The Long Halloween Vol. III: Obscure Edition - Hermit Day

Greetings, Internet lovers! For the past two years Norwegian Morning Wood has had special holiday posts for every month of the year. We call it The Long Halloween, as it's always started and ended with October (It's a damn Batman joke). At this point we've really gotten to the point where we've done Holdiays like Halloween and Christmas to death. So for the next 12 Months we're looking at obscure, random Holidays and picking out the best movies to watch.

Today, October 29th, as you all no doubt know, is National Hermit Day. It's a day intended to inspire people to give up the world and live in a shack in the woods, devoting oneself to misanthropy and self-sufficiency. Naturally, the best flick to slide in the VCR on this day is Get Low (2009).



The film stars Robert Duvall as a simple, old-timey Hermit (the kind of grizzled character Duvall should always play) who has carried a hefty burden inside him for many winters. Bill Murray doesn't have nearly as big of a role as the trailer implies but like many of his more recent roles he puts in just as much as he needs to without overdoing the sass. Annette Benning and that old dude from those Heinekin Light commercials also make some brief appearances. You gotta give it up for Peter Cetera. Finally there's Lucas Black who is actually ok in a non-Tokyo Drift role here.

It's a great film for Hermits who have good reason to retreat from the world and perhaps a better reason to come back to it. It was somehow largely ignored by Academy voters although Duvall had been getting some buzz and the entire cast is splendid. It's also a greatly shot film with a relatively simple story that plays to characters who aren't naïve or one-dimensional but certainly small-town traditional. It is also immensely entertaining and lighthearted considering its macabre premise, although there are plenty of scenes with heavy and sincere gravitas. It's Duvall, after all.

So turn those confounded radios down youngins and turn this flick up for those bitter old ears.

Happy Hermiting!