From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #881 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Monday, November 4 2002 Volume 01 : Number 881 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2002 17:00:43 -0600 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: [AML] re: Johnny Lingo (comp 1) [MOD: This is a compilation post.] >From md85@email.byu.edu Tue Oct 29 10:50:17 2002 I recognize that physical attraction is a large factor as far as marriage and dating relationships are concerned. I used to think that "a guy" was mainly interested in a beautiful face that says what he want to hear. I felt like unattractive women were overlooked based on their lack of physical beauty. Now, I am beginning to see that people, and men, are not that black and white. I have seen very attractive girls dateless for months at a time, while their more unattractive counterparts date on a regular basis. I have asked myself, why is that? I feel that in many instances, "dating popularity" is based on self-confidence. Although, my definition of confidence refers to people that believe in themselves and their abilities while making others feel like they can do great things as well. It is a more quiet confidence. Regardless of my personal inclinations, it does appear to be quite true that people enjoy being around people that make them feel good about themselves. Melanie Dahlin - ------------------------------------------------ >From md85@email.byu.edu Tue Oct 29 11:42:53 2002 To me, a female, Johnny Lingo is an inspiring story of a woman with very little self-worth that happens to find herself through the beliefs of a kind, loving man. I think Mahana's "journey of physical attractiveness" is a symbolic representation of the development of her character and self-confidence. In my opinion, to think otherwise is a misread of the filmmakers original intent. Melanie Dahlin - ------------------------------------------- >From alan@trilobyte.net Wed Oct 30 17:54:21 2002 I found some year-old notes about an idea for a sequel to of Johnny Lingo. I know several on the list have given their opinions regarding the search for true love in their relationship, but, here goes: The Sequel Johnny Lingo is never home and after the fifth son, Mahanna ages and becomes a doormat again and she just doesn't inspire Johnny to climb trees any more, if you know what I mean. So as is customary in the culture, Johnny plans to take a second younger wife, and he reasons that he will have to spend even more this time--probably nine cows and a galapagos turtle. But before he can deliver the cows, Mahanna takes her boys and rounds up the cattle and she eats eight of them in a massive barbeque. After he searches for the cows, he finds her lying there on the floor of the hut, fat and happy and grasping the last rib roast in her hand and a toothpick in her mouth." She looks at him with a feeling of satisfaction that she has finally taken control of the situation and done the right and good thing. Johnny looks back at her wallowing like a pig after a feast, and then, given the cultural bias toward women, he realizes ... that now she is bigger, she has never looked more beautiful. He takes a bite from her rib, falls deeply in love with her again, and they live happily ever after. Alan Mitchell - --------------------------------------- >From ThomDuncan@prodigy.net Thu Oct 31 13:36:27 2002 Johnny Lingo is most assuredly NOT about loving a person for the way there are inside. It IS about how women need men to be complete. What should have happened (and does, in Eric's _The Way We're Wired_) is that Mahanna is just as ugly at the end of the film as she was at the beginning. As it is, while the movie is trying to say that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," it's really saying, "True love will make anyone phyisically beautiful." Thom Duncan - ------------------------------------------- - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 14:34:35 -0700 From: "Gabriele Kupitz" Subject: [AML] Annual Christmas Booktalk Just a little announcement: =20 The BYU Harold B. Lee Library Farnsworth Juvenile Literature Library and the BYU Bookstore Children's Book Buyer (Janice Card) present The Annual Christmas Booktalk, Monday, 4 November 2002, 4:00 p.m. in the HBLL Auditorium. The event, free to the campus community and the general public, is held in conjunction with Children's Book Week 2002 and the BYU Bookstore sale on select Christmas titles. =20 For questions, etc. please call Gabi Kupitz 422-6735 =20 Have a great day! - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 16:27:29 -0800 From: Elizabeth Walters Subject: [AML] _Handcart_ Handcart was an interesting attempt at recreating an historical Mormon=20= event: the trek across the plains by the Martin Handcart Company. I=20 suspect that their budget was very low and their shooting location was=20= limited. The beginning scenes in Iowa City where slightly unconvincing=20= given the fact that mountains could be in some of the shots and the=20 ground was dry and rocky. Sounds more like Utah rather than the very=20 green, very flat terrain of Iowa. Another sore spot for me, which I=92m=20= sure was a result of a low budget, came in the very end of the movie. =20= The main character, Sam, was reflecting on his experience in the=20 handcart company as an old man, perhaps 70 years old. The actor had=20 gray hair and a gray mustache, but he had fewer wrinkles than I do, and=20= I=92m 24 years old. The love story between Sam and Abby, wasn=92t bad, but Abby had = this=20 Mary Poppins accent that was slightly distracting. Granted, Abby=92s=20 character was from England, and maybe the actress who played her really=20= is British---I have no idea---but her accent was a little too much. I=20= actually liked the friendship/love story between Moose and Patricia. =20 Although Patricia=92s accent was a problem for me as well. She was from=20= New York, and she appeared to have come from some money by the way she=20= was dressed when she first came on screen, but her accent was way to=20 modern. Her accent wasn=92t refined enough for a rich easterner from = the=20 1850s. Aside from that though, her relationship with Moose seemed much=20= more genuine than Sam and Abby=92s. Sam=92s character, particularly, was difficult to follow. I = could=20 never understand his motivation for many of his actions. Like when he=20= told Abby he wanted to be baptized. Just minutes before he was telling=20= his uncle he would never join the Mormon church after what they did to=20= his parents, and then he=92s being baptized. I never knew what was = going=20 on in his head. Was he really converted, or did he just want to be with=20= Abby? Most of his motivation wasn=92t revealed until near the end of = the=20 movie when he tells Abby what happened to his family when his older=20 brother joined the church. Maybe this was the art of suspense on the=20 part of the director, but to me it was just confusing. Then there would=20= be characters who would show up just so that something tragic could=20 happen to them, like the mother who=92s son got lost. She came out of = no=20 where, and I=92m supposed to feel something for her? It=92s sad when = little=20 boys get lost, but I think it would have been more emotionally effective=20= to have kept the focused tragedies on the main characters. When Sarah=20= is missing, it seems silly and redundant since there=92s already been = one=20 lost kid. And even though Sarah is someone I know and like, the=20 situation isn=92t as serious as it could have been had Sarah been the = only=20 missing child. The movie had its moments though, and I thought it did show some = of=20 the heartache and pain the pioneers suffered. The ending might have=20 seemed out of place, as if the writers didn=92t know how to end the = movie,=20 but it made a good point. The handcart experience wasn=92t for nothing,=20= for it strengthened the spirit of many. And if some perished, they died=20= in God=92s favor. --- Elizabeth Walters - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #881 ******************************