Once in a Blue Moon

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As a child in the 1950's, a teenager in the 1960's, and a young man in the 1970's, I loved going to the movies.

As a matter of fact, I made my living for decades working for a major motion picture studio.

But as the years went on, movies changed. They became cruder, less intelligent and more childish, while at the same time laden with liberal propaganda messaging.

It became harder and harder for me to find a new movie I actually wanted to go to see in a theater.

Then a few years ago, I began slowly losing my hearing, which made movie theater going for me even more difficult. The fact that some time ago filmmakers made the decision to alter the soundtrack balance between dialogue, sound effects and music tracks didn't help either.

Dialogue, more often than not, was dialed down while background sounds were heightened. The fact that many movie actors whispered or mumbled their lines only added to the problem.

Soon going to the movies for me became a rarity. To make a long story even longer, I hadn't been to a movie theater in years. Once in a great while a film would come out that really interested me, as was the case of "Stan & Ollie" back in 2018, but those times were rare.

Then a few days ago I read a review of a new picture called "Blue Moon," a story about song lyricist Lorenz Hart, of Rodgers and Hart fame. I always loved the 20th Century "Great American Songbook" as it was often called, popular music written by the world's best; Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, and Rodgers and Hart, to name a few of the top.

The "Blue Moon" review intrigued me. At last here was a movie that I wanted to see. Not a movie about comic book heroes, not a romcom, not a politically correct propaganda message, not another loud, crude teenage comedy.

Here was a picture that dealt with real people, real emotions, in an interesting time and place of American culture. And I know it had music I would love.

So even though I knew nothing of the actors in it, the director or the writer and even with my hearing difficulties, I thought I'd try it. I called up my brother and we went to see it. Yes, I went to the movies again and I was glad I did.

The picture was directed by Richard Linklater and written by Robert Kaplow. It takes place all on one evening in the mid 1940's at the bar in Sardi's famous Broadway restaurant on opening night of "Oklahoma!," a new musical by Hart's former colleague Richard Rodgers who has since teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein.

Lorenz Hart was played by Ethan Hawke in a standout performance. It also starred Andrew Scott as Rodgers, and featured Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Jonal Lees.

All the action in the picture takes place in "real time" and Hawke is in every scene. It's a sad movie, but I knew that going in. Lorenz Hart was a sad, unfulfilled man. He was a genius as a song writer, but his personal life was a major disappointment to him and to those around him.

Congratulations to Sony Pictures Classics for releasing this intelligent film at a time that a movie of this sort just isn't getting made anymore.

The film is a remarkable achievement on many levels, not the least of which is that its subject matter focuses on the life of one of America's most talented lyricists in musical theater, a man who is for the most part unknown today.

Hart was diminutive in physical stature, but a giant in the music industry. Consider some of his songs.

In addition to "Blue Moon," he wrote "The Lady is a Tramp," "Manhattan," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "My Funny Valentine," "Isn't it Romantic?" "With a Song in my Heart," "This Can't be Love," and many, many others.

And so I'm happy to say that I went to the movies again and I had a really good time. I didn't have the difficulty hearing I thought I might have.

The popcorn wasn't great, but the rest of the moving going experience was a good one. It goes to show that once in a blue moon a new movie comes out that I can enjoy. "Blue Moon" was that once in a blue moon for me.

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