Waking Ned Divine (1998)
Here the questions for
Waking Ned Divine. Answer two of them:
- What is the theme of the film? Back up your opinion with three examples.
- What did you learn about Irish culture from the film?
- What about that moment when the minor drinks or the big reveal about who said minor's father is? The characters in the movie don't seem to have the same moral qualms with those moments as we do. Why do you think that is? Kudos to anyone who does some cultural research to find out how these actions would be seen in real rural Ireland.
Tayia Groesbeck-
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the movie is always be nice to everyone and treat them good and be fair. My first reason is when he found the ticket and told everyone that they needed to say he was ned devine everyone did so that everyone would be happy because they all got a fair share of the money. My second reason is when that old lady was going to snitch on everyone she ended up getting thrown off the bridge so she couldn't call the lottery place. The third reason was everyone was happy in the end because no one didn't get what they wanted and I think everyone was happy because all the other people were happy.
I think when they found out who the minors dad was the people in the movie didn't care probably because it was normal to them and plus the guy the lady had the kid with just gave everyone lots of money.
Does it bother you at all that these people show their niceness by being dishonest? What about being nice to the lottery company?
DeleteAshton Bowers:
ReplyDeleteThe Theme to this movie was Friendship, because there was two guys who were friends for a long time and had fun with eachother and the entire town was pretty friendly with eachother (exept the witch in the wheelchair). Also to not be greedy the two guys gave the money out to the entire town in Ned's name rather than keep it to themselves
Why they dont make a big deal out of the kid drinking and smoking i think was because they were celebrating so why not let the kid celebrate to. and they didnt want to ruin the moment by telling everyone that the real kids dad was the old guy who actually won the lottery, or let the guy who loved the mom know it wasnt his son.
It's interesting how this film values being kind to people over being honest. Your post highlighted this for me in a new way when you said, "they didnt want to ruin the moment by telling everyone that the real kids dad was the old guy who actually won the lottery, or let the guy who loved the mom know it wasnt his son." Not only does the film value helping the town over being honest with the loto folk but it also values letting the boy and the pig man enjoy a happy lie over telling them the truth.
DeleteWaking Ned Divine
ReplyDeleteThe theme of Waking Ned Divine is karma. When Jackie and Michael finally figured out Ned won the lottery, and didn’t properly take care of him and decided just to split the money between them their consequence was to tell the whole town and split the money with the town to pull off winning the lottery. The “witch” died because she was trying to ruin the whole deal and put the town in jail. And in the end they were able to get the money because they properly took care of Ned Divine and remembered him as something more than just there winning, Michael truly believed that Ned Divine wanted to share the money.
I have been to Ireland and the people seemed to put their social status on what they do and not what money they have. I stayed with a family in Ireland and they had family in America and believed that their home was very small compared to American homes. They lived in a fairly big double complex. They didn’t seem to care about how much money they had, but what they did with that money and what their jobs were. While in America I feel like we really do care about money and base their status on it. So this movie confirmed this for me.
I looked up the alcohol consumption laws in Ireland and I’m not 100 percent sure but I found if you are 15 you may drink in the company of a guardian. You can drink by yourself at 18. It is illegal to give a child under 15 alcohol. I think there was an overreaction with the reveling of the boy’s father. People have relationships with someone much older than them all the time everywhere.
Thanks for sharing the info about the alcohol laws. I don't know if the boy in the movie was over 15 but the fact that 15 year-old's can drink in the company of a guardian shows that their culture is less concerned with young people drinking than our culture is. And, in my experience, small towns like this tend to be less concerned with the laws passed on a national level. They can go under the radar because they are small.
DeleteStephen Bednarz
ReplyDeleteIt's a movie about friendship, Jackie and Michael were the best of friends their whole entire life. They lived in a poor, extremely small town that had a population of under a hundred people. Everyone was so close. It made it seem like the whole town were great friends well... Except the mean old lady. But when they found out that Ned Devine was dead and indeed was the lottery winner Instead of keeping the money for themselves. Jackie and Michael decide to share the wealth throughout the town.
I believe that along with friendship, Sharing is a strong message in this movie. Ned Devine's money was what brought them all so close. They all wanted a better life for each other not only themselves. If I had to say what my favorite part in the movie I think it was when the old lady flew to her death down the mountainside haha
I think the theme to this movie was that friendship is very important and they really showed how to work together as friends. (may not be for a legal reason but they still worked together for what they wanted). my first reason would be how when they noticed that Ned wasn't at the party he still took him a chicken dinner. second was when the man came to check if he was really Ned, the friend willingly played the part of Ned. third would be when they got the towns people in on the deal and they had the funeral for Ned everyone played along when they had to change it up when the inspector came along.
DeleteI learned that Irish accents are more heavy then I thought. i noticed how beautiful it is there and would some day like to visit.
i really enjoyed this movie. i thought it was very funny and uplifting.
@ Stephen: I agree that friendship is an important theme is this movie. You could add that Jackie gives a speech about friendship at the funeral.
Delete@ Courtney: "uplifting" is a great word to describe this film. Way to find the perfect language to express the tone of the film.
To me this was just a great movie about ever lasting friendship. Throughout the entire film you see people that would do ANYTHING for their friends. Even if that means riding comando through the hills of your hometown, lying to complete strangers, or possibly going to jail.
ReplyDeleteI have to say i was really shocked when they revealed who the kids father was. Its probably just the way i was raised but i found it to be really WEIRD. But the characters in the movie didnt seem to be as shocked. I guess its just not as taboo in the Irish culture, im cool with that. But im never going swinging in Irland.
Probably a good idea to not go swinging in Ireland.
DeleteI really do want to know if the characters being OK with the father being so much older than the mother is an Irish cultural thing, an Irish small village cultural thing, or just the way things work in this movie world (there are plenty of American films, for example, where the morals of the characters aren't quite the same as the morals of our society). Extra credit to anyone who does research on this and finds the answer!
I think that the theme of this movie is community. Throughout the entire movie, the two men go on this crazy adventure which puts them in situations they've never been faced with before, and in the end, they end up neeeding the help of their whole community in order to succeed. These two old men can never pull it off themselves, and in the end, they always need to turn to someone else. And thats a very powerful theme. In the end, everyones happy, even if some of those activities wouldn't be deemed "legal" in the US... But that's okay. It's Ireland.
ReplyDeleteWhat did I learn from this movie about Irish culture? Outside of the stereotypical "The Irish are drunks"? Well, I learned that the British Isles are beautiful. It wasn't filmed in Ireland, but boy, was it pretty. They're farily religious and close-knit folk. Supersticious at that. But nontheless, very friendly, neigborly sorts. Manybe a little bit conniving.... But let's admit. Who would pass on the chance to get 8 Million dollars? Certainly not me.
Where was it filmed? I'm curious.
DeleteThe Isle of Man. It's a pretty decent sized island off the eastern coast of England.
DeleteI would love to know more about these underage drinking and "dirty old men" parts. We need to find an Irish person to ask. I want to know how normal these are.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a great movie, with a great plot and story, I thought it was super hilarious in the right parts, and had an amazing ending. Now, would I say that Ned would have wanted that to happen? Probably not. But I think it was a good idea that they separated the money for everyone in town, but I thought it was hilarious that he pretty much bribed everyone to be quiet just so he could get the money.
ReplyDelete(sorry if this is short, I'm on my phone.)
I'll forgive it for being short, just this once ;)
DeleteC.J. Barrett:
ReplyDeleteThe theme is easily friendship, and community. Exhibited obviously by the two main character's long lasting friendship, and how the whole village bands together to pull off something ridiculous to benefit them all. I didn't feel too strongly about the child drinking, since its really quite common to give children a small amount of alcohol at joyous occasions. The smoking was a bit worse, but I suppose cultural differences just may be to such an extent that's acceptable.
Well, "obviously"!
Delete