I finally saw a live-action non-musical movie version of J.M. Barrie's eternally youthful male Peter Pan. I was only slightly acquainted with this story as a child and until now only saw snippets of the Disney version, the famous live-action one with a woman in the titular role, and Hook, which is more of a contemporary modernization of the show than a proper movie adaptation.
I don't tend to sympathize with the villian, but in this case I feel bad for poor ol' Captain James Hook. His goal in life is to defeat a child-- a smug little boy-child!-- and he's lost his right hand to a ticking crocodile (symbolism of a biological clock or something?), and <SPOILER ALERT> he dies alone with no one (well, no female) to love or mourn him. This guy's got it rough, and I pity the fool. And there's some real Oedipal/Electraesque (Electracal? Electran?) about the fact that he and Mr. Darling, the father, are traditionally played by the same actor to better highlight the poignant struggle between children and parents when it comes to growing up. It's not hard to see why this is a children's classic, but it's also so very tragic and heartbreaking. It is true nostalgia, for algia is Latin for "pain", and nostalgia is to "remember with pain". That is what it means to realize that you're not a child any more, and it's rougher than realizing that you're too tall to enjoy the McDonald's or Burger King play time area.
Still, I enjoyed the movie and think it was artfully directed.
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