Bright Star - The Keats Movie - A General Discussion

This movie was truly wonderfully made. I felt every emotion that Fanny had. it was relate-able, because although not quite as drastically, I have felt the same way as Fanny has at some point in my life, and my poor brother, confused and lonely, had to tag along and sit through the foolishness just as Toots had. I truly felt bad for Toots, because she loved her sister more than anything else, and Fanny always yelled at her one moment, then hugged and kissed her the next.

I was excited when I heard lines from one of the poem we read in Mr. Scotese's class. When Keats was in the garden, and he said “My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, or emptied some dull opiate to the drains." I instantly brightened as I remembered the poem. I felt a sense of nostalgia, and I listened to the poem over again as if I had never read it. I was truly beautiful, and the moment was amazing.

The love story is better than many love stories I had seen. It made me want a love for my own like it. Modern love is nothing like this; there is often a sexual connotation, and one knows why one loves another. Keats did not know why he was attracted to Fanny, just that he was. Also, Fanny was attracted to Keats for his wit, and kind nature, not necessarily his looks. Their bond was so strong; nothing could break it. Even after Keats died, Fanny never took off his ring. That was so compelling to me. It almost made me cry. I would watch this movie over and over. It is a classic movie to keep on the shelf for later years.

I felt that this movie began very slow but truly did have a realistic representation of love. The idea of two people just wanting to be around each other and doing anything possible to do so is what I see as an ideal love story. They were devoted to each other. We saw countless times where Fannie would go into states of depression where she was unable to be around anyone else because she was missing Keats so much. Their exchanged letters and gestures of remembering each other such as keeping butterflies and Keats cutting a lock of Fannie's hair showed how they wished to be connected regardless of how far away they were from each other.
One major thing that I found saddening about this story was that Keats would not wed her because he felt that he was not qualified to do so. The note at the end of the movie about how Keats died thinking that he was a failure was terrible because its ironic how remarkable of a poet he really was. Besides his sickness I felt that he had a great life because he was in love. Although his leave was partially to help support Fannie financially in the future, I think he made the wrong decision to leave because the money wasn't as important as the love him and Fannie shared.
In comparison to other love stories such as Shakespeare in Love, I felt that Bright Star was much more romantic and portrayed a more realistic look at love. I felt that the Shakespeare in Love movie was too cliche and predictable for me. Although Bright Star was slow I felt that characters such as Brown and Fannie's siblings gave the story more context. Overall I did enjoy the movie because, unlike Shakespeare in Love, there was no happy ending. As sad as that sounds, its true and this is another reason why I felt that was more realistic.

*SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!*
This was a great film. As per Mr. Scotese's lessons, he's taught us to look for "Stephen Booth Moments." These consist of connections between individual words and patterns across lines, scenes, and entire works. There were many in this movies. I really like the delicate language and Fanny Brawn's wordplay. She is a great mind. Toots was a good foil, and Sam a good sturdy cane, much like ones we would see him with when he ventured into the woods

There is a lot of character interplay here. Each serves their purpose and has a role. Tom Keats was John Keats' "first love." Brotherly, of course, but I think that he was a man of a single love, directed and focused. His love was directly linked with his poetic production, as we see strengthen and falter throughout the movie. While Tom was sick (but alive), John had a very difficult time making his way and composing poems. Yet, after his passing, John grows to love Fanny, and thus his poetry grows in both quality and quantity.

I want to point out that in one of their first "date" in the forest, Keats wears blue and Fanny wears a most vibrant red, and I thought of how such a passionate love had come to a man who was previously cold and isolated.

Fanny's, clothing and styles were always evocative of her emotional state, and I really likes how the costume designer (and Fanny) chose each costume for each scene.

It was a great movie, but it wasn't as bad as some think. I'm a bit jaded, but going into it, we know he was going to die, and from all of the other stuff we've read, we know that no one is supposed to want to be married to someone who can't provide materially, so there was a little bit of "Romeo & Juliet" going on, in that their love wasn't ideal. Still a great movie, despite the inherent predictability.

So I am a pretty big sap when it comes to movies and I can be a crier, but though the movie was great I felt that there was a disconnect between the watchers and the characters. It was pretty cool the way they showed how Keats died of Tuberculosis and his brother too; the slow decline of his health but he still loved Fanny Brawne; his poverty and how lowly he thought of himself. I thought that Keats didn’t have any poet friends; at least that is what it said in the Elements of Literature Sixth course Literature of Britain, while in the movie he did have a friend.

Bright Star was a good movie. There was good use of the foreshadowing of Keat's death. There was also a lot of metaphors, such as the butterflies dying when Keats leaves and the comparison of Keat's short life to the short life of a butterfly. The movie was interesting. To be honest, I have never seen a bio-pic before.