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[Cobra]

wHeeties?

shouldN'T


What is that about living in a glass house? Everyone can watch you pee?

[khmerhit]

Documentary captures spelling bee spectacle

By Jon Niccum, Entertainment Editor
Friday, June 27, 2003
��

"Hellebore."

"Cephalalgia."

"Wheedle."

Huh?

No wonder stress and obsessiveness are so visible at the National Spelling Bee. The words the contestants are supposed to know are so obscure they might as well be extinct. And these are just some of the examples the group of eighth-graders got right.

The Oscar-nominated documentary "Spellbound" observes the 1999 bee and the 249 contenders (culled from more than 9,000 competing junior high schools) who battled in it. First-time director Jeffrey Blitz makes the picture more than just a nerve-wracking competitive spectacle. He also turns the proceedings into a microcosm of America and in many respects, an essay on the American Dream.

The film focuses on eight specific spellers, ages 12-13, who in their own way are as memorable as any characters in a fiction film.

Among them is Angela, the daughter of Mexican parents who illegally immigrated to Texas and who still don't speak English after 20 years in the states. Her father likes to joke that the cows in his care can't speak it either.

Neil is a scholar-athlete from California who is studying for the bee using every method his family can afford, from various software programs to private tutors in Spanish, German and French. His grandfather even pays 1,000 people from their ancestral town in India to pray for the lad's success.

On polar ends of the spectrum are Emily from New Haven, Conn., a rich girl who wonders if not bringing her au pair to this year's final will affect her; and Ashley, a black girl from D.C. whose single mom struggles to make it to the next paycheck.

Then there's the brooding, weapon-toting Ted from tiny Rolla, Mo., who has Trench Coat Mafia written on his future. And most vividly there's Harry. Decked in braces and a Godzilla shirt, the wired New Jersey youngster ("I guess you could call me talkative") behaves like the poster child for Ritalin.

When the octet (which also includes the introspective Nupur and fanatical April) finally converges on the national competition at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., the viewer begins to share the mounting pressure they face. One father presents the baseball analogy that if you strike out in the first inning, you will come up again in the fourth, seventh and ninth with a chance to redeem yourself. But in this event it's one minuscule mistake and you're out.

The sports comparison is hardly overstated, considering the upper rounds of this bout are broadcast live on ESPN.

Structurally, "Spellbound" is not much different from "Best in Show," the hilarious faux documentary about a national dog competition. Blitz attempts little in terms of narrative or cinematic innovation, opting to just point and shoot the camera. But he chooses a compelling subject and the perfect participants to showcase, and he understands how to let the drama unfold for itself without getting in its way.

The movie implies that whether these teens will ever take part in another spelling match, the effects of how they stand up to the burden of it will shape their character as an adult. That's a lot to fathom for an eighth-grader.

Interestingly, Blitz inserts interviews with past winners of the bee, including the original champ from the inaugural event in 1925 who shook hands with President Coolidge after he won. A 1971 winner admits that taking home the trophy "didn't help me in my nascent love life." But he also sits surrounded by his own children, so things must not have turned out too bad.

Regardless of the scattered social subtext, "Spellbound" is primarily just an amusing piece of work. It's a light romp compared to some of the other Academy Award nominees it was up against at this year's documentary category.

There's a throwaway moment in the picture that kind of sums up its good-natured vibe.

After one of the participants notches another major spelling victory, her hometown Hooters restaurant proudly acknowledges the accomplishment on its marquee sign.

It reads, "Congradulations."

http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:NyIMwIS3kpcJ:www.lawrence.com/news/movie_reviews/story/123490+spelling+bee+movie&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

(Dave---sorry if this is too long)

[Cobra]

It is not too long but would you please correct your spelling mistakes or stop posting in this forum?

[bnix]

No. I am not saying that they have to be teachers in order to spell those simple words correctly. I am simply pointing out the fact that there are a lot of so-called "teachers" in this field...who cannot spell...and who cannot teach, either. I am sure you are aware of that, Glenski.

Two of my "favorites"(not really) are "donut" and "nite". I think the former one has even gained some respectability,possibly due to that "donut" chain that insists on spelling it that way. Probably the shorter spelling saves on advertising space,money,etc.,in the long run.

[khmerhit]

I had an Israeli colleague whose spelling left something to be desired, but he is a good teacher. Anyway, spellings change. Things change, like they say in Sicily...

Mutability

We are the clouds that veil the midnight moon;
�����How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon
�����Night closes round, and they are lost forever:

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
�����Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
�����One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep;
�����We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
�����Embrace fond foe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow,
�����The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
�����Nought may endure but Mutability.

PB Shelley

[Sid]

Yes, sweetone.

[Will.]

Oh Brilliant now we have a positive reason for genetic modification.

[Sid]

If there's one thing I'm happy about, it's giving trouser snake a bee up his butt.

Sid

[nomadder]

In my Oxford dependant is not used in America and that makes sense to me as independant is not proper for anyone. I'm all in favor/favour of cleaning up the English language. After studying more phonetically spelled ones and teaching crazy English spellings I would gladly cut out those useless "ugh"s(for ex.) and always spell though as tho in casual correspondence(I always want to put an a in there for some reason). I support any changes that have been made by Americans (and others?) to tame the beast. Brits are well known for clinging to outdated and inefficient traditions(royalty for example) and obviously they would be hard to let go of after all these years but as the world becomes more globalized(ised?) I'm hoping someone will take up the torch for a more simplified and unified English. I love England but I really tire of tyre(it must come from about the time the wheel was invented).

Due to the nonuniformity of English I think that as we get older and maybe don't read as much especially with so many other alternatives, we can begin to forget the proper spellings we once knew. I think some misspellers may be drunk, rebelling or just having a bad memory kind of day.

[Glenski]

Sweet One,

[Steiner]

Better eat your Wheaties!

[yaramaz]

The 'weeties' speller must have been thinking of Weetabix (sp?). I prefer Cheerios though. Brain food! Easier to spell too.

[saloc]

If you read the first post, you will see that it was misspelled on purpose.

[scot47]

If you study her posts you will find that Sunaru is not very strong on Reading Comprehension.

I wonder where she is on the Bell Curve of IQ distribution.

[Lynn]

My spelling sucks. Students correct me all the time. It's not the little words: their/there/they're, it's/its...ect. It's those words I use but don't write often: apstrophe, atrick, exuse, excuse...