What's Up Doc (1972)

What happens when you cross the characters in Bringing Up Baby (1938) and the wackiness and chase scenes from It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)?

You get Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neal in the 1972 farce What's Up Doc?

What was once old is made new again in this funny and familiar slapstick comedy about four identical plaid travel cases, the four people that own them and the various people trying to steal them. Put them all up in the same floor of a hotel room amidst a busy musical conference and you've got the ingredients for a humorous, fast-paced farce.

Let's compare Baby, Doc and World...

Grant and Hepburn

In the classic Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks, Cary Grant plays Dr. David Huxley, a bumbling paleontologist trying to receive grant money from a foundation created by a wealthy woman named Elizabeth Random. The straight-laced Huxley is engaged to the even more straight-laced and picky Alice Swallow. While trying to impress Ms. Random, Huxley encounters her niece, the fiery, fun and catastrophe-inducing Susan Vance, played by Katherine Hepburn, who tears his tuxedo coat upon first meeting him. The rest of his life descends into a maelstrom of one unfortunate event after another, unable to shake Ms. Vance from his life. Throw in two leopards, one tame, one wild, a missing dinosaur bone and a night in prison and you get the jist of Baby.

Streisand and O'Neal

In What's Up Doc?, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Ryan O'Neal plays Dr. Howard Bannister, a bumbling musicologist trying to receive grant money from a foundation created by a wealthy man named Frederick Larrabee. The straight-laced Bannister is engaged to the even more straight-laced and picky Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn). While trying to impress Mr. Larrabee, Bannister encounters the fiery, fun and catastrophe-inducing Judy Maxwell, played by Barbara Streisand, who tears his coat jacket upon first meeting him. The rest of his life descends into a maelstrom of one unfortunate event after another, unable to shake Ms. Maxwell from his life. Throw in jewels, top-secret files, thugs, musical rocks, a hotel fire and a night in court and you get the jist of Doc.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

In It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, a large group of characters engage in a high-speed car chase, careening and swerving through crowded city streets, wreaking havoc on by-standers in an attempt to acquire the contents of a buried briefcase of cash.

What's Up Doc?

In What's Up Doc?, a large group of characters engage in a high-speed car chase, careening and swerving through crowded city streets, in an attempt to acquire the contents of the four travel cases.


As mentioned before, at the end of Bringing Up Baby, the group of characters end up in prison while at the end of What's Up Doc?, the group of characters end up in court.


In Baby, Grant succumbs to Hepburn's charm and they fall madly in love. In Doc, O'Neal succumbs to Streisand's charm and they fall madly in love.

Even though What's Up Doc? is not overly original, it is still very funny. Streisand's beauty and charm combined with O'Neal's hapless handsomeness, along with Kahn's hilarious take as the overly watchful fiancé make this film a great joy to watch.

It just goes to show you that, in filmdom, originality isn't as important as execution.

Happy Birthday Chuckles

My brother Charles turns 45 today. Unfortunately, the older he gets, the older I get. The father of 11 great kids and a wonderful husband and dad, I hope is birthday is full of stillness and silence... two very rare things in his household :)

The Bride Wore Blood (2006)

The reimagination of the Western genre seems to be cropping up lately with the web series The West Side and Bluebox Limited's The Bride Wore Blood. Blood, co-written and co-directed by Bluebox's co-founders Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, follows the exploits of a modern day hired-gun- with-a-conscience, played effectively by Travis Shepherd.

Shepherd is hired to protect a man's soon-to-be bride when things go horribly wrong. Drawn to follow the facts of her death to its ultimate conclusion, Shepherd finds a weaving story of deceit and mistrust make up the driving forces behind his failure to protect the bride.

The film clocks in at 60 minutes and is segmented into four "acts" which twist the story from one unexpected path to the next. All of the cinematic elements are top notch, from the music to the cinematography, to the acting to the directing. The writing is crisp and the camera movements create a wonderful, consistent style of the piece.

After the letdown with Her Summer, I am very excited to find Blood to be such an excellent piece of microcinema filmmaking.

On a side note, having immersed myself in the Bluebox world over the last week, I found myself feeling a strong sense of deja vu. Years ago I bought and watched multiple episodes of the Random Foo/Pangaea low-budget public access series called Fade to Black. Each episode in the series consisted of a number of short films from various genres.

The Foo/Pangaea group were one of the first real "players" in the microcinema world. Their output was tremendous, generating almost 100 short films in a 10 year period (96-05). While watching Fade to Black I saw the same small group of actors in the same locations being used for various projects.


Bluebox does so as well. Through these three films (University Heights, Her Summer and The Bride Wore Blood), the cast has remained primarily constant. And the house location used in the opening of Her Summer is wonderfully used again in a suspenseful showdown between two guns-for-hire in Blood. Kudos for finding and keeping the talented cast members involved in their projects. In microcinema, you use what you have access to and there's no shame in availing yourself to the same actors and locations.

Woods and Beck

I also appreciated Bluebox's understanding of film history, paying homage to both Raiders of the Lost Ark (the coursework assigned to the class is lifted line for line from Ark) in University Heights and The Birds (the car screaming across the horizon, dust and smoke billowing behind it, accentuating the urgency of the moment) in The Bride Wore Blood.

I hope Beck and Woods continue to make movies. They're very talented guys. The Foo/Pangaea group has all but dissolved over the past three years. Jason Santo, of Pangaea, went on to create Mindscape Pictures, but has since stopped making movies. He got married and opened up a comic book store. C.C. Chapman and Dan Gorgone, of Random Foo, haven't made a new film in three years... they have children now and their priorities have shifted.

My hope for Beck and Woods is that they are able to make a living in cinema before the responsibility of marriage and fatherhood enter their lives. These guys have real talent and I'd hate to see their work diminish like so many other previous microcinema filmmakers.

Her Summer (2004)

The second film from Bluebox Limited, the group of young filmmakers (Scott Beck and Bryan Woods) that made the successful University Heights, is called Her Summer. The story involves two young friends who scour through a box of old police evidence, searching for clues of the unsolved murders of two people and the potential whereabouts of a missing police officer who discovered the bodies and was related to the victims.

The story behind the story is the police plot is based on actual events that occurred in Iowa and the script went through various incarnations trying to tell that story... first a heavy character drama, the second a silent ghost story film, the third a teen buddy film. In the end, Her Summer ends up trying to be two of those, but with very mixed results, with only one of them being successful.

Written and directed by Woods, the greatest challenge with Her Summer is that the filmmakers tried to force together two very different styles of storytelling, with very different intents, into one film.

First, the true life ghost story is told very well, with minimal dialogue, structured and planned out visuals as well as very creepy music. Interspersed between this unnerving tale of murder and mystery are two high school/college age kids who search through a box of police evidence about the crime, joking, talking about dates to dances and life in general. The dialogue is, at times, improvised, making it less tight and often meandering.

Splicing together a sharp, well thought out ghost story with exposition about teen angst between two guys in a basement makes for a inconsistent approach and ultimately leads to confusion. As the film opens, I am immediately brought into the mystery behind the murders and the torment the police officer goes through the night he discovers their bodies.

I am then thrust into a conversation about a guy hemming and hawing about calling a girl he likes and asking her to a dance. I'm then brought back to the crime scene and unexplained, ghostly events. Then back to a conversation about Mountain Dew and the appropriate use of the term Dewski.

You get the idea.

It is two different movies thrust into one and while the end of the film tries to effectively tie the two storylines together, it only does so with a modicum of success. I kept asking myself, "What does this movie want to be?"

The beauty of microcinema (i.e., very low budget filmmaking) is that you have the freedom to take chances and try things mainstream film studios wouldn't attempt. So, I appreciate the idea and the risks behind telling Her Summer this way, however I wish the filmmakers would have either told a really good ghost story or made a film about the fleeting, yet memorable moments of youth... but not at the same time.

Dali Museum

I'm ashamed to say that I've lived almost my entire life in the Tampa Bay area and had never visited the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg... until last week.

As part of our daughter's required support of the arts outside of school, we spent a few hours at the Dali Museum and were blown away by the artwork, his passion for religious history and icons, his talent and his growth as an artist.

The kids were often enthralled and occasionally confused, but certainly not bored. The collection of art at the museum is enormous and contains some of his most famous and complex works of art, melting clocks and all.

The museum also gave guides for kids which explain his symbolic use of the aforementioned clocks, ants, grasshoppers and imagery representing the advent of nuclear power.

The Dali bench outside the museum.

Overall, it was a really impressive experience and I suggest you make your way there, if possible.

University Heights (2004)

If I were born 20 years earlier, I'd be Scott Beck. Beck, the writer/director of the very successful microbudget film University Heights formed Bluebox Limited to produce and distribute his work along with fellow Iowan college buddy and film partner Bryan Woods.

I envy Beck's place in the cinematic time line. When I was his age, I was dying to make movies, but the technology was not there to make it available to the average person. So I had to wait. And while I waited for technology to catch up to my dreams, I got married, had kids and got a real job. All of these things are wonderful, but limit my ability to pursue my dreams because of the lack of free time. Appropriately, film making now comes in fourth, behind God, family and the job. So, I do what I can, when I can.

College student Beck, on the other hand, is blessed with immense talent and a DVX100 camera. He has made a ton of films and grew as a filmmaker with each project. The culmination of his efforts is a deep and multi-layered story in the feature University Heights.

Heights is a character piece that brings numerous characters on a college campus together in interweaving and intertwining story lines that converge into a very satisfying climax.

Scott Beck

The main characters include Grant, a semi-stoner college youth on the rebound and Katie, his new love interest who disapproves of his choices. There's Jake, a teacher teetering on severe depression who has struggled with relationships his whole life and now wonders about his own sexuality. There's Lou and his hapless buddy who warm their lives through hate and distrust. And there's Tom, a professor of ethics who's past life shows he did not live what he taught. The unexpected loss of his wife and a re-evaluation of his own life has straightened his path, but his past still haunts him.

This is the complexity of a story written by a 19-year old. If I was envious, I'd hate Beck, but he's too talented for that. :)

Heights is an impressive film made by an impressive team using all volunteers and a shoestring budget. The cast is very solid, especially considering its size. Beck is lucky to have access to so many resources with free time... thank you college! Use it before you lose it... it only gets harder from here.

I should also note that Beck and Woods were also finalist in the last Project Greenlight competition, ending up in the top 50 out of thousands of entries. These guys will make their mark in the industry, one way or another.

University Heights is a wonderful achievement for these young filmmakers. You can read more about this film and others, including the thriller Her Summer and the Neo-Western The Bride Wore Blood at their Bluebox Limited website. Since I bought all three films, I look forward to seeing the next two and will let you know my thoughts here.

Keep an eye out for these guys... they'll end up with a movie showing at a theater near you before you know it.

DC Gets Cribbed

DC was cast in a promotional film for her high school that will be shot in an MTV Cribs style. For those of you who have not seen MTV Cribs, it's basically a hip tour of stars homes. Well, the promotional video will be a tour of the school and will be used as a recruiting tool for the different programs available there.

She's excited about the opportunity and we were happy that she got cast. She said it was the first audition this year where she felt completely relaxed and we had hoped that relaxation approach would be rewarded... and it was.

It will be shot over a three day period two weeks from now. I'll keep you posted.

Bella (2006) - The Movie Premiere That Almost Was...

Last night we were invited by our dear friends, the Kelleys, to a special local screening of the critically acclaimed film called Bella. The story revolves around a waitress, Nina (Tammy Blanchard), who finds herself pregnant and unmarried and her friendship with Jose (Eduardo Verástegui), a former soccer star who's hidden tragedy has led him to the quiet, simple life as a chef.

And that's all I know. Why? Because, no matter how hard they tried... and they tried a very hard (seven DVDs and two DVD players), the DVDs were not compatible with the projection systems.

The Publicist, Corby Pons and star/producer Eduardo Verástegui, were very patient and extremely apologetic. The sponsors of the evening, the Alphonso family, who rented the theater and brought in the producer and star, were unphased and kept their spirits up.

In between DVDs 4 and 5, Eduardo spoke to all of us telling us his story. He was born in a faithful Catholic family, he rose to become a very successful Mexican soap opera star and moved to Hollywood. He appeared in numerous television shows and films and, through the work of his English language teacher, realized he was not living his faith. And that being successful in the eyes of Hollywood was not the same as being successful in the eyes of God.

After speaking with his priest and reading some books he decided to fire his agents and managers, sell all of his belongings and go to Brazil to work as a missionary for two years in the jungle. When he told this to his priest, the priest told him, "there is no larger jungle than Hollywood and we need missionaries here too."

So, with a few friends and acquaintances, Eduardo formed his own film company to make uplifting, faith-filled films. The first is Bella.


The film has won numerous awards, including the Academy Awards precursor, the Toronto Film Festivals Peoples Choice Award. Getting distribution has been tough but the team has been flying all over the country, building up support from a grassroots level, starting with a theatrical release of four cities to now over 30.

Because of this David vs. Goliath mentality, it broke our hearts to see the events unfold as they did. Corby told me that they felt Satan had been working against this film very hard. They've had obstacle after obstacle... nothing had gone as badly as it had last night. I told him, "no matter how hard Satan pushes, we'll push harder." The offered us all tickets to the premiere in Miami (not sure if we'll be able to attend) and signed DVD copies, when the film is released on DVD.

They were very nice, very faithful and very apologetic. In the end, however, the struggles made us root for the film that much more. The first half-hour was superbly told and engrossing. We can't wait to see the rest of the film

Another nice event of the evening was DC getting to meet Eduardo in person. From my experiences in the entertainment industry, I had learned that if you treat stars like stars, they'll treat you like a fan. If you treat them like a person, they'll treat you as a person. So, when DC was about to meet Eduardo, Dea offered the poster and a pen and suggested she get an autograph. DC responded that she didn't want to meet his as a fan, but as a person. And that's what she did.

They shook hands and DC, as a fellow actor with strong faith, was very touched and inspired by Eduardo's story. They spoke for a few minutes on acting and faith. Eduardo asked DC to keep him in prayers and that he would keep her in his. Eduardo offered for her to keep in touch, as they are "always on the lookout for actors who want to express their faith through their work."

On the way home, we all talked about how wonderful the production company was, how sad we were for them in regards to the viewing and how inspiring Eduardo's story was for us. DC also was giggly over how cute he was... or gorgeous... I can't remember the exact description she reveled in, but she was smitten. After all, Eduard was voted the third most beautiful person in the world... and he just might be.

Anyway, the premiere did not go as we had intended, but it was very memorable and made us want to support and promote the film Bella as much as we could.

If Bella opens near you, please see this pro-life, touching movie about love that goes beyond romance. These faith-filled filmmakers need our prayers and support.

Wise Words

"Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines."

--Satchel Paige

Life Changes

Once crossing over 40 I realized I had to decide how I wanted to grow older. Gone are the days where your body forgives your every sin. After seeing my weight slowly escalate every doctor visit over the past year I decided to make some changes which, collectively, have made a great impact.

The first and most effective change I made was to no longer eat anywhere that has a drive-thru window. It is AMAZING how much better I felt within a week of giving up fast food.

• I gave up caffeine.
• I drink about 1 1/2 Qt of water a day.
• I drink V8 everyday.
• I drink fat free milk.
• Limit my portions involving cheese.
• I take vitamins.
• I eat more fiber.
• I've almost eliminated red meat, focusing more on chicken, turkey and fish.
• I eat more protein and less carbs.
• I floss every night.
• I exercise at least 3 days a week.
• I limit my portions of sweets far more drastically than ever before.
• Pretty much eliminated chips and pizza from my diet.

My previous health issues have already damaged my long-term health, so I need to do my best to take care of what I have left. So far, these changes have been great. I feel a million times better. And, surprisingly, making these changes wasn't that difficult. As Bob J. said, "it just becomes more important than anything else."

And he's right.

Forgiven Storyboards Completed

Today at lunch I finished the storyboards of our Christian short Forgiven. The end tally is 135 pages containing 356 individual shots.

My hand hurts.

Forgiven Storyboards

Way back when, I was watching the making of one of my all time favorite flicks, Raiders of the Lost Ark. During this behind-the-scenes documentary I learned about storyboarding... the process of sketching out each shot individually before shooting the film. I later learned that Hitchcock, my favorite director, used storyboards heavily as well.

Since then I'm adamant about the use of them. As the saying goes, paper is cheap. So, anything you can put on paper before filming is much cheaper than trying to figure stuff out on the set, both in time and resources.

The process of storyboarding a movie can be a very long process. A simple written scene can translate, visually, into a rather large number of individual shots rather quickly.

For the DV feature The Box, it took two three-inch three ring binders to document the over 1200 shots sketched out by hand that were used to shoot the film.

With our short Christian film, Forgiven, so far I've storyboarded approximately 20 pages of the 30 page script and consisting of 248 individual shots. To illustrate (no pun intended) here's a shot sample of the script and some of the storyboards I've sketched out.

Here's the section of the script.


And here are some of the storyboards for that section.







I've given myself until the end of the month to finish storyboarding this short. That's not a lot of time.

One has to think of what you're trying to elicit, visually, and how best to present the shots in sequence to reach that emotion in the audience you are trying to achieve.

So, if the average continues, I'll need to finish over 100 shots for the remaining third of the screenplay in order to complete the storyboarding process in the next week.

Time to sharpen those pencils.

Gaslight (2007)

As part of my daughter's responsibilities for her performing arts high school, she must attend 30 hours of activities in support of the theater outside of school. So, the family and I scoured the local theater scene and found that the Eight O'Clock Theater was presenting the 1938 play called Gaslight.

The plot involves a trouble married couple in the upper-class England in the 1880's. The wife, Bella Manningham, seems to be struggling with her sanity... a possible genetic gift from her mother, who died insane years earlier. The husband, Jack Manningham, is both manipulative and, yet, patient with his wife's apparent paranoia. He is, however, rough on the lead servant, Elizabeth, and overly flirtatious with the younger, sexy servant, Nancy.

Bella is certain of her own eventual mental demise when, one evening, a former police detective, Rough, arrives to spin her a totally different story.

Gaslight was one of the first plays to elicit suspense very successfully and was the inspiration for plays and films such as Dial M for Murder, Wait Until Dark and Deathtrap.

The Eight O'Clock Theater's production of Gaslight was excellent. The demanding role of Bella was played flawlessly by the tremendously talented Melody Craven. Her character was so full, complete, and three-dimensional. There was not a false note during her impressive and memorable performance. As an added bonus, she was also my daughter's acting teacher at Ruth Eckerd Hall and was happy to see DC after the show.

Melody Craven, Stefanie Lehmann
and T.J. Gill

As my wife said, it was nice to see that those teaching our daughter to act can also act themselves. Also in the play was a fellow theater high-schooler Stefanie Lehmann, who was convincing as the saucy servant Nancy. Her statuesque presence on and off the stage leaves quite a mark. I look forward to seeing her in future productions.

Also exceptional in the play was T.J. Gill, as Rough, the funny and determined ex-police detective. He has the ability to be both dramatic and comedic within the same scene. His performance captured just the right note of drama and comedy, allowing the audience to exhale in laughter when the tension of the play had built up.

Also very strong in the cast was Colleen Marvel, as the head servant Elizabeth and Trey Ryan, as the ominous husband, Jack. A great amount of praise should go to both director Rand Smith, who managed the play to great affect and to set designer Tom Hansen, who's set was beautiful.

So, our first foray into the local theater scene this year was a great experience with wonderful performances.

Gaslight ends today, so, like all plays, both good and bad, performances evaporate as soon as the last curtain drops. I'm glad we got to see this production and I look forward to future Eight O'Clock Theater productions.

Satan's Greatest Victory

I have always felt that abortion is truly the work of Satan, the prince of lies. Who else could mastermind, over a few generations, the complete alteration in public views on motherhood in such a way that chopping up the child growing inside it's own mother is a good idea?

In the greatest hypocrisy in human history, Amnesty International now actually considers abortion a human right!

Can you believe that? What is more evil than to define a human right that requires the killing of other human beings? Amazing. And devastating.

It occurred to me today, in a new way, just how unnatural and evil abortion truly is...

When you have a child and hold that child in your arms for the first time, everything changes inside your heart and you realize that you would give up EVERYTHING for that child, you'd even die, if need be.

With abortion, however, I realized that a woman demands her own child die so she doesn't have to give up ANYTHING.

Only Satan could pull of such a sleight of hand. He's been around since the beginning of time and he's obviously really good at his job.

God help us all.

God's Knock Knock Joke

In one of the many humorous tangents I am often to explore, I had wondered what if God was a bad stand up comic and Heaven was listening to His act. In that vein, one of his bad jokes could be...

Knock Knock.

Who's there.

I AM.

Think about it.

Deja Vu (2006)

Director Tony Scott and actor Denzel Washington, who have worked together on Crimson Tide and Man on Fire have teamed up again for the slick and enjoyable film Deja Vu. This time Washington plays ATF agent Doug Carlin assigned to investigate a terrorist act involving a ferry full of servicemen and women.

Carlin ends up working with FBI agents (Val Kilmer and Bruce Greenwood) using state of the art technology that allows them to watch, in "real time" four days in the past. The science is solid enough and the technology is shown with enough wiz-bang fun that it's easy to get pulled into the meat of the story.

Carlin's investigation on the terrorist attack is focused on a woman named Claire (Paula Patton) who's burned and mangled body washed up on the shore an hour before the terrorist bomb went off. It's through their investigation of Claire using this new technology that Carlin finds himself becoming emotionally attached to woman already dead.

The movie is really rock solid for the first 3/4 of the film, including one of the most ingenious chase scenes I've ever watched on film. Very cool stuff.

The last 1/4 of the film ends up following exciting, although expected twists and turns. In effect, the film is a victim of it's own success created by the first 90 minutes of the film. It is so unique and inventive and intriguing that when the last 30 minutes enters familiar territory it seems even more unoriginal by comparison.

But, don't let my comments on the last 30 minutes of the film keep you from watching it as the last act is still fun, enjoyable and effective storytelling.

Deja Vu took me by surprise. The reviews of the film were hit and miss and the box office brought in less than the film cost, so I expected a much lesser film when, in reality, it is a really fun night at the movies.

It's a very good flick. Check it out.

Late One Night (2001)

When a stranger arrives in a small diner, he must face the wrath of obstinate unbelievers, forcing the stranger to defend Christianity, despite their numerous attempts to undermine his faith. That's the storyline of a short Christian film called Late One Night, written and directed by Dave Christiano.

I have enjoyed Christiano's previous work, but there is a trend in his films of too much talking. They are often short on cinema and long on dialogue. This was excessively apparent in the feature film Unidentified and is somewhat apparent in Late One Night. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, Late One Night is overly talky, but still effective in its message.

The leader of the unbelievers, played by Brad Heller (who also appeared in both of The Moment After films) berates the stranger, played by Josh Gaffga, continually and repeatedly stating how fake Christians are in their actions and words.

The payoff for the film is nicely done, but Heller's character has a lot of important, albeit inaccurate assumptions of Christians and the stranger does little to answer his detailed concerns and, instead, answers with generalities. That being said, the film could have lost a good 10 minutes and it would have been far more effective.

I commend Christiano for sticking to his guns and making Christian shorts and features for about 20 years. He's truly dedicated to his mission and his faith. He's doing what I wish I was doing, making Christian flicks for a living.

Gaffga sits quietly, listening
to Heller's berating.

I also respect Christiano's loyalty to his actors. Filmed six years ago, a few of the leads in this short appear in Christiano's weekly half-hour Christian series called 7th Street Theater, airing on TBN Sunday nights at 11 p.m. EST.

Late One Night is a good Christian flick with interesting subject matter and lively discussion points. I only wish Christiano would put down the typewriter every once and a while and pick up a pencil and a blank storyboard and figure out how to tell his stories visually.

Some Things Never Change

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics
does not mean politics will not take an interest in you."
- Pericles (430 B.C.) -

2500 years later, same song, different verse.

Fortune

Here's a new fortune from my favorite Chinese restaurant.

A palm can say a lot, especially when it smacks you.

Is that supposed to be uplifting?

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1821)

Mel Gibson got a lot of flack about his interpretation of the passion of Jesus in his movie The Passion of the Christ. Many people were unaware that most of that movie was indeed inspired by the visionary book of the venerated (pre-Saint) nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, called The Dolorous (or Sorrowful) Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Emmerich, herself, was illiterate. But a well known poet of the time, Clemens Brentano, was brought into her life and wrote down her visions as she had them. He would re-write and edit the visions with her so she would approve his wording.

The process of having the visions was extremely painful for Emmerich, who welcomed the suffering as she had a life-long yearning to participate in the passion of Jesus. This dedication and selflessness was rewarded with the vision of Jesus' passion, crucifixion and resurrection in complete and amazing detail. However, with each vision she also experienced the emotions involved.

The visions are so detailed and exact that one cannot help but believe them as true. The book relates such detail from descriptions of the simple bridges crossed when walking near the Garden, to Pilate's house, Herod's palace, neighborhoods and how all of the people in the bible intertwine with this blessed event. She states that the Ark of the Convenant was, at one time, housed in the same building as was held the Last Supper. She states that the same cave used to hide after the Garden of Gethsemane was the same cave used by Adam and Eve to hide after the fall. She mentions the chalice used at The Last Supper was an antique that was stored on Noah's Ark and survived the flood. The visions encompass and expound the stories in the bible, but never contradict them.

It is an amazing book, plain and simple.

I have often believed that a human's ability to understand the spiritual realm is equivalent to an ant trying to understand the subtly of human existence. An ant may know we are there and that we have some power over them when we want, but they know nothing nor can they comprehend human emotion, relationships, goals, dreams, etc.

Sister Anne & Clemens Brentano

The same ignorance, I believe, is what humans have when we try to understand the divine. I always go back to my favorite quote from Thomas A Kempis', which states "There is nothing more insignificant to God than human wisdom." After all, we, in our own arrogance and ignorance believe that God works as we do, that because we are created in His image that He, therefore, must approach life the way we do. We feel we know so much when, in reality, we know so very little.

I've always believed that, if you could imagine God as an artist, His pallet is full of wonderful colors and, by comparison, the human palette merely contains various shades of gray. God can use all of His existence to express Himself... nature, angels, weather, free will, His will, comets, galaxies, the universe itself are all individual colors available to Him in His palette. We can barely understand the complexities of human existence and are incapable of God's options. The simple constraint of time means we struggle to understand actions, consequences and events that occur over multiple generations. But, for God, our centuries are but a second.

What is beautiful about The Dolorous Passion is that it feels like we're getting a glimpse into this big picture. Since time has no meaning to God, when we see tying of Adam to Jesus, from Noah to the Last Supper, from David to Nicodemus, of Roman soldiers to Jesus infancy and his very birth, etc., it all makes sense in some much larger level... like by reading the bible we have understood the players in the story, but not the grandeur and the connections of the story itself... it's the difference between understanding a movie trailer and understanding the movie in its entirety.

Emmerich's visions of Jesus visiting Purgatory, Limbo and Hell after his crucifixion and before his resurrection are riveting, daunting, scary and, on some level, familiar and true.

Reading this book has been a wonderful experience and I strongly suggest anyone looking for a better, fuller understanding of their faith to take the time to visit the wonderful visions of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich.

You will never forget it.

Breach (2007)

I've heard it said that the true makeup of a man is what he does when no one is looking and the film Breach illuminates that distinction between our private acts and our public acts to great effect. The story of Breach is an intriguing one. It is the true life story about a novice FBI agent assigned to help uncover the workings behind the greatest and most damaging traitor and spy in American history.

Ryan Phillippe plays Eric O'Neill, the young and hungry FBI agent and Chris Cooper brilliantly portrays legendary spy Robert Hanssen, who's double-life caught everyone by surprise. Hanssen was a walking dichotomy of morality. He was both a very devout Roman Catholic who avoided occasions of sin while, at the same time, providing information to the Russians that he knew would cause the death of many double-agents.

I have found, in my life, that the more I understand my faith, Catholicism, the farther away from Heaven I get. It's the difference between being a good person and being a holy person. It's not that I won't make it to Heaven, or that I can't make it, or that my faith is keeping me from it... it is that the more I understand what is required, the more I understand what being holy means and what is expected from me through my faith, the more I realize how incapable I am of getting there on my own. After all, how can an imperfect being reach perfection without assistance from the perfectly divine?

O'Neill and Hanssen in church.

It's this reliance on faith, propelled by his own sin, that Cooper so effectively shows in Breach. The man is in a constant state of various levels of agony. The film subtly shows his devout faith as a requirement, a balancing act, because of his moral flaws driven by arrogance and pride are causing him to commit mortal sins against the very God he worshiped. I never sensed Hanssen's faith was fake, or put on for show, but instead the moral weight on the scales of his soul that kept him from falling forever into a self-created hellish abyss.


Other wonderful actors, such as Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysbert round out the cast, but it is the weighted, struggled and tortured performance by Cooper that takes this spy film to an entirely different level.

Breach brings one of the darkest moments in U.S. intelligence history to the screen with a multi-layered, effectively moving and intriguing film filled with at least one Academy Award worthy performance.

Zodiac (2007)

In the late 1960's to early 1970's, a serial killer, known as Zodiac, tormented and killed in and around the San Francisco area. The mystery officially remains unsolved, however the film Zodiac comes to its own conclusions as to the real identity to the killer.


The film storyline follows the exploits of both the police and the local paper in trying track down the killer, who bragged about the murders and tested the media and police by sending cryptic letters to the San Francisco Chronicle. A newspaper crime reporter, Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.) and the political cartoonist/riddle solving hobbyist (Jake Gyllenhaal) work with and, at times, independently of the police detectives (Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards) assigned to solve the case.

The film is reminiscent of All the President's Men, in that the bulk of the story follows a pair of journalists who start with a small story, which, in turn, evolves into a massive, historic one.

Redford and Hoffman in All the President's Men

The cast is top notch and director David Fincher (Se7en, The Game, Panic Room) has the wonderful ability of making seemingly normal things very, very creepy. His distinctive style works well with such an iconic, evil figure as Zodiac, and Fincher seamlessly interweaves characters and story lines over a 20 year journey.

Downey, Jr. and Gyllenhaal in Zodiac

Zodiac did not set the world on fire at the box office, however, I think it will become one of those movies, like All the President's Men and The Hunt for Red October that, when I stumble across it on television, I am transfixed and will watch it through to completion. Once you start, the story pulls you in and you can't turn away.

Zodiac is very good film with subtle, effect directing and excellent performances.