What MOVIES or DVDs have you watched? (PART SIX - 2013) (ongoing thread)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jackie, Netflix has The Magdalene Sisters (2002):
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Magd...
"While women's liberation sweeps the globe, in 1960s Ireland four "fallen" women are stripped of their liberty and dignity and condemned to indefinite servitude in the Magdalene Laundries, where they'll work to atone for their 'sins'."

Amazon has it too:
http://www.amazon.com/Magdalene-Siste...
"A stirring, must-see motion picture critics called one of the best films of the year, THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is the triumphant story of three extraordinary women whose courage to defy a century of injustice would inspire a nation!"


Thanks for telling us about it.

[Nina]

This afternoon I ordered the book, "Philomena," on my Kindle. I will review it after I read it. I probably will see the movie. I love watchng Judy Dench.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I'm currently streaming "Scrooged" (1988) with Bill Murray. It's free for Amazon Prime members. I've never seen it before.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/?...
http://www.amazon.com/Scrooged-Bill-M...
"A cynically selfish TV executive gets haunted by three spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve."

[Mary JL]

Re-arranging shelves, I found my copy of "Ben-Hur" 1959 version with Charlton Heston so I watched it.

Had not remember much of it and really enjoyed it. Sometimes a long, epic classic is just what you need.

[Jim]

That was a good movie & a better book. Amazing that Wallace wrote given who he was, I think. I never read anything else by him. I wonder if he wrote anything else?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

For reference: Ben-Hur (first published in 1880) by Lew Wallace
The Lew Wallace link shows the other books he wrote.

[Mary JL]

I read Ben-Hur---the full version--and there is a great deal in the book that is not in the movie. The writing style takes a bit of getting used to---but the book was very enjoyable.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I didn't realized "Ben-Hur" was a book until now! It's interesting to see that book was written so long ago (1880).

[Jim]

Wallace was quite a guy. He was the governor that dealt with Billy the Kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace

[Nina]

I know we'll get it worse in the near future but today was in the fifties and Wed is supposed to be sixty four; no snow yet. We have our ups and downs. We make use of the "ups," and take what comes our way with a grin and bear it. Like last Friday there was an early ice storm. Accidents and then sun came out later. Being in the middle we get whatever blows our way.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Wallace was quite a guy. He was the governor that dealt with Billy the Kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace"

Jim, thanks for the link and info. I see that Lew Wallace came from a very accomplished family. As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina, you sure get a variety of weather there in Kansas! Similar to Kentucky. I confess that I never really knew the map of that part of the country very well. Now I see that the state of Missouri separates Kentucky and Kansas. Kansas is much further west.
MAP OF USA: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h...

[Jim]

Yeah, Nina & another friend of mine usually get our weather a day ahead, but ours can vary since the Gulf southern fronts & the north polar fronts drop by to visit occasionally. Fairly often, they like to meet here. Usually, they break along the Ohio River.

Since we're north & higher up, our weather is often more like Cincinnati's, north of us & on the other side of the river, rather than Louisville's which is closer & just to the west. Yesterday, Louisville hit 44 degrees while our high was 36, I think.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Speaking of Cincinnati, back in the 1950s I went to the Cincinnati Zoo Opera. I don't think it's there anymore. We heard the lions roaring during "Carmen". At the time I was taking a 6 week course in Aviation Education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Civil Air Patrol paid for it because they wanted me to teach their cadets how to teach C.A.P. courses. I was a teacher in NY at the time. It was a great opportunity. I took a ride in a glider. Now I'm afraid to fly. :)

PS-There were contingents of C.A.P. from all around the country. Many of them flew there in their own light planes. My roommate was from Hawaii.

PPS-They flew our group from NY to Ohio in a C-119. They showed us how to wear parachutes.
C-119 (aka the "Flying Boxcar"): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-119

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I didn't enjoy "Scrooged" very much. I found parts of it very unpleasant. Not really a good Christmas movie, IMO. The humor seemed forced.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/?...
Roger Ebert gave it only one star. Here's his review:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/scr...

[Mary JL]

You are right about "Scrooged",Joy. It is not nearly as funny as the sellers would like us to think. A lot of sour humor in there.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Yes, Mary JL, the word for "Scrooged" is "unpleasant". The best parts were those with Carol Kane as the "Ghost of Christmas Present". Otherwise it was usually very unfunny. The "Ghost of Christmas Past" was awful to look at, very disturbing. Too scrungy and disgusting! Here's his pic: http://thethoughtexperiment.files.wor...
Bill Murray was not at his best. He shouted too much without being funny.

PS-Here's a YouTube clip with Carol Kane as Ghost of Christmas Present:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak1dP...

[Earl]

Joy H. wrote: PPS-They flew our group from NY to Ohio in a C-119. They showed us how to wear parachutes.

A parachute on C119 would be a very good option IMO, the plane was seriously under-powered from the experience I had on them. When we got on the C130 it was like going from a Model T to a Lamborghini.

[Jim]

It's been a while, but was the C-119 AKA the Caribou? Or was that a different plane? It was smaller than the C-130 & could fly slower, too. They didn't have side doors either, as I recall. We used to tailgate out of them - jump with chutes by walking down the rear ramp. Since I usually jumped the platoon's sensitive equipment, I had a big, unwieldy bag & jumped first so I got to stand right at the bottom of the ramp as we flew into position. It's really awesome looking down about 800 or 1000 feet like that, if you don't mind heights.

There was less traffic, too. Just one stick so you had a good second between each jumper. On the bigger planes or even some of the helicopters, they'd jump both sides & it could get crowded depending on the wind. That's no fun. I wound up hanging between my chute & another guy's once when the wind blew him under me & my feet wound up trapped in his shroud lines.

On the side door of the C-130, we had to jump at least a yard out or we'd hit the side of the plane. At 180 mph, that's quite a jerk sideways that you don't get when tailgating, either. Better than in one of the jets, though. I think the slowest the 141 got was 230mph & then if you jumped out, you could hit backwash from the jet. Not only could you feel the heat (They told us it could melt the chute, but I never knew that to happen to anyone.) but the turbulence could tumble you which was dangerous.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Earl wrote: "A parachute on C119 would be a very good option IMO, the plane was seriously under-powered from the experience I had on them. ..."

I'm glad I didn't know that. :)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "It's been a while, but was the C-119 AKA the Caribou? Or was that a different plane? It was smaller than the C-130 & could fly slower, too. They didn't have side doors either, as I recall. We used to tailgate out of them - jump with chutes by walking down the rear ramp. Since I usually jumped the platoon's sensitive equipment, I had a big, unwieldy bag & jumped first so I got to stand right at the bottom of the ramp as we flew into position. It's really awesome looking down about 800 or 1000 feet like that, if you don't mind heights."

Jim, that must have been quite an experience! You're full of surprises. BTW, our C-119 had doors. :)

[Earl]

Jim wrote: "It's been a while, but was the C-119 AKA the Caribou? Or was that a different plane? It was smaller than the C-130 & could fly slower, too. They didn't have side doors either, as I recall. We u..."

Pretty sure that wasn't a Caribou. We jumped from side door(s?) Joy's link says the capacity was 65 "troops". I seem to remember 2 20-man sticks down each side. Whether we exited both doors I can't remember. With 40 guys with their "combat" gear (horse-shoe pack, canteen, empty rifle, entrench tool ~ whatever)the plane used to groan FOREVER at full power to make 500 feet, throttle back a little and groan up to 1000 with every rivet in the floor buzzing to a blur. I don't know what speed we jumped at. Only jumped the 130 once I think an another big plane, (possibly the one you could hang up on the tail) a couple times. There was a tailgate for jeeps? tanks? Saw a tank dropped from far off with huge chutes and from there we could see the thing bounce. Wonder if it ever ran again? I was a clerk, only jumped us for pay. I only got 12 jumps in about 18 months on status. Peacetime 56-58. 82nd Airborne. I suspect real combat troops loads would be heavier - ammo squad weapons etc. Word of mouth said that 300' was a realistic altitude when it was for real.
They once forced one of our guys to jump with a bag (like you mentioned) of typewriters. He released bag from about 100'. They didn't work too well after that. Nobody seemed to know how to fix them. Nothing like being combat-ready for the Russkie break-out in Europe.

[Jim]

Maybe they had doors, but they weren't big enough. Can't recall any more. It's been 35 years since I was jumping. It was a lot of fun back then. I think I logged over 150 & jumped quite a few more times than that. I loved it when we'd get to jump old chutes, ones that needed to be repacked. Then we get to jump a dozen times or so without any equipment from helicopters & from a lot higher up.

We called it jumping 'Hollywood' & used to do the dumbest stuff like swooping in the old T10 parachutes. That's when you pull your front risers down & put your feet in them. When you straightened out a leg, the chute would flatten some & you'd swoop off at a diagonal. Lots of fun for young men in great shape. I'd shatter today.
;-)

[Nina]

Jim,

Were you ever scared before jumping? Is it more fun to look back on having done it than actually doing it?

[Jim]

It was always scary, but in a fun way like when we used to chase each other around the barn on the beams 20' up when we were little. Some jumps were scarier than others, of course. Really windy days or when we were near woods were worrisome. Trees are nothing you want to get near. Too likely to get spitted or break something. As for the rest, I was in my late teens, early 20's. No sense or feeling.
;-)

[Nina]

Joy H. wrote: "Earl wrote: "A parachute on C119 would be a very good option IMO, the plane was seriously under-powered from the experience I had on them. ..."

I'm glad I didn't know that. :)"Joy, Were you prepared to parachute out of the plane? I would have been scared.

[Earl]

Jim wrote: "We called it jumping 'Hollywood' & used to do the dumbest stuff like swooping in the old T10 parachutes. That's when you pull your front risers down & put your feet in them. When you straightened out a leg, the chute would flatten some & you'd swoop off at a diagonal. Lots of fun for young men in great shape. I'd shatter today."

I THINK ours were the T10s, yeah they had to be repacked - by someone else. The most exciting thing our guys dreamed up was "standing landings" you manipulate risers at last minute or something. I never tried. There was a saying " -ing up like a T5". I surmise that was the WWII chute that killed people. Not as many as those gliders though. I carpooled with an 'old' guy who went into Normandy on D Day in one. Grisly landing but he lived thru it. I typed innumerable letters about using helicopters for insertions. Not many guys jumped from them at that time though. I recently read in the paper that the Army just adopted a new steerable chute that would put a bunch of guys into a 30' circle. Sounded a little accident prone to me. I can't say I ever loved it, but it DID make you feel a lot more like living once you got back on the ground.
We, at least my buddies, used to hunt for 'Hollywood jumps' (helmet and dogtags) to volunteer for. Try to get those 50 jumps. They suckered me in because I had a car to get them there. Until we went on one night jump 25 miles out where the general didn't like the talking taking place on the way down. He sent the trucks back and we double-timed home. My last volunteer jump.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Joy, Were you prepared to parachute out of the plane? I would have been scared."

No, Nina. It was just a demonstration about parachutes. Not a lesson in jumping. I have a picture of myself with a parachute on my back. I'll have to search for it. The demonstration was done as a part of a course in Aviation Education for teachers. We learned how to add paper ailerons and elevators to balsa wood airplanes so that the kids could make their toy planes turn (or bank) and go up or down. Ailerons were for the wings. Elevators were for the tail.
AILERONS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailerons
ELEVATORS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator...

[Jim]

Earl, those guys talking about landing in a 30' circle must have been indoors. Some of the winds they dropped us in would have made it tough to teleport into that small an area. We weren't supposed to jump with winds over 15 knots I think, but I know we did.

We had a newer type of parachute, the Dash 1, that had the back panels cut out to give it a 9 knot forward speed. Toggles opened other flaps to make the canopy rotate. The idea was that we'd rotate into the wind & thus not have much ground speed. We rarely had time to turn them. Luckily, most of our jumps were in the deep sand of the DZ's at Ft. Bragg. We ate a lot of it.

[Nina]

Jim, just had a visitor from Germany/US retired Air Force/did 200 jumps mostly in Africa. Said the scariest thing was landing near Hippopatamus might not have spelled that right. He said they are mean and can run fast. Otherwise worst jump was into thorny bushes in Africa as if it penetrates it can kill you with poison. My great grandsons were spellbound with hearing his adventures.

[Jim]

I would not like having to dodge animals or thorny plants. Jumped into Elephant grass once with 6" or a foot of water. Not scary, but miserable. The the water soaked everything, the grass cut the skin & hid everything. Lugging a wet parachute & all my equipment through a trackless bunch of grass was NOT fun.

[Nina]

Sounds pretty miserable but good you didn't have a hippo chasing you. He said they didn't go out at night because the lions and hippos were traipsing near the camp. Mostly at night so they stayed inside.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim, did you see any action in the service?

[Jim]

Not really.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I've started a new thread for 2014. It's at:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'll close this thread soon.