Life Story Movies (#atozchallenge)

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The films that I'll be listing in my April postings may not necessarily be films that I'd call my favorite films, but they will be favorites in the genres I'll be naming.   The A to Z genres are very specific micro genres as opposed to the broader genres like action, romance, or comedy.

        There are tons of biopics or life story movies.  Some cover brief important periods of someone's life while others are biographies that cover a good portion of a person's life from childhood to death.  Some digress wildly from the truth while others stay relatively true to the source with a few liberties added for greater entertainment value or more dramatic effect.   No matter what, if the story is told well I love life story movies.

         Here are a handful of my favorites:

The Jolson Story (1946) -- I loved this film when I first saw it at about age 10 or so.  I still love it.  A few years back I got a couple of Jolson biographies from the library and was disappointed to find that much of the film was fabricated.  His true story was more interesting than the movie.  Still, it's a great film and I still love it.   One of the best show biz pics ever and an excellent biopic.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) -- Another great show-biz biopic about a Broadway and songwriting legend George M Cohan.  Tons of classic songs and fabulous dancing by tough guy James Cagney--what a dancer he was.  This is one black and white film that deserved to be colorized, but either way you see the film it's well worth your time.  It gives you a great patriotic uplift as well.

Sergeant York (1941) --Gary Cooper stars as soft-spoken hillbilly hero of World War One.  Due to his Christian beliefs he does not want to fight, but when he realizes that sometimes we have to fight to be free he puts his sharp-shooting talents to work and captures 132 German soldiers on his own.  Another great American story.

Amadeus (1984) --Funny, tragic,and utterly great.  This biopic of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart deservedly won eight academy awards.   The music's not too bad either.

The Elephant Man (1980) --This biopic directed by weird film director David Lynch tells the tragic story of the grossly deformed John Merrick who in 19th England goes from persecuted side show freak to a darling of British high society.  The film is dark, thoughtful, and sad.   It is also highly enthralling.  Well worth your time if you're ready for some depression.

         What are some of your favorite biopics?   Does it bother you when the film takes liberties with the true story?     Who do you think deserves biopic treatment? 

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Classical Fathers Day

            Since Sunday is Father's Day in the United States, today's installment about classical music will briefly look at some of the famous father figures who were involved in this genre of music.  We don't really hear much about the offspring of many of these composers unless we read a biography.  But the fathers of these composers often played a big role in their successes and sometimes the children of the composers became famous themselves.

         J.S. Bach came from a musical family.  His father and his uncles were musicians.  At an early age Johann Sebastian was taught to play violin and organ by his father, who died when his son was ten years old.  Johann was then raised by his brother, also a musician, who continued his younger sibling's musical training.   Later Johann had several children by two wives and some of those became musicians and famous composers as well.

          If you've seen the wonderful movie Amadeus, which is the romanticized version of the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, you may remember that he was a child musical prodigy who toured Europe extensively with his father and sister.  Mozart's father was a professional musician and composer and he coached his son in playing music, a talent which young Amadeus took to naturally, and wrote down the boy's earliest compositions.   Mozart was amazingly prolific in his musical output in his brief 35 year life.  He and his wife had six children, but only two survived past infancy.  One of his sons became a musician and composer.  If you have never seen the film Amadeus, it probably is a pretty accurate depiction of the real life composer and it is an excellent film that I would highly recommend.

         Another well known composer who knew Mozart and was Beethoven's teacher for a while is Franz Joseph Haydn, who was affectionately referred to as "Papa" Haydn.  His father was not a professional musician but was self-taught at playing music and had a great enthusiasm for the art.  He recognized his son's abilities and sent his son away at age six to study music.  Haydn's childhood was difficult at times, but his father's decision paid off with Franz Joseph becoming one of the most influential composers of all time.  Having over 100 symphonies and over 50 string quartets attributed to him, Haydn has been called "The Father of the Symphony" and "The Father of the String Quartet".   Additionally he wrote many other notable works.  Though he was adored by younger musicians and many others who gave him the sobriquet Papa, he never had any children of his own.

        Another composer film I would highly recommend is Immortal Beloved, which is based on the life of Ludwig van Beethoven, who was probably the most famous composer of  all time. This film is a mystery, romance, and biography.   Beethoven's grandfather and father were both musicians. His father was his first music teacher and was purportedly a harsh taskmaster.   Ludwig had no known children, but he raised his nephew after his brother died.  The nephew, Karl, was trained in music by the uncle, but Beethoven was a harsh guardian like his own father had been.  When he was older, Karl unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide due to his difficulties with his uncle Ludwig.  Karl and his uncle Ludwig later reconciled, but the nephew joined the army to get away.  Ludwig Van Beethoven died not too long after his nephew went away.

           The fathers of all of these great composers had a profound effect on what their sons achieved in their lives.  These fathers supported and instilled ambition to create within their sons.  A closer study of the lives of these musical giants might show a correlation between the way this was achieved and the way the sons turned out in their lives, but one thing is certain-- musical genius was engendered within all of them.     

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