What makes a good movie? Well, in my opinion, if the movie is based upon a book, faithfulness to the book is crucial. The book is the canon, and where the movie portrays something different, that just isn’t right because it didn’t happen that way.

It is interesting to listen to movie people talk. This evening, the kids were watching some of the extra material on the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings, and in one of the clips Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) explained that a movie could stray from the original source as long as it stayed true to the idea of the book. In the clip, they then talked about how their deviations from the book made the story into a better film. (Overall, they did do a good job with the Lord of the Rings, but there are some major deviations that just aren’t called for. I still find it annoying that they eliminated Glorfindle and instead had Arwen take Frodo on the wild flight to the ford. I’m sorry, but she wasn’t there and didn’t save Frodo from the black riders.)

Last night Mrs. Knilram watched an old Pride and Prejudice from 1940, staring Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy. In that adaptation, they strayed quite a bit from the source text. I didn’t watch it, but walked through the room a few times while it was on. I was shocked to see at at the end of the movie, Darcy explains to Elizabeth how Lady Catherine’s confrontation with Elizabeth was all contrived by Darcy to find out if Elizabeth loved him or his money. He then tells her how much Lady Catherine likes her because of her spunk. Everyone except Elizabeth treats her with deference and she likes people who stand up to her.

Please. That just isn’t the way it really happened, and it is wrong to pretend otherwise. Lady Catherine doesn’t like Elizabeth, and she is not pleased with her impertinence. You can omit in the movie that she had plans for Darcy to marry her own daughter, but you can’t ignore her feelings toward Elizabeth’s usurpation. From what I saw, I can’t recommend this adaption of the Pride and Prejudice story.

However, my spies report that the new Pride and Prejudice is very well done, and the worst offense is that Darcy proposes to Elizabeth when they are both going for a walk in their pajamas.

At least they decided not to have Darcy go swimming on returning to Pemberley and bump into Elizabeth while he is dressed in his underwear like they did in the A&E Pride and Prejudice.

Really, why aren’t movie people satisfied with recording what actually happened instead of making up things? Stick to the canon!

I’ve heard reports from members of the Knilram clan who went to the new Pride and Prejudice movie adaptation. They tell me that Keira Knightley portrayed Elizabeth Bennet quite well. Now it seems she is getting critical acclaim for the roll as an actress.

Headline Telegraph: Knightley joins the pride of Britain on Golden Globe list

Keira Knightley was “shell shocked” yesterday after being nominated for a best actress award at the 2006 Golden Globes.

The star, 20, was short-listed for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, a performance predicted to secure nominations for Hollywood’s highest accolades….

“This is completely unexpected,” Miss Knightley said. “I think champagne is going to be had.”

Well, she is an actress and not an extemporaneous speaker, so she doesn’t know that passive sentences are to be avoided.

I’d like to try this program, but it’s so complicated I’m afraid I’d forget what I was supposed to be doing before the end of the fortnight.

Headline Live Science: 14-Day Plan Improves Memory

Via Digg.

At the center of the Union Trust Building in Pittsburgh is a rotunda rising through the floors to a stained glass window domed ceiling.

This picture is taken from the top, looking down to the ground floor.

I enjoy walking through this building and looking up at at the concentric rings of balconies ending in the stained glass ceiling.

In this picture, there are several art students sitting on the floor drawing the building as part of an art class.

Looking down the ornate stairs in the Union Trust Building in Pittsburgh.

Q.62. What are the reasons for the fourth commandment?

A. The reasons for the fourth commandment are these: God allows us six days of the week to take care of our own affairs; He claims the seventh day as His own; He set the example; and He blesses the Sabbath.

This week’s catechism question and answer are straight forward. As we close the discussion of the fourth commandment, the catechism has us consider the reasons for the commandment. God is gracious to us. He could simply command us to keep the Sabbath with no reason attached. But in the commandment, we see that God also gave us reasons why He has commanded that we observe the Sabbath day.

Genesis 20:8-11

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⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

In 1917, the Union Arcade opened in downtown Pittsburgh. It was a multi-floored shopping center with office space in the upper floors. It is now known as the Union Trust building, and only the ground floor has public shopping as the rest of the building is office space.

There are many interesting features to this building. This picture is from the second floor, looking over the balcony at the entrance way with its stained glass windows, mosaic tiled ceiling, and hanging chandelier.

What Steeler fans don’t want to see this coming Sunday: Touchdown Chicago.

AP Photo:

Caption: “In this undated photo released by the Bronx Zoo, Betty, a grizzly bear, stands in its enclosure in the snowfall that blanketed New York on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2005. (AP Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society, Julie Larsen Maher)”

I was in the store the other day, and surprisingly, they were playing Christmas music already. Here it is still 18 days to go until Christmas, and they already have the decorations up in the stores, and they are playing Christmas music. It seems that every year, they start a little earlier.

As I listened to the music, I realized that some of the Christmas songs are rather dreadful. One of the sappiest ones that has been inflicted upon me is Amy Grant’s Grown-up Christmas List, in which dearest Amy wishes all wars would end, there would be no more famine, husbands and wives wouldn’t divorce, and cheesecake wouldn’t be fattening. Perhaps she also wishes for unbreakable nail polish in one of the verses. I don’t recall all her grown-up wishes.

Well, in the spirit of having a grown-up Christmas list, I’ve got one wish for Christmas that has to rank near the top. Since dearest Amy already has taken care of thermonuclear war and the Israeli Palestinian problem, I don’t have to put that on my list. Instead, what tops my list is: No more 12 Days of Christmas parody songs. Please. You know the ones I mean. “On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: four calling cards, three french toasts, two turtle necks, and a beer in a tree.” There are far too many of these parody songs. The original is bad enough. Please, please, please. No more.

That’s all I want for Christmas.

The War of the Worlds wasn’t so farfetched after all.

Headline AP: Rovers Find Evidence Mars Was Once Hostile