There's a category of saps we admire. This, of course, is a topic that will annoy people. It certainly annoyed my wife. Or some might want to add to my short list.
The classic example, I suppose, is Paul Henreid in CASABLANCA. Ingrid Bergman flies off to the safety of London with this noodnik at the end of the film when she could have had Humphrey Bogart. She does this to bolster a dude important to the Czech resistance. What? you may ask. Does the overthrow of Hitler really depend on a Czech's girlfriend? Or George Patton?
Don't misunderstand. Bergman's inexplicable and terrible decision is what makes the film shockingly great. Without it, what would be left would be good but ordinary.
We've all seen people do that kind of thing. "My god," we think, "that decision ruins three lives or more lives if there are children, and I've made a few bad choices myself."
Another example of a noodnik is Mr. Rogers. I saw film of him on the news today, brought back on TV by the massacre of Jews in his Pittsburgh neighborhood. He assured me that we live in a wonderful world.
Czech Resistance leader,
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment