Greyhound From the Comfort of my Own Home

One of the downsides of COVID-19 is that most movie theaters are closed. Sure there are plenty of older movies to watch but lately I have been wanting to see a new movie and last night I got the chance. Earlier in the day, I got an e-mail from Sony Pictures telling me I should watch their new film with Tom Hanks called Greyhound. I thought it might be about a bus trip at first and so I watched the trailer. Then I discovered it is about a naval destroyer escorting ships full of supplies across the North Atlantic at the onset of World War II. This fit right in with one of the themes of my recently completed video games.

Earlier in the day my wife told me that she wanted a date. I thought about doing a few things but COVID-19 makes it tough to go out, especially with the number of new cases in Utah getting larger every day. The movie looked like it would be a fun diversion and I knew we would have the house to ourselves. I also have a really great home theater setup complete with 7.1 surround sound and a nice-sized TV. I showed her the movie trailer and asked if she would enjoy the movie. She agreed that it would be a good watch and so we made it a date, literally.

After dinner we pulled out some popcorn, found some movie candy, and each got a cold-beverage. Then we headed down to our home theater room. Usually I stream all of my movies to my PlayStation 4 but Greyhound is only available on Apple TV+. There isn't an app for it on the PlayStation 4. At least I couldn't find one and so I had to go to plan B: run it from my laptop. Fortunately my surround-sound system has an HDMI port I can plug my laptop into and so I did that. Then I signed up for Apple TV+. They are offering a free 7-day trial and so I started with that. I did have to enter my credit-card information but will probably cancel the trial on Monday. Then I switched my sound settings so I didn't have to listen to my tiny laptop speakers and could hear everything through my home theater setup. Finally we started the movie.

Greyhound is only 91 minutes long and maximizes every second. There is the necessary character development at the beginning and then the movie jumps into the task: getting a number of ships across the Atlantic Ocean without the luxury of air cover for protection. You pretty much can tell what the movie is about from the movie trailer and it played exactly to my expectations.

I have to say I really enjoyed watching the movie from the comfort of my own home. I didn't have to worry about anyone kicking the back of my chair or making noise. In the middle of the movie, I paused it momentarily and didn't miss any actions while I made a refreshment break. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and recommend it highly.

My wife and I took a walk around the neighborhood after the movie and stopped briefly to talk with our neighbors who work in the movie industry. They confirmed that the movie was originally intended to be released to theaters but switched to Apple TV+ because of COVID-19. I found it surprising that Sony Pictures would allow Apple to show the movie instead of their own streaming service or one of the other ones. I guess Apple TV+ is looking for content and paid the best price.

Had Greyhound been released in the theaters, my wife and I would definitely have paid the $20 (the price for 2 reserved seats in Utah) to go and see it. Instead I got to see it from the comfort of my own home for free, provided I remember to cancel my subscription. Thanks Apple!

Using My Tablet Computer

After weeks and months of not using my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, I picked it up over the past weekend and started using it for a bit of reading before bed. My preferred reading format is real paper but it has its limitations. As I had a lot of airplane time over the past several weeks, I carried James Mitchner's first novel, Tales of the South Pacific, with me. Anyone who has seen the musical South Pacific is familiar with some of the stories found in the book as that is where they come from.

I am inspired by a good historical novel and enjoy reading Mitchner for this reason. Tales of the South Pacific is about the Pacific theater of World War II. When I finished the novel, I couldn't help but wonder how much of it was based on actual events. It seems that my history classes in high school spent all of their time on the birth of the nation and lacked much depth to anything after the Revolutionary War. Most of my knowledge of World War II comes from living in France and watching various movies like Pearl Harbor, Midway, Unbroken, and The Monuments Men.

In an effort to learn more about the Pacific theater of World War II, I pulled out my Samsung tablet and have been using it to look up timelines and various historical facts. It has proven rather insightful and interesting. I have enjoyed not having a laptop on my chest while trying to read in bed and have rediscovered that tablet computers do have something to offer even an old dinosaur like me.

Foreign Languages

Yesterday I watched a World War II movie on Hulu. During the course of the action, several US soldiers took refuge in a French farmhouse. The woman is there all alone with her daughter and thankful to have the Allied protection. Naturally she only speaks French and tries to communicate with the guys that only speak English. It was fun for me to watch because I speak both languages fluently. It didn't occur to me that there weren't any subtitles until after I was done with the film. I imagine that it must be a different experience for those that only speak English.

Right now I am in the process of learning Morse code (and have been for quite a while). While it isn't a different language, it fells like it sometimes. I am using a program called "Morse" to help me. As I sit and listen to the dits and the dahs, it makes me wonder what is being said in the movies that have bits of Morse code. I understand that most of the time, the code is nothing at all. However every once and a while, it is real and there is a message hidden in there. The original movie about the Titanic called, "A Night to Remember" used the actual code sent from the fateful ship. If you understand Morse, I'll bet that would add to the experience.

Going back to the WWII movie I saw last night, there was also something else worthy of note. One of the German soldiers was my roommate when I lived in Strasbourg, France. He was able to help me learn French and so I had to laugh when I saw him in the German uniform. It is a good thing he didn't have a speaking part as I'm sure it would have come out with a French accent.