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| Brotherly Love or something like that |
Its another unknown movie favorite of mine. Although it is based in 1963 and about three brothers, being the youngest of three sisters, there are so many aspects of this movie that superseded time and gender. When I first watched this when I was young, I laughed at the brothers and felt a connection to them. As an adult man-alive I cried feeling that connection so much deeper. There are so many movies that my middle sister and I watched over and over that they have become engrained in our sister-speak and the sound track of our lives. This movie is in my head, in the back floating around and randomly comes out.
I know that when we first watched this movie I mentally assigned each character to each sister based on birth order. I saw us like these characters. I tried to be the Bad Boy Bobby, I tried to make my middle sister the dreamer Buddy and tried to make my oldest sister the tight-ass Marvin. Which none of us were but that didn’t matter to my teenage brain. When I recently stumbled upon it on like TMC or Bravo or ABC Family I watched it and realized that we are all three of them. Intermingled and sharing these traits.
This could also be part of the birth order theories not applying to my sisters and me, which is probably due to the same reason I go to therapy but I digress….
My oldest sister, AJ, is a bit of a dreamer and goes with the flow like Buddy. At times she is fun loving like Bobby and most always duty-bound like Marvin. My middle sister, The Teacher, can be the over achiever like Buddy and the problem child like Bobby but above all else she can be hardcore like Marvin. I know that others see me as the rebel like Bobby but I know that deep down inside I am Buddy trying to keep it all together and accept that I have a temper like Marvin. As adults I know that each of us are so much more than these characters or the traits that I’ve assigned here. For the purpose of this post.
Bottom line, love love love this movie. If you have siblings you must watch. Someone on IMBD suggested watching after Thanksgiving dinner but that just begs for Xanax, wine and a late-night call to your therapist. Perhaps thats just my family.
I’m pretty sure people my age associate Daniel Stern with Home Alone but he will forever be Marvin in my head. And I have no idea if anyone knows who Ayre Gross even is (he was on Ellen before she was gay – wait that sounds suggestive. He was on the TV show Ellen had before she came out. There that’s better) but he is Buddy, Buddy Boy. And Patrick Dempsey. Pause and salute to good genes right there. This young Patrick Dempsey, is the reason I loved bad boys because underneath the jeans, boots, pack of cigarettes and a whole lotta snark is a boy with a coin collection who wants to be accepted by his brothers (or her sisters).
When I watched it again years later I not only realized that my sisters are not these characters but a mixture of so much more. I also really want to take a road trip with them just like this so that we can get to our physical destination and a new place in our relationships as sisters. And learn some auto body repair skills.
And now, because they plague my mind and rule my speech, my favorite lines:
“Our leader.”
“Ahhhh, the whole damn front end is screwed up!”
Whenever I hear the name Bobby for a grown man I will forever hear Marvin saying “Get in the Goddamn car Bobby!”
“It’s not a dance and it’s not a make out song. It’s a sea shanty”
And thanks to the glory of YouTube here is the entire damn movie.
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