Believing and Actors From the Military

Gorgeous and I watched Second Hand Lions last night.

If you haven’t seen it, it is a fun movie, rather silly through out. Kind of a boy meets grumpy old men story. The pair of crusty old guys are played by Michael Caine and Robert Duval. The Duval character cracked me up with his over-the-top grouchiness. There were several points that I had to pause the movie because I was laughing too loud for Gorgeous to hear what was going on.

But there was also a fair amount of wisdom given out. For example at one point the Duval character tells the boy

Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.

Second Hand Lions I’m still noodling over that one.

Should you choose to believe something simply because it is worth believing in, and not sweat whether it’s true or not?

Many folks would say that those of us who follow Jesus are doing exactly that. Of course those of us who do follow Jesus believe that we have actually found the truth and believe in it.

I have this powerful desire to be “right.” And when I encounter someone who thinks differently than I do, my natural instinct is to “prove” that I am “right” and they are “wrong.”

But is that really the important thing? To be right?

I’m not so sure that it is anymore.

When I was poking around this morning I noticed that both Robert Duval and Michael Cain had spent some time in military service. I didn’t realize that they had both been in uniform.

I did some more poking around and found that all of the following actors had spent some time in uniform:

Jimmy Stewart actually takes the cake when it comes to military service.

He was drafted in WWII but was initially refused due to a weight restriction. He finally convinced the Draft Board to accept him and enlisted in March of 1941. The Army didn’t really want to send famous stars to the front and Stewart had been making movies since 1935. So the Army kept him in the states even after he successfully finished flight school. They posted Stewart to New Mexico as a flight instructor for B-17’s.

Jimmy Stewart - Colonel But Stewart was not content to be an instructor. He managed to get a transfer to an operational unit and entered combat operations flying bomber missions over Europe in December 1943. He was awarded several medals for actions in combat and by the end of the war Stewart was promoted to Colonel. He was one of the few Americans to rise from Private to Colonel in four years, a rather impressive accomplishment.

Jimmy Stewart was the highest ranking Hollywood actor in the military of all time (after Ronald Regan, of course).

It's a Wonderful Life His first movie after the war is my personal favorite of his: It’s a Wonderful Life. Talk about a film that addresses personal beliefs! It’s a great reminder that each of our lives affects far more people than we ever realize.

Who doesn’t remember the moment when George Baily discovers Zuzu’s petals? Or how the town’s folk rallied around him to help him out of his jam? Good stuff for sure.

We could all stand to see more movies like that.

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