indessed roscivs

The other day I watched Dr. Zhivago for the first time (the day after watching “V for Vendetta”—thus the second revolution movie in two days.) And now I have that cheesy merry-go-round music permanently stuck in my head, and every time it plays, it’s accompanied by visions of daffodil fields forever.

It’s fascinating to think that, for someone who grew up in that era, that tune is a powerful romantic melody, and whenever they hear its strains at some carnival or the like, they think back to the haunting motifs of the classic movie. Whereas I, who heard the melodic phrase thousands of times in hundreds of cliche locations, had no such mental connections. The first time the passage played in Dr. Zhivago, I thought to myself, “What on earth is this cheesy music doing in such a serious movie!?” And at every poignant, heart-wrenching scene when that balalaika orchestra would begin to play, I would think, “Agh, no! Not the music! Stop the music!!” as images of colorful carousel horses moving up and down began to fill my head. Such is the power of music, I guess.

The two revolution-oriented pieces made me contemplate on the possibility, however faint, of a revolution happening here during my lifetime. And, as Dr. Zhivago drove home (and as V for Vendetta made me wonder about despite its best efforts), revolutions rarely go as they were intended. (We see this sort of thing today in places like Iraq where the “revolution” was externally driven, for example.) And yet there are times, I fear, when peaceful changes are not possible. Fortunately we have not yet reached such a state in this country, but will my children or grandchildren live to see it?

The freedom of speech seemed to be the biggest one to go in both movies—there came a point where criticizing leaders or the system was at best looked down upon, and at worst criminalized. If we ever get to the point in this country where criticizing our leaders or the system is socially unacceptable, I fear that that day will signify the end—and the beginning—of an era.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.