Sunday, February 06, 2022

I Love Love

An old girlfriend told me that I was in love with the thought of love. I suppose that's true, but then again, I have an unrealistic view of the world as it is. Reality is too tough and always has been. It probably explains why, to this late day in my life, I am one immature sonuvabitch. However, in the third decade of my longest running relationship, I ain't doin' that badly.

I blame the movies. Well, TV too. And books. (What, do you think I'm going hold myself accountable? I'm twelve years old and always will be!) Love stories in film, TV and literature have given us false hope from the day our lil' minds were formed. Some of us (right here, dude!) never fully developed.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good love story. For my personal taste, they are few and far between, but that can be true of anything.
But in honor of Valentine's Day. the holiday dedicated to love and gangland shootings, here are a few of my favorite things, minus the tribute to Al Capone and his cronies.

Rom-coms are a dime a dozen and I wouldn't give a plug nickel for 99% of them. As far as I'm concerned, the gold standard was set in 1987 with Norman Jewison's MOONSTRUCK. This totally New York tale sucks me in every time thanks mainly to its pitch perfect script by John Patrick Shanley and spot-on cast. Do I buy into this story of "true" love? Not really, but something has to be said about making the right choices in life, even if they seem wrong at the time. My wife and I adore MOONSTRUCK and watch it at least once a year. Dialogue from that film has become part of our personal lexicon.

Richard Lester's ROBIN AND MARIAN tells the tale of the older Robin Hood (Sean Connery) returning to Sherwood Forest after serving in the Crusades and falls back in love with Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn) who is now a nun. The story of regaining a lost love hit me right where I live, even inspiring me in my own story SONG OF THE CANYON KID. And the final scene of ROBIN AND MARIAN is one of the most tragic, yet love-affirming scenes ever committed to celluloid. As the tagline read the trailer of this movie, "Love is the greatest adventure of all."

The time travel saga SOMEWHERE IN TIME is another heart breaker that leaves me in a puddle of tears every single time. I remember watching this with my mom soon after my dad passed away. She told me that she believed that she'd meet up with her late husband in Heaven the same way Christopher Reeve does with Jane Seymour. Then there's the story behind the photograph of Seymour that haunts Reeve, prompting him to find her, well, somewhere in time. The reason for her smile? She was looking at him at the time that portrait was taken. My favorite picture of my wife, one I snapped all by lonesome self, has the same effect on me. I took the shot on our wedding day and she is smiling directly at me through time and space.

Speaking of time and space, one of the better love stories of recent times is on the small screen. It's not secret that I'm a DOCTOR WHO fan, my "tenure" beginning with the most-maligned Steven Moffat-era, which I've never understood. I don't care what inconsistencies or major infraction the so-called Whoinverse accuses him of committing, this is the writer who gave the world the amazingly complex and beautifully constructed story of The Doctor and River Song. These two go backwards, forwards and even sideways in time and space, capturing all in a diary to somehow figure where they are in their relationship. Have I met him yet? In this their last night together or did that already occur? It's brilliant and everything I want in a love story, just as I do in life.

Unrealistic.

What can I say?

I love love.


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