I was just thinking about the movie from Monday, and I remembered something cool. Remember when the Dad and the daughter are going into that barn to be do what fathers and daughters should not be doing, everything was black except for the girls blanket. She was wrapped in a sharp red blanket. I thought that was interesting because that was the only noticable color during the scene. They were about to commite a horrible sin, and the girl was wearing the color red which is a color of evil and sin.

I thought their was little development of the children's role. That made ls less
of an impact on the aspect of loosing the children as the center point. I was
shocked to hear that the father of the "baby sitters" had an inappropriate
relationship took a large toll on the girls life. Probably handicap her from
future relationships. The story dose, like Zack said, raise more questions
because of the search for who is to the piper is steady theme threw the movie and peom.
Whitney

I enjoyed the contrast between the fate of the children. In the poem the children went into a "wondrous portal" on the mountain side. The Piper told the childen that he was leading them to a "joyous land." Whether or not this is true is not specifically said. It remains a mystery as to if he lead them to this great place or if he lied to them and took his revenge on the children by not only taking them away, but also taking them to an unpleasant or scary place. This uncertaintly also appeared in the movie but in a different way. In the movie the children died in a bus accident. Some might see death as bad place because the children ended their lives so early and will never return. Others may view death as a good place because the innocent, untanted and pure childen went to heaven and do not have to endure the evils that were prominent all around them.

After class I got online and found out about the incident that happened this morning at Virginia Tech. 32 people have been confirmed dead and 29 injured.

This is terrible. I can't explain the feeling in the pit of my stomach right now. I feel so sorry for these people. Being on a college campus makes this all the more real and I think it's coincidence that what I talked about today kind of relates to this in a way. This incident was so sudden and it seems like in the weeks to come that the media will only be making blind speculation as to why the now dead gunmen committed such a horrible act. We will probably never know why he did this for certain, but all we can do is learn from this and let our hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy rather than try and place blame on something.

Lindsey W
this is a very interesting and very depressing story. the poem keeps it fairly mild, yet the movie is very depressing. the story line itself is upsetting. who knows if its to say if there is a plan or people have a destiny. personal experience would tell me that tragic things dont have a purpose. they dont happen for a reason, they are accidents and the just happen. the poem and the movie were both very confusing though.

I am looking forward to class to see what similarities that Zack is able to draw between the 2 works. I hope he is able to show me the similarities because I am still confused after looking into what he said to look at. I think the Pied Piper would surly start a lawsuit, and it falls into the stereo type. He is a whistle blower and going to shake things up and leave to avoid all blame. I think…. We will see.

sorry i havent posted yet, i have been sick all weekend and this was the first time i looked at any material. The pied piper is suppossed to be the lawyer who is helping out the town. At first the pied piper seems to be helping the town, but not everybody is in agreement with him. One of the main differences i saw was the depiction of the children, in the movie the children are the cause of the problem, with the bus crashing and in the poem, the rats are the main problem. They both have a man out to get revenge for something that they lost.

I feel the poem gives a unique perspective on the film, and the dangers of what can happen when you take advantage of people when they are the most vulnerable. In the poem, The Pied Piper was the solution in the beginning, “the remedy we’re lacking.” He possessed a “secret charm, to draw all creatures living beneath the sun […]” The mysticism behind his character is very intriguing, and the ignorance of the townspeople to his powers is a reflection of their desperation. The Pied Piper was successful in killing all of the rats, but the townspeople were not honorable in their agreement with The Pied Piper. So who is really to blame in this situation? The Pied Piper was seeking revenge, but if the adults had not been so stingy then The Pied Piper wouldn’t have come back to take the children. The Pied Piper’s unique gifts seem to be what he deems the most precious aspect of his existence, and he took what was most precious to the people in town. I agree with earlier posts, that the crippled girl from the film is a manifestation of the section that reads, “Did I say, all? No! One was lame, and could not dance the whole of the way […]” The boy in the poem longs to have been able to follow The Pied Piper, and I find that very interesting. Children are manipulated easier than adults because they still possess a vibrant and innocent imagination. Where The Pied Piper was telling the children he was taking them seems almost heavenly. I have two opinions on who The Pied Piper is in the film. Obviously I would say the lawyer because he has manipulative powers just like The Pied Piper had in the poem. Primarily though, I fell like the film is trying to convey The Pied Piper as a symbolic representation of unfair and untimely death.

John Killough

The poem represented in the movie doesnt seem to carry the same meaning. In a present day setting with lawyer sturring the emotional parents of the victims of the crash sounds shallow and selfish. The poem, being a simple tale depicting quite possibly the black plague, seems to vary from the movie. As for the crippled teen, i felt like she might have been the character of the children left behind by the Pied Piper. In the poem, the children left behind help find the children that were taken and this surely cant happen in the movie. However, she does seem to help find justice for the children by settling the case and not allowing it to turn into a selfish hunt for someone to blame.

I think the Pied Piper would be the lawyer, because I think that "...followed the Piper for their lives," would describe the way the lawyer visits the victim's families and brings back their anger. I'm not sure I understand the poem, and it doesn't really help me understand a deeper meaning of the film. I think the crippled teen Nicole is represented in the XIII section where it says, "Did I say all? No! One was lame, and could not dance the whole of the way."

Bridget

As far as the girl in the wheel chair representing the lame boy, that seems dead on. Unable to follow her friends into the great unknown, but left behind with the tragedy of living alone. But for the lawyer being the pied piper, I'm not so sure. He wasn't the reason the children left this world (maybe the bus driver is...) Not to mention, the movie sounds like it talks more about the aftermath than the actual event. As for the comparison between the poem and the film, the poem doesn't seem to get across the sense of severity with the deaths of so many children, and that's where the movie steps in. The poem teaches the lesson of "pay the man", but the movie uses the poem as a spring board and takes us to a tragic place and asks "What if...?"

The thing that stuck out most to me is that The Sweet Hereafter seemed to pick up on the aspect of the children disappearing from the classic fairytale The Pied Piper, and modify it into a more modern and realistic version. Instead the primary focus being on the Piper’s revenge on a city, The Sweet Hereafter depicts how the loss of all the children would affect the city. In the Pied Piper the rats are the main problem and the loss of the children is only a finishing touch. But in The Sweet Hereafter the children’s deaths are the cause of the city’s anguish. Even though I haven't seen the movie yet, I think the Pied Piper is represented by the lawyer. Nicole is similar to the boy who wanted to follow the music, but couldn't because of his "lame foot." If I had not read the poem, I don't think I would have drawn the connection between the Pied Piper and The Sweet Hereafter.

I'm centering my topic around Atom Egoyan's film "The Sweet Hereafter" and how he uses Robert Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" as an allegory for the basic narrative.

I'll be showing clips from Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter" on Monday, but will provide some background information so you can formulate some responses. The film is based on an actual occurence and documents the tragic after effects of a school bus accident that kills almost all the children in a small Canadian town. A lawyer, pursued by the demons of losing a daughter to drugs, comes to town and visits the victims' parents in order to profit from the tragedy by stirring up the their anger and launching a class action suit against anyone they can blame. The community is paralysed by its anger and cannot let go. He wants the parents to sue, to determine who was at fault, and to focus their anger on making those at fault pay. Told partly in flashbacks to the days leading up to the accident, we also follow the attorney from family to family, coaxing them to join the suit. One young teen named Nicole survives, crippled in a wheelchair, and her testimony leads to the lawsuit being turned over.

After you're done reading "The Pied Piper", you should ask yourself:

-In what ways does it reflect the narrative I just described for you?
-How is the crippled teen, Nicole, represented in the poem?
-Who do you think the 'pied piper' is in the movie?
-Does the poem help you gain a deeper meaning for the film?

I suggest wikipediaing(hehe) the poem so you can get the basic gist of it before or after you read it.