The movie is side-splittingly funny; people were still laughing as we exited the theater (not our individual theater, but the entire building). Yet, while being decidedly slapstick throughout, the movie was also beautifully poignant in parts. Some scenes tell profound truths (e.g., the Columbia professors’ musical number and the ACLU undead courtroom scene) with such whimsy that the entire theater was gasping for air from the laughs. And then, at the end, when we see the generations of soldiers standing among the crowd at a concert, it might just invoke a little tear.

The cast, and it was a star-studded one, did a superb job. Extra kudos to Kelsey Grammer for his Patton.

It’s a movie you should definitely see. We need more light-hearted commentary about who and what we are as Americans. This movie will undoubtedly resonate with us real Americans out here in fly-over country. It certainly hit home with me.

On this Independence Day 2008, I share with you “A Nation’s Strength” by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

What makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.