Anne of Green Gables: Edwardian Canadian Nostalgia.

  How do you do, 

  Well, here's the first literature review. You saw I made a reference to the character Marilla Cuthbert back in "Dawson's Creek: Review and Commentary Part 1" and now I will write on some thoughts about the book in which she appeared. In L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, she appears as a spinster woman living with her brother, Matthew, in a farm called Green Gables, located in a fictional town of Avonlea in the island of Prince Edward, off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada. She and her brother are getting old and they send for an orphan boy, but wind up getting a girl name Anne Shirley. That's basically the premise of the book, though it only occupies the first third of the novel. The rest then covers the events from after Matthew and Marilla adopted Anne, where she befriends Diana Berry, goes to school, gets into a rough patch with Gilbert, and go into college. In short, it's basically Horatio Alger for girls.

   I started reading this book in high school and I had liked the character of Anne. In fact, I felt like having her as a girlfriend (even though we wouldn't be both fifteen until the later parts of the book, but if there is "scope to the imagination", as she would say, I could imagine being young enough to be the right age at will). Rereading the book frequently has given me all sorts of sensations of hope. There is that hope that you'll always be given a chance after a bad impression, that friendships can be healed, and one can go far and beyond one's origin regardless of what obstacles bar the way. I have even wanted to model my ideal mate to that of Anne and I do hope to meet and marry her. Though a cynic in me would say, to quote Star Wars, I'd wind up "follow[ing] old [Anne Shirley] on some damned fool's idealistic crusade"(Star Wars dir. George Lucas, 20th Century Fox, 1977, film).

   The character of Anne Shirley can be likened and countered by the American variant, being Pollyanna Whittier. Both products of their time and both are girls with idealism about them and reading about them makes one want to sing "thank heaven for little girls". Yet, Pollyanna is always bright and cheerful, which does make her a one dimensional character: a Mary Sue as we would say. Anne is less so. She is moody over the fact her hair is red, considering it something to be ashamed of, and when someone says something about it she gets upset. It's something that women who have certain insecurities of their appearances may deal with, like facial hair or small hips and so on. I am sure Pollyanna would have told Anne that she could be glad about having red hair because she has hair, though Anne would say otherwise. 

    There is a point in the story that Anne decides to dye her hair and it came out green, which she claims is worse. There are girls who dye their hair into many colors (I know one, personally), and they don't seem to mind having green hair. Of course, none of them seem to have the same insecurities as Anne. In an earlier chapter, when we first make our acquaintance with Gilbert Blythe, he calls her "carrots", earning him her scorn. It hurts her enough that she refuses to speak to him. Today, Gilbert would have been hauled to the headmaster for bullying, yet in the book it is Anne who is punished simply for breaking her slate on his head, an act that would equally get Anne in trouble today for assault. No doubt, in the 21st Century, both would have been forced to spend Saturday in detention. However, this is the 19th Century we are talking about. Through Diana, we see that what we today call bullying is innocent teasing (it only becomes bullying if one becomes controlling or harmful to bullied, which makes perfect sense in my opinion). Yet, in connection to this, Anne decides to spend some time out of school for Gilbert's behavior, only to return when Diana and Anne are separated by Diana's mom. So, Anne spends most of the grade school ignoring Gilbert while he discretely tries to win her friendship, placing an apple on her desk to rescuing her from a river. It's always interesting how people considered that more than asking for friendship then as now; yet in the 1900s, most would have sighed and wonder why can't some boy do the same, today's members of the female sex would accuse Gilbert of harassment or stalking. At least, he gives it up when Anne finally says no and they don't talk for awhile.
   Anne's stance with Gilbert is contrast to that of Diana. They declare themselves bosom friends, meaning friends close to the heart, in a time before it was given Lesbian connotations. In modern terms, they are BFFs. As best friends, Anne and Diana share all sorts of secrets and beliefs. Like typical girls, they gossip about every thing around them and they play acting in some favorite story with romance behind it. There is point where they are parted for a while. In the world of fiction, as with real life, the test of friendship either comes from without or within, being either they are separated by circumstances beyond their control or something they don't agree on causes them to be at odds with one another. In Anne and Diana, it's the former. During a visit, Diana gets drunk on "raspberry cordial", which turns out to be current wine though Anne didn't know. Yet, it's enough to make Mrs. Berry pull Diana away from Anne and forbid her from interactions. Since they are children, Anne and Diana have no choice on the matter. However, when Diana's little sister gets ill, Anne is the one who knows what to do in tending to her in a time before 911, medical alert devices, or even "Universal Healthcare", Mrs. Berry reconciles with Anne and permits them to be together again. This shows how doing something nice tend lead to relationships restored, as I believe, and even allow the bridges to be mended. I just wish it can work in this century as well (minus the croup, though). But, there is always hope. As to Anne and Diana, after the croup, they resume their activities.
   One thing that comes of the friendship is Anne meeting Aunt Josephine, a spinster lady who is Diana's aunt. After jumping on the bed with her in it through a race to it, Anne confesses to her for the idea and her wit charms Aunt Josephine to a point that they become good friends. Aunt Josephine then shows the two city life, to which Anne finds attractive but not to her satisfaction. Aunt Josephine is not the only elderly person to befriend Anne, as evidenced by Rachael Lynde, Marilla, and Matthew. Their arcs in the friendships differ with their characteristics. Rachael is opinionated enough to offend Anne, yet learns to be considerate of Anne's feelings after the latter apologizes. Matthew is the shy and reclusive man, which anyone other than a psychologist would claim stems from a fear of women (possibly from a domineering mother), yet enjoys the friendship with a little girl more than with any. Since the Cuthberts are adopting Anne, she and Matthew become an ersatz father-daughter pair. This makes Marilla the mother figure, though not in the traditional sense. No doubt, the background that led to Matthew's gynophobia may have led to Marilla coming out the way she is in the book. Unlike her brother, we see how she handles her psychological scars with hard work and prayer, whereas Matthew is kept in the yard. No doubt, if Anne of Green Gables were written by a man, we might have seen how Matthew handles his emotions.

   A few things came to me upon reading it. For one, it allowed me to see the world of girls from the eyes of the said girls, something I couldn't do in real life. Anne of Green Gables offered an idealistic look into that world, one of sharing treats and braiding hair while gossiping on something (such as romance), as opposed to Stephen King's Carrie presented the girls' world as something like a dystopia where many are like female chimps, doing political movements against one another, using boys for power, and attacking all outsiders with all form of malice and prejudice. So, I got a sense of seeing it as like the God Janus, the two headed god of whom January is named for.
   On characters, it's easy to sum up each character Anne interacts with in one or two words; Marilla is strict and rational, Matthew is silent and stubborn, Rachael is lackadaisical, Diana is gentle, Ruby is fragile, Gilbert is mischievous and contrite, et cetera et cetera et cetera. With kind of set up, it is easy to keep track of all characters and know who is who. It does reflect on a simple society where it was easy to know a person from his character, unlike today where everyone is complex (pronoun preference, orientation, skin color, beliefs, et cetera et cetera et cetera).
   The bulk of Anne of Green Gables is basically a story of a girl becoming a woman, just as David Copperfield focuses on a boy becoming a man. Where Charles Dickens had young David go through life as a young man with college and marriage, plus a family, Montgomery has Anne work for higher learning without any plans of getting married. In short, Anne of Green Gables can be read as a feminist novel as even though Anne and Diana may talk of romance, they never talk of settling down with a beau. It should be noted that the book was published when Suffragettes were marching for the right to vote in the States and the British Isles, so it's no surprise that Montgomery has Rachael Lynde quoted to say things will change when women have the right to vote. It is something to be amused over. Women have the right to vote now, but the same sort of politicians are still being elected and same bureaucracy still prevails. Still, there are plenty of other examples of feminism in Anne of Green Gables.  During Anne's early stay at Green Gables, Marilla tells Matthew that she will bring Anne up and requests he let her do on her own, stating "An old maid may not know much about raising children, but I guess she knows more than an old bachelor" ("Marilla Makes Up Her Mind" pg. 59) Matthew goes along with this, only walking up to give Anne a talking on the apologizing to Rachael Lynde in secret, and only comes in to bring presents for Anne. When it comes to favoritism, however, I can say that through the book Anne loves both Matthew and Marilla in equal measure.
    In the book, Marilla tells Rachael Lynde, and us, that Matthew is getting older and he has heart disease (no doubt from stress from work and his smoking habits). At one point, he is told to not get excited. This while Anne is working to enter college for a higher education. One can debate on rather Anne could give up her dream of higher education and teaching in order to make it easier on the Cuthberts. Of course, fate steps in in the last two chapters. When a note from the bank comes that reports failure, the shock is enough to give Matthew a fatal heart attack. Matthew dies and Marilla is left with Anne while losing her vision. Anne now has to make a fateful decision because Marilla is an old woman who could go blind one day and no one is left to operate the farm. The death of Matthew signals the end of Anne's childhood. Now she has to put aside some of her dreams and help with the farm, especially as Marilla is losing her eyesight. It also signals the reconciliation with Gilbert. Gilbert decides to give up his post at Avonlea and let Anne take it, thus cutting her costs to half. This allows the two to finally see eye to eye and they decide to be friends. Once more, a kind deed mends the bridges between them. I am sure any woman out there reading this, as well as the book, may be wishing some guy would do what Gilbert did; be willing to give up an easy way to a career just to make a woman happy.

   On the whole, the plot structure starts out as one continuous narrative, but the meat of the book is episodic. This is aided with the names of the chapters, which can be treated as episodes in a soap opera. Reading the book has been like trying out something from the country and one can certainly taste the Canadian flavor in the text. There is a bit of nostalgia in the book, which was noticed in the time it was written. When Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908, this was during the Edwardian period, with the Victorian now over, since the Queen died seven years prior. L.M. Montgomery was writing about Anne in a world of the motorcar and the airplane, when the telephone was the method of communication, phonographs played music, nickelodeons had short videos while the silver screen was becoming the rage, and houses had indoor bathrooms with plumping and the fridge in the kitchen to preserve food. No doubt, there were plenty of people who thought the world was "spinning much faster than it did in the old days", to quote Rascal Flatts. Anne of Green Gables offered a glimpse to a simpler time when one could walk down an old dirt road, or ride a buggy, from the station to the farm, passing and beholding all the sights one can see. Today, it can reveal a bygone world just as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or To Kill a Mockingbird does for the US.
    I am sure Anne would find this world a far cry from the one she grew up in and may think there is such scope to the imagination when it comes to nostalgia. In this world where everything is digital and electronic, maybe we could be like Anne and try to imagine it a different place; one without racism or sexism, one where everything is possible, and strained friendships and relationships can be mended by a simple act of kindness. If we could put such a world into existence, I think it would be a much better world than it is now.


Citation.

Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables (1908) Scholastic Inc. New York (2001).

A Note.

  How do you do, 

  I hope y'all had a happy Easter. I have been out lately with a few other things going on, which won't be discussed as it's private. I will say that some ideas are coming and I am looking into making something about a book or two, as well as something of interest. Reviews will still come as will some Food for Thought. Now, I know that there are things people are raving about. If you are looking for a review of Beauty and the Beast coming up, I am sorry to disappoint as that is not in the works. I am also not doing one for the new Power Rangers movie. I would like to go over the series, though it seems someone else is doing so. Type in "Ranger Retrospective" and you can see it, though I must warn the writer reviewing leaves something to be desired: his episode by episode reviews contain out of context moments, a few inserted false statements, unnecessary jokes, and the over all tone of the blog suggests that the writer wants the bad guys to win. A part from all that, it's nice to see someone else's view on a beloved show, regardless of what that show might be or if it feels like a reflection on the dumbing down of America. Don't take my word for it; look that blog up and read it yourselves. If you find it enjoyable, all I'll say is bless your heart. However, there are other things I can look into in the future. 

   Y'all take care.

Food For Thought: Advent

    How do you do,

    You may have seen me mention in blog entries of being Catholic and I will bring up something that is brought up and celebrated among Catholics, and a few other Christian denominations. Advent is generally defined as "(1) a coming into place, view, or being, arrival: (2) the coming of Christ into the world." (Dictionary.com). In fact, the word even comes from the Latin word "Adventus" which means "coming." To most of y'all who don't share the same faith as I, you can say the name indicates the arrival of Christmas. In Catholic theology, it is more than the arrival of Christmas, but the anticipation for the arrival of the reason for the season. It is also the beginning of a new liturgical year. 

    As with Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, Advent is the winter celebration with multiple candles to lit on each day, though the number is reduced to four. Each candle doesn't cover one day a week and leave three unaccounted for. Actually, they stand for Sundays. The first candle can be lit as early November 24th, being near the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (November 30) and the last is lit as late as December 24th. In short, any time before Christmas and after Thanksgiving is Advent Season. In the honor of the name, the candles are called Advent candles and they are generally purple and pink. These pictures can give you a clear picture of what they look like and in what order they are lit in the Catholic doctrine. 

First Sunday of Lent.

Second Sunday of Lent

Third Sunday of Lent

Fourth Sunday of Lent

   Not featured in the pictures is a center candle that is lit on Christmas Day. It can be white to symbolize purity. The purples are obviously of royalty since for the longest time a cloth with purple dye was a luxury only kings could afford. The rose candle is meant to symbolize Gaudete Sunday, which is the counter point to Lent's Laetere. Yet, in Germany it was interpreted that the first purple is Isaiah prophesying the Birth of Christ. The second is the Bible. Third candle, which to Catholics is the rose colored candle, represents the Virgin Mary, thus adding femininity to the equation. Normally, the Virgin Mary is illustrated with blue. The fourth candle is to represent John the Baptist. Thus, we have the written and spoken word on the arrival of Christ, plus His Mother. Another reason for purple was to show a repentant color that was less exciting than the brighter colors which is why some Protestant denominations use blue instead of purple.

   Outside of the pictures, the candles are often arrived on a wreath. This is perhaps the one item in the equation that has pagan elements, being from the practice of using boughs of evergreens during the winter festival of Saturnalia. Coincidentally, the last week of Advent happens during the week of Saturnalia. Unlike the Christmas wreath, the Advent one is not hung up on doors but is used as the center piece of a table and the standing place of the candelabra. Now, the wreathe, or crown would be a better word for it, can be found at home in the States, but in some places it is only kept in churches.

   The candles are not the only part of Advent. Advent, like Lent, is a time for fasting and prayer. It fact, it was once done to fast during this period until Christmas in what was called St. Martin's Lent, since it was to happen near St. Martin's day, excluding Saturdays and Sundays. Even the Catholic Church had it as a fasting season until 1917. Anglican and Lutheran churches also fasted and then relaxed on it. Eastern Christians have used the season to abstain from eating meat and dairy. Devotional prayers are sometimes done in churches. In Germany, they also light little candles on oranges, which they call a Christingle. There were other things done among the faithful during Advent such as not abstaining from dancing. In short, most tend to not go to parties or host them in this period. 

     Mass is also done differently during Advent. In the Catholic Church, the Te Deum is excluded, as is the Gloria. At the same time, the Gospel reading is preceded by the Hallelujah, unlike in Lent. It is during this season that one hears "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" in Mass, also, along with "Ave Maria." It was once the idea to not have a wedding during Advent, also, as the solemnization was not possible. People could still get married during Advent, it's just that the whole is downplayed. Other things on the Mass are found here.

    Not everything in Advent is about fasting and prayer. Some elements of Christmas also happen during Advent. Some people would take the chance hoist up Christmas decorations as early as the first week, which is when Christmas shopping commences. Some parts of the US will see decorations up as early as Thanksgiving. Some houses will even have the tree up and decorated early in December, instead of waiting until Christmas Eve. People also have traditions of lighting candles outside of the four to count down the days until Christmas. This is also used in Europeans with the Advent Calendar with is often torn off and a piece be burned. Of course, most Advent Calendars bought in stores will have pictures of Christmas images and twenty-four doors. Inside of each door is a piece of chocolate to be tasted on the date of the door opening. This last type was a relatively modern concept, becoming popular in the eighties. Other things have happened like bonfires in a field of haystacks.

    Advent is observed as well as celebrated by Christians. It allows one to prepare for Christmas in a traditional manner as it does mean the arrival of Christ into the world. In this secularized country, this period is the period when stores have all the Christmas sales going for the Christmas shopping; when people take out the lights, inflated Santas, and Frostys, and place them across their houses and yards; when radio stations begin to blare all the "Holiday music" while television channels have marathons of Holiday specials that last for days. A few other celebrations happen along with Advent in other countries. For example is St. Lucia Day where in Sweden they have a girl dress up as the martyred saint and lead a parade of candles at the break of dawn and then they all sample some toasty buns. Sometimes, the Jewish holiday of Hannukkah happens during Advent and seeing it with a Jewish friend is a good homage to Jesus' heritage. These are but just parts of the season to observe and for Christians it will all be the observance that will lead to the celebration, the appetizer to lead to the main course, and the overture that will lead to the symphony.

Titanic: Review and Commentary

How do you do,

  This is not a review on James Cameron's blockbuster from 1997, which is something that has been reviewed many times over. Actually, there have been other movies titled Titanic before Cameron came along. The first was actually made in Germany in 1943. The film is propaganda for the Nazis, doing all it can to demonize the British. The second came in 1953, starring Clifton Webb and Barbary Stanwick, and is the first to be made in the US. This one is one and a half hour melodrama full of fictional characters and inaccuracies. It is the third is actually a miniseries aired on CBS in 1996 and produced by Hallmart. I chose this even with the centennial anniversary almost four years in the past, yet 2016 is the twentieth anniversary of the airing of this miniseries on television. The year after is when the famous version will turn twenty.

  When you look up this miniseries on a list of films about Titanic you are likely to find alot of negativity about it. Is it justifiable? Well, it's not the affects because this was the 1990's and television made movies are not really the sort that have enough in the budget for fancy effects. If you wanted impressive looking effects, you'd have to watch the theatrically released films. There are some exceptions, of course. I can't blame the acting in the movie, either. Some of the names were there to catch a few eyes (for example, George C. Scott is Captain Smith). If there was something to blame, it'd be the story telling. It does get grittier than the 1997 film. In fact, the miniseries seems darker than Cameron's film on many occasions.
  The miniseries begins with a character named Alice Cleaver waking up screaming after the images of the Titanic being constructed and some images of objects and bodies in the water. There seems a foreshadowing implication behind this, especially confirmed as Miss Cleaver having dreams of a baby dying. The early scenes imply her to be emotionally unstable, which makes one question her being hired by the Allison family as their nanny. Due to limited research, the Allisons, I believe, were one of those 1st class families who booked the passage on their way to Montreal. The family included additional servants, other than Miss Cleaver. The film portrays them as a somewhat American family and their daughter, Lorraine, can lead one to assume she is auditioning to be Verruca Salt. This is one arc. The second is Captain Smith and the crew, plus J. Bruce Ismay, who is played by Roger Rees. Rees and Scott co-starred together in A Christmas Carol and it's amazing to see them with more scenes. The third arc features Jamie Purse (don't ask who came with these names) who is running from the law. He is introduced as a pick-pocket who hides in a bar. A stranger offers his cap to help him blend in. Then they, and a drunkard, talk of Titanic and America. The stranger who helped Jamie seems to have something for the rich and their jewels. Of course, the man in the bar gets drunk and Jamie steals his ticket (which for us is a good thing, knowing what happens to the ship). Jamie uses the ticket to board the Titanic when who should he run into but the man who helped him evade the law. The man's name is never mentioned on screen, yet he is listed as Simon Doonan and he is played by Tim Curry. The encounter also introduces a Danish convert named Aasa Ludvigsen and the Jack family. The fourth arc comes on departure day when we meet Isabella Paradine, played by Catherine Zeta Jones, and Wynn Park, played by Peter Gallagher. Mrs Paradine is in mourning because an aunt of hers died and she is returning to America in black. Of course, Park, seems to have followed. Now they are going to be on the doomed ship in first class.
   From these introductions, we have four story arcs: that of Alice Cleaver and the Allisons, Captain Smith and the crew, Jamie Purse and Aasa Ludvigsen, and Park and Isabella. If one or the other of the two first class groups were of the second class, I'd say all the groups of the ship are represented (any film that does that is a dream come true). Of course, most of the things romanticized of Titanic is done in this representation. The first class passengers are portrayed as people who talk on shallow topics over dinner while acting all shocked when someone does something indecent. The steerage are shown to be only Irish and English immigrants who are herded like cattle and kept segregated by gates. The crew are shown professional, yet some what incompetent in their duties. Are there examples in the listed? Plenty. Enough it would make this review overlong. But the prime example is that during the dinning scenes in first class, we see people dancing. In reality, the first class frowned on the idea of people dancing after dinner. This was something the 1997 blockbuster got right as portraying it as another social event where people talk a few matters while consuming tiny, yet expensive morsels, all the while a string quartet plays soothing music in the background. In this miniseries, we see it transformed into a ball that the rich enjoy. Then we have a soap operish moment where Park asks a girl to dance, which angers Isabella. Meanwhile, Jamie Purse attempts to enter the first class group, facing the opposition that Clifton Webb's character did in the old black and white film. He, of course, steals a tux and passes off as first class and he runs into John Jacob Astor and Margaret Brown. Before he could get back to his steerage bed, however, he runs into Simon Doonan again, who takes him under his wing, because he is also a thief.
   The plot that Isabella Paradine and Jamie Purse each have take center in the first part of the miniseries. Isabella was once dating Wynn Park, according to the backstory, and called it off to marry her current husband. Wynn Park never got over it and has pursued her on to the Titanic. Most modern viewers with any brain cell would realize this was no coincidence; this is stalking. However, the miniseries, like any, sends out the wrong message by claiming Isabella still has feelings for him and will turn to him in the end. Why else would she be jealous of him dancing with another woman? Then, Park is able to get some flowers from Ireland (or was it France?) brought on board to be placed into her accommodations, and she shows her approval by casting the mourning dress aside for a red one. In this period of time, the period women take to wear black for mourning depended on who she mourned for. Friends and acquaintances got the duration of the funeral to a few days, family members and husbands got months to a year (some women may wear black after becoming widows for longer than a year). During this period, she can't accept suitors or do much socializing (which is why she is mostly confined to dinner celebrations). Of course, Isabella Paradine becomes the woman who defies convention by not only removing the black dress, but she dances the tango with Park. Over time, they journey the ship together for a tour. Moral alarms will sound because she is showing little devotion to her dead aunt this way. Then, she and Park go into the apartment where they precede to have sex, which causes them to miss church the next day. So, that means she is cheating on her husband. She then faces the moral dilemma of what to do next? She could stay faithful to husband for the remainder of the trip and break Park's heart again, or she could live a double life of sleeping with Park while putting on the facade of a faithful wife. Then, there's the third choice: send a heartbreaking telegram variant of the Dear John letter to her husband, leave her family, and elope with Park to who knows where. Right on April 14, she decides that third choice, knowing she was betraying the husband who was so good to her. How different that is from Rose's fiance who is a regular "cruise jerk" and one would want to see Rose dump him for Jack.
    Living a lie is what Jamie does on the start of the journey. He befriends the Jack family and Aasa, passing off as an ambitious man wanting to work in the motion pictures. All while he does so he hangs around with Doonan who tells him of a heist he has in mind. At the end of the voyage, they will rob the rich. Jamie goes along with this willingly. At the same time, he begins to fall for Aasa who tells him she is looking for God. As the journey goes on, we also see that Aasa has also fallen for Jamie. One would wonder why does fiction pit a good girl with a bad boy trope when it comes to romance. My theory on this is that it allows a scenario to reformation of the bad boy, as opposed to the more believed corrupting of the girl. In each case, there's a boy who knows he does wrong and he doesn't see himself as redeemable and yet this girl still has faith that he can improve. It's the sort of love and devotion that is Christ like, even if some think it as stupid on the girl's part. We are all sinners and most of us don't think of ourselves as redeemable, yet we have a God who loves us anyway and He is always allowing us chances to change for the better. Aasa provides another case where such love influences the man, as does the influences the Devil like Doonan provides. There is a brief crisis where Aasa freaks out when Jamie lets slip his real name (and Doonan knew the truth the whole time and was willing to use it against him) and she leaves him for the night while he prepares to join Doonan for something unrelated. Jamie does feel protective of Aasa and seems willing to let it be known of Doonan's intentions, especially when the latter suggests he might turn him in at any moment. Doonan makes this boast: "I have worked for the White Star Line for twelve years; I'm a trusted employee. Who do you think they are going to believe? Me or Mr. Dicky, who isn't Mr. Dicky at all?" The best Jamie could do is tell him to keep away from Aasa. His first step to redemption is when he admits privately that she is too good for him.
    Such are the main plot points of the miniseries, diverting our attention from Alice Cleaver and Captain Smith's plots and from many details that lead to the tragedy.

   When one thinks of Titanic one could think of the Edwardian period, and when one thinks of that time period we think of a time in the history of Britain and the United States when people tend to be different in thinking than today. It's perceived that with the 20th Century being new, most people then were more courageous about things and somewhat stupid. Kind of the way Spielberg thought of himself at a younger age when he made Jaws. So, when I look to Titanic, or look to the Edwardian period, I think of courage and stupidity, both of which conspired to create the tragedy on her maiden voyage.
    The miniseries is good in presenting that courage and stupidity. It is especially shown in Captain E. Smith and Mr. Bruce Ismay. Smith is not afraid of the seas in this movie. No doubt, Smith is made as the kind of man who doesn't even fear God. The same with Ismay who wants Titanic to perform its full potential. At least, Smith also thinks of the passengers and decides to follow safety procedures. This portrayal of the two has its basis in the newspaper reports of the time which portrayed Ismay as the villain in the Titanic tragedy. Because he survived, his reputation was ruined and he could not hold his head in polite society. Today, we believe his survival was largely so someone in a place of power could give report of the event and Ismay did prove helpful during the sinking, unlike what we see in the miniseries. The fictional characters also show that courage and stupidity, mostly in minor events.
   The stupidity is shown as all ice berg warnings are treated with indifference (Ismay actually puts one from Baltic into his coat pocket in one scene). Then there's the wireless room taking personal messages and listening to Cape Races when someone warns them of ice. With all that, one could see the tragedy coming right away. Yet, when the event arrives the tension is not lacking. The miniseries has the usual portrayal: "Ice berg, dead ahead!", "Hard to starboard!", "Full Reverse!", the bow slowly turning, impact, and "closing water tight doors." The first part of the miniseries then ends with the passengers having fun with pieces of ice while Mrs. Brown places her glass down, only for it to slide away and fall onto the deck.
    Thus, we have made it to the night of the sinking, which we have to wait until part two to watch.

   I have looked for the original script of the miniseries and actually found it. It turns out, Ross LaManna envisioned some kind of soap opera on the Titanic with more development on the historical as well as the fictional characters. Against the backdrop is a forbidden love story of a poor boy and a rich girl. When this miniseries went into production, much of that was abandoned, apparently they found out the same plot was being used in James Cameron's film. Just as well, in my opinion. However, it sort of streamlined what was originally used and it took out a few people. Most important person on Titanic is missing: Thomas Andrews is missing. Andrews made such an important point in Titanic, especially shown in the original story where he is the man with such love of his ship and later becomes humbled in his final moments. With his erasure, most of the lines are shared by Ismay and Smith.
   That sort of thing is something to take note of and it kind of diminishes the miniseries. It's something that is repeated when a miniseries called Helen of Troy came out before we saw the film Troy.

    The sinking of the Titanic brings the arcs together the way a woman with knitting needles brings together different threads in crochet. While Park and Isabella talk of what to do after they get off the ship, Alice Cleaver goes crazy and scares the Allison family again and Jamie finds Aasa hurt and can't help because he is pulled away by Doonan. Back in part one, there is a scene of Aasa talking with Mrs. Jack about Jamie and angels while they brush their hair. This scene is followed by an unrealistic moment of Aasa taking a shower, which leads to something like Psycho, without the music sounding. In place of Norman Bates is Doonan, himself, and he doesn't stab Aasa to death, just sexually assaults her, never caring that his white shirt, pants, and shoes are getting wet from the shower. I am thankful to some network censors that cut the scene short, but it would make sense to cut the whole thing out and leave us wondering what happened to her (though the shot of the plow cutting through pieces of ice seems a good analogy of rape). I have to hand it to the lack of intelligence on the part of Jamie for not noticing Doonan missing parts of his uniform and I can share Aasa's outrage at him going with the man who ruined her.
   Jamie does seem to think of surviving when it dawns on him that the ship is sinking. However, Doonan reveals they can sneak off disguised as women. Of course, Jamie draws the line on cross dressing (by the way, have you figured out yet where you saw the name Tim Curry?). Not only that, he figures out from the way Doonan talks that he was the one who harmed Aasa. At that, Jamie gets into a fight with Doonan who proves too much for the young man. Doonan tells him he is going down with the ship, causing Jamie to toss the tiara back at him the way Judas threw the thirty pieces of silver at the Jewish priests. He then goes back to help Aasa and the Jacks.
    As to Aasa, we see despair in her for the first time. She had been raped, her boyfriend has deserted her, and the ship is sinking, all the reasons why. Jamie comes back and tries to convince her that there "has to be a God" as He brought them together. With that, Jamie has showed he is becoming redeemed and is turning from his old self. He is able to get Aasa onto a boat, but not the Jacks. The Jacks don't hold anything against him or the crew. They merely make their peace with God and prepare to meet Him. Isabella also boards the same boat, as does Doonan. Alice Cleaver takes Trevor Allison with her and boards a different boat with the Foleys. The Allisons show to be dumber in this as they spend hours in different places and then search the boat for the baby only to miss all the life boats. With all the boats gone, there is nothing to do. One can say their stupidity has led to the little girl to die. Speaking of death and redemption, Alice Cleaver was revealed to be a woman who murdered her child in the past and the maid to the Astors realizes this and attempts to warn everyone. Of course, no one heeds her.
   The way Captain Smith is handling the sinking is one the best moments in the acting career of George C. Scott, in my opinion. He makes the character more heroic than the actual man while also brooding near the end. He also becomes tragic because, as he shows Mrs. Brown, he wishes to spend more time with his family. Now, he will never do so, which is why he asks them to forgive him. His last scene has him commenting on the common boast of the ship, "God, Himself, could not sink this ship", and the irony of the name of the ship is connected to Greek mythology. Knowing that Scott himself would die three years after the minis-series aired makes this one of the finest exit scenes of his career.
  Other bits and pieces of Titanic mythology show up, also. Missus Strauss refuses to leave her husband, a boy of thirteen is put on a boat over Lightoller's protests, Bride and Philips issuing the SOS call, and the band plays to calm people down. Unlike most films, the miniseries doesn't claim the last song to be "Nearer, My God, To Thee", but doesn't provide an alternative, which makes it closer to history than any film I have seen. Finally, we get the saddest montage possible as the ship finally sinks. Don't take my word for it, watch it yourself. Sure, it's choppy and blurry, and the effects are not up to their potential, yet Titanic made history by becoming the first motion picture to show the Titanic splitting in two, based from the findings in 1985. The miniseries then focuses on the aftermath of the sinking, something neglected in most motion pictures.
   The miniseries has other neglected bits placed into the story. For example, the miniseries shows the way the Californian didn't hear the distress call or the flares and the rescue efforts of the Carpathia. The way Captain Rostrum mentioned how long it would take for the Carpathia to reach Titanic gives one a sense of dread at the outcome and long for her to get there in time. Of course, she arrives too late to save over a thousand lives, including half of the cast. She does pick up the survivors and brings them to New York. One thing that seems to go against the rough and traumatic events is that Aasa is tossed by Simon Doonan into the icy cold Atlantic, is exposed to the cold for a long period of time, and miraculously survives. The same is not said for Park who dies off screen. Thus, Isabella is left with the thought of her broken marriage and her lover gone, which is enough to chastise any. However, once everyone gets to New York, we see the theme of forgiveness come because the telegram never got to her husband. At the same time, Alice Cleaver's previous crime is forgiven for saving the remaining Allison child (though a century later, people would accuse her of kidnapping). This kind of happier endings given to the three arcs clashes with the tragic nature of Titanic though it is better than what was originally planned, or this.

   The acting is good in most areas. I find the historical characters portrayed well, though Roger Rees' Ismay is practically how the press smeared him and Molly Brown is hayseed in this motion picture. The fictional characters are less impressive. The chemistry between Gallagher and Zeta Jones is undeniable and the same with the characters of Jamie and Aasa. Tim Curry is over the top in his performance. They gave him a van dyke as though to make him look villainous, something I have lately began to question (that sort of facial hair style was fashionable at the time) and it's never explained why he is interested in stealing money on the ship. We can only guess it was pay that had not risen in his twelve years of service. On a side note, I mentioned Scott and Rees co-starring in A Christmas Carol. It turns out, Curry and Scott were also in Oliver Twist, though they don't share a scene together (the hierarchy of the crew is why). The Jacks are kind, though a little naive, yet Mrs. Jack is quite a spitfire. The Foleys are shallow and bratty (stereotypical rich Victorians). The Allisons, you know. In fact, some of the most relatable characters in the story are the ones with only a few scenes but no story arc: the stoker with the tobacco, the engineer, the Astor maid, and the wireless operators (who do come off as predecessors of Fred and George Weasley in some scenes). That's basically the way to see the acting and characters, to me.
   Faith, redemption, and forgiveness: the themes one finds in a Christian story are present in the story, along with others. Mrs. Jack reassures her husband that she will be beside him in their final moments and the two of them stay with their children as they await death. She also spoke of the crew learning God's vengeance. She doesn't live to see it, but it does happen to Doonan after the sinking where he is hit by a paddle held by Lowe and left to float away with his stealings in the icy waters. It makes one want to think the Devil in Dante's Inferno, trapped in ice, all melancholic, and with the wicked he stole away for company. Jamie goes from pickpocket to an honest man during the course of the story and he will be with Aasa as they head to a new life. One might wonder if she will remain traumatized by all that had happened as well.
   The sinking of the Titanic was a night that changed 705 lives. It changed many other things also. It can be a warning to modern viewers and it can be a fantasy to some. The way this miniseries presents it is just that. There are few inaccuracies that get in way, unfortunately. Fortunately, not all detract from the story. As this miniseries reaches it's 20th Anniversary, it may have fallen from memory, but it is historic for being the first motion picture to show the ship splitting, though the way it was shown can be considered dated now.

Iron Jawed Angels: Review and Commentary

How do you do,

   I don't consider myself a feminist given that the feminist movement in recent decades has become, to a greater extent, a three ring circus (which is something for another blog entry). Yet, I was involved in the later years of my undergrad days with a few feminists who were part of a pro-life movement. These people invited me one night to watch a movie about women getting the right to vote. This was the film Iron Jawed Angels. 

   The best way to summarize the movie would be a group of actress most people have never heard of portray an event in US history that most people know how it ends and Angelica Houston is in the movie. It is not an old film, though old by today's standards. It came out in 2004, though most might not have heard of it. Maybe most of the advertising of the movie was not as great as, say, The Notebook or The Cinderella Story, both of which are watched by women on both sides of the political spectrum the past decade, yet Iron Jawed Angels passed under everyone's radar. No doubt, the same can be said to many of such movies of similar themes. So, this may have to go deeper than summarize it.

   Actress Hilary Swank plays Alice Paul and Frances O'Conner plays Lucy Burns. The two women played by these actresses were suffragettes who formed the National Woman's Party a century ago. The film has them returning from England (in September 1912, so they missed the Titanic) and meet with leaders from the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to push for women's rights. Of course, the women in this group will support them if it's done on their terms, so the two eventually part from them and set up their own group. 

  If one was expecting the US Government, especially the recently elected President Woodrow Wilson, to simply hand women the right to vote after a few simple actions, then you are naive. What happens in the film's conflict is that Miss Paul and Miss Burns meet opposition from every corner. Not only do they face men who are refusing to give them the rights but they also must fight off misogyny of the times as well as their fellow suffragettes. Wilson is portrayed, in the movie, as a silver tongue politician (perhaps the closest to the truth from most portrayals) who is almost always isolated from their cries of freedom, and yet is willing to give freedom to others. So, the NWP then goes out to oppose him in the reelection and any who doesn't move on the Suffrage. Then America goes to war and suddenly the actions are considered treasonous.
    First time viewers may be amazed at how things went differently back in the 1910s. None of the Suffragettes had to go through security check points to see the president (though it was no longer simply walking up to the White House, ring the door bell, present a card to the butler, and then be led to the Oval Office), yet they also unimpeded on Capital Hill. When they picket the White House, only city policemen are called, not a Swat team, the Secret Service, or the Homeland Security. One would even be amazed that people use to cut into parades and throw things and not get arrested for it (unless the people in the parade were important people). Then there are moments that many feminists might be shocked to discover in the movement. The women seen marching are all white. The one African American woman who wishes to march is told she and her fellow black women must be in the back. Many of the suffragettes, including our heroes, are depicted looking down their noses at black women also, forcing that one to sneak into the line during the march. Those who may not know much about history of US presidential inaugurations may find it odd that Wilson is shown heading to the White House for the first time as president in what looks like a spring day. This is before the date of the inauguration was changed from March 5 to January. In 1913, people smoked -- not as much as they did in the fifties and sixties due to cigarettes not as mass produced -- and this time period marked a start in the more common instances of women smoking. So, it's no surprise to see Miss Paul and Miss Burns smoking, even after brushing her teeth. While sex is not openly discussed among most people (in some places, not even among married couples), the word "sex" is used frequently to mean male or female (something that should have stayed on in more places than Jurassic Park -- where Dr. Grant says "Some West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female in a single sex environment" -- as opposed to gender). I am cataloging all this to illustrate how history films present the past, which is a world quite different from the one you and I are occupying. No doubt, a century from now, people may find our habits very strange (i.e., renaming locations for the sake of political correctness, make protests and riots over tragedies, make a fuss about a minority in a place of power, be very judgmental to others, et cetera et cetera et cetera).  I admit, there were a few things that surprised me right away. In the Senate scenes, the US flag is displayed with the blue field on viewer's right, instead of the left as the Flag Code dictates. Looking into the Flag Code, I was amazed to discover that the Flag Code in question wasn't enforced because it wasn't around during Wilson's administration. According to USFlag.org, the code was first set up on June 14, 1923 when "there were no federal or state regulations governing display of the United States Flag" (USFlag.org). So, until then, there wasn't a defining rule on how the flag would have been displayed, either horizontal or vertical, in the Senate. But, I am positive, and I don't know how many historians would agree, that flag would have had the blue field in the north-west corner regardless as far back as 1777.

     While Iron Jawed Angels was good enough to presenting the way people behaved in 1913 to 1919, it doesn't get all of the historical inaccuracies down. Miss Paul and her fictional lover are seen eating sandwiches on a fire escape in one scene. The bread appears to have been sliced industrially, which is odd because sliced bread wasn't on the market until 1928. If they were eating sandwiches, they would have had to cut from the loaf directly (and there was a scene of something that looked like a loaf or cake on the table in another). This seems picky compared to a few other things. I mentioned the smoking habits in the time period. Yet, the film doesn't pick up on the drinking habits of the time and of the suffragettes who fought also for prohibition. It is mentioned in one scene when some man complains about what the women are marching for (though the film refrains from going into the common cliche of men claiming the women seeking equality are going to make them effeminate, even though there was a wide cultural hysteria over masculinity at the time). The one thing the film can really get to is the dialogue. As with Hollywood films, Iron Jawed Angels has everyone talk as common, and as earthly, as the audience as opposed to the methods people normally talked. Many reviewers have noted the way Miss Paul and Miss Burns have interacted with eachother, as opposed to the more in the times portrayal of Missus Carrie Chapman Catt (played by Angelica Houston), who exhibits the stiff, formalized, and sometimes condescending type of oration that is commonly attributed to Victorians, along with the older suffragettes. This can actually make viewers think they were from today and were trapped in the early 20th Century.

      This can make me add about the music, which is actually more in tune to the 2010s instead of the 1910s. While the clothing seems accurate, a few things like the bonnets and cars seem to be in advance years instead of in times. The film does present the rivalry between Miss Paul and Missus Catt, yet it has them reconciling, which never happened. There were times I considered Hilary Swank too pretty to be Alice Paul and the Australian actress, Frances O'Conner, doesn't really know how to hide her accent in playing Lucy Burn (I am also noting with sadness that we have American characters played by foreign actors in greater numbers).

     One reviewer called it "a 1912 version of Sex in the City", which is justified. The footage of the film is jagged in some scenes, with an MTV style editing that gets the viewer confused. Miss Burns and Miss Paul discuss the latter's lover in manner of school girls talking about some guy, mostly for the sake of adding romance into the story. The character Ben Weissmann is fictional, only added to make Miss Burns more relatable by giving her a boyfriend. Yet, the romance seems cliched or forced, depending on the scene, which is interesting as neither Miss Paul nor Miss Burns ever married (it wasn't unusual at the time for two women to live together without a man in their lives). To handle the spirit of feminism, the film doesn't allow them to do the old fashioned (read, "sexist) courtship that was common at the time to the more relaxed type of dating that was common in the Twenties. Fortunately, there's no sex scene, yet one scene has Alice Paul taking a bath and based on her hands and leg position, the implication is that Miss Alice Paul is having, as TV Tropes calls it, a "date with Rosie palms." As awkward as the romance is, the moment is completely unnecessary because it causes the film to confirm what critics of feminists tend to believe: that feminists reject virtue and chastity in favor of sleeping around, for the sake of advancement, then disregard the men they slept with to cling to their sisters, considering another woman as the only man in their life. I may not be a feminist, but if I was I would find the portrayal too generalizing. I know a feminist who is planning on becoming a nun and she is not straying from that path with sex, drugs, and rock n roll. I know another who is in a chaste relationship with her boyfriend. Not only that, both are pro-life, which clashes the common stereotype that feminists support abortions (by the way, they told me of when the Feminists for Life started, one of its members actually met Miss Paul who told them that, with a few exceptions, the suffragettes were opposed to abortions). I am positive if Miss Paul, Miss Burns, or any of the suffragettes of the times saw this film, they would have protested their portrayal. 

     Yet, the darker side of the picketing is not something portrayed lightly. During the time the US was at war with Germany, Miss Paul and the others picket the White House, with signs that compare Wilson to the Kaiser, as the Silent Sentinels and are arrested on trumped up charges. When Miss Burns was arrested, she and the others refuse to pay the fine all because it "would be admitting guilt." They are sent to a workhouse in a set up that appears like something you'd hear in the Holocaust (the women are stripped of their clothes in one scene and shows their nudity, largely to cater to the male audience). In real life, the women were given only one bar of soap to wash with upon entry, after being stripped, so they refused to use it. Some of the other horrors of the Occoquan Workhouse are kept out of the film, however. The conditions were unsanitary and the prisoners shared things with others who were sick (there is a moment where maggots are found in soup). The film also doesn't include the day when the wards brought in black sex workers to humiliate the suffragettes with anything imaginable (show the racism in the parade, but not have white women resist a horny black man from rape?). President Wilson did pardon the prisoners, though they refused and had to be forced out. This gives us the Night of Terror where Miss Paul goes on a hunger strike, happening in November. Miss Paul is shown being forced fed raw eggs and milk by the wardens, something that is appalling, even for the time. 

     The film merges the two events together, has a fictional senator attempt to rescue his wife (who he was about to divorce for joining the Suffrage movement), the news of the mistreatment is announced and the women are released. What the film excluded was one of the women actually died of a heart attack during her time. It is in this that Wilson is further pressured into moving for the 19th Amendment. This is shown to pass in 1920, with Tennessee making the deciding vote of the necessary 36 votes to pass. Thus, the film has the times right when white men were making and passing laws to be the ones who pass this amendment and allow women to vote (just in time for Warren Harding's election). However, the fact that it records the deciding vote done because the man who voted was told to by his mother does give the results an anti-climatic feel (as opposed to the idea that he grew a back bone and voted "aye"). The film doesn't include the days when President Wilson suffered a stroke and his wife operated the White House (which one could conclude was the one time we had a woman running the country in a time when women were attempt to get the right to vote nationwide). 

    Iron Jawed Angels barely passes the Benschel Test on most occasions. Ben Weissman, the senator, and his wife, are fictional characters added to give the audience suppose this happened sort of characters. These are the things that make it hard to see how good the film is, along with the MTV style editing, the Sex in the City moments on a view occasions, the sight of a few anachronisms, and the music score that doesn't fit. It's a secular film, for the most part, despite it taking place in a time when Christianity (specifically Protestantism) was ingrained in the American society. Alice Paul's faith as a Quaker is hardly explored, which is sad because there are plenty of times to explore how she felt of her community's (and her mother's) stance on suffrage. In the matter, the discussion outside of the film is all too brief: non-Christians fire off specific passages in the Bible that are deemed sexist by today's standards (Genesis 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:11-5, etc.) while Christians offer essays explaining a passage and allow it to be timeless instead of archaic (Bible Reference). Of course, neither has their views brought up or examined by anyone in the film. It's also noteworthy that none of the Quaker wisdom is issued forth in the film (only something to be referenced by Miss Paul on the matter of her background). The course language that arises is questionable and the inaccuracies of history are kept down, but not completely. So, Iron Jawed Angels does make for a mediocre film. If there is any lessons from it, it's that there really was a struggle for women to acquire the right to vote and it shows as an example of how far our nation is from its ancient inspirations (Athens and Rome). As I mentioned in "Food for Thought: Republic vs Democracy", suffrage is universal today, with only a few exceptions given to minors and incarcerated citizens. However, when the 19th Amendment was passed, African American women had to deal with the Grandfather clause and other restrictions to vote while the younger women couldn't vote until the 1970s. Also, as history shows, getting the right to vote was not the end of feminism or sexism (and to some, the battle for sex equality is still being fought on today). Yet, it is nice to see what our fore-mothers went through to make what came after possible.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail: Review and Commentary

How do you do.

    Here Comes Peter Cottontail gets its title from a song of the same name and is based on the story "The Easter Bunny Who Slept." It is a Raskin / Bass production with stop motion animation to tell the story of Peter Cottontail, an Easter bunny from April Valley, who is destined to become Chief Easter Bunny.

   The film is narrated by Seymour S. Sassafras, proprietor of the Seymour S. Sassafras and Company, voiced by Danny Kaye. Mr. Sassafras is treated as being like the mailman in Santa Claus is Coming to Town, only funnier, and ultimately more involved. After introducing himself and showing off his colorful talents, he gives a tour of April Valley and tells us what the film is about. It's like the old chorus in a play who introduces the story before we see the action (like in A Mid-Summer Night's Dream where the Rude Machanics' play is summarized by a speaker before the program starts). He makes it easy for the little ones: the film's hero is Peter Cottontail "who almost lost the job" to the wicked January Q. Irontail, who is voiced by Vincent Price. 

   Sassafras starts the story by saying Colonel Wellington B. Bunny (also voiced by Kaye) has decided to retire and appoint a new successor. He speaks highly of Peter but an aide to his tells us a few things of Peter: "he is boastful, he has no sense of responsibility, and sometimes, sometimes he fibs!" This is demonstrated in his first scene where Peter tells a fib (lie) and his left ear drooples (a trumpet in the orchestra orchestrates the move). Colonel Bunny is apparently not a military officer from his appearances. My guess is that among Easter Bunnies, there is no need of an army as they don't fight wars. So, Colonel is just an honorary title, just as it is done in the South. Yet, he does reprimand Peter on his fibbing and admonishes him in a song called "The Easter Bunny Never Sleeps".

    For some reason, the Colonel's aid is also in an interview with Irontail. Irontail says he doesn't want Peter to become Chief Easter Bunny. In fact, he hates the whole Easter Season, just as the Grinch once hated Christmas, only he has a reason. In the past, Irontail once had a fluffy tail just like everyone else until a child rollerskated over it. This action, which would warrant the PETA to fine the child's parents for animal abuse, results in him losing his real tail and has instead an artificial one made of iron (hence his name) that twitches up and down with a clank when shown (yet is often silent). In a sense, Irontail is like Captain Hook, a character who is robbed of the thing that made him whole and has to use a fake replacement and this becomes a source of his wickedness. Irontail says he now despises children and is determined to have Easter cancelled forever. Most of the villains in movies of the Raskin / Bass production tend to be cartoonish, often evil for no reason at all (a mayor who hates children and toys), or just mean because of some misfortune (living alone in a palace full of machines) or need to grow up and get over it (Miser brothers). Irontail is more sympathetic because of the injury.

    The first thing Irontail does is to interrupt the Colonel rehearsing the appointing of Peter as Chief Easter Bunny. Irontail pulls out the April Valley Constitution with all the smug of a lawyer, which proves that the Colonel cannot just appoint anyone as Chief Easter Bunny if he wants to. Of course, Irontail is not satisfied at knowing he has the law on his side. He challenges Peter to a contest on "who delivers the most eggs on Easter". Peter takes up the challenge, though Colonel Bunny is not too happy about it. Yet, he gives his word and the contest is on. 

   As one would expect, Irontail cheats in this contest by sabotaging Peter's alarm clock. To make matters worse, Peter, we are told, stayed up late in a party before going to bed. Of course, Irontail is shown being able to give away only one egg and because Peter overslept, that one egg made the difference. Peter had eggs ready and could have given more than Irontail, but he overslept and thus that one egg beat him. Irontail then sings a reprise he now calls "The Easter Bunny Always Sleeps", which now called for bending of tulips, rotting of jellybeans, butchering of hens, eggs being given ugly colors, chocolate bunnies and chicks replaced by tarantulas and octopuses, and Easter goulashes instead of bonnets.

    Having failed everyone, the best Peter can do is go into exile. But, the story doesn't end there. No, he runs into Sassafras who gives him a time machine called "Yestermorrow mobile" (Willy Wonka called and said he wants his puns back). It comes with an unusual pilot: a French caterpillar named Antoine (once again, Kaye). The machine has a device to take them back to Easter, but Irontail sends a spider to sabotage the gadgets (if it were made today, he would have sent a worm into its computer) and thus it lands in Mother's Day. From this, Here Comes Peter Cottontail goes on a journey across the holidays of the year instead of just Easter, leading me to believe this was intended to be a swan song of the holiday themed movies.

   The plot of the journey features many things Americans see in holidays. The first stop in Mother's Day has a boy and a girl having fun with their mom, Independence Day has boys watching fire works, Halloween has ghouls and witches, and Christmas has Santa Claus (voiced by Raskin / Bass favorite, Paul Frees). Same is with lesser holidays, like Thanksgiving having a banquet, Valentine's with romance, and Irishism in St. Patrick's, while Peter dresses up in costumes to match the themes of them all (he puts on diapers for New Years and a wig for George Washington's Birthday). Not all of the holidays are mentioned or seen in the special. The machine has a button for Arbor Day but we don't get to see it, nor is Father's Day visited (I'd like for feminists who take pop shots at Mothers' Day to note how Fathers' Day is considered less important to most compared to Mother's Day) as well as Columbus Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Labor Day, or Hanukkah. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day wasn't around at the time, which is why he doesn't visit it either (though one wonders how would Peter dress up on that date without appearing racist). One thing to note is what the special doesn't show.

    Except for Mothers' Day, the real meaning of the holidays is not dwelt upon. Independence Day is more than just fire works and flag waving, Halloween is more than just ghosts, Christmas is not about Santa Claus, and St. Patrick's day is not just Ireland. Above all, Easter is not really about the bunny, the chick, or the egg. Easter and Christmas are actually about Jesus Christ: with Christmas centering on His birth and Easter on His Resurrection (with death happening during Passion Week), thus the two holidays give us the beginning and end of His life on earth. Both holidays are on older holidays: Christmas over Saturnalia and Easter over Passover, respectively, and have incorporated elements of other holidays into them. Easter was intended to celebrate Jesus' resurrection after Passion Week, which was where the Jewish Feast of the Passover happened, yet the Easter Bunny and the eggs are not of Judeo-Christian origin. The Easter Bunny is a Northern European concept of an intelligent hare (the renaming of him as a bunny is an American adaptation) who visits children with gifts. In short, he's Santa Claus in form of a hare and moved into the Spring. Like Santa, the Easter Bunny, or Osterhase, is said to give good treats to good children and punishing bad children (he was to judge children on Eastertide, after all). Not everyone uses the rabbit for egg giving as they have a wizard for that in Sweden, where girls can dress up as witches on Easter!

    Most have interpreted the image with Christianity, however, arguing that the bunny, being able to not lose its virginity in reproduction make it associated with the Virgin Mary, making the baskets be the manger that Christ was laid in, and the egg is Christ. This could be supported as the egg shell of a chicken egg (the preferred egg of Easter) is white, for the purity of Christ, the hardness of the shell for the strength of His love for us, the breaking of it forms lines like the stripes of the scourge while the peeling away the shell can be the opening of the tomb. Because it use to be a practice to not eat eggs during Lent, they would be hard boiled so they could last longer, as this was long before refrigerators were invented. Coloring the eggs is a German tradition, which used red for the Blood of Christ, however some places used green for the foliage of Spring grass. While the egg giving was done in Eastern Europe (and, coincidentally, Easter and East share the same root word, from the Germanic "Oster" which is said to come from the goddess Ostara, who is the Anglo-Saxon variant of Dawn and had a festival of her own in April), the egg is seen to have been traditional as far back as Ancient Mesopotamia.
   Here Comes Peter Cottontail excludes the Christian traditions of Easter as well as the purpose behind the images of it for three reasons: one it's a secular special which explains the lack of a mention of Christ in April Valley. There is not even a church in April Valley, which can either mean the Easter Bunnies don't have a religion or April Valley is suppose to be Earthly paradise as described in the Book of Revelations (the latter is questionable due to the presence of an evil bunny). Even though most religions can take a secular story and translate it to their faiths, the lack of crosses (except for what looks like a chocolate cross carved by one of the chocolate candy carvers) and churches or the meaning removes all purpose of the Easter Bunny's job. Two, the special wasn't produced to promote anything except the commercial aspects of Easter. In a sense, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, like Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, is a commercial for the card and candy companies, and despite it being an Easter special it does the same in the other holidays. Most people don't see the connection but secularism and commercialism walk hand in hand in popular conception of holidays. If it's about the bunny and the basket of eggs, the sales are good while, apparently, "He Is Risen" doesn't sale anything (though candy companies have compensated that with chocolate crosses). The third and most obvious reason is because the special is supposedly geared to children. Yeah, the children are the ones most likely to respond to talking rabbits. Children are reared to treat the Easter Bunny as they do with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, an invisible entity who gives them treats that they believe is real until they grow up and become bitter adults who believe they are being lied to. Despite any interpretations that are listed before, the usage of the Easter Bunny detracts the real meaning of Easter.
    We celebrate Easter for the Resurrection of Christ, which conquered death and has allowed us life. He is the way to Heaven and not the bunny. There was once a time this was spoon fed to Christian children, but in recent years we have the notion that children won't grasp the concept or will be traumatized at the fact that the greatest hero of all time had to be killed for our sins, that all has to be shielded from children and replaced by a fluffy image of the Easter Bunny and the egg basket. The last can understood because growing up I found Passion of the Lord section of Holy Week to be unbearable and longed to be in Easter all ready. Now that I am grown up, I understand now the importance of its inclusion, especially since Christians, especially Catholics, don't merely celebrate the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ on Easter. We do it all the time in the Mass when we take communion, as say say "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again" or "When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again."

   Even though it's secular, a few Christian themes are present in the special. Peter is named after Simon Peter, the head and spokesman of the disciples, and he embodies the concept of Everyman. He has his flaws in his pride and his habit of lying. His pride makes his undoing in the early part of the movie as he gets over cocky and celebrates a party instead of sleeping. Peter is humbled by his failure and goes through the special to deliver his eggs. However, his constant fibbing keeps getting in the way. Thus the theme of being honest as well as humble is present.
   While the meaning of Easter is excluded from the special, there is a slight reference to it that is easy to miss. During the Christmas sequence, Peter accidentally leaves Antoine behind. This happens while he picks up a bonnet who is left in a Christmas store. Since Peter has no money, he barters the eggs, but since Irontail was stealing them, he left nothing behind but his Santa suit and Antoine (symbolic of the disciples forsaking Jesus at the Garden as well as His death on the cross) yet the bonnet is saved (like we were from Satan's power). Off screen, Antoine wraps himself up in cocoon (symbolic of the tomb) and wakens as a butterfly (the Resurrection). The process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly seems ordinary but it's the one action in the whole special that actually tells children what Easter is about, without getting into the theological side or the trauma of the crucifixion (still wish the special actually mentioned the meaning, anyway). Love and forgiveness is even mentioned in the Valentine's sequence where Peter meets a girl bunny who doesn't blast him for his oversleeping.
   Faith, Hope, and Love, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, are also a theme in Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Peter has faith in himself, mostly, and it fails frequently. When he puts faith in the help of others (Sassafras' time machine, Antoine's skills, and the Bonnie's guide), even if it is not a faith in a higher power. Love in this is not romantic love, even if a bunny romance is suggested in the Valentine's sequence. It's Peter trading an eggs to get a bonnet out of a store so she can feel appreciated. Hope is most obvious of all.

    So, during this, Peter improves as he goes through the holidays. Irontail goes through life and limb to destroy the eggs, yet in Valentine's day he decides to improvise and turn the eggs green. At first it works, as green eggs aren't liked in Valentine's Day or George Washington's Birthday, yet when St. Patrick's Day comes, Peter wins through. One wonders if by turning the eggs green that Irontail shot himself in the foot (there are plenty of people who like green eggs, unless Sam I Am is offering them with ham). So, because Peter gives away the eggs on St. Patrick's Day, he wins the right to be Chief Easter Bunny and Irontail is reduced to janitor. As Peter hops away, another chorus of "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" is sung with the entire cast joining in and wishing the viewer "Happy Easter Day."
   Here Comes Peter Cottontail maybe a fifty one minute holiday commercial for candy and card companies as it ignores the meaning of Easter, and the holidays included in the special, it does have some good morals (though one wonders if the ghouls and the store clerk felt about not getting their eggs) and it's enjoyable to watch.

The Breakfast Club: Review and Commentary

How do you do.

   With the thirtieth anniversary of the release of The Breakfast Club being nigh, I decided to make one for it. 

   The premise of The Breakfast Club is five teenagers, from different cliques in high school, are sent to detention one Saturday and they spend the day getting to know each other. Throw in some angst and a few anti-authoritarian sentiments into the mix and mix them in with thought provoking challenges to perceptions and first impression, and that is what The Breakfast Club is all about. The movie stars a pretty Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall as two of the teenagers. 

   The teenager part is a misnamer as Hollywood tends to cast young adults as teenagers, often twenty or twenty-two year olds, sometimes as old thirty (the oldest actor I have seen to play a teenager is the woman playing Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter, at 37). Ringwald and Hall were the only teenage actors on the cast list, according Story Notes of the film on AMC. They were 16 when the movie was being filmed. Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy were both 22 at the time while Judd Nelson was 25. The characters they play match the age: it's easier to have an adult play a jock and the character Nelson played required an older actor. Rounding out the cast is Paul Gleeson as the principal, Mr. Vernon, and John Kapelos as Janitor Carl, the only adult characters who are not extras. 

   Since the plot is so easy to describe in a few sentences, there is hardly a reason to go through it scene by scene. Instead, let's look at the movie in the themes and the characters. We are introduced to the characters as stereotypical teenagers summed up in the film as "a brain, an athlete, a basket-case, a princess, and a criminal."

  The brain is shown to be Brian Johnson, played by Anthony Michael Hall. Brian does away with some of the nerdish cliches: the glasses, the bad teeth, the creepy smirk, etc. Instead, Brian is thin, tall, and bookish. He is also shown to be a perfectionism, not really use to failure, though he is not really confrontational. The athlete is Andrew Carke, played by Emilio Estevez, shown to be a wrestler with an attitude. The basket-case is Allison Reynolds, played by Ally Sheedy, a shy and unpredictable girl. The princess is Claire Standish, played by Molly Ringwald, who has all the traits of a rich girl sort as well as a brat. Finally there's John Bender, the criminal, played by Judd Nelson, who looks like a bigger version of Shawn Hunter yet twice as mean. 

   This thing plays out when they enter. Bender clowns around and talks sarcastically when Vernon is handing out papers, then he harasses the others. Allison withdraws from the group for most of the movie while Brian tries to focus on his paper, while annoying the others with a few facts. Claire and Andy are implied to be in a relationship, another popular trait among jocks and popular girls. The reason for this is that Andy asks Claire if she's grounded at one point. Later, he tells Bender "you don't talk to her, you don't look at her, and you don't even think about her!" The entire line and the way he says it are exactly what a boyfriend would say. On Andy, he is the only one of the teenagers to actually stand up to Bender, be it telling him to lay off of Brian and Claire or pulling a wrestling move on Bender. When they get into a face off, Andy has Bender down and in a lock in a few seconds, which it turns out Bender wasn't even resisting because he would have killed him. "It's real simple," he says. "I kill you and you f**king parents would sue me and it'd be a big mess and I don't even care enough about you to bother." He even pulls out a knife and stabs a chair to show he means business. 

    Of course, Bender uses the bad boy image and his tough approach to hide something, or it seems. Seeing how Bender likes to lie on a few things it's very hard to tell when he's lying and when he's honest. The thing he is hiding is brought up when he makes impressions of what goes on in houses (which is the favorite moment of mine). When asked to do his, he finds it easy, and then demonstrates a scene of verbal and physical abuse in his house. Apparently, his father goes in and calls him names, his mother adds in (though one can't help but think she is secretly insulting her husband) and his father then goes abusive on her too. Then he shows a cigar sized burn on his arm he got for "spilling paint in the garage." Of course, Bender doesn't invite any sympathy. All he does is knock things over and insult people. The trauma of it is more than Bender having an uncaring attitude of others but cowardliness. The main example of this comes when Vernon pulls him away to the closet and challenges him to a fight and offers his chin for the first punch. Bender doesn't take it and Vernon proves what he suspects by faking a punch. 

    The dynamics between Vernon and Bender make up the conflict of the movie. In fact, it's the main outlet to the battle of the ages. The age gap has become a trope in Hollywood, practically a byproduct of the Sixties, though some cases of it can be found before then. However, since the Sixties, this has gone up a notch where we actually see full blown arguments and fights between young and old. Much of it is to show some hidden strains of ageism to some while promoting ageism in others (in this case, we are encouraged to side with the teenagers). The Breakfast Club, like most of the teen movies of the Eighties is anti-authority when it comes to age gap. The adults, on screen and off, are shown as the figures of authority. The film shows them all as tyrants who expect more from the teenagers while limiting their abilities to move. They are shown to have set up a horrible world and a set of rules to follow while in that horrible world, and when they get out of line with those rules, or don't live up to those rules, they are punished in unfair matters, which the school detention is shown to represent.

   As an example of how Vernon is in the movie, the script has his first lines described as "with such disrespect it makes you wonder how he ever got the job."As children, we are taught to respect our elders, something common in societies (or at least it ought to). Critics of this notion consider respect for elders to be ageist, implying they get respect simply for being old. Ageism aside, respect is something that is to go both ways, though most people tend to be, also, that respect is earned, not given. Most societies only do this with younger people, yet Western countries have recently decided that the respect being earned, not given, can also go both ways. The philosophy in today's society is that if one gives disrespect than he can only get disrespect in return. It's an "eye for an eye" approach, at most. What the teenagers in the film do, and what Vernon does to them, goes against what Paul said when he said "Treat everyone with respect." Paul wrote the passage in a time when respect was given to higher ups, so the implications of the line meant kings should respect slaves as well. Clearly, Vernon doesn't heed Paul's message, thus the movie justifies it. Even when one of the teens calls for respect of Vernon, it's veiled insult. From the opening scene of Brian with his mom and Andy and Bender's stories of their dads, we see that there is little respect at home either. Claire has the worst as she speaks of the break down in her parents' marriage as each parent use her as a tool in their petty squabble, rather than keeping it to themselves as adults are expected to do (if you see The Best Years of Our Lives, you'd see Fredric March and Dana Andrews' characters keep their arguments to themselves and not get anyone else involved, not even their younger friend in the Navy who lost his hands).

   Of course, not all of the adults are this way. The one grown up who relates to the teens is the janitor. This shows an interesting image of the older white male who is in a place of power has no sympathies with the teenagers while the other older white male who occupies a blue collar job and slightly younger than the first is more willing to have sympathy, if one uses the biased lens. If the janitor were black, which is common where I am from, most people would think of him as the "magic Negro" who passes words of wisdom to younger white characters while showing to have more integrity than the white adults, all while supposedly keeping up the racism in society. Thankfully, they did not make him black, but one could interpret Carl as a black man in the scene where he talks to Vernon.
  The few times that Principal Vernon and Janitor Carl are together have the former let out the frustration on the behavior of the teens while Carl, being younger, tries to reason him. Contrast to The Trouble With Angels, which has similar themes to The Breakfast Club, we don't have a case of the school master and the rebellious student coming to an understanding. Vernon doesn't come to think there is anything good with Bender, whereas the Mother Superior saw plenty in Mary Clancy. Instead, Vernon pulls up the old "me, myself, and I" move when asked about how he feels of the teens. He admits to Janitor Carl the worst possible thing to him is what happens when the teens are adults and he's an old man, "Now this sort of thing wakes me up in the middle of the night: when I get older, these kids are going to take care of me." He doesn't trust them one bit and he thinks that when he becomes old and requires help and the only help will come in form of his former students, he is afraid that they will not really help him. I, myself, am still too young to understand what he is afraid of but I can think that being unable to take care of yourself to be something to dread. Most people try to avoid that by committing suicide and thus be able to die young. Unfortunately, suicide is not the answer. At any rate, Vernon could have taken a hint of those dreams and change. However, he does not seem to want to. Janitor Carl, who I think was only working as a janitor to pay for college, gives an excellent report on why Vernon is like this: "The kids haven't changed, you have. You took a teaching position, 'cause you thought it would be fun, right? Thought you would have summer vacations off and then you found out it was actually work and that really bummed you out." This, and the fact that Carl and Vernon believe that based on the way he treats teens would mean they won't take care of him when he gets older. Even with these abuses in authority, Vernon has been seen sighing in relief when he leaves the library the second time, builds weird object with a cup and pencils, and appears to regret threatening Bender. All that suggests that Vernon is less of a stock of a disciplinarian and more of an easy to sympathize character. Unfortunately, the man never changes his ways at the end of the film.
   The Breakfast Club is a teen flick, coming out in a time that people call a hey-day of teen flicks. It shares the same themes as the two other Molly Ringwald films: Sixteen Candles and Pretty In Pink, along with other films like Back to the Future, Farris Bueller's Day Off, Footloose, and Fast Times At Ridgecrest High, being teen flicks about teenage rebellion and anti-authority themed. The themes are handed down from the Sixties, where the themes of a generational gap were common, as well as the Seventies, but in the Eighties the anti-authority and teenage rebellion are common. If there is a theme to the usage of anti-authority and teenage rebellion being used in these films it would be that in the end, the teenage spirit of rebellion is never defeated. It doesn't matter how hard the adults come down on them, no matter what life lesson comes along to humble them, they are never truly defeated. Best examples of this in The Breakfast Club come with the teens interacting with themselves when Vernon is out of the room (disregarding all the rules he sets up in the beginning), subvert his directions of writing an essay by having Brian write it and sign their names upon it, and their dancing to hard rock near the end of the movie. Then there are other moments that are more subtle. Bender shouts out an obscenity when Vernon leaves after finding the door closed and he sneaks into the library after he is taken away. He even gives Janitor Carl a "see ya next Saturday" in such a matter of fact tone that you'd think he wanted to live in detention. Then there's the others who are willing to not rat him out when he returns to the library (even when Bender is peaking under Claire's skirt).
    So, this theme that the teenagers are never defeated resonates well in this movie as it does in other teen flicks of the time, and practically even today. At the end of Footloose, the teens are still going to dance to rock music, Fast Times... has them always doing things on their own and not heeding the adults, and Mean Girls' girls will always be plotting to ruin each other. Just as it is with The Breakfast Club. Those five teenagers will not have gained any respect for adults in authority even after their day in detention or of their parents in their homes. One additional way they are not defeated is the fact that they realize how they could become like their parents, while being controlled by their own peers, and chose to follow their own destinies.
    First impression is also the theme of The Breakfast Club. The teens enter as stock characters from each clique, yet the pivotable scene has them unfold how it feels to be each. Besides Bender becoming unfeeling toward others because of his blue collar back ground, we see Brian being such a perfectionist (he even corrects Mr. Vernon on one occasion) and yet doesn't want to be seen as a brain, Andrew feeling that he can never live up to his father's ideals no matter how hard he trains, Claire always being under pressure to be popular, and Allison withdraws from everyone and comes in when it seems people are having fun (she even claims she did nothing to get into detention). Among the things that happen due to this is one of the most common of nerd cliches being brought up (that Brian is a virgin). Brian lies of his love life at first but when pressured at the thought of being a pig in Claire's eyes, Brian admits to being a virgin (considering it a private matter). In a subversion of the stereotype, Claire says that it's okay for guys to be virgins. This is contrast to her case where she has to be pressured into it but not before we hear from Allison that girls live with a double-edged sword pointing at them ("If you want it, you're a slut; if you don't, you're a tease.") I do not put stock in the Madonna-Whore Complex but if there is one place to find it it'd be in high school, especially in the movies, where it seems girls are either Madonna like prudes or whores whom every boy wants to nail. One thing movies tend to show is while Madonnas can become whores through corruption, they never seem to have it the other way around (unless it's a teen flick I missed). This I find to be demeaning to girls who stay virgins through high school (as well as guys). Say all you want about recognizing sex as a healthy and normal part of life but just as people chose to do it, they can also chose not to do it and no one should be demeaned just for staying virgins.
   The teens soon learn that they are all alike even if they are in different social groups. This last proves to be the film's ultimate moral: that if you strip aside the glasses, the fingerless gloves, the gym pants, the hot clothes, and the tics, all you have left are five people who are frustrated at the way life turned out, angry at those they consider to be holding them back, and afraid of the transition they are facing. From this knowledge, they gradually begin to form a comradidy and form themselves a group they call "the Breakfast Club." One can dream that after the film's events, they are different to each other than before (Bender might defend Brian from other bullies, Claire will consider non-popular people to humans, Andrew will have a motive in life, etc.). The fact we see Claire decide to date Bender in the end (though it may be for selfish reasons and doomed to fail) and that Andrew is willing to date Allison are a step in the right direction. One may wonder why Brian doesn't get a girl in the end, but that part becomes less important. He gets something even better: respect. The other three ask him to write out the paper, seeing as he can sum it up better than they can, and he does so. Not only that, there is a chance that Claire and Andrew will both do something for him in return, even if the film doesn't dwell on it. But they see him as human and that is enough for him. Same with Claire and Bender. At the beginning, they hate each other with the standard blue collared boy and rich girl gig, but in the end, there is hints of them of pursuing a romance as Claire sees Bender as someone honest enough to treat her as a human instead of some idol to admired while Bender learns that one doesn't have to hold up a tough facade to get love.

   To wrap things up, The Breakfast Club is what people consider the ultimate teen movie. It's completely secular (practically reducing God to a name used in vain) and the references and talking of sex, plus a scene where the teens get high on Bender's dope, are questionable. The language is coarse, but some what accurate to high school standards in some places. Even with such, the morals of the movie are the redeeming qualities. Imagine if we could be like the five teens in the end of the movie and learn to not see each other as something form our impressions, look past stereotypes, past tropes, and see the person inside, come to an understanding with others, and learn to see each other as people, with all of us being sinners, and to know that there is someone who loves us all, than perhaps, we just may have peace on earth and good will toward men.