Now on DVD and a "must" for poetry lovers -- A FANATIC HEART: Bob Geldof on W.B. Yeats

Those who love the poems of W. B. Yeats -- is there anyone who truly cares about poetry that could not? -- will make a bee-line for the Irish documentary, A FANATIC HEART: Bob Geldof on W.B. Yeats (produced, I believe, for television) that made its debut back in 2016 and is finally reaching our shores in a three-disc DVD package (two DVDs and one CD) via MVD Visual. Here you will get not only a good deal of the poetry but also the history, personality and character of Yeats, as well as a grounding regarding the poet's contribution to the making of modern Ireland.

As directed by Gerry Hoban (shown at left) and written by Roy Foster and Bob Geldof (the latter of whom, shown above, acts as our guide and narrator), this 100-minute documentary may not offer reams of new information to Yeats scholars, but for those of us who know his poetry but not that much about his life nor how it plays into the slow and sometimes fiery creation of an Ireland that is still evolving, the film should be eye-opening, thought-provoking and mind-expanding.

History and poetry, together with character, carnality, mysticism and politics have seldom come together in such a surprising and bracing manner. Best of all, perhaps, is how Geldof and company are able to give us Yeats the great poet and Yeats the bumbling, foolish man (both are pictured below),

without in any way demeaning either. As I guess we ought to know by now -- and as the life here makes abundantly clear -- great art often comes from anything-but-great human beings.

Granted, we must remember that this was a life lived over a century ago. Still, this one -- filled as it was with everything from a ridiculously lengthy unrequited love and coming-of-age sexually (if perhaps ever?) at a very advanced age to a bizarre reliance on seances, horoscopes and oh-god-so-much-more -- may have your jaw drops further and further as this documentary moves along. What a wild and crazy guy! And yet: There are those poems.

Reading them to us are about as fine array of Irish actors and writers as you'll find under one roof (or film). From Stephen Fry, Edna O'Brien and Liam Neeson (above, and the greatest living voice we now have, I believe) to Colin Farrell (below), Dominic West (who reads perhaps Yeats' greatest work, The Second Coming, which is suddenly timely all over again, thanks to Donald Trump) and Richard E. Grant (who tears up so beautifully, unexpectedly and yet appropriately as he reads a certain line), the list goes on and on, and their readings will have you going back again, very likely as soon as possible, to the source.

We also get some time spent with the film's co-writer Foster (as well as historian and Yeats biographer), below, who, along with Geldof, fills us in on the history and politics of the poet's time. And though what we're told, I think, comes rather strongly from Geldof's ideas and viewpoint, I must say that the fellow makes awfully good sense most of the time.

Yeats' own ideas and feelings about Ireland and what it could and should become are seen here within the history of his time that includes Lady Gregory, the Abbey theatre and J. M. Synge, as well as the poet's unrequited love, Maud Gonne, below.

As Geldof (at left, below, with Van Morrison) muses along the way, this man, who wrote such fine poems of love, may never have really understood the deeper meaning of that word at all. Even so, our narrator's final thoughts about Yeats and what Ireland has become, will very probably bring tears to your eyes. They did to mine. And I'm not even Irish. 

From MVD Entertainment Group, this enormous three-disc set features the documentary, a bonus disc full of extras, and a CD of readings of the poet's work, some of which has been set to music. In all there are nearly three hours of extras here, only a bit of which I've had time for -- as of the posting of this review. The package hits the street this Friday, February 9 -- for purchase (and I would hope) rental, too.

In John Martoccia's religious melodrama, DEATH OF A TREE, faith goes bonkers -- yet again

It begins with a seemingly endless round of preach, preach, preach, and closes with a climax of gun-fueled melodrama followed by a denouement of more preaching (and immediate conversion, of course, as most of these faith-based films allow for zero doubt). In between, DEATH OF A TREE, the second movie from John Martoccia, ambles along with scene after scene intended to show us how foul our current life style really is: How women wear clothes that are far too skimpy (never mind that our leading man is almost constantly seen in a tank top that reveals his arms and torso in all their glory: let the ladies take the blame, as usual); how one's reputation is far more important than what that person believes (wives, of course, are the culprits here; hus-bands do the right thing); and how abortion is the biggest crime imagin-able, while god, the Catholic Church and the Bible are the only true law.

If all this strikes you as the gospel to live by, you're gonna love the movie. If not, there may be a few problems, since Mr. Martoccia (pictured at right), as both writer and direc-tor, has saddled his film with characters who would rather yak about everything than probe their own behavior in more than cursory fashion or -- heaven forfend -- behave in a way that is more than cliché. This man is old school, for sure, and while this in itself could prove interesting if he were willing to go deeply into things, instead he relies on tried-and-true Catholic dogma to solve everything.

Further, he has his characters behave in ways that are simply too stupid to countenance, unless he intentionally wants to hand us a movie that keeps threatening to descend (then finally falls utterly) into the realm of camp. To give just the main example: He has his hero, the hot-looking Ronnie Marmo (above), keep placing temptation in his own way, despite the warning of friends and priest -- again and again and again -- until he falls for it.  Wow: That's a shockeroo.

Further, his leading lady, Gracie Tyrrell (above, left), exhibits most of the signs of a woman genuinely in love -- until his hero's narrow-minded obsessions or her own sudden mental instability do her in. Which is it, Mr. Martoccia? Is there simply no hope for anyone on this earth unless they bow down to patriarchy and Catholic dogma and "do the right thing"? (I suspect, on the basis of Death of a Tree, that the filmmaker is no fan of the current Pope.)

The movie begins with a poem written on the screen, and we see a man praying while being screamed at and threatened by another man. Then that prayerful one starts preaching -- at himself, at the other characters, and of course at us in the audience, and this simply never ends. The film turns out to be one long sermon by people who seem so limited in their understanding of life, human nature, and especially the enormity of that creation called god, that this constricts them and their movie entirely.

More poetry occurs now and then throughout, and we eventually discover that our hero is an artist. The surprisingly sophisticated art shown here looks actually pretty good, but the nitwit dialog given our hero to spout about it makes it seems nearly impossible that this guy could have created that art on his own. The dialog, in addition to the preaching, is full of male prerogative and scriptural cliche ("The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak), with a villain who, in addition to all else, is grammar-challenged. Says he: "There is a lot of girls I could bang."

Oddly, if audiences manage to sit through this debacle -- which, at only 79 minutes, is still far too repetitive -- they may actually emerge chastened, cleansed and finally understanding that, thanks to the stranglehold of religion on some brainwashed minds, no one in this movie has a chance in hell of leading an intelligent, fulfilling life.

Death of a Tree opens today at Manhattan's Quad Cinema, with a Q&A taking place by both John Martoccia (writer/director/producer) and Ronnie Marmo (lead actor) after the 7:45pm screenings on Wednesday April 8th and Thursday April 9th.