Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

Quilts in the Film, “Trail of Tears”

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

The documentary film, “Trail of Tears” is a compelling story of Native American history that is not often told in school. In watching it, I feel that I gained a lot of insight into the events that led up to the forced march of Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma and got an inkling of the less than favorable conditions that resulted in the pain, suffering and death of approximately 4,000 Cherokees. It is a black chapter in American history when a president overrode a Supreme Court ruling so that rightful inhabitants of the land could be ejected in favor of white settlement.

Politics aside, I cannot help but mention the use of quilts in the film. The first quilt I noticed was a Double Wedding Ring quilt. I guess it did not matter to the producers of the film that they were depicting the years 1838 and 1839, and that particular quilt design is clearly a 20th century fabrication!

Then, as I saw other quilts, I noticed that the colors were off. Purple and its derivative colors do not show up on cloth until after 1856. That is the year that 18 year old Sir William Henry Perkin (1838- 1907) accidentally discovered the color “mauveine). Cadet Blue, as a color was not around until 1870. Pastel yellow (a “tint” of yellow) was not produced until the 20th century.

The general public will not know the difference or may not give a hoot. Given the opportunity, it would be great if “Hollywood” would pay a little more attention to quilt history when they are depicting topics of general history.

Patricia Cummings

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“Three Sovereigns for Sarah”

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

“Three Sovereigns for Sarah” is a movie that depicts the true story of what happened in Salem, Massachusetts in the seventeenth century when little girls began act in strange ways and claimed to be possessed by the spirits of witches who lived in Salem Village and beyond its boundaries. This was a witch hunt of the highest magnitude. Women were stripped and searched for signs of witch marks on their bodies. Any mole could be considered a sign that someone had connections with the devil himself.

All of the trouble started when a handful of girls, whose imaginations were fawned by a West Indies slave called Tituba, began seeing the specter of witches who did terrible things to them, biting them and drawing blood, at times. Of the accused, the first witch hanged was Sarah Goode, a homeless, destitute woman with a four year old daughter, and a child who died at birth, after she’d spent time in a crowded, dirty, one room (barn-like) jail.

When all was said and done, nineteen innocent, Christian women were hanged from a gallows tree, and one man, who refused to enter either a plea of guilty or not-guilty, was crushed to death with stones.

This movie revolved around the story of another accused witch named “Sarah.” She was unable to save her two sisters from execution, but, in the end, she herself lived at least long enough to convince the authorities that a terrible deed had been done.

Ellen Webster CD cover

cover of Ellen Webster CD

Since writing about Mrs. Ellen Webster’s reference to a quilt pattern that was on the bed of Sarah Goode, the first woman hanged for witchcraft, I have been more interested than ever in the Salem Witch Trials. The quilt design and my conclusions about it are presented in the CD e-book, Ellen Emeline Hardy Webster (1867-1950): Her Amazing “Quilt Charts,” Her Writings, and Her Life by Patricia and James Cummings, (Concord, NH: Quilter’s Muse Publications, 2008). Copies of this 355 page publication with 340 photos is available from our Products Available page.

I found this following link on amazon, in case anyone would like to see this bit of Salem History. Prepare to be both riveted and repelled by this very graphic film. Just remember that this story actually did take place, and it represents misguided religious fanaticism, at its worst.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Postnote: Christine Fisher Thiessen has told us this, “Sarah Towne-Cloyce, the “Sarah” depicted in “Three Sovereigns for Sarah” was my husband’s 9th great grandmother. She successfully sued the State of Massachusetts for the wrongful deaths of her two sisters and her own imprisonment. She was awarded “three gold sovereigns” one each for her two sisters’ wrongful deaths and one for her own false imprisonment.”

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The Song of Love

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

All day the lyrics to a song have been running through my head:

The song of love is a sad song, hi lilly, hi lilly, hi lo
The song of love is a song of woe, Don’t ask me how I know.

The melody of the song is memorable, and the words have a lot of truth to them. The song of love is a sad song because if we truly love someone the chances are 1 in 2 that either one of the parties will die first, leaving the other behind.

When we are young, we think that love is forever. When we are first in love, the sun rises and sets on our beloved and we can see no faults in that person. Sometimes, things go terribly wrong.

I watched a movie today in which a relationship was not what the woman thought it to be: loving. The wife (played by Sally Field) meekly followed her husband, an Iranian doctor, back to Iran for a so-called visit. Once there, she was trapped, humiliated, beaten, threatened, and not even allowed to leave the apartment. Why? He wanted her to convert to Islam and live with their daughter in Iran. He was a mean man and his actions infuriated me.

What makes it worse is that this is a true story. The woman was able to finally escape. If she had not, she would have been dead by now. Currently, she helps other American women, who have been tricked into similar situations, to escape from their captors.

Seeing the movie made me realize just how many evil and fanatical men there are in the world. It is a frightening prospect, and one that is hard to fathom when the men that I know personally are all so kind and good.

The watchwords of the movie, that were based on a book, are also the title: “Not Without My Daughter.” You see, her husband was going to let her go to America to liquidate all of his holdings and to visit her dying father, on the condition that she leave her daughter behind. In the end, she managed to escape with her child.

On one level, this movie made me want to hate the people of Iran and their strange ways. What made the portrayal worse and even more bizarre was that it really was a true story. On the other hand, I would like to believe that there are “good” people in that country, and I wondered if this was a type of propaganda film. All I really knew for sure is that I was steaming “mad” all through it. I am happy that it had a good ending.

Take care with your heart. There are the “users” of the world who would eat you up and spit you out, without another thought. Just watch for the hidden agendas. They do abound.

Even though the song sounds melancholy, I do like the words and melody to the song I mentioned. None of us get out of this life without heartbreak. My own heartbreak began when I lost my father when I was just 22 years old. The more we love, the greater the loss. Yes, “the song of love is a sad song,” but what is the alternative? In this life, we are called to love one another. Parting is bittersweet.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

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Movie “Far and Away” Tells the Story of Irish Immigration

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Yesterday, feeling like watching a movie, I flipped on the television to see if anything “good” was playing. The movie, “Far and Away” starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman was just starting. I felt transported in time, back to Ireland. I felt pain to watch “Tom” as he worked his father’s farmland, trying to get the earth to cooperate in providing potatoes, with his ornery mule not cooperating either. I felt infuriated to see the Thatch-roof cottage burned to the ground by the collectors who were thwarted in their attempts to collect unavailable “land rent.” There is much more to the Irish end of the story, but I will move ahead to the time when the two protagonists decided to emigrate to America.

Here they were, rooming together in a house of ill-repute, pretending to be brother and sister. “Tom” could fight well, and he fought others at the local bar as a way to earn money, based on wagered bets. All the time, his goal was to save enough money to buy land. His father, on his deathbed, had told him that without land, a man is nothing. A local Boston “boss” broke into Tom’s room and stole all of his money. Then, he threw the couple into the street where they wandered without food or shelter, and unable to find work.

There were many asides and twists to the story but the message was clear. In Boston of the 1890s, the prevailing statement was expressed in signs: “No Irish Need Apply.”

This was one of the bloody, heart-breaking movies I’ve ever sat through. I was relieved that it had a happy ending. It would not have been bearable, otherwise. I was riveted to both the storyline, to the physical beauty of the protagonists, and to the portrayal of the Irish in the late nineteenth century. The time period was set at about 1892. Of course, I thought of my own Irish ancestors and all they must have endured.

Yes, America is a melting pot. Our families came from somewhere else. That’s a good thing to always keep in mind as we meet newly-arrived immigrants who are candidates for American citizenship. America is what it is because it was built on the sweat and the toil and the tears of the Irish, the Chinese, the French, the Polish, the Lithuanians, the Russians, and many other groups who came here, seeking freedom from want, and freedom from oppression. They built the railroads, they worked the mills, and they took every dirty job possible, and were mistreated for their efforts. The promise of freedom is what kept them going.

God bless America!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

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A Movie Worth Seeing

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Keep in mind that we don’t go to the movies often. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times we have paid to see a movie within the last fifteen years. A small incentive is our “senior citizen discount.” I believe it is 25 cents each, at our local theaters. We have liked Clint Eastwood, forever. My favorite movie of his was “Dirty Harry.” He may be most famous for the words, “Make my day!”

Just last week, a friend of mine told me that she and her husband had seen “Gran Torino.” She recommended it highly, so the next day, we went to the afternoon showing. Hardly anyone was in attendance, perhaps six people in all. I couldn’t stand the previews of upcoming events, but suffered through the noise and violence.

As the movie opens, Clintwood is a grouchy old man who has just lost his wife, and finds himself and his old dog living next door to an immigrant family. I was transfixed with the story line and character development. The protagonist had worked all of his life in the Ford factory and the one tangible item he owns as part of that memory is his car. His family does not understand him and thinks he is a dotty old thing to be put somewhere, a place where he can receive “care.” Meanwhile, they are taking a mental account of all of his belongings, greedily, with the idea that perhaps he won’t last much longer, and they will be able to “clean up.” In fact, he is terribly ill, but that does not keep him from taking the teenager next door under his wing. An amusing part of the movie was when he taught the boy to “talk like a man.” Silly, but the scenes did provide comic relief.

I was amazed at how much action transpired, involving so many characters, within the confines of so short a time, the time it took to run the movie. The ending is a surprise, and I won’t spoil it for you. The whole movie was one of cultural immersion, and provides a lot to ponder. In my opinion, this movie event is a must-see, and is one of the better offerings of late. Clintwood produced the fim, as well as being its star. As usual, he is a compelling actor. I look forward to more movies by him and with him, but if this one was his last, it would still be one to remember.

“Grandmother Pat” -Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

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