There used to be something called the Harvard Five-Foot Shelf: a bookshelf containing all the classics that Harvard’s 21st president, Charles Eliot, deemed most essential for a well-rounded education.
I have the modern equivalent: a shelf that’s 10 DVD’s long.
It’s not so much “educational” as it is essential for getting through life.
I don’t need any help becoming sad, or outraged by the vicissitudes of life. What I need help with is getting past all that, or at least living with it. That’s where my movie shelf comes in.
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” may appear, on the surface, to have nothing to do with your life today.
And yet — who hasn’t been in a situation where, after much tribulation, you have brought back the required “shrubbery” for the fearsome “Knights who say ‘Ni!’,” only to be told you must now bring back a second shrubbery, “for the nice two-level effect”?
I think we’ve all had bosses like that. Or clients!
I loved “Grail” from the very first scene (well, after the fake movie at the start) when the horses you hear clip-clopping up a foggy medieval hill turn out to be — coconut-shell halves, such as any sound effects man would be proud to own. It’s a simple gag but they stick with it throughout — even “dismounting” later when something makes the “horses” nervous!
I am quite fond of the scene where a village full of filthy peasants want to burn a witch (Connie Booth) whom they’ve found.
“How do you know she’s a witch?” asks Sir Bedivere, a knight of the village played by Terry Jones.
“She turned me into a newt!” exclaims a villager (John Cleese).
Everyone turns to him in amazement. “I got better,” he shrugs. “Burn her anyway!” they all shout.
Of course, nothing like that happens any more, in these enlightened times!
My favorite scene occurs when King Arthur and his Knights must cross the Bridge of Death.
To cross safely, they must answer the bridgekeeper’s three questions. But any incorrect answer will plunge them into the Gorge of Eternal Peril.
Sir Launcelot crosses safely. Sir Robin, asked the capital of Assyria, replies “I don’t know!” and plunges to his death.
Then, “What is your name?”
“Sir Galahad.”
“What is your quest?”
“To seek the Holy Grail.”
“What …is your favorite color?”
“Blue!” replies the startled Galahad. “No, yellow —” he corrects himself — or tries to.
Too late! He, too, flies off into the abyss.
As a youngster who had trouble making decisions about everything, even her own favorite ice cream flavor, this scene came often into my head. I feel like it’s a member of my family — or that I’m a member of theirs. At least so far, I have managed to avoid the abyss.
As for the movie “Airplane” — it’s as funny as ever. There isn’t a single scene without at least one gag. Right from the opening credits we know what we’re in for — a romp — when we see an airplane’s tail fin cutting through a cloud-filled sky, to the music from “Jaws.”
So many gags, so little space!
One of my husband’s favorites is the scene in the airport, where Capt. Oveur takes a call on the white courtesy phone from a man in a white lab coat, standing in front of a wall full of mayonnaise jars.
It’s a doctor at the Mayo clinic, of course. But then the Captain must take a call from a Mr. Hamm, on line 5. “Give me Hamm on 5, hold the Mayo,” he says.
I seem to share a “drinking problem” with the hero of the story — namely, that I too, when attempting to drink a liquid from a glass, often miss my mouth, drenching my face or shirt instead. “Just a little drinking problem!” I sheepishly explain to folks, as I towel myself off. I hope they know I’m referring to the movie!
Of course there’s the gag this movie may be most famous for:
“Surely you can’t be serious!”
“I am serious — and don’t call me Shirley.”
My children might not understand the “smoking” ticket, or a courtesy phone — but they’ll understand the people sitting on the luggage carousel instead of the bags… or the running gag “I picked the wrong week to quit drinking coffee…smoking cigarettes…sniffing glue.” There is more than enough in this film to reward repeated viewing —which is why it will always have a place on my “Ten Film Shelf.”
A Look On The Lighter Side: The final two of my fabulous 10 list
By Judy Epstein
