Watching.....Desk Set

I don't really watch a lot of movies in the summertime, but I made an exception the other night and watched Desk Set, a romantic comedy starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. I loved it! It was completely different than I expected. The little blurb on the Netflix description described Hepburn's character as a "reference librarian," but actually she and her colleagues (all brilliant, impecably dressed ladies with witty tongues and Mad Men-esque hair) run the reference department of the Federal Broadcasting Commission. Essentially, in this pre-computer world, people called the reference department with all manner of questions, and these ladies would either answer immediately, or research as necessary and get back to the caller with the information. It really made me think about how much I take for granted living in a "google age," when anything you could possibly want to know is merely a click of the mouse away. For the most part, I'm in favor of this instant, free access of information, but at the same time, as the movie points out, I wonder to what degree it cripples our memory and other cognitive functions, to have everything so readily accessible and therefore, not really worth "learning." This train of thought could lead to several pages of ramblings, so I'll get back to the movie.

The screenplay was written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Nora Ephron's parents), and the film definitely falls within the Ephron signature style of smart romantic comedy. The conflict in the film revolves around the arrival of Tracy's character, a methods engineer (basically a systems analyst by today's terms) who is planning the introduction of the big, bad computer, Emerak. This, of course, leads to a head on confrontation between the old ways (embodied by Hepburn's quick, brilliant, no nonsense character) and the inevitability of new technology replacing the human element.

Even though it's not really a Christmas movie, it is set during the holiday season, which will make it ideal for a December viewing, when the sap and sentiment of true Christmas movies is wearing a bit thin.

This is a film I'm anxious to see again. Sometimes it's hard for me to want to watch a brand new film, because I have a tendancy to want to watch the ones I love over and over again.