North and South A New DVD Favorite

I watched on Netflix the movie series "North and South."  No, this isn't the same drama that was about the Civil War.  This takes place in England and is a wonderful, wonderful movie.  There isn't any bad language, is a wonderful love story set in a dreary mill town with people who are very poor. 

This was such a wonderful movie that I bought it for my collection.   If you love Pride and Prejudice, you will love this movie.  For a full description of this movie go to this link. 

Billy: The Early Years of Billy Graham - A Movie Review

I just finished watching for the second time today the movie "Billy:  The Early years of Billy Graham.  If you are struggling in your faith, if you are discouraged, you need to watch this movie.  Robby Benson of all people directed this movie and did a fantastic job.

This movie centers around the life of Billy Graham during the 1930's and 1940's - through his college years and into his early years of ministry.  It goes into tremendous detail of how his best friend Charles Templeton went from being a powerful evangelist to becoming an Agnostic.

This movie follows Billy's faith and his own battles of doubts that ultimately leads him to becoming a great modern day evangelist.  It profiles his college years where he met and married his wife, Ruth Bell.

The acting is phenomenal (Lindsay Wagner, Jennifer O'Neill, Martin Landau) and the soundtrack is absolutely the best.  I ordered the soundtrack today from Amazon.  Those artists who contributed to the soundtrack are Brad Paisley, Brooks and Dunn, Michael W. Smith, Mac Powell, Alan Jackson, Melinda Doolittle and Roy Orbison to name a few.

This is obviously not a Christmas movie BUT it has uplifted me more than any Christmas movie that I could watch.  Billy Graham struggled in his faith and belief and became a profound evangelist.  I have no excuse but to move past any spiritual plateaus that I have hit and become a better Christian. 

I rented this from Netflix and will put it on my must buy list for my home d.v.d. collection.

Christmas Movie Previews

I am a sucker for a good Christmas movie.  I love the traditional movies such as "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life," but I also love some of the newer movies that have come out in the past 10 years or so.

Today while I was working in my kitchen, I decided to pull out some Christmas movies and start to watch a few.  I have a t.v. and dvd player in my kitchen and when I am home alone, I love to put in a movie while I am working.

Here are three movies that are becoming classics in our household.  I like all of them equally well so they are not listed in order of importance. 

1.  One Magic Christmas.  As I was watching this movie today, I realized how appropriate it fits into this holiday season with the economy being what it is.  It centers around a family in which the husband has lost his job and his wife is working as a checker in a grocery store.  The husband still loves Christmas and is optimistic about the future but his wife is more practical and gets upset as her husband wants to spend some money in savings on Christmas presents for the kids and also in starting a bicycle repair business.  There is obviously more to the story including a Christmas Angel and Santa Claus.  In the middle of their financial troubles, the father and children help bring Christmas to a single mom and her daughter.  In the end circumstances happen in which a Christmas Angel and Santa Claus work together to bring the Christmas spirit back to the wife.  Mary Steenburgen stars in this movie and she does a great job.  No, it is not a "Christian" movie in that there isn't much talk of Jesus, but you do see Christian morals and values in this movie.  You will love it.

2.  The Man who Saved Christmas.  This movie takes place right before World War I and it is based on a true story.  Jason Alexander stars as A.C. Gilbert who invented the toy erector set.  He runs a toy factory with his brother and wife and they are very compassionate employers by giving generous wages to their employees and bonuses.  Mr. Gilbert wants to bring joy and happiness to children and others.  When World War I breaks out he is forced by the U.S. Government to turn his factory into a munitions factory.  This movie shows a wonderful loving family interacting with each other.  Although at times, his father, played by Ed Asner can be a little overbearing.  In the end A.C. Gilbert rediscovers his holiday spirit and convinces the U.S. Congress that what America really needs is a little Christmas joy.

3.  Silent Night.  This movie takes place during World War II during the Battle of the Bulge and is based on a true story also.  A German mother and her son take refuge in a cabin that ends up being in the battle.  Linda Hamilton stars as Elizabeth, the mother.  Soldiers from America and Germany end up taking refuge in the cabin on Christmas Eve and Elizabeth insists that her cabin is a neutral zone.  They take what rations they have and put them together for a Christmas Eve meal.  But, it is not without extreme danger in which the soldiers do not trust each other and the battle ends up coming to them.  Bitter enemies are forced to confront the war face-to-face.  At one point the soldiers sit at the table and remember better times but they are constantly on edge as they don't trust each other.  The mother, Elizabeth, is brave and is a hero in the end, when there is sudden danger.

I have one movie that was given to me this past year and I have yet to watch it.  I don't like to watch Christmas movies until now so I put it on the shelf until this week.   This movie is called "A Christmas Memory" and it stars Patty Duke.  I believe it takes place in the 1930's or early 1940's.  I'll probably get around to watching it on Thanksgiving and will have to tell you if I like it.

There are other movies that I enjoy such as "Christmas Child", along with the "The Christmas Box" and "Timepiece."  Are there any special Christmas movies that have become your family's favorites?

A Movie Review - Hidden Places

I highly recommend this Hallmark movie.  It is absolutely a wonderful, family friendly, good moral, great values movie.  There - so you must rent it from Netflix.  It is set in the 1930's depression.  Eliza is widowed with two children and lives on an orange farm owned by her father in law.  Her father in law's sister lives on the farm also.  The father in law dies suddenly and the bank calls the loan.  In order to pay off the loan, they have to pick the orange crop by themselves.  Gabe appears one day, riding the rails, looking for work.   I'll leave it at that except for one more thing, Gabe prays in the movie as does the Aunt.  When the going gets tough, they turn to prayer.

It is a pull together type of family movie.  I loved it so much that after renting it a couple of times from Netflix I bought it (used - less than $5.00 of course) to add to my home library. 

"The Farmer's Wife" a dvd review

Back in 1998 David Sutherland produced a series on PBS entitled "The Farmer's Wife."  I remember watching the three episodes over three evenings.  I have never lived on a farm.  My Uncles had small farms that they maintained along with careers in teaching.  We live in Iowa where there are a lot of farm operations.  When the weather has been bad, such as now with the flooding, you can almost feel the tension in the air of farmers that are trying to get into their fields to spray the soy beans or watching their fields turn into small lakes. 

I could never do it.  Perhaps I don't have enough faith or enough resilience.  I admire farm wives as they carry the burden of the farm operation along with their husband.  They help on the farm, raise the children, keep chickens and a garden for their family's use and also to sell eggs and produce at the farmer's market.  I think it is a life you either love or hate.

So, there I sat for three nights watching a farm family in Lawrence, Nebraska and seeing them fight to save their farm and also their marriage.  David Sutherland followed Darrel and Juanita Buschkoetter for over three years on location at their farm.  The cameras caught everything. 

It showed a desperate struggle to save their farm operation.  It also showed the stress and how it affected their marriage.  Juanita went from being a passive farm wife to a wife that was fully involved in the farm operation down to understanding everything about FHA and all the finances of the farm.  Darrel at one point was working in a factory and coming home to farm.  One time it showed him driving a truck during the day and coming home at night to farm.

Juanita cleaned houses.  She was being paid by the hour and had to rush to clean the houses in order to get home when their 3 daughters got off the bus frrom school.  Juanita was determined to be a good mother and wife.  She did everything she could to create a happy home for her children.  One scene showed how she had created a Halloween party for her kids and neighbor children with only $5.  They had been wanting a Halloween party for years and she finally decided she wanted to do it for her children.  She was quite inventive.

The hardest part for me was to see how little they had.  Having little resources, having a husband with an anger management problem due to the stress and not having hope, was hard for me to watch at times.  Then imagine that this doesn't go on for just a week, but for years.  Add to that the lack of family support from Juanita's side of the family.

The expressions on Darrel and Juanita's faces during some of the interviews speak to their plight.  They have very little or no money for food at one point.  Juanita talks about not having meat and after awhile it gets to you.  Juanita does get support from a local group that helps farmers that are struggling.  She receives some food from a local food pantry and then they do end up going on food stamps.  Juanita does it for her kids.  They need nutritious food.  She talks with a crisis counselor about not having enough money to take her daughter to the doctor for an ear infection.  Juanita also attends a clinic with other farm families and shares her story about the farm and the long road they have to get out of debt.  As the camera pans the room you see in the faces of the farmers' and their wives that if they had a chance, they would probably be telling the same story.

Juanita sees education as a future for their family so she enrolls in a community college.  Towards the end of the series you see her graduating from the community college wearing a dress she borrowed from a friend.  She looks amazing. 

Every month and year they put their hopes on future crops, future sale of farm animals but the weather was against them.  At one point Darrell makes a powerful statement, "If you have never had money problems, then you don't know what it is like." 

In my marriage we have had dry periods when money was tight, but never to the level of the Buschkoetters.  Actually, their story is not unique.  I remember the farm crisis of the early 1980's and many farmers went bankrupt and had to abandon farming.  The Buschkoetters were doing everything they could to save their family farm.

Towards the end of the series their life is getting better.  However due to what they had been through, they were cautiously optimistic. 
Why do I recommend this dvd series?  It shows a family going through a crisis.  It is honest in its telling of the entire story.  Nothing is hidden.  You need to watch it if only to see what it is like to live on a farm and see the stresses that farm families endure.

I bought the dvd series about 5 years ago when I saw it on sale.  I hadn't watched it in about a year but with my recent conviction to get back on track in my finances, I pulled it out.  I've been watching a little bit every day. Sometimes I need to see a story of a struggling family to make me appreciate what I do have.  I don't have to worry about not being able to afford a doctor's visit or not being able to afford meat, but I do need to be more cognizant of what resources I do have. I need to respect those resources and value them enough not to waste them.

The dvd series is a 3 dvd set and is available on Netflix.