{"id":2374,"date":"2008-12-13T12:56:18","date_gmt":"2008-12-13T17:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2018-10-20T11:02:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-20T15:02:46","slug":"near-misses-the-legend-of-1900","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/near-misses-the-legend-of-1900\/","title":{"rendered":"Near-Misses: <em>The Legend of 1900<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intrinsic-container intrinsic-container-16x9\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2uf-LDlZMFE\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<span class=\"su-dropcap su-dropcap-style-light\" style=\"font-size:2em\">T<\/span>he Missus roamed the aisles of the video store a few nights ago, not looking for anything in particular. (Which is to say, she&#8217;d ceased looking for anything in particular: it was one of those in-between times when all the &#8220;new releases&#8221; on our must-see list had already been claimed by renters with more disciplined calendars\u00a0 and schedules.)<\/p>\n<p>Knowing me to be a fan of director Giuseppe Tornatore&#8217;s <em>Cinema Paradiso<\/em>, she brought home his 1998 English-language debut, <em>The Legend of 1900<\/em>. Which we (well, <em>I<\/em>) watched last night.<\/p>\n<p>What an interesting premise, with all sorts of opportunities for metaphor and sentiment:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<span class=\"su-dropcap su-dropcap-style-light\" style=\"font-size:2em\">I<\/span>n the year 1900, a baby is abandoned aboard an ocean liner, the <em>Virginian<\/em>. Discovered in a cradle of sorts &#8212; a lemon crate, stenciled &#8220;T.D. Lemons&#8221; &#8212; atop a grand piano in the ballroom, the infant boy is adopted by a worker in the ship&#8217;s engine room. The worker, Danny Boodman, names him <em>Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon 1900<\/em> (a simple &#8220;Jr.&#8221; not sufficient); over time, his name is shortened to simply &#8220;1900.&#8221; (Some people, hoping to curry favor with him, address him as &#8220;19&#8221; or even &#8220;Mr. 19.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>Name aside, so far this is all fairly conventional. But then the twists set in.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, 1900 (played, as an adult, by Tim Roth) shows a prodigious talent for the piano. He becomes the featured performer in the <em>Virginian<\/em>&#8216;s ballroom, starting sometime in the years between World Wars I and II. <em>And he never leaves the ship<\/em> &#8212; not for all the decades of its continued existence afloat, into the post-war era.<\/p>\n<p>The film is told in flashback, mostly &#8212; narrated by and with more recent scenes featuring 1900&#8217;s friend Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince). Ashore, many years after the last time he saw 1900, Max discovers the master disc of the only recording 1900 ever made; he tells the whole 1900 story to a series of other characters he encounters.<\/p>\n<p>(I&#8217;ve tried carefully in this plot summary to avoid any spoilers, in case you&#8217;d like to see it yourself.)<\/p>\n<span class=\"su-dropcap su-dropcap-style-light\" style=\"font-size:2em\">W<\/span>hy is <em>The Legend of 1900<\/em> just a near-miss? It&#8217;s hard to say, exactly.The cinematography, score, and set\/art decoration are amazing; the film received awards for them all, and was nominated in those and other categories. And as I said above, the premise is fraught with all sorts of potential. Even the reliably decisive Roger Ebert seems confused:<\/p>\n<blockquote>[The film] never quite develops the conviction we expect. What does it think of this man? Is he crazy or heroic? Nice or narcissistic? At the end we are left with Max the trumpet player, treasuring the sound of an old recording and assuring the antiques dealer that this was some kinduva guy. Yes, but what kinduva guy? And why?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>[Ebert&#8217;s full review <a title=\"Roger Ebert, on 'The Legend of 1900'\" href=\"http:\/\/rogerebert.suntimes.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?AID=\/19991119\/REVIEWS\/911190302\/1023\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> &#8212; but watch out for spoilers!]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I did, in fact, start to fall asleep early on and wasn&#8217;t sure I&#8217;d make it through to the end. But the action picked up for me when 1900&#8230; well, let&#8217;s just say there&#8217;s a scene where 1900 faces down a real-life jazz pianist of high regard. <em>That<\/em> woke me up for good, and I&#8217;m glad I stayed with it.<\/p>\n<p>An unexpected bonus to the film was the haunting, Leonard Cohen-esque song &#8220;Lost Boys Calling,&#8221; written by Roger Waters and performed by Waters and &#8220;Edward&#8221; Van Halen, which plays over the closing credits (lyrics below):<\/p>\n\n<p>Lyrics:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Lost Boys Calling<br \/>\n<\/strong>(by Roger Waters;<br \/>\nperformed by Roger Waters and Eddie Van Halen)<\/p>\n<p>Come hold me now<br \/>\nI am not gone<br \/>\nI would not leave you here alone<br \/>\nIn this dead calm beneath the waves<br \/>\nI can still hear those lost boys calling<\/p>\n<p>You could not speak<br \/>\nYou were afraid<br \/>\nTo take the risk of being left again<br \/>\nAnd so you tipped your hat and waved and then<br \/>\nYou turned back up the gangway of that steel tomb again<\/p>\n<p>And in Mott street in July<br \/>\nWhen I hear those seabirds cry<br \/>\nI hold the child<br \/>\nThe child in the man<br \/>\nThe child that we leave behind<\/p>\n<p>And in Mott street in July<br \/>\nWhen I hear those seabirds cry<br \/>\nI hold the child<br \/>\nThe child in the man<br \/>\nThe child that we leave behind<\/p>\n<p>The spotlight fades<br \/>\nThe boys disband<br \/>\nThe final notes lie mute upon the sand<br \/>\nAnd in the silence of the grave<br \/>\nI can still hear those lost boys calling<\/p>\n<p>We left them there<br \/>\nWhen they were young<br \/>\nThe men were gone until the west was won<br \/>\nAnd now there&#8217;s nothing left but time to kill<br \/>\nYou never took us fishin&#8217; dad and now you never will<\/p>\n<p>And in Mott street in July<br \/>\nWhen I hear the seabirds cry<br \/>\nI hold the child<br \/>\nThe child in the man<br \/>\nThe child that we leave behind<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>P.S. A little something extra for writers: a quote from the narrator Max:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You&#8217;re never really done for, as long as you&#8217;ve got a good story and someone to tell it to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>he Missus roamed the aisles of the video store a few nights ago, not looking for anything in particular. (Which is to say, she&#8217;d ceased looking for anything in particular: it was one of those in-between times when all the &#8220;new releases&#8221; on our must-see list had already been claimed by renters with more disciplined [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,593,3592,53,74],"tags":[813,814,815,816],"class_list":{"0":"post-2374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-themissus","7":"category-history-in-the-news","8":"category-near-miss-cinema","9":"category-movies-media","10":"category-music","11":"tag-the-legend-of-1900","12":"tag-tim-roth","13":"tag-giuseppe-tornatore","14":"tag-roger-ebert","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-Ci","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20632,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions\/20632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}