2 movies this extended weekend (I did work Monday, but it was bogus): “Superman Returns” and “An Inconvenient Truth”.
Superman was 2 and a half hours of pure fun, designed for the detail-oriented fan – the same demographic of “Batman Returns”. OK, Lois wasn’t that exciting – but do you really expect someone jilted for 5 years to be any other way? Some paper (I don’t remember which) mentioned Perry White’s controversial clipped quote “Truth, Justice, and all that stuff” instead of the traditional “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”. Today of all days, we are idealists and we think that all three belong together. However, I don’t think that Superman is solely for Americans today, and “original intent” be damned, even though one of Superman’s creators was Canadian. Why we need Superman (or Superperson?) more than ever? — the same reason that we need a Santa Claus: we need hope.
“An Inconvenient Truth” shows what ought to be happening with American discourse. Back in the days of Lincoln, it was not unusual for a speaker to go on tour at meeting halls around the country, having an exposition that went on for one or two hours about a topic of the day. It is difficult to criss-cross the country holiding these speeches (although Al Gore estimates that he has given his road show over 1,000 times), but this is the next best thing. Complaints that it is too much like a college lecture belies the anti-intellectual attitude that Stephen Colbert paradies; that it is too partisan the view that people ought not to have views anymore. Good job.
We spent the day making a big pot of turkey chili, and then we made our way to the Brooklyn Promenade to see the Macy’s Fireworks. I thought it was a much better view than from the FDR Drive, and you don’t have to camp out like you do for a Manhattan vantage point. P’s brother was working security at the site, but we didn’t see him until afterwards.