Singers Make the Movie

I never knew Johnny Depp could sing. He is an amazing singer, though. We just finished watching the movie Sweeney Todd in English class, and I thought it was a great movie with great music. I loved the song “A Barber and his wife” just because Johnny Depp’s voice was so amazing. I also liked the way Depp sang “My Friends”. His voice is like none other. I’ve always wished that I could sing, but I’ve always been terrible at it. All day after class I would always have the tunes from the songs from whatever part of the movie we were watching in my head. While this could sometimes get annoying, it could also be fun to hum along to Sweeney Todd randomly throughout the day. The other actors in this movie were also very good singers. The actor that played Toby had great range. In the song “Nothing’s Gonna Harm You”, Toby went up very high, but he also sang low. Of course it helps that he is a young boy, but still. He had great vocal control. I also thought Mrs. Lovett had an angelic voice. If you gave her something sweet to sing, she could really serenade. I bet it took a long time to pick out all of the actors for this movie, but I must say they did a very good job not only acting, but also singing.

Simple Shakespeare

I don’t think this English class is ever going to fail to surprise me. First, I realized that black and white movies aren’t as terrible as I once thought they were, and now I find out that Shakespeare can actually be interesting, and not tedious to read!

                We just finished reading the Shakespearian play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and I thought it was a fairly enjoyable play. The only other Shakespearian play I have ever read is “Romeo and Juliet” in 9^th grade English class, and I found it very difficult to read. Maybe it was because I wasn’t really trying to take my time to understand the play, and maybe it really was just too hard for me to understand. Whatever the reason, reading “Romeo and Juliet” left me with the frame of mind that Shakespeare is a terrible writer and I would never enjoy reading one of his plays simply because I could not understand them.  This is why, when the class willingly chose to read Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” I was furious. I didn’t understand how anybody in their right mind would want to read something that that awful William Shakespeare had written. I went home that night, and started to read act 1, anyway, simply because I did not want to make a bad grade because I did not want to read a work. To my surprise, I did not find this act to be too terribly hard to read. In fact, I understood what was going on quite well. When we discussed this act in class, I realized that I could do this without a problem. Shakespeare was not that bad and could actually write an intriguing story. 

I read act one, two, and part of act three right out of the literature book  with only minute difficulties. I even took notes to better understand what was going on. I felt so proud of myself and was very happy that reading this play had not become a chore. I happened to be at Barnes and Noble one day, though, and remembered that the teacher said something about a book called “No Fear Shakespeare”, that had the Shakespearian text on one side and the modern language text on the opposite side of the book. I decided to buy this book. I finished reading the play out of this book, but I am sure I could have finished and understood the play without it. It was just an aid.

                My point being: Shakespeare is actually a good writer and is not too hard to understand if you take your time reading his works. While sometimes there is need for clarification, it is very easily do-able to read a Shakespearian play, contrary to my previous belief.

Black and White

               For the first few days of my English class, we watched the movie Arsenic and Old Lace. This is a movie directed by Frank Capra, and starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, and Raymond Massey, about a man, Mortimer Brewster, who has previously written books and articles against marriage, but in the movie he gets married. He also finds out something rather surprising about his two aunts, with whom he has lived his whole life. Needless to say, Mortimer’s life changes in more than one way this day.  When the teacher first announced that we were going to be watching a movie, instead of going over the syllabus, which would have been the third time I would have had to listen to practically the same rules and guidelines that day, I was very excited and could already tell I was going to like this teacher very much.  So the lights were turned off and the movie began. My excitement stopped there. I noticed the credits were already rolling and the movie had just started!  Also, I couldn’t see a spot of color on the TV screen. I thought to myself “oh, great, this is going to be even more boring than going over the syllabus. Old black and white movies are always terrible.” By the end of the period, though, my whole idea of what a black and white movie is like had, changed.

                I liked the movie from the very beginning scene (after the credits had gone off). It started out with a lively, but random, baseball game, and then went to the Marriage License Bureau, where Mortimer Brewster was getting married. Keep in mind that Mortimer had previously been completely against marriage. He once wrote a book titled Mind Over Matrimony. This is just one of many examples of irony in this story. From this point on the movie was filled with comedy and more irony. Every scene made me laugh and some things were so unexpected and shocking, you couldn’t help but be amused. When I found out what the aunts did, I did not believe it at first. I loved how they were completely fine with what they were doing and did not think a thing about it. Mortimer said “But there’s a body in the window seat!” and the aunts replied with “Yes, dear, we know”. I found this very shocking and comical. The best part of this movie, I would say, is that the people you think would never hurt a fly are the ones doing most of the terrible things.

After the initial shock of realizing we were going to be watching a black and white movie wore off, I did not ever realize again that this was not a normal movie. In fact, I think Arsenic and Old Lace was a much better movie than many of the movies made today. There was no cussing or sex in this movie. While there were some creepy parts and some non gruesome murder, the content of this movie was nothing like the terrible things you can find in movies now days, which is definitely a plus when trying to find a movie the whole family can watch.

                After my experience with the movie Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Frank Capra, I will definitely be more open to watching older movies, even if they are black and white, in my future. I have come to learn to not judge a movie by its opening credits. This movie was very funny and ironic throughout. Given the chance, I am positive that I would watch this movie again, without hesitation, just to have some laughs. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone wanting to have a good time.

Works Cited:                                                                             

Arsenic and Old Lace. Dir- Frank Capra, 1944 o.r.d. Warner Brothers. Screenplay- Julius J and Philip G Epstien. DVD 2000