Now, I’ve completed the first section in the book which is the first four chapters.  Included in that section, is the death of Johnny’s older brother Jack, an event that affected him until he died in 2003.  Surprise, surprise, the movie portrayed it differently… and unfairly, I believe, to Cash’s father.

In the movie, his father is shown from the start as almost explosive and maybe even hints at abusive.  In the book so far, Johnny talks about his father as a hard working man providing for his large family during the Depression, he’s not alluded to a hint of an overly rough man.  Now, if that comes up later, I don’t know about it yet.  In the movie, Johnny and Jack head down the road, both with fishing poles, while Jack imitates Bugs Bunny.  Johnny is then waiting while Jack saws up some wood with a large table saw.  The wood gets stuck, the saw starts jumping around and Johnny runs over and turns off the saw, saving Jack’s fingers and maybe his life.  Jack then sends Johnny ahead to go fishing, saying he’s got to finish up.  Johnny is then seen fishing but gets up and starts walking down the road.  A car driven by an unidentified person comes up and his father, in the passenger side is clearly upset and asks him, “where you been?” several times, then tells him to throw down the pole and get in the car, and drags him in.  Johnny is taken to the hospital where he sees bloody clothing in a basin, he is shoved in to Jack’s room ahead of his father and you see Jack laying there dying.  There’s some dialog and it’s clear that he’s been sliced along the middle.  The young Johnny is yelling, “do something” while everyone else is quiet, and Jack dies.  In the next scene, the family is home, it looks as if it’s funeral day, Johnny is listening to the radio and his father calls him “nothing” and yells at his wife that the wrong son died, he even raises his hand to his wife as if he will strike her should she come closer.  After that scene, it appears as if his father doesn’t care if the now-older Johnny heads off to the Army or not.

Now, of course, the book is different.  It’s true that Jack died from wounds received in a table saw accident.  However, he states that that day, Jack had a bad feeling that something was going to happen and he and their mother encouraged him to stay home from work or to go fishing instead with Johnny.  Jack said while he felt that something was going to happen, the family needed the money and he went anyway.  He and Johnny walked to the intersection of the roads where they would split.  Johnny states that Jack was indeed imitating Bugs Bunny, but that it was very much out of character for him to do that and that he just kept doing it even after they parted ways, as he went down the road, just “What’s up Doc?” over and over.  Johnny sat to fish for a while but couldn’t really bring himself to, he got up and started home.  His father told him to toss down the pole and that they had to go home, he asked what was the matter and his father said, “Jack’s been hurt really bad.”  They went home and he took Johnny into the smoke house and laid out Jack’s bloody clothes to show him how he had been cut.  He said that he was afraid they were going to lose Jack, and then he cried.  When he recovered, he told Johnny that he’d come to find him and that they needed to go to the hospital.

Johnny then proceeds to tell how Jack was in the hospital for four days before he died.  The doctor didn’t hold much hope for recovery, saying that he’d had to remove too much of his insides during the surgery.  But the family still had time to gather everyone together and be with Jack before he died and that there was even a time where they really hoped he’d be fine because Jack was very animated and talking and laughing happily.  But when the day came, Jacked talked crazy for a little bit, but then was lucid again, and then finally talked of seeing heaven before passing away.

Never once during the account has Johnny talked of his father being violent towards him or any other family member, blaming him for Jack’s death, or wishing that Johnny had died instead of Jack.  In fact, he talks about returning to the fields very soon thereafter and his mother breaking down for a few minutes and that “my poor daddy came up to her and took her arm…”

Those beginning scenes really set the tone of the whole movie and instill an intense dislike, if not hatred, for Johnny’s father in the average viewer.  So I have to ask, are we all so much about entertainment that movies about real people and events have to be dramatized so much as to ruin the reputation of an innocent person who’s no longer around to defend himself?  Ah, all in the name of entertainment.  There are plenty of ways that those scenes could have been shortened for time and dramatized without changing the story or insulting someone.  Of course, everyone perceives things differently, but even so, the movie is supposed to be based on that one book…

Of course, there’s also the parts to concern his first wife Vivian.  I heard that her family and daughters were not happy with how she was portrayed in the movie and it really does portray her as very impatient, uncaring, and selfish, amongst other things.  I’m curious to get to the parts concerning her in the book.

It just always really bothers me when movies don’t follow books and the changes are nonsensical.  Not just in non-fiction, but novels, too.  I read that Dean Koontz book Intensity, which was really good, and later happened to catch the movie.  I remember there was one change they would have had to make due to censorship issues with a made-for-tv movie, so that was ok (it was very minor), but they even went so far as to create characters that were just completely unnecessary and change the ending quite a bit as wellas other changes that made no sense whatsoever and really took what could have been a very good movie and flushed it down the toilet.

My sister-in-law and I went first to dinner which actually turned out to be hilarious. We went to this place I had a pretty good coupon for, neither of us had heard of it before. Turned out to be this total guy place, like Hooters, only the waitresses dress even more skimpy. So here we are, two females in there, and she is like, “uhhh those people are staring at us…” But the food was good and it gave us jokes to last through the rest of the evening.

From there to the movie and we actually went in and watched it without popcorn or soda! Gasp! She cracks me up because she can eat like a bird at other times but can really put it away during the movies. I give her crap about it but we were both so stuffed this time, we actually managed some willpower. Good thing, too, cause it cost the two of us $25 total to see the movie…

The Green Hornet was my second movie in 3D and we loved it. I don’t know what the reviews said and we have friends that said they really didn’t like it at all, but my sil and I really liked it. Of course it’s not realistic and of course it’s goofy, but hey, it’s a night out to relax. I did really enjoy the humor, though, you know – the gas gun we’ve all seen in the commercials? That was great. And so funny to see/hear super heroes saying “we don’t know what we’re doing!” and acting like real people might do if suddenly thrown into extraordinary situations. Not like Batman, he’s always got it together. I loved how they worked Bruce Lee in, too, the original TV Kato. (At least original as far as I know!) I’d like to see some of the old series, actually. I heard a guy on the radio last week saying SyFy had a marathon of it but, of course, on one told me until the day after…

Well, we had fun. The next one will probably be the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie though I’ve promised Sarah she can go to that one and will probably take Elijah and some brothers, too.

Since it was all in the area to which we wanted to go, we stayed in our town for lunch. After lunch, we came back to my house and checked the radar maps and in between that and what the radio was saying, we were told the storms would be gone and into Illinois in the next couple of minutes. We started north and were halfway back to our sister-in-law’s house when it suddenly got dark and started pouring. Had no choice but to turn back around and go back to my in-laws.

Had to stop and get fuel though and was getting back in the Jeep when a guy driving a tall commercial van using the pump across me suddenly asked if we were going north. I said we had been but turned around and came back. He laughed and said good, ’cause it’s really bad up there. Talked a few minutes more then headed west from there to my in-laws where we stayed a few hours until the skies just miraculously cleared and the sun came out. Lots of damage all over, though it really doesn’t seem to have affected our immediate area at all.

The three of us headed north again (sister-in-law and her sister had evening plans) and the three of us glasses-wearing-peoples saw Narnia in 3D.

We only saw it in 3D because that is all they are showing it in at that theater. Could have gotten it normal if I’d wanted to drive further. I was expecting the epic fail of the Monsters vs Aliens commercial during the Super Bowl in… what… 2009? But it was awesome. Even with glasses, the 3D glasses went right in front of them. The hardest part was keeping them on, they just wanted to slide off the whole time. They sure have improved 3D movies since the 50′s ROFL.

We loved it and even E paid attention to almost the whole movie, he did pretty good, just got bored in some slower spots. I just really enjoyed it, I think they’ve done a great job on all 3 of the movies they’ve made in the past few years. Can’t wait to see what will come next.

The only thing – and I am going to have to talk to the ophthalmologist about this, but I wonder if E could even see 3D at all, even with the glasses. Because his left eye is so bad and sees 20/400 he has no depth perception to begin with. And apparently the glasses aren’t just a fix all. They are just trying to get that eye to wake up and start working, stop being lazy. So I think that he doesn’t really see much difference when he is wearing the glasses and when he is not. In part, because he never seems to care one way or another and because every day – e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y – I have to remind him to put them on, it’s like he doesn’t notice he’s not put them on yet. Me, I KNOW, cause my vision is so bad without. But his right eye compensates so well. So if the doctor thinks he doesn’t see 3D it’s really a waste of money to take him since they charge you extra. I’ll be asking when we go in later this month, it’s not like we do this a lot or anything, but I am really curious.

This morning though, after getting out of the shower I know I for sure felt the baby moving and I saw my stomach jumping around. So that’s very reassuring, too! I’ve felt it before today but wasn’t sure if that’s what it was, it’s been so long since I was pregnant with Elijah that I forgot what it felt like, I guess. And today since then, I’ve felt it, again.

In other news, a bird got into the house tonight. A friend brought some food over and as she was coming in, the bird who lives on top of our porch light took that opportunity to come on in, too. So we’re all squealing and such and Elijah is freaking out and the dog is like “ooooh lemme at em!” The bird ended up upstairs and my friend had to leave but Sarah was in pursuit and finally caught him with the net in the dark in my closet. Cute little red finch, very pretty bird. I carried him outside under the net, perched on Steve’s sweatshirt, and he eventually flew over to the garage. I hated returning him to the sub zero temperatures out there but I have nowhere to put him in here!!

And now we three sit here finishing up Horton Hears a Who and, yah, man, what’s the kangaroo’s problem? lol

Then to the movie. The one we really wanted to go see together was The Other Boleyn Girl but that’s neither in mainstream theaters anymore (at least here) nor in the cheaper “expired” movies theater. So C picked Made of Honor because apparently, she loves Patrick Dempsey. Seeing the commercials for this movie, it’s not necessarily one I’d have wanted to see, but I rather enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun. Both of us decided it was predictable, but still pretty good.

From there, home, because, yes, we’re old and have to get to bed early. :P That and I had to get up at 6 this morning. But it was really nice having a night out and away even if it was “just” dinner and a movie. We’re watching that cheaper theater, hoping The Other Boleyn Girl will show up there soon.