'Sweet Liberty' sparks Filmosophy
How I went to the movies and learned how
to cut raw onions without bursting into tears!
I didn't start formally collecting Filmosophies for this blog until 1996. But it was a full 10 years before that when I first consciously acknowledged that film could solve life’s riddles for me.
I was in the 1947 Art Deco-style Miracle Theater in Coral Gables, Fla. Today it is a performing arts center. But back then, it had recently been converted to a twin theater and
Sweet Liberty, starring Alan Alda, Michelle Pfeiffer and Lise Hiboldt opened there in May 1986. In the film, Alda plays Michael Burgess, an author whose scholarly novel on the American Revolution is about to be turned into a film. When the film crew invades his small town to start production, mayhem ensues.
The film’s $14 million gross, according to Internet Movie Data Base, and lack of industry awards or accolades makes it hardly worth noting - except for one scene where Alda’s character is making salad with Lise Hiboldt’s character Gretchen Carlson.
Alda asks her, “Is
that how you cut an onion?” Within an instant he expertly demonstrates how to properly cut an onion so she doesn’t inadvertently break the onion’s fleshy cells and prompt it to emit a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward toward her eyes, causing them to tear. Feeling a little cocky after he wowed her with his expert knowledge of cultivated vegetable bulbs, Alda goes on to demonstrate visually how one can easily core a head of lettuce. As he holds it in his palm with the core facing up, abruptly, he turns the lettuce over and thrusts it down gently onto the counter top, forcing the core to break loose. Then he plucks the core effortlessly from inside the head of lettuce much to the delight of
his costar.
Neither move is “rocket science.” And helpful cooking techniques hardly qualify as one of life’s elusive riddles. But the tips are ingeniously
simple as they are solid and useful, all the same. The scene was a eureka moment that I've never forgotten. I've used both handy cooking tricks countless times ever since and shared it whenever possible with family and friends.
It was this strong sensory memory of
Sweet Liberty that came to mind, again, 10 years after I first saw it in the Miracle Theater. I was taking a philosophy class studying the likes of John Stuart Mill, Plato and Sir Thomas More, when I realized that a lot of the philosophies and myths spouted by these great thinkers were alive and well and living in film. When I gave it a little more thought, I realized that a lot of my core beliefs, things I had accepted to be life’s truths – even my knowledge of etiquette and the system of principles for the conduct of my own life – were rooted in movies that I had watched over my lifetime.
That’s when I thought I was onto something meaningful. Whenever possible, I started to scribble on paper the wisdom, wit and words of advice I observed being spouted by actors in movies. I amassed quite a collection of paper scraps that I stuffed into an accordion folder. For a long time, I wasn’t sure how to package Filmosophy or present it to the world. But, in time, the Internet yielded answers for me. And now the memes appearing in this e-newsletter, a Tumblr blog and various social media outlets, are testing the waters to see if you value them as much as I do.
I’m not sure what motivates me to put Filmosophy out there. I think it is just the desire to share all this cool, useful stuff I found in films where I was least expecting it. But, if you are reading this, or like the Filmosophy memes I’ve posted so far, share them with your friends. Also, please tell me what you think of Filmosophy and this project. E-mail me at
FilmosophyAdvice@gmail.com. I’m eager to hear your thoughts and feedback and to know if Filmosophy resonates with you as it does with me!
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Movies have the capacity to touch us in a way that few things can because they tell human stories. Filmosophy
is a collection of aphorisms and wisdom learned on celluloid and told with memes.
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