">Why would a headmaster who talks about creating "Renaissance men" object to Hector's classes which seem to do just that?
He doesn't realise this himself until right at the end, where his Assembly speech quotes Hector verbatim."
The funeral assembly? In the film at least, the most noticeable Hector lines from the head are when he (unwittingly?) says everything Hector *didn't* want said of his boys.
">What the blazes does the PE teacher have to do with *anything*?
Film only, brought in for a bit of variation. See also the Art class."
A variation that doesn't add anything but variation, and indeed verges on the utterly generic, is deeply inartistic. They might as well have opened a door to a room full of ninjas a la Wayne's World - that would at least have been funnier.
"Stoppard can't do poignancy as well as Bennett, Bennett can't do ideas as well as Stoppard. Only one way to settle this: FIIIIGHT!"
I know that's the usual line on Stoppard, but I really don't think it's fair - it's often just another symptom of the prevalent British belief that intellect and emotion are somehow mutually exclusive. Leaving aside the 'entertainments' (TV plays &c), all of his major plays have some absolutely heartbreaking moments - missed chances, lost loves and the rest. And as a rule, they're utterly and indissolubly intertwined with the ideas.
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Date: 2007-03-21 07:14 pm (UTC)He doesn't realise this himself until right at the end, where his Assembly speech quotes Hector verbatim."
The funeral assembly? In the film at least, the most noticeable Hector lines from the head are when he (unwittingly?) says everything Hector *didn't* want said of his boys.
">What the blazes does the PE teacher have to do with *anything*?
Film only, brought in for a bit of variation. See also the Art class."
A variation that doesn't add anything but variation, and indeed verges on the utterly generic, is deeply inartistic. They might as well have opened a door to a room full of ninjas a la Wayne's World - that would at least have been funnier.
"Stoppard can't do poignancy as well as Bennett, Bennett can't do ideas as well as Stoppard. Only one way to settle this: FIIIIGHT!"
I know that's the usual line on Stoppard, but I really don't think it's fair - it's often just another symptom of the prevalent British belief that intellect and emotion are somehow mutually exclusive. Leaving aside the 'entertainments' (TV plays &c), all of his major plays have some absolutely heartbreaking moments - missed chances, lost loves and the rest. And as a rule, they're utterly and indissolubly intertwined with the ideas.