The Past, Or...

I saw Get Low over the weekend. It's about a hermit (Robert Duvall) in the 1930s who wants to have a funeral while he's still alive. Early on, he goes into town to see a pastor. The pastor says, among other thing, that his mama always told him "gossip is the devil's radio." Really, she said that? This pastor seems to be in his 50s, so when his mama was teaching him things, it was the turn of the century. Widespread commercial radio wasn't around till the 1920s. The pastor is lying!

PS Duvall has a deep, dark secret in the movie. Here's what Anthony Lane writes in The New Yorker:

The funeral is a lively affair, yet it signals the demise of the movie. There is a carnival air, with food being grilled and fiddle music played, but Felix, largely in closeup, takes the microphone and confesses to an ancient sin. [....] Had I been in that crowd, I would have been tempted to shout, Don’t tell us, old man! Keep your mystery, and your land, to yourself! Duvall could have done it; imagine him bending down to whisper his guilt into Spacek’s ear, with Murray close by, eavesdropping, and the rest of us shut out. Or imagine if Felix had died beforehand, leaving his baffled mourners to do the whispering. “Get Low” is deftly played, and it rarely mislays its ambling charm, but what a forbidding fable it could have been if the truth about Felix Bush, rather than emerging into sunlight, had slunk back into the woods.

Lane can believe what he wants, but seriously? All I can suggest is Lane never become a screenwriter. A whole movie about a guy with a secret, and Lane wants to avoid the reveal? Sure, if the secret doesn't live up to the promise, it can be disappointing. But denying the audience the secret won't just leave them dissatisfied, they'll be furious.