Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Palaest recommended

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

peapulation From this documentary, people can draw up many conclusions on the subject. One, for instance, is that it seems like a lot of the children that participate in these spelling bees and get a high placement, are foreign or from foreign descent. Another is that almost all these kids don't have a life...But a conclusion that we can also come up with, is that not all documentaries with big names and big reputations can hold up to your expectations. I have been hearing about Spellbound for a long time. So, when I finally picked up a copy, I was expecting something quite good. I was, unfortunately, let down.Jeffrey Blitz is, no doubt, the one to blame. He simply picked the wrong, and least interesting side of the documentary. While he spends the most part of the first hour telling the lives of eight of the people who qualified for the National tournament, this proves to be a rather dull way, as all along, as we see one of the boys telling us that he has no friends because he can't communicate as lowly as other people do, we just want to see the actually spelling tournament take place.In fact, it's hard to understand why he has such a clear division between the description of the contestants and the tournament itself. This simply doesn't work. It would have made much more pace, dramatically and as far as pacing is concerned, if Blitz had decided to include these description as the spellathon took place. It would in fact have been more interesting had we gotten a more detailed description of the tournament itself, and what makes it so important to some people, so important in fact, that it would be broad-casted live on television. It would have been more rewarding to see a documentary on the national spelling tournament done in the way the Woodstock documentary had been done; in an exciting and rewarding way.All the actual entertainment we get comes from the kid, Harry Altman (the one in who makes the face in the cover). He is quite the loose cannon, pointing at the boom microphone and asking if it's edible, or as he takes ages trying to spell the word 'banns' (which he ultimately gets wrong).Little entertainment, slow pacing and not much education. So, if you want to watch it anyways because if the reputation carries, go right ahead, but be warned, it's not that good. It's rather, a missed opportunity.

polar24 A movie about a spelling competition? Who would have thought! This documentary covers the U.S national spelling bee in 1999 and the dreams and fates of 8 starry-eyed hopefuls wishing for spelling-glory. There is a wide range of kids ranging from what seems about 10 years to 16 years and covers a wide range of ethnic groups from Anglo-Saxon American to Indian and Mexican.Apart from the exciting battle between these formidable spellers, what Spellbound shows us is the wide range of ethnic groups prevalent in the U.S; no matter where you come from they all strive towards the American dream – in this case, to win a spelling bee! Furthermore each of the kids - and as strongly demonstrated by their parents - show that they have different means to achieve the common dream.Cultural and social-economic differences show us that the dream as a symbol can vary greatly from family to family. It is amazingly interesting to see how the family in Texas gambles their whole life on seeing Ashley (I think?) makes it to the top while April's(?) family in Connecticut see it as just another hobby and are in genuine awe of her talents. Neil's family see it as a way of compensating for their poor upbringing and ensuring he has a high quality of life. The discrepancy in social wealth and education is striking. April's family is able to afford her horse-riding, a good school and tuition, while the kids in The South and poorer areas of the Mid-West have no other activities. Some of them only work at their spelling and it in fact one of them comments that it so-to-speak, keeps them off the streets. For one child, it is a blessing to a new and successful life; for another, proof to their parents that they are worthy; and for someone else, a merely just another gold star to add to their collectionAll the kids are a joy to watch, bright-eyed and eager, capturing the pleasure and anticipation in finding their special talent and something in life worthy striving for. Most interestingly are the dynamics between the parents and children and seeing how one child see the competition as a hobby and the parent as a golden ticket. Neil's parents seems a bit dogmatic and over-orthodox to the point of almost brainwashing the poor kid! It is amazing to see where they cultivate their sharp minds and passion for words when the parents, while are loving in their child's interest, have almost no interest in a world of complicated words and grammar.I find it a truth too common nowadays - in my neighbourhood anyway - where many affluent kids (especially Asians) are pressured so much by the parents to achieve something, to fulfill goals that the parents sorely wanted to achieve. So much so that they will go to tremendous lengths of tuition, coaching, study forsaking social play and hobbies just to achieve the elusive gold standard. This film highlights this and touches on these disparities lightly.The spelling bee itself forms the last good half of the film and remains interspersed with comments from the family and kids about their anxiety, jubilations and dreams and the field narrows. The suspense is nail-bitingly tense. The words are *difficult*, not even an above-average speller like myself could attempt them, let alone pronounce them. I didn't know what almost all of them meant and haven't even heard of them!But what I found distracting was the poor quality film they had to use. There wasn't any real point to using a cheaper film and I found it quite hard to see what was going on sometimes. In addition, the sound quality was very poor, and I had to turn up the sound quite a lot, especially during the competition which formed most of the film's thrilling excitement. Unfortunately, I would have like to hear what they were spelling half the time! I also the structuring was a little off and a little difficult to get adjusted. I really wished that they had filmed it more crisply and clearly because I found myself very distracted me several times especially at crucial points in the film.However, it still remains a fairly pleasant film helped along by the charisma and diversity of the kids. I remember myself as a prolific reader when I was young and used to love spelling, but these kids obviously had a lot more fun than I ever had, and their infectious joy shines vivaciously throughout. This was an enjoyable, cute little film.

Dennis Littrell Hitchcock did not direct this and it does not star Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Spellbound (1945) and Spellbound (2002) have in common the fact that they both won Academy Awards and both are spellbinding.Director Jeffrey Blitz's approach to making this most interesting documentary is straight-forward: pick eight contestants. Produce a mini-documentary on each one of them with scenes from family life, school. Interview their teachers, their parents, and some of their friends so that we get to know the contestants. Show the town they live in and the land they grew up on. Cut each mini-documentary to a few minutes and run them one after the other before taking us to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.Film the spelling bee and show the eight in action along with some of the other 242 or so who made it to the Capitol. Start with round one. Show the officials, the people who read the words to the contestants and answer questions about the words, such as word origin, definition, pronunciation, and root. Show the eager parents. Show the kids on stage with wrinkled brow and sweaty hands--well, you can't show the sweaty hands, although one mother reported that her hands got all wet when her daughter's turn came and then got all dry afterwards. Get some shots of the kids talking. Show the faces with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat And guess what? The film plays itself. It's a natural. We identify with the contestants, perhaps have our favorite. The tension builds. The hour and a half flies by. The spelling bee is a great spectator sport! Another thing I liked about this was the fact that although the eager parents would put your usual stage moms or little league dads to shame in the way they pushed their kids, when it was over, it was over. A couple of the kids said they were disappointed not to have won, but what a relief it was not to have to study the dictionary anymore! Of course there is always next year, but unlike baseball and the Broadway stage, you can grow too old to compete in the spelling bee--although now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they have adult spelling bees, maybe even spelling bees for senior citizens.Another nice thing is the view Blitz gives us of the Heartland. The film amounts to a glimpse of America the melting pot near the beginning of the 21st Century (the contest is from 1999).Also educational were insights into the way the kids learned to be excellent spellers. They memorized, yes, but they also learned which letters were likely to be correct for certain sounds based on the language of origin of the word. Greek words--there a lot of scientific Greek words in the dictionary--almost always have every letter pronounced (although watch out for those silent leading "m's"!). French words are just the opposite. I used to teach honors English and I can tell you that half the kids could out-spell me. The best kid I had just seemed to do it naturally. I realized however after talking to him that his approach was phonetic to start. That was the default. Every word that could be spelled correctly phonetically he noted and put aside in his mind. (His habit was to notice the spelling of every new word he encountered.) If the word was not spelled phonetically, it was an exception and he noted why it was an exception and dreamed up some mnemonic--silent leading m!--device to remember the exception. I could never spell a word like "lieutenant" (French) until I also developed a mnemonic device. In this case I made a sentence out of the word: "Lie-u-tenant" or I found the little words within: "lie," ... "ten," "ant." Spellbound won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2002, and it's that good. People and especially young people can identify (or not!) with kids their own age, and they can choose their favorites to root for.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

avamcmahon The childlike ability to dedicate oneself so wholly, we often attribute dedication to adulthood (marriage, business, etc.) but only a child, who does not doubt the validity of an enterprise with his intellect to the same degree he will as an adult, only a child could be so dedicated to spelling. I remember as a child spending hours perfecting the most useless abilities, taking unconscious joy in the perfection itself, flipping a tennis racket, juggling, spelling, times tables, etc. I interrupt myself when I try to do this kind of thing as an adult. I remember as a child spending hours perfecting the most useless abilities, taking unconscious joy in the perfection itself, flipping a tennis racket, juggling, spelling, times tables, etc. I interrupt myself when I try to do this kind of thing as an adult.