July 30, 2007

Two movies.

I have so many DVDs on my shelf that I haven't watched that I've practically forbidden myself to order any more, but I just ordered two things that I wanted to see based on other works recently consumed:

1. "Marjoe." A documentary about a boy evangelist who grows up to expose the tricks he used (with his parents' guidance). This movie is the subject of interesting discussion in the Christopher Hitchens book "God Is Not Great" (which I've immensely enjoyed in audiobook form, read by the author with fascinating emotion).

2. "Little Dieter Needs to Fly." This is a documentay by Werner Herzog about Dieter Dengler, who appears in person in this film and is portrayed by Christian Bale in the current film "Rescue Dawn." I saw "Rescue Dawn" a couple days ago and found the story quite absorbing. Dengler was shot down flying over Laos and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese and -- with the help of a single nail -- he figures out how to escape. In this recent episode of "Fresh Air," Herzog explains why he made a second movie about Dengler.

7 comments:

Peter Hoh said...

I saw a documantary about Dengler (most likely on PBS) some years ago. Fascinating story.

Unknown said...

I remember seeing Marjoe in the theater when it was released -- I was in high school. I'll track that down also -- I'd like to see it again.

I remember I really enjoyed it, but it was a little mean to the poor holy rollers who Marjoe chumped into being filmed. :-)

Christy said...

No Netflix?

I remember "Marjoe" from when it came out. There were a couple of fictional versions that showed up in a couple of TV series at the time and at least one book, none of which I can remember the titles of now. I was dating a guy at the time who'd preached the gospel at rescue missions when he was a kid -- genuinely moved by the spirit. By the time I knew him he was an atheist.

John Kindley said...

Another great documentary:

Toward Liberty, winner of the 1980 Oscar for best short documentary, about Karl Hess, available here in its entirety:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoB0JJWkd-U

Ann Althouse said...

At the rate I watch DVDs, it's probably cheaper to buy them.

Gil said...

Hi Ann!

I am a BIG Herzog fan and happened to miss Little Dieter Needs to Fly! thank you for this great post. Gonna watch it soon!

I was lucky enough to watch many Herzog movies and got impressed by The Grizzly Man more than all. Check on my blog. If you like movies, you might find my last post interesting.

Unknown said...

I remember Marjoe coming to speak at the Bible College I went to some 35 years ago. Never saw the movie--I'll have to find it. I think I read the book.