you feel about the acting, the cinematography, the screenplay and the liberties taken with recorded facts. In many ways, stories well told teach far better history than textbooks, I have always held.

The other, Blind Side, also based on a true story, about the life of Michael Oher the star black American football player and the few lucky breaks that made him, nearly brought tears to my eyes while making me feel good, and that’s saying a lot in these dark, troubled and jaded times. His adopted dad and mama (played by Sandra Bullock, whom, even at her age, I cannot take my eyes off!) seem almost too good to be true, but they are apparently real people, still living in Memphis. Thank God there are still folks like that in this world. How I wish I could have made that kind of difference to even one human being who had an unfortunate start in life!

Both movies are now available on Netflix. The one I am going to watch next is based on the life of the legendary Black lawyer Thurgood Marshall, who became one of the iconic judges of the US Supreme Court.