Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Montana Dreamin'

I just finished watching “Legends of the Fall,” a saga of three brothers, their father, and their women, set in ole’ range Montana in the 1910s and 20s.

I definitely missed the point of the movie… I’m pretty sure the major themes were about love and honor and abandonment, but all I was left thinking was:

“Man…….. I need to get out to Montana.

The movie is overpowered by its own beauty. What freedom, what unbridled and hollering freedom there is in the vast open spaces left wild and lonely and pure. What thrilling power rushes over the tops of mountains, carried with the scent of wildflowers on the wind. What spirit hurdles along the currents of a cold and fast-moving creek.

God Almighty, it is downright intoxicating. It’s been so long since I’ve scratched that itch, that primal need to be alone outdoors. I took a day hike back at the beginning of November, and before that it was a ten days jaunt in Xinjiang back in August.

Not nearly enough mountains in my life these days, too much city and too little fresh air.

I forget about it sometimes; most of the time, really. This lust for Big Nature is a part of me that is easy to put down, that folds up in the corner and gets misplaced in the clutter of a full and various life. It’s so easy to forget how exhilarating and essential it feels to stand on top of a hill and sweep my eyes greedily over the horizon, arms and legs stretched out and up to the sky, laughing loud and shaking my head and thanking God over and over and over again.

But when I remember—and this movie made me remember—oh god but that lust is insatiable.

I want to leave right now, this instant, and go somewhere gorgeous and alone. I won’t, but I want to… I yearn for it like chocolate, like sex, like the first five notes of a beautiful and nameless song stuck in my head for months.

The mountains are calling, the mountains are singing my song… sweet siren of god, the mountains are singing my song.

5 comments:

La Mama said...

Just remember -- that was Montana in 1910-1920. Today where that meadow was is a McDonalds, a Burger King (mmm....Burger King!) and a Walmart!!

赵晨威 said...

Say it ain't so, Ma!

But surely there's still a lot of good space out there-- after all, Montana is fairly large...

La Mama said...

I do remember, when I drove across it in 1972 and slept on top of a picnic table, that the night sky in Montana really curved as if we were in a huge, beuatiful, starry dome.

PoojaV said...

Great movie. The real question is whether the scene of Brad Pitt riding up on that horse with his long hair and his coat flowing beats the scene with him in his underwear outside his mom's caravan in Snatch.

赵晨威 said...

That IS a good question. I have to go with the trailer shot. Riding a horse is aight', but that flaming-caravan scene in Snatch is probably the climax of male sexiness in world history.