Culturebox: Double Fantasy, Triple Crown

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movies Double Fantasy, Triple Crown Bio-pics of John Lennon and Secretariat make an oddly fitting pairing. By Dana Stevens Posted Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010, at 7:51 PM ET This week, two legendary figures have their legends gilded--and gelded--by well-executed but conventional biopic treatments: John Lennon, whose pre-Beatle adolescence is ploddingly chronicled in Nowhere Boy (the Weinstein Company), and Secretariat, whose record-breaking 1973 Triple Crown victory is suspenselessly re-enacted in Secretariat (Disney). In a strange way, these films make for a kind of thematic double feature. Both of them argue that their subject's seemingly preternatural gifts were a direct consequence of their relationships with their powerful, doting, often flawed mothers. And both the boy from Liverpool and the colt from Virginia had adoptive mothers who were crucial to their adult success. Lennon's unstable, depressive birth mother, Julia, farmed him out as a small boy to her stern but loving sister Mimi, who would raise him to adulthood. As for Secretariat, his equine mother, Somethingroyal--about whose emotional stability little is known--entrusted him after weaning to his fanatically dedicated owner, Penny Chenery, who, for reasons that the movie never makes clear, somehow knew that this horse was destined for racing greatness. Of these two films, I'd be quicker to recommend Nowhere Boy (though Secretariat, as we'll see, is not without its own curious waxworks charm.) The story of Lennon's early years is dramatic and painful enough to survive an imperfect retelling, even if you're already familiar with the stations of the cross. In the space of about one year, Lennon initiated a reconciliation with his long semi-estranged mother; got his first guitar from her as a gift; started a skiffle band called The Quarrymen with his schoolmates; met Paul McCartney and began their collaboration; and learned that his mother, walking home from Aunt Mimi's house after a visit, had been struck by a car and killed. To continue reading, click here. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Harry Reid Begs Nevadans To Remember All the Good Things He's Done for Them What Is the 60 Plus Association, and Where Did It Get $6 Million To Spend on Anti-Dem Ads? Why Roy Halladay's No-Hitter Was Such a Rare and Amazing Event	Advertisement
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