In the Valley of Elah
Our newest episode is up: In the Valley of Elah. This is a character-driven, all but forgotten drama starring Tommy Lee Jones and a slew of other top-notch actors. In our podcast, Mark Botts and I discuss three things about Jones’s character. First, his flaws. Does having a flawed character in a movie, or any art form, make that movie more believable? We discuss whether this movie would have been as good had spick-and-span John Wayne played the father.
We also discuss how ideas of masculinity have changed over the years, and wonder what decade Tommy Lee Jones as the father is drawing his principles from. (Grammar police: I know that’s a bad sentence.) Have masculine mores changed over the years?
Finally, we discuss the title of the film, from where it comes, and whether or not the movie would have been more successful had it been called something else. Everyone in the movie has fears, even the child David, who is lucky enough to have Tommy Lee Jones himself tell the boy a bedtime story.
Enjoy friends. Listen here: http://bit.ly/PVlsUL
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