The Renegade Doc Comments

I’ve not before reviewed a movie on this blog, reserving my comments for good books or just my own thoughts.  However, here is a movie that deserves some comment.

It would fit the category of “Renegade” since it rather comes up from behind and kicks you in the butt.  It is raw, open, real, has too much bad language and sexual related themes for many, maybe most, but it goes straight to some real, common and deep-seated issues.  You have to go past just watching it and think a bit about it as well to begin to get the full impact of the message/s of this film.

Billy Crystal is the main character and because it is he doing the acting, one might expect it to be a comedy.  Indeed, there are some comic moments and this is one reason why it is such a surprising film.  It goes way beyond comedy.

Three men, boys who grew up together as best freinds and who have remained good friends, have discovered that life has been full of failure and disappointment.  One has an overbearing, nearly abusive wife and finds some “life” in adultery.  Another considers himself a real womanizer, but uses talk and acting out behavior as a means of covering up his extremely lacking self-esteem.  Truth be told, he cannot even get his “hot” wife pregnant.  The third has reacted to his disappoinmtment by just checking out, becoming passive, disinterested, feeling useless and less than a man, going through the motions but looking to the outside world like a very successful husband, father and businessman.

Together they decide they need to go a dude ranch for a couple week vacation.  Only the dude ranch has real cows and real needs, real cowboys who are bullies, preying on the weak and the female.  These cows need to be moved to summer pasture and back again.  Along the way these dudes suffer hardship and loss, and are faced with decisions that test their manhood.  Actually, the circumstances first test them in ways that make them decide if there is even any manhood in them at all.

The amazing thing about this story is that it is full of raw emotion and raw life.  Most of the issues these men face relate directly to their sexuality and their response to it, or lack thereof.  It turns out their issues revolve around the huge failure of Fatherhood in their lives which causes them to be lost and to feel worthless, ungrounded, uninitiated.  It becomes their excuse for their emasculation, their failed lives and their pitiful understanding of and attitude toward femininity and their own sexuality.  Mixed into the story is also a Savior figure, repentance, baptism, grace, forgiveness, true femininity and transformation.

This is an older film, one which you will likely have to rent to obtain.  It would be worth purchasing

and then watching about once a month.  When you watch it, though, don’t leave your brain or your heart at the door.  Think about it.  Feel it.  Mine it for the riches of the message contained in it.  Let it change you.
Blessings,

Dr Jon