Endless Summer

 

Endless Summer sounds like a student's dream, but it is a classic film from 1966 that follows the trek of two surfers trying to surf around the world in an attempt to have an endless summer. Bruce Brown produced not just a classic film of early surfing, but a historical statement of the geography of surfing. He also produced a wonderful look at the beauty of surfing. For all of us children of the sixties raised on images of surfing, this film is a record of that dream.

The film reflects the geography of surfing in two main ways. (1) The nature of the surf at particular places around the world results from the physical geography of coastal structure and weather. Surfable surf is not universal. The nature of the coast determines whether waves will break in surfable ways. There is also a seasonal component to that surf. While the film attempts to create an endless summer, surf is often better in the winter in some places. (2) Local culture is important. Surfing is widespread, but not all cultures engage in it. Especially back in time, local culture had impact upon any activity in spite of its global nature. Surfing was historic in some places, while only a few odd souls engaged in it in other places. Then, there are variances in local customs such as clothing and gender involvement.

Hawaii. The film keeps harking back to Hawaii, the hearth of surfing. The warm waters of Hawaii promote surfing to the point of crowding and accidents. Its beaches vary in their surfable nature. Waikiki Beach seems very popular with surfers possessing a variety of skills. The Pipeline has significant surf, but is shallow and the underwater surface consists of sharp coral. The film even points out that only a few ride the Pipeline. "Some are sportsmen, some are nuts." Then there is Waimea Bay. At certain points the surf is massive. Some may recall the film Ride the Wild Surf which followed the contest that develops to be the last one to ride the surf here. Of course, Jan and Dean sang the theme song to that great film noting the waves were some 30 feet high. The surfers look like they are surfing down the slope of a multistory building. Only the best surf here when the surf is up.

California. The traditional place for surfing in the 60s was Malibu in California. The beach films were focused here, as well as other beaches. What Americans see as surf and surf culture is Californian in nature. Sub-Saharan Africa. African beaches had no reputation at the time of the film, yet very desirable surf conditions were found. In Dakar, Senegal; Accra, Ghana; and Lagos, Nigeria; the surf was wonderful. The film does take an out-of-date view of African culture and peoples. There are no local surfers except one group that seems to know how to surf with their boat.

South Africa. Surfing is just arriving in South Africa in 1966. The spread of culture had a slower pace then. At Cape Town, Durban, and Cape St. Francis, the film appreciates the surfable beaches. The surrounding environment gets a good viewing, including Table Top Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope, and animal life [giraffes, sharks, monkeys, and zebras]. That the American landscape looks similar does not escape note.

Australia. They surf both western [Perth] and eastern [Melbourne, Sydney] beaches. Surfing culture is better developed than in South Africa, and women fully participate. The only problem is that the surf seems poor. They explore the principle that the surf was always better yesterday. Winter, it seems, is prime surf time.

New Zealand. The short, simple scenes of the landscape set off New Zealand eminently well. They combine mountains with a quick stop at the areas of "bubbly mud," --or mud pots in Yellowstone terms. Surfing is underdeveloped. The varying nature of the surf is emphasized as they find a place were a ride can go on much of the day.

Tahiti. The barrier reef restricts surf potential here. They are told that the place has nothing for them, but they find it any way. Unusual is that one beach has two-way surf. The surf rolls in, but then the beach creates a wave back into the ocean.

They end up in Hawaii, again. It was heavy on their minds throughout the film. Then the sun goes down on the endless summer.

I watched it on AMC [American Movie Classics]. They followed it with a clip of the Beach Boys live singing "Dance, Dance, Dance." A perfect choice.

Updated from: Meartz, Paul D. 2002. Geography in Media: Endless Summer. Dakota Alliance XII(3): Summer 2002: 7.

Cleopatra

 

An epic film, steeped in controversy and scorned by some, Cleopatra nonetheless represents Hollywood's classic view of the world. The film is the story of Cleopatra VII's reign as Pharaoh between 51 and 30 BC, and of her love affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She was the last pharaoh, and her life and loves can be considered valiant attempts to maintain Egypt in the face of growing Roman power.

While the film begins with Caesar's attempts to control the empire in Europe, it soon leads him to Egypt and the arms of Cleopatra. Love follows as Cleopatra hopes that her bearing of Caesar's child will contribute to the maintaining of Egyptian power. With Caesar's death at the hands of Brutus and others, this collapses. Beguiled by her in Rome, Antony eventually sails to her side in Egypt, a move that leads to their deaths.

The geography shown in the film is stunning. Spectacle is an undercurrent in films of Cleopatra's genre. There are several aspects to the geography in the film.

Rome and Alexandria. The film divides between two main sites. Starting in Rome, and some surrounding countryside in Europe, it comes later to focus on Alexandria, Egypt. The film shows a duality to both places in that the focus on the environs of the powerful is countered with some limited sojourns into the areas of average folk. The film draws little distinction between the environments of Rome and Egypt. Cultural differences seem significant, but physical differences are minimal.

Desert. The warmth and dryness of the desert is present from near the start to the end. While not the most clearly shown environment in the film, the desert is present in the important battle scenes. The sparseness is clear.

Color. So many of the often seen images of Egypt and Rome lack color. The historic record indicates that they lived in worlds of color, but age has robbed that color from view in favor of bare rock. The King Tut exhibit that toured the United States 25 years ago brought that color, particularly the gold, home to the Americans who had an opportunity to see it; but the usual views of the pyramids and the Roman ruins show bareness. If color exists it is in the form of chipped paint that is often compromised by darkness. Time has taken the color away, but film restores it to view. Cleopatra brushes that color back on the rock. The clothes sparkle. The curtains are resplendent.

Water. The Nile flows through numerous scenes. The classic shapes of the ships, the docks, and just the bright blue of the waters capture the camera's attention.

Interaction/Integration. The geographic activities of interaction bringing integration are illustrated in the film. The interaction of Rome and Egypt brought their integration as trade and political units. As the film takes place this is not new. Egyptian grain has long held a position in the Roman world.

I saw Cleopatra when it was new in 1963-64. I liked it. I am surprised by the fact that many thought it less than a great epic film. I was beginning my high school years. I was awe struck by the splendor, by the magnificence of it all. The press had built it up some so maybe I was ready for it, but it was special in any case. I think has a role to play in showing me the power of the media. After 50 years I still find the power of blue eye shadow on a woman irresistible, the same for single shoulder tops. Cleopatra had to be the source of these long held facets of my mind. Ah, the power of media.

Updated from: Meartz, Paul D. 2002. Geography in Media: Cleopatra. Dakota Alliance XII(1): February 2002: 7.

Cabaret

 

Cabaret is a cross-section of the poorer and seedier side of pre-Hitler Berlin. The cabaret was the Jay Leno monologue of its time. Leno has been identified as a major news source for many Americans. Patrons of cabarets were treated to a voyeuristic look at their society, just like Leno provides. The patrons of this cabaret get a look at the decadence and decay of a world that has lost its sense of morality and footings in the solid cement of historic culture. Its resemblance to current entertainment is scary. It is not just a slice of another culture, it is a full helping of a culture being harangued and battered by itself.

Cabaret, the film version, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1972. It stars Michael York, Liza Minelli, and Joel Gray. The plot is fairly simple. It is the very early 1930s. Michael York's character has come to Berlin to study. On the side, he teaches English. His customers mostly are Jewish persons getting ready for some place else. Liza Minelli, as Sally Bowles, is a singer at the Cabaret. Finding each other at a rooming house occupied by people on the sidelines of society, they engage in a strange and convoluted romance. The real focus of the show is the cabaret acts, where even the "orchestra is beautiful."

The physical environment of Berlin is shown through its weather, buildings, and scenery. Cabaret presents a variety of details concerning the cultural-historical environment, too. Physically, we see parks, apartments, houses, trains, and clubs. Culturally we see the attitudes of the elite, sexual mores, tension over the growing NAZI presence, Jewish-related issues, violence against Jews and others, and clothes.

The decadence of German society is illustrated via sexuality, hinted nudity, homosexuality, transvestitism, greed, intolerance, and lack of seriousness over its own plight. Cabaret takes the world around it and makes a joke of it. For example, the song "Money Makes the World Go Round" makes its point, as does Joel Gray singing about why people do not like his gorilla girlfriend. He ends with the line "She doesn't look Jewish at all."

The geographic environment shown in the film helps drive these messages home. NAZI Party people are scattered here and there. The homes of the rich and the crowded spaces of the poor make vivid the social tension. The gates, manicured lawns, green of the parks, furniture, subdued lighting, and so forth show the world of the rich as distant from that of the poor. The poor live in crowded apartments where the lights are dim and the company is uncultured.

That it is a color presentation lends even greater reality to the period since it is likely many students see Hitler in black and white. Now I personally find black and white increases the horror of film. For example, Jimmy Stewart's twisted face in It's a Wonderful Life as he faces the reality of Pottersville is not the same in color. A Christmas Carol, with Alistair Sims, is very different when you watch the colorized version. It loses its sense of human crisis. Of course, Steven Speilberg filmed Schindler's List in black and white. Postmodern youth may not perceive things this way. Black and white means "old." It is out.

In the end it is a sexually-charged streak through German life at a crucial point in history. On a deeper level, it is us. The geographic content is the setting for a message of gloom. For students wondering how history repeats itself, how Hitler's time period applies to us; Cabaret is filled with suggestive thoughts. Look past the sexual tones to the subcontext of societal stink. Students who see fascism only as Hitler need realize he was a front for the rich. Cabaret tries to make this point. Even Liza Minelli's green fingernail polish and hair style, and the wild eye makeup of the Cabaret girl's, suggest today's gothic look. The place varies, the social issues remain the same.

Geography as the setting for history, Cabaret has it.  One also notes the similarities of the Caberet to postmodern America.  Decency taking a nose dive as society slips into a fascist mode.

Updated from: Meartz, Paul D. 2001. Geography in Media: Cabaret. Dakota Alliance XI(1): January-February 2001: 7.

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Mutiny on The Bounty

 

It was early in the 1960s when I received my first subscription to the National Geographic. Mutiny on the Bounty was being remade and the Geographic was covering the journey of the ship produced for the film to Tahiti. The ship and the island appeared spectacular. The island was lush and the ship spoke to a story that made an impression.

That story was of the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian against Captain William Bligh aboard the HMS Bounty. Pushed to obtain breadfruit plants from Tahiti for transplantation in the West Indies, where they would serve as a food supply for slave labor, Bligh encounters a delay due to his error in attempting to get to Tahiti via Cape Horn. He blames Christian and the crew rather than the inadequacy of the sailing technology. This results in further delay as they reach Tahiti during the dormant season for breadfruit. He has to wait months to merely dig up the plants. As the tension builds, in Bligh and the crew, the return trip results in the famous mutiny.

Hollywood has found the tale worth three major films, but I have found postmodern students getting a little distant from the story. There is a lot to learn and see in each of the films.

The more accessible films are 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty and 1984's Bounty. The former casts Trevor Howard as Bligh and Marlon Brando as Christian. The latter casts Anthony Hopkins as Bligh and Mel Gibson as Christian. Both are excellent films. Both present the story in the changing terms of their production periods. The 1962 film is much more sympathetic to Bligh, but does allow its dandy Christian to develop into an honorable man. The 1984 version gives Bligh no measure while allowing Gibson to be the well-liked character he often plays in films.

From the geographic standpoint, both offer impressive views of the nature of the oceans, and the marvels of Tahiti and Pitcairn Island.

Oceans. In the 1789 the world map is mostly filled in, but the details are missing. As students think about ocean travel during the age of exploration, I am unconvinced that the time involved sinks in. I am not sure that the level of danger does either. The travel is slow, no jets. The travel conditions are poor, no pools and hot tubs. These men are undertaking a risky trip that will last for years under conditions where the boss has no human relations and safety rules to follow.

Islands. The displayed environments of Tahiti and Pitcairn are rich in detail. The famous openness of the people of Tahiti is made clear from the first. The society is organized. It has its sense of power and pride. All those playing Bligh respect the ability of the Tahitians to destroy them. They also show a massive sense of private disrespect for the "savages." The legendary sexual freedom of the Tahitians is clearly used as the sailors go wild. One gets a good view of culture, including clothing. The films do vary. The 1962 version uses carefully developed camera angles to cover the women, the 1984 version is more honest.

Pitcairn Island is shown in a very straightforward manner in both films. It is a very small [2 square miles] island. Its rugged coast and surface is an essential element of plot development. Of course, its geographic feature of greatest interest in education is that Christian is able to use it as a safe haven because its location has been mischarted on every British map. While latitude figures were long establishable, it was only after Cook's sailing in 1776 that longitude even began to have a level of accuracy. Mislocated, the mutineers could take a chance that no one would find it soon. It was too remote.

This is a story that offers great potential for discussions of leadership. Like Twelve O'Clock High, it offers leadership styles in very clear contrast. Is Bligh correct in his approach to controlling men?

The islands have very important positions in the mental life of many Americans. That push to escape the postmodern world's drive to work and consume is countered by the appeal of the simple lifestyle, one in touch with the environment. While environmental units usually stress fixing up what we have, the remote place of peace has more appeal for some people. Was, or is, that place really one of peace and communion with nature

Of course, the sad end of the Bounty, rebuilt for the 1962 film, came in 2012 when it sunk in the Atlantic while caught up in Hurricane Sandy.

Updated from: Meartz, Paul D. 2001. Geography in Media: Mutiny on the Bounty. Dakota Alliance XI(2): Summer 2001: 7.

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The Finder [Fox]

 

The Finder offers a counter weight to CSI: Miami in showing southern Florida.  The urban-beach oriented CSI: Miami is pushed more into the back waters of the swamp in The Finder.  The Finder follows an Iraq War veteran who has developed extreme abilities to fathoim where something that is lost and sought is to be found.  His apparent long term skills at this are heightened by mental changes that occurred after an IED explosion in Iraq.

His headquarters is dive called the Ends of the Earth in a swmap grove near Miami, at Looking Glass Key.  One gets to see a very tropical looking establishment that looks very run down and is reminiscent of tropical islands places in movies.  Windows?  No, shutters get closed.

The tropical environment is fairly clear in the nature of the dive, its drinks, the clothes, and the weather.  A hurricane provides the setting to use technology and logic to find a killer.  The human Google is bound to be a classic.  Of course, it all gets going as he is boarding up the shutters in anticiaption of the storm.  Other bodies appear or not in the swamps.  All this takes place in a sourrounding of palm trees, of course.  And do not forget the very typical air boats used in those swmaps.

While he has this more non-Miami focus, the urban environment is not ignored.  The show just goes for a bit of eccentric isolation in the world of wonderful weather.

Rome Adventure (1962)

 

Rome Adventure is one of those 1950-1960s potboilers that questions the sexual mores of society as seen and done by popular novelists of the time. In a category with A Summer Place or Peyton Place, but less deep, it pits one generation versus another over the proper nature of love and sex. Given the nature of life in 2012, it seems quaint, even slightly silly, and certainly foreign to postmodern people.

As for geography, Rome Adventure has Suzanne Pleshette fleeing sexual/love issues in the United States by going to find a life in Rome. Meeting Rossano Brazzi on the ship, he becomes the source and model of Italian mores. More important Pleshette meets Troy Donahue at her boarding house and love develops.

Where that love develops is against the setting, the geography of Italy. Early, we get a snap tour of Rome from Barzzi, but it shows only the obvious stereotyped symbols of Rome with a quick fact about each one. They drive by way to fast. We see the Arch of Constantine, the Coliseum, and Palatine Hill. These are what they are, and one wonders if anyone ever really drives in Rome in a sporty car beside a woman like Pleshette explaining that Rome began in 753 BC on the Palatine Hill?

A later we actually get on the tour bus. A real guide explains things we are seeing. Sites include an Etruscan festival of flags and the Baptistry, Cathedral, and Leaning Tower in Pisa. Then we head out along the sea coast for the view and the rocky cliffs. At one stop Donahue explains why medieval churches have sculpture and paintings outside. In times when few could read, the Bible stories had to be shown in paintings.

They leave the tour to venture out alone by Vespa scooter. We see a lot of country road, tree lined of course, as they fall in love. We do see some sea coast and the rocky cliffs. .We find ourselves up North at Lago maggiore, near the Alps. Out in the lake are the famous castles. Do note the brightly colored giant umbrellas over tables by the water. So Italian

A side visit finds us scootering to Verona. With Pleshette in Juliet’s Balcony, Donahue delivers Shakespeare to the applause of the crowd. We do get to see a scattering of classic bridges, wine and cheese, and old streets made for pedestrians and an occasional horse

A picnic in the mountains shows us the rocky Apennines in fine color. They kiss to a spectacular view. At a village inn Donahue asks for a room with a view and the owner waves his hands in all directions over and over indicating every room has a view with them all around.

Well a nice tour, but actually slightly weak on the gusto of Italian life. You see Italian life, but most goes by without explanation.

The Agony and the Ecstasy [1963]

 

The Agony and the Ecstasy follows the life of Michelangelo in his painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Pope Julius II is set on upgrading the Vatican and while pursuing war, he creates and environment in which art flourishes. These excesses will lead to complaints about the nature of the Catholic Church out of which the Protestant reformation will arise. The film begins with a biography of Michelangelo and his work. The film is establishing the prominence of Italy in Renaissance art.

The geography is divided between the hills of Tuscany around Florence and the Vatican in Rome. We see the statues and buildings of Florence briefly, but the film spends far more time in the hills of the area. Quarrying marble for statues and buildings is the output of these hills. We get a chance to see the old methods by which the hill is carved apart and broken into rock chunks of useful size. The marble of Florence is world famous and the raw material of many major works of art.

The film uses the broad vistas of the hills to give Michelangelo his vision of the design for the Sistine Chapel of God creating Adam and humankind. The mountain top view is essential to the story and made graphically clear in the special effects.

While some outdoor scenes to spot the rest of the film, the bulk of the geography is indoors at the Vatican. Seen are the outdoor settings carefully reconstructed for street scenes. The interior is mostly one of scaffolding until the painting is unveiled in its wonder.

While the Geography is quite apparent to the viewer, the History is center stage. The papacy is not a solely religious body. The corruption, which again will lead to the Protestant reformation, is clear. The military nature of the papacy is a dominant theme. Julius II is picturd as a better military leader than Pope.

On a more personal level the film carries a message for postmodern times that great work is not done overnight. Julius II is constantly asking Michelangelo when it will be finished. Michelangelo has no real estimate given the never ending process which is creation. The need to fill one’s needs immediately in today’s world is in clear contrast with the painfully extended process of creating great works

The Last King of Scotland [2006]

 

The Last King of Scotland has a geographically misleading title in that it follows the life of a Scot in Uganda. Only the first minutes take place in Scotland. It follows a young Scot doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, as he moves to Uganda to work in a bush clinic. He quickly finds himself taken in by President Idi Amin as his personal doctor. After Amin is injured wrist is wrapped by the young Scot, the movie is underway.

Arriving in Uganda, the viewer sees the savanna environment, grassy with a dry, hot feel to it. The variety of animal life is present, but not a focus point. They drive along wide open grass plains on the normal African dirt roads. Arriving at the bush hospital, the informality of the bush city and surroundings strikes one. The clothes are natural of the bush and not the modern hospital. The massive demand for limited services is clear from just the crowding. Yet children smile and play in other scenes.

The traditional Land Rover of the British bush is used. Of course a rugged vehicle is required given the dirt roads. Otherwise hard on the body is soccer played in bare feet.

Some traditional elements of Africa appear in the high pitched chanting, particularly the female voices, and in the drone of the drums and wooden xylophone-like instrument. A different sense of tone and beat sets a sound for the environment.

Once the doctor is taken in by Amin, he is whisked away to the urban environment. Here the uninformed probably finds the greatest dissonance from the traditional stereotypes of Africa. The buildings are modern. There are stores and multi-story office buildings. They do have an empty look to them as hall ways are long and lack decoration.

Also given the traditional setting of “Africa,” lavish dinner parties with men in suits and women in fine ball gowns will inform yet be strange. In addition fairly modern stores, appropriate to the 1970s though, will also seem out of character. Later Africans at a club drinking western cocktails and listening to a singer belting “Me and Bobby McGee” will contrast with traditional stereotypes’

From the historic perspective one is visiting Uganda as Dictator Idi Amin controls the country. The elevated level of violence, unfortunately not limited to Uganda during the time period of the film, is ugly. Amin’s mental instability is stark and the violence is near sickening.

The inter-tribal nature of Amin’s violence is noted but not really pushed to clarity. A person from a non-favored tribe met with death in many circumstances. It shakes our doctor early, but its true nature is not really pursued. It is just left a death, not a death from inter-tribal warfare. He is being outfitted for a suit when an attack takes place on the street. He is shook, but the viewer is little informed by the scene as to the tribal warfare witnessed.

In the end this is an ugly film. But, the time period was ugly. Africa is still bathed in this same ugliness and horror. Uganda is not the only case of genocide and terror. The colonial age did not fade away into a life of peace form many here. Societies disorganized by colonial damage have suffered by inter-tribal fighting and the breakdown of traditional authority and social systems by that colonialism. This film highlights and episode of that aspect of African life

MacDonald, Kevin. 2006. The Last King of Scotland. Film. Hollywood: Fox-Searchlight.

The Yellow Rolls-Royce [1964]

 

from IMCDB

The Yellow Rolls-Royce follows the peaks and valleys of its various owner’s romance lives over several decades beginning with its production in 1930. It is a classic looking Rolls with black top and a yellow body.

The first owners are English nobility, the car bought on a whim but returned quickly after illicit romance takes place in the back seat. One gets a short look at London, but the view is not very informative.

Some more miles get put on it and it arrives in Italy and goes to the hands of a mobster from Amwrica played by George C. Scott. Of course his moll, Shirley MacLaine, has a trsit with her illicit lover in the back seat and things end poorly. While in Italy one starts in Genoa, but moves on quickly. One sees some magnificent views of the country. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is paused at for a significant time. One sees the larger Basilica and the surrounding area. Heading south one notes the narrow hillside roads and a coast with shining water and magnificent cliffs. The buildings wear their age with romance. The weather is glorious.

The final section is in Triti then into the Dinaric Alps of the then Yugoslavia, but was shot in Austria(IMDb 1990). The political intrigue of the region is amply displayed. The mountains steal to screen with beautiful valleys and extensive woodlands. The narrow, curvy roads add to the danger of driving while bombing might take place. The rural villages are likely still in place and have that ancient charm. The down to earth attitudes of the villagers are clear and the devotion to life and family.

A good film with a typical Hollywood story and some pieces of Europe tossed in.

Inside Daisy Clover

An oldie but a goodie. Inside Daisy Clover is Hollywood in the 1930s.  Daisy (Natalie Wood) is discovered off her cheap beachfront lifestyle by her sending a record of her singing to Swan Studios.  Swan (Christopher Plummer) loves her and makes her a star.  The life overloads her and she collapses then escapes.

The geography is that of Malibu, Santa Monica Pier [Robby Cress 2011] and likely Beverly Hills/Hollywood.  The beach is open and uncluttered with housing like today, as might be seen in Two and a Half Men (CBS).  The peri has that cheap look of an old carnival.  Studios and mansions look like studios and mansions.  A cross section of the place is shown.

 

 

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother takes one deeply into New York City neighborhoods.  The constant is the bar and the apartment.  The crowded living spaces of NYC are a fixed feature of the show.  The viewer also is constantly in the bar scene and the variety of big city types found there.  Some work spaces for architects and others are also presented.

P.S. I Love You

Great film from 2007 starring Hilary Swank. The geographically intersting segments are in Ireland. Great shots of rural Irealnd near Wicklow National Park, located south of Dublin. The small roads are shown and the rustic life of the rural lands is woderfully displayed. Swnk's character loses her husband before his death he sets the sending of 10 letters to her to lead to recovery. Visiting Ireland with her friends is the result of one of these letters. During that visit the lonely expanse of the Irish countryside is a part of the haunting sensations the film develops. Set adrift on a lake fishing, the housing, the rocky surfaces, all make Ireland what it is to those who dream.

Hairspray

Hairspray is a musical movie based up a 1988 movie by John Waters. The movie is driven by Water’s love of his hometown Baltimore. The show begins with a fantastic song--“Good Morning Baltimore”--as Tracy Turnblat makes her way from her row house to school. In just this opening, we get a glimpse into the urban history of the city. For students used to wide open house lots and fields, the tightness of houses in row house settings will be shocking. The houses are, of course, tight to each other with no front yard. Back yards are also small. The point being that cities were built around keeping people as tight together to minimize the transport cost to work.

The postmodern city is based on spreading out based upon the bus and automobile allowing travel to further spots at a time and financial cost that is still minimal versus incomes. The space of the suburb is allowed by the fact that one can still drive to work in an acceptable time and cost; and have a big lot and space between houses.

Row houses come from the time when walking was the transport form, then the horse cart, and streetcar. Incomes were lower and the time factor meant that one stuck homes as close together as possible to the city center, or later to the bus stops.

While small and tight now, they functioned perfectly in the early 1900s and prior. The house also is small inside and has two or more stories. This maximizes land use.

Many cities have row houses as they reflect a time point in the development of cities and transportation. While Baltimore celebrates its row houses, other cities have very few. In Minneapolis there is one small area in the Cedars-Riverside neighborhood that has some left. Minneapolis would have developed at a different time and redevelopment has tended to eliminate this housing type.

And this is just with the opening scene! The film goes on. The racial divides of the 1950s and 1960s are clear. African-Americans and Whites have “their” parts of town, and do not mix. Even integrated dancing on the TV show [a local version of American Bandstand] is shocking and banned. The kids, of course, prevail and the barriers are broken down through the film. The racism, no doubt, seems extreme and even silly to postmodern children used to an integrated world; but the movie is an accurate reflection of its times. Even having African-Americans and Whites on the same TV show was forbidden ground. What would the audience think and what would the sponsors do? That the detention room in a high school was nearly African only amplifies the message.

But Tracy breaks the barriers and the barriers crash though the film. The film becomes a historic record of the 1960s challenge to the racism of the past. A demonstration is met by a police barricade. Even the suggestion of integration forces parents into extreme actions that now seem ridiculous. But they existed and the film brings this out.

The film also establishes the divisive nature of housing discrimination. There are distinct parts of town where those of each race felt real fear over being in the “wrong” place. It works both ways. Unfortunately an issue that does remain in American society.

Hairspray is a movie that combines some great 50s sounds with history and geography lessons; and it is an entertainment gold mine to boot.

Rent

“I’m a New Yorker. Fear is my life.” These words from an AIDS patient in Rent tell you alone that musical is taking you deep into the depths of New York City life. With all its bright lights and charisma, New York City has an underbelly of degradation, loathing, sorrow, and sin. And, Rent tries to show it all.

Rent is La Boheme with Mimi as a pole dancing, stripper. Rudolpho becomes Roger, a down and out musician with AIDS. The setting is not the classy poverty of Paris, but the streets of New York City’s broken society. Urban New York City is unclean and dirty. It is in such disrepair it clouds the vision and dreams of those who see it. It is a place of row house tenants who ride the infamous subways.

Even songs like “Tango Maureen” bring the frustrations together. The tango is a moody dance of dark tones; sultry, but dominated by remoteness and grey. It is not a dance done with a smile, but rather a hard face stiffened by life and cultural decline

Rent is filled with sex, drugs, bondage, lesbianism, transexualism, AIDS, heroin use, and massive multiculturalism. It is filled with a sense of alienation actually common in Broadway’s biggest hits; from “Old Man River” in Showboat, to “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” in South Pacific, to “America” in West Side Story. If you can’t see the isolation and cold in Le Miserables, you are not watching and listening very well. Broadway’s hits often play to the sense of alienation in American society.

Of course, like the dancing hoods in West Side Story, it does take work to accept drug addicts and outcasts singing and dancing; but like West Side Story, it is worth it. And you get to see the underbelly of the glitter that is New York City.

Men in Trees

Men in Trees does not seem like a show that will last, but while on, it has some wonderful views of Alaska. Some mountains, some streams, some tight indoors. Sort of a Northern Exposure on hormones, it is quirky, but entertaining.

A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion offers a quick look at one of the Midwest’s great sources of humorous stereotypes. Garrison Keillor has been taking us out to the middle of the country where Lutherans roam for more than two decades now, and this film. This film takes a different tack on PHC than a normal show, but one would have to do that unless one was just videotaping a real PHC show.

While one will not see much of the Midwest or Minnesota, one can get that sense of PHC’s take on the values of the Midwest. The reserved nature of the host is pitted against the wild lives of the singers. The homespun values of the quaint old radio show are pitted against the greed-driven values of the company that has bought the station and wants to close the show. Indeed a place is seen through much more than just the physical elements. The values by which life is lived are just as much an element of place as the mountains the trees.

Of course, one element that is real is Mickey’s Diner. This diner is at 36 W. Ninth St. in St. Paul. It was built in 1937-39 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. This unique feature of downtown St. Paul has a clear place in the film as a site for discussion.

In the end, the general consensus has been that a fan of the show will love the movie, while a stranger to the show will wonder what is going on.

The Lake House

The Lake House offers some fantastic views of Chicago and the lake shore to the north. One of those films that you have to buy into a complex change in the nature of time, some may have trouble buying the plot. Two people find love except for the fact that they live in world's two years apart. He lives in 2004 and she in 2006. Through complex messaging via a magic mailbox, they find each other.

The sense of urban Chicago is clearly established against the isolated, unique location of the lake house to the north. It is open and isolated while Chicago is a mass of buildings and people. The house is almost all glass, while Chicago is closed off from the world.

A nice little film with a lot of Chicago buildings to look at.

American Idol V Continues

Now at the poiint of going down to the last 10, Idol has been illustrative of some regional differences with in the US. The most significant of these would be the showing of distinctly rural southerners.

Kellie Pickler is a poor southern girl who acts like she just came out of the backwoods. Even in a stunning black strapless dress she feels uncomfortable. She should have seen it as a Cinderella moment in her life, but it so conflicts with her ruralness, that she is uncomfortable in it, despite how fantastic she looks.

Bucky could not figure out the menus in Los Angeles at one piont. He longed for the simplicity of rural southern fare. He wanted corn, potatos, chicken, etc. He did not understand what he was getting with all the fancy names.

Most of the rest of the group is more urbane than this. These two stand out in their display of a section of the United States.

American Idol V Begins

America Idol has begun its Fifth big season. As it does it shows people from a variety of places, yet it makes those places seem very similar. Whether in Detroit or Chicago [as with the first shows], the performers are the same as they were in other scites in the past. They look alike. They sound alike. A great geographic uniformity is in place.

Growing Up: the old and the new

Hollywood has regularly looked at the angst of growing up. The pain remains the same, but he nature of the growth process changes. In 1959 Gidget grew up by flinging herself into the arms of Moondoggie to the beat of real surfer music and the waves. In 2005, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants takes four sixteen-year olds through that painful blast of real life hitting you in the face with less successful results for the girls.

Plot Basics. Gidget is very young and naive. She stumbles into surfing as a neat thing to do, then falls for Moondoggie. She learns to surf, which is wildly rare for a female in a 1960s beach epic. She is, of course, let know that that is the case.

In Pants, the four leads find that they all fit into one pair of jeans even though no one looking at the four of them would think that a pair like that ever existed. To solve the problem of their sharing the jeans, and then having summer plans in four different places, they agree to share the pants via the mails. These pants put on a lot of air miles. In each case the wearing of the jeans helps the wearer find the meaning of aging and coming of age. In the end the girl who never leaves Bethesda seems to learn the most.

Geography. Gidget takes place on the beaches of Southern California. This was one of the films that brought a generation of teen film goers to envy those lucky surfers awash in beach and water and sun. The beach is only abandoned to one of those perfect 1950’s homes where Dad was puzzled by the aging of his daughter and Mom was aware that she was growing up and facing life. Beaver was not the only place with this kind of home and its impact on a generation.

The beach is one of the most real looking beaches in the movies of the times. While most have a perfectly smooth transition from sand to water, this one has a small wall and once in the water it has weeds. Of course, it has kelp so that Gidget can become entrapped and saved by the remote Moondoggie. This is typical Hollywood as it only rains on television in California when a love affair breaks. The weeds appear only when a rescue is required.

The beach life is very realistic. The surfers actually have lives, and even jobs. The one older guy, played by Cliff Robertson, is obviously there to show the kids the right way toward a better life because he is failing as a “good” beach bum.

The pants travel to both pretty good-looking sites, and the most boring of towns a teen’s mind could dream as a nightmare. The group of four starts at home in Bethesda, Maryland. It is a normal suburban place, but one senses some lower class elements of urban decay. One girl gets stuck in town to discover life, while the others go to Mexico, Greece, and South Carolina. Mexico has the most beautiful stretches of beaches one can imagine. Greece is clearly Santorini, but that may not really stick out to those who do not know what it looks like. Greece is clear, that it is Santorini may take some previous knowledge. South Carolina is a place of suburban life without outside decay, but the inner decay is the stuff of plot.

Of course, Hollywood does shoot in one place and call it another, so one really sees: Ashcroft and Vancouver, BC, Canada; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Oia Cyclades and Santorini, Greece.

Of all the spots, Santorini is shown the best. The stark white buildings, hot in the sun, with those light blue roofs and domes make it striking. There is fishing. The people are not that well off in money terms, they shop in old world open markets, and they have old world loves and hatreds. Family is everything.

A classic film and a book cult classic made into a film. Both have some geography worth the rental.