p e n g u i n d e v i l

Scrolling around looking for something to watch, I settled on The Apostle. This little film was written, produced, and directed by the always brilliant Robert Duvall, who also starred in it. And it really was quite good. I always like it when actors make these “personal project” things, I think those movies tend to turn out pretty good. This is the story of a preacher in the south who, due to some problems with his wife, ends up running from the law. But this isn’t any regular running from the law! This preacher just takes it as if Jesus is sending him somewhere else to do his bidding so he wanders until he gets directed to a minister and he decides to open up a new church. Not using is real name, of course. Now he is just The Apostle E.F.

I love the character of Apostle E.F., Robert Duvall plays him wonderfully and you feel like (not that I know from experience) you know what the poor South is like and what it feels like to be filled with the holy spirit. His single-minded drive to serve Jesus and his overwhelmingly good natured love for everyone and acceptance of everything that comes his way shows a spirit of life that I am both fascinated by and respect. No matter what ills befall him, or what “sins” he committed, he strives onward, completely dedicated to what he thinks is right. It is kind of simple-minded (I don’t mean that in a bad way) seeming as he goes about his mission and I couldn’t help but think it would be nice if everyone had the respect for themselves and for other that he showed, but I imagine that most of us are too overwhelmed with ego needs and personal agenda to be that open, helpful and compassionate all of the time.

So it is a invigorating movie, about resilience and dedication and a love of humanity. I read somewhere someone said that it was about redemption, but I didn’t see it that way.

I have been slowing down the dvd library for the last year or so, but it so happens that there are some new dvds out there that I “need”. Now normally I would have just bought them new online for the cheapest price and added them to my collection. But there are some new angles that I am trying to incorporate into these sorts of things:

1) buy locally
2) don’t aquire things unless I really want them (avoid clutter and excess)
3) there’s no money to spend.

The best strategy to achieve these would be to buy these dvd’s at a local store (non-chain) with money garnered from selling dvd’s that I do not really want. So if I am going to buy From Beyond and the new edition of Deliverance, I should make a trip to Music Millennium tomorrow to buy them at full price (probably for a total of $12.00 more than if I got them from Amazon) and I should bring along about 10 cheapo dvds to sell to raise the money for them (I am also trying to sell some “not quite as cheapo” dvds, but those are going to ebay, click if you are curious). So that is my new plan.

And it brings to mind things like the great enemy of America, Wal-Mart. Especially small town Wal-Marts. I feel like a lot of small town Americans are selling out their communities, towns and local businesses by abandoning those stores and buying things at Wal-Mart instead, under the banner of “saving money”. While I understand that most people feel the need to save money, I would venture that most things that people are “saving money on” at Wal-Mart are things that they don’t really need and their communities (and themselves in the long run) would be better served by buying less unneeded material clutter (or unneeded excess food) and spending the higher amount that the local business needs to sell the item for.

I am now trying to not go around supporting the wrong folks and “saving money” by buying every dvd that catches my eye at whichever website sells it for less it and instead trying to lessen my clutter and do the local businesses some good by just buying the ones that I really want and doing it locally. I figure that if I buy two-thirds fewer dvd’s than I used to, I can easily afford to pay a local guy full retail rather then having to shop discount and wait for him to shutter his doors.

(Don’t you like my Amazon Associate links?)