Wanderin' Star

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="005dba33.gif"> <div> <B>Wanderin' Star</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Fellowship Has the Ball"><U>The Fellowship Has the Ball</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Top 10 Comeback Lines from LotR"><U>Top 10 Comeback Lines from LotR</U></A></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="1d19b780.jpg" border=0 width="155" height="120" ALT="painting of Starry Night" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>This picture of van Gogh's "Starry Night" is available copyright-free at </B><A HREF="http://www.pics.am" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.pics.am"><U><B>pics.am</B></U></A><B>.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="148" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#EEEEEE > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#EEEEEE HEIGHT= 49 WIDTH="136"><div> <B>Or purchase it as a 32x24 inch fine art print:</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#EEEEEE HEIGHT= 75 ><NOBR><div>  <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=afewworabo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0000WFYTU&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Brick background is from </B><A HREF="http://www.GRSites.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.GRSites.com"><U><B>GRSites.com</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Main page background is from </B><A HREF="http://www.afewwordsabout.us/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.afewwordsabout.us/"><U><B>A Few Words</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="005dba33.gif"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.frodolivesin.us" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.frodolivesin.us"><U><IMG SRC="006ef530.jpg" border=0 width="239" height="83" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div>  |    <A HREF="http://www.frodolivesin.us/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.frodolivesin.us/"><U> </U></A><A HREF="http://www.frodolivesin.us/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.frodolivesin.us/"><U>home</U></A> |  back to  <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Lighter Side"><U><B>The Lighter Side</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=390 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="1d283253.jpg"> <div>     </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Wanderin' Star</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="549" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFFFCC" BORDERCOLORDARK="#FFCC66" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 HEIGHT= 3961 WIDTH="525"><div> Let's see, I've compared Baker Street to Middle-earth (with Dr. Watson's notes filling the purpose of the <I>Red Book</I>), Frodo to Ender Wiggin and Meg Murry, even the relationship between Bilbo and Frodo to that between Ilsa and Rick in <I>Casablanca</I> - and that's just in the <I>serious </I>essays! But so far I've missed the similarities between Gandalf and Ben Rumson - specifically Sir Ian McKellen's Gandalf and Lee Marvin's Ben Rumson. </div> <bR> <div> If that seems a bit far-fetched (especially that pairing of actors), just think of an older man with a beard driving a cart and singing (in both cases, not particularly well) about being on the road.  Underneath the humor, <I>Paint Your Wagon</I> has some of the same bittersweet flavor as <I>LotR</I>.  At the end, the two partners separate, with "Pardner" staying behind to build a domestic life, and Ben going off to follow a new dream, but not without some regret that he perhaps doesn't admit even to himself.  </div> <bR> <div> At the beginning of the movie, after a few bars of soft music, we get the rousing melody and lyrics of the title song:</div> <bR> <div> Where am I goin'?  I don't know. </div> <div> Where am I headin'? I ain't certain.  </div> <div> All that I know is I am on my way...  </div> <div> Got a dream, boy? Got a song? </div> <div> Paint your wagon and come along!  </div> <bR> <div> As the movie goes on, we learn there are some prices to be paid for following "with eager feet."  The best-known song from the musical, "Maria," is a poignant statement of this:</div> <bR> <div> But then one day, I left my girl.</div> <div> I left her far behind me. </div> <div> And now I'm lost, so goldurn lost,</div> <div> Not even God can find me. </div> <bR> <div> ...I'm a lost and lonely man, </div> <div> Without a star to guide me...</div> <bR> <div> Some people cope with that reality in a different way. As Ben sings [?] in "Wanderin' Star" at the end of the movie, the elements can batter you in many ways, "...but only people make you cry."  One solution is simply leaving them behind by always having something else to reach for: </div> <bR> <div> Home was made for leavin'</div> <div> And dreams for goin' to,</div> <div> Which with any luck will never come true. </div> <bR> <div> Although Ben hides it from Pardner, and probably even from himself, the audience knows that Ben leaves in large part so Pardner can have the domestic happiness that he wants and that, when it comes to it, only one of the two men can keep.  Ben seems to consider it his fate. Some men, like Pardner, are meant to settle down, while Ben sings [?] that he was "born under a wanderin' star."  Especially through that song, it's clear that Ben is following the road "with weary feet" by that time in his life.  So his leaving can be seen as giving Pardner a gift rather than running away from him. </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>   _________________________</div> <bR> <div> But comparing the storylines doesn't show all the similarities between the two older men with beards, singing in their carts, even though Gandalf (we know from the book) refused the leadership of the White Council in order to stay free to go where his work took him.  There are also movie-making decisions involved. </div> <bR> <div> When the movie of <I>Paint Your Wagon</I> was released, some critics took a dim view of the decision to cast actors instead of singers in the main roles, and then let the actors do their own singing instead of dubbing in someone else's voice.  The complaints were mostly about Lee Marvin as Ben and a young Clint Eastwood as Pardner.  My first reaction to the critics was, "Hey, they weren't <I>that </I>bad!"  I was much younger then, but even after maturing enough to know that they were <I>that </I>bad, I still didn't like the critics' attitude.  It wasn't until the <I>LotR </I>movies came along that I really understood why.  It's all about suspension of disbelief.  </div> <bR> <div> When Pardner is singing:</div> <bR> <div> But suddenly my words reach someone else's ear,</div> <div> Touch someone else's heartstrings, too...</div> <bR> <div> ...not quite on key, he sounds like a young guy who's falling in love, not like a professional singer.  I can listen to him and stay completely within the story.  Same thing when the men are singing about "beautiful gold" and how dirty you have to get to find it.  Even the fire and brimstone preacher who shows up to predict the demise of the town has a voice just rough enough to sound realistic.  </div> <bR> <div> Of course, there's often a very professional-sounding chorus singing back-up to the main characters, but it's outside the story in the way a soundtrack is, so is only occasionally intrusive.  Besides the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, who actually fit the movie's tone perfectly, the one ringer in the bunch is the man who sings "Maria" - Now that's a Voice!  But it seems to fit the character, who's more sophisticated than most of the men around him, and who could probably have "made something of himself" if he hadn't been lured away by gold fever or wanderlust. (Not coincidentally, this "ringer" played Pardner on Broadway.)</div> <bR> <div> <I>Paint Your Wagon</I> is still what would be considered a traditional musical - that is, people break into song at unlikely times. One thing that saves this from being totally unbelievable is that in many cases - especially with the more sentimental songs - the singer is alone, so it has kind of a "singing in the shower" or even a "thinking out loud" feel to it. Pardner doesn't sing "I Talk to the Trees" <I>to </I>the woman he's falling in love with; that would be pretty embarrassing for both of them. </div> <bR> <div> The songs tell us better than mere dialogue could how the characters are feeling, but there's still the mark of a traditional musical in that the songs are basically outside of the story. The story stops while we listen to the song. </div> <bR> <div> Some Tolkien readers don't care for a lot of his poetry, and skip over it.  But he considered the poetry he put into his fiction to be an integral part of the story rather than something the story stopped and waited for. If you do skip over it, you'll miss some of the connotations of the prose.  According to the people staging the new <I>LotR </I>stage production, they're trying to integrate the singing into the story as Tolkien did. They don't like to call the play a "musical" because of the connotation of people breaking into song in unrealistic circumstances.  It will probably be years before I ever have a chance to see the play, if I ever do, but I'll be interested to find out how this use of music goes over with audiences.   </div> <bR> <div> <B>(And if you were expecting a different topic when you saw the title of this essay, that writing's in progress, but it's more of a research paper than an essay!) </B></div> <div> __________</div> <bR> <div> Copyright 2006, Trudy G. Shaw</div> <div> Permission to publish on other websites is granted, provided that this copyright notice and an active link to this site are included. </div> <div> __________</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="434" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFFBF0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#CC9900" FRAME="BOX" RULES="COLS" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="136"><div> <I><B>Paint Your Wagon: DVD</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="136"><div> <I><B>Paint Your Wagon: VHS (Used only)</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="136"><div> <I><B>Paint Your Wagon: Soundtrack</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 77 ><NOBR><div>  <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=afewworabo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00003CXBX&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>  </div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div>  <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=afewworabo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=6300216195&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>  </div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div>  <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=afewworabo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000002PEY&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>Amazon.com</B><B> </B><B>Editorial Review of </B><I><B>Paint Your Wagon</B></I><B> </B></div> <div> This film and <I>Hello Dolly</I> were the knockout blows to the studio movie musical, but <I>Paint</I> doesn't deserve its tarnished name. Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) takes the model of a rakish derelict to an unequaled high as a prospector who teams up with a greenhorn named Pardner (Clint Eastwood), and they both end up marrying the same scorned woman (Jean Seberg). No-Name City, the prospecting town they found, is Sodom and Gomorrah without the camels, and a vision of humanity left to its own devices. The songs are mostly wonderful melodies from Lerner and Loewe, with definite high points, notably "They Call the Wind Maria" and "Wand'rin' Star." Clint Eastwood always gets flack for his versions of "I Still See Elisa" and "I Talk to the Trees," but that scorn is equally undeserved. Perhaps <I>Paint</I>'s biggest sin, in retrospect, was trying to combine the aesthetics of the musical with the aesthetics of the male protagonists' world-weary machismo. Not the easiest task, but <I>Paint</I> pulls it off. <I>--Keith Simanton</I> </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>For comparison: </B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="148" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFFBF0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#CC9900" FRAME="BOX" RULES="COLS" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 56 WIDTH="136"><div> <I><B>Paint Your Wagon: Original Broadway Cast</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 77 ><NOBR><div>  <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=afewworabo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000003EWD&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>  </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id67_m.htm" TITLE="Wanderin Star"><U><IMG SRC="16f7d3c0.jpg" border=0 width="125" height="60" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.frodolivesin.us/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.frodolivesin.us/"><U>Home</U></A></div> <div> Back to  <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Lighter Side"><U>The Lighter Side</U></A></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>