The Legend of 1900

Jazz Music
Must Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz taken on Dec. 24, 2008

Plot summary
Max Tooney enters an antique shop just after World War II for the
purpose of pawning his trumpet. He asks if he can play it one last
time, and proceeds to play a piece that the shopkeeper recognizes
from a broken record master he found inside a recently-acquired
second-hand piano. He asks who had written and played the music.
At that, the story of 1900 is related to the shopkeeper (and the
viewer) in the form of a flashback, and the story takes off from
there. 1900 was found abandoned on the ship, a mere baby in a
hand basket, and likely the son of poor immigrants from steerage.
Danny, a coal-man from the boiler room, is determined to raise the
boy as his own. He names the boy Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon
1900 (a combination his own name, the year, and an advertisement
found in the basket) and hides him from the ship's officers. Sadly, a
few years later, Danny is killed in a workplace accident, and 1900 is
forced to survive aboard the SS. Virginian as an orphan. For many
years, he travels back and forth across the Atlantic, keeping a low
profile and apparently learning the several languages spoken by the
immigrants in Third Class.
The boy shows a particular gift for music, however, and eventually
grows up and joins the ship's orchestra. He befriends Max when he
embarks in 1926, but never leaves the vessel, even when presented
the opportunity to fashion a new life with a pretty immigrant girl.
Apparently, the outside world is too "big" for his imagination at this
point. But he stays current with outside musical trends (either
through records or sheet music, we are never told for sure) and
gains a considerable reputation.
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At one point in the film Jelly Roll Morton, of New Orleans jazz fame,
comes aboard to challenge 1900 to a piano duel. 1900 merely toys
with the hot-tempered Morton, even going so far as to play a notefor-note version of an original tune Morton just played. In the end,
the ship-bound 1900 defeats Morton handily.
A record producer, having heard of 1900's prowess, brings a
primitive recording apparatus aboard and cuts a demo record of a
1900 original composition, but the pianist ends up smashing it. He is
offended at the prospect of anyone hearing the music without him
performing it.
The story flashes back to the mid-1940s periodically, as we see Max
(who leaves the ship's orchestra in 1933) trying to lure 1900 out of
the now-deserted hulk of the ship. Having served as a hospital ship
and transport in World War II, she is scheduled to be scuttled and
sunk far offshore. Max manages to get aboard the ship with the
recording 1900 made long ago, and attempts to convince him to
leave the ship, but he is too daunted by the size of the world.
Feeling his fate is tied to the ship, he simply cannot bring himself to
leave the only home he has known. In the end, it is assumed he has
died with the Virginian as she blows up and sinks.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_1900#Plot taken
on Dec. 24, 2008

Movie Review
by Anthony Leong
"The Legend of 1900" is the latest masterpiece from acclaimed
director Giuseppe Tornatore, the man behind the Oscar-winning
"Cinema Paradiso", marking his return to film-making after a four
year absence (his last film was 1995's "The Star Maker"). Based on
the novel by Alessandro Baricco, "The Legend of 1900" is not only
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Tornatore's first English-language film, but it is probably his most

ambitious film to date, a five-decade epic that takes place aboard
the confines of a cruise ship. Unfortunately, like his breakthrough
"Cinema Paradiso", North American studio executives have once
again (Miramax with "Cinema Paradiso", and Fine Line with his
latest) meddled with Tornatore's cut of the film, and shrunk the
original 160 minute running time of the Italian version down to just
a little over two hours. And though the film is still a remarkable
achievement despite the re-editing, it is readily apparent that the
emotional resonance of the story has taken a hit in the interest of
brevity.
I found him on the first month of the first year of this friggin' new
century... so I calls 'im '1900'!
The story is told through the reminiscences of a soon-to-be-retired
trumpet player named Max (Pruitt Taylor Vince of "Heavy"), who was
the closest and only friend to a long-forgotten piano virtuoso named
Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon 1900, or 1900 for short. It begins in the
year 1900, when an engine room worker (Bill Nunn of "He Got
Game") finds an abandoned baby on board the luxury liner The
Virginian. He names the child after the year, and decides to adopt
him as his own. Over the years, the child grows up and develops an
uncanny ear for music and a remarkable talent for playing the
piano. By the time 1900 reaches his twenties (played by Tim Roth of
"Pulp Fiction"), he has become a permanent fixture aboard the ship,
charming audiences with music 'that's never been heard before'. As
word of his talent spreads, he soon attracts the attention of record
producers, publicists, and even Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams
III of "The General's Daughter"), the father of Jazz, who wants to
challenge the prodigy to a piano duel.
I've been hearing a lot of talk about a guy... he's supposed to have
been born on this ship, and never been off it since.
However, despite being on the verge of fame and fortune, 1900
lives a lonely existence, having never set foot off the ship
throughout his life. Each roundtrip of The Virginian between Italy
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and New York brings thousands of new faces into 1900's world, but it
is only temporary, as they all eventually disembark to start life anew
in America, leaving the piano player behind. Despite the calls of
fame, fortune, or even the affections of a young woman (Melanie
Thierry), 1900 steadfastly remains on board the ship, too frightened
of the possibilities and new experiences that await him on dry land.
1900 was born on the ship, and it seems that is where he will die.
Leave this ship, marry a nice woman, and have children... all those
things in life that are not immense, but are worth the effort.
Despite the historical trappings, "The Legend of 1900" is by no
means a true historical account of actual events (other than Jelly
Roll Morton, who was a real person). Instead, Tornatore has crafted
an allegorical film that is a part-fairy tale, part-tragedy, and
nonetheless inspiring. Through the character of 1900, Tornatore
explores the immigrant experience, the fear of change within all of
us, and how some of us find the courage to overcome such fears.
Sentimental without becoming schmaltzy, this is a story told in the
Tornatore tradition that explores the simple emotions of day-to-day
experience. With the addition of Ennio Morricone's masterful score,
this is a film that, despite its flaws (including an episodic narrative
structure and spots of laggard pacing), manages to entertain the
senses and warm the heart.
They say this guy makes music that's never been heard before.
Part of why this film works so well is because of its main character.
Roth excels in his portrayal of 1900, a man who commands the
ebony and ivory yet shies away from what he does not understand.
Played with both resolve and panache, 1900 is an enigmatic and
charismatic character that audiences can easily warm up to and
identify with. Vince, whose character never veers to far from
fulfilling the role of narrator and sounding board for 1900, fills his
role admirably, though it would have been nice if we had been given
more background on an otherwise throwaway character. Finally,
Clarence Williams III does a memorable turn as Jazz great Jelly Roll
Morton in the film's highlight sequence where the two musicians
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square off against one another to find out who is the best.
With "The Legend of 1900", Tornatore has prepared a sumptuous
cinematic feast with an engaging story about an enigmatic
character, told in a whimsical yet poignant manner. Though it may
not have the emotional intensity of some of Tornatore's earlier films
and suffers from having over half-an-hour left on the cutting-room
floor, "The Legend of 1900" is still definitely worth a look.
Source: http://www.mediacircus.net/legend.html taken on Dec. 24,
2008

Memorable quotes for The Legend of 1900

Max: What is wrong with you?
1900: I can't help it. Music makes me cry.
________________________________________
Max: I often thought about him during the war; if only 1900 were
here, who knows what he'd do, what he'd say. 'Fuck war' he'd say.
But somehow, coming from me, it wasn't the same.
________________________________________
1900: And fuck jazz, too.
________________________________________
1900: Hey, Max, gimme a cigarette, will you?
Max: [bitterly] You're not handling this well.
1900: [calmly] Just gimme a cigarette.
Max: [matter of factly] You don't smoke. What is the matter with
you? You could lick this guy with one hand, come on!
1900: [getting agitated] You gonna gimme a cigarette?
Max: [emphatically] We're gonna be chucking coal a couple a
hundred years and all you can say is...
1900: Give me a *fucking* cigarette, will you?
[Max throws him a cigarette angrily]
________________________________________
Jelly Roll Morton: [Jelly Roll Morton enters the hall for the duel,
meeting 1900 for the first time] I believe you're sitting in my seat.
1900: [stands, good-naturedly] You're the one that invented jazz,
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right?
Jelly Roll Morton: That's what they say. And you're the one who can't
play without the ocean under his ass, right?
1900: That's what they say.
[moves to shake hands, but gets snubbed]
________________________________________
Jelly Roll Morton: [before starting his last piece for the duel-to 1900]
You can stick this up your ass.
1900: [before starting his last piece of the duel-to Jelly Roll Morton]
You asked for it, asshole.
________________________________________
1900: Winter comes, you wish it was summer. Summer comes, you
live in dread of winter. That's why we never tire of travel.
________________________________________
Danny Boodmann: My son grow up to be a lawyer, I swear I'll kill him
myself
________________________________________
Max: You're never really done for, as long as you've got a good story
and someone to tell it to.
________________________________________
Max: Sometimes that is the way you have to do it: you go right back
to the beginning.
________________________________________
1900: It wasn't what I saw that stopped me Max... it was what I
didn't see.
________________________________________
1900: Take piano: keys begin, keys end. You know there are 88 of
them. Nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You're
infinite... And on those keys, the music that you can make... is
infinite. I like that. That I can live by...
________________________________________
1900: You rolled out in front of me a keyboard of millions of keys,
millions and billions of keys that never end. And that's the truth
Max, that they never end. That keyboard is infinite... and if that
keyboard is infinite, then on that keyboard there is no music you can
play. You're sitting on the wrong bench... That is God's piano.
________________________________________
1900: Christ, did you... did you see the streets, just the streets?
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There were thousands of them! Then how you do it down there, how
do you choose just one... one woman, one house, one landscape to
look at, one way to die...?
________________________________________
1900: Land? Land is a ship too big for me, it's a woman too
beautiful, it's a voyage too long, perfume too strong...
________________________________________
1900: [after his grand finale on the piano, he lights the cigarette on
the strings of the piano, walks to Jelly Roll Morton and says] You
smoke it.
1900: I don't know how.
________________________________________
The Young 1900 II: Fuck the regulations!
________________________________________
Max: Leave the ship, marry a nice woman, and have children. All
those things in life which are not immense but are worth the effort.
Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120731/quotes taken on Dec.
24, 2008