Skip to main content

Far Away

    Hey, everyone. Tonight I watched a good movie and I thought I'd tell you about it. The title was All the Pretty Horses, from the book by Cormac McCarthy. I'd rate it as 4.5 stars out of 5. Here's the recipe.
    John Grady Cole (Matt Damon) is a Texan, in 1948. His family ranch has been lost, so he and his pard, Lacy Rawlins, (Played by Henry Thomas) decide to go to Mexico. They are young and bold and they find more adventure than they were seeking.
     A younger boy tags along with them. He gets his horse stolen and steals it back. This does not endear them to the Mexican authorities, as you can imagine. The three split up and Cole and Lacy get a job breaking horses on a huge ranch.
     The rancher's daughter, Alejandra, (Played by Penelope Cruz) falls in love with Cole, and he falls in love with her. Unfortunately, the girl's Aunt doesn't approve of the relationship. She turns John Grady Cole and Lacy Rawlins over to the authorities and they go to prison.
     In prison, the lads must fight to survive and it isn't long until both of them have been on the wrong end of a knife. Alejandra intercedes with her Aunt and her Father to try to save Cole. To do so, she must promise to never see the boy again. Will she make the pledge? Will she keep her word? Will both boys live to see the Rio Grande again?
     This movie was a study in friendship, young love, the coming of age and many other things. It suited me right down to the ground and I think you might like it.
    Lord willing, I'll talk to y'all again this weekend.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
   P.S. The title for this post, Far Away, I took from the terrific song by Marty Stuart, which played during the closing credits. I'm going to I-Tunes to buy it as we speak.
   

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The White Chicken Mystery

    The other night I happened to come home very late. It was the middle of the night and I was driving up a steep mountain road. Near the top I saw something white in my headlights. It was standing in the other lane, standing very still. It was a large white chicken. It was probably a rooster because I thought I could see his comb as I whizzed by at my customary pace. He never moved a muscle. This is weird, don't you think?      After a couple of days to consider this phenomenon, I have come up with some plausible answers for his bizarre behavior. 1. He was conflicted whether or not he should cross the road. 2. He was feeling cocky and decided to play chicken with the traffic. 3.He was being hen-pecked at home and had decided to end it all. 4. Someone had egged him on to do it. 5. He had just watched the movie Fantastic Four and decided to try to stop a truck the way that Ben Grimm did on the bridge. 6. He had driven himself crazy wondering if ...

Egg Art

     Hey, everyone. One of the odd customs in America is the Easter Egg Hunt. Here at the Green Retreat, we do a hunt every Spring. I just ran across some of the pictures from this years hunt and it is obvious that an artist had sneaked into our midst. The orange egg is a rendering of one of the Angry Birds of gaming lore. If I were a bird and had to pass an egg that size, I would be angry too. Ha, ha.      We typically will dye about 10 dozen eggs and people get quite creative with their quotes and colors, as you can see. Many of the eggs are a bit risque for these pages. After having a few laughs, we hide the eggs. All of them are never found, which is cool. It is amusing to see old men (me) and all ages of folks, walking around with a basket on their arm. Some of the hiding spots are dastardly. Like eggs hidden in the guttering downspouts and ten foot up a tree. The kids are perhaps the most devious at hiding the colorful orbs, goi...

The Biscuit

    Hey, everyone. What a relief that Christmas is over, huh? I don't think it was meant to be the way it is.     I started thinking about the so-called good 'ole days today. My wife says that at her house, they would take a left-over biscuit and shine their shoes before church. I one-upped her by saying, "Oh, yeah? I ate the biscuit when everyone got finished with it. And I was grateful for it." Truly, though, you can and people did, shine their shoes with a biscuit. Hey, they were greasy little buggers.     Speaking of greasy little buggers, I remember when everyone had wells and were very conservative about water, particularly those of us who had to crank a handle up and down to get a bucket of water. There was no daily bath. (No showers in those days, mate.) About twice a week we took a bath and here's the recipe: The oldest kid took a bath first, then the next oldest etc. You can see why younger siblings hated the older. Bathing in the...