Alaina's Trial by Movies: Elizabeth Taylor

Known for being one of the most beautiful women on the planet, Elizabeth Taylor is the next star that Alaina got to watch. She has a lot of different types of roles but Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has to be one of her most memorable.

This movie is a very dramatic movie. It's based off of the Tennessee Williams' play by the same name. It's very different from the other movies that I have made her watch. 

1.What were your thoughts going into this movie? Well, I actually got this movie title confused with Fiddler on the Roof, which I have also never seen. So, for half the movie trying to remember the name of the movie that I thought I was watching. 2. What was your favorite part of the movie? The very end when Paul Newman stuck up for his wife. 3. Favorite character? Paul Newman 4. Why? His eyes. He did a good job playing a realistic alcoholic and someone who's has given up. He did a good job with the comeback of his character as well. 5. What did you not like about the movie? It's was weird. I kept expecting more to happen. The events of the movie and the argument were all in a span of a day. Most movies there is more movement. It's was just different. 6. What did you think of the actor we watched this time? I thought Elizabeth Taylor was good and very pretty. 7. What do you think of the movie after we have watched it? It was weird. It wasn't bad, it was just interesting..... 8. Would you watch it again? Probably not, unless I was with someone who wanted to watch it. I would not seek it out. 9. Would recommend? To someone who likes old movies yes. For cultural significance, sure. 10. What relevance does it have to today? I'm gonna say the importance of good communication. The whole movie would have been avoided if the husband and wife just talked.

Year of Learning: Holes

In my last post I was saying that I really was not into the Forrest Gump book. This time around it's a very different story. 

Holes, written by Louis Sachar, was such a good book that I took me a day and a half to read. The only reason that it took me even that long was because I was reading while I was at work. I read during my breaks. This wonderful story follows Stanley Yelnats during the most unlucky period of his life. He if arrested for stealing a pair of famous shoes that fell out of the sky. It follows his journey to Camp Greenlake where he tells the story of the curse his family was put onto them and how he comes to break that curse. 

Last year when I was coming up with this list I was having some trouble thinking of title to read and watch. My friend Luke told me to read Holes. I loved the movie growing up, and still do. I would always stop and watch the movie when it came on tv. It's always so fun to watch every time it came on. So, I thought it was perfect. Luke told me that most everyone online seemed to think that this is one of the best film adaptations of a book they have ever seen. They say that it was like reading he book when they were watching the film. Hearing this I was excited. 

It has been a number of years since I have seen Holes. That was a good thing because I couldn't really critic the book and movie as I was reading. However, the more I read the more I saw the movie playing in my head. The only thing that I had to keep reminding myself was the fact that Stanley was heavier set in the book. 

Then as I was watching the movie I was really shocked. There was some things in the book that I swore where not in the movie. However, I was wrong. Just about everything that was in the book was also in the film. There are some very minor differences in the story telling but it's not even enough to be angry about. 

Like the book is all from Stanley's point of view so he didn't know about the lawyer coming till he was found in the hole at the end of the book. We saw the lawyer while Stanley was missing in the movie. We also got a little bit of input from the other members of Tent D while Stanley and Zero were gone. 

However, I think that the reason this book and movie were so close together was because Louis Sachar also wrote the screenplay for the film. So, anyone who ever watches the movie can't be mad at the writer because he wrote the book so all the changes he made where his choice. 

I have to say that I really hope that the rest of the book I read this year are going to be as good as this adaptation was. I really was very happy with how this turned out. 

Year of Learning: Forrest Gump

Let me tell you something...….


I really hope that the rest of this year with reading and watching the movies does not go like how this first book went.

The first book I read is Forrest Gump written in 1986 by Winston Groom

I have said several time before and I will say it many times again, Forrest Gump is one of my all time favorite movies. It wasn't until about two or three years ago did I learn that it was originally a book. Really it was finding this out that really want to do this challenge this year. 

Let me tell you it did not go nearly as well as I was hoping. Now, before anyone thinks I am going to be biased towards movies because I love films truest me that it not me at all. There are very few times that I find the movie better than the book. I watched the first 6 Harry Potter films and then I read all of the books and the books are still much better than the films. That is how I feel about most movies that I read the books. Forrest Gump is not one of them. 

How they found the screenplay they came up with I will never know. I mean really there are so many differences from the book to the movie that the Forrest in the book is almost unrecognizable from the Forrest in the film. Jenny, for that matter, is not the same person at all. 

Let's just start with her. 

In the book, her father is not abusive and she doesn't go and live with her grandmother, she was never in a risqué magazine, never ended up in a strip club in Memphis, Tennessee. We see in the movie she keeps thinking about killing herself. She never did any drugs other than smoke some dope. When she saw that Forrest was smoking too much dope, yes he does in the book, she stopped. Also, Jenny never dies in the book! So, all the meaningful stuff Forrest did at her gravesite and tearing down her dad's house never happened at all! 

Most of the most memorable events that happened in the movie never happened in the book. Forrest never had to wear braces on his feet. He was a naturally big fella in the book and that is how he got to playing football, which he started in high school and went to college on a scholarship in the book. Meeting Elvis never happened as well. In fact, Forrest is molested by one of the tenants in the house in the book! He never runs across America, he was drafted into Vietnam in the book, where in the movie he volunteered. Bubba was not "stupid" in the book. He was actually on the college team with Forrest and then could not play anymore due to an injury. Lieutenant Dan and Forrest met in the hospital after Forrest ran back to save others. He was not Forrest's commanding officer. 

Forrest in the film is seen as this super sweet and really a wholesome character. He really shows that the right thing in the best thing. He see real beauty in people and is able to bring happiness to the world. The Forrest in the book was not nearly as wholesome. It was really heartbreaking to read. I mean he still did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. However, he cusses a lot in the book. Jenny and Him are way more intimate in the book then in the movie. Forrest keeps smoking dope in the book. 

The things that don't make it to the big screen are things like him going to jail, several times. He also went to space, when to college classes, lived with cannibals for 4 years with a male orangutan named Sue. He ended up in Hollywood and playing in a movie with Raquel Welch. He played in college bands with Jenny and that is how he made money for a while. He threw is congressional medal of Honor that he got for saving those in Vietnam at a member of congress. Dan never was his first mate. Dan ended up living on the streets and never got a job or lived off the government. Forrest and Dan parted way and they end up running into each other at the end of the book in Savannah, Georgia were Forrest is trying to get away.

 Forrest is a millionaire, just from the Shrimping company not because he invested in Apple that never happened in the book, and is tired of being there and wants to take a break. So, Forrest and Sue, yes the orangutan, leave to go to Savannah where he runs into Dan and plays music on his harmonica to make enough money to buy food and that's about it. Where is runs into Jenny.... and her son named Forrest...… 

Come to find out she found out she was pregnant shortly after she left him the last time, and ended up finding a good man and married him. She raised Little Forrest as the man's son! That's right JENNY AND FORRST DON'T END UP TOGETHER AND FORREST NEVER SEES HIS SON IN PERSON AGAIN! Forrest says at the end of the book that she send's pictures every once and a while but that is it. 

I have to say, whoever saw this book as potential for the book has to be able to see into the future. I am so glad that so many changes happened in the book. The book felt like his life was too fantastic to be not only real, but it was too much to be realistic. However, whoever wrote Forrest as they did for the movie was able to make his life overly fantastic in a believable way. They were able to build on his life experiences in ways that made sense. Nothing in the movie was out from left field. Which in the book is kinda what it felt like the whole time I was reading. 

Lord, I hope that was the worst of it. Thankfully, I haven't not see all of the movies from the books. So, I am not going to compare every book to the movie as I am reading but this one was very hard. This might be on the list of book I will never read again... Which is disappointing.... 

Because I really do love Forrest Gump.

 

 

Alaina's Trial by Movie: Mickey Rooney

MICKEY ROONEY! Oh my Lord! I love this man! I really mad this list for Alaina years ago just to make her watch this man! He is my all time favorite actor! Yet, people today really don't know who he is. However, he has been in EVERYTHING! 

However, we will not go over everything that he has ever done. We will just do the one film that I made Alaina watch, Strike Up the Band.

This is one of the very first movies that I have ever seen with Mickey Rooney in it. I was hooked from the very first viewing. I first discovered Mr. Rooney when I was doing a research paper on Judy Garland. There was a wonderful book that my mom found at the library that I got to use and it had a picture of the two of them in the book. When I looked up the name I found that they were in about 10 films together. I had to watch some of them. It was this discovery that got me into many other actor and movies along the way. Why? Because Mickey Rooney has done every type of the movie under the sun and has worked with every big name out there. 

I know that Alaina knows that I love this man. So, I was equally excited and nervous about showing this film. If she liked it I would be happy, if she didn't I think I really would have been crushed. 

1. What were your thoughts going into this movie? I figured it was going to be about a band. I liked Mickey Rooney in other stuff and I was looking forward to seeing him in this film.

2. What was your favorite part of the movie? That's tough because I really liked the whole thing (Sidebar: I was suuuuuper happy at the statement) I really liked the play they put on to raise the money.

3. Who was your favorite character? Judy Garland, Willy and Mickey Rooney.

4. Why? Willy because he made me smile. He was quick to do things for Judy because he liked her. Judy because I like her in everything I have seen. Mickey because he did really well with his facial expressions and showing his excitement.

5. What did you not like about the movie? *Really long pause* Nothing really.

6. What did you think of Mickey Rooney? His excitement and energy that he brought to his character. It made him believable and passionate.

7. What do you think of the movie after we have watched it? I loved it! It was fun and wholesome and happy and I just loved it!

8. Would you watch it again? Yes!

9. Would you recommend? Yes!

10. What relevance does it have to today? WHOLESOMENESS!!!!! EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE WAS WHOLESOME AND EVERYONE WAS NICE, AND EVERYONE WAS RESECTFUL! 

Yes, she really did yell that last answer at me! It was great! I will say she had me on edge for the whole movie. Literally because I CAN'T READ HER! When she watches a movie There is not much expression that goes across her face. Where I react to everything. She will laugh but she was smile or frown though the whole thing. So like the first few times we did this I thought she was lying telling me to she liked it when she didn't. However, Learning this has helped! I am really glad she enjoyed this film!