The Dead is the film adaptation of a James Joyce short story of the same name that is part of the \u201cDubliners\u201d collection.\u00a0 It was the last picture directed by John Huston and was made shortly before he died.\u00a0 It starred his daughter Angelica Huston and a cast of Irish actors who are mostly unknown to American audiences.\u00a0 It\u2019s the story of a New Year\u2019s Party in Ireland in 1904.\u00a0 The protagonists are a husband and wife, Gabriel and Greta, visiting his aunts for the party.\u00a0 There are a number of characters who interact and exhibit the various foibles and characteristics found in a gathering of middle-class city dwellers.\u00a0 There is the drunkard and the old maids and the young women and men full of excitement about the cultural and political happenings.\u00a0 Music is a big part of the story with opera arias and piano concertos along the course of the party.\u00a0 But at last the story is a meditation on the transitory nature of life.\u00a0 Because it is an Irish story and specifically because it is James Joyce story it is very melancholy.\u00a0 But there is humor and the portrayal of the party is an amusing period piece of turn of the twentieth century Ireland.\u00a0 There is a number of mentions of the Irish Republican Army meetings plotting the coming uprising and the story is full of allusions to the Roman Catholic religion and the changing mores of the times.<\/p>\n
But in the end, as the summation of the story, we see an intellectual coming to terms with the visceral nature of life.\u00a0 He feels that he\u2019s never touched his wife\u2019s heart the way the death of a childhood sweetheart did many years ago.<\/p>\n
John Huston was a very sick old man when he made this film and the concept of mortality was of prime importance to him.\u00a0 And the James Joyce story is a good one.\u00a0 But I wonder how big the audience is for this movie.\u00a0 It\u2019s a period piece and all the humor is mild and subdued.\u00a0 It\u2019s highly sentimental and slow paced.\u00a0 I enjoy it a great deal and like it as a good end of year picture.\u00a0 But I would recommend prospective viewers consider in advance if they care for such tame and sad entertainment.\u00a0 I recommend this movie for the philosophic spirits out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Dead is the film adaptation of a James Joyce short story of the same name that is part of the \u201cDubliners\u201d collection.\u00a0 It was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[1625,1624,1403,1563,43,38,1623],"class_list":["post-5626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-angelica-huston","tag-dubliners","tag-james-joyce","tag-john-huston","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-the-dead"],"yoast_head":"\n