A Collection of Movie Poems (By Ray Gallucci)

The following is a collection of five movie based poems submitted by one of our very talented contributors…. writer & poet, Ray Gallucci.

 

SPY IN THE SKY

(Based on the movie, Eye in the Sky, ”which focuses on several sets of military and government personnel trying to decide whether to launch a drone strike that will almost certainly result in civilian casualties.  While the prospective targets are Al-Shabaab militants in Nairobi, Kenya, those deciding their fate are scattered across the globe, contemplating their prey via high-in-the-sky surveillance drones hovering above the bad guys’ safe house.  The key point here, though, is this is a British operation.  Though the Hellfire missiles will be launched, if they are, by U.S. military personnel at a base in Las Vegas, the folks trying to determine whether to go ahead are mostly located at Whitehall in London and a military base in Sussex.”  Godfrey Cheshire, March 11, 2016, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eye-in-the-sky-2016)

 

Certainly conceivable,

Consciences deceivable.

Launch, then irretrievable

Missile on its path.

 

When there’s death collateral,

Need choice unilateral

To Hellfire’s lever pull

So unleash its wrath.

 

Claim “All’s justifiable,”

By a mindset pliable.

“Saved more, undeniable

When you do the math.”

 

 

“SLEEPING BEAUTY” (S)WITCH

(Based on the movie Maleficent, a spinoff from “Sleeping Beauty.”  “The tale begins with a flashback to Maleficent as a young girl fairy, befriending a farm boy who’s snuck into her forest on a mission of thievery.  They grow close and continue to see each other, even after the king of a human stronghold on the outskirts of the forest tries to invade Maleficent’s domain and then watches in shock as the heroine and her tree-warrior pals lay waste to his army. As teenagers, the fairy and the human share … true love’s first kiss,” … [but he] stops coming around, breaking the girl’s heart.  Years later, … [a]fter snuggling with Maleficent on a hilltop, [the now adult] Stefan gives her a drink laced with a sleeping potion, prepares to murder her after she’s passed out, then has a failure of nerve.  He slices off her wings instead, and brings them to the king …

The scene of Maleficent waking up on a hilltop with huge scars in her back, then weeping with rage, is the most traumatizing image I’ve seen in a Hollywood fairy tale since the Christ-like sacrifice of Aslan in 2005’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ … Every subsequent action Maleficent takes—including casting a spell on Stefan’s daughter Aurora … that will send her into a coma at age 16 after a finger-prick by a spinning wheel needle—is driven by the trauma of that betrayal.” Matt Zoller Seitz, May 29, 2014, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maleficent-2014)

 

Maleficient’s magnificent

Though altered be the tale

Of our Beauty’s Sleep descent

And wake attempts that failed.

 

Of those portrayed as innocent

By Charles Perrault and Grimms,*

An odor faint with guilty scent

Remained on souls within.

 

The evil queen of ill repute

Was in the end redeemed

By kiss that came from lover true.

Not all was what it seemed.

 

 

WITH TINA FEY

(Based on the movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, ”The Afghanistan-set dramedy is based on an insightful, entertaining 2011 memoir injected with “M*A*S*H”-style irreverence by Chicago Tribune war-zone journalist Kim Barker.  But much has been tweaked in translation.  The title went from ‘The Taliban Shuffle’ to military slang for WTF.  Barker has been reborn as Kim Baker. And her occupation has been re-invented into a TV news correspondent, presumably to provide better on-the-job visuals than watching someone type … [T]here are several scenes where Kim puts herself in harm’s way to get her story … Kim firsts meets Billy Bob Thornton’s crusty general while covering his Marine unit … True sexual tension arrives in the form of Martin Freeman’s rudely rogue-ish Scottish shutterbug and it’s only a matter of time before bickering turns into bedding.”  Susan Wloszczyna, March 4, 2016, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/whiskey-tango-foxtrot-2016)

 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Comedy it’s not

Contrary to its name

And though stars Tina Fey.

 

Off to Afghanistan

As journalist she ran

Endeavoring to claim

Her fortune and her fame.

 

She interviewed Marines

And joined their battle scenes.

Arranged to rescue friend.

Went separate ways at end.

 

From overseas sojourn

“No place like home,” she learned.

Experience she got

Earned her a TV slot.

 

 

AFTER MIDNIGHT

(Based on the movie Midnight Special.”  “How far would you go to protect your child? What if saving him meant letting him go?  … ‘Midnight Special’ respects your intelligence, letting you come to its themes emotionally instead of narratively …  Two men—Roy (Michael Shannon, who has appeared in every Nichols film) and Lucas (Joel Edgerton)—are in a motel room, watching a news story about a manhunt involving a kidnap  His name is Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), and he’s special. He’s so special that an entire religious sect has sprouted up around him, led by Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard).  As Roy and Lucas flee into the night with Alton in the backseat and wearing night vision goggles so they can turn off their headlights to make themselves harder to spot, Calvin’s compound is raided. I t turns out everyone is looking for Alton.  The FBI brings in a specialist to meet with Calvin’s flock named Paul Sevier (Adam Driver), trying to figure what they know about the boy and exactly what this golden child means to them.  It turns out that the cult of Alton worships numeric sequences that the potential prophet has been revealing to them. I t also turns out that these numeric sequences mean something to the government, and they want to know how a child knew them.  Finally, the numbers seem to be pointing Alton, Roy and Lucas to a specific location … Both men need to get Alton there in time; nothing will stop them … And how will Alton’s mother, played by Kirsten Dunst, respond? … There is also an undeniable story of faith buried in ‘Midnight Special’ … [W]hat I take away from ‘Midnight Special’… is images from the film that pass through my mind most… and the jaw-dropping finale.”  Brian Tallerico, March 18, 2016, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-special-2016)

 

A world within a world

That one can never see

Is suddenly unfurled

Quite unsuspectingly.

 

A boy of common birth

With powers unexplained

Connects with other Earth

That over us has reigned.

 

He’s rescued from a cult

By parents and their friend

Who slip through federal hunt

So to his Earth ascend.

 

And though he’s lost to this,

The world to which was born,

His gain leaves only bliss.

No loss should any mourn.

 

 

WHEN RIGHT CONFRONTSEMOTIONS

(Basedon the movie “The Light between Two Oceans”)

 

A lighthouse on a lonely isle.

A boat washed up with orphaned child.

A couple childless in their grief –

Miscarriage snuffed out life so brief.

 

Report the corpse and baby found

If other parent’s still around?

Or bury first and second raise

To compensate for their malaise?

 

Though know it’s wrong, the latter choose–

Can’t bear another child to lose.

How long the secret can they keep

When finally real mother meet?

 

Not easy to the blame assign

When grief from loss and love combine.

But choice once made’s hard to retract,

And so continue “family” act.

 

But in the end right thing they do –

Return the child to parent who

Has also suffered so much loss.

And she forgives, for knows their cost.

 

 

Author Bio:



I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.