Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Time Travel

One of the movie genres or themes that always reels me in is the "time travel" concept. Over the weekend, we rented Against Time with Robert Loggia, John Amos and Craig T. Nelson.


In the same vein as Field of Dreams, Frequency, and, to a degree, the Back to the Future series, the movie features a high school baseball player who encounters his future self (Robert Loggia), who admonishes him to pay attention to the small decisions which will shape his future. Unlike Back to the Future, this film is serious (but not didactic), as well as thought provoking. And though unrelated, I found the lyrics to Carly Simon's In a Small Moment totally apropos to the message of this movie relating to how we deal with the small things ultimately defines our character:

In a small moment
She accepted credit for something she did not do
She said she'd done the water color in her bedroom
But it was done by a friend from school

Just a little lie
No one would discover
At least not very soon
In a small moment
Just a little lie
When she wasn't looking it just slipped on by

In a small moment
In a restaurant where she worked the late night shift
She short changed a sailor and made five
You could never really call it a theft

Just a little lie
Swept up in her apron and kept as a well deserved gift
In a small moment
Just a little lie
When she wasn't looking it just slipped on by

In a small moment
She cheated on her lover and placed it in the back of her mind
As long as nobody knew the truth about her
It could never really be unkind
Just a little lie that slipped beside her as she tossed and turned in her alibis

In a small moment
Just a little lie
When she wasn't looking it just slipped on by
Slipped on by

I totally liked Field of Dreams, pairing Kevin Costner's character with his father as a contemporary. I've always had a good relationship with my Dad, but I am somewhat intrigued by the idea of being his contemporary, when he was younger. Even moreso, I would find it fascinating to see the relationship between my Dad and his father (after whom I'm named) when he was growing up. Dad's never indicated there was anything negative in his relationship with his dad, it's just difficult to get him to say much about how they interacted - different times, I guess.
I won't spoil the movie's ending, but will allow that if you're looking for nudity, strong language, drug references, or dazzling special effects, you'll likely be disappointed. This was a movie that I enjoyed watching with my family, and I think they liked it as well.
Lyrics by Carly Simon, 1978

2 comments:

todd said...

I like movies that show naked baseball players having profanity-laced drug-induced hallucinations about zombie dinosaurs with lasers strapped to their back while humming Carly Simon songs (whoever she is). So, I'll probably skip this movie. This post was nearly as long as one of your stories. I need to travel back in time to restore the 17 minutes it took to read it!

an Donalbane said...

No aliens? Don't you like aliens?