MovieChat Forums > Spellbound (2003) Discussion > Not that good...

Not that good...

posted 20 years ago by tylrdurden
5 replies | jump to latest

I watched Spellbound and am a huge fan of all things documentary, but this one left me very cold. I did appreciate the children and where they came from, but it seems to me that there wasn't a point to the whole film. Sure, someone wins. We knew that was going to happen, but it didn't excite me the way that many documentaries do. I just left the theater saying, "wow, those spelling bee kids are strange and are going to have very difficult adult lives". I certainly didn't see the film as making any kind of statement about either the kids or the spelling be. It was more like a sporting event.

It would have been very interesting to see where these kids are today at the end of the film and what impact these spelling bee's have on their lives, but that was neglected in my opinion. It was a well done, well crafted documentary, but it wasn't very passionate about the subject.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Maybe it didn't speak to me like films like Hoop Dreams (close in subject matter I think-but with a point) or Capturing the Friedmans (Strangely ambiguous) or even Michael Moore films (don't flame me). I just didnt think the film was very good. 5/10

The Keiser

[–] carmex 19 years ago

The movie was pointless...and too much of the film was left to the actual spelling! They should have focused on the kids personality more. I did love the part with the two parents--the one with the mother and all her "bee" references. Haha. Fantastic.

Are you that guy from Conan O'Brien?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] exopotamie 19 years ago

The DVD version has a feature that explains what's happening in the lives of the kids today.

Speaking as a participant, I can say that everyone I have kept in touch with from the 1999 bee I consider a good friend and not "strange" at all; nor are they having any more than the usual difficulty as they grow up. One thing I appreciated about this movie is that it <i>didn't</i> treat the spellers as freaks, which is how they're so often portrayed in mainstream media.

[–] mickfly718 18 years ago

From what I can tell, the point of this film was pretty simple - that hard work and dedication can and will pay off in the end. For the most part, all the kids felt like winners in the end and were grateful for the time they put into preparing for the bee. The kids who were upset at least appreciated that making it to the Nationals was a huge achievement. This may not seem like a very innovative ground-breaking point to make, but I think it was presented in an interesting way. It wasn't just that these kids learned to spell as a hobby, they actually put in up to 8 hours or more per day to try to be the best at something. I found that very respectable that these kids would take on that responsibility at that age.

Also, I don't think that leaving out a "Where are they now?" segment really took away from the movie. There was a section of the movie (between days 1 and 2 of the National Spelling Bee) that covered many past winners. This part shows that, as different as these kids were from some of their peers, they typically go on to lead normal lives.

I thought it was also kind of suspenseful, since we didn't actually know that one of the main characters would win. They just chose to interview 8 of the roughly 250 kids, and it's actually pretty amazing that a main character did win. At the end, the final three were Nupur and two kids we didn't really know anything about. Plus, of the 8, I had a few that I wanted to win more than the others. Overall, I thought this was well-done and I've watched it multiple times.

[–] Minstrelo 18 years ago

The film was nowhere near as naked as Capturing the Friedmans, though that was an unique situation really.

Still, the kids could've been explored a little more, and perhaps more people could have had their opinions on the Spelling Bee registered. Or I might mean I wished there had been a little less focus on the spelling out of words. It wasn't all that mesmerising for me, and got a little tiresome. Maybe the lesson to be learned here is that documentaries shouldn't be afraid of being short if it suits them.

As far as the competition, I really didn't care who actually won it. The whole thing just seemed like a mini travesty. I could never see myself rooting for one particular child so much in such a competition.

"wow, those spelling bee kids are strange and are going to have very difficult adult lives"

Which is somewhat akin to my feelings, though maybe I wouldn't go that far. There were positives to be taken from the kids' involvement. I guess the way in which some of the kids were schooled for the tournament was worrying, and the wider context of it left a kind of a bad taste in my mouth, but I'd call the thing in itself essentially harmless for most of the kids.