TCP#27: Music Of The Heart

Welcome to the March 2nd edition of Tuesday Couch Potatoes! Did I just type March? Wow! I can't believe that it's March already! Time does fly so fast. My Own It On DVD Giveaway is finally over and if you are wondering who won, please click here.

Our theme for this week is School Is Fun. We will feature movies about school life, the struggles and the success stories, the peer pressure, the issue of fitting in, the great and not so great achievements, anything that depicts school life.

My pick for this week: Music Of The Heart, a 1999 dramatic film starring Meryl Streep. I saw this movie on TV last year on Japanese television. I really enjoyed watching this movie which was Craven-Maddalena Films and Miramax Films, and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution.

The film is about the true story of Roberta Guaspari (Meryl Streep) who brought the violin into the hearts of New York children in the public school system.

Here's the plot taken from Wikipedia:

Described in the opening credits as being 'inspired by a documentary,' the film opens with Roberta having been deserted by her husband and feeling devastated, almost suicidal. Encouraged by her mother, she attempts to rebuild her life and a friend recommends her to the head teacher of a school in the tough New York area of East Harlem. Despite a degree in music education, she has little experience in actual music teaching, but she's taken on as a substitute violin teacher. With a combination of toughness and determination, she inspires a group of kids, and their initially skeptical parents. The program slowly develops and attracts publicity.

Ten years later, the string program is still running successfully, but suddenly the school budget is cut and Roberta is out of a job. Determined to fight the cuts, she enlists the support of former pupils, parents and teachers and plans a grand fund-raising concert 'Fiddlefest', to raise money so that the program can continue. But with a few weeks to go and all participants furiously rehearsing, they lose the venue. Fortunately, the husband of a publicist friend is a violinist in a string quartet, and he enlists the support of other well-known musicians, including Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. They arrange for the concert to be mounted at Carnegie Hall. Other famous musicians join in the performance, which is a resounding success.

I really enjoyed this movie as it was very inspiring. The main character never lost hope and when the program was in danger of being removed from the school curriculum, Roberta sought all means possible to keep it going. I agree with the concept that a child's learning should not only be confined to learning the ABCs and doing the Math but in being able to appreciate the arts and music as well. Discovering and developing a child's musical potential at an early age will help them to decide what they want to become in the future. This also kept them busy and kept them away from bad influence and company. This movie also empowered the black American children of that time and it told the whole world that playing the violin is not only restricted to the few elite, that anyone has the right to play regardless of your color and race.

So what's your School Is Fun movie for today? Come share it with us by entering the link URL of your TCP entry to MckLinky below:



That's it for this week's TCP. Next week, we will feature movies that disappointment you. So I hope you join us for our theme: It Was A Disappointment.

Thank you all for joining! Have a great week ahead and a Happy TCP!

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