Sunday, November 26, 2006
Minnesotans on Film
Tonight I watched the "Prairie Home Companion Movie," which was almost required. I grew up listening to that show, and affection for it runs in my family. Our other common weakness is an inability to stay on Interstate highways for very long. For some who have been close to one or more of us their worst memory may be driving lost on County Road YY as the Osler driving sings along in the dark with Garrison Keillor on the radio, belting out "Red River Valley."
The movie is about death, and is set on the last night of the show. I have always thought that the mark of a raging ego or true insecurity is to speculate on what would happen if you died or stopped working; those thoughts of how everything would fall apart. It's rarely true. Baylor Law survived Bill Underwood leaving, and would rumble along just fine if any of the rest of us did the same. I once had a friend who hosted a party that was supposed to be like his funeral-- he laid motionless, and people were supposed to say nice things about him. He even gave some people scripts. Jeez, what an egomaniac.
It also contained a sad and strained portrait of how midwesterners sometimes see Texas Christians. Tommy Lee Jones plays a ruthless and doomed businessman from Texas who is buying St. Paul's historic Fitzgerald theater; he's going to tear it down and build a parking lot. The connection between his faith and his blank-faced business practices are made explicit in the movie: He will drink only water without even the indulgence of ice, and makes it clear that "finding the Lord" led him away from music and sentimentality and towards heartless maximizations of profit. I do know that this is how we are viewed by many from outside of Texas: As practitioners of a faith stripped of Christ's compassion and empathy, leaving nothing but coarse judgment and moralistic hypocrisy to show the world. It is a view that is sometimes true but usually false, and that is one thing I learned by coming to Texas.
To get an actual Minnesotan's take on the movie, click here.
The movie is about death, and is set on the last night of the show. I have always thought that the mark of a raging ego or true insecurity is to speculate on what would happen if you died or stopped working; those thoughts of how everything would fall apart. It's rarely true. Baylor Law survived Bill Underwood leaving, and would rumble along just fine if any of the rest of us did the same. I once had a friend who hosted a party that was supposed to be like his funeral-- he laid motionless, and people were supposed to say nice things about him. He even gave some people scripts. Jeez, what an egomaniac.
It also contained a sad and strained portrait of how midwesterners sometimes see Texas Christians. Tommy Lee Jones plays a ruthless and doomed businessman from Texas who is buying St. Paul's historic Fitzgerald theater; he's going to tear it down and build a parking lot. The connection between his faith and his blank-faced business practices are made explicit in the movie: He will drink only water without even the indulgence of ice, and makes it clear that "finding the Lord" led him away from music and sentimentality and towards heartless maximizations of profit. I do know that this is how we are viewed by many from outside of Texas: As practitioners of a faith stripped of Christ's compassion and empathy, leaving nothing but coarse judgment and moralistic hypocrisy to show the world. It is a view that is sometimes true but usually false, and that is one thing I learned by coming to Texas.
To get an actual Minnesotan's take on the movie, click here.
Comments:
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Ah! The comedic gold that Mr. Keillor has dug out of Lake Wobegon - where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
I have yet to see "A Prairie Home Companion" out of spite for Lindsay Lohan's appearance in the film. Perhaps it is a poor decision, but I must stick to my principles - even if they are obscure/lacking/awkward.
I may just have to put my secret collection of Garrison Keillor Live up on the website to satisfy the huddled masses of Lutherans in Texas that miss their hotdish and rhubarb pie.
I have yet to see "A Prairie Home Companion" out of spite for Lindsay Lohan's appearance in the film. Perhaps it is a poor decision, but I must stick to my principles - even if they are obscure/lacking/awkward.
I may just have to put my secret collection of Garrison Keillor Live up on the website to satisfy the huddled masses of Lutherans in Texas that miss their hotdish and rhubarb pie.
# posted by 
: 12:34 AM
: 12:34 AM
Lindsey Lohan pretty much plays a messed-up teenager, who writes depressing high-school poetry which is every bit as bad as that created here.
1. My family also has loved Prarie Home Companion for many many years. However Garrison Keillor is guilty of stereotyping his own people.... When I attended Beloit College I met many many Minnesotans and other midwesterners who were former Luther League players and who voluntarily ate Lutefisk for Christmas - they were all pretty normal and hilarious people - not half as weird as he had portrayed many of them.
2. My Mother in Law grew up in Fort Worth, TX and is a Texas Christian. She even has a degree from Texas Christian University to prove it. She is a wonderful person, and even though she has definite ideas about things she is not judgemental and always uses ice.
I still love him, but sometimes I think Garrison Keillor maybe was hit in the head with one too many of those August tomatoes, or a stale Powdermilk bisquit.
I could not stay awake during the movie, but I have a toddler and that is the case with a lot of movies. NOW, if they made a movie of CAH TAWK.... those guys would keep me awake!
2. My Mother in Law grew up in Fort Worth, TX and is a Texas Christian. She even has a degree from Texas Christian University to prove it. She is a wonderful person, and even though she has definite ideas about things she is not judgemental and always uses ice.
I still love him, but sometimes I think Garrison Keillor maybe was hit in the head with one too many of those August tomatoes, or a stale Powdermilk bisquit.
I could not stay awake during the movie, but I have a toddler and that is the case with a lot of movies. NOW, if they made a movie of CAH TAWK.... those guys would keep me awake!
# posted by : 9:55 AM
: 9:55 AM
I was not impressed with the movie, but that is usually the case for any movie with Lindsey Lohan.
Speaking of which, yesterday at the movie theater they were doing actor quotes, and she was quoted as saying "I've never met anyone who works harder than me." ...yeah...
~F
Speaking of which, yesterday at the movie theater they were doing actor quotes, and she was quoted as saying "I've never met anyone who works harder than me." ...yeah...
~F
# posted by : 10:00 AM
: 10:00 AM
I have to admit that the movie was not all that great, but then again, Prairie Home Companion is a RADIO SHOW, not a movie. Shame on Garrison for his genre-bending. I think the movie's greatest sin was just being boring. It had one or two moments of interest, but on the whole it was very uneven. Kline and Lohan were both downright awful. I must say, however, that Streep, even in her fifties, is still a babe.
On a different note, I LISTENED to a Prairie Home on Saturday night as I prepared supper, and it was definitely up to its usual greatness. I am a Minnesota Lutheran, and I understand his Lutheran jokes. I both appreciate and welcome them. A lot of his humor is self-depricating, and as a fellow traveler, I understand his Minnesota mid-life male angst. The funny thing is, many Minnesotans are even weirder than those portrayed on his show. After all, both Rocky and Bullwinkle were from Frostbite Falls, which is just a few miles from Lake Woebegon.
I eat hotdish, hate lutefisk, was a bachelor Norwegian farmer for a very short time, think Powdermilk biscuits are over-rated, am not shy, sing in the choir, and play bells at the local Lutheran Church. I love ice.
On a different note, I LISTENED to a Prairie Home on Saturday night as I prepared supper, and it was definitely up to its usual greatness. I am a Minnesota Lutheran, and I understand his Lutheran jokes. I both appreciate and welcome them. A lot of his humor is self-depricating, and as a fellow traveler, I understand his Minnesota mid-life male angst. The funny thing is, many Minnesotans are even weirder than those portrayed on his show. After all, both Rocky and Bullwinkle were from Frostbite Falls, which is just a few miles from Lake Woebegon.
I eat hotdish, hate lutefisk, was a bachelor Norwegian farmer for a very short time, think Powdermilk biscuits are over-rated, am not shy, sing in the choir, and play bells at the local Lutheran Church. I love ice.
# posted by : 10:47 AM
: 10:47 AM
I do not want to stereotype anyone but the Minnesotans DO have the most hard core Midwestern accent short of maybe Canada. Worse than MILWAUKEE, which is pretty intense.
Seriously. Or as they might say: "YOO BETCHA!"
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Seriously. Or as they might say: "YOO BETCHA!"
# posted by : 12:09 AM
: 12:09 AM << Home
