The Curious Autodidact

You gotta love a movie that makes you smile and leaves you with a warm feeling.

Two such movies that will give you a feel good aftertaste are “The Way We Get By” and “Young at Heart.” Both are about the adventures of the over seventy set in America and how they are making a difference in so many people’s lives many of whom are much younger than they are.

The Way we Get By tells the story of a group of elderly people who greet the troops who fly into their home town of Bangor Maine at all hours, coming and going to Iraq. Each of these senior citizens have their own personal aging issues but they gather together like clockwork to be a friendly face to these soldiers who, agree or disagree with this war, deserve a smile.

The Young at Heart Chorus hails from Northhampton, MA and their average age of each singer is 81 years old. They don’t sing what you’d necessarily expect and it’s hilarious to see them cover James Brown or Sonic Youth songs. This movie shows the final weeks of their rehearsal before going out on tour some years back and the challenges these older people have getting the songs right and particularly the challenges of the group’s director Bob Cilman who loves his singer and the elderly but has him moment.

They have toured far and wide and have even sung overseas to royalty. it’s a touching story of the power of music to bring people together. You’ll wish as I did that you’d seen it on the big screen.

photo by: jeff derose