A Clear Day for British Film
August 6th 2008 05:17
If you’ll indulge me for just a few sentences, I’ll try to make my point. Now I warn you, I may drop into my fair dinkum (genuine) Aussie lingo (language), but if you read on, you’ll understand why.
As an outsider looking in on America, for all of the myriad things there is to love – doughnuts, tex-mex, sunglasses, blue-jeans, pizza, the NFL, Theme Parks, obscenely large vehicles, gas prices (you heard me…it’s almost $7 a gallon down my way, so count your blessings!!) – it has never ceased to amaze me how ignorant the vast majority of the population is to the rest of the planet. You know, the other 6.2 billion humans out there!
Take my great and prosperous country of birth – Australia. Firstly, we aren’t within cooee (that means miles and miles) of Europe! Nope, no massive snow-capped Alps in the Land Down Under. And we don’t have our native Kangaroos inhabiting our city streets – frankly, we shoot them, and eat them. Pretty good treatment for our national emblem, eh? Although a morsel of Skippy (that’s our most famous Kangaroo – sort of like Smokey the Bear) has never passed my lips.
We speak Australian, which is very much like English, but without the accent Americans have ruined it with, and we drive on the correct side of the road – as opposed to our Yankee friends who drive on the right side of the road; see the difference? (We also have World Champion sports teams that actually beat the best teams from around the world to claim such a title, no rules about tipping, and don’t finish every telephone conversation with “mmbye” – aaaaaggghhhh!! But that is for another time)
Yet, despite our differences, there is one thing most of the English-speaking world cannot deny: We love America and Americans – despite themselves (and Dubya, plus those other things mentioned above).
So I am going into uncharted, culturally challenging, territory with this review, because in truth, most every American reading this would have missed this gem of a British film, On A Clear Day.
Now it is a British film, as I said, and there are definite cultural issues. The fact that it is set in Glasgow, Scotland, with very genuine Glaswegian accents, may be a problem for some.
In fact, it could be a scene of great hilarity, a family in Lake Charles, Louisiana (I’ve been there for three hours, and no one spoke a scrap of what I call English the whole time), trying to understand the Scottish brogue. Alas, no subtitles.
But if you can overcome the barriers, you will find a rare piece of clean, quality, filmmaking from the other side of the pond.
Having been suckled on British television by my 4’ 11”, 93 pound nanna - who managed to always smell like tea, cupcakes, and cream soda – I am very fond of the British sense of being. Plus, I love British humor, and story telling. But almost since I sat at nanna’s knee, more than 30 years ago, it has become increasingly hard to find something on UK television or film that is not chock-a-block (that means packed in very tightly) with extreme language.
It seems, much like the Australian collective self image, the Brits seem to think they can only prosper comedically through their foul mouths, or lewd double entendres. No doubt there are some classic efforts in that vain, but humor doesn't always need to originate in the gutter, and end up in the sewer.
On A Clear Day manages to tell its heart-warming story of reconciliation and emotional learning with gritty realism, and no offensive language.
Yes there are British, and more specifically Scottish, idioms, but none that will raise any hackles.
It is pure story-telling at every turn, supported by the expected magnificent ensemble cast, which is just so typically British – a cast that demonstrates why the Spanish, Argentinians, Greeks, or Lithuanians will beat the ‘Dream Team’ at the Olympic Basketball tournament – again!
And in true British, stiff-upper-lip fashion, which translates in Scotland into catatonic-upper-lip – they’re tough people, the Scots – the movie leaves you with a powerfully good feeling about the plight of the human spirit, its capacity to forgive, grow, and overcome.
I don’t suggest this movie for a young family, Flushed Away it ain’t, but, in true, British rhyming slang, I certainly suggest that blokes, grab the cheese and kisses, put the tin lids to bed, sit yourself on yer Khyber, take the dogger off the hook, put the plates up, and have a good Captain at On A Clear Day.
It ain’t ‘alf hot – Mum!
As an outsider looking in on America, for all of the myriad things there is to love – doughnuts, tex-mex, sunglasses, blue-jeans, pizza, the NFL, Theme Parks, obscenely large vehicles, gas prices (you heard me…it’s almost $7 a gallon down my way, so count your blessings!!) – it has never ceased to amaze me how ignorant the vast majority of the population is to the rest of the planet. You know, the other 6.2 billion humans out there!
Take my great and prosperous country of birth – Australia. Firstly, we aren’t within cooee (that means miles and miles) of Europe! Nope, no massive snow-capped Alps in the Land Down Under. And we don’t have our native Kangaroos inhabiting our city streets – frankly, we shoot them, and eat them. Pretty good treatment for our national emblem, eh? Although a morsel of Skippy (that’s our most famous Kangaroo – sort of like Smokey the Bear) has never passed my lips.
We speak Australian, which is very much like English, but without the accent Americans have ruined it with, and we drive on the correct side of the road – as opposed to our Yankee friends who drive on the right side of the road; see the difference? (We also have World Champion sports teams that actually beat the best teams from around the world to claim such a title, no rules about tipping, and don’t finish every telephone conversation with “mmbye” – aaaaaggghhhh!! But that is for another time)
Yet, despite our differences, there is one thing most of the English-speaking world cannot deny: We love America and Americans – despite themselves (and Dubya, plus those other things mentioned above).
So I am going into uncharted, culturally challenging, territory with this review, because in truth, most every American reading this would have missed this gem of a British film, On A Clear Day.
Now it is a British film, as I said, and there are definite cultural issues. The fact that it is set in Glasgow, Scotland, with very genuine Glaswegian accents, may be a problem for some.
In fact, it could be a scene of great hilarity, a family in Lake Charles, Louisiana (I’ve been there for three hours, and no one spoke a scrap of what I call English the whole time), trying to understand the Scottish brogue. Alas, no subtitles.
But if you can overcome the barriers, you will find a rare piece of clean, quality, filmmaking from the other side of the pond.
Having been suckled on British television by my 4’ 11”, 93 pound nanna - who managed to always smell like tea, cupcakes, and cream soda – I am very fond of the British sense of being. Plus, I love British humor, and story telling. But almost since I sat at nanna’s knee, more than 30 years ago, it has become increasingly hard to find something on UK television or film that is not chock-a-block (that means packed in very tightly) with extreme language.
It seems, much like the Australian collective self image, the Brits seem to think they can only prosper comedically through their foul mouths, or lewd double entendres. No doubt there are some classic efforts in that vain, but humor doesn't always need to originate in the gutter, and end up in the sewer.
On A Clear Day manages to tell its heart-warming story of reconciliation and emotional learning with gritty realism, and no offensive language.
Yes there are British, and more specifically Scottish, idioms, but none that will raise any hackles.
It is pure story-telling at every turn, supported by the expected magnificent ensemble cast, which is just so typically British – a cast that demonstrates why the Spanish, Argentinians, Greeks, or Lithuanians will beat the ‘Dream Team’ at the Olympic Basketball tournament – again!
And in true British, stiff-upper-lip fashion, which translates in Scotland into catatonic-upper-lip – they’re tough people, the Scots – the movie leaves you with a powerfully good feeling about the plight of the human spirit, its capacity to forgive, grow, and overcome.
I don’t suggest this movie for a young family, Flushed Away it ain’t, but, in true, British rhyming slang, I certainly suggest that blokes, grab the cheese and kisses, put the tin lids to bed, sit yourself on yer Khyber, take the dogger off the hook, put the plates up, and have a good Captain at On A Clear Day.
It ain’t ‘alf hot – Mum!
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