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Kiera Knightley

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms – A New Take on an Old Tale

November 1, 2018 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

The Nutcracker has become an established holiday tradition. Most of us know it as the ballet and its Tchaikovsky music and now, Disney is bringing forth a new incarnation of the story in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

The credits say the film is “suggested by the short story ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ by E. T. A Hoffman and the ‘Nutcracker Ballet’ by Marius Petipa”. It is both familiar and different. The familiarity comes from the main elements of the story, plus the use of the Tchaikovsky music and bits of dance within the story. The difference comes from new places that this film takes the story.

In this version, directed by Lasse Halström and Joe Johnston, we meet Clara Stahlbaum (Mackenzie Foy), a bright fourteen year-old in Victorian London. Clara is something of an inventor. In the opening scene, she demonstrates her Rube Goldberg-esque mousetrap. But Clara also has a sadness about her. This is the first Christmas for her family after the death of her mother. Before heading out to a Christmas party, her father (Matthew MacFadyen) gives her and her siblings presents from their mother. Clara’s is an egg-shaped box, but it is locked and there is no key—only a note that says, “Everything you need is inside.”

At the party, we meet her godfather Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman), also an inventor, who made the egg for Clara’s mother. He notes how hard it will be to open without the key. But later, seeking for her godfather’s present, she finds herself in a very different world. When she finds the key there, a mouse runs in, steals the key and runs off. Chasing after it she meets a nutcracker guard, Captain Phillip Hoffman (Jaden Fowora-Knight). Thus begins Clara’s adventure.

It turns out that her mother had been to this world, where she was the queen. Clara is welcomed like a princess and meets the regents of the various realms, most notably Sugar Plum (Kiera Knightley). It turns out that since her mother’s time, the kingdom there has faced rebellion. Three of the realms still enjoy the wonders of this world, but the Fourth Realm, presided over by Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren) and the Mouse King, has separated itself and fallen into darkness and disorder.

They look to Clara to save them. There is a weapon Clara’s mother designed that could bring an end to this, but the key is lost. Clara recognizes that it is the same key that opens her egg. So she sets off with a band of soldiers, led by the nutcracker into the Fourth Realm to regain the key. But when she does, we learn all is not as we have been told and not everyone is as they seem.

At its heart, this is a coming-of-age story as Clara must discover her strength and how to overcome the adversity not only of the mystical kingdom she has discovered, but in the real world as well. Through her adventure she learns that even though her mother is gone, her mother’s love and influence still touches her. She also learns that others suffer just as she does and that she is able to bring healing just as others can heal her.

Clara’s growth is facilitated by the connections she finds in the two worlds. Her godfather was very close to her mother throughout her life and sees in Clara someone very like her. He is able to trust Clara with the tasks he knows await her in the kingdom. Her father, who she views as uncaring is, in fact, as overwhelmed by grief as Clara. In that, they find a new touchpoint for their relationship. Within the Kingdom her strongest connection is with Phillip, the nutcracker. Sugar Plum tries to push her way into Clara’s life, but the sweetness she shows turns out to be saccharine. Others, once she learns the truth, bring her the wisdom and courage she will need. While we may look at Clara as the center of the story, it is important to know that she never does anything by herself. She always has the support of others in making things right.

This iteration of the Nutcracker tale also has a small political bite to it. One of the characters, as the real battle for control grows, notes that the kingdom now has “a big, beautiful army to protect it”. But in this case, the army is not used for protection, but for oppression. It reminds us that force in itself is not our protection—and can even be antithetical to security. One of the messages found in the cross of Christ is that victory does not come through the world’s idea of strength. It is a message that we often have a hard time remembering in a world that trusts military and political might.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: based on ballet, based on short story, dance, Disney, Helen Mirren, Jaden Fowora-Knight, Joe Johnston, Kiera Knightley, Lasse Halström, Mackenzie Foy, Matthew MacFadyen, mice, Morgan Freeman, Tchaikovsky

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

May 26, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“Are all pirates this stupid?”

It’s been six years since the last installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. (Tell the truth: did you miss it?) Captain Jack Sparrow et al. are back in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales with the same mixture of comedy, adventure, and romance that the series is known for. It also continues with the series themes of relationships between parents and children, and the sacrificial aspects of love.

As usual, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) serves more as a catalyst than the real focus of the story. This time around the center is Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), the son of Will Turner, who has been cursed to captain the Flying Dutchman, ferrying those who die at sea to the afterlife (vid. PotC: At World’s End), and Carina Smythe (Kaya Scodelario), a young woman with a scientific bent who believes she has a map to the Trident of Poseidon. Each has been condemned to die, as has Captain Jack, but when Jack’s crew rescues him (in typical PotC fashion) the three find themselves together on the search. The Trident is said to give one control of the seas. Jack wants to get his luck back. Henry wants to use the Trident to break the curse on his father. Carina seeks to honor her unknown father who left the book with her as a child.

However, Jack has also inadvertently set free a ship of the undead (including zombie sharks) lead by Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem). Salazar had a goal of ridding the seas of pirates, but then a young Jack Sparrow tricked him into the Devil’s Triangle many years back where the ship was cursed and trapped. Now he wants his revenge. He conscripts Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Jack’s longtime rival (and sometime ally), to lead him to Jack. As usual, there is a load of swashbuckling and elaborate special effects.

Naturally, Henry and Carina must deal with an attraction they may not have expected. And of course, Jack nudges them towards each other from time to time. The conflict between them grows from the tension between myth and science. Henry is well versed in all the legends of the sea. Carina describes herself as a woman of science. She is an astronomer and a horologist. She thinks her science will get them what they want. Henry knows that the supernatural is where all the answers they need will be found. It is the combination of the two that lead them to the end of their quest. At times each must follow the other’s lead. They must learn, as Henry tells Carina at one point, “You don’t have to understand, just believe.” It is not so much about faith in science or the supernatural at that point—they must believe in each other.

As is often the case in PotC films, this story too includes a sacrifice made out of love. Salvation in this series of films is never “cheap grace”; there is always a price to be paid. The redemption that occurs is always bittersweet.  Of course, in the world of PotC, there is always another story to come which may find a way to break the curses that came before. The sacrifices made are sometimes reversed in this series. In the world of PotC there is death and resurrection. There is damnation, but also a chance for redemption and restoration. Perhaps that is why there is always one more scene after all the credits (and there are lots of credits to sit through to see that scene). That scene tells us there is always another chapter to be written.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Adventure, Brenton Thwaites, comedy, Disney, ESPEN SANDBERG, Geoffrey Rush, Javier Bardem, Jerry Bruckheimer, JOACHIM RØNNING, Johnny Depp, Kaya Scodelario, Kiera Knightley, Orlando Bloom

Coming May 25th – Red Nose Day Actually!

May 19, 2017 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

They’re back!
For fans of the 2013 hit film Love Actually, we have great news.  Key cast-members including Liam Neeson, Kiera Knightly, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, and Andrew Lincoln reunited for a short ten-minute sequel. 
 
The sequel titled Red Nose Day Actually will air during a special night of programming on NBC on Thursday, May 25 in support of Red Nose Day.  The complete line-up includes:  “Celebrity Ninja Warrior for Red Nose Day” at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, the 9:00 p.m. episode of “Running Wild with Bear Grylls for Red Nose Day,” featuring Academy-Award winner Julia Roberts venturing to Kenya, and “The Red Nose Day Special,” at 10:00 p.m., during which time the sequel will air.
You can view the trailer here.
 
For additional information, please visit:  http://www.nbc.com/the-red-nose-day-special

Filed Under: Current Events, Television Tagged With: Andrew Lincoln, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Kiera Knightley, Liam Neeson, Love Actually, Red Nose Day Actually

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – Into the Locker and Back Again

May 16, 2017 by Mark Sommer Leave a Comment

Jack Sparrow is taken, body and soul, to a place not of death, but punishment. The worst fate a person can bring upon himself. Stretching on forever. That’s what awaits at Davy Jones’ locker.

Theologians have long debated the existence and nature of Hell. Tia Darma’s words (meant to explain why she could bring back Barbossa but not Jack) are a pretty accurate description of the traditional view of the place of torment. Disney’s Locker, however, it not a place where Jack is being “tormented in the flames,” (Luke 16:24), but somewhere where Jack’s own psyche is constantly tormenting him. In the original 2008 Limited Edition bonus feature “The Tale of Many Jacks,” the creators explain how each of the many Jacks are elements of his personality. The only things in Davy’s Locker causing his anguish are what he has brought there himself.

People sometimes joke about wanting to go to Hell because there they would be able to party with all their friends forever. But, if there is a Hell, and it is anything like Davy’s Locker, it is a place where you finally have to face yourself. Perhaps the hardest thing for anyone is being alone. In our society, even when no one else is around we have the television and other electronic media to keep us company. Meditation in seclusion has become a lost art. Nor were we meant to be alone forever.

When we were first introduced to Jack Sparrow, he was alone in a small fishing vessel. But composer Hans Zimmer chose to introduce him with a majestic melody, which would be expanded and modified in various ways through the films. Often referred to as the theme for Pirates of the Caribbean, it is, more accurately, Jack’s theme, always associated with him. Below is a YouTube clip to remind us how Jack is introduced to us in the series. [“The Medallion Calls” is the name for the entire scene in The Curse of the Black Pearl.]

 

The same theme is repeated near the beginning of Dead Man’s Chest. Even though Jack is only “piloting” a coffin.

I couldn’t find a clip of this, but at the end of Dead Man’s Chest, the theme is modified into a dirge as the group sails upriver to Tia Darma’s shack. We see candles lit for Jacks’ funeral. The theme is used for the first time (unless I somehow missed it) in At World’s End for the scene in Davy’s Locker where The Black Pearl “sails” across the sand.

I have always thought it fascinating the heart of this musical theme sounds eerily like an obscure hymn I used to sing when I attended Moody Church in Chicago in the late 1970s. I was attending Moody Bible Institute at the time, training for the ministry. I seriously doubt Hans Zimmer ever heard – or heard of – the mid-twentieth-century evangelical melody written by John W. Peterson. But I cannot hear the theme in the movies without these words running through my head:

All glory to Jesus begotten of God
The great I Am is He
Creator sustainer but wonder of all
The Lamb of Calvary

To think that the guardian of planets in space
The Shepherd of the stars
Is tenderly leading the church of His love
By hands with crimson scars

During the worship services I attended, “All Glory to Jesus” was directed in a much quicker rhythm and in a more majestic style than the recording below. (For a short clip in a style a bit more like the Pirates theme, check out MyMidi.audio.)

I bring up this strange coincidence to point out the parallel between the man for whom Zimmer wrote a theme, and the Man for whom Peterson wrote that musical accolade. Both came back from the dead. Fantasy tales often have people coming back from the dead. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf is sent back from the dead to complete his mission. Jack is rescued from Davy’s Locker because he is needed for the last “piece of eight” so Tia Darma can be released from her “single form.” As dangerous as it my seem, Tia must again become Calypso to rescue the pirates from their certain doom. The Brethren Court must be convened.

The call has gone out to the rest of the Pirate Lords through means of a song. “Hoist the Colors” is a defiant pirate anthem on the order of the “Star Spangled Banner.” It tells the story of Davy Jones and Calypso, and how the First Brethren Court bound her. Calypso is the “queen in bed” the young boy at the beginning of the movie sings about.  “The King” is the Pirate King of the First Court. The song continues until the large group of pirates and pirate collaborators on their way to the gallows join in. This is what East India Trading Company Chairman Lord Beckett wants. He wants them to convene so he can destroy them in one fell swoop.

The King and his men
stole the Queen from her bed
and bound her in her bones
the seas be ours and by the powers
where we will we’ll roam
Yo ho, all hands
Hoist the colors high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
As Elizabeth Swan paddles her small boat into the pirate stronghold in Singapore, she takes up the song at a later point, which refers to the summons this song is meant to be.
The bell has been raised
from its watery grave
Hear its sepulchral tone?
A call to all
pay heed the squall
and turn yourself toward home
Yo ho, haul together
Hoist the colors high
Heave ho, thieves…
At this point she is cut off by Tai Huang: “…and beggars, never say we die. A dangerous song to be singing, for anyone ignorant of its meaning.”
“Hoist the Colors” sounds very much like an anthem followers of Christ could sing. Pirates are those who, through the circumstances of life, had turned to begging, and, when that didn’t work, to thievery. Pirates who are honest with themselves, though, realize they have also have chosen to be what they are. In Dead Man’s Chest, Bootstrap Bill admits this, first to Jack, and later to Will.

Bootstrap: …It was always in my blood to die at sea.
Will: It’s not a fate you had to choose for yourself either.
Bootstrap: I… I could say I did what I had to when I left you to go pirating. But it would taste a lie to say it wasn’t what I wanted.

We are sinners both by nature and by choice. Circumstances in life certainly influence our actions but, ultimately, the choices we make are ours alone. The Court of the Brethren is able to help give pirates a measure of freedom, but true freedom only comes through a changed life. That’s why Christ’s resurrection is different. His mission was not just to defeat the enemy, but to make us into a New Creation.

When Will suffers a fatal wound, Jack Sparrow has a decision to make. Will he stab Davy Jones’ heart himself and become “The Immortal Jack Sparrow”… or will he use the circumstance as a chance to save Will? Jack has learned to think and feel beyond himself. He has changed. He chooses the latter.
There is a wonderful scene after Will becomes captain where the Flying Dutchman surfaces after being drawn into the maelstrom. It is a sort of baptism for Will and his crew, who return with their humanity restored—no longer “fish” creatures or part of the ship. The new Captain has given them new life. The parallel to the Christian experience is obvious.
After the credits, we see Elizabeth and Will have created – during that one day in ten years together – a new life of their own. This is apparently Henry Turner, who is reportedly to return in Dead Men Tell No Tales. Will Pirates 5 breathe “new life” into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? In less than two weeks, we shall see. In the meantime, I plan to examine On Stranger Tides next week. Was Pirates 4 just a “tack on”? Or is there something more in it?

Filed Under: DVD, Editorial, Film, Reviews Tagged With: At World's End, Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer, Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates of the Caribbean, theme park

Pirates of the Caribbean: Seeking Freedom from a Dead Man’s Chest

May 9, 2017 by Mark Sommer Leave a Comment

The Curse of the Black Pearl began with a ditty created by George Edward Bruns and Francis Xavier Atencio for the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland. Dead Man’s Chest early on uses Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dead Man’s Chest” from Treasure Island. Can you build good movies from ditties? I will leave that for the viewer to decide. I’d rather talk about the spiritual themes in the movies. [By the way, my series on the first four Pirates movies are being written with the assumption the reader is familiar with the films. If you have yet to see Dead Man’s Chest, it would be helpful for you to view it before reading on.] After the thwarted wedding scene (more on that later), Gibbs is seen singing (if you can call it that) the song just as Stevenson wrote it:

Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest—
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Stevenson makes an unusual use of the idiom “done for,” as in “we’re done for.” Such is the life of a pirate. They are “done for” because they are in league with the bottle and Beelzebub. Decisions have consequences. Dead Man’s Chest is filled with people trying the use said chest to gain freedom from the consequences of their actions.

Jack Sparrow has made a deal with the Devil. In return for being able to captain the Black Pearl for 13 years, he agrees to serve on the Flying Dutchman for 100. Jack’s time is up, and he knows it. He knew it even before Bootstrap Bill comes to tell him. That’s why he braves sneaking into the pirate prison to find the “drawing” of the key. He needs to find out more about the key and the chest in order to get out of the deal he has made. But he is conflicted—as Tia Darma will say much later in the film, “Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants.”

We do not understand, until Darma tells us, why Jack’s compass is not working properly. As in a good detective story, we are given hints, but the solution is not immediately apparent. And it won’t be until the next movie that we understand the consequences of destroying the heart hidden in the chest. No wonder Jack is conflicted. He wants a way out, but none of the solutions presenting themselves are satisfactory. Stranded on the deserted island with Elizabeth in the first movie, he tells her:

Wherever we want to go, we go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel and a hull and sails; that’s what a ship needs. Not what a ship is. What the Black Pearl really is, is freedom.

But even if he has the Pearl, and controls Davy Jones by holding his heart, what kind of freedom is that? Rather than go where he pleases, he would have to shadow the Flying Dutchman forever to keep Jones in check. And, if he kills him outright, there is still the “beastie” waiting for him. And there’s also that “honest streak”—a desire to be a “good man”… which Elizabeth will turn to her advantage.

Which brings us back to the thwarted marriage. Elizabeth is frustrated. She wants to be married to Will. In her prison cell, she tells Will (to the disconcertment of her father), “If it weren’t for these bars, I’d have you already…. I’ll wait for you.” But that wait is far from a patient one. Incognito on a ship in her search for Will, she overhears the crewmen talking about the stowaway they know is on board. Finding her dress, they surmise:

Sailor #2: There is a female presence amongst us here, sir. All the men, they can feel it. [agreement from the Crew]
Sailor #3: Belongs to a lady widowed before her marriage, I figure it. Searching for her husband lost the sea.
Sailor #4: Virgin, too, likely as not. And that bodes ill by all accounts.

The comment about her being a “virgin” certainly adds to Elizabeth’s frustration. What would she be willing to give to have her Will?

There is an interesting conversation between Elizabeth and Jack on the deck of the Pearl before they meet up with Will.

Jack: My tremendous intuitive sense of the female creature informs me that you are… troubled.
Elizabeth: I just thought I’d be married by now. I’m so ready to be married.
Jack: [Jack pops open a bottle of rum, hands it to her and she takes a drink, looking upset] You know… [clears throat] Lizzie, I am Captain of a ship and being Captain of a ship I could, in fact, perform a marriage right here. Right on this deck. Right now.
Elizabeth: [Elizabeth looks even more disgusted, hands him the bottle and walks away] No, thank you.
Jack: [follows her] Why not? We are very much alike you and I. I and you… us.
Elizabeth: Except for a sense of honor and decency and a moral center. And personal hygiene.
Jack: Trifles. You Will come over to my side, I know it.
Elizabeth: You seem very certain.
Jack: One word, love: curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on selfish impulse. You want to see what it’s like. One day… you won’t be able to resist.
Elizabeth: Why doesn’t your compass work?
Jack: My compass works fine.
Elizabeth: Because you and I are alike. And there will come a moment when you have a chance to show it. To do the right thing.
Jack: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.
Elizabeth: You’ll have the chance to do something… something courageous. And when you, you’ll discover something. That you’re a good man.
Jack: All evidence to the contrary.
Elizabeth: [laughs] No, I have faith in you. You want to know why?
Jack: Do tell, dearie.
Elizabeth: [leans in close with each sentence] Curiosity. You’re going to want it – a chance to be admired – and gain the rewards that follow. You won’t be able to resist. You’re going to want to know what it tastes like.
Jack: I do want to know what it tastes like.
Elizabeth: [Jack caresses her cheek] But seeing as you’re a good man, I know that you’d never put me in a position that would compromise my honor. [Jack is ready to kiss her when he sees the black mark return to the palm of his hand and snatches his hand away.] I’m proud of you, Jack.

Elizabeth and Jack are both conflicted, as indicated in how the compass is reacting. Elizabeth can’t hide her feelings for the “bad boy” Jack, but tries to cover it up with talking about goodness and honor. But she is beginning to play him. She is toying with his feelings, and will turn it to her advantage later. When the Kraken attacks, Jack tries to escape in a longboat, but changes his mind, choosing the courageous act. Elizabeth, however, is unwilling to give up her life – including her assured life with Will – and chooses Jack’s last “heroic” act for him by chaining him to the mast. So much for compromising her honor. She has already done that herself.

Earlier in the film, Davy Jones tells the sailors who are about to die: “Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare. All your sins punished. I can offer you an escape…. Do you not fear death?” What are people willing to do to thwart death—to avoid the final judgment – at least temporarily? Sparrow later was willing to trade himself for 100 souls. Jones asks him, “But I wonder, Sparrow… can you live with this? Can you condemn an innocent man – a friend – to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?” Jack responds flippantly, “Yep. I’m good with it.”

Elizabeth trades Jack’s life for a handful of souls in a longboat. Is she fine with that? Not really. But that’s another story…

I leave you with a couple scriptures to contemplate:

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Mark 8: 34-37 NIV

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV

 

 

 

Filed Under: DVD, Editorial, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer, Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl, theme park

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