AVALON which is the third leg of the Baltimore Trilogy was unfortunately overlooked at Oscar time in 1990. It is a truly brilliant film written and directed by Barry Levinson.
It is about the evolution of the storyteller. Sam the head of the family comes to America in 1914 on the Fourth of July. It was a time when family meant something and those that came here first sent money back so that other family members could join them in the land of hope. Sam is the the family storyteller. He tells the family history to the children in hopes that they will always remember where they came from. As the years go by the family moves away from Avalon, the neighborhood that they first came to and the family begins to change. They move apart and splinter and the new technology known as the television becomes the storyteller. Thanksgivings which are the unifying holiday throughout the story begin with the family waiting for all of the brothers to arrive before "they cut the turkey" and proceeds through smaller family groups sitting at TV stands watching television and ends finally when grandson Michael, with his son visits Sam in a nursing home where the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade plays silently on the televison in Sam's room.
As the film concludes Michael, who is the embodiment of Barry Levinson in the tradition of the storyteller shares his grandfather's story with his son.
All of this backed by Randy Newman's haunting score one of the most fitting ever written for a film.
This is a must see.
It is about the evolution of the storyteller. Sam the head of the family comes to America in 1914 on the Fourth of July. It was a time when family meant something and those that came here first sent money back so that other family members could join them in the land of hope. Sam is the the family storyteller. He tells the family history to the children in hopes that they will always remember where they came from. As the years go by the family moves away from Avalon, the neighborhood that they first came to and the family begins to change. They move apart and splinter and the new technology known as the television becomes the storyteller. Thanksgivings which are the unifying holiday throughout the story begin with the family waiting for all of the brothers to arrive before "they cut the turkey" and proceeds through smaller family groups sitting at TV stands watching television and ends finally when grandson Michael, with his son visits Sam in a nursing home where the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade plays silently on the televison in Sam's room.
As the film concludes Michael, who is the embodiment of Barry Levinson in the tradition of the storyteller shares his grandfather's story with his son.
All of this backed by Randy Newman's haunting score one of the most fitting ever written for a film.
This is a must see.