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Film · First National · 1921

Tol'able David

Tol'able David

78Worth an evening.

A boy takes the mail because his people are down, and the route is the good.

Pass it on

The review

Someone has to drive, and the film doesn't dress that up as glory. A boy in a valley takes the mail route when his family is laid up by a bully. Richard Barthelmess, 1921, well loved and not the year's biggest. A house can watch it. The work is the route. The household is the valley. He grows up because someone has to drive. I believed that. The bully is only why they're down.

I liked this more than most of the famous silents we get, and the reason is the job, not the reputation. The boy is useful. The valley still needs the mail. If you put it on, skip the speech about becoming a man. Point at the route. A family laid up can't take the route, and he answers that with the work.

Journal

Keep Tol'able David in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 78. Yours can differ.

The glance

Temperance is the thin one.

  1. 9Industry
  2. 9Household
  3. 7Piety
  4. 8Courage
  5. 8Republic
  6. 6Temperance
  7. 7Truth
  8. 8Stewardship

Is appetite shown and then put down, or are you being trained to want the next one?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

A Man for All Seasons

89 instead of 78

A Man for All Seasons is still a drama film, and it scores 89 instead of 78. What you gain is piety: Faith is the center, and it is not a mood.

The eight

  1. 9
    Industry

    The mail route is real work, and the valley needs it done.

  2. 9
    Household

    His family is laid up, and the valley is the household he serves.

  3. 7
    Piety

    He takes the route because they can't, conscience on a clock.

  4. 8
    Courage

    He drives after a bully laid them up, instead of staying a boy.

  5. 8
    Republic

    The valley is owed its mail, and he is the one who carries it.

  6. 6
    Temperance

    He grows up because someone has to drive the mail route.

  7. 7
    Truth

    Someone has to drive, and the boy is no longer only a boy.

  8. 8
    Stewardship

    He keeps the mail moving for a valley that cannot drive.

Live historically

This week, do the errand your house skipped and call it David's mail route out loud.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Tol'able David · 78IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · United Artists · 1971

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof

78Worth an evening.

Put it on for the father and the daughters, and stay for the town that does not survive.

Pass it on

The review

A dairyman in a Jewish village has three daughters who will not marry the way he was told marriage works. Tradition is the song and the argument. He talks to God as if God is in the room. The house is not a warm opening. It is the point.

Pogroms come, then an order to leave, and the town does not survive. Long, and too harsh at the edges for little children. For everyone else it is one to put on and talk through: a father bending, a God he will not stop addressing, a people told to go. The songs do not cancel the order. They are how the order hurts.

Journal

Keep Fiddler on the Roof in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 78. Yours can differ.

The glance

Stewardship is the thin one.

  1. 7Industry
  2. 9Household
  3. 9Piety
  4. 8Courage
  5. 8Republic
  6. 7Temperance
  7. 8Truth
  8. 6Stewardship

What is left for the people who come after — a place, a craft, a name?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

The eight

  1. 7
    Industry

    He is a dairyman, and the village runs on ordinary work until it is scattered.

  2. 9
    Household

    Three daughters and the marriages they will accept are the life of the house.

  3. 9
    Piety

    He talks to God as if God is in the room and might answer.

  4. 8
    Courage

    The daughters refuse the old matches, then the family faces pogroms and exile.

  5. 8
    Republic

    The village is a people bound together, and an order to leave ends it.

  6. 7
    Temperance

    Tradition tries to order marriage, and the songs do not sneer at the trying.

  7. 8
    Truth

    He argues with God and with his daughters instead of pretending nothing changed.

  8. 6
    Stewardship

    The town does not survive, and a family is left to carry what it can.

Live historically

Name one marriage he can live with, then say the order that finally breaks the town.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Fiddler on the Roof · 78IMDb

For this house

Keep going

The next title is the one nearest what this house keeps, then the measure where it is thin. Nothing here is a crowd. It does not leave this device.

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