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/ Hathaway Weblog / Napoleon Dynamite |
Napoleon Dynamite is a wonder to behold. It's a movie about a small group of teens in rural Idaho with good hearts but unpolished social skills. The format is a series of short skits.
At first, I didn't like Napoleon--he seemed rude to everyone he met. Then I began to understand Napoleon's character. He prefers to say only the minimum required to state his mind. His terse conversation turns ordinary situations into awkward ordeals. I would normally feel sorry for someone like Napoleon, since I've had that sort of weakness myself, but it slowly becomes clear that Napoleon is actually a strong character who laughs at his own weaknesses. Once I figured that out, I watched the whole movie again. The second time, I felt like I could see Napoleon through Napoleon's own eyes, making it a lot more fun.
The movie is unpolished, but that only reinforces the message that the characters and their lives are unpolished and unpredictable. A more polished version would be less genuine and profound.
An extra treat was the lively music by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra at the climax. I've heard that song before and now I finally know who played it. It's the kind of instrumental music that's very moving.
Comments
By the way, you can find a sample of the Penguin Cafe music at amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000000HQ6
"Music for a Found Harmonium - Patrick Street" is in the movie. If you're running Linux, it's easy to play Windows Media Player files if you combine mplayerplug-in version 2.66 or better, MPlayer, the win32codecs package, and Mozilla or Firefox.
Napoleon Dynamite is such a good movie. It might look stupid for some people but if you watch it with a lot of attention and you are careful for each and every second, you will find this movie a masterpiece. For me thought. When Napoleon receive the steak in the face, when Pedro take back his bike, look at the way he jumps back on the bike, this is just a little thing of when we were young. I feel so much happy when I see this movie, and I feel like I could watch it after and after. One thing is funny to see is that some actors can be 100% serious, people are laughing in the "theater" at the dance scene, it's much be so hard to stay focus, because it's so funny. By far the movie that got me speaking about to all my friends.
For the song at the end, from The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, I only found one version, which is not the same as the movie. Mine is more like a MIDI song in some parts. If someone has the movie version, I would be pleased if you could contact me.
Simpo
Napoleon Dynamite : 9.9/10
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