Afterwards, Father O'Malley rallies the people of the parish and they start to rebuild St. Dominic's. On Christmas Eve, the parishioners gather in the partially rebuilt sanctuary as Father Fitzgibbon delivers his message with renewed faith and hope. He is startled when O'Malley's boys choir suddenly starts singing Silent Night, and looks up to see his elderly mother; O'Malley has paid for her to come to America to visit the son she hasn't seen in almost 50 years.
The above image is from the delightful 1944 film, Going My Way which stars Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald as priests in the financially strapped parish of St. Dominic's in New York. Father Fitzgibbon (Fitzgerald) has been at St Dominic's church for 45 years and sometimes dreams of going home to Ireland to visit his elderly mother, whom he hasn't seen for that length of time. Unfortunately, he's never been able to afford to do so. When Father O'Malley (Crosby) arrives to assist him, the younger priest's unorthodox methods at first alarm and irritate Fitzgibbon, but they eventually come to the understanding that, while they may differ in method, they have the same goals. When the church becomes financially stable for the first time in years, O'Malley suggests that Fitzgibbon take this opportunity to go back to Ireland to visit his mother. Father Fitzgibbon has just decided to do so when an alarm is raised: St. Dominic's is on fire. As the church burns, the firemen unable to save the structure, Father Fitzgibbon stands watching the place he built and ministered in for 45 years being reduced to rubble, a look of devastation on his face. Afterwards, Father O'Malley rallies the people of the parish and they start to rebuild St. Dominic's. On Christmas Eve, the parishioners gather in the partially rebuilt sanctuary as Father Fitzgibbon delivers his message with renewed faith and hope. He is startled when O'Malley's boys choir suddenly starts singing Silent Night, and looks up to see his elderly mother; O'Malley has paid for her to come to America to visit the son she hasn't seen in almost 50 years.
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The three year old son of friends of mine had a rather interesting take on the nativity story. In his version, the Holy Family, shepherds, and wise men were all attacked by a deadly land shark. Fortunately, the angels sent fighter planes to take out the shark, but not before he got to the camels, sheep, and donkeys, leaving a grisly scene. Related Posts: Well. One of my sisters talked me into going to see Frozen II, something I hadn't been planning to do. I've never really understood the fuss over the original Frozen; I thought that Tangled was a much better movie, and Disney sequels generally aren't that good. But now, seen it I have. And, since this is a much more recent film than I usually review: * SPOILERS * First, some positive feedback: this is a gorgeous looking movie; the C.G.I. is amazing. The music is also good, though I doubt any of the songs will become as insanely popular as "Let It Go" from the first Frozen was. Which is a good thing, because that song quickly wore out its welcome as far as I'm concerned. Kristoff's song "Lost In The Woods" made me laugh, because it's done in the style of an 1980's music video. It's funny, but my nephews and nieces watching the movie didn't get it- went right over their heads. The relationship between sisters Elsa and Anna works as well, though that has its drawbacks, as I'll discuss later. Now, having proved that I didn't hate everything about the movie, I'll move on to what didn't work for me- which was quite a lot, frankly. First of all, the plot kind of meanders around, and too much time is spent on some unimportant details while plot points which need more explanation and characters who need more development are skimmed over or ignored entirely. Also, the big twist in the plot isn't a twist at all: it's completely obvious to anyone with a few functioning brain cells. The story we get in the first part of the film is that back in the day, Elsa and Anna's grandfather- King Runeard- made a treaty with the Northuldra tribe, sealing the deal by building them a huge dam on the river to help their people. But, at the dam opening ceremony, the Northuldra tribe suddenly attacked the Arendelle delegation, resulting in many- including the king- getting killed. Now, as soon as we had that tale told to us, I knew that it would prove to be completely bogus. In today's culture, with our modern sensibilities, who is going to be the villain in a movie: the innocent indigenous forest people, living in teepees, at one with nature, or the more technologically advanced interlopers, who have come and brought their modern ways with them? I think we all know the answer to that... Dances With Wolves, or Avatar, anyone? Heck, how about Pocahontas or FernGully? Naturally the dam is actually harmful to the environment, and King Runeard was actually scheming to take over the Northuldran land, because of course he was. This is presented as a big twist, but it's obvious from the start that this is going to be the narrative. Which is fine, but if they wanted to shock/surprise anyone, they should have reversed the guilt. Also, does anybody know how long it would take to build the Hoover Dam in medieval times? Because that huge stonework dam didn't go up overnight, and the leader of the tribe waited until opening day to announce that he was against it. Really, even if King Runeard wasn't up to nefarious purposes, you could hardly blame him for wanting to clock the guy. Incidentally, we're never told just why the dam is harmful to the environment; by the time Anna and Elsa arrive at the Enchanted Forest it's been damming the river for at least about forty years- since their father was a child-and the forest is absolutely beautiful, with plenteous flora and fauna. One could argue that the dam has had, if anything, a positive impact. Certainly we're not given any reason to think otherwise, except the sage old elder saying so. Also, the plot revelation that Elsa is the "fifth element" isn't exactly a big shocker either. After being introduced to the spirits of wind, water, earth, and fire, who else was it going to be other than the ice-producing character? Kristoff is completely sidelined in this movie, to its detriment. He comes along on the quest, but his entire function is to make repeated bumbling efforts to propose to Anna. And, in the tiredest cliche possible, Anna keeps misunderstanding what he's saying to the point where she'd have to be completely stunned not to grasp his actual intentions. Certainly it becomes stunningly boring for the audience. Then, for some inexplicable reason, Elsa and Anna leave him behind to cool his heels in the tribal village because they can't wait for a few minutes to have someone track him down and tell him they're leaving. So instead of taking the big, strong dude who's used to roughing it in the woods, they take the weird talking snowman who is useless for anything other than comic relief. Speaking of which, there's too much Olaf in this movie for my taste; a little goes a long way. Anna spends more time with him than she does with Kristoff, for heaven's sake. When Anna's holding Olaf during his touching "death" scene, I was more annoyed than moved. I mean, obviously he wasn't going to stay dead, and all I could think of was this was yet another wasted opportunity when Anna could have had a great scene with, y'know, Kristoff her boyfriend/fiance. Though I guess Olaf's return from death wasn't universally obvious; a little kid sitting behind us was sobbing all through that scene, devastated by Olaf's so-called demise. Now, I get that at least part of the reason for losing Kristoff is because the movie is supposed to be about the two sisters facing the challenges of their quest together. Also, it goes without saying, girl empowerment. Yay. And it's true that the relationship between Elsa and Anna is the strongest part of the film, but this is a bug as well as a feature. The problem is, when Elsa and Anna aren't together, Elsa simply isn't that interesting. She doesn't see to have many character traits other than her power and her feeling that she doesn't quite belong. This results in her spending a lot of time being angst-y and down, which, after two movies, gets a bit tiresome. Anna, with her comparative levity and determined loyalty, buoys up Elsa's rather depressed character, but then the film makes the curious decision to separate them, too. This completely confuses what I thought the central message of the film was supposed to be: the importance of family and being stronger together. Elsa starts out being the only one to hear the mysterious voice calling her to follow. Incidentally, why are these mysterious voices always so cryptic? It would make life a whole lot easier if it just said, "Hey, it's me, your mum, and I need you to listen and do something." But no- we just get wordless vocals. Oh, well... in any case, Anna insists on coming with her and helping her, because she loves her sister and wants to help her in any way possible. The ideal message would seem to be 'you don't have to go it alone' but Elsa sends Anna off and does exactly that. In addition, just as with Kristoff, she does this without discussion or giving Anna a choice; in this case, tricking her sister and using her power to push her away. One could argue, I suppose, that Elsa was trying to be unselfish and keep her sister from harm but, as the movie quickly shows us, this isn't the case. By forcing Anna and Olaf into an ice boat down a rushing river, she cavalierly exposes them to the threat of death from the rock creatures and also from ending up in a cavern they struggle to find their way out of. By using her superior power, Elsa took away her sister's freedom of choice and forced Anna into a situation which she didn't know- and doesn't seem to have considered- the hazards of. This is morally questionable at best. Speaking of morally questionable, let's talk about Arendelle and its benevolent dictators. To begin with, I found it rather eyebrow-raising that, after the entire population of their city has been forced out of their homes and are left standing, exposed, without food, shelter, or any other provisions, the response of their Queen- and princess- is "Right- we're off on a quest. Don't know when we'll be back, but don't go back into the city until we return." Really? I live by the ocean and in the fall- when this film takes place- the wind coming off the water can be brutal. And everyone is just supposed to squat on the cliffs until their glorious leaders decide to return- or until they die of exposure, whichever comes first. What the heck? Then, in the end, Elsa somehow mentally messages Anna that the dam must be destroyed, and Anna immediately sets about to do that. As is pointed out by another character, the resulting rush of water will wipe out the entire city of Arendelle, which lies in its path. Yet Anna doesn't even hesitate: to lift the spell off the enchanted forest, it must be done. Because freeing the tribal people- and left over Arendelle soldiers- from the woods, where they've been living comfortably for years, necessitates destroying the homes and livelihoods of everyone in Anna and Elsa's so-called beloved kingdom, without even giving the people a thought, let alone a choice. Because, I guess, the people of Arendelle must be made to pay for the sins of the past even if it means destroying their entire way of life. This sounds vaguely familiar. Of course, Elsa manages to save the city at the last minute, but this doesn't change the fact that they were willing to sacrifice their own peoples' safety and way of life for a hand full of folks living in the woods. And, as I said, those people have been living comfortably in the forest for years: what's the rush? If the dam needs to come down to free them, fine, but why not make plans, figure out how to divert the water flow, and dismantle it slowly so as not to cause a catastrophic event? What makes the people of Northuldra so much more important than the people of Arendelle that it's better to destroy all of their homes and property and businesses than make the tribe wait a little longer to be able to walk outside the forest? If I was an Arendellian, I'd start planning to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic after this nonsense. As we see at the end of the film, the Northuldrians are still living in the same place after they can leave. It's been their home, after all, since long before the Aredellians arrived. So again, what was the rush? In the end, Elsa abdicates the throne, making Anna the queen, and decides to live in the enchanted woods, hobnobbing with the other elements, because apparently she's happier with them than with family. Whatever turns your crank, I guess. But this film is such a morass of unexplained and illogical plot points, mixed messages, and questionable morals, that it's hard to figure out what exactly the point of it was, if there was, indeed, any point beyond profit. Related Posts:Oh, the Christmas tree’s my favorite Of all the trees that grow. ~Laura F. Armitage, “My Favorite Tree,” 1906 Related Posts: Well, our choir concert is a week from Saturday, so practice time is growing short. One piece we're working on for it is Christmas Lullaby, music and lyrics written by John Rutter in 1990. Rutter is a very well-known English conductor and composer; he's actually been awarded the Order of the British Empire for his work. Our choir is familiar with Rutter because we've performed pieces by him before, generally at Christmas because he has composed a lot of seasonal music. I blogged about one of his pieces last year- Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind. Christmas Lullaby is a beautiful piece, the lyrics of which express reverence for the Christ child, and also for His mother: Christmas Lullaby John Rutter Clear in the darkness a light shines in Bethlehem angels are singing their sound fills the air Wise men have journeyed to greet their Messiah But only a mother and baby lie there Ave Maria, Ave Maria Hear the soft lullaby the angel host sing Ave Maria, Ave Maria Maiden and Mother of Jesus our King Where are his courtiers and who are his people, why does he bear neither sceptre nor crown Shepherds his courtiers the poor for his people With peace as his sceptre and love for his crown Ave Maria, Ave Maria Hear the soft lullaby the angel host sing Ave Maria, Ave Maria Maiden and Mother of Jesus our King What though your treasures are not gold or incense lay them before him with hearts full of love Praise to the Christ child and praise to his mother who born us a saviour by grace from above Ave Maria, Ave Maria Hear the soft lullaby the angel host sing Ave Maria, Ave Maria Maiden and Mother of Jesus our King
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