Movie-ing Thanksgiving

It’s our monthly “Free Week” here at 4F,1H. Next week’s topic is “Thanksgiving”, since we will celebrate it on this coming Thursday. However, since I am The Friday Fox, the topic then will be  moot.

Few will be visiting here for my post next week,( from my experience), since many folks have family around, leftovers to deal with, places to clean and, yes, SALES to attend; I understand, really. Almost everyone will be getting into the Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year or other holiday modes; Thanksgiving season doesn’t last like Christmas does.
Thanksgiving, as we celebrate it in the United States and Canada,(where they celebrate it a month or so earlier, in the beginning of October), is as a religious or secular a holiday as anyone cares to make it.

Many people take the opportunity to attend services and formally thank God for their blessings, yet more people seem to simply have it in their hearts while they gather family and food, and probably just as many only use it only as a reason to join with family and friends for a good time and a feast…or one friend and a pizza, (even if that friend is their dog or cat.) Anyone of any creed can enjoy Thanksgiving.

But I know of few movies that center around this fun holiday.

I am quite a movie buff, in fact, if you see “MovieWatcher” logged in on Xbox Live, that is me. The only movies that I can think of that are truly about Thanksgiving are “What’s Cooking?”, “The Thanksgiving Visitor” and “Avalon”.
“What’s Cooking?” is a mixed bag, a fair movie with adult themes that involve four families in Los Angeles: An African-American family, a Jewish family, a Hispanic family and a Vietnamese-American family. It had great promise, but it could have been a lot better.

“The Thanksgiving Visitor” is based on a Truman Capote short story, a memoir of his childhood. If you only know the parody of himself that he became before he died, or that he is the author of ‘In Cold Blood”, you need to know that Capote could really write, and the movie is a good one.

But “Avalon” is by far my favorite. It is centered around many years of Thanksgivings in the lives of a Jewish immigrant family and their American children and grandchildren. Their growth in business, their first homes in the inner city to moves to the suburbs, and how one act, one simple act, can mean everything to one person and cause a fissure in a heart and a family. It may make others have a little more patience and realize that a few moments can mean the world to another, or break another’s heart, depending on the acts of those around them.

(It can also remind a person that insurance is not the place to cut in a budget!)

The members’ contradicting each other and repeated memories through the years are so warmly typical of any family where generations often gather around a table that I certainly hope some of today’s children experience such scenes. I fear that most do not. It’s such a loss.

So, if you just need to relax and finish the leftovers, you can see Avalon online to rent from Amazon, or perhaps from other venues online, a local video store or your library.

Or come to my house. I haven’t run it lately…and I will have a lot of leftovers!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.