You may have heard that music is the universal language. Nowhere is that more true than in Archie Mayo's "They Shall Have Music". It focuses on a troubled boy who runs away from home and joins a struggling music school. Things take a turn when Jascha Heifetz (playing himself) enters the scene.
The movie addresses poverty and funding for the arts. And in the process, we get to hear some masterful performances of works by the great composers (and of course, during the Barber of Seville overture, I pictured Bugs Bunny subjecting Elmer Fudd to all sorts of humiliation to the tune of the overture). No surprise that the children perform the music exquisitely, since Samuel Goldwyn hired the Meremblum Orchestra to star in the movie.
It might not be the greatest movie ever made, but I hope that it reminds people of the importance of the arts. Indeed, during WWII, Winston Churchill got asked if he planned to cut funding for the arts to redirect the money to the armed forces, and he said "Then what are we fighting for?" Alfred Newman's Academy Award-nominated score is like a character by itself. I definitely recommend this movie.
The movie addresses poverty and funding for the arts. And in the process, we get to hear some masterful performances of works by the great composers (and of course, during the Barber of Seville overture, I pictured Bugs Bunny subjecting Elmer Fudd to all sorts of humiliation to the tune of the overture). No surprise that the children perform the music exquisitely, since Samuel Goldwyn hired the Meremblum Orchestra to star in the movie.
It might not be the greatest movie ever made, but I hope that it reminds people of the importance of the arts. Indeed, during WWII, Winston Churchill got asked if he planned to cut funding for the arts to redirect the money to the armed forces, and he said "Then what are we fighting for?" Alfred Newman's Academy Award-nominated score is like a character by itself. I definitely recommend this movie.