March 21st, 2010
or
“the importance of having a good time, kicking ass and taking names, having a sense of humor, and not getting blown up.”
While at diner last night, the subject of the 4 movie characters that you can look to as role models came up. This is not some sort of “life’s little instruction book” or “douchebags I’d like to meet in heaven”. It’s just a conversation we had. These are just characters with admirable qualities that we all agreed were ones we would like to emulate to get through life successfully.
My brother-in-law Bob brought the characters to the table and Laura expanded upon it, so I’ll give them credit for the list. This is just my take on it:
Here they are, in no particular order:
Al Czervik - “Caddy Shack”

"This steak still has marks from where the jockey was hitting it"
Al Czervik had a good time, all the time. One quarter of who you are should be Al. I guess Viv Savage from Spinal Tap had a very similar philosophy, “have a good time, all the time”, but I think I like Al’s presentation a little better. Viv Savage kinda creeps me out with his Rick Wakeman keyboardist/cult member white robes…

The Man with No Name – Sergio Leone’s “Spaghetti Westerns”

"get three coffins ready...my mistake, four coffins"
The man with no name kicked some serious ass and never hesitated to exact brutal vengance. Devote a quarter to the man with no name and people will be sorry if they fucked with you. They will also probably not ask you to help them paint their house or go into a barn alone with you.
Harry Crumb – “Who is Harry Crumb?”

You can make some mistakes and still get things done. Harry Crumb, like any other number of John Candy characters, has a sense of humor about who he is and is comfortable in his own skin. A quarter Crumb it is.
John Maclean – “Die Hard”
“Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…” John Maclean is the thorn in the side of the bad guys, is able to get through some pretty bad Christmases, and cannot be killed, no matter how many times you try to throw him off the Nakatomi building. He is a modern day bugs bunny. Keep the last piece of the pie for John.