Marilee G. Hyde
Eye of the Story
Movie Review February 5, 2016

The Nine Muses

Calliope was the muse of epic poetry Clio was the muse of history.

Erato was the muse of love poetry. Euterpe was the muse of music.

Melpomene was the muse of tragedy. Polyhymnia was the muse of sacred poetry.

Terpsichore was the muse of dance. Thalia was the muse of comedy.

Urania was the muse of astronomy.

I originally decided to do this movie review because I really liked the title. I subsequently looked it up to read some reviews, just so I would have an idea of what we were going to see. I was a bit disappointed in that the reviewers didn’t seem to think much of it. Of course it was only two different analyses, when I looked again later I found some other appraisals of the film that were more enthusiastic. I must say I don’t agree with the original reviews I read. I enjoyed it very much. I will discuss a couple of areas that I appreciated the most. Disclaimer: when I watch films I am ruled by emotions. I see and feel more than I see and analyze. I often enjoy a film for itself, not how close it is to the book or how accurate it is historically. I consider films an entity unto themselves not in contrast to others. As Jonah pointed out, and it is my thought as well; sometimes a bird flying is just a bird flying.
The Nine Muses are the daughters of Zeus and the maiden Μnemosyne. I liked the use of each the nine muses to represent a different aspect in the film. A caption with one of the Goddesses names and then the music, images and quotes that mirrored that particular muse’s specialty would follow. I started noticing a pattern after Polyhymnia the muse of sacred poetry. The music was indeed on the sacred side with “let my people go” and Leotyne price singing in her timeless and inimitable voice “sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” I thought the use of relevant quotes, music and images to emphasize the nine muses made the film cohesive in a way that was intriguing. I believe it made the quotes chosen to have a bit more significance, rather than looking at the quotes as being random choices. Sometimes I didn’t see the significance of the images and what they were supposed to represent, but as a whole it conveyed to me the same meaning, foreign people in an even more foreign land.
I knew in advance that the film was about immigrants from different British Commonwealths making their way to Britain, but it was almost about immigration itself not just about a given group of people. The traveling motifs made that journey obvious. I started writing down all the modes of travel I noticed such as cars, boats, airplanes trains and of course walking.
The images of the people doing different jobs was very interesting because it showed mostly factory, assembly line type jobs which were often the only kind of jobs immigrants could get until they could save up to start their own business or settle enough to learn a different trade.
Intertwined between the found footage were the vistas of Alaskan landscapes. I personally enjoyed looking at the mountains and the snow covered trees. When I re-watched the movie for some reason it was only in black and white, I don’t know if it was the machine I was using or what, but I wondered if I had imagined the color the first time. I understood the bleak white snowy views were probably supposed to represent the cold of the environment, and the U.K in general, but also the frosty reception that immigrants often receive when moving into an unfamiliar place. Many immigrants are hoping for a better life but often find that it does not live up to their imagination.
Somewhere in the middle of the film I noted a clip of horses running. It was shown three times, fairly close together with the manes floating in the motion of their movement. I thought this might represent freedom in general, but also could be considered another mode of transportation.
The last element I wanted to talk about is the interesting use of the people in the colored parkas. We have speculated in class about what they could be representing. I was reminded of the little girl in the red coat in the film Schindlers list. Whenever you saw the little girl she was the only spot of color in the whole scene, very much like the parka people. It was especially poignant in that when they showed a field of bodies in the film you could see the corner of the red coat amidst the corpses. This was I thought, a very heart-rending means of getting the point across. The people in parkas were doing something similar in my opinion. They were a direct contrast to the whiteness of the landscape, but they were also mostly looking out at the vastness of the scenery. Occasionally they were walking but when they were in front of you the faces and hands were obscured to look blank. This could represent any race of people, nonspecific. People who leave the only home they have ever known for whatever reason, and are between homes. They can’t really go back, they are no longer in familiar territory, but they don’t yet belong in the new place of their choosing. The old adage that you can never go back is true more times than not.
Sometimes the blue, yellow and black coats were walking as though on a journey but as they looked out toward the hills I rather fancifully thought of the musical Finnian’s Rainbow. Throughout the film they sang about “How are things in Glocca Morra?” in the end Woody turns to Sharon and asks her “Where is Glocca Morra?” and she responds “well you see, it’s always somewhere….over there” That is what I see. The people in the colored parkas are looking at home. Their old home, a new home, it doesn’t matter. When you have left the place of familiarity, often your birth place, for some other land; you don’t really belong anywhere anymore. Some who immigrate never feel at home where they settle. Home is always somewhere over there. An elusive concept that some never actually realize.
In conclusion, the director is from Ghana and this is probably some of his feelings and impressions of when he himself immigrated, although he was only four at the time. We can speculate and attach meanings to our hearts content, but unless you have experienced leaving your home for a new place it is just that, speculation. I, however, having moved no less than seven times in the last six years, can relate a little better than most, to the struggle of fitting in and finding a place to call home.