Shaw Pygmalion

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Pretty Woman - 4 Stars (Excellent)

"Pretty Woman" was originally scripted as a dark drama about prostitution in Los Angeles, but thankfully movie producer Laura Ziskin said "No" and what started out as a very brooding, negative film turned into one of the most popular and financially successful romantic comedies of all time. Find out why.

With a production cost of $14 million and a worldwide gross of $464 million, Laura Ziskin had to be smiling all of the way to the bank.

Pretty Woman's title character, Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), is a down-on-her-luck prostitute who is hired by Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), a wealthy businessman and corporate raider, as arm candy for several business functions.

The arrangement works well but begins to get complicated when Edward discovers Vivian is not just a hooker from Hollywood Boulevard but also a woman of substance, and Vivian finds herself falling in love in a situation that essentially has no future.

There is nothing positive about the common perception of a hooker, but Vivian smashes through the normal perceptions by quickly getting viewers past her obvious good looks and revealing her inner beauty, transparent feelings and uncompromising commitment by not settling for a comfortable, Edward-financed lifestyle as arm candy and companion.

Her willingness to walk away from the fee arrangement for her gig ultimately gets Edward's attention, and a Hollywood story line takes over. Vivian becomes so likeable we want to cheer for her as she stands her ground and forces Edward to make a decision. Both Vivian and Edward experience some serious personal growth that moviegoers can relate to and appreciate.

The story line reminds me of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which became the basis for the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady" with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, a poor flower girl who morphs into a beautiful princess. The character of Vivian also reminds me of Audrey Hepburn's role as Holly Golightly, another lady of the night in "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Director Garry Marshall completely avoids negatives in this film by wisely handling Vivian's role, and playing the characters around her like a concert master fine tuning an orchestra. His work went a long way in helping Pretty Woman win a Golden Globe for Best Picture. Richard Gere picked up a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and Hector Elizondo won a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe as the hotel manager Barney Thompson.

The shining star in Pretty Woman was Julia Roberts. She was a relative unknown at the time, and walked away with a Golden Globe as Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress.

Pretty Woman, released in 1990, was notable for the number of leading ladies who turned down the role of Vivian, including Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer and Daryl Hannah. Julia Roberts really won the role by default, but she made the most of her opportunity and the movie quickly made her Hollywood's newest sweetheart, a role she held for nearly 15 years.

Al Pacino also turned down the role of Edward Lewis, leaving the door open for Richard Gere.

Here is some key trivia in the movie:

1) The opera in San Francisco that Edward flies Vivian to in a private jet is "La Traviata", the tale of a Parisian courtesan who falls in love with a wealthy young man.

2) Richard Gere actually plays the piano himself in a late night scene, he even composed the music that he plays.

3) The sports car Edward borrows at the beginning of the movie is a Lotus Esprit. Ferrari and Porsche turned down the advertising opportunity because they did not want to be associated with soliciting prostitutes. Lotus won big time as its Esprit sales tripled during the next year.

The film also benefited from its title and association to "Oh, Pretty Woman", Roy Orbison's worldwide hit recorded 26 years earlier.

I really liked Pretty Woman and not just because of Julia Roberts' jump-off-the-screen attractiveness, especially after Edward escorts Vivian to Rodeo Drive for a shopping spree, proving that clothes can complete even a very attractive woman. Even more important is her courage, determination, substance and dignity under stress.

If you like relationship movies and romantic comedies, Pretty Woman is a must see.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley's Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.

Read more of my other reviews on romantic comedies, including "Four Romantic Comedies That Will Not Stress Your Emotions", "Mystic Pizza", "Something's Gotta Give", "The Holiday", "What Women Want", "Failure to Launch" and "For Love or Money".

Find my Blog at:

http://www.edbagleyblog.com

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Alliteration In The Hands Of Genius Writers

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Tongue-twister

When writers combine stressed syllables that begin with the same consonant sound, they can achieve not only euphonious sounds, but also mark certain beats and cadence within the narrative's rhythm. For example:

Noise, nausea, and loneliness-but that's nothing really new.

The 'n' consonant adds a very distinctive rhythm to the text, adding a halting cadence to the grim, negative text.

In the following example we find double alliteration provided by the consonants 'b' and 'l;' and furthermore more, we could add the sound of the 'p' consonant, which is very close to the sound of 'b.'

Oh, the whiteness of her breasts: poreless, flawless, of breathless beauty, white blossoms tipped with divine blush!

The 1st century A.D. critic and teacher of Rhetoric Demetrius says, "Poetic vocabulary in prose adds grandeur;" but this technique should not be abused because --Alliteration being a poetic rather than a prose device-- there's always the danger of the prose turning purple or rigid.

Edith Wharton in her novel The Custom of the Country uses a disguised alliteration which makes her prose turgid if not stiff:

No one would care to be seen talking to her while Mabel was at her side; Mabel, monumental and moulded while the fashionable were flexible and diaphanous, Mabel strident and explicit while they were subdued and allusive (33).

Jane Austen discreetly injects alliteration in the titles of her novels: Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility; the same may be said of George Eliot's Middlemarch. Other master storytellers use alliteration to achieve special effects such as visceral reactions.

In his The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses the "D" sound to produce a revolting effect in the reader, every time he mentions Mr. Hyde:

"... his appearance: something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere ..." (11).

"... had left of that body an imprint of deformity and decay. And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol ... (65)."

And throughout the novelette, Stevenson continues to use the following words: death, dissection, destitute, despised, decomposed, dwarfish, despicable, disgust, and troglodytic.

Edgar Allan Poe in "The Fall of the House of Usher" sets the mood for the whole story with the "D" sound in the first sentence:

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

Laura Esquivel in her novel Like Water for Chocolate, also uses a similar technique:

Unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro (97).

And Joseph Heller in Catch-22:

The colonel had really been investigated. There was not an organ of his body that had not been drugged and derogated, dusted and dredged, fingered and photographed, removed, plundered and replaced (15).

Another master of prosody and the "d" sound is Nathaniel Hawthorne:

There are some spheres, the contact with which inevitably degrades the high, debases the pure, deforms the beautiful (Hawthorne, Blithedale Romance 101).

The ancient dust, the mouldiness of Rome, the dead atmosphere in which he had wasted so many months; the hard pavements, the smell of ruin, and decaying generations; the chill palaces, the convent bells, the heavy incense of altars; the life that he had led in those dark, narrow streets, among priests, soldiers, nobles, artists, and women; all the sense of these things rose from the young man's consciousness like a cloud, which had darkened over him without his knowing how densely (Hawthorne, Marble Faun, 74).

In gothic novels such as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, the "D" sound is used throughout the book with great efficiency to elicit visceral reactions:

"Ye are to know, Signors, that the Lady Laurentini had for some months shewn symptoms of a dejected mind, nay of a disturbed imagination" (274).

Montoni was discomposed (275).

Notwithstanding his efforts to appear at ease, he was visibly and greatly disordered (275).

"I am not superstitious,' replied Montoni, regarding him with stern displeasure, 'though I know how to despise the common-place sentences, which are frequently uttered against superstition (275).

To hammer in the impression of money and opulence surrounding Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald resorts to the "m" and "n" sounds:

I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew (Fitzgerald 8).

When Professor Henry Higgins-in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion- tutored the Cockney girl Eliza Doolittle to speak like a lady, he used the following statement:

"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain."

Not only are tonal and sonority effects achieved, but we can also feel the rhyme and impressiveness of alliteration.

Even in satire and in dialogue, alliteration can be effective as we see in Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho:

"You are pure prep perfection," he purrs.

Conclusion

We can say that readers perceive, in some cases subconsciously and more readily, certain sounds, beats, and sonorous combinations. A misbehaving child would certainly stop at the following admonition:

Don't you dare do dat-dammit!

About the Author

Retired. Former investment banker, Columbia University-educated, Vietnam Vet (67-68).
For the writing techniques I use, see Mary Duffy's e-book: Sentence Openers.
To read my book reviews of the Classics visit my blog: Writing To Live

Social criticism in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion please?

this study guide will help you

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pygmalion/

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