(no subject)

[jfb]

I finally got around to seeing Spellbound, and it's a shame there are Americans who won't. It hit a lot of the tracks my thoughts often run in: Winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, work vs. faith vs. luck, emigration, immigration, and diversity. Like a good liberal arts student, I see pretty much everything as political, but I don't think I'm wrong to do so here--watch the background for American flags and other symbols, think about the way the film is structured and what the kids and especially the parents have to say. Of course, politics is far from the only thing it's about--it's mostly about a bunch of very hard-working and mostly likable kids.

Fun fact: In the marathon rhyming session that produced the lyrics for "Snowblinded", one of the many words and almost-words that got rejected was "spellbinded."

Comments

[rollerboogie.livejournal.com]

I was really struck, watching this film, at how my inner angry American didn't spring up and scold every time an American flag waved or someone talked about the Dream...and I think that's just because it felt that much more honest than the same behavior happening in the middle of a Suburb(an). It's not such a bad thing to be reminded of what this country honestly means to some people, and even if bees make me weepy, I understand, I think, why they're necessary for some people.

Have you read Bee Season, by Myla Goldberg?

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought Bee Season was great--I was thinking of it during the movie, but forgot by the time I posted. I wonder when she'll write another one.

For me, my inner angry American is angry because I care deeply about America and feel like it's been hijacked. The promises of equality and freedom, even with all I know about how those promises have been betrayed, are really important to me. So when I see an American flag unfurled in the middle of a story whose idea of America, I think, coincides with mine, I'm as touched as any right-wing nutcase waving the flag and brandishing a gun. Wait, that's a different kind of "touched". Anyway, my point is, I can be sentimentally patriotic too.