Reviewing Movies

Walk the Line is a biopic based on the life of John Cash. Until I finally watched it I had never thought much about the man behind the legend. His start as a Gospel Singer, the depth of his relationship with the Carter Family. It is on subsequent viewings that the small details start jumping out at one, he became Johnnie Cash because that was the name Sam Phillips chose to put on his record labels. He became the “Man-in-Black” because that was the only colour shirt he and his band-mates all had in common. That he’d had an older brother who died after being hacked nearly in half by an open saw blade while John was off fishing. That his father didn’t share his love of music and that their estrangement was only solidified by the death of his brother whose devotion to child labour John didn’t share. Knowing this background helps explain the rebellion that flavours so much of his music.

Joining the armed service to escape home. His failed marriages. His drinking and the drugs. The itinerant life of a recording star and the adulation of swarming fans did nothing to provide him with a stable home life. Attaining stardom is not all it’s cracked up to be. The scene in which a bank teller patiently explains to him that she cannot instantly cash a cheque for $5000 because it’s too large brings it home to him. He tears it up in frustration and tosses the pieces. He would not be the first young star to self-destruct and he owed his survival to friends who looked out for him.

Every boy should have a best friend as true and faithful as Stiles is to Teen Wolf Scott McCall. There seem to be a lot of missing parents in this series. Stiles Sheriff Father is a single parent as is Scott’s Mother. His off and on again girlfriend Allison has a mother who makes only passing appearances.

How do all those teens manage to own, insure, maintain, and put gas in all those cars? Scott has a job but he tools around on a bike. Who knew lacrosse was a high school sport? Where exactly the series takes place has never been made clear but the casting crew came up with a parcel of buff, muscular young actors. Scott and Jackson regularly show off well developed pecs and abs, Derek to quote an actress “grew up in all the right places”. Their teachers on the other hand are a parody of every student’s worst nightmare. The acting from episode one is uniformly good.

Who the alpha werewolf might be is kept a mystery to the end of season 2. Is it the science teacher or the vet? Werewolf appearances are kept rather hazy to cover up a TV series’ rather lean special effects budget. This show obviously capitalizes on the current Vampire Craze begun by the Twilight Series but it rises somewhat above the standard fare. Certainly it doesn’t lack for eye candy.

This set has been a long time coming, the season aired in 2004. The producers have created a bare-bones DVD set, there are no extras beyond episode and scene access menus. The mountain scenery continues to be a facet of the show and the small-town atmosphere is in tact. It continues to be a soap opera in which the principal characters are in continual crisis and if not they, then Andy’s Patients.

[Spoiler Alert]

I have to do some online research to confirm my conclusions but the final episodes of this season give the story arc a sense of closure. Andy returns to the Bronx to visit his wife’s grave before returning to propose to his next-door neighbour. Andy sets Ephrom up with a Concert Pianist to facilitate his return to a performance degree course and their conversation enlightens Ephrom on the darker side being a guest pianist on a world scale. Having resorted to taking piano students to put money in his pocket to pay rent he discovers his true calling is in teaching rather than performance. My piano lessons were 50¢ an hour, Ephrom charges $50/half hour.

Delia finally has her bat mitzvah and discovers that running with the most popular set in school may not be the end all and be all. Both finally arrive at a reconciliation with their father. Ephram and Amy finally reconnect in the final episode. Her brother the barrel-chested Bright remains somewhat of a loose cannon; their parents face the empty nest syndrome. With the death of Irv, Dr. Abbot’s Mother is offered a room his home. Having killed off Irv the series would be in need of someone new to give the cheesie opening narration.

Everwood has always been a show that was greater than the sum of its parts. Beyond the core group of characters there has always been a revolving door of patients to add interesting new storylines. Andy’s dead wife has continued to haunt the show as she has Andy himself. The show comes full circle when he finally lays her to rest.

The subject of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Guinevere and Lancelot, The Sword in the Stone Excalibar and the Lady of the Lake, and Merlin the Magician have been the stuff of English Legend. More a topic for Poets and Bards than archaeologists and historians the story of an idealized Ruler and his Kingdom Camelot has always been more myth than fact. Locations in Wales and Cornwall have been associated the Myth but little empirical evidence exists to prove there ever was such a kingdom. Poets and composers have created many treatments of the subject from Tristan and Isolde to Parsifal. Movie makers and animators as well as artists have found the topic irresistible. Dragons join unicorns as fabled creatures, though the exisence of dragons in Asian lore adds an interesting twist, [Godzilla, anyone?] Beowulf, Robin Hood, and Arthur form a triumvirate that have informed the writings of Sir Thomas Mallory, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir Walter Scott, and JRR Tolkien.

I find it interesting that new treatments tend to appear in times of economic turmoil, apprehended terrorism, and social and political unrest. Tales of an idealized ruler who fought off Saxon Invaders seem to bring comfort in disturbing times. That no hard facts exist gives free reign to the imagination though I find it curious that most recent versions prefer to deal with the youthful Arthur under the reign of his Father Uther rather than the flawed and failing king of his later years. Communes and Communal living tend to fall prey to human nature. There is more solace in the promise shown by an adolescent Arthur than the fall of Camelot brought on by the Fall of Man--the betrayal of a King by his Fairy Queen and a trusted friend.

The present BBC Production is told from the point of view of a teen-aged Merlin who acts as Prince Arthur’s Page mentored by Gaius, the Court Physician. Guinevere shows up as servant girl to the King’s Ward Morgana. Uther has banned magic on pain of death and keeps a talking dragon chained in a cavern below his dungeons. As Merlin Colin Morgan is a jug-eared, round-shouldered urchin with piercing blue eyes and raven black hair cut in bangs. Flaxen haired Bradley James as Arthur leads Uther’s army and is always pictured to accentuate broad shoulders in crimson tops or chain mail with shoulder armour and gauntlets. The story centres on these principal characters and rarely are palace guards or Arthur’s men addressed by name.

I have no adequate explanation as to how I managed to watch Season Two before One save that the boxes weren’t prominently marked and I had no idea what to expect. Banning Magic in Camelot appears to have been about as effective as Prohibition in the US--it only served to drive it underground. After all the series is about a magician. Ironic that a BBC Production based on ancient English lore had to go to Ireland to find its titular actor and to France to find a castle to represent Camelot. This may be an action adventure series but it becomes exhausting just watching how many scrapes these characters get themselves into. Arthur appears to make remarkable recoveries given how often he appears to be at death’s door. It’s almost magical.