Preparing dinner, watching "Loney Are the Brave" & complaining about foreign birds

I’ve been busy the past few days, preparing for a dinner of 40 some folks last night. It turned out great and everyone had a good time. I just wish I’d taken the time to buy the beer. We had Leinenkugel's, which ar from an old brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. They generally makes a pretty good beer, and their wheat beers were good, but I could do without the Summer Shandy (think "wine cooler" with beer and lemonade) and Berry Weiss (think Grape Nehi). Either one of those drinks are enough to make me want to take the temperance pledge.

I began on Thursday night, preparing the meat, chopping vegetables and making a half-dozen banana puddings. Turning on the TV while doing this work, I was pleasantly surprised to discover TMC playing “Lonely Are the Brave.” This 1962 black and white film is one of my favorite and is based upon one of Edward Abbey’s early novels, The Brave Cowboy. The film had an all star cast. Kirk Douglas plays Jack Burns, a cowpoke who just can’t fit into the modern world. He comes down off the mountain to check in on Paul, a friend sent to prison for helping illegal Mexican aliens get work (Interesting topic for the time!). Jack gets in a bar fight and ends up in jail, where he’s reunited with Paul and tries to talk him into breaking out with him. His friend refuses and Jack leaves, heading to the mountains on his house. The movie then involves a modern chase scene that involves jeeps and a helicopter with Jack and his horse (he’d left he horse with his friend’s wife). Jack gets away, makes it over the ridge of the mountain and tells his horse that he’s got a pine carpeted trail all the way to Old Mexico. But then, with one last highway to cross (in the pouring rain), Jack and his horse are hit by a tractor/trailer hauling privies to Mexico, driven by Carroll O’Conner.

The movie has great symbolism. At the beginning of the movie, Jack comes into civilization by crossing a busy highway and having trouble with his horse being spooked by the cars. The movie ends in the same manner, with him crossing a highway (only he doesn’t make it). Jack cuts barbwire and complains about it. He tries to avoid the bar fight and even in his escape, refuses to do more harm than necessary to protect himself. He shoots the back rooter of the helicopter to “let down easy,” and when he encounters a cruel deputy who had knocked a tooth out of his mouth when he was in prison, he returns the favor and throws his weapons off a cliff, but doesn’t kill him even though he has a chance. He considers himself a true individual. Paul won’t break jail for he doesn’t want another five years tacked on to his two year term. Paul has a wife and son to consider. Jack, without a family or any other ties, is free. The Sherriff, played by Walter Matthau, seems to sympathize with Jack’s plight, but others like the cruel deputy played by George Kennedy are willing to do anything to get the “cowboy.” What a great movie to watch while slicing bananas and peeling potatoes.

Speaking of illegal aliens and at the risk of sounding like Lou Dobbs, I’m in my own fight against aliens. Those “blankety-blanket” European Starlings are back. They’re ugly and chase away my favorite birds from the feeders.