My favorite moments in this amazing film revolve around this song. My dad and I used to watch this all the time, and this melody stuck with me from day one. The second is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time - the dream sequence at the end. Carter Burwell used the melody from "Down in the Willow Garden" in that piece, and it fits perfectly. My favorite version is the Everly Brothers' off of their brilliant "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us" album. The harmonies are heartbreakingly good, and it is in the perfect slow and somber tempo for the song. And who doesn't sing a song where the guy poisons her wine, runs her through with his sabre, tosses her in the river, then tells us about his father weeping alone in his cabin while they walk the dude to get hanged. Just like singing When You Wish Upon A Star or something!
Thank you for posting this. I was rewatching this movie some years ago, around the time another Cage movie had come out called Bringing Out The Dead. In the movie he's haunted by a girl he couldn't save named Rose, and the man who wrote the book its based on is named Michael Connelly. This was quite profound to me at the time. Now it's a series of mildly interesting coincidences.
@@noahbrown4388 I can't say anyone else has ever noticed, or at least commented, on the Bukowski reference. Also, I really should watch Adaptation again. I only saw it once around the time it came out.
@@Chinaski83 It's a great movie! Also I've never read any of Hank's novels, just love his poetry. But I guess I remembered your handle from one of the documentaries I've seen about him. Cheers 🍻
I wonder if "Its a hard world for little things" is a reference to Night of the Hunter. Lillian Gish says a similar line. The movie is about a murderous criminal (Robert Mitchum) who finds out his cell mate's children know where he hid the money he had stolen. Once the cell mate is executed & the murderer is released he goes hunting for the kids and their money. Takes place in West Virginia which is one of the states that "Down in the Willow Garden" is associated with. This song, the accents and the line Hi says about Ed looking as fertile as the Tennessee Valley make me think all these characters moved from the Appalachian Mountains to this particular part of Arizona.
Check out the Kossoy Sisters version of the song too, extremely beautiful and haunting. Surely the Coen Brothers are fans of theirs as well, as they used their version of "I'll Fly Away" in O Brother Where art Thou.
Great scene and beautifully sung by Holly. I never heard this song before but discovered that many versions of this murder ballad have been recorded by great singers. This version has something very special, though. I love it.
I was singing this song at work after watching this movie one night and a coworker recognized it...He said that he was from Columbus Georgia. It was a prison song.
Per W,,,,,,pedi@- In the play, the curtain goes down on Harry and Irene as they sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" while bombs are exploding outside, leaving their survival an open question, but both versions of the film's ending show the couple to be safe and happy after the air raid. The international film version featured the hymn "Abide with Me". The domestic version replaced the impelling "Onward, Christian Soldiers", and its militant imagery, with a more demure supplication.
What strikes me about this is that the movie is today depicted as a "WW2" film. The thing is if you watch the film closely and do a bit of reading up about the screenplay it becomes clearer that the War depicted as starting is NOT the historical WW2 we are familiar with. More a fictional apocalyptic one resembling that in the 1936 film "Things to Come". In that context perhaps this movie is somewhat underrated. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-E_zBrormAsM.html
Nordic directors. Many of them have have passed away, among the living my two favourites: Roy Andersson, Sweden and Aki Kaurismäki, Finland. Here a scene from one of his earliest films "Ariel". ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tKgOhbBIKu4.html
and this next little ditty is by oregon's most obscure (for good reason!!) fascist punk band, Lockjaw, and is called "Bat's ain't for baseball!" It's dedicated to the men in blue that just rolled up to enjoy the show!!!
Horrible movie. The sight of Clark Gable holding that came and doing a dance routine was just... I had to watch Gone with the Wind six times just to get that image out of my head. And that cockeyed Norma Shearer... She never looked more ridiculous, and that is saying a lot for her.
I just watched this movie again this morning and my opinion has completely changed. It's actually a very good movie. I especially enjoyed the Burgess Meredith character. While it didn't really work as a comedy for me I thought it was a very thoughtful picture. I still think that Gable with his ridiculously cut zoot suit and Norma Shearer were a bit miscast, but all in all the movie wasn't bad.
