This week it’s just me continuing on with a movie theme and I am still thinking …is March coming in like a lion or like a lamb which is why I have chosen these 3 films. Wandering through the Shelves will be back next week.
1. BABE-1995
I love this sweet film about a young piglet who escapes the fate of becoming bacon and ends up on a very pretty farm that seems to come from a fairy tale which is what this f8lm is…a fairy tale. The pig can talk with the other animals and vice versa with the female sheep dog feeling badly for the lonely piggie and takes Babe under her wing. The farmer also loves the little pig while his wife does too…for future bacon. Babe goes with his doggie mom and her partner, who dislikes Babe, to work the sheep but doesn’t like how the dogs treat the sheep. Babe becomes friends with the sheep and the farmer, played by James Cromwell, notices this and begins to train the pig to be a sheep dog for the annual competition as to who is the best in sheep herding. When the sheep are attacked and some are killed, the farmer thinks it’s Babe and now Babe faces the knife but can the gentle farmer carry this out? I love the gentleness of this film that didn’t shy away from meanness but you just love the animals and the unique way they made it look like they talked. I loved the mice that were the small( Haha) chorus that United one scene with the other. Ac5ually I loved these mice so much that I dreamed they were singing and I asked if I could join them which I did and we all sang that song arm in arm. The next morning my ex asked me what I was dreaming about and when I told him he knew what I was singing because I was singing out loud while dreaming. Apparently, I still sing that because my hubby, now, has heard That song.
2. THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS-1996
This is, apparently, based on a true story about 2 male, maneless lions who took a liking to human flesh and killed a number of Indian and African labourers who were building a bridge, for the British, in 1898. The skulls and stuffed lions are actually in the Natural History Museum in Chicago. This film stars Val Kilmer as Patterson, a British officer sent to Africa to take care of these animals and meets up with Michael Douglas, an American hunter who also tries to kill the animals ( Douglas’s character is completely fictional). It is a scary movie, to me anyways and one that makes me think why the cats worked in tandem and did not give up on their taste for human flesh. Now, it has been panned by many critics but I think it is quite a good movie and one that is freaky.
3. SECONDHAND LIONS-2003
This stars Haley Joel Osment before he turned into a creepy, pudgy adult, as a young boy sent by his derelict mom, to go live with his great uncles, played by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. At firs5 the 2 old men don’t want the kid around but they realize the kid is more like them than their greedy relatives and other public who are convinced the 2 old bears have a fortune hidden on their farm. The boy learns valuable lessons from the 2 and gains a friend in a gentle old lion that the 2 codgers buy thinking they can try their hand in big game hunting. When they get the lion they soon realize the lion is old and from a circus who is gentle and a sweetheart. The lion thinks the corn field is his jungle and stays in there. This is another fairy tale type film that includes a sweet lamb like lion.
What kind of lion or lamb films can you think of?
Hi, Birgit!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thankful Thursday movie day, dear friend!
I think you should sell an album of your "dream singing" on eBay. :) If you're taking requests, I'd like you to dream-croon "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister.
Mrs. Shady and I watched Babe in the mid 90s and enjoyed. We like actor James Cromwell, and subsequently saw him in The Green Mile (1999), The Queen (2006) and Secretariat (2010). All by my lonesome, I watched him in American Horror Story: Asylum (2012–2013). I won't be a spoiler, but his "exit, stage left" in AHS is among the most shocking scenes in horror history.
The Ghost And The Darkness looks exciting. i admire Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer. It seems like they give too much away in the two minute trailer, though. Sometimes, when you are given so much dialogue and action in the trailer, you hesitate to sit through the entire feature. I like how the man who cracks the whip downplays the danger for the railway workers by calling the savage killings "a few minor difficulties with the local wildlife."
Secondhand Lions looks like a movie with a heart. Michael Caine and Robert Duvall are giants and always worth watching, and it appears that Haley Joel Osment does a great job with his role as a boy who transforms the lives of the old men.
Of course, the first film that pops into my head is The Silence of the Lambs (1991):
Hannibal Lecter: And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?
Clarice Starling: Lambs. The lambs were screaming.
Hannibal Lecter: They were slaughtering the spring lambs?
Clarice Starling: And they were screaming.
Hannibal Lecter: What became of your lamb, Clarice?
Clarice Starling: They killed him.
There's Lionheart, one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's action films released in 1990.
Last but not least, there's Lions For Lambs (2007) starring three unknowns: Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
SPOILER ALERT: Meryl sneezes and wins an Oscar.
Thanks for the morning entertainment, dear friend BB. Please give my buddy Harley a good smoochin' and enjoy the rest of your week!
I asked the judges and they are willing to accept this extra "lion" recommendation:
DeleteBen Johnson as Sam the Lion in The Last Picture Show (1971)
You gave some great picks here...I forgot Bout Silence of the Lambs.
DeleteYou will like secondhand Lion because it does have a heart. And the Ghost and the Darkness is scary. I promise you I will never sing like Twisted Sister
The Ghost and the Darkness is an excellent film. Watched Beast recently and said nope, not nearly as good as Ghost and Darkness.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen Beast. But glad you like G & D
DeleteI hated Babe lol. I feel like the only person who does.
ReplyDeleteOh wow...be still my heart. I love that movie
DeleteHi Birgit!
ReplyDeleteWhat a month appropriate theme!!! 😊
Babe is a sweet film and James Cromwell is very endearing in it, such a turnaround from his character in L.A. Confidential! But that’s what a good actor can do. Can’t say I rewatch it very often, if ever but it does fall into the “nice” category.
I’d say the same about Secondhand Lions though the cast certainly couldn’t be bettered. It was a pleasant watch that once, but I doubt I’ll ever return to it.
Reading about The Ghost and the Darkness I realize that it is one that I have somehow missed all these years. Probably my indifference to Val Kilmer, though I feel terrible about his health struggles, I’ll have to track it down one of these days.
I could have done three lion films without a second thought, but I wanted to balance it out so Born Free is sitting this one out!
I’m going with The Sundowners (1960) even if it is about Australian sheepherders more than the sheep but I still think it counts! It’s a trifle slow but what a cast-Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, my beloved Glynis Johns and Peter Ustinov just for starters! - to take that journey with.
Next up and the first one that came to mind-Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965)-an incredibly dear film about the actual Clarence who was cross-eyed, and they built a story around him. I watched it dozens of times when I was a kid.
The last is the Disney film Napoleon and Samantha (1972) with a ten year old Jodie Foster and “Family Affair’s” Johnny Whitaker (who ironically played Jody on that show!) as two kids who take off in search of Johnny’s pet lion Major and their adventures along the way. Harmless and sweet.
Of the three, Babe is the only one I've heard of, but didn't see. It looks charming! ☺ The second one seems interesting, but one has to be in the mood for heavy drama. Michael Cain and Robert Duvall are a great pairing to play brothers! I'm going to search for that one. No lion or lamb examples come to mind, but the weather is definitely schizo! New storm tomorrow, they say. :(
ReplyDeleteI've only seen Babe. My brother was obsessed with that film. Well, not obsessed. He decided it needed to win the Oscar for Best Picture even though we all knew it didn't stand a chance. He was, like, 20 when this came out, so it wasn't like a kiddish notion.
ReplyDeleteHi Birgit, thanks for your visit to my blog today, and your kind wishes. I've only seen Babe, which I loved, hope all is well with you, Kate x
ReplyDeleteCute that you dreamed you were singing with the mice;)
ReplyDeleteSandra sandracox.blogspot.com
I loved Babe, particularly at the end where James Cameron said "That'll do, pig," with the most angelic smile on his face.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the movie Clarence, The Cross-Eyed Lion, and the TV show that came from it, Daktari.
I have heard of, but never saw Babe. Never even heard of Second Hand Lions. I remember seeing the two lions that Patterson killed at the Field Museum. Before they went to Chicago, Patterson used the lion skins as rugs in his office.
ReplyDelete