BY CHRISTOPHER STAMM
GUEST MOVIE REVIEWER
The Legend of 1900 (now streaming on Amazon)
Rated R – for language and adult themes, but if rated today, it would be a PG-13
Well, my friends, this was a tough weekend for your intrepid movie buff, and I could not make it to the theatre to see a new film for you. But, as always, I have one for you tucked away in the way-back machine.
The Legend of 1900 came out in 1998, failed at the box office, won a bunch of awards, and vanished into near obscurity shortly after.
I stumbled upon this one by accident. It was on late one night, and I was wide awake, and I caught it as it started. Two hours and 49 minutes later, the credits rolled and I was stunned at what I had just watched. There are no action set pieces, no whirlwind romances to cheer for, no love triangles. There is only the story of a man named Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred, or “1900” for short.
Found abandoned on a steam liner in 1900 by a coal stoker, and raised as his own on the ship, 1900 grows up within the ship and among its passages, learning about the sea. And one fateful day, he sits down at a grand piano and is revealed to be a musical prodigy.
We, the viewers, learn about 1900’s story through flashbacks, as his story is being told to a music shop owner by Max Tooney, who boarded the ship in 1927 as a trumpet player in the ship’s band and who becomes 1900’s best friend.
Throughout the film, we learn about 1900 and his life and his adventures, and we are left to wonder, has he ever left the ship and walked on solid ground?
As always, to tell you more would be a disservice to you and the film. Don’t be put off by its long run time; this movie will draw you in and keep you there, and there is one sequence involving a storm and a piano that is breathtaking.
Here is another one that tanked at the box office, and that’s a shame, because we have enough slam bang movies out there and, after a while, they all become the same. But films like The Legend of 1900 only come along once in a while, and every time they fail at the box office, it takes longer to get another quality film back out there. These types of movies failing is evidence of why we cannot have nice things.
I give it four out of five stars. See this one out, my friends. It’s available on Amazon streaming. You will not regret it. After all, “A good story is worth more than an old trumpet.”