Songcatcher
by Maggie Greenwald
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Greg Russell Cook, Jane Adams, Janet McTeer, Michael Davis, Michael GoodwinDirector: Maggie Greenwald
Brand: Lions Gate
Writer: Maggie Greenwald
Producer: Caroline Kaplan
Producer: Elizabeth Finkelstein
Producer: Ellen Rigas-Venetis
Producer: Jennifer Roth
Producer: Jonathan Sehring
Producer: Lisa Vandever
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-10-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Songcatcher
Movie Review: Emmy Rossum could sing country
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, I know this movie is about a musicologist. But come on, at some point the sitting on the porch singing ballads, while trying to prevent the evil industrialists from taking the old family farm routinue gets tiresome.
The plot is sort of mundane, but entertaining. Lily, comes to visit her sister and falls in love with the music of the mountain folks, particularly Emmy Rossum's character, who is an orphan, i.e. Appalachian child of the woods. These mountain folk at first are churlish and distrusting as mountain people should be, but eventually you discover they all have a heart of gold. Except the proto-evangelicals, they are mean to Dr. Lily, who is only trying to make her way in a man's world. The unwashed masses burn down the school in a fit of righteous indignation at the loose women, destroying the recordings and their school. I guess this is to show us the self-destructive nature of anti-intellectualism.
Stock Appalachian characters abound: wise old grannies, beaten down women, angry youths who are just angry, dirty rednecks, and a troubled artist (Aiden Quinn) who Dr. Lily despises but eventually falls in love with. The smart lass and the proletariat guy, they run off together where he presumably will become a proto-folk singer and country star. The one interesting twist in the plot was Dr. Lily's sister who was a lesbian and the local community's reaction.
The themes dealt with in the movie are authentic and are still problems almost 90 years later: American domestic colonialism, local anti-intellectualism, and dysfunctional families. Furthermore, there were real life prototypes for Dr. Lily and the gang. But this sort of is a chick flick about finding love and career fulfillment and less about early 20th century Appalachia. Worthwhile seeing, but the cultural issues of the region are only touched on.
What is most interesting in this movie is Emmy Rossum's voice. Her brief singing of Barbry Allen and the little Mattie Groves had this native son fooled. I thought she was for sure a local discovery. To bad the tracks didn't make it to the soundtrack. She does do a lovely duo with Dolly Parton, however. Iris Dement makes a brief cameo and sings Pretty Saro for Lily, who as always looks really weird when watching the mountain people sing. I kinda thought she looked like she wanted to eat them; as grandaddy always said "Yankees is weird". I wouldn't sing for anybody that looked at me like that, much less stay in their vicinity. Black banjo virtuoso Taj Mahal also has a cameo, and is the only black guy in the movie. Is this a shout out to the influence of African-Americans on mountain music?
Summary of Songcatcher
When musicologist Doctor Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer) is passed over for a prominent teaching position, she leaves the city to visit her sister in the beautifully rugged mountains of Appalachia. It is here she discovers a wellspring of emotional tunes passed down from the original Irish and Scottish immigrants who settled in these parts. Determined to document the history of the songs, she immerses herself in mountain life, falls in love with a local musician, Aidan Quinn, and is profoundly changed by the generosity, strength, and freedom of the fiercely proud mountain people.Hauntingly beautiful folk music and stunning Appalachian scenery take center stage in this winner of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for outstanding ensemble performance. Musicologist Dr. Lily Penleric has a deep love of English folk ballads. After a humiliating failure to make full professor, she heads off to visit her sister's tiny school in rural Appalachia and finds herself in folk music central. Lily is entranced, but the locals are suspicious of the outlander's motivations. Issues of tolerance, clashing cultures, and Big Bad Men abound, but Songcatcher wisely focuses on the music. Janet McTeer does fine with the "repressed academic gets in touch with the earth" role, but her truly outstanding work is in revealing scholar Lily's rapture in her discoveries. McTeer leads a truly great cast, including the wonderful Pat Carroll, and a just-for-the-hell-of-it cameo by bluesman Taj Mahal. Songcatcher has a healthy respect for the mountain people it portrays, and an absolute reverence for their music. --Ali Davis
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