Ordinary People (1980)

I watched Ordinary People for the first time in four years. My reaction to it was different from last time. I had less sympathy for the rich people in it, not because they were rich but because the parents encouraged their sons to engage in dangerous but expensive hobbies, like sailing in a tiny sailboat. Even when one son dies in a boating accident, it didn't occur to them that it was a bad idea.

The surviving son blames himself for his brother's death and goes to a psychologist played by Judd Hirsch. The psychologist might have pointed out that his parents bought them the boat and didn't seem to have bothered with life jackets. 

In the Italian movie Son's Room (2001), an Italian psychologist's son dies in an accident. The father blames his patient. He was going to go jogging with his son that day but instead had to help a patient overcome his stagefright before a public speaking event. Since he wasn't going jogging, the son goes scuba diving with predictable results. 

This is what happens when rich people have "active lifestyles". 

I've written about this more than once, but I had a great uncle born in the 1880's. He was half Indian and had an uncanny ability to walk through the woods and find his way in total darkness. The trick is to look up at the stars. You can see where the trees are that way. But he had a terrible fear of going into the woods alone. 

One of his sons was about 6o when he got a degree in anthropology. I was at his graduation party and he was talking with guests about Indian lore, like what parts of a human body are left after being eaten by a bear. Nature is horrible. Horrible. But you have these rich people who go out there like they own the place, oblivious to the dangers.

I don't like being anywhere that I can't get an ambulance.