Perhaps after reading the article on Boorman in the packet, you have additional comments on the film? I know I particularly appreciated the ongoing hints of Boorman's larger interests as a filmmaker. For example, in the opening segment, Bill (Sebastian Rice Edwards) is playing with his toy figures, pretending to be Merlin the wizard during the time of King Arthur: clearly a reference to Boorman's epic film (and perhaps his most ambitious), Excalibur. I also enjoyed the frequent use of diegetic music: people playing, singing and the use of record players, to provide a soundtrack of popular music without resorting to an actual artificial soundtrack.
Anyone else have any comments or thoughts on the film, or on John Boorman, or on the portrayal of the war?
As a fashion major I was particularly interested in the costumes in the film. It was fun to see the wartime references to drawn on stocking seams and the women fighting over parachute silk.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed how this film captures the childlike and playful view of the war. For example: Bill burrowing through the rubble like it was a playground with other children, how the blimp floated in the air was entertaining for everyone (until it got shot down), and how the children at the end were so happy that they don't have school forever (since it got bombed).
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add in one more example: how Dawn treated the dropping bombs like they were a form of fireworks in order to lessen her siblings' worries. - Melody
ReplyDeleteI also considered the affects on design and fashion. i was having a conversation with a friend who is a professional architect and we were discussing the "hick up" in design in england during the late 1930s and 1940s. How in 1950, when production of non-wartime goods and services continued again, they reverted back to 1930s designs, in fashion and a things like kitchen ware.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on a completely other note, it struck me during the film, that in America we've never really experienced what its like to live in a war zone. Going to bed each night knowing that you might die, and that if you didn't some one you know would is a terrifying thought.
I found the children's detachment from the death and violence that surrounded them during the war very interesting. When their neighbors houses were being blown up and people they knew were dying in explosions, the children saw it as an adventure and took advantage of peoples misfortune by scavenging their houses and being insensitive to those who survived. This could possibly be due to the lack of adult influence in the children's lives during the war with most of their fathers joining the military and their mothers supporting the war effort and being more concerned with getting their families through the war than teaching them good manners.
ReplyDeleteAlso the lack of fear Bill displayed during the bombings, the children seemed more afraid of their senile grandfather at points in the film than they did of being killed by the Germans. Perhaps this was a defense mechanism set off in order for these children to survive the war with their sanity still intact.
-Amanda Sievers
After seeing the film, it almost seemed like there was a reversal of roles during the war. children were maturing too rapidly, while some of the adults behaved in a childlike manner
ReplyDeleteThroughout the film, it shows Bill watching things from afar (such as observing through binoculars at a situation, or standing a little bit afar from where Dawn and her lover are caught in the act) as he only begins to comprehend adult situations. Even Sue makes an observant, almost keen remark about the childish, inexperienced way in which Dawn is engaged in sex. The grandfather in the film behaves the way a child does when he loses a game, or when school is out he cheers. Also the blimp, as it floats freely yet clumsily up high in the air, is cheered by family and children together, but their happiness is shot down when the blimp is shot.
The entire time I was watching the film I was horrified! All of us have never had the contact with war this family had and I kept imagining myself in their situation. It was pretty awful. I was astounded that the children were able to stay in their innocent mindset the whole time, that really all the bombs didn't have an effect on them. They couldn't realize the gravity of the situation and never saw the greater destruction that was being caused. In a way it makes me wish we were all children, they have this distinct ability to block out issues that would make any grown person go insane.
ReplyDeleteI think the film did an excellent job of making the plot a complete reality, it seems that these are all real people with pasts and futures, people that suffered and lived through the hardest period of their lives. It has a hopeful ending, which I think was the only thing keeping me from being overwhelmed.
the display of time in connection to the progression of ideas during the war are usually hidden and a better display of life in current time is presented. in hope and glory the family is very well established in that they have family they can turn to who will take them in although the grandfather seems to have something to say about everything they do the family unit stays connected and without fear of loosing each other. a wonderful story
ReplyDeleteI wasn't crazy about this movie. Maybe it's jsut me, but i thought there was a lack of plot. You really had no idea where the movie was going becuase it was a display of their lives from day to day. There was no real climax to the film. Other than their house being bombed, there was no serious turn of events. I honestly thought they were going to lose their father, then maybe the idea of war would have become more real to them.
ReplyDeleteI loved this film! It appeals to me as an artist especially in how a sense of nostalgia is created. I love the juxtaposition of the happy go lucky nature of this family with the reality of their world. A less then perfect marriage and family in a state of war, with less than perfect circumstances and yet it's all wrapped up in a cooke cutter frame. In other words, I'm speaking of the push and pull between nothing is okay and everything is gonna be alright.
ReplyDeleteI was enthralled by the softness of the scenes where children played in war torn streets and barbed wired beaches as though they were playgrounds and school yards. It spoke to the relentless positivity in human nature in the face of adversity as well as to the ugliness that is possible out of human nature.