Harvey

Transcript

I was just thinking once again as I often do about this movie Harvey.

Harvey is this movie about a man portrayed by Jimmy Stewart and his name is Elwood P Dowd.

Elwood has this special friend who only he can see. His 6 foot three and a half inch tall puca, a celtic animal spirit called Harvey.

And yes Elwood knows Harvey quite well. Most of the time other people don’t see him so as a result people think Elwood is a bit nuts.

This is one of those movies similar to what I was talking about in a previous episode “It takes all types to make a world, it takes all kinds to make a world” so silimarly like with Don Quijote de la Mancha somebody who has the courage to see things a little differently and view the world in an unusual way.

Maybe step into the strangeness and without saying too much at the end Elwood is vindicated for his beliefs but along the way there are so many lovely quotes from this movie.

I love it when Elwood says years ago my mother used to say to me “In this world you can be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart, I recommend pleasant. You can quote me.”

Which those are words to live by if ever I’ve heard them and I know them.

I know this quote so well because I relate to that so personally knowing that yes being smart actually you can try to arrange things in this world, try to think things through and have this careful structure but life is much more enjoyable if you’re just nice to people and they want to help you.

You don’t have to try so hard to figure things out.

Of course it doesnt hurt to be smart either.

Another scene in the movie they meet the taxi driver and hes talking about taking people to the insane asylum. Its interesting because you watch this movie and see a kind of barbaric, the way they treated so called crazy people, psychotics and schizophrenics.

And they just picked them up and start throwing them into a bath and feeding them drugs. In many ways its changed a bit over the years now its a bit more consensual but in some ways its still quite similar.

I recommend that book Cracked which is a critique of the pychiatric system which is very fascinating.

The taxi driver has this quote, I am looking it up on IMDB here it says “I’ve been driving this route for 15 years. I brought him out here to get that stuff and I drove him home after they had it. It changes them. On the way out here they sit back and enjoy the ride and talk to me. Sometimes we stop and watch the sunsets and watch flying. Sometimes we stop and watch the bird when there ain’t no birds. I look at the sunset when its raining and we always have a swell time and I always get a big tip but afterwards, what do you mean afterwards?”

He says later to Elwoods sister “they crab, crab crab. They yell at me, watch the light, watch the brakes. The intersections. They scream at me to hurry, they got no faith in me or my buggy. Its the same cab, the same driver and we’re going over the same road. Its no fun and no tips. After this youll be a perfectly normal human being and you know what stinkers they are. Glad I met you.”

This is exaggerated for comedic effect its not really likely that even a psychotic would see birds flying when there arent. Might be someone prone to imagination who just feels like seeing things differently as a bit of an exaggeration I don’t think normal people are stinkers.

Isn’t it wonderful to be a little bit different, just like Elwards and people might take a shining on you being unusual and pleasant just as Harvey took a linking to Elward. Thank you for being pleasant and thank you for enjoying your own weirdness.