Baby Boomerang, the movie

Tonight we viewed the documentary called "Baby Boomerang". It's a play on words on several levels which I will discuss in my movie review below. I must admit to expecting a longer wedding type video that he is so famous for. I also envisioned it being something like Ken Burns WWII documentary. It was neither. It was magnificient. It lasted 55 minutes and worth every penny of the price of admission, which was free, or course. The theatre was jam packed. We had to pull up our arm rests to squeeze everyone in. I believe many partrons including AJ sat in the cracks in the seats. The Howard Arnett family was well represented by AJ's family, Cliff's family, my family, Cameron and Chea's family and rightly so as Howard was mentioned in thinly veiled reference at one point in the documentary. I know the documentary was warmly accepted as it received a well deserved standing ovation at the end. I asked some people who were there that didn't even know Uncle Charles well what they thought of it. They were visibly moved and entertained. My guess is that close to half in attendance we not relatives. My how word spreads when something is free and its a Monday night.

Since most of you will not get to see it unless it becomes successful on the documentary of history channel circuit, I will give you a brief rundown and my thoughts.

This movie was 14 years in the making. Mark explains at the beginning of the documentary why it took so long to makeand why he never wanted his dad to see it which becomes evident as the film progresses. At first, the movie is really not so much about Uncle Charles as it about Mark. On the surface that sounds shallow, but once the documentary began to unfold we understood why. It did focus on Uncle Charles -- who he was and the life he lived, but it also focused on a son (baby boomer-ang) coming to the realization of how great his father really was. That's I'll I can say without giving away more, but this was a deep, well thought out documentary. It was a love story, it was a tragic hero's story, a spiritual story, a missionary story and much more. It was funny throughout, bordering on hilarious at times. It was heart wrenching evoking many tears. It was patriotic. It was historical in that it detailed a time of great sacrifice, specifically by Uncle Charles, but also by others of his crew that were featured in the film. But, it was also "historic" in that it revealed a transformation in Mark (the same one we all go through or must go through) when he realized what kind of father he had and how he has come to appreciate it. There were many layers of emotion that all in attendance felt. I hope this story continues on and Mark is successful in showing it at film festivals.

I took some photos of me and Pam (actually Larry did) getting ready to go to the funeral and later and at the movie theatre. I'm no Chea, but here are some photos anyway.