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Sunday, July 8, 2012

That Much Closer to Eternity

So as I'm reading From Here to Eternity, one of the few remaining actors therein, Ernest Borgnine, decided to die. I'm not happy about this. I haven't even gotten to the part of the book that contains his character, Sgt. "Fatso" Judson. I don't even know if he's a good guy, a bad guy, or a chopped salad of mixed good and evil bits (which is what most James Jones characters actually seem to be). Now when I finish the book and reward myself by watching the movie, I'll have to watch it thinking, "Oh, Ernest Borgnine's poor family and friends - they must miss him terribly." Stupid reality! Stop intruding on my enjoyment of fictional characters.



The principle actors - Montgomery Clift as Prew, Donna Reed as Lorene, Deborah Kerr as Karen Holmes and Burt Lancaster as Milt Warden - are all dead. Long dead, in the case of Montgomery Clift. He had multiple addiction issues and died young, in his 40s.

But look at him: he's so beautiful.



There's something else about this cool Nebraska guy - according to Patricia Bosworth, who wrote a biography of Clift, he was one of my people, the bisexuals. Maybe not the best example of a happy, well-adjusted bi, but still - I shall now picture him ascended to bisexual heaven, where he shall sit at the right hand of James Dean, amen.



The quote that accompanied this photo, when I found it on Pinterest, was, "I don't want to be labeled as either a pansy or a heterosexual. Labeling is so self-limiting. We are what we do, not what we say we are."

...and with that quote (which may or may not be accurate - don't trust the Internet), I am completely in love with him.



Well, I'd better go to bed now. Montgomery Clift, please get in my dreams.

1 comment:

Erin O'Riordan said...

No such luck. I had some stupid dream about starting a neighborhood watch. I wish I hadn't seen the trailer for Ben Stiller's idiotic neighborhood watch movie when I went to see 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.'