We watched a new-to-me movie last night: Road to Perdition. I don't know how I missed it when it came out a few years ago. It features Tom Hanks, who is always superb, and Paul Newman in his last film role, as well as an absorbing storyline. The movie takes place in 1931, in downstate Illinois and in Chicago. It's a well-developed tale of organized crime, loyalty and revenge, and family relationships. All good.
But the thing that really caught my attention was the environment of the movie. I was born in Chicago and grew up in Illinois. This movie features scenes on small town main streets and in old farmhouses, in downtown Chicago, inside the Wrigley Building and on the bridge over the Chicago River, out on farm roads running alongside flat cornfields that stretch to the horizon, and on the sand dune shores of Lake Michigan. Sigh. I haven't been to any of these places in many decades, but the movie brought me such vivid pleasant memories of the familiar settings of my childhood.
I love where I live now, at 7000' elevation in the mountains in California, in the middle of a pine forest. No cornfields here. For that matter, no level land nor elm-tree lined streets, nor brick buildings anywhere near here. This is a far cry from Illinois. But I guess a piece of my heart is still connected to the Midwest.
Isn't it odd: the little things that toggle the switches in our memories?
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1 comment:
I haven't seen that movie either but it sounds like a good one to see if I can find. Tom Hanks is always great.
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