Charlotte's Web Provides Gentle Lessons on Life

 "Charlotte's Web" (1952) is a children's book (and film) that I missed as a child and heard about as a parent.  Now that I am retired I came across the book lying around our house.  It struck me as a masterpiece and I decided to check out the movie.  

When a child is still figuring out what life is all about it is good that they can have a few gentle lessons.  Life can be pretty rough.  There are a few lessons offered by "Charlotte's Web", but you might want to learn it bit about it before you open the book and start reading to a youngster.  Are they ready?

 As an adult one of the notable themes is death, not too often encountered in children's books.  One of the main characters dies at the end and Wilbur lives under the threat of the slaughter house.  Putting that aside there is a lot of fun.  Wilbur likes to frolic in mud and manure.  Fooling adults is also fun.

The plot is simple enough.  An adult realizes that one baby pig is not very likely to survive and it is better to kill it (they don't actually say that) right away and concentrate on the others from the same litter.  Mr. Arabel walks by with a baby pig in one arm and an axe in the other.  A young girl who has some suspicions offers to take care of it.  She sees him, to be someone to play with.  Her father decides to humor her, but requests her to keep him in a neighbor's farm.  The cute little pig is named Wilbur and when not playing with Fern gets acquainted with some farm animals.  Templeton, the rat hints about what happens to pigs when they get big.  Wilbur is horrified, but has found a friend in a spider, Charlotte.

Charlotte promises to find a way.  Soon she spins a web with two words "Some Pig" and it creates a stir such that Fern's father is impressed and it seems like Wilbur's life is a little more secure.  However the storyteller realizes that such events are easily forgotten.  So Charlotte decides to try another web word.  In her quest she enlists the aid the rat, Templeton to go through garbage to find a suitable word.  The result is "Terrific".  Another word used at a fair is "Humble".  

It has a happy ending, but as a responsible parent, aunt or uncle you should check out the ending before  getting a young child engaged in the story.  Charlotte knows she is going to die and sort of explains it to Wilbur and then asks one favor.  He is to get her egg sac and take it back to the farm.  Wilbur has to get Templeton to get it by promising first access to his pig slop.  At the actual end Wilbur greets literally hundreds of baby spiders, but soon almost all of them are carried off by the wind to land wherever fate takes them.  The good news is at least one stays and becomes Wilbur's friend.  Oh, Fern moves on to life outside the farm.

One interesting interlude is when Fern's mother, Mrs. Arabel is so concerned about her daughter and talks to the family doctor, Dr. Dorian.  The mother wonders about the web word as some kind of miracle.  Dr. Dorion points out that the spider web is a miracle.  Then she is concerned that the animals talk to one another and asks if that can be true.  Dr. Dorian reassures Mrs. Arabel that although he has never heard an animal talk, that is likely because he didn't pay attention.

The book and the film are essentially the same story with the same message, but there are a few differences.  I mentioned that Wilbur likes to play in manure, but in the film it is just mud.  In the film the animals have each an actor to say the words (read more in the section about director Gary Winick).  In the film the doctor is relaxed and very reassuring.  Charlotte is depicted by a large enough replica of a spider that slithers down to rest on Wilbur's face in the film whereas in the book Wilbur just listens from a distance.  In the film Fern's mother is seen cooking bacon in a pan, reminding viewers (Fern seems oblivious) how pigs end up.

For city raised children seeing where their food comes from may stun them a bit, but make them more aware of how other people live. 

The story was created by E.B. White who loved animals and was familiar with farm life.  He attended Cornell University and became a reporter.  He wrote articles for the New Yorker becoming a staff writer.  White edited and updated "Elements of Style."  Children's stories were inspired by a niece with three that received awards; "Stuart Little", "Charlotte's Web"  and "The Trumpet of the Swan".  In 1978 he was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize crediting him for essays and a full body of work.  Later in life he developed Alzheimer's.

The book won awards and became very popular.  "Charlotte's Web" was made into film in 2006.  Here are some of the contributors.

Gary Winick was the director.  In 1999 he co-founded Independent Digital Entertainment known as InDigEnt to make film making more accessible.  He has 25 producing credits and 112 for directing and 5 for editor including "Letters to Juliet"  Regarding this movie he once was quoted "Working with animals is cute for about 15 minutes and then it becomes frustrating beyond belief."  They had 47 pigs to portray Wilbur and it often took days for a single shot.

Danny Elfman wrote the music.  In his youth he was part of street band called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, performing, composing and building unique musical instruments.   He has 141 composing credits, 119 for the music department and 23 for acting including  "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), "Sommersby" (1993), "Dolores Claiborne" (1995), "Good Will Hunting" (1998),  "Big Fish" (2004), "Milk" (2009), "The Next Three Days" (2010), "Hitchcock" (2012), and "The Girl on the Train" (2016)

Seamus McGarvey was the cinematographer.  He has built up a music video business that has included Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Dusty Springfield.  He has 78 credits for cinematography, 11 for the camera and electrical department and 1 for directing including "Atonement" (2007), "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" (2008), "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (2011), "Anna Karenina" (2012), "The Accountant" (2016),  "Nocturnal Animals" (2016), "The Greatest Showman" (2017) and "Cyrano" (2022).

Sabrina Plisco was the editor.  She has 55 editor credits, 2 for the editorial department and 1 for producing including "Into the West" (2005).

Dakota Fanning played Fern.  She now has 72 acting credits 3 for producing and 1 for directing including "The Secret Life of Bees" (2008), "Ocean's Eight" (2018), "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019), "The First Lady" (2022) and "The Perfect Couple" (2024).

Beau Bridges plays Dr. Dorion  His father, Lloyd Bridges had his own tv. show and that is one of the early acting experiences for him. He played basketball at UCLA under John Wooden and later at Houston University.  Beau has 229 acting credits, 6 for directing and 5 for producing including "Jerry Maguire" (1996), "Into the West" (2005), "The Descendants" (2011), "The Mountain Between Us" (2017), "Greenleaf" (2018), "Homeland" (2018),"One Night in Miami" (2020) and "Lessons in Chemistry" (2023).

Sam Shepard was the narrator.  His father was a WWII bomber and moved his family to various military bases.   He competed in rodeos riding broncs and bulls.  He has 66 acting credits 33 for writing and 2 for directing including "Days of Heaven" (1978), "The Pelican Brief" (1993), "Inhale" (2010), "Mud" (2012), "Safe House" (2012) and "August, Osage County" (2013).

The animals all have actors for their voices.  Julia Roberts was the voice of Charlotte, John Cleese voiced a sheep, Kathy Bates a cow, Robert Redford a horse and Wilbur was voiced by Dominic Scott Kay.

Would you want your child's first acquaintance with death to be when a loved one dies?

Reading is a habit that can get started young and help one not only learn things, but understand them better.  The book and the film likely are available at your local library.

As usual I have bolded the first mention of a movie I have seen.  It is not a recommendation, but generally I foundt them worth while.

ALAN J PAKULA

Struck by a comment that Alan J. Pakula was not a self promoter like many other Hollywood film people and preferred to concentrate on actually making high quality films.  A producer who directs and writes.

Born in 1928 to immigrant Jewish parents he had been expected to take over his father's printing business, but after graduating from Yale as drama major, Alan was more interested in theatre and persuaded his father to underwrite a movie.   He became an assistant in the cartoon department for Warner Brothers.

"Fear Strikes Out" (1957) was his first producer role and  formed a professional relationship with Robert Mulligan as director.  This movie was about Jimmy Piersall's battle with mental illness on his way to baseball stardom.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) again directed by Robert Mulligan who is listed as uncredited producer (with two others in addition to Pakula as the listed producer.  This film won 3 Oscars and both Mulligan as director and Pakula as producer were nominated.

The next two films "Love and the Proper Stranger" (1963) and"Baby The Rain Must Fall" 1965) both directed by Robert Mulligan and starred Steve McQueen who wanted to get into more serious acting roles.  "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965), "Up the Down Staircase," (1967 "Stalking Moon"1968) with Robert Mulligan directing.

"The Sterile Cuckoo" (1969) marked Alan's 1st director role.  It also marked the film debut of Liza Minelli who also received an Oscar nomination.  He also produced it.

With "Klute," (1971) as producer and director he helped Jane Fonda (who was reluctant to take the role) to win an Oscar.  This is the film that inspired me to do this blog.  "The Parallax View (1974), produced and directed a political thriller starring Warren Beatty. "All the President's Men" (1976) starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.  Alan was as director only, but received an Oscar nomination.





With "Sophie's Choice" (1982) as producer and director, but expanded to writing good enough to receive another Oscar nomination.   Starred Meryl Steep in one of her most memorable roles for which she won an Oscar. With "Presumed Innocent" (1990) was director/writer only based on a Scott Turlow novel of a courtroom drama.  A few years later wrote, produced and directed "The Pelican Brief" (1993) another political thriller from a John Grisham novel.  It showed an early Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.  Excellent use of building suspense.  His last film as director only was "The Devil's Own" (1998) with Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford.

He married twice, first to Hope Lange who divorced and two years later married Hannah Cohn.  He had no children, but helped raise step children.

He died in a flukey accident in 1998.   Driving on expressway a pipe went through his car window after another car caused pipe to move.

For a fuller blog on what producers contribute to films check:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2016/08/movie-producers-what-do-they-do.html

As usual I have bolded movies I have actually seen and which helped me gain a better appreciation.

"Truth" the Movie Version hits home

Some movies hit a nerve.  If it has an element of historical fact and you already had some awareness and maybe even an opinion it can be compelling to watch. "Truth" amazed me in that it took up a sensitive topic and came out as the 2016 election is happening.  In the movie we learn that the protagonist, producer, Mary Mapes had intended to do an investigation of George Bush's military service before the 2000 election, but her mother died and she was distracted.  So here we are 16 years later and there is still some political life left in the story.

The story about the investigation made the news.  I don't recall" 60 minutes" at the time, but do recall learning about the events in newspapers.  Admittedly my inclination was the Republican party had misled Americans and were up to a lot of bad things.  Much has confirmed my feelings since then.  I remember watching John Kerry make his military salute, reporting for duty as he accepted the Democrat nomination.  Not too long after the Swiftboat campaign started discrediting his military record.  It has always concerned me that somehow a war hero was discredited while an actual non combatant was protected.  That is the baggage I carried over to the movie.

Previously I had written about movie producers and this movie focuses on a television producer.  Dan Rather was the key person in what I recalled, but the movie was told more from the point of view of the producer Mary Mapes.  The viewer gets an inside view of the background to what appeared on the air.

At the end, Mary makes a speech to the effect the whole issue boiled down to fonts and some confusion over testimony instead of the "truth."  What the truth actually was, I can only speculate, but I agree the truth was buried.  As she put it, the core issue was that a privileged son was able to avoid going to Vietnam and that was never denied.  She defended her integrity by pointing out that in order to fake the documents someone had to have intimate knowledge of procedures and personnel and after mastering all that detail use a Microsoft Word software program.  The script suggested news has become entertainment rather than just news.  More than entertainment it was part of a business.

I noticed at IMDB a lot of negative political comments, but they seem very partisan and in a way proved that power is afraid of the truth.  I cannot vouch for every word in the script, but the general thrust is very easy to believe.  I suspect there was some informal political boycotting.

The movie itself was well produced.  They gave a good feel for newsrooms and also home offices.  Actors were well chosen and directed.  I didn't notice the music which I normally listen for, but it was there and supportive.

Special feature not only captured thoughts of the actors, director, writers and producers, but also of the real Mary Mapes and the real Dan Rather.

There does seem to be a concentration of media power.  Ronald Reagan took steps that encouraged this development--public service requirement dropped and lowered restrictions on ownership concentration.

Mary Mapes wrote the book that inspired this movie.  She was very articulate.  After being fired (other participants were forced to retire) she was awarded for her coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal (perhaps a motive for how hard she had been hit).  She felt she had to explain herself.  More and more reporters felt they have to do the "safe" thing.

Dan Rather who was forced to resign also was very articulate.  He noted that today's younger generation pays little attention to main stream news dismissing it as propaganda and sophistry.  Trust must be earned.  There is often a powerful person who doesn't want the truth to be known.

Robert Redford, an activist (noted by co-star Cate Blanchett) pointed out that if truth goes against power it can be crushed.

A few weeks ago I watched "Spotlight" which was about an extensive investigation into child abuse in the Catholic churches in Boston.  One can appreciate that such efforts require a lot of manpower and runs up against powerful opposition.  We are better for it and are in danger of losing such efforts.

Dan Rather had been accused of dropping one of his signature farewell words, "Courage" which he did revive with emphasis on his farewell broadcast.  I interpret it to mean that we need courage to tell the truth.  We lost a lot when Dan Rather was (relatively) silenced.

Writing this after the second debate between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump I caught a post on Facebook with commentary from Dan Rather.  Watch the reader comments as they are mostly supportive of Dan Rather and I think he deserves the last word for this posr.
http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/10/10/debate-dan-rather-took-facebook-warn-america/

Buck

As you may know I work for a horse publication, but don't have any real horse experience.  Except I love watching them.  My favourite has been at Cavalia which amazes one how horses are capable of performing at such a high level.  When you look at horses you realize they could easily hurt you without meaning to.  As a youngster I had watched a throrobred race at the rails and honestly although exciting it also frightened me.  Rodeos draw attention by demonstrating how violent some horses can be.

"Buck" was recommended to me by a contact in the course of working for The Rider.   She thought the movie presented one of the best horse trainers and someone she admired.  I am grateful she was strong in her praise and fortunately it was readily available.

One of Buck Branaman's comments was that his role was really dealing with the problems horses have with people.  Most people do not really understand horses and tend to work under the premise that fear (and reward) is what motivates the horse.  This in fact results in a lot of resistance from the horse.

Buck grew up with an abusive father.  He and his older brother were trained as trick ropers and earned money as entertainers.  The two even appeared on a tv show, but more commonly at live shows.  They endured regular beatings and after their mother died the beatings got worse.  Eventually they were given to foster parents who succeeded in changing their lives for the better.

His foster father encouraged young Buck to learn how to fix horseshoes.  Buck advanced his horse education and as a young man pretty much thought he knew it all.  He encountered Ray Hunt, a horse trainer with a different philosophy which was more to work with the horse instead of creating fear.  At first Buck was skeptical, but found himself attending Ray's clinics as often as possible and at one point working with him.

A phrase Buck uses was "starting" a horse instead of the much more common "breaking" a horse.  Instead of breaking the willpower of horse they found ways to work more gently.  He pointed out you can use force to make a horse understand what you want, but it is far better to develop a "soft touch."

I had read the book and seen the movie, The Horse Whisperer and was fascinated with the training methods.  Robert Redford called in a bunch of horse experts including Buck Branaman.  One of the most impressive scenes of the movie was when Robert Redford first confronted a violent horse and exercised some control almost immediately.  As part of "Buck"  Robert explained that they had wasted a whole day trying to do that scene with Hollywood horses.  They were reluctant to take Buck's advice on what they considered a technical problem.  Nonetheless using a few minutes of their time Buck proved he understood the problem better.  There was mutual respect between the two men.

Although Buck was on the road giving horse clinics across North America for about nine months of the year he had good relations with his wife and daughters.  His wife joined him on the road when possible and his daughters actually took part in some of his clinics during their summer breaks.

Much of his advice was pertinent to human relations.  Horses are a very unique wonderful animal, but I suggest anyone could benefit from watching this movie as well just enjoying it.  Horses can teach us a lot.

Cavalia really did leave a strong impression:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2012/05/cavalia-odysseo.html