IN RECOGNITION OF THE DIRECTORS Part Two
As I may have mentioned before, I put hours of work into
these posts. Thus, when it came to directors, I scanned the internet and utilized
knowledge that I’d gleaned over the years by reading about the difficulties various
actors had with their directors. Examples of the worst offenders include
Francis Ford Coppola who caused Martin Sheen to have a heart attack on the set
of Apocalypse Now, and James Cameron who threatened to shoot any cast
member of True Lies that took a bathroom break. Thus, when I started researching
Garry Marshall’s style it was a pleasure to discover that he treated performers
with respect, good humor, and kindness.
Garry Marshall
Garry Marshall was born in the Bronx to Majorie, a dance
teacher, and Anthony, a producer and director of industrial films. Although he majored
in journalism at Illinois’ Northwestern University and worked as a reporter for
The Daily Northwestern at school and for the Stars and Stripes in
the army, once discharged from the military, he entered the entertainment
industry. His first gig was in California writing jokes for the likes of Joey
Bishop and Jack Parr with partner Fred Freeman. After Freeman decided to return
to New York, Jerry Belson took his place and he and Marshall wrote and produced
extraordinarily successful television shows like Happy Days, Laverne
and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy. Then in 1982, at the age of forty-seven,
Marshall began to perform in as well as write, direct, and produce movies.
Beginning with Young Doctors In Love he spent the
next thirty plus years making films that used a formula of counterbalancing
love with tension. His best-known movies are Pretty Woman, The
Princess Diaries, the bitter/sweet Beaches, and a couple of my
favorites, Overboard with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and Raising
Helen which starred Goldie’s daughter Kate Hudson. Marshall was popular as
a director because he kept the set peaceful and respected actors’ opinions, but
his most noteworthy quality was loyalty. He donated a great deal of money to
his Alma Mater, was married to his wife Barbara from 1963 until he died in
2016, and unashamedly practiced nepotism, employing sisters, children, nieces,
grandchildren and friends as actors, directors, and/or editors.
https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/garry-marshall-month-day-6/
https://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/garry-marshalls-directing-tips-part-2/
On RogerEbert.com Susan Wloszczyna points out that although Marshall’s
movies were never “edgy” enough to be nominated by the academy, that didn’t
mean his efforts were unappreciated. His fellow thespians respected his work
and showed it by giving him awards for his depiction of women, his writing, and
his overall accomplishments. Further, even when critics castigated his efforts,
audiences applauded what he brought to television and the big screen. He also was
something of a star maker, helping a number of struggling actors rise to the
top of their field, including Robin Williams (Mork and Mindy), Anne
Hathaway (Princess Bride) and Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman). He even
helped to rehabilitate the actors whose stars had begun to fade like Richard
Gere (Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride) and Julie Andrews (Princess
Diaries one and two). However, in the case of Frankie and Johnny, Marshall
didn’t have to save his headlining duo, Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino, because
they were already at the apex of their careers.
https://www.rogerebert.com/features/garry-marshall-1934-2016
Frankie and Johnny, 1991
Having grown up in Brooklyn, it’s as if Al Pacino was born
to be an actor. In fact, aside from some jobs he had as a teenager, he never
did anything except act. He attended the High School of Performing Arts in
Manhattan and when that didn’t work out, he left school at the age of seventeen
and went on to study at both the Herbert Berghof and the Actors Studios. During
those years he appeared both off and on Broadway, winning his first Tony award at
the age of twenty-nine. From the stage he moved on to movies, making such a
great impression in his first starring role as Bobby in The Panic in Needle
Park (1971) that Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Michael Corleone in The
Godfather (1972) choosing him over the likes of Jack Nicholson and Robert
Redford. During the 1980s Pacino starred in many Oscar nominated films like Serpico
(1974), Dog Day Afternoon, and my all-time favorite And Justice for
All (“You’re out of order. You’re out of order. The whole trial is out of
order!”)
In fact, he was nominated for five Oscars between 1970 and
1980, but then his popularity cooled and his only notable role during the 1980s
was as Tony Montana in Scarface (1984) where he played opposite Michelle
Pfeiffer. After that, his career nearly ground to a halt not resurging until
the 1990s when he was the first actor ever to be nominated for two Academy
Awards in two movies in the same year, Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen
Ross (which I hated) in 1991. He finally won the coveted Oscar for his
appearance as Lt. Col. Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman. It was during this
burgeoning reign of success that he played the part of Johnny in Marshall’s lesser-known
film Frankie and Johnny where he once again appeared opposite Ms.
Pfeiffer.
Born in Southern California with a face that many consider perfect,
it is not surprising that Michelle Pfeiffer ended up in the movies, even though
that wasn’t her original goal. Although she won beauty contests in her
adolescence, after high school Michelle went to Golden West College to study
court reporting. Luckily for movie lovers, somewhere along the line she changed
her mind and signed with an agent who helped her get started in show business. Her
first appearances were in commercials and small parts on television shows like Fantasy
Island and C.H.I.P.S. All the while she was taking acting classes
and landed her first starring role in 1982 as Stephanie Zinone in Grease 2
where she did some pretty good singing in a pretty lousy movie. A year later her
hard work paid off when she was cast opposite Al Pacino as Tony Montana’s wife Elvira
Hancock Montana in Scarface.
Unlike Pacino whose career was just beginning to recover in
the early nineties, however, Pfeiffer’s star had been consistently on the rise.
Her films Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and The Fabulous Baker Boys
(1989), which both brought academy nominations, won a Bafta Award for the
former and a Golden Globe for the latter. Thus, when Pfeiffer and Pacino appeared
in Frankie and Johnny, both were enjoying well deserved successes. What
I wanted to know was how this film fit into their career paths.
https://www.biography.com/actors/al-pacinoo
When the movie opens Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is traveling
by bus from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania to attend her nephew’s christening.
As miles of fields stream past the window, she applies makeup and reads a
magazine, paying little attention to the bus driver when he points out that
they are passing Rockville State Prison (which is actually an hour from Altoona)
and will arrive at their destination in fifteen minutes. Later, while Frankie
is standing at the front of her cousin’s (Dedee Pfeiffer, Michelle’s sister) Catholic
church promising to be a good godparent, a group of men is shown leaving the
prison. One of them is Johnny (Al Pacino) who is being released after serving
an eighteen-month sentence for writing bad checks. As he’s walking through the
gates, an inmate asks him to come back and cook for them and the warden warns
him that New York City is a dangerous place to live. Glad to be free, however, he
ignores both men, walks to a nearby bus stop, and catches the first one heading
north.
Meanwhile, at the post-baptism celebration, Frankie sits
with her mother (K. Callens) patiently listening to her complain about not
being a grandmother. Frankie tries to explain that she just isn’t a kid kind of
person, and that she’s not unmarried and childless because of anything her
mother did, but her mom doesn’t seem to believe it. A family member gives Frankie
a ride home, and she stands at her kitchen window eating pizza and watching the
people who live in the building across the way. Many of them live alone, but even
those that don’t appear decidedly unhappy, particularly the man who beats his
wife and the wife who inexplicably stays. As he drags her into another room, Frankie
cringes and turns away.
Actually, although she isn’t dating that doesn’t mean that Frankie
doesn’t have anyone in her life. Her neighbor Tim (Nathan Lane) and his new
boyfriend Bobby (Sean O’Bryan) are good examples of this. Tim, who has known
Frankie for years, complains that she dated in the past and is only single now
because she turns down everyone who asks her out. [People don’t have to be alone
just because] “their feelings got hurt or there’s a virus (AIDS),” he tells
her. Frankie also has comrades at the Apollo restaurant where she waits tables.
There’s Cora (Kate Nelligan) who is sexy and overly friendly with male patrons,
Nedda (Jane Morris) who is so pessimistic she wouldn’t be popular if she were the
most beautiful woman on earth, and Helen (Goldie McLaughlin), who is in poor
health and has no family. Helen is hospitalized early in the movie and when the
women visit her, Netta voices what they are all wondering, “You think we’re
going to end up like this, alone?” Frankie points out that Helen has people who
care about her because they are there. However, they have to get back to work
and when Helen dies, she dies alone.
After he gets settled into a drab room in a rundown walkup,
Johnny checks the paper and sees an ad for a short order cook at the restaurant
where Frankie works. He applies and luckily the owner Nick (Hector Elizondo),
who immigrated to America from Greece for a fresh start, believes in second
chances and hires Johnny despite his criminal record. He quickly proves to be both
a good cook and a very likable guy, especially in Cora’s opinion who thinks he
has “a cute ass.” Frankie on the other hand, displays disinterest, which intrigues
him. He tries to impress her by quoting Romeo and Juliet from a book that
he keeps on hand in case of a charismatic emergency, but he would have better
luck reading to her from a movie magazine.
Their relationship quickly becomes a roller coaster ride
with Frankie only watching Johnny when he’s not looking and him trying too hard
to get close to her. He confides that he finds her attractive, that he’s got a
crush on her, that he wants her to give him a chance. Finally when Peter (Glenn
Plumer), one of the line workers, sells a script to Hollywood, Nick throws him
a going away party and Johnny asks Frankie to be his date. Her response is ambiguous
because she tells him no, but gets all dolled up, and when he arrives at her
apartment door, she lets him in instead of telling him to get lost. Then she asks
Tim and Bobby to entertain him so she can finish dressing. While he’s waiting, Johnny
tries to be cool about the men’s homosexuality by commenting that he has a
cousin who is gay. At the party, the two are clearly together but she becomes
irritated when hangs around her and is annoyed that he even follows her outside.
She accuses him of being too intense, and complains that rather than just
looking at her, he stares, but at the end of the evening they go back to her
place and begin kissing. She is obviously ready to have sex with him, but now
he puts on the brakes because he didn’t bring any condoms since he didn’t want
to appear “overanxious.”
Instead of making him leave, however, Frankie allows him to
stay so they can get to know each other better. Unfortunately, their
conversation is derailed by secrets that neither one is willing to divulge.
They even lie about their ages. He says he’s forty-two, no, forty-four, but
really forty-six. She says she’s thirty-two, well actually thirty-five, and by
the way, she has some condoms in her bathroom cabinet. The whole time they’re
preparing for bed, however, she continues to criticize him, complaining that
she’s a BLT when he’s looking for “pheasant under glass.” Later, even though she clearly enjoyed the
sex, instead of letting Johnny stay the night, she sends him home. The next
morning he shows up at work expecting things between them to be good, but when
he makes a comment about wanting kids, it starts a new fight. She accuses him
of being “too needy,” of wanting “everything she has.” Instead of backing off,
however, he asks her out, to which she replies that it’s her bowling night and he
needs to leave her alone so she “can get over him.”
Rather than arguing, Johnny respects her wishes. He borrows
a car from a co-worker and drives out of town to visit his kids (that he’s
never told Frankie about). Yet, when he sees his ex-wife with her new husband at
their really nice house with his children happily gathered around them, he goes
back to New York to meet Frankie at the bowling alley. She’s understandably
upset, but rather than leaving, Johnny stays and continues to pressure her.
When she says she’s from Altoona, he tells her he was born there, leaving out
the fact that he was just released from the town’s nearby prison. Unappeased,
she finds something wrong with everything he says, but instead of that making
him back off, he goes for broke and says that he’s in love with her, wants to
marry her, and have four or five kids with her. At the end of her rope, Frankie
reiterates that she is all wrong for him, and what’s more she can’t have children.
Then she disappears into the women’s bathroom, but rather than letting up, Johnny
follows her.
In desperation, Frankie reverses her tactic and maintains that
Johnny’s not what she wants. She wants someone who will love her no matter what
and won’t ask her for things. From that point on, she cuts all ties with him by
refusing to take his calls and changing shifts at work. Eventually, it dawns on
Johnny that Frankie doesn’t trust him, and that’s because he hasn’t been honest
with her. So he goes to her apartment and, as Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” plays
on the radio, they begin to open up to each other. He admits that he is
divorced, has two kids, and just got out of prison, all things he should have
disclosed from day one. In return, she confides that her last boyfriend,
Phillip, dumped her for her best friend and she hasn’t had a relationship
since. She also reveals that she can’t have children because the man she was
with before Phillip beat her so badly it caused her to have a miscarriage, and due
to complications from that, she is barren. She also admits that Johnny makes
her feel protective, but she wants someone to take care of her for a change.
Fearing that he’s going to lose her altogether, Johnny calls
the radio station and asks the DJ, who doesn’t take requests, to play “Caire De
Lune” again and dedicate it to Frankie and Johnny. With the music filling the apartment,
Frankie eases into the bathroom and emerges brushing her teeth. She tells Johnny
that there’s a spare toothbrush in the cabinet and he disappears then returns seconds
later brushing his teeth, as well. They join at the window to gaze out at a
spectacular morning and for the first time they are comfortable with one
another. Then as the music swells, Frankie admits that she’s actually thirty-sex.
Summary
Although the plot of this film incorporates Garry Marshall’s
favorite formula of love, heart break, and resolution it’s actually an
adaptation from the stage production of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de
Lune, an off-Broadway play written by Terrence McNally. Marshall just adds some
of his iconic twists. For instance, he often incorporates his stars’ favorite
activities into the plots of his films so in this case, Frankie is in a bowling
league because Pfeiffer loves to bowl, and Johnny quotes Shakespeare to reflect
Pacino’s amazing acting talent. There are three topics in the film that I found
particularly interesting. The first has to do with reviewers who complained that
the casting was poor because no one would believe that Pfeiffer and Pacino were
unattached. Admittedly, F. Murray Abraham and Cathy Bates (who cleans up pretty
well in my opinion) who starred in the play might not be as exceptionally
beautiful as Pacino and Pfeiffer, but I think that was Marshall’s point. Love
is not only for those who are beautiful, and good looks don’t guarantee
happiness.
Another more subtle topic in the film is male homosexuality.
Early in the movie there is a scene where Johnny and Cora have sex, and she comments
on how quiet he is. He responds that there are situations “where full throated orgasms
would be inappropriate” which seems to suggest that he was referring to relations
between prison inmates. If that’s the case, was he just pretending to be uncomfortable
with Tim and Bobby’s relationship to reassure Frankie that he’s hetero? The third
matter that caught my attention was Frankie’s hesitancy to reveal that she’s
really thirty-six, as if the number is significant. Well, according to numerologists,
thirty-six is a particularly important age, especially for women. It’s a time
when they start to compare where they are in life versus where they expected to
be. It is also a very noteworthy age for actresses. Marilyn Monroe was fired
from Something’s Gotta Give right after her thirty-sixth birthday and it
was the age at which Greta Garbo retired from acting to focus on her family. In
fact, Hollywood offers far fewer roles to older women. What does that mean?
Does the movie industry believe women have to be young to be beautiful, or more
importantly does it think that a woman has to be beautiful to be talented?
https://coriechu.com/blog/36-years-old
http://www.the-beheld.com/2012/05/life-at-36-anne-bancroft-phylicia.html
https://bestlifeonline.com/greta-garbo-quit-acting-news/
Penny Marshall
Penny Marshall began working in show business much earlier
than her brother did. From tap dancing in front of audiences at age three, to doing
choreography in her early twenties, to having her own television show in the 70’s
and 80’s, Penny Marshall spent the majority of her life entertaining people. When
the hit show Laverne and Shirley ended in 1983, Penny took what she’d
learned from directing a few of the sitcom’s episodes and started to direct films.
Her first movie was supposed to be Peggy Sue Got Married, but there were
creative differences, so she quit, and directed Jumpin’ Jack Flash,
instead. The film was not very well received but it made more than it cost so
she kept at it. She must have been a quick study because her next three films, Big,
Awakenings, and A League of Their Own brought her wide praise. In
fact, Big became the first film directed by a woman to gross over $100,000,000
(yes, that’s a hundred-million). Altogether Penny only directed nine films, but
although she never won an Oscar, three of her films were nominated for Academy
Awards: Big (Best Actor, Tom Hanks), Awakenings (Best Picture and
Best Actor, Robert Dinero), and The Preacher’s Wife (Best Musical
Score).
Penny preferred to collaborate with actors that had experience
in television because they could understand her directorial cues. For instance,
she found Tom Hanks easy to direct in Big because she knew him from Bosom
Buddies and could communicate with him through body language. Like her
brother, Penny preferred actors who had experience performing activities that the
characters had to do. In A League of Their Own, for instance, a lot of
the women had either played softball, or were naturals like Geena Davis (who
replaced Debra Winger). She also practiced nepotism: she cast her daughter Tracy
to play Betty Spaghetti, used her brother Garry to portray Chicago Cubs
co-owner and Girls Baseball League founder Walter Harvey, and chose her niece
Kathleen to be outfielder ‘Mumbles’ Brockman.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=penny+marshall+directing+style&type=E210US910G0#id=1&vid=169f3d799b399a4ec394639781b246b7&action=click
Renaissance Man, 1994
Although Danny DeVito didn’t come
from a theatrical family, he grew up in New Jersey not far from New York City.
He attended the exclusive Catholic Oratory Prep School and after graduating went
to work as a cosmetologist in his sister’s Beauty Salon. He enrolled in the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts to learn how to do makeup for actors, but once there, he
grew interested in acting. Luckily, he met Michael Douglas who became a close
friend and a staunch supporter of his career. On the way, he appeared in a few
plays, but his big break came when he landed the role of Louie DePalma in the
television series Taxi. After that DeVito began to appear in films, and by
1994 he checked a lot of Penny Marshall’s directorial boxes. He was a successful
actor who could carry both funny and serious parts, had worked in television,
where he was nominated for multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards, and had worked
in a number of academy nominated movies including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest (1975) and Terms of Endearment (1983) where he appeared with Oscar
winning actor Jack Nicholson.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000362/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Unlike A League of Their Own which led to the
creation of female athletic leagues, Renaissance Man met with a lot of
criticism. For example, Roger Ebert thought a rude impatient man like Bill Rago
(Danny DeVito) was an unacceptable instructor for a group of disadvantaged youths.
He further thought it unlikely that people with tragic backstories would enjoy
reading a gloomy play like Shakespear’s Hamlet. I hate to disagree with
Mr. Ebert, but I enjoyed reading and writing about this film immensely.
First, Renaissance Man pairs well with Frankie and
Johnny for reasons that will become clear later. Second, I like the character’s
diversity because I don’t want my blog to only include ‘white’ movies. Rago, the
protagonist is Caucasian, but Sargeant Cass (Gregory Hines), Pvt. Miranda Myers
(Stacey Dash), Pvt. Jamaal Montgomery (Kadeem Hardison), Pvt. Jackson Leroy
(Richard T. Jones), and Pvt Roosevelt (Nathaniel) Hobbs (Khalil Kain) are Black;
Pvt Benitez (Lillo Brancato) is Hispanic; and although Pvt. Brian Davis, Jr.
(Peter Simmons), Pvt. Mel Melvin (Gregory Sporleder) and Pvt. Tommy Lee Haywood
(Mark Wahlberg) are White, they have different backgrounds. Davis was raised by
a single mother, Melvin was a victim of child abuse, and Haywood grew up trailer
trash.
The title is applicable on various levels. The term Renaissance
originated in Italy when the country’s culture turned from focusing on religion
to emphasizing literature, art, science, and individuality. Thus, a Renaissance
Person (because it’s not just for men anymore), or polymath, is someone that excels
in many fields including the sciences, arts, and humanities. Leonardo Da Vinci is
often used as the quintessential example of a Renaissance Man. However, a more contemporary
case might be J. Robert Oppenheimer who was not only a theoretical physicist, but
also knew classical literature, multiple languages, and excelled as the leader
of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico during World War II.
As the movie opens, hip hop music blasts from the speakers, and
the camera shows a birds eye view of downtown Detroit, where the story begins. Down
below advertising executive Bill Rago (Danny DaVito) is caught in a traffic jam
making him late for one of the most important meetings of his life. An arrogant
man, he tries to remedy the situation by doing it over the phone, never
considering that the connection might be bad, which it is, or that his potential
clients will be offended, which they are. Unfortunately, by the time he reaches
the office, the clients are gone, he’s lost his job, and his co-workers are unsympathetic
because he’s new and rude and they don’t like him, anyway. Unfortunately, Bill
has “burned a lot of bridges” along the way and is going to have difficulties
finding a new position.
Music by award winning composer Hans Zimmer which is
reminiscent of “Claire de lune” plays softly in the background as Bill leaves
the office and goes home. When he gets there, his daughter Emily (Alanna Ubach)
calls asking for money to fly to Mexico to see the lunar eclipse with her
astronomy club. Because he thinks astronomy is a dead-end profession, Bill castigates
her request with a flat no. Hoping to change her father’s mind, Emily accompanies
him to a baseball game and tries again. Unwilling to reconsider, he refuses again,
and when he takes her home, Emily slams the door in his face, suggesting that she
might be more like her father than she realizes.
Unable to find work, Bill goes to the unemployment office to
sign up for assistance. He expects to receive help immediately, but the economy
is sluggish, benefits take time, and civil servant Beverly Coleman (Jenifer
Lewis) doesn’t have any positions that suit him. As is typical when things
don’t go his way, Bill reverts to type and throws a tantrum. After a few weeks,
however, he has made friends with some of the other applicants, and he and Beverly
trade stories about their kids like old friends. Then she offers him a job
teaching a class at the local military base. Bill, who has never taught, voices
doubts, but she points out that his master’s degree from Princeton makes him qualified,
then sweetens the pot by revealing that the position pays well and comes with
free housing. Desperate to get back to work, he agrees to try it.
The next morning, an extremely nervous Bill Rago arrives at
the Army base, asks where he can find Captain Murdoch (James Remar) and
struggles to understand the contradictory directions he gets from various
personnel who use strings of antonyms. Eventually, he locates the correct office,
and the Captain welcomes him to Camp McClane. (In truth, the name is fictional;
the movie was actually filmed on location at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina.)
Ignoring Bill’s obvious discomfort, he explains that the job entails teaching
eight ‘squeakers’ “how to comprehend” what is expected of them. Then he escorts
Bill to a tiny apartment which has a shared kitchen and rickety furniture that
represents a big step down for a prize-winning businessman. On Bill’s first day
he nervously stands at the front of the classroom and watches his students march
in and stand at attention. When they learn he is a civilian, however, they
begin to misbehave, arguing among themselves and calling each another double Ds
which stands for dumb as dogshit. Even worse, instead of training materials, the
Army has only supplied him with paper and pencils, so he tells the class to write
about why they joined the army, then sits down and falls asleep.
Surprisingly, the next day the students bring in their assignments,
and he has the class read them aloud. Their stories are very sad. Most are from
low-income homes, some were not raised by their parents, and a few were neglected
or abused. One commonality they share, however, is that they joined the army to
improve their lives. The next assignment he gives them is to bring something to
read, so the next day the students come with magazines, comic books, and the
like. After telling them to read to themselves, Bill sits down and opens a copy
of Hamlet. Unsatisfied with their own materials, the students ask Bill what
he’s reading, and when he tells them it’s a story about sex and murder, incest,
and insanity, they want him to read it to them.
It doesn’t take Bill long to realize that the play just might
interest soldiers and be an excellent way to teach them how language works. Thus,
while explaining the plot in general terms, he begins talking about figures of
speech like similes, metaphors, and oxymorons. The students quickly become
hooked on the plot, so he decides to have them study the play as a group and assigns
each one a part. Just as he starts feeling like he might be able to do this
job, after all, Drill Sargeant Lou Cass (Gregory Hines) accuses him of wasting the
soldiers’ time because they need to know how to “save lives” rather than read
poetry. Neither man is willing to back down, and they fight frequently, but when
Bill contradicts Doss in front of the troops, Murdoch sends for him. He explains
calmly but firmly that Bill is a guest of the Army and cannot interfere with the
soldiers’ military training.
Fed up with the government’s red tape, Bill decides to seek
another job, and doesn’t get back from the interview until class time is nearly
over. The students are already upset, and when they find out where he’s been,
they walk out. As Bill looks over his empty classroom, he concludes that he and
the students need each other. To get them back, he makes his way to the
training field and demonstrates his commitment to their education by taking on the
Victory Tower, which he conquers with their help. This is a turning point for Bill
and Doss because they realize how much improvement the students are showing on
and off the field. Bill becomes especially determined to help Roosevelt Hobbs,
who he believes could succeed at West Point. Unfortunately when the Army looks
into his background, they find that Roosevelt Hobbs is really a crack dealer named
Nathanial Hobbs, and that there is an outstanding warrant out for him. When the
MPs come into the classroom to arrest him, the rest of the students turn against
Bill. Instead of letting them bully him, however, he uses the situation as an
important lesson. Reminding them of the line ‘to thine own self be true’ from Hamlet,
he explains that it means “the choices we make determine the lives we lead.” While
doing so, he realizes that he should take his own advice and stop holding Emily
back. He corrects this mistake by hocking his treasured award to obtain the
money she needs to finance the trip to Mexico.
The students enjoy Hamlet so much that Bill takes
them to see a production of Shakespear’s play Henry V. Their grasp of
the plot convinces him that they are ready for their final exam. But when he tells
this to Murdoch, the Captain discourages him because if the soldiers don’t pass,
the army will dismiss them. Although Bill is confident that the students can do
well, he lets them decide and is not surprised that they insist on taking the test.
They pass with ease and at the end of the story Emily accompanies Bill to watch
his students graduate, he and Doss acknowledge a grudging respect for each
other, and he has grown to love the job so much that he’s decided to stay on.
https://outlawvern.com/2024/06/06/renaissance-man/
https://mybaseguide.com/victory-tower-fort-jackson
https://www.crossway.org/articles/5-lessons-from-shakespeares-hamlet/
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/play-summary-2/hamlet/
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/renaissance-man-1994
https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/italian-renaissance
Summary
I thought one of the most moving scenes in Renaissance
Man was toward the end when Doss orders the ‘squeakers’ to prove that they learned
anything useful in the class and Pvt. Benitez quotes King Henry’s St. Crispen’s
Day speech to his soldiers. This both indicates that the young man who only
read Archie comic books when the class began not only understands how the speech
applies to him and his classmates but highlights his interest in higher
education. The class didn’t study Henry V, so he bought the book and
read it on his own, in essence seeking to make himself a Renaissance man. Thus,
the title not only describes Bill Rago, but also identifies the possibilities
that he’s giving the students.
To be honest, except for Roosevelt (Nathaniel) Hobbs being
arrested, I think this would actually be a good Christmas movie. Rago starts
out temperamental and insensitive like Scrooge then later experiences an
awakening, not through dreams of Christmas spirits, but by witnessing the miraculous
changes that education brought about for his students. More than that, the
experience makes him a better man and father. Roger Ebert disliked the movie
because he found the plot sticky-sweet, but I don’t think it’s any different
than “A Christmas Carol” which everyone loves.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I put these two movies together because they shared
the common theme of loneliness. Frankie, Johnny, and Bill are lonely because
they hide who they really are and only find companionship when they reveal the emotions
that keep to themselves. One way Garry and Penny Marshall depicted these transformations
was by borrowing from Shakespeare. Johnny struggles to impress Frankie by reading
Romeo and Juliet to her and Bill uses Hamlet to broaden his
students’ understanding of the world around them. However, both men also begin to
comprehend their own shortcomings and once they have reached beyond the borders
of the plays, find their own happinesses.
A secondary device that both Marshalls employed was Debussy’s
“Claire de lune” in Frankie and Johnny and Han Zimmer’s similar sounding
soundtrack in Renaissance Man. (Apparently, Zimmer is known to borrow from
other composers and according to Musicopen.com “Claire de lune” is in the open
domain.) My question was what the piece signifies. “Claire de lune” is the
third of the four-part Suite bergamasque which is Debussy’s musical
interpretation of the poem Claire de lune that was written by Paul Verlaine
in 1869. According to pianist Lang Lang, “Claire de lune” is a sad composition
that depicts a place where everyone hides their real feelings. Thus, rather
than being able to take anything at face value, peoples’ expressions, actions, and
even utterances have to be considered symbols of something else.
For most of the movie, Frankie and Johnny hide how they
really feel. Frankie acts like she’s disinterested in Johnny to avoid being hurt
again; he ignores her coldness because he can’t stand the thought of her rejecting
him like his wife did. It isn’t until the end, when they are listening to “Claire
de lune” that they finally open up to each other and begin to heal. Bill’s
behavior also hides his real emotions. He uses anger to hide his fear of failure,
uses refusal to hide his worry that Emily will follow in his footsteps, and employs
sarcasm to hide his concern that he won’t be able to save his students. It is
at these points that you can hear Zimmer’s Debussy-like tracks play in the
background. As the students begin to succeed in both the classroom and on the
exercise field, however, Bill’s worries are dispelled, and the Debussy-like
tracks disappear.
Right now, both Frankie and Johnny and Renaissance
Man are streaming on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Fandango for $3.99. If you
want to own one of the movies, Frankie and Johnny is for sale new at
Amazon and Walmart for $10 to $15 and is available used at eBay for around five
bucks. However, you need to be careful. There are a lot of films with the same
name including one starring Elvis Presley so be sure to search for the film
made in 1991. Renaissance Man is also for sale on eBay and Amazon, but most
of the DVDs are used and some are extremely expensive, $50, $75, even over
$100. Luckily, I got mine before other people realized the critics were wrong. Speaking
of critics, IMDB ranked both movies similarly with Frankie and Johnny
scoring 69% and Renaissance Man scoring 62%. Rotten Tomatoes critics,
however, hated it, and gave it an overall score of 12% which is about the
lowest I’ve ever seen. Thus, you might want to rent it before you buy it.
This is my last post for 2024. I’m taking the holidays and
my birthday off, but I’ll be back in late winter to talk about a couple more movies
by my favorite directors. Until then Felices Fiestas.
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/debussy-clair-de-lune-masterpiece-guide/
https://www.pianotv.net/2016/05/analysis-of-clair-de-lune/
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