Movies, Not Books

I got a replacement DVD player last weekend and have been overdosing on movies all week, setting aside Mating (which is love as a political polemic) and Angle of Repose (which has yet to get into who loves whom). The best so far was last night, Secretariat, curiously the movie I had on reserve when the old player broke down. Maybe I'm just a sap for horse movies (are there really people out there similarly addicted to fight movies?) but I think this is just as good or better than Seabiscuit. Of course, I also love Diane Ladd in anything and this is the best role I have seen John Malkovich do in ages. 1973 seems so long ago and I am having waves of nostalgia overwhelm me.

Of all the tracks depicted, I thought Saratoga was least accurate. Disney came up to the Spa to film there but the people in the stands were decked out in too much Western style attire ... and no hats on the womenfolk. The race they showed there was his two-year old start when he finished third. The movie ended on the Belmont 31 length high-note victory, not the marginal loss to Onion later that summer at the Travers. Mom and I were there. Dad was still alive, still working. I had yet to finish my first year working at DMV.

My nostalgia is heightened because my mother died this week. Watching horse racing movies is my own personal commemoration for her, although I'm sure she's still waiting for her high Mass on Friday. We had great days together up there even when it rained and met some interesting folks in the club house. The meet was then limited to August ... Saratoga was the "August place to be" ... and that capped off our summers after we spent most of July at SPAC for the NYC Ballet, usually having something to drink in the Hall of Springs before the performance. I love how we used to dress up for both the ballet and the races. She gave me my sense of style, and I guess of treating life like performance art. Her final act was as private and gracious as she would have wanted.