Run the Wild Fields (2000) drama

I previously taped and saw this movie twice on Friday. First with my friend Jim, then the second time with my wife when she got home from work.  I saw it some more on Sunday to get more details for this review. It takes place in a small town in North Carolina in the last year of World War II and stars Joanne Whalley as Ruby Miller, Sean Patrick Flanery as Tom Walker, Cotter Smith as Silas Green, and Alexa Vega as twelve-year-old Opal 'Pug' Miller.

In the beginning, Ruby Miller's daughter Pug finds a stranger injured on the side of one of the dirt roads that border their farm. Pug reports back to Ruby what she saw and Ruby comes out and asks the stranger what happened. He says he was going through a farm orchard and got bitten by a dog on the leg so badly that he can hardly move.  Ruby has him lean on her and walks him back to her farm. She surmises that it happened in Silas Green's orchard and one of his dogs had bitten the stranger.

Ruby and Pug are on the farm porch, while the kindly, portly, old doctor is examining the stranger in Pug's bedroom.  Ruby is ironing clothes, while Pug is sitting in the porch swing reading a book. Pug keeps adjusting her glasses and starts complaining to Ruby how a boy that she likes at school calls her "Pug the bug," because of her glasses.  Ruby says to her that her father, Frank, wanted his girls to be named after gemstones. So Ruby is named after the red ruby and Pug's first name is Opal, named after the gemstone that is "pure white like fresh snow on the outside and fiery red on the inside."  

"Anyway, you'll be Pug the bat, if you don't wear those glasses," says Ruby.

Opal says, "Yes, ma'am".

The doctor comes out onto the porch and explains that it would be better not to move the stranger-patient for tonight. Ruby agrees that he should spend the night there and move on in the morning.  Opal says that the West is about to break through the Siegfried Line in Germany and eventually meet the Russians, who are coming in from the East.  The doctor says the war will be over soon. 

Ruby says, "I expect we'll be hearing from Frank soon!"  Frank is her husband, who is in the military, serving overseas. 

Later in the day, Silas Green pulls up to Ruby's house with three big dogs in the back of his truck and a bag of pecans as a gift to Ruby.  Ruby refuses to turn the hurt man--Tom over to Silas, who wanted to move him into his house so he could guard him closely.  Ruby sees the true nature of the situation and wants to protect Tom from Silas.

That night, Ruby says to Opal in her bed, "Did you say your prayers?"

Opal:  "I said God bless Mom and Dad and the hurt man in my bedroom."

The next morning, after talking to the stranger, Opal says to Ruby, "His name is Tom, and he's not a 'rummy'" (a drunkard). Tom and Ruby shake hands and Ruby says that her husband is in the Pacific theater of World War II and has been reported missing in action.  So it is not known for sure whether her husband is alive or dead.  Ruby gives Tom some of her husband's clothes to take with him and says good-bye.

Later that day, Tom is picked up and brought to town by the Sheriff, who thinks  that Tom stole the clothes that he is carrying with him.  Ruby comes into the Sheriff's office to verify the ownership of the clothes and, on the spur of the moment, decides to tell the Sheriff that Tom is employed on her farm and is under her supervision. The Sheriff grudgingly lets Tom go.  Ruby decides that, now, she wants to starting farming again with Tom as her main employee.  But they understand that when the farming season is over, Tom will have to leave.

Tom's story is told throughout the movie as bits and pieces of it are revealed. Ruby  wants him to attend Church with her and her daughter every week, while he works for her. They sing a nice hymn in the Church service. After the service, the members gather in the parking lot outside the church. A military messenger drives in and delivers a death notice to an older couple. Their son has died in one of the battles of World War II. The wife cries and the husband suffers and tries to comfort her.

A younger boy taunts Tom about his not serving in the military, but Tom refrains from punching him. It appears this is a good decision of Tom's--choosing non-violence.  

A newspaper headline says that Japan is out of the war.  Now World War II is completely over and relatives and husbands in the military will be coming back to this small town in North Carolina. They are celebrating with a square dance. At the end of the dance, people are starting to get their things together and leave.  Silas Green catches Ruby alone on the gymnasium dance floor and tries to kiss her.  She fights him off, just as Tom walks in.

Silas says to Tom, "We have a private word!"

Tom says, "Seems to me, she's done talking!"

After Silas insults both Tom and Ruby, Tom throws one hard punch at Silas and knocks him to the dance floor.  Tom is much younger and more athletic than Silas, even though Silas is a big man.  Surprisingly, Silas lies there and does not try to strike back.  Tom leaves the dance hall for a short time, while Silas tries to explain his lonely home situation to Ruby. Ruby understands him and tells him, "You were just not the one!"  Silas says good-bye to Ruby and they remain farming friends, but nothing closer than that. 

Tom comes back in the dance hall and implies to Ruby that he is angry at himself for letting his desire to strike Silas get too strong.  Ruby thinks it was right to hit Silas and tries to get Tom to be less hard on himself.

I'm going to stop here.  I studied Ethics and Existentialism to help with this review. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia:

Existentialism is the philosophical and cultural movement that holds that the starting point of philosophical thinking must be the individual and the experiences of the individual.  Alternatively, it is defined as the philosophical theory which holds that neither moral thinking (governed by the norms of the good and the right) nor scientific thinking (governed by the norm of truth) suffices to understand the human condition, and that a further set of categories, governed by the norm of authenticity, is necessary to grasp human existence (authenticity, in this context, is the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character).

Existentialism began in the mid-19th century as a reaction against then-dominant systematic philosophies, with Søren Kierkegaard generally considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.  Opposed to Hegelianism and Kantianism, he posited that it is the individual who is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and for living life passionately and sincerely, even in view of its many existential obstacles and distractions. 

Great Expectations (2011-British) movie and book

Two days ago I taped, and today (Wednesday) I watched, the last two hours of this miniseries on WETA Public TV.   It starts out with the grown-man Pip, around 17-years-old, coming to London in a carriage and entering the area of the Courts to see Mr. Jagger (played by David Suchet).  Mr. Jagger instructs him that every Friday all the young men who are enrolled in "great expectations" will come to him to receive their weekly allowance, until their coming of age, presumably 21-years-old.  Pip's personal benefactor's identity will not be revealed until he or she chooses to do that.

Pip first learns how to dance in the ballroom by dancing with his male room-mate.  Pip joins an exclusive club, where he is introduced to drinking alcohol and smoking. Some of the other young men are members of that club.  After some weeks, Pip's blacksmith brother-in-law comes to the club and sees Pip in a run-down state due to the drinking and smoking and reflects back to Pip how he appears.  "You're ashamed," he says.

Pip goes to see Mr. Jagger on one of his weekly meetings and Jagger says, "you have a lot of bills.  Debt is debt".  Pip also visits Miss Havisham's estate once a week. She says to him, "Estella requires an escort to London and I am keen to see your transformation first hand."  Pip tells his friend, "I am in love with Estella."  His friend expresses doubts that marrying Estella is a good idea for Pip.  One of the young men, Bentley Drummle, in speaking to Pip, runs down the reputation of Pip's friend.

Pip goes to a dance or a ball.  Pip makes a deal with a businessman.  Young women are gossiping at the ball.  Estella doesn't like the gossiping.  Pip accepts an invitation from Bentley Drummle to come to "another sort of club," which turns out to be a house of prostitution.  When Pip finds that out, he walks out of the big house.  Bentley Drummle says, "you're not one of us, and you know I know."

Pip goes on a picnic with Estella and her girl-friend-chaperone.  Estella wades into the water.  Pip wades in after her and kisses her, but Estella immediately leaves the water and wants to go back home. Back at Miss Havisham's estate, Estella says to Pip, "she (Miss Havisham) wants me to love her.  I cannot love her; I don't have a heart."  To Miss Havisham, Estella says: "You made me like this."

Pip's older sister died and Pip goes there to visit the blacksmith brother-in-law.  Later, Pip says to him, "I can't stay here, I'm going to London to take Estella to the ball.  Estella dances with Pip and then another man dances gaily with Estella in a fast dance.  Estella goes back home from the dance escorted by Pip.  Estella seems to already know that the fast dance man will marry somebody else that summer.

Somebody tells Pip that he will reach his Legal Age soon.  While Pip is sleeping in his bed, Magwitch, the escaped convict that Pip met in the first hour, comes in, empties a bag of paper money on the floor, and says he is the benefactor.  Pip cannot believe that Magwitch is the benefactor.  Magwitch is being kind to Pip, because Pip, as a boy, gave him a piece of mutton pie when he was most in need of it---during his escape.  Magwitch had gone to New South Wales, Australia, where he worked in sheep ranching and earned a huge fortune.  Later, with a crestfallen heart, Pip hears that the convict is even now on the run from the law, and that if he is caught, he could be put to death. Around London the police put a thousand pound price on his head for his capture.

Later, Pip cannot believe that Bentley Drummle is about to marry Estella.  Estella says to Pip, "everybody is meant to love me, but I don't love back.  I told you I'd make you cry; if only you'd listen."

One of the high points of this movie is when Magwitch discovers that, instead of his daughter being dead as he was told years before by Jagger, he finds out from Pip that Estella is his true daughter and is alive.  By this time, Magwitch had been severely injured while trying to escape to Australia.  He dies more peacefully with Pip watching over him.  One of the major themes of this movie is that it is better for the truth to be told, than secrets to be buried and hidden for years.

Another important theme of this movie and book is the importance of forgiveness:

Pip goes to Miss Havisham's estate.

Miss Havisham:  "Estella left me."

Pip:  "I could have made Estella happy!"

Miss Havisham:  "I wanted to hurt you.  Forgive me!"

Pip:  "I forgive you, Miss Havisham."

(Bentley Drummle accidentally dies while  trying to ride an aggressive horse.)

Here is an excerpt from Dickens' book from Sparknotes.com :

Finally, Estella’s long, painful marriage to Drummle causes her to develop along the same lines as Pip—that is, she learns, through experience, to rely on and trust her inner feelings. In the final scene of the novel, she has become her own woman for the first time in the book. As she says to Pip, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.”

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/canalysis.html

From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia:

To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The strenuous and often cruel working conditions deeply impressed Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays, becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigors of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He would later write that he wondered "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age." . . . . . . . .

Although Dickens eventually attended the Wellington House Academy in North London, his mother Elizabeth Dickens did not immediately remove him from the boot-blacking factory. The incident may have done much to confirm Dickens's view that a father should rule the family, a mother find her proper sphere inside the home. "I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being sent back." His mother's failure to request his return was no doubt a factor in his dissatisfied attitude towards women. . . . . . . . .

In 1857, Dickens hired professional actresses for the play The Frozen Deep, which he and his protégé Wilkie Collins had written. Dickens fell deeply in love with one of the actresses, Ellen Ternan, which was to last the rest of his life.   He then separated from his wife, Catherine, in 1858 – divorce was still unthinkable for someone as famous as he was.

Great Expectations (2011-British)

I taped the first hour of this movie last Sunday from WETA Public TV and the last two hours will air this coming Sunday April 8.  I watched the first hour today and I'm using Hank Stuever's review in the Wash. Post and David Keirsey's book "Please Understand Me II" (1998) as helps.

The source for this movie is Charles Dickens' 600-page novel.  I remember Great Expectations as a reading in English class in High School.  I think that we were reading a short version of it for class.  The first hour of it that I saw today covered a lot of ground in the book.  Sarah Phelps, who wrote the screenplay was skillful in giving the characters depth.  In only one hour the main character Pip is a boy, played by Oscar Kennedy, and is a young man, played by Douglas Booth.

Because there was only one hour to develop the characters, either their worst or their best attributes had to be displayed speedily.  Pip is living on the blue, watery and marshy homestead of his sister and blacksmith brother-in-law.  In the town lives an older recluse, Miss Havisham, played by Gillian Anderson.  She has a pivotal role in providing the "great expectations" and a vision of a good future for someone with Pip's character.

Pip seems to be competent, inventive, logical, systematic, compassionate and honest.  Ray Winstone plays an adaptable, desperate, and violent escaped convict.  Previously, he played Beowulf in the 2007 movie.  David Suchet plays Miss Havisham's attorney.  Suchet played the efficient and analytical detective Poirot for many years in the Public television show.  Miss Havisham's adopted daughter Estella is at first nasty to Pip and then helpful and solicitous to Pip as time goes by.

I'm looking forward to seeing the last two hours of this PBS Masterpiece Classic.