Good movie last night

After looking over the Shih Tzu blog maintained by my college buddy and his wife, I feel I need to redouble my efforts to focus on our own dogs as much as possible. Unfortunately, they're all just sleeping and/or drooling on the floor right now, so instead I will regale you with another picture.

Judy reported that I had unintentionally prohibited all non-blogspot users from posting comments, but I've fixed it now. So stop hitting me Judy! Stop! Stop!

I can't remember what even inspired me to put a 2.5 hour German-language movie on our Netflix list in the first place, but we both really enjoyed the movie Downfall last night. It recounts the last few days inside Hitler's bunker as the Soviets closed in on Berlin. I don't know why but both Leslie and I had always pictured Hitler's suicide taking place in a flash as the Allies crashed through the door, but that apparently wasn't the case at all. The actor who played Hitler did a great job of humanizing him - not to make him more sympathetic, as the director said, but to help explain why he was able to maintain his hold on so many people. The other actors were also excellent, and it was interesting to watch an isolated leader and blindly loyal lieutenants simultaneously deny to each other the failure of their war, even as the clarity of the situation slowly takes hold for more and more inside the bunker. Good thing nothing analogous could ever happen here. It was also interesting that the movie was filmed in St. Petersburg, which was laid waste by a Nazi seige. Very good movie if you don't mind reading along.