Lackluster-Me

(NOTE: there aren't any spoilers, but there are rather in-depth analyses of certain scenes in particular that I felt I needed to talk about. The scene in question is about halfway through the movie, and I don't give away anything that isn't already in the trailers. But if you don't wish to read, don't)

Now, I'm actually quite surprised that I even saw this movie. Mostly because of its abundant negative reviews but after watching it, why is it so hated? While critics might not have liked it, the Beatles themselves actually liked it. Sir Ringo Starr, Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow), and Olivia Harrison (George Harrison's widow) all have expressed their praise in the movie. A story even goes that McCartney was singing along under his breath to the song "All My Loving" in the private screening. After seeing it in that screening, director Julie Taymor asked the Beatle if there was anything he disliked about the film and he responded with: "What's not to like?" So I decided to give it a chance and man, oh, man, I am glad I did!

The story is inspired by several Beatles classics and follows the story of the Liverpudlian Jude (Paul McCartney look-alike Jim Sturgess) who comes to the US in search of his father. There he forms a friendship with Max (Joe Anderson) and falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). There are several other characters inspired by these songs, such as the Janis Joplinesque Sadie (Dana Fuchs), the Jimi Hendrixesque Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy), the shy closeted Prudence (T. V. Carpio), the eccentric Dr. Robert and more. If you don't get it, it's fine but those are characters (some even real people) from Beatles songs. As a Beatles fan I was excited to see these characters and if they were anything like their musical personas (mostly, I wanted to see Max killing people with a hammer) and most surprisingly stay relatively true to how their described, though there isn't any hammer murder. Anyway, the characters go through the sixties, which wasn't great for many people. It starts in the early/mid 60's which were a lot like the late 50's, mostly Pleasasntville-like stuff going on. Then we enter the psychedelic period and the summer of Love stuff. Then we reach the war and the revolution.

The music of the Beatles is perhaps some of the most iconic and influential music of all time and must be incorporated properly in order to make this movie work. How do they do that? Enter Miss Julie Taymor. I was ecstatic when I heard she directed this and she does phenomenally. For those of you who aren't big Broadway musical fans, Julie Taymor directed "The Lion King" which is one of the most phenomenal things I have ever seen. It uses a lot of clever puppetry and instead of CGI, she actually incorporated said puppetry into some of the most creative interpretations of the songs I've ever seen. The puppets used create this uncanny beauty that defines many of the numbers. There are very good numbers (almost all in the movie) and there are less good numbers ("Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" though it was funny to try and explain to my dad what I was watching when he walked in on that scene).

However there is one scene in particular I'd like to talk about: the performance of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Now this song made NO sense to me the first three times I heard it, after that I just gave up on trying to make sense and just enjoying the song. But what she does on that scene is incredible. You see, Max ends up getting drafted for Vietnam and during his testing, he begins to hallucinate. A poster of Uncle Sam is there and he reaches out and tries to grab Max singing the "I want you, I want you so bad", a reference to the famous tagline. Men in uniform who look like GI Joe dolls strip him down, as well as several others, and begin their examination, continuing the "I want you, I want you so bad, it's driving me mad. It's driving me mad". Now here's where the scene gets downright haunting. For the "she's so heavy" part of the song (a lyric that still makes no sense to me) we see the recruits on a Vietnam battlefield carrying the statue of Liberty singing: "she's so heavy" and it sent chills down my spine. That's...just one of the most hauntingly poetic things I have seen in a long time. Hats off! Hats off! I can't get over how incredible this one scene is.

Seeing with the "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" scene, what makes this movie great is that it never uses music just to use music. It's using it to provide different interpretations and make you rethink a lot of these songs you know so well. Like "Dear Prudence" is another good example of the creative use of the Beatles. The metaphorically closeted Prudence literally locks herself in a closet and is anxious about coming out, both literally and metaphorically. So they sing to try and comfort her: "Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?" both literally and metaphorically asking her to come out of the closet. It's a sweet scene. There are so many of these clever uses of music that if I discussed them all, you would've seen the whole movie.

Sorry this was so long, but I had a lot to say. The movie is intense, for many reasons. The Vietnam war and revolution are not very easy topics to watch and the movie is quite graphic for PG-13, there just any blood. Pretty early in the movie we see police brutality against people of color as a young boy, hiding from the cops, sings "Let It Be" as a way of comfort. It later turns into a full choir singing a gospel rendition of the classic. And it hits, hard. Again, so many of these clever uses of music that I still can't really get over. I don't understand why this movie is so hated. It's sophisticated, romantic, intense, psychedelic, artistic, and set to some of the greatest music ever written. To quote Sir Paul McCartney (again): "What's not to like?"

Teens have been rebellious for all of time, apparently. The "swing kids" in the movie are German teens between the ages of 14-18 who grow their hair out long and go out dancing all night in swing clubs and live by their motto: "Swing Heil". Obviously teens being rebellious is dangerous enough but the swing kids are engaging in the celebration of American culture, even much of the music they listen to being recorded by African-American and Jewish artists. You understand where I'm going with this. It is very dangerous but they're teenagers and have to have what they're told they can't. So let's get into this:

Our two leads, friends Thomas (a young Christian Bale) and Peter (a young Robert Sean Leonard), are members of the swing kid group and are later forced to join the Hitler-Jungen ("Hitler's Youth" or "Hitler's Boys" in English) and being teenagers they comply but at night still continue to sneak out to go dancing. Let's just say this doesn't turn out well, for anyone. Thomas begins to enjoy the feeling of the swastika on his arm and Peter begins to question his own morals as well as his friends. There's a quite incredible scene shared by the two toward the climax of the film where they get into a heated argument over those said morals. It's really interesting to me to really see what that program did to kids. Thomas was only there because he had to be and was getting into fights and mocking the Nazis early in the film, only to become one in the end.

The friendship between is probably the strongest part of the movie. The second being the gorgeous choreography. I don't know, maybe it's the musical theatre nerd in me but I'm just a sucker for a good dance sequence. And this movie has plenty! Now here comes the part of the show where I address all the problems and in all honesty, I was surprised at the amount of hate this film received. It even made it on legendary critic Roger Ebert's most hated movies list. Let me say it right now, this movie is not bad. Maybe it's not the best, maybe you don't like it, but I'm still quite confused as to why it's hated as much as it is. The biggest problem I hear with it (besides the lackluster script) was that it was too tame. It does feature characters getting beaten up badly (you do see blood for those scenes) and characters dying, one character must even deliver the cremated ashes of those who were considered enemies of the state door to door! It is PG-13 and would've received an R rating had it been as gruesome as many critic's wanted. But it's not really about the Holocaust. It's a story about expression and trying to survive and stay true in a world where that's virtually impossible to do. And that is one of the strengths of the movie

Usually missed opportunity films leave me feeling cheated out of my money or just plain miserable or frustrated. Some even make me wonder why I ever watched movies and make me ashamed that I watch/review them in my spare time. This one is interesting. Question of the day that usually determines how I rank movies: will I watch it again? I...don't know. Knowing myself, I probably would, mostly for the swing sequences. Verdict: I don't think this movie was very bad, nor was it very good. I liked it unironically which should mean it's good, right? I actually don't really know. Ah, well, I thought it was all right. It's still a riveting and interesting story that I'm glad I've seen. It earns itself a solid seven out of ten. Think I might as well give it that.

"October Sky" is a pretty good movie with pretty good performances. Maybe even great, but I don't believe that it's one of the greatest family masterpieces it's often made out to be. The story was relatively interesting, starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal as real-life NASA engineer Homer Hickam. After the Soviet satellite Sputnik was sent into space, it instantly caught Hickam's interests and he knew that this was what he was going to do. His family doesn't believe in him, his town doesn't believe in him but one teacher does and it changes his life. I'm sorry, I know this is a true story and all but this movie is very predictable, around the half-way mark you know exactly what's going to happen almost in the order that it ends up doing. That makes the movie feel much longer than it is, probably didn't help that I was also watching it with my family very late at night. They frequently asked me "how much longer?" It's by no means a bad movie, not at all. It's average-length but just seems drawn out as the entire story could've easily been told in the span of 10 minutes. Ah, well. Still pretty good family movie, one of the better ones I think I've actually seen and I'd recommend it actually. I liked it, even though a lot of my sleepy siblings didn't. It's quite an inspiring tale of believing in yourself when no one else would but it just falls a little short for my personal tastes. It's still an excellent family movie though.