Saturday, December 03, 2005

Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'

I'm pretty sure I know the movie that spends most of the time in George Bush's DVD player: "High Noon." I sat watching it this morning, captivated not just by the timeless archetypes of it all, but by the way I am sure everything you need to imagine what goes on in George's pointy little head is in there too. Marshal Will Kane, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.
Will: Don't shove me Harv. I'm tired of being shoved.
Nobody shoves GW, either. He's the marshal 'round here, and he's not about to let Frank Miller come back to town and mess up the town he's worked so hard to make great again.
The cowards back in town don't want to back the man who once saved the town. They're all afraid of what might happen if Frank Miller (read 'al Qaida') gets mad at them. Even his own deputy (are you listening, John Murtha?) is ready to cut and run.
Martin: You risk your skin catching killers and the juries turn them loose so they can come back and shoot at you again. If you're honest you're poor your whole life and in the end you wind up dying all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothing. For a tin star.
Will: I've got to, that's the whole thing.
The marshal goes to his mentor, a father figure (George the First) for advice. Even his own dad says he should think before facing down Frank Miller.
Martin: People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care. They just don't care.
Yup, I reckon so. The best part is trying to imagine Hilary Clinton as Amy (Grace Kelly - or should that be the other way around?)
Amy: I've heard guns. My father and my brother were killed by guns. They were on the right side but that didn't help them any when the shooting started. My brother was nineteen. I watched him die. That's when I became a Quaker. I don't care who's right or who's wrong. There's got to be some better way for people to live. Will knows how I feel about it.
Of course, in the end, Marshal Will Kane shoots Frank Miller dead, and he climbs into the wagon carrying him, his new wife and his legacy off into history. Still, when it was all over, I wasn't thinking about any of Will's tight lipped assurances. I remembered the words of the parson in the church:
Dr. Mahin, Minister: The commandments say 'Thou shalt not kill,' but we hire men to go out and do it for us. The right and the wrong seem pretty clear here. But if you're asking me to tell my people to go out and kill and maybe get themselves killed, I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry.

No comments: