So the family has decided that we are to stay in this evening and watch a movie.
I'm well equipped with Guinness and Tullamore Dew, and my lovely Mrs. has prepared some fine corned beef.
I can think of a few obvious suggestions for St. Paddy's Day movies- The Quiet Man for instance, but I think I'd get vetoed on that one.
I suspect you all might have some suggestions...
So?
7 comments:
Try Rio Grande. It was the movie they made in order to get the studio to agree to let them make The Quiet Man. It's also got some traditional Irish singing and much of the same cast, but it's a cavalry movie.
(A note: one of 'the traditional Irish songs' the singers perform would actually not have been a traditional song at all during the period of the movie; it honors the Fenian Rising of 1867, which would have been about the time when the movie would have been set. The song is built around the memories of 'an old woman' who remembers seeing the Fenians training in her youth, so it couldn't have been written until years after the cavalry fights being illustrated by the film.)
A bit late, but maybe "Far and Away." It's a story about two Irish immigrants to the US in the late 1800s. Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman.
"Far and Away" is very good, IMO...not sure why it's been so under-rated. Definitely worth watching.
I don't have any movie suggestions to add, but I do have a book suggestion: Thomas Flanagan's "The Year of the French" (which takes place in Ireland, despite the rather confusing title) is one of the best historical novels I have ever read. I reviewed it here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/56963.html
There was also a 1981 Irish TV series made from 'Year of the French', here's a promo which is mainly about the filming and the logistical problems therewith:
http://www.rte.ie/archives/2016/0809/807932-the-year-of-the-french/
I'd love to see the actual series, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere.
I can never watch "The Quiet Man" again without marveling at the accordion-playing capability of Festus.
Thanks for the tips, all. Maybe next year we'll watch one of those- I would not have thought Far and Away to be something I'd be that interested in but now I know better.
This year, I'd forgotten that the boy was set to go out to the roller rink with his friends, and we'd promised the girl that the next time it was us three only, we'd watch the next Harry Potter movie (Deathly Hallows, Part I). Had to keep to my word, unfortunately.
If you're the reading type, then a nice modern semi-Irish fable is "A Fairy Tale of New York" and of course, "The Ginger Man", both by JP Donleavy.
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