Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

To Kill A Mockingbird – 3 Stars (Good)

Gregory Peck won a Best Actor Oscar in this adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about white lawyer Atticus Finch defending an innocent African American man accused of raping a white woman.

This is a story that illuminates everything that is wrong about hate, prejudice, bigotry, ignorance, stupidity, lack of backbone and lack of a heart. It is a story about an all-white male jury who makes important life decisions without right thinking and right motives.

Finch (Gregory Peck) suffers retribution because of his defense of Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) who is accused of raping Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox). The real villain is her father Bob Ewell (James Anderson) who beats her and tries to kill Finch’s daughter Scout (Mary Badham) and son Jem (Phillip Alford).

Scout narrates this story about her childhood memories. She and Jem team up with friend Dill Harris (John Megna) in a subplot involving “Boo” Radley (Robert Duvall) who ultimately saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell by killing Ewell with his own knife.

Sheriff Heck Tate (Frank Overton) would later claim that Ewell fell on his own knife. Tate knew that Ewell was two legs and bad news coming in the form of one bigoted human being; there would be no charges filed against Boo.

In the end, the innocent Tom Robinson is found guilty and shot to death when he tries to flee his injustice.

It is no irony that this 1932 story takes place in Macon County, Georgia, a cesspool of racially motivated hate even in 1962 when this film was released.

To Kill a Mockingbird shows that some people will never have any discernable personal growth in their entire life; thank God that others do.

Boo, a scary recluse who only came out at night, was Duvall’s first movie role. Duvall apparently stayed out of the sun for six weeks and dyed his hair blond in preparation for the role.

Dill was modeled after author Harper Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote. Finch was the middle name of Harper Lee’s father.

Horton Foote, who wrote the screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird, won an Oscar and the film also won for Best Art Direction for a black and white film. The film earned 5 other Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, won by Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif.

Gregory Peck picked up the Golden Globe for Best Actor, and the film also won another for Promoting International Understanding. Peck has said that this film was his favorite work.

His character Atticus Finch was voted the top screen hero of the last 100 years by the American Film Institute. This is truly a no-spin honor. To Kill a Mockingbird is also ranked No. 2 on AFI’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time (It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart is No. 1).

The evidence of just how emotional To Kill a Mockingbird is comes from Brock Peters (the accused) who started to naturally cry while shooting the testifying scene. Gregory Peck said he had to look past him to keep from choking up himself.

Racial bigotry is an extremely emotional and hateful occurrence that continues to linger with us today. Were it not for a loving God who is color blind, the hurt would be even deeper and more destructive.

To Kill a Mockingbird is as appropriate today as it was when it was released. Each generation must work to progress past the sins of past generations. Tom Robinson may rest in peace knowing his descendants will then have a better system of justice.

About the Author:

Ed Bagley’s Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. Read my 3-part series on “Secrets Men Don’t Want Women to Know” and reviews on the Broadway musicals “Camelot”, “Chicago” and “The Phantom of the Opera”. These are all excellent films. Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/MovieReviews.html

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – “to Kill a Mockingbird” Exposes the Destructiveness of Bigotry

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The last five decades have produced a score of films, each better than the last. But come Oscar night, only one movie could walk away with the distinction of Best Picture of the Year. And here you will find a list of the Best Picture winners from 1950 to today.

2006: The Departed
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson

2005: Crash
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon
Director: Paul Haggis

2004: Million Dollar Baby
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman
Director: Clint Eastwood

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin
Director: Peter Jackson

The Oscars2002: Chicago
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere
Director: Rob Marshall

2001: A Beautiful Mind
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris
Director: Ron Howard

2000: Gladiator
Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix
Director: Ridley Scott

1999: American Beauty
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening
Director: Sam Mendes

American Beauty1998: Shakespeare In Love
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow
Director: John Madden

1997: Titanic
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
Director: James Cameron

1996: The English Patient
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche
Director: Anthony Minghella

1995: Braveheart
Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau
Director: Mel Gibson

Titanic1994: Forrest Gump
Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Senise
Director: Robert Zemeckis

1993: Schindler’s List
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley
Director: Steven Spielberg

1992: Unforgiven
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman
Director: Clint Eastwood

1991: The Silence of the Lambs
Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Jonathan Demme

Forrest Gump1990: Dances With Wolves
Starring: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell
Director: Kevin Costner

1989: Driving Miss Daisy
Starring: Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman
Director: Bruce Beresford

1988: Rain Man
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise
Director: Barry Levinson

1987: The Last Emperor
Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Rain Man1986: Platoon
Starring: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe
Director: Oliver Stone

1985: Out of Africa
Starring: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford
Director: Sydney Pollack

1984: Amadeus
Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce
Director: Milos Forman

1983: Terms of Endearment
Starring: Shirley Maclain, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson
Director: James L. Brooks

The Deer Hunter1982: Gandhi
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen
Director: Sir Richard Attenborough

1981: Chariots of Fire
Starring: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson
Director: Hugh Hudson

1980: Ordinary People
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore
Director: Robert Redford

1979: Kramer VS. Kramer
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep
Director: Robert Benton

Rocky1978: The Deer Hunter
Starring: Robert De Niro, John Cazale
Director: Michael Cimino

1977: Annie Hall
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
Director: Woody Allen

1976: Rocky
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire
Director: John G. Avildsen

1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher
Director: Milos Forman

The Godfather1974: The Godfather Part II
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro
Director: Francis Ford Coppola

1973: The Sting
Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford
Director: George Roy Hill

1972: The Godfather
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duval
Director: Francis Ford Coppola

1971: The French Connection
Starring: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey
Director: William Friedkin

The Sound of Music1970: Patton
Starring: George C. Scott, Karl Malden
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

1969: Midnight Cowboy
Starring: Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman
Director: John Schlesinger

1968: Oliver!
Starring: Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed
Director: Carol Reed

1967: In the Heat of the Night
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger
Director: Norman Jewison

My Fair Lady1966: A Man for All Seasons
Starring: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller
Director: Fred Zinnemann

1965: The Sound of Music
Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
Director: Robert Wise

1964: My Fair Lady
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison
Director: George Cukor

1963: Tom Jones
Starring: Albert Finney, Susannah York,
Director: Tony Richardson

Ben-Hur1962: Lawrence of Arabia
Starring: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness
Director: David Lean

1961: West Side Story
Starring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer
Director: Jerome Robbins

1960: The Apartment
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine
Director: Billy Wilder

1959: Ben-Hur
Starring: Charlton Heston
Director: William Wyler

On the Waterfront1958: Gigi
Starring: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier
Director: Vincente Minnelli

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden
Director: David Lean

1956: Around the World in 80 Days
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, David Niven, and countless cameos
Director: Mike Todd

1955: Marty
Starring: Ernest Borgnine
Director: Delbert Mann

An American in Paris1954: On the Waterfront
Starring: Marlon Brando
Director: Elia Kazan

1953: From Here to Eternity
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra
Director: Fred Zinnemann

1952: The Greatest Show on Earth
Starring: Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart
Director: Cecil B. DeMille

1951: An American in Paris
Starring: Gene Kelly
Director: Vincente Minnelli

1950: All About Eve
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

……….

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Have you watched Universal Production’s classic film by John Waters – “Cry Baby”? If not, then watch Cry Baby the musical on Broadway! Mark Brokaw, the director, and Thomas Meehan, the writer of the book; have once again shown their unmatched talent through this latest musical on the block.

Opened in November, 2007 and performed through December, the musical is all set to entertain its audience in March, 2008. If you’re not an avid theatre fan and hardly watch Broadway shows, you must watch “Cry Baby” this time! There are several reasons for this:

John Waters, who produced the movie “Cry Baby”, has to his credit “Hairspray”, which was a super hit of Broadway and bagged 8 Tony Awards in 2003!

Thomas Meehan has written the book. He’s the same writer who wrote the smashing hits “Hairspray”, “Annie”, “The Producers”, and “Young Frankenstein”!

The musical has been choreographed by Rob Ashford, who won a Tony Award for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and was nominated for Tony for “The Wedding Singer” as well as “Curtains.”

The musical has lyrics as well as music by David Javerbaum, who has won an Emmy Award, and Adam Schlesinger, who has been nominated for Grammy Award.

Although the plot is the typical bad-guy-loves-good-girl, the story is not at all predictable.

This is not all. Cry Baby musical on Broadway features James Snyder as the lead character of king of the Drapes named Wade “Cry Baby” Walker. This is his spring 2008 debut on Broadway with this role. Starring opposite him in the female lead is Elizabeth Stanley, who plays Cry Baby’s beau, Allison Vernon Williams. The role of Mrs. Vernon Williams, Allison’s grandmother, is played by Harriet Harris. She’s regarded as the imposing dame of comedy.

The other star cast includes Cristen Paige playing the role of Mona; Lacey Kohl playing Wanda; Carly Jibson playing the role of Pepper; Alli Mauzey in the character of Lenora, Chester Grefory II in the role of Dupree. The musical also has Christopher J. Hanke.

The creative group includes Ashley Amber, Cameron Adams, Michael D. Jablonski, Michael Buchanan, Nick Blaemire, Eric Christian, Joanna Glushak, Colin Cunliffe, Marty Lawson, Courtney Laine Mazza, Spencer Liff, Richar Poe, Mayumi Miguel, Peter Atthew Smith, Torrey Ross, Allison Spratt, Eric Sciotto, Stacey Todd Holt, and Charlie Sutton.

So, it’s time to book tickets for the Cry Baby musical on Broadway! Rather than wasting your time and energy at the box office, which is over-crowded, switch to the ticketing services. Call them or log online. You can even request home delivery of tickets.

You won’t be able to guess what happens of the good girl, Allison, and the bad guy, Wade, unless you watch the show. The show has some really good numbers, plus interesting performances by each character.

Get familiar with the teen life of the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll music, and the temperament of parents. If you love musicals and love stories are to your taste, then Cry Baby musical on Broadway will soon become one of your favorite shows!

About the Author:

The author is devoted to New York entertainment including all things Broadway and has many articles with reviews of Cry Baby The Musical On Broadway which includes the best ways to get great seats for any Cry Baby The Musical On Broadway performance.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Cry Baby the Musical on Broadway Will Soon Become Your Favorite!

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A volume swell is a musical crescendo commonly associated with the electric guitar. Crescendo, in standard musical notation, refers to a passage of music during which the volume gradually increases.

The technique is often executed by the little finger of the guitarist which is wrapped around the volume pot/knob of the guitar. When the note is struck the volume is increased from zero by a rolling motion of the little finger. Alternatively, the effect is achieved with a volume pedal, by moving the pedal forward to increase volume and backwards to reduce vilume. It is sometimes called violinning, because the sound is similar to a bowed violin. Allan Holdsworth pioneered the technique of the pedal swelling along with a delay unit to create a thicker sound that’s more associated with chellos.

Guitar players who can do volume swells with the volume knob, often change them to round roller knobs to give your pinkie more traction and accuracy. Personally I use the stock Stratocaster knobs and find them very adequate. That is how I was trained, although it is more popular with younger guitarists to use a volume pedal.

To visualize and actually see an example of how to perform a volume swell, most of the video sites have some great tutorials. Make sure to check them out.

Adding volume swells to your repertoire will take some time in terms of practice and patience. It is considered one of the most beautiful flowing sounds an electric guitar can be manipulated into performing. Take a few minutes out of every practice session to develop your technique. In time, you will become a master and more viable player.

Roy Buchanan was famous for his emotive volume swells, often in combination with note bending and vibrato. Roy really hits my soul, a guitar player worthy of listening to. Jan Akkerman used the technique with Focus and precision.

Another early use of swells is found in the Beatles recording of Eight Days a Week.

To watch a guitarist perform a volume swell is better than a thousand words, again, find a video lesson online for free at most video sites or communities.

Volume swells fall into the same category as pinch harmonics, false harmonics or squealies. As far as the people at Guitar Players Center are concrned, small effective guitar tricks such as the ones described in this article and the article on pinch harmonics are wonderful additions that add distinction and flavor to your guitar vibe. Anybody out there good at volume swells? What technique do you use? Do you have any tricks to share? Comment on them please. Enjoy.

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For more information about Guitar Players Center, Guitar Lessons or Guitar Chord Essentials. Feel free to visit our website, ask questions, share it with others, make comments or simply enjoy.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Make Volume Swells A Part of Your Guitar Vibe

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What is a Zeugma?

Zeugma is a rhetorical device where a single word is made to refer to two or more words in a sentence, often playing on the words’ literal and metaphorical meanings.

Smiling with a crooked smile that did little to hide his crooked intentions and crooked teeth, he said “Trust me.”

The verb ‘To hide’ controls two other words: intentions and teeth. But what is worthy of note in this zeugma is the juxtaposition of an abstract noun (intentions) to a concrete one (teeth).

Now, however, sloth triumphs over diligence, idleness over work, vice over virtue, arrogance over valor, and theory over the practice of arms which lived and shone only in the Golden Age and in the time of the knights errant (Cervantes 465).

I found her enchanted, transformed from a princess into a peasant, from beautiful to ugly, from an angel into a devil, from fragrant into foul-smelling, from well spoken into rustic, from serene into skittish, from light into darkness, and, finally from Dulcinea of Toboso into a lowborn farmgirl from Sayago (Cervantes 671).

With this simple device Cervantes adds delight and color to the narrative-by means of antithesis-at the same time that cultivates the reader’s attentiveness, forcing him to put two and two together to grasp the intended meaning.

Zeugmas used in a humorous vein:

Lenox said, “Hog, the only thing you save is your breath when you eat.”

After two unsuccessful marriages, I find myself keeping my guard up, along with my underpants (Grafton, C is for Corpse 15).

In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, we note Portia’s saucy speech:

How oddly he is suited [outfitted]! I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behavior everywhere. (Act I, scene ii, line 72-72).

Zeugmas used to set the tone of a book, as in the Vicar of Wakefield:

From this motive, I had scarce taken orders a year before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well (Goldsmith 4).

Zeugmas in Dialogue:

“Eliot, Michael’s untimely departure leaves us with a space both in our house and in our hearts” (Segal 112). “To our beloved new leader Jason Gilbert, ace racket-man and incomparable ass-man. May his shots in court drop as often as his shorts in bed” (Segal 143).

The governing word may be a noun as well as a verb, as we see in the following examples from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, where the controlling word is the noun ‘hand’:

Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard (7).

and the controlling word is the verb ‘lost’ in the following example:

Mrs. Radley had been beautiful until she married Mr. Radley and lost all her money. She also lost most of her teeth, her hair, and her right forefinger (Dill’s contribution) (39).

From the above examples we infer that zeugmas may be employed to give the narration an air of lighthearted humor or banter. Just as the fool in Shakespearean dramas breaks the solemnity of the scene with parody and foolery, so does Cervantes in Don Quijote:

At this moment a gelder of hogs happened to arrive at the inn, and as he arrived he blew his reed pipe four or five times, which confirmed for Don Quixote that he was in a famous castle where they were entertaining him with music, and that the cod was trout, the bread soft and white, the prostitutes ladies, the innkeeper the castellan of the castle, and that his decision to sally forth had been a good one (Cervantes 29).

When zeugmas join concrete and abstract nouns, the combinations can stir up the reader’s emotions. Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried is replete with this type of zeugmas:

As a hedge against bad times, however, Kiowa also carried his grandmother’s distrust of the white man, his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet (3). He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men (5). But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than 20 pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations and water and toilet paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighed fear (6).

See how Gabriel Garcia Marquez creates atmospheric tension with the use of one governing verb, ‘listening’:

He got dressed by feel, listening in the dark to his brother’s calm breathing, the dry cough of his father in the next room, the asthma of the hens in the courtyard, the buzz of the mosquitoes, the beating of his heart, and the inordinate bustle of a world that he had not noticed until then, and he went out in the sleeping street (Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude 27).

We haven’t exhausted the topic, for there are other zeugma derivatives that depend on what slot of the sentence the zeugma is placed in; but their sophistication can cause ambiguity and confusion; therefore we do not recommend their use.

About the Author:

Retired. Former investment banker, Columbia University-educated, Vietnam Vet (67-68).
For the writing techniques I use, see Mary Duffy’s e-book: Sentence Openers.
To read my book reviews of the Classics visit my blog: Writing To Live

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Zeugma -Rhetorical Device Used By Master Writers

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