I just finished watching "Elmer Gantry" on Buffalo PBS.

[IntravenousDemilo]

You know, I'd forgotten how much I like this movie. Since I last saw it, it's become even more timely than when it was first released, in its treatment of evangelical charlatans much like the same ones who have hijacked American society over the last few years. It's scary that there hasn't been much progress since Burt Lancaster delivered his amazing, Oscar-winning performance.

[enigmatic]

1. That's another great film

Lancaster was great, wasn't he? I just watched him in "The Swimmer" the other night; that's a very interesting film..

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. "Interesting" is a good word.

It's a little deep for me (pun intended). I guess it's supposed to be an allegory for something...?

[enigmatic]

3. Man's inhumanity to man, mostly

w/ alot of pathos added. too. I haven't read the John Updike story it's based n, and I need to...

[idgiehkt]

4. Sinclair Lewis

read it years ago but don't remember a whole lot about that one. thanks for jogging my memory.

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. There's a nice inside joke in the movie, where some notable atheists are mentioned.

Sinclair Lewis was on that list. :)

When I was in my early 20s, back in 1981, I took a long (52-hour) bus trip from Regina, Saskatchewan to Houston. I took a lot of books along with me, and one of them was Main Street. I just finished the last page of this magnificent novel (which has NEVER been made into a movie!) just as the Trailways bus pulled into Sauk Center, Minnesota for a 2:30 a.m. rest stop at the Sinclair Lewis Coffee Shop. "Gopher Prairie" was a thinly disguised Sauk Center. The people who lived there hated Lewis when he was alive, but that hasn't stopped later generations from cashing in on the only famous person ever to come from there.