I know that it's been awhile since I posted a "Fiction to Film to Fantastic Music Friday" post, but since I recently watched The Man From Snowy River over spring break, I had to post a little something about this jewel of a film.
When I was growing up, this was a favorite in our little community. I don't think there was a slumber party that I attended that we didn't watch this movie or Anne of Green Gables. Yes, we had very tame slumber parties--granted, that was when I was like nine or ten! I was always really jealous of all the kids in my area that got to take piano lessons. I wanted to take piano lessons, so much so that I begged my parents to let me! Eventually, I was allowed to take them for about a year and a half. Throughout that whole time, I had a series of songs that I wanted to learn how to play, and "Jessica's Theme" was right at the top. It's funny to me now, but as a young girl, this was some strange obsession I had.
To be honest, I was unfamiliar with the poem until a few years ago. It's interesting that a movie would come out of Andrew Barton Paterson's poem "The Man From Snowy River," but I'm glad that it did. For me, this movie really is more about a memory. We probably all have movies and soundtracks that etched their ways into our lives as we were growing up, and this one happens to be a pretty prominent one in my own.
* Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music Friday
is my own little weekly post. The premise is just to share my
favorite books made into film, with amazing soundtracks to boot.
There might even be times where it's just a great film and
soundtrack, or great book and film. Either way, join in if you would
like!
What films mark your early years as a child? I'm not talking your all-time favorites, but the ones that maybe take you right back to a certain time in your life?
Growing up, my mom played musicals in our home pretty much nonstop. In fact, I almost feel as if it's a requirement to listen to the soundtrack of Camelot while you clean on a Saturday morning. I actually really love it and have to give my mom credit for pretty much educating me on every great film out there. Now that I think about it, that's probably why I really am such a film buff.
One film that we watched three or four times a year was My Fair Lady. I loved Professor Higgins, and maybe I was channeling my future profession as an English teacher, but I loved his passion for language. He was snarky, pushy, and a little grouchy. I loved him. Add Eliza into his refined-world mix and it was just priceless.
Now as a teacher, I get the opportunity to teach and recommend plays for my students. Although the actual play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, does not match up to the musical exactly, it is still a genius of a play. When my students start to get down or feel as though all "classical" literature is a bummer, I point them towards a wonderful George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde play and they brighten up. I like a good tragedy or gut-wrenching drama, but sometimes we really need to have a laugh and a smile. Thankfully, Shaw's Pygmalion does just that, and the film My Fair Lady fits the musical bill.
If you're unfamiliar with this glorious classic, let me include one that I love, "Without You." Honestly, I could hardly pick one because there are so many great songs. Here is one of my favorites.
* Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music Friday
is my own little weekly post. The premise is just to share my
favorite books made into film, with amazing soundtracks to boot.
There might even be times where it's just a great film and
soundtrack, or great book and film. Either way, join in if you would
like!
I know this seems like a strange addition to this new weekly post, but I recently watched the iconic film The Killing Fields and knew I couldn't pass on a review. A follow up novel came out as well, but is mainly based on journalism reports written for The New York Times. This real-life story is based on the experience of a group of journalists who returned to Cambodia, and in particular on two men, Dith Pran and Sydney Schanberg.
As journalists, our main characters return to war torn Cambodia in 1973 as the Cambodian national army is in conflict with the Khmer Rouge after the spill over from the Vietnam War. The two men are arrested when they are caught taking pictures of an execution and feared their own deaths. All of the journalists are taken prisoner and essentially only offered a release after Dith Pran negotiates their freedom. In the days following, the group of Americans prepare to leave Cambodia for the United States, but Dith Pran is unable to get a passport to leave the country with his American associates, and thus begins the first-hand account and gut wrenching story of genocide and murder in Cambodia.
Left behind, Dith Pran must pretend to be simple minded and docile, to prevent the Khmer Rouge's men from thinking he is an intellectual that must be added to the increasing number of Cambodians who have already been murdered. In the hopes of returning Cambodia to an agrarian nation, with no ties to family but all to state, the Khmer Rouge put forward a campaign to eliminate the "elite" of the country and to reprogram young children and the laboring class to return their power to the nation. Under the totalitarian regime, men and women are forced to work for hours in the hot sun, planting rice and working in the fields. All this, done under the eye of brutal young children who have been trained up in hatred for family or natural respect for adults.
In short, Pran escapes and makes his way to the border of Thailand, where he enters a refugee camp and meets back up with his American journalist friend Sydney. Over their time of separation, Sydney had received awards for his war reports and photographs, but had never been able to rest knowing his Cambodian friend was a prisoner of conflict. The two meet at the camp, and the closing scene literally broke my heart. Supposedly, even in real life, as Sydney pleads for the forgiveness of his friend, Pran simply rejoices in being reunited and tells him there is nothing to forgive.
This final scene left me a sobbing mess. Although I've always loved this famous song by John Lennon, this scene gave it an entirely new meaning. I had an uncle who served in Vietnam. From what little he would share with us, I knew that it had changed him forever, and because of his experiences I took an early interest in the conflicts throughout Southeast Asia. It's not easy to sum up all that led to these conflicts, nor how the global community responded to them. In a strange way, the closing song and conclusion to the film hit on the terror that is genocide and the reality of its occurrence. We know that it still happens today and it always leaves us to question what leads up to these evil events in history and how we can prevent them.
The events of the film were real and happened to the man Dith Pran. He returned to the United States and worked for The New YorkTimes until his death in 2008. There are amazing tributes and pictures found on their website if you're interested:
Also, the actor who played Dith Pran in the film had also lived through the Killing Fields and was virtually plucked out of obscurity to play the role. This actor, Haing S. Nor went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His award speech is heart-warming and sincere, as well as much deserved. Although I have not read the companion novel or articles, I've since purchased other books about this event to go along with what I've learned. In essence, it's given me a new interest in the stories of those who have survived this horrific event. If you have not had a chance to watch this amazing film, I highly recommend you check it out.
* Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music Friday is my own little weekly post. The premise is just to share my favorite books made into film, with amazing soundtracks to boot. There might even be times where it's just a great film and soundtrack, or great book and film. Either way, join in if you would like!
I couldn't do a Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music tribute without posting about a couple of books that 100% shaped a whole decade of my life. During my 20's, I got through every birthday past 25 by reading Bridget Jones's Diary and then The Edge of Reasoning. By the time I turned 31, I let it go (so yes--I'm in my 30's). Although I'm not even really like Bridget, I so related to her thoughts and feelings, that she warmed my heart and made me feel like I had a comrade in being a singleton. In short, I loved her.
When I went off to grad school, I started dating someone pretty seriously, and Bridget went away. Why did I need to read Bridget? I had outgrown such chick-lit, fluffy, vulnerable nonsense. I had a man. Well, that's what I thought at the time. In my last year of graduate school, my contemporary British fiction teacher had us read and discuss Bridget Jones's Diary, which horrified me. I didn't want pseudo-pre-intellectuals (myself included), ruining a book that had comforted and soothed me for so many birthdays! I waited for that fateful discussion day, waiting to hear multi-tattooed, uber intellectual dude to tear it apart, or classics guy to say how stupid and nonsensical it was. Strangely, no one felt that way. Wait. They didn't want to tear it to shreds and say what "drivel" it was? They didn't want to say how it dumbed down our society and leveled women to mere cultural punching bags in our patriarchal society? No. I was shocked. Instead, we had this amazing conversation about the mirror that Fielding held up to us as a society. We talked about how she showed us the very real pressures placed on women to get married and to be thin. We talked about Bridget's ability to wade through very personal emotions that are obviously so universal to women (enough so to become a smash hit), and deal with her desires and fears. Those books weren't about criticizing her desires, but about the self-deprecating ways she dealt with them. It was a truly freeing time for me. My favorite read was NOT discredited by my classmates, which shocked me.
Mark in his famous reindeer jumper.
Having said that, there is more to those books than a single woman desperate to get married. Bridget Jones's Diary was originally a serial in The Independent and Daily Mirror in the UK, which was later published into her first novel. Ironically enough, the story was also modeled after Jane Austen's most famous story of singleton anxiety and love, Pride and Prejudice. The evident judgment on the part of Bridget and Mark Darcy mimic the original in a very funny, modern way, that is subtle and yet filled with irony in so many ways. It's obvious too, that the book had Colin Firth in mind as Mark Darcy, which was why casting him in the film version was so genius.
There is so much more that can be said about these great books. People often discredit them, but for being one of the hallmarks in chick lit and modernizations of a classic, Fielding managed to write a funny little novel with an awful lot of depth before anyone else had even dabbled in this kind of writing. (Even when said humor came in the form of giant pants!)
How then can I not mention the music. This is yet another soundtrack that I own and have listened to about a million times. The music in the film ranged from the silly, "It's Raining Men" to the sad "All By Myself," with plenty of songs filled with romantic longing in between. One of my favorites was the song "Out of Reach," which is included at a pretty dramatic moment in the movie when we believe that Bridget has lost someone she really had grown to love. Here's a taste:
The fact is, this is one of those movies that just makes me smile. I love Colin Firth, I love Hugh Grant, and I thought that Renee Zellweger did an amazing job in the first film. If you've been a singleton past the age of 25, these books and movies address some of the funny, insecure moments we've all had. If not, then you'll just have to trust us. If you've really never seen it before, here's the official trailer:
Now excuse me while I pick up an old friend and tradition and go re-read Bridget Jones's Diary!
* Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music Friday is my own little weekly post. The premise is just to share my favorite books made into film, with amazing soundtracks to boot. There might even be times where it's just a great film and soundtrack, or great book and film. Either way, join in if you would like!
You know that line from While You Were Sleeping when Meg Ryan's character is watching the classic old movie An Affair to Remember and her friend Becky says, "That's your problem. You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie." I remember thinking how true that was. Who wouldn't want to be in love in a movie? Maybe it's because we don't see them doing the laundry and paying bills (you know--real life things), but they definitely seem like some ideal. That had me thinking about the movies, and even books, that shaped the way I look at love.
Growing up, I had a set of hardback books that contained Aesop's Fables, Little Women, Jane Eyre, and Anne of Green Gables to name a few. They were such a pretty matching set of colorful books, with pretty color art folios inside the books. I still remember picking up Anne of Green Gables and falling in love with Anne, Diana, Marilla, Matthew, and of course Gilbert. We only had that first book, so that's where it stopped. Regardless, I loved the story of Anne, who loved to read and learn with an absolute passion.
Several years down the road, a friend invited a group of us from high school over for a sleep over to watch all of the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea films. Well, that did it. We sighed and fell in love with Gilbert and Prince Edward Island along with everyone else who has ever watched those movies. That put me back on the road to reading the rest of the series. Although they're completely different from the movies, they are delightful; the books, the education, the letters, the lifestyle, and the language all pull together to make a quaint and wonderful read. Oh, and have you ever noticed how much these people just walk or "ramble" for fun? Even exercise looked philosophical and romantic! Between the movies and the books, what wasn't to love? It all just seemed like such a romanticized time period and story.
So, for this Friday, I thought I'd share a little reminiscing love of mine with the Anne of Green Gables series and movies. The books, films, and soundtrack for the films are all a great memory and feel timeless. Besides, who doesn't love a character who is so passionate about books and poetry that they'll reenact Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" with her friends? Awesome.
What movies or books shape your view of love?
Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music Friday is my own little weekly post. The premise is just to share my favorite books made into film, with amazing soundtracks to boot. There might even be times where it's just a great film and soundtrack, or great book and film. Either way, join in if you would like!
Because I really love both fiction and film, I have been batting around the idea of starting my own weekly topic called "Fiction, to Film, to Fantastic Music Friday". The premise is just to share my favorite books made into film, with amazing soundtracks to boot. There might even be times where it's just a great film and soundtrack. Either way, join in if you would like!
To kick things off, I wanted to share one of my favorites in this category, The Last of the Mohicans. I recently watched this movie again and wanted to go dig out the music (or pull it up on my iTunes list--much easier).
Admittedly, I've never read James Fenimore Cooper's novel of the same name, but from what I understand, the two daughters had almost the opposite story lines from the movie, as did Uncas and Hawkeye. Honestly, there is so much that can be said about what the film version was trying to accomplish by playing out the strong, romantic storyline between Cora and Hawkeye, but I'll leave that for another day! What we're really left with is this seemingly panoramic view of colonial America. Somehow through its gruesome fight scenes, we see a romanticized ideal of man and woman surviving in the beautiful, uncolonized America.
Okay, so beyond all the intellectual things this film is fraught with, I really do love it. Besides, I will admit that I have a weakness for Daniel Day Lewis (ie. The Age of Innocence, The Crucible, The Boxer, and There Will Be Blood, among many others), who just never seems to tire of running in this movie! Yes, the violence in the film is pretty intense and I find myself flinching or looking away during many scenes; however, this fight for existence is everything the film is about.
The thing that adds even more to the movie is the amazing score tied to it. If you've ever heard this soundtrack, it has probably stuck with you. Everything from the Main Theme, to Clannad's "I Will Find You", to the amazing "Promontory" are every bit as moving on their own as in the film. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. If you haven't heard it, check it out.
