THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

"Your friends don't like you any more.  You force them to make too many decisions.  With me, there's just one decision to make:  Do as you're told!"--THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

This afternoon I went to the Maria Schucka library to return THE CATCHER IN THE RYE and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. (I'd read their closing passages, along with HUCKLEBERRY FINN and L'ETRANGER, at Saturday's Meetup.) It was pouring rain, appropriate for pathetic fallacy.

I felt something like the same way I felt fifteen years ago, after a meeting with my thesis committee.  I'd written the sixth draft of my dissertation, and waited three months for this meeting, but it turned out I wasn't any closer to finishing. (A committee member said "We want to impress upon you..." That's how you talk to schoolboys!) Afterward I felt really empty, not feeling like doing anything or even watching TV, and I ended up walking over to the Wychwood library just to do something.

This evening I went to the Central in Mirvish Village, where the Classic Movie Meetup showed John Sturges' THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.  It isn't close to the Kurosawa original THE SEVEN SAMURAI, but on its own terms it's efficient and exciting, with a rousing score by Elmer Bernstein. (Alex told us that when they were filming it Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen didn't get along and kept trying to upstage each other.)