Films romanticize the exorcism of past mistakes

Whether we keep our resolutions or not, the new year is a time to wipe the slate clean, a time for second chances. It's important to have a moment every year when we can do this. After all, we are all flawed and carry the baggage of past mistakes. So being able to divest ourselves of those things, if only symbolically, can be a relief.

Of course, in Hollywood, getting a second chance is never quite as simple as taking stock or setting stuff free. In Hollywood everything must be done bigger, better and with a sense of drama. Here are a few favorite examples of cinematic second chances.

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (1941): Not as well known as its remake Heaven Can Wait, this feel-good movie about a prematurely deceased boxer who returns to Earth as a millionaire is clearly the superior film. Robert Montgomery stars as the late pugilist given a second chance.

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985): A comic, corpse-ridden take on the zombie genre, Return shambles along with its rotting tongue planted firmly in cheek. So what happens when the dead are offered a second chance at life? Well, not ones to squander a good thing, they take advantage of the situation and begin to eat the living. Yum.

TIME AFTER TIME (1979): A fictionalized account of H.G. Wells and his time machine, this pleasant thriller finds the writer/scientist transported to modern San Francisco and on the trail of Jack the Ripper. When things don't go quite as expected, well, he has a time machine. Presto, instant second chance.

BLAZING SADDLES (1974): A gunfighter, his once quick hands destroyed by booze, sits wasting away in a dusty jail cell. Only the kind-hearted sheriff, and a liberal dose of low-brow humor, can save him. Gene Wilder plays the once great gunfighter whose interests include chess and ... well ... I suggest you check out the movie.

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (1950): A young man is saved by his love for the trumpet only to - if you'll excuse me - blow it later. Still, in the finest Hollywood tradition, he finds redemption through his music and gets, that's right, a second chance. This movie was purportedly based on the story of jazz great Bix Beiderbecke.

Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.