Saving Mr. Banks

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:03 pm

I knew going in to Saving Mr. Banks that the movie was about the story behind Mary Poppins. I also knew from the trailer and the bit of press I had read that the lady behind the Mary Poppins stories (P.L. Travers) was a rather miserable person, and that the comedy would come from the conflict between the cheery world of Walt Disney and the miserly P.L. Travers -- er, Mrs. Travers, to you and I. What a wonderful Christmas film!

An hour into the film, my 8-year-old leans over and asks why Mrs. Travers' mother is going swimming in the middle of the night. Then I have to explain to her that she's not swimming, she went to drown herself because her husband can't keep a job due to his alcoholism and is drinking himself to death -- which he eventually does, and the kids get to see that, too.

In true Disney fashion, this film will give you a lump in your throat -- one if you were ever a kid, two if you have kids of your own. It's a tale of forgiveness and letting things go and happy endings (not the good kind). According to press, Mrs. Travers was not quite as pleased with Disney's version of Mary Poppins as she appears in Saving Mrs. Banks, but that wouldn't be very Disney now would it.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:04 pm

That post has at least one and maybe two glaring typos in it. In my defense the goddamn Chicago Bears let the fucking Packers score with 38 seconds left in the 4th.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:36 pm

Flack wrote:the movie was about the story behind Mary Poppins... I had read that the lady behind the Mary Poppins stories (P.L. Travers) was a rather miserable person...

Most professional writers - those who make decent living exclusively writing fiction - often have problems, Sometimes horrid ones, this may give them better understanding of the human condition and improve what they write. Robert A. Heinlein, the gold standard in Science Fiction, given medical discharge from Navy for having Tuberculosis. J.K. Rowling, single mother on British equivalent of welfare started writing Harry Potter series of books. Lots of them have public personas radically different from their messed-up private lives.

Heinlein himself pointed out many writers got into it because they were unwilling or unfit to do regular "hard" work and sitting at a typewriter beats digging ditches any day.

According to press, Mrs. Travers was not quite as pleased with Disney's version of Mary Poppins as she appears in Saving Mrs. Banks, but that wouldn't be very Disney now would it.

And every writer, who notices a movie treatment of their book, always thinks the movies have "bastardized" their child with their treatment of it.

That post has at least one and maybe two glaring typos in it. In my defense the goddamn Chicago Bears let the fucking Packers score with 38 seconds left in the 4th.

If I had done this, I'd get called out for going off topic.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:39 pm

Paul, I am politely asking you to leave JC BBS and not return.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:48 pm

Tdarcos wrote: And every writer, who notices a movie treatment of their book, always thinks the movies have "bastardized" their child with their treatment of it.

Palahniuk is on record saying he thinks the movie Fight Club was better than the book!

Paul, I am politely asking you to leave JC BBS and not return.

He IS being awfully polite about it.

lethargic · Post by **lethargic** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:31 am

Tdarcos wrote: If I had done this, I'd get called out for going off topic.

Ding ding! If Tdarcos goes then Flack goes. It's only fair. Rules are rules.

BTW, you couldn't pay me to watch this movie. I've never even seen Mary Poppins itself.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 7:43 am

"I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith"

"Yeah? What's the name of his next food video?"

This is one of the many, many movies that I won't go out of my way to see. If I'm flipping channels I may stop on it until a commercial pops up but that's about it. Since I've read a plot synopsis and seen Tom Hanks in Disney makeup I feel my work is done here.

THE
GO FLY A KITE
AARDVARK