Recently the Washington Times asked all the Republican candidates about their favorite movies (Newt Gingrich said Casablanca and Herman Cain said The Godfather, and so on), Rick Perry said Immortal Beloved.
It was such a strange answer (though not as strange as Perry's speech in New Hampshire), the Washington Times wrote:
The most unusual choice belongs to Rick Perry, who immediately singled out “Immortal Beloved” as his favorite, adding, “Bet you’ll have to look that one up.” (He was right.) “Immortal Beloved” is a 1994 drama starring Gary Oldman as Ludwig van Beethoven.There's a bit more to this bio-pic than that. The "Immortal Beloved" of the title is a woman to who Beethoven wrote (but did not send) a love letter. It was found among his effects after he died in 1827. For more than a century and a half, real musicologists have struggled to figure out who she was.
The producer of the movie (not a musicologist) believes he settled the issue. He thinks it was Beethoven's sister-in-law. It's a claim no actual scholar has actually proposed.
As Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood pointed out:
That this 1994 film by Bernard Rose failed notably as cinematic product is obvious from reviews by film critics, surely none of them musicologists. That it also fails, on other levels, as history and biography is clear enough to music lovers, musicians, musicologists and certainly Beethoven scholar by all of whom it's been pretty much condemned to oblivion.Don't get me wrong, Gary Oldman did a great job and the music, well, was Beethoven.
But it's hardly surprising that such an anti-science guy such as Rick Perry would also be an anti-history guy as well.
Ok, this blog post was a just teensy bit nit picky. But it's MONDAY, for gosh sakes! And it's RAINING, for gosh sakes!
Do I need to go all Carpenters on you?
Get real. Sounds like you have to put some drivel up every day to get paid.. sort of like a lot of people (liberals).. just show up for work every day so they can just get paid.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't like Perry even if he were a mixed-race candidate with a questionable ancestry, questionable academic history, questionable sexual orientation with no prior business or work history that bows to foreign leaders, complains of lazy US, apologizes to every foreign nation possible and spends money like there's no tomorrow.
Afraid of Perry, I see? You guys would rather run against Mittens Romney.. he's similar to your guy.. RomneyCare/ObamaCare, Romney Global Warming/Obama Global Warming, et al.
Yes, Perry is my candidate for the Primaries.. and ABO for the General (Any One except Obama).
Darn.. no edit function..
ReplyDeleteThat should be.. "You wouldn't like Perry UNLESS.."
Get real, CM? I don't believe you would know real if it hit you on the nose.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not surprised that Perry is your guy? You share the same general lack of economic knowledge.
You seriously think that one hundred and fifty of evolution in science is all a hoax? You think that pretty all the national academies of science of (as far as i know) most every country in the world are wrong about climate change? You think that it is good for American business for tens of thousands of Americans to continue to have no health insurance, for the United States, that the US should have the highest per capita cost per patient of the industrialized world, that health insurance companies should be able to refuse coverage to people currently without health insurance and drop subscribers because they got sick?
Certainly Perry would appeal the the Republican base, but I have trouble believing that Perry will appeal to independents, to say nothing of Democrats. I mean, sure, Reagan defeated Carter in an economic downturn (which had been caused by eight years of Nixon/Ford), but given Perry's various drunken speeches and debate performances, it is hard to see Perry as being as good a communicator as Carter, much less the "Great Communicator".
I have no opinion about "Immortal Beloved", having never seen it.
That's funny. I remember liking that movie quite a bit - especially the part of Beethoven imagining the 9th symphony.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as a favorite movie goes, I think it's also an intriguing answer. Don't get me wrong, Rick Perry's about as qualified to be president as my dog is, and she's been dead for 6 years, but at least he didn't say something like Top Gun or Red Dawn or some Chuck Norris flick.
@Ed..
ReplyDeleteI think I know a good bit about economics.. I'm not an expert or even accomplished, but I do know the economic policies expoused by the Obama administration have harmed rather than helped.. unless you're a pubic-sector employee or a campaign finance bundler (see Solyndra, et al).
I erased the remainder of my initial response to you because I realized you are a tool that
(a) works in some government ot governmental agency that sucks on and requires taxpayer money to exist and couldn't survive with out taxpayer money, or,
(b) someone whose clients can only scam the system in its current state, or,
(c) you're just that.. a tool. OWS-type.
Obviously, you do not or have you ever had to own or work in a business that has to navigate both the general economic environment or the governmental requirements associated with a business.
Must be nice living in la-la land. There have been times when I thought it would have cool to sit down and have a beer with you, but.. unlikely.
Well let's just leave it at this. Some people like Rick Perry, because he fits their political views. Likewise, plenty of people dislike him cause his ideas are awful in the scope of their political views.
ReplyDeleteThe important thing here is that the music of Beethoven is universal enough to inspire both. I've heard plenty: from communalists to objectivists and everyone in between, talk about Beethoven as some kind of sage whose music speaks to their worldview: freedom against all odds, the brotherhood of man, and the worth of the common sense against pompous nonsense.
The fact that these factions, otherwise so bitter, can find a common light in music and art is much more powerful and important than all that they argue about. We forget that warm-blooded Fraternity was one of the key virtues of the our forefathers of the Enlightenment, and yet it is the one that we are lacking in the most. The fact that this music, which embodies those virtues, is claimed by all sides of the spectrum, makes me hope that our country can reconcile itself.
Whether you're living in the conservative thunderdome or "liberal la-la land," Have a nice day, get some beer, go on a hike, and listen to some Beethoven.