On Friday we saw the new movie "The Last Station." It's about Leo Tolstoy's last few months of life. He died in 1910, at the age of 82.
He was a genius and a revolutionary. Some say that he was the greatest novelist of all time. Not only that, he was a great man - and everybody knew it. He was hounded by the paparazzi of his day.
Sort of like Brad Pitt. Think of Brad with a long white beard. No, wait, Brad HAS a long white beard.
Tolstoy's most famous books were War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
But he also wrote the Kingdom of God is Within You, a book that deeply influenced Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others.
Tolstoy was a Christian who believed in non violence but had big problems with the church. He also believed that the Sermon on the Mount were the greatest, most revolutionary words ever spoken. Jesus, who spoke these words, by the way, was also a revolutionary.
In my opinion, The Sermon on the Mount is STILL our most important revolutionary document.
The movie deals with Tolstoy trying to keep peace between Vladimir Chertkov, the head of his international movement and Tolstoy's wife of 48 years and mother of his 13 children, Sofya.
Sofya, played by Helen Mirren is a piece of work.
The movie is beautiful. It's smart. It's funny and sad. It's sexy.
Go see it.
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