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uchuek00@umail.ucsb.edu writes:
Hello there.

I just finished watching The Sweet Hereafter for my film class, and it was a wonderful movie. How can you compare such an incredible movie to something as heavy handed and as poorly acted as Simon Birch? Honestly, the only comparison you can draw between the two is the bus accident, and even then -- in Simon Birch the accident is no where as devastating as it is in The Sweet Hereafter, which was a carefully crafted and beautifully written film.

Maybe your problem was seeing The Sweet Hereafter on television. In fact, I'll give you credit and say that that's what it was. The Sweet Hereafter was shot on a 2:1 ratio, meaning -- if you saw it on video minus letterboxing, then you are missing 1/2 a screen that the film maker intended for you to see. Maybe that's what the problem was. Or at least I should hope so. Anyways, it seems completely ridiculous to compare these two films with one another.

I'm sorry -- but Simon Birch was the first movie I'd ever actually left in the middle of to use the restroom. I didn't even have to go. I just needed to get out of that overwrought, overly Christianized piece of propaganda.
Kim
P.S. Who gets killed by a hit to the head with a baseball? Especially when the hit was as weak as Simon's was?

The Flick Filosopher responds:
I think perhaps you missed the point of my review. I wasn't comparing the two films, just using the coincidence of the bus accident to discuss them together and contrast them. As I say right in the beginning of the review, they are two very different films. The Sweet Hereafter is a fabulous film -- Simon Birch is not. I thought my sarcastic discussion of "God's plan" in Simon Birch made it clear that I felt as you do, that Simon is, to quote you, an "overwrought, overly Christianized piece of propaganda." Okay, I did then go on to say that I thought Simon was delightful, but you have to weigh that against everything I'd previously written.
Again, my final paragraph -- "Where Simon Birch seems to take some kind of comfort in the concept of a manipulative God, The Sweet Hereafter offers no reassurances of any kind. Accidents become tragedies because we make them so, not only by our reactions to personal loss but by how we choose to go on living." -- I thought made it clear that I see The Sweet Hereafter as a much more mature film.
Perhaps I was being too subtle in calling Simon Birch "delightful" -- I did hope that readers would take that with a grain of salt, considering what had come before. As much as I disagreed with much of what the film had to say, I did think that the film had some excellent performances, especially from Joseph Mazzello and the kid who played Simon.
Thank you for writing. It's great to hear from other thoughtful film fans.

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