You wouldn’t know it by my recent history but I am a serious fan of movies as an art form. Put that in the category of Quilts and needlework, both of which can be spectacular and neither of which I own examples of. Not stellar examples. I do have a bed spread that is technically a quilt that I acquired accidentally and enjoy as a very practical item mostly for it’s immensity. The colors are earthy, it’s thin, and it’s been abused but it’s huge.  That can be handy.

I also have a bit of stitch work and now I’m not sure of the origin because I was in a fog when I got it. I think it came from my daughter when I was in the hospital and it made me happy then and still does. It’s a small thing, white and green squares. The message is white thread stitched as X’s in the white squares. I wonder where that is? I’ve stowed it somewhere safe, and that’s always a little concerning since it really means I won’t easily locate it.

Movies I own copies of. I gave away most of the VHS formatted ones since I don’t have a way to watch them. My 8mm digital tape movies have languished for years because the (thought to be ) bullet proof sony player broke and I have no other way to view them. I tried in video cameras but without success. I suspect they’ve all gone bad.

My collection of DVD movies goes unwatched.

So what I’m really a fan of is the power of the medium when it’s harnessed.

I have tickets to the theater in case something worth watching gets released.

Yesterday I got caught up in short clips on youtube that reminded me how pointless modern movies seem to be, especially in the genre I watched.

There have been better days. Every few months I go back and pull up a clear version of Angel and the Badman and watch the segment between the bar fight and the blackberry picking outing. It really grabs me. He shows up after leaving unannounced. She’s smitten with him and thought she’d won his heart but doesn’t understand what that move was about. He’s smitten with her and was wanting to sort that out and maybe see if he could just go back to his former life. A sheriff has been on his tail and shows up to ask a few questions and she stands in on the inquiry. Afterward, she realizes he’s been in town in the company of a girl he talked about in his delirium earlier when her family nursed him back to health after an injury.

She is taken aback by the realization that he’s maybe not a dependable guy. Maybe she’s just not good enough to pull him away from his life of mischief. Maybe her love is in vain. She goes off to another part of the barn to take this in and she feeds a bottle of milk to a lamb as she considers. He follows her. Her eyes convey a pure love and the hurt of the thought that he’d do that. He watches and considers. The actress pulls off a communication that the young woman actually is an angel in that she’s without guile or deceit. She’s not judging him. She’s realizing that she is seriously, deeply committed to this guy. He realizes the same for himself. You get the feeling that they’re both good people and solid. She’s not gaming him and he’s not actually a bad fellow in his heart. He was orphaned and maybe fell in with bad company and didn’t consider that there might be another way. Now he’s thinking deeply. His heart is being won.

I love how the movie sets the hook right there, but doesn’t reel in either character.

Something more has to take place and it leads to an event that saves them both.

They court. One day they go blackberry picking and get harrassed by actual pinhead bad guys and she ends up in a crash and unconscious. Now  her guy has potentially lost everything. She’s still alive, but unresponsive. He heads to town, armed. The buffoons who did the crime are there drinking.

Her parents take her from her sick bed into town in a buck board wagon where her dude has gone to confront the guys who hurt her. I love how it plays out. After all the dust settles, he’s sitting on the back of the wagon holding her in his arms and she’s awake and smiling. She won him, he won her and his pistol falls to the ground and he doesn’t care to fetch it. He’s found his way. She’s got him on her terms. Happy ending, beautiful beginning. Now that is a movie!