'Big Fish' reels in audience with whimsical story
‘Big Fish,’ the heartfelt tale
of a struggling father and son
relationship, teaches
the value of imagination
By Natasha Chilingerian
Pulse Reporter
"Big Fish" is a film that you may
need to see twice to get past its silli
ness. TTie first time through, the film
en seriously. But the ending gives a
deeper meaning to the fantasies and
MOVIE
REVIEW
is an uncon
vincing joke,
with odd
fairy tale
scenes that
can't be tak
makes you want to start the movie
over, pretend you're in a dream and
feel like a kid again.
Edward Bloom (Albert Finney)
raised his son Will (Billy Crudup),
telling him the exaggerated truth
about his past. At first Will enjoys and
believes his father's tall tales of be
friending a 15-foot giant and joining a
circus with a part-werewolf ringmas
ter, among other blatant myths. But
his father, with a Peter Pan attitude,
continues these tales into Will's adult
hood. Will, resentful for a lifetime of
lies, cuts off contact with his father. As
Edward lies on his deathbed, his real
ist son joins him to make up and get
the true story of his past.
Edward's past, as Will knows it, is
shown in the form of a flashback.
Alison Lohman plays the young Sandra in “Big Fish."
Courtesy
Magical, whimsical filmmaking unveils
the stories of Edward's past — seeing
his future death in the glass eye of an
old witch, traveling through a grotesque
forest to a rosy town full of overtly-wel
coming strangers and winning over his
future wife with a field of daffodils and
love letters etched in the sky. The visual
glitz and glamour are a treat for the
eyes, but the stories are so far-fetched
that they only bring smirks instead of
laughs or surprises. After seeing Edward
sky-dive from an airplane and land on
Courtesy
Scottish actor Ewan McGregor stars as
the young adventurer Edward Bloom.
top of a theater performance featuring
a pair of Asian Siamese twins, it's really
no shocker when he is saved by a nude
female swimmer after his car is sub
merged underwater during a rainstorm.
One outrageous scene after another
gets old after awhile. Edward's
courtship with his wife also fails to pro
voke emotion, because it heavily lacks
substance — he sees her once, then
three years later meets her and they start
a relationship based on nothing.
It isn't until the film's finale that the
pieces of the fantasy are put together
into a picture of who Edward actually
is. He is a romantic who puts on rose
colored glasses to gain admiration from
others and make life more interesting
to numb the pain from the bad hands
dealt to him. He wishes for his fact
demanding son to daydream a little
and discover the happiness an imagina
tion can bring. When Will finally does
see life through his father's eyes, the
film declares its purpose as a portrait of
a reconciled father-son relationship.
The somewhat-dragging, fairy-tale
content is worth sitting through for
the film's beautiful and heartfelt re
sult. "Big Fish" is a rarity: a fantasy
movie that intermingles child-friendly
images with complex feelings that
adults can identify with. It makes the
assertion that an adult who imagines
and tells fables of pure nonsense is
not just sane, but can use their imagi
nation as a vehicle of love.
Contact the Pulse reporter at
natashachilingerian@dailyemerald.com.
Courtesy
McGregor (left) and director Tim Burton discuss "Big Fish” on the movie set.
Diversity, themes help Cockbum’s‘Humans’remain fresh
Bruce Cockburn's timeless
lyrics manage to maintain
their original poignancy
and message over the years
By Aaron Shakra
Pulse Editor
Bruce Cockbum has been perform
ing for more than 30 years, and de
_ pending on
FORGOTTEN
ALBUMS
how you
count, he
released his
27th studio
album in
summer 2003 . Yet in many ways he
remains an underground figure, espe
cially to a younger generation so fre
quently deluged with popular music.
So with such a sweeping breadth of
work, where does one go about dis
covering this musician? Well, at least
closer to the beginning.
"Humans" was originally released
in 1980. Cockbum had already re
leased many albums by this time, and
many of the 10 songs on the recording
were written in the wake of a separa
tion with his wife. In a 1981 interview
with the now-defunct High Fidelity
Magazine, Cockbum said: "A lot of the
songs on "Humans" came out of my
realization that I needed other people"
Lyrically, themes like these don't re
ally lose any poignancy over time. An
immediate example of this is "What
About the Bond," the album's fifth
track, in which Cockbum proclaims,
"It's all too easy / To let go of hope /
To think there's nothing worth saving
/ And let it all go up in smoke." This is
a timeless idea, really. Cynicism is
both an excuse and escape when it
comes to confronting the surmount
ing problems of this planet. It's the
easy way out, and Cockbum captures
this perfectly.
Another track, "Guerrilla Be
trayed," recalls the futility of violent
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protest against already unjust
actions. The idea here is that violence
can only beget more violence and
propagate a cycle of death. He re
peats this sequence of lines through
out the tune: "We thought we could
change something / We helped them
win / We changed the slogans / We
get hunted again / When you're the
fighter / You're the politician's tool /
When you’re the fighter / You're
everybody's fool."
The diversity of the musical styles
also helps the age of the album. While
the sound production has a cultural
footprint of the 1980s, the remaster
surely helps bring out all the instru
ments, and other than this, "Humans"
is simply a rollicking reggae, rock, folk
album. Cockbum's studio musicians
keep this from becoming a straightfor
ward studio record; especially notable
is Hugh Marsh's tasteful violin playing.
A remaster of the album was made
available last November and includes a
live version of "Grim Travellers." What
ever version of the album you manage
to track down, it's a good start.
Bruce Cockbum comes to the WOW
Hall on Feb. 24. Tickets are $31.50 in
advance and $34 at the door.
Contact the Pulse editor
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
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