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May 1998, Week 1

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From:
"Edward R. O'Neill" <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Thu, 30 Apr 1998 20:22:05 -0700
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Kolker cites _The Scout_ as an interesting pre-text to
_GWH_, but I think Levy is right to point out that the prior
film was hardly the height of originality.
        It seems that in Hollywood the idea is that if you combine
enough cliches, the result is not itself a cliche.  As I
always say, nice work if you can get it.
        But any takers on the issue of the reasons why Hollywood
likes to present talent/genius in terms of emotional
disturbance and trauma?  Of course a *nice* genius is not
terribly cinematic.
        But _Little Man Tate_ managed not to give its genius any
traumas:  the trauma was his mother's social class.
 
Sincerely,
Ed O'Neill
UCLA
 
 
Shawn Levy wrote:
>
> Actually, I have always thought that "The Scout" was itself a 'borrowing'
> of themes from..."King Kong."  Think about it:  Brooks has to venture to a
> foreign land (Mexico) to find this amazingly talented kid and bring him and
> his temper to New York, where the kid's most vivid expression of his
> psychological problems is to climb a tower at Yankee Stadium.  It helps, of
> course, that the kid was played by the more-than-vaguely-simian Brendan
> Fraser ("Encino Man," "George of the Jungle").
>
> best,
>
> shawn levy
>
> At 07:53 PM 4/29/98 -0400, Robert Kolker wrote:
> >I recently saw a nice film called "The Scout" (1994). It
> >has a great pedigree: written by Albert Brooks and Andrew
> >Bergman, directed by Michael Ritchie. It's about this
> >young baseball player, who has great talent but an
> >uncontrollable temper. Brooks finds him and signs him up
> >with the Yankees. But, the kid has to see a psychiatrist
> >(Diane Wiest)who finds out he suffered from an abusive
> >father.
> >
> >So why wasn't there a plagiarism suit?
> >----------------------
> >Robert Kolker
> >English Department
> >University of Maryland
> >College Park, MD 20742
> >[log in to unmask]
> >http://www.otal.umd.edu/~rkolker
> >301.405.6250
> >
> >----
> >Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
> >University of Alabama.
> >
> >
>
> ----
> Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
> University of Alabama.
 
----
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