Mary Todd's comments (member since Aug 05, 2008)

Mary Todd's comments from the Happy & Brainy Group group.

I adore the Oz books...still read them to my grandchildren. Not only are they 'big', but they are not simple...Baum never talked down to his audience and since they were written 100 years ago, some of the language is dated. I think they count double.

Whew Peggy! That was a hot one!

I think the first 'tome' I delved into was Ozma of Oz...and then I spent the nest several months looking for and 'inhaling' the rest of the series.

I, too, am sad at Paul Newman's passing. His 50+ year marriage to Joanne Woodward is another one of his venerable accomplishments.
Harvey wasn't written quite so lovingly and gently--Stewart wasn't happy with the movie. Some years later he recreated the part on Broadway and Elwood was a more mysterious and cynical character. Not that Elwood was evil, just darker, and that made him that much more remarkable.
I think the movies are improving...the Cohen Brothers have added a true new dimension to the art. I saw The Women and as it isn't as fresh and dark as the original, it was really good use of female actors! Bette Midler was wayy under used.

I'm sorry my response was a little muddled...I meant the part about the heros...the theme of the movie Young Edison was 'some Americans are really incredible, ingenious, creative people and we should be proud'.
This is very true, however, my point is that when looking at art for inspiration, you must look at the whole picture. The movie industry in the 1940's was a propagandist organization...probably for the best possible reasons, but it was extremely pro-war. So if you think that Thomas Edison was a wonderfully perfect child, that's fine, but I think you need to glean facts from other sources than art (the movies).
It's very dangerous to have heroes, I think. In raising 2 sons, I wanted them to admire people, what they accomplished, but to hold some one person as an ideal is a dangerous course.

We are human, every one of us...we do some good and some bad. If you try your hardest to be perfect and succeed most of the time GOOD FOR YOU. But if when you fail, you feel bad about yourself, that's rough to live with. I like knowing that being human has room for mistakes.

I read these posts and get much from them. I have never said anything, however, today I will. Ilyn is relating events in a movie to prove truth. Art, and movies are art, is only a perception of the artist of the events he wants to portray to make a statement of his 'truth'. The events in the Edison movie may or maynot be 'true'. I looked it up and the time of the movie is 1940. We have to look at the artist, the art, the subject, and in this case the state of the world when the art was made. 1940 was a scary time for the US. We as a nation were ending a Depression and embarking on a world war after which we would emerge as a world power.
Tom Edison was a mastermind, a genius of top caliber, however, the movie about him can't be cited as 'truth', especially when the 'truth' the artist was going for was uncomplicated patriotism.

I'm not saying he didn't do wonderful things. Edison was an incredible genius with a mind that never stopped. I am saying that the filmmaker's events of Edison's life aren't the 'truth' of the movie...they may or maynot have happened exactly as portrayed...but the story of the movie, Americans are clever, resourceful, inventive and brave, is what we needed just then. Artists have a knack of reflecting the society, as well as influencing it.