This weekend the Normal Theater was showing "The General" with Buster Keaton and "City Lights" with Charlie Chaplin. I had to read the text and "interpret" the action for Joseph, but both kids had a tremendous time. We have been taking the kids to silent movies whenever we could since Sam was 2, but apparently HE HAS NO MEMORY OF THIS. Danny and I fondly recall Sam laughing his ass off at Laurel and Hardy selling Christmas trees and hiding from Marley's ghost in "Scrooge" but Sam has forgotten it all. Probably Joseph will forget all about the movies that we saw this weekend, but maybe one day, he will be trying to act all cool and retro/alternative with his new tweenaged goth girlfriend by taking her to see "City Lights," and he will have an inexplicable feeling of deja vu which he will be too self-consciously nonchalant to discuss.
Sam's favorite part of The General was when Johnnie loses his sword, and it skewers an enemy sniper. (This is the only graphic violence in the movie.) Buster Keaton was really the Jackie Chan of his day--the stunts are both inventive and relentless.
Joseph's favorite scene was when the Tramp surreptitiously watches the lovely blind flower girl and she dumps a pot of water on him. Both kids were laughing out loud throughout the movie.
The anticipated yet somehow unexpected ending when the not-blind-anymore girl discovers that her mysterious suitor/savior was the Tramp just kills me.
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