Having traveled to South Africa about a year ago, I love to be reminded of my trip through books and movies. I found it sad that a beautiful place was populated by despicable people--the priggish commissioner's wife, the selfish mother, the alcholic father. Poor Richard sure had a lousy upbringing--and he brings it to the masses for our entertainment?
I think your comments show a fairly narrow interpretation of the character of the people in the film.
There were numerous wonderful characters and even the ones in the film who had a bad side, were in fact still quite reasonable people. For example the "uncle" they saw in the cinema having a kissing session.
This reflects to a certain extent, real life, where everyone has various levels of good and bad in them.
Only hollywood likes to portray everything in black and white, where the good people or totally good and the bad guys are thoroughly evil through and through, with no redeeming characteristics.
Also, don't forget that this film isn't totally factual; it's based on events all throughout his life and people he met at different times. Some pieces are totally embellished and some are quite real. It's an amalgamation of events and people that affected his life in some way all placed together into a narrative structure.
It's a beautiful film, and yes some of the people are not very nice, but can anyone in the whole world say that everyone they know are nice people? I doubt it very much. Apparently Richard E Grant was quite kind about some of the people who are represented in the film, and that in reality they were much worse.
I totally adore this film and I like trying to work out what is non-fiction from the fiction. Also the landscapes of Swaziland (excuse spelling) are very beautiful.
After watching this, I think I can see why Grant is a teetotaler (yet could play a drunk so well in "Withnail & I").
I'm guessing (hoping?) that the Brits didn't really celebrate Swaziland's new independence w/ a production of "Camelot"--considering it's about the tragic fall of a noble English empire and the coming of the Dark Ages. Tho I like the symbolism of Ralph playing both Mordred (rebellious son of a cuckold) and Tom of Warwick (the kid who survives the battle to tell the tale). Nice touch.
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I happened to enjoy the movie, and all the diverse characters who weren't always of good character. Life isn't perfect, and sometimes people's lives seem more worse than others.
Mommy to two little monsters
The theater where they did the play in the movie was the same theater which was there when Grant was a boy. In Grant's book, The Wah-Wah Diaries, he talks about this. BTW, the book is wonderful. It goes from when he was first trying to get details together to make the movie, casting, pre-production, filming, post-production, his troubles with his producer, funny stories from the set and the actors, etc. It was funny, enjoyable, informative, and after reading it you will have much more appreciation of the movie and wonder how the man was ever able to get it together because he went through a lot. The European DVD is also wonderful since it has many special features on it. It is a shame here in the US and in Canada that we were not able to get a DVD with the extras on it.
Karen
Is his book available in the states?
Mommy to two little monsters
I'm not sure. A friend gave it to me for my birthday. I believe it is either available at Amazon.com or on ebay however.
Karen
Thanks Karen.
Mommy to two little monsters