Home From the Hill
M,
Home from the Hill
I thought it was such a big, all encompassing story. For me, it was like watching a tense, low scoring baseball game - lots of contemplation, quiet drama under the surface, tension that you knew would erupt if you took your eyes off the field.
It was a study of how each person handled his or her personal misfortune (his/her charge of his/her wild boar). Each of them suffered from a big hurt, but each one handled his/her hurt differently. Some with stoicism (Wade and Hanna .... ironically, both Wade and Hanna treated their big hurts - his big hurt was the love of his life, Hanna, freezing him out; and her big hurt was the love of her life giving away his 'charms' to a gin ginny and fathering a child out of wedlock - with stoicism, ego, and pride); some with noble Don Quixote attempts to right unrightable wrongs (Theron trying to make things right for Rafe - although Theron was also guilty of a whiny guilt syndrome); some not being able to forgive others human fraility (Hanna couldn't/wouldn't forgive Wade, and Theron (like mother like son) couldn't/wouldn't forgive either one of them); some with overwhelming generosity and sunny resignation of a dealt hand (Rafe - what a fabulous hero ... think Dad!), and some with blind violent rage at helplessness to protect that most precious to them (Libby's dad). The irony that both Libby's dad and Theron were unable to tolerate what they perceived to be injustice perpetrated against themselves, and how high was the cost of that intolerance. The passion and drama of youth, the resignation and cynicism of dreams unrealized, the largeness of spirit displayed through acceptance, and the destructive result of cold hate - pride, love, lust, ego, anger, narcissistic indignation ... it's all there.
See, it's like the viewer is in a laboratory, watching all of these people making their choices and dealing with the consequences of those choices, all the while thinking that they have no choice, when in fact they do. All of the reactions described above are choices each of them made. And the viewer can watch the action and think to himself "which is the best choice?" Which person do I want to be like? Wade? Hanna? Theron? Libby? Rafe? Libby's dad? What would be the best choice if I was she? If I was he? Can I learn this lesson through someone else's pain and apply the lesson to my own elephant?
And how tragic that Captain Honeycutt, in death calls for the very person he would not call 'son' in life. And how poignant that Hanna loudly proclaims Rafe just that - Wade Honeycutt's son - on his tombstone ... was it generosity reflected in her act (and was there perhaps a final small act of vengeance in it, too?)? And think of how the ones who had been denied the most in the beginning of the story were the ones who gained the most at the end of it.
It's a wonderful metaphor for LIFE - it's a wonderful metaphor for the court case of the Angelic Conflict - God and his angels watching us inferior creatures down here scurring around trying to navigate through chaos (much of it caused by ourselves) and being influenced and manipulated by Satan and his fallen angels - they so desperate to contruct utopia here on Earth so as to prove God wrong.
And on a visual level, I loved some of the scenes, like when Hanna is berating Wade in his study, talking about Theron having a mind of his own, and when she thinks to strike a blow by remarking "He has a mind of his own, Wade - I gave him that. He won't come running like one of your hunting dogs." But Wade boomerangs her thrust with that deadpan look and a snap of his fingers, bringing immediately to heel two of his hunting dogs. Both of them loving Theron, but both of them using him as a pawn in their titanic test of wills with each other.
It was glorious and painful human drama well told.
well ..... you asked!
Home from the Hill
I thought it was such a big, all encompassing story. For me, it was like watching a tense, low scoring baseball game - lots of contemplation, quiet drama under the surface, tension that you knew would erupt if you took your eyes off the field.
It was a study of how each person handled his or her personal misfortune (his/her charge of his/her wild boar). Each of them suffered from a big hurt, but each one handled his/her hurt differently. Some with stoicism (Wade and Hanna .... ironically, both Wade and Hanna treated their big hurts - his big hurt was the love of his life, Hanna, freezing him out; and her big hurt was the love of her life giving away his 'charms' to a gin ginny and fathering a child out of wedlock - with stoicism, ego, and pride); some with noble Don Quixote attempts to right unrightable wrongs (Theron trying to make things right for Rafe - although Theron was also guilty of a whiny guilt syndrome); some not being able to forgive others human fraility (Hanna couldn't/wouldn't forgive Wade, and Theron (like mother like son) couldn't/wouldn't forgive either one of them); some with overwhelming generosity and sunny resignation of a dealt hand (Rafe - what a fabulous hero ... think Dad!), and some with blind violent rage at helplessness to protect that most precious to them (Libby's dad). The irony that both Libby's dad and Theron were unable to tolerate what they perceived to be injustice perpetrated against themselves, and how high was the cost of that intolerance. The passion and drama of youth, the resignation and cynicism of dreams unrealized, the largeness of spirit displayed through acceptance, and the destructive result of cold hate - pride, love, lust, ego, anger, narcissistic indignation ... it's all there.
See, it's like the viewer is in a laboratory, watching all of these people making their choices and dealing with the consequences of those choices, all the while thinking that they have no choice, when in fact they do. All of the reactions described above are choices each of them made. And the viewer can watch the action and think to himself "which is the best choice?" Which person do I want to be like? Wade? Hanna? Theron? Libby? Rafe? Libby's dad? What would be the best choice if I was she? If I was he? Can I learn this lesson through someone else's pain and apply the lesson to my own elephant?
And how tragic that Captain Honeycutt, in death calls for the very person he would not call 'son' in life. And how poignant that Hanna loudly proclaims Rafe just that - Wade Honeycutt's son - on his tombstone ... was it generosity reflected in her act (and was there perhaps a final small act of vengeance in it, too?)? And think of how the ones who had been denied the most in the beginning of the story were the ones who gained the most at the end of it.
It's a wonderful metaphor for LIFE - it's a wonderful metaphor for the court case of the Angelic Conflict - God and his angels watching us inferior creatures down here scurring around trying to navigate through chaos (much of it caused by ourselves) and being influenced and manipulated by Satan and his fallen angels - they so desperate to contruct utopia here on Earth so as to prove God wrong.
And on a visual level, I loved some of the scenes, like when Hanna is berating Wade in his study, talking about Theron having a mind of his own, and when she thinks to strike a blow by remarking "He has a mind of his own, Wade - I gave him that. He won't come running like one of your hunting dogs." But Wade boomerangs her thrust with that deadpan look and a snap of his fingers, bringing immediately to heel two of his hunting dogs. Both of them loving Theron, but both of them using him as a pawn in their titanic test of wills with each other.
It was glorious and painful human drama well told.
well ..... you asked!
posted by Lawrence 3X at 10:37 PM
0 comments
