The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968)

Entertainment Rating: 4 of 5

This along with The Ghost and Mr. Chicken are two of my favorite Don Knott’s movies. He does such a good job at playing a weenie. Check this one out with your family and you won’t be disappointed (it looks like you can watch the entire show on youtube.com in 10 minute increments).

Moral Rating: 3 of 5

Maybe you could say that even weenie’s can do some good sometimes, so don’t underestimate them. Don’t always trust your preacher, he could be selling guns to the Indians. People in California have a great need for dentists, being out in the wild west and all. The word “wahtay” can be used to get yourself out of all kinds of trouble, even though it’s translation is something like “this baby needs a diaper change, you change it.”

Doubt (2008)

Entertainment Rating: A

This was a pretty good movie. One solely based on the performance of the actors, not on any special effects, and the cinematography was well done (though, I don't have the education to elaborate on it).

Moral Rating: 3

The themes in the movie are quite heavy: homosexuality, pedophilia, slander, etc. all of which involve the potential destruction of a man's reputation. Doubt is a theme that runs through the movie from start to finish. You're not really sure who to believe and what is the truth. There are evidences supporting both sides of the story. I couldn’t give a higher moral rating because the truth is so ambiguous.

[Spoiler Alert]

One particular take is that Father Flynn was guilty of inappropriate relations with young boys in the past, but has since confessed, and hopefully changed. Sister Aloysius refuses to let the man put his past behind him and insists on making him feel as if he's doomed forever and that there is no repentance possible, no opportunity for him to change. Sister Aloysius has good grounds to fear for the children of her school, she's not completely capricious in her actions, and ultimately has everyone's best interest at heart (with exception to Father Flynn).

Most people might come away from this show on Sister Aloysius's side - which doesn’t leave you feeling very good knowing that Father Flynn changes schools, gets a promotion, and can continue his lifestyle. I like to think that the synopsis I presented in the preceding paragraph is a good compromise by saying that either person (Aloysius or Flynn) isn't completely right or wrong - which is the type of situation we encounter in real life, things are rarely easily definable as black or white.

I particularly liked the scene with Father Flynn and Sister James sitting outside during winter. Regarding Sister Aloysius's taking advantage of Sister James's naiveté, Father Flynn says,
"There are people who go after your humanity, sister. They tell you that the light in your heart is a weakness. Don't believe it. It's an old tactic of cruel people to kill kindness in the name of virtue. There's nothing wrong with love." (I took this as a comment on Sis. James’s love, but it could be construed that he was talking about his own love for the altar boys.)

Elder Christofferson, an Apostle in the LDS church, related something similar at a conference held a few weeks ago regarding two business partners who were also brothers in the same church. One took financial advantage of the other. The other's family pleaded with the first partner, "You know this is not right. How could you take advantage of someone this way, especially a brother in the same church?" This plea was met with a response by the first partner's lawyer, "Oh, grow up! How can you be so naive?" This condescending epithet of naivete reminded me of the above statement by Father Flynn to Sister James. Sister James did seem a little naive (e.g., her lack of suspicion of her students, being surprised when Sister Aloysius has her place a picture on the chalkboard to keep her eyes on the students), and it seemed that Sister Aloysius used this innocence to pull Sister James over to her side.

What did you think about the show?

Roxanne

Synopsis

An adaptation of the Edmund Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac. Steve Martin plays the lead role as firefighter C.D. Bales who is beleaguered by his large nose. At the beautiful Roxanne's request, C.D. consents to help Chris (one of his firefighters) muster up the courage to meet her. Chris's debilitating nervousness causes him to resort to sending Roxanne letters which he asks C.D. to write for him due to his lack of skill with words. How long will C.D. be able to hide his true feelings for Roxanne behind the guise of being Chris's mentor? (taken from an IMDb Synopsis)

Entertainment Value - B

This was a fun romantic-comedy, but definitely not for young audiences. The PG rating came before a PG-13 was widely used, and so quite a bit of language and innuendo end up here. I thought that C.D. working at a fire department was a nice addition to the story (the play actually had a war going on, but the fire department added a nice comic element to the movie).

Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 3

This adaptation displayed a good message on looking past physical appearances when associating with people. The original play was a hundred times better for the following reasons:

1. In this version Christian was a shallow idiot who wanted nothing but to sleep with Roxanne and in the play he was actually a moral character who was going to tell Roxanne that the person writing the letters was really Cyrano De Bergerac (C.D.), but died before he got the chance.Steve Martin was the only true-to-script character.
   


2. In the original, Cyrano got Christian to get his first kiss, and in the movie C.D. actually got Roxanne to sleep with Chris! (A huge negative mark against the show). For someone who seemed to have high standards (well educated, somewhat resistant to letting her feelings get in the way with what's right, etc.), Roxanne sure let herself get seduced quite easily, even after being grossly offended (though the offense couldn't have hurt her that much).

The film shows that Roxanne acted too much by impulse on looks at first, but learned to love the inner person more than the outward appearances.