Sunday, February 18, 2007

In Preparatinon for the Academy Awards

Amelia is a movie nut. One of the big events of her year is the Oscars and since not all of the movies nominated make it to Shreveport, she and Chris make an annual trip to Dallas each February to catch up on some that she hasn't seen. And that is where they are now, with several friends, catching up on movies.

I haven't seen a movie in the theater this year and never watch the Academy Awards, but love listening to Amelia's enthusiasm.

Last night, Fee and I tried to watch All the King's Men with Sean Penn, Jude Law, and Anthony Hopkins. We didn't make it too far before Fee switched to Law and Order reruns. I can understand why the movie didn't do well: we kept asking each other, "What did he say?" Everything sounded garbled, almost as if they were speaking a foreign language. Not an appealing movie in any way. I've never read Robert Penn Warren's book, so I don't know what changes were made in the screen play, but aside from despising the Huey P. Long character, finding the plot difficult to follow, and difficulty understanding the dialogue, I have to wonder what other desecrations were made. The fact that Louisiana politics have always been corrupt didn't make the movie any more appealing.

O.K. I'm off to take some gumbo over to Laddie and see what he's up to this morning.

7 comments:

  1. When we finally got our DVD hooked up, ATKM was the first movie we watched. We are Netflix nuts, and this movie got great reviews. Neither Jim nor I could get into it. Jim thought it was because he was ill. I assured him I couldn't follow it either. The story was convoluted and it was difficult to understand what they were saying. At one point I suggested we turn on the subtitles. We ended up turning it off halfway through.

    I love that you're taking Laddie gumbo. That is so Bayou of you. ;o

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  2. I haven't seen this movie, but I have seen in the past that there have been movies that have been considered award worthy, but I couldn't understand what was being said.

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  3. Rian - I'm a Netflix fan, too, but this was Fee's interest because he likes history. I think one problem was that they jumped the Huey P. character too quickly from good guy to totally loathsome.

    Gumbo Is Very Bayou, indeed. Let's hear it from ole Hank:

    Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh
    Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou
    My Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh
    Son of a gun, we'll have good fun on the bayou

    CHORUS:
    Jambalay-a-crawfish pie and-a file gumbo
    'Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio
    Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
    Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

    Instrumental Verse (Country Fiddle solo)

    Thibodeaux, Fontaineau, the place is buzzin'
    Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen
    Dress in style, go hog wild, me oh my oh
    Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

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  4. Shelina - Maybe some people can hear better or maybe some people think that garbled speech is artistic... I don't have that much patience, however.

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  5. Ha! Jim and I had exactly the same response to ATKM. This is my first stop on blog reading catchup after several days away from the machine. As always, I'm enjoying your ruminations thoroughly.

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  6. I read and loved All the Kings Men when I was younger...I thought it was thought provoking and meaningful. For some reason, I never really wanted to see the movie. Go figure.

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  7. Acey - Glad you are back, missed checking in on you while you were gone!

    Rissa - I really need to read it...and a bit more about Huey P. as well. Don't bother with the movie.

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Good to hear from you!