A Funny Story

[Dan Muir]

As things are a little slow in this message board, I thought I'd share a story.

Through my job of medical testing, I have a fair amount of contact with the public, particularly senior citizens, and I usually have classical music playing to calm their nerves. The other day, while testing an Older Lady, one of my collegues asked what I was playing. I said it was the soundtrack of a movie, The Remains of the Day, a beautiful, lush, sweeping score, with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, at which point this older lady said,

OL: Oh, I HATE Anthony Hopkins!!! I hate, hate, HATE him!!!

Me: (incredulously, with raised eyebrows) Why? (wondering what Anthony Hopkins did to her)

OL: He was in "that" movie! He killed people!!!

Me: You mean Silence of the Lambs?

OL: YES!!! Oh, his eyes just went right through me, and his voice!!! OH!! He was SO scary!!

Me: Well, yes, he played a scary character. So you didn't like the movie.

OL: Oh I didn't see the movie. I just saw the previews. But he was SO scary!! There are too many REAL murders in the world, and I don't want to see it in the movies! And I'll NEVER SEE ANOTHER ONE OF HIS MOVIES AGAIN!!!!

Me: But he's done several movies where he doesn't play a killer. The Remains of the Day is a wonderful example.

OL: OH NO!!!! I'm not going to bother!!! I HATE those movies!!!

Me: But The Remains of the Day doesn't refer to human remains. It's actually a love story.

OL: (baffled) WHAT?!

Me: He plays a butler who serves an English lord, and the relationship that grows between himself and the housekeeper, Emma Thompson's character. The relationship blossoms and grows during "the remaining part" of the day, over the course of several years, when he can step away from his duties. But he doesn't realize the mistake he's made until she leaves and he can't get her back.

OL: (exaspirated) Well.....who does he kill? You know the butler always "does" it!

Me: He doesn't kill anyone. In fact, at one point in his older years, he's even driven to tears over his fear of not being capable of serving his new master as well as he served his former. (that scene was deleted, but she didn't have to know that)

OL: Really? It's a good movie?

Me: Nominated for eight Oscars. You might also check out Howard's End, 84 Charing Cross Road, and Shadowlands.

OL: (perplexed) Well, maybe I will. But I thought he only did movies where he killed people? I don't like movies where they kill people.

Me: Whose movies do you like?

OL: Clint Eastwood.

I almost fell off my chair, laughing so hard. This was not a doddering, confused, scared-of-her-shadow, sweet little old lady. This woman was tall and strong, not yet of retirement age. I got the feeling that maaaaaaaaaaaybe she doesn't get out much. And....she'd never heard of Dirty Harry!

The Moral of the Story: never judge a movie by its preview. I told her that too.

[pungster1]

Oh my...this reminds me of my sis-in-law, who won't watch a movie that she considers(by way of the preview)too "heavy". Films like "Schindler's List"-probably the most ultimately uplifting film I've ever seen. She also refused to see "Life is Beautiful", which I knew she would like because "I hate subtitles". [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img]