When writers to movies...

Today I ventured out to watch the deeply disturbing film based on the book, The Kite Runner, in the absurd venue of "Century 20 Cinema" in the equally disturbing Daly City, the town captured in the classic folk song, "Ticky Tacky," by the late Malvina Reynolds.

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

The Kite Runner, is, of course, a story spawned in Fremont, across the bay from Daly City, where so many Afghan immigrants have settled. And, as such, it raised for me so many memories from my own time in Afghanistan, which actually overlapped with the first year portrayed in this film, 1971, before the Russians, before the Taliban, a time when Afghans experienced a rare peaceful interlude between centuries of violence.

***

Back home, afterwards, I discovered that the even more disturbing documentary, Grizzly Man, was playing on TV's usually reliable "Animal Planet." I've seen this twice before, and the insanity it portrays of a fellow American still cuts me to my core.

Why are we, the most privileged people on earth, given to so many scary excesses and strange insanities? Could it be, perhaps, that no humans deserve to be so safely rich? Are we perhaps collectively in a state of denial as to just how unsustainable our American presence has become in this, a desperately poor, hungry, and vulnerable world?

I hope not. But, nothing in these two films helps to dismiss those concerns.

-30-