Happy endings

Dan Puckett's lovely blog makes me ashamed of my taste in movies. In movies, I always fall for the formulaic pieces with happy endings. I haven't seen a movie in a movie theater since "Sense and Sensibility," and the only film I went to over and over (four times?) while in its first run was Stallone's first "Rocky."

Here's what's weird: I love Greek tragedy. I particularly love Euripides' "Medea" and Sophocles' "Ajax." I can deal with unhappy endings when I expect them (though the endings in those plays were meant to be unexpected, as was that in Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex"). Hell, for years I wrote headlines counting the number of dead.

Still, in my light entertainment, and especially at my age (I was born in 1954, a year before Dan Puckett's 1955), I go for pieces that don't depress me. Puckett mentions a Swayze flick that I've never seen; for that matter, I've never seen "Ghost." But I did just get "Dirty Dancing" on DVD.

Heath Ledger? My lust for the young fellow was storied. But I've seen only one of his films (on satellite; it made me late for work): "10 Things I Hate about You." I refused to watch "The Patriot" after I learned of Ledger's character's fate, and I couldn't watch "A Knight's Tale" after a few minutes. I've never gotten around to renting any of the guy's other films. Dan Puckett's blog note has made me want to see "Brokeback Mountain," but wait! Won't the movie depress me?

In my rash youth, of course, back in the 1960s and early 1970s, I did seek out and like bleak films. But that was in another lifetime, and besides, the wench is dead.