Reading English

The question of reading preferences has been circulating on some of my favourite blogs recently. My bedside table is spilling over with books-on-the-go, thanks to Uni starting up again.

Yes, there is a definite theme going on here. Can you guess? 'The One Day of the Year' is a play about one Australian family's experience (and differing opinions) of Anzac Day in the 50's, and 'Regeneration' is set in the Craiglockhart War Hospital during the First World War. I was a little concerned about having to read these two, given the topic of war generally evokes distressing imagery and focuses on the horrors of bodily trauma from brutal war experiences. And let's face it, I cannot seem to manage sitting through an episode of RPA without near-fainting. However, these are compelling and controversial reads, and I can't put them down.

And the others - well, any excuse to read Peter Carey is fine with me and I'll soon have the opportunity to read 'True History of the Kelly Gang', with the added benefit of analyzing it with my online-classmates.

And finally, we come to Shakespeare. Nervous, am I? Yes. Thou art. 

I'm also excited: this one is set in the classical Trojan War, albeit with two characters I had never heard of: Troilus and Cressida. That is until recently - I was watching a TV adaption of Austen's 'Mansfield Park' just last week, and (the sleazy and ill intentioned) Mr. Crawford was attempting to woo Fanny Price with a reading of none other than Troilus and Cressida, of whom he claimed were his favourite of all literary characters. And I will be interested to know why they are his favourites. 

Sychronicity? Yes, thine be true*. You can see that my bookmark shows how far I have progressed - I've just reached the end of the 'General Introduction'. And there is more than just one introduction. 

If you haven't picked it yet, the theme of the English unit I am studying is Love and War, and spans a massive time line. There is also a bunch of poetry from different periods, ranging from middle english Chaucer ('The Book of the Duchess' - I love the title alone) to more recent war poetry. And I believe we will be watching Sleepy Hollow (yay! film! Johnny Depp!) just to mix things up a bit. Although, I wonder how Ichabod Crane fits in with the rest of the material.

*for all those Shakespearean buffs who are cringing at my misuse of SP phrasing, sorry about that. Let's hope by the end of this study period I will know what I am talking about.

The films they made me watch

Returning to study part time while continuing to work full time has brought about many surprises. The first is the shock of an overwhelming schedule (all work, no play). The second, is discovering the silver lining in each cloudy assignment. I figured, choosing film-based units would be the perfect excuse to watch lots of movies. 'Watching TV again hey?' 'No dear, I'm studying'. And that really works for me!

The third and final surprise has been delving into films that I would normally reject. Looking at the list of movies I had to watch over Summer reminds me how much I enjoyed re-watching the classics (Jane Eyre, The Wizard of Oz and all the Hitchcock films). And it also reminded me of the fear I originally had, in having to sit through 20-odd Westerns. And the fear was justified: there were some absolute shockers!

Watching the Fincher films was a pleasure, in a gory, surreal sort of way. It solidified my adoration of Helena Bonham Carter for her character Martha Singer (Fight Club). But then it would, given I had to re-watch the 'Martha' sequence approximately 50 times to complete an assignment.

Back to the list that was...

The films They made me watch (2010 - 2011):

• 3:10 to Yuma (Mangold, 2007)
• Deadwood (Series HBO, 2004)
• A Fistful of Dollars (Leone, 1964)
• 3:10 to Yuma (Daves, 1957)
• Little Big Man (Penn, 1970)
• Shane (Stevens, 1953)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill, 1969)
• Johnny Guitar (Ray, 1954)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford, 1963)
• Stagecoach (1939)
• Frankenstein (Connor, 2004)
• Jane Eyre (White, 2006)
• Thelma & Louise (Scott, 1991)
• My Darling Clementine (Ford, 1946)
• Bandidas (Ronning & Sandberg, 2006)
• The Quick and the Dead (Raimi, 1995)
• Gunfight at the OK Corral (Sturges, 1957)
• The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah, 1969)
• Rio Bravo (Hawkes, 1959)
• Red River (Hawkes, 1948)
• The Great Train Robery (Porter, 1903) - early narrative
• The Big Trail (Walsh, 1930 - early sound & widescreen
• Brokeback Mountain (Lee, 2005)
• Appaloosa (Harris, 2009)
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, 2007)
• The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
• Se7en (Fincher, 1995)
• Run Lola Run (Tykwer, 1998)
• Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
• Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)
• Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
• Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
• Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
• The Wizard of Oz (Fleming, 1939)
• Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock, 1943)

Screening: The Big Trail

Last week's screening for Uni included the 1930's Raoul Walsh film 'The Big Trail' starring a very young John Wayne (only 23 for his first leading role). It's a fabulous example of early sound: thankfully the technology has improved and my TV speakers didn't blow up in the process due to the excessive volume I had it set for basic audibility.

It's also a great example of early widescreen. As it was a difficult film to track down in time I purchased the boxed set above which unfortunately includes the traditional 1.33:1 aspect ratio. On the plus, the set includes this week's screening 'Red River' and is nicely packaged in a white tin container.

Mythical Monkey posts an interesting essay on 'The Big Trail' and Wayne's involvement including his original name (go there to find out...) and Wikipedia have some great trivia in the 'Production' section (including the legend that the director had Tyrone Power Sr. beaten).

Although the movie was considered a flop, John was a fine young man in his day:

Photo from 'A Mythical Monkey writes about the movies'