Angela’s Ashes

Starring: Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, and Pauline McLynn
Directed by Alan Parker
Year: 1999
IMDB / Wikipedia

In the words of John Lennon, “If you had the luck of the Irish, you’d be sorry and wish you were dead.”

For all of the pagentry and the lore of the Irish, actually being Irish stunk for a long time. You were hated and invaded by the English, most of your heroes are criminals and, if you wanted to come to America, you had a hell of a time finding everything from a place to sleep to employment because of the prejudice. Irish were stereotyped as being lazy, shiftless, drunkards who would earn a days wages and then spend a week drinking them away. Sadly, as with many stereotypes, this has an air of truth to it.

To be poor and Irish was the theme of Frank McCourt‘s best-selling memoir,  Angela’s Ashes, upon which the film was made. The story is of his early life living in squalor with his family, first in America and then in Limerick, Ireland. The tale shows how life is hard when there’s little money to go around, depression setting on the western world, not enough food or shelter to keep you satisfied, and watching small children succumb to their conditions. Frank watched several siblings die at the hands of starvation and unclean living environments, watched himself starve night after night because there wasn’t enough food for everyone, watched his mother beg the Church for anything she could, and his father piss away most of their money with his alcoholism. It’s tough to watch because it is so real.

I read the book years ago and much of it stuck with me. Most of my gripes with the movie were not about how different it was from the source, but about the things it left out. Frank’s life was not all sorrow and misfortune and the film misses a lot of that. There are parts where he and his family seem happy, but those moments are glazed over, trumped by some other greater tragedy, or completely omitted. But, watching it again, I see that in doing it like this, the film keeps with the spirit of the book better than a casual viewer may think.

The theme of the book and the film was that life is hard but, through those hardships and how you deal with them, is how character is developed. Though not an original theme, it is one that is very tragic because it’s a true story. But, casual viewers of the film don’t realize is that, to get to the better parts you have to go beyond the story. Both the book and film end with Frank going to America to find his dream of happiness and the second book ‘Tis, which will probably never be made into a film, expands upon that with much more humor than the first. So, to watch this film or read the book and find all the humor is gone is accurate because, as Frank so illustrates, the situation and his life were not condusive to such at the time. That’s what makes it a great story.

But it’s a sad story. I do not recommend watching this if you are in a great mood as it will bring you down or in a bad mood as it might lead you to suicide. If anything, view this as something that will make your troubles seem trivial and your life that much sweeter.

Most Valuable Actor: There were three actors that portray Frank: one at age 5, one at 10, and another at 15. Michael Legge plays the oldest Frank and did a great job with a very emotionally-charged portrayal of Frank as he comes to grips with the feelings he has kept pent up inside himself and as he tries to find his way to happiness and salvation.

Trailer:

Movie Road Trip

The wife and I are taking a trip to a wedding. We’ll spend a few days amongst family and have a great time. However, being the guy I am, I live in fear of having a ton of downtime where my wife and/or I are stuck in the hotel for whatever reason with nothing to do. That’s why, in addition to a toothbrush, deoderant, and a flask, I carry movies with me as well.

For the last decade I have been blessed with laptop computers that are capable of playing DVDs (my wife has a Blu-Ray in hers … don’t get me started) so I’ve never been at a loss for something to play movies during trips, between classes, during classes, during downtime at work, etc. The problem is that, for a long time, I never carried movies with me so I had been screwed on several occasions. Though never a Boy Scout, I vowed to always be prepared and thus was born the travel DVD wallet.

In this wallet, I have afforded myself to carry 24 of my favorite movies of all time. These are not just movies that I dearly love; they are movies that I can watch over and over again without getting tired of them. But, more than that, they’re not movies I’m ashamed to watch around other people. So while I might be comfortable watching Friday over and over again, it’s not something that’s suitable for watching in a crowded airport during a weather delay. Over the years, I have refined my wallet and have gone well over the 24 titles I initially carried with me, opting to switch out movies I’ve seen recently or may not be suitable for my traveling companions. Since I’m traveling with my wife I have tailored the list to things she may like as well.

So, here’s my list of movies. For the sake of their lifespan, I make copies of the discs and carry the copies with me. I would hate to have my original copies of any of these films damaged because they are an absolute bitch to replace.

Office Space
Rounders
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek (2009)
Tommy Boy
Fletch
Old School
Good Will Hunting
The Simpson’s Movie
Wonder Boys
Rushmore
Slap Shot
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Little Miss Sunshine
Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill
Knocked Up
Snatch
Mr. Baseball
SNL: The Best of Chris Farley
M*A*S*H
The Shawshank Redemption

I’m also fortunate in that I have a laptop computer that also has an enormous hard drive. Combine that with some awesome DVD ripping software, I’m slowly converting some of my travel movies digitally to, one day, eliminate the need for discs altogether. So far, I’ve got:

Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
Captain America: The First Avenger
Gladiator
Inception
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
Limitless
The Big Lebowski 
Thor
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men: First Class

Do you take movies on long trips? If so, what movies do you bring? Why those movies?

Looking through the lens …

I try to be realistic about the movies. I sometimes refer to them as films or “cinema” if I am being sarcastic (e.g. “the Dana Carvey movie Master of Disguise is a quality piece of cinema.”) but most of the time it’s just a movie. Over the years I have tried to hype and show my enth=usiasim for movies and it always seems to lose the honesty as I try to pique someone’s interest. I have since tried to stop influencing people and the type of movies they watch because, like with music and religion, they are going to enjoy whatever they already enjoy. I cam suggest, I can give my opinion, but it stops there.

Besides, the movie studios do not pay me to market their movies for them and I am the worst word-of-mouth marketer ever.

Movies, for me, can be a shared experience or they can be personal, it all depends on the show. There are some movies where, if I watch them in public or with another person, I demand complete silence and a dark room. There are other movies where the need for interaction and light conversation or comments adds to the movie experience. My parents and I would spend entire weekends watching movies rented from our local grocery store, up to seven in a weekend. We would start on Friday nights and go all the way through Sunday. It was a shared experience and, in there, I learned about story, cinematography, good dialogue, bad dialogue, and accepting a movie for what it is.  All of those lessons are some of what I hope to pass down to my yet-to-be-conceived children.

With this passion for movies, a collection was born. It started with costly VHS tapes in the late 1980s and then exploded with the DVD revolution of the 21st century. Once I subscribed to Netflix, my horizons broadened wider than I could have possibly imagined and I am now deeply in love with movies. The problem is I may have too much love for them.

Those of you familiar with my other blog, These Things I Have Heard, know I am going through my expansive music collection one artist at a time and writing my reactions. The same will go for this site, only there will be a post for every movie. And, like the music site, I will go alphabetically through my collection so as not to skip any titles. The difference between the two sites is that, while music cam be enjoyed passively on my way to work or while I’m working at home, movie watching is a far more active pursuit. So, while I may want to post regularly, I acknowledge that the post here may be few and far between. With that being said, I hope to make them enjoyable and something you will want to come back and see after every update.

Finally, since I’m a sucker for superlatives (note: TTIHH’s “Track of Distinction”) I will be choosing a MVA, or Most Valuable Actor for each movie. Like with the albums, I am looking to highlight the supporting aspects of the pice instead of the person/people already in the spotlight. The only downside to doing a movie site is there will be no awesome freebies like the mixtapes on the music site.

So, here I go. My friends may contend that this is the type of project and blog I should have done in the first place. Well, I’m finally at a place where I think I can actually accomplish a project like this and get to experience the films I love but may not have watched in quite a while. I just hope you enjoy the ride.