Eclipse

 

So, a couple of weeks ago, we had that total eclipse in my neck of the woods and I was worried how crazy the roads would be travelling to Niagara Falls. I need not have worried because the streets were almost vacant of traffic. Tons came to the Falls only to be disappointed because we had cloud cover, although a bit of a break came where people could see a bit of the eclipse. I was talking to a client, via Zoom, when this was happening but we both kept glancing out our perspective windows noticing it getting jet black for  a minute before it became daylight once again. Funny, the sun peaked out 10 minutes later becoming a clear sky for the remainder of the day…hahahaaaa. Now, it seems many people are having eye issues because these morons decided to look into the eclipse despite repeated warnings not to do this…sigh. This made me think of movies that had a solar eclipse in the movie so I went with that.

1. A CONNECTICUT YANKEE-1931

I haven’t seen this film version in decades and I want to see it again because I remember laughing at the antics of Will Rogers. In this version, Rogers plays a radio man sent to a mansion to fix a radio, from what I remember, a suit of armour falls on top of him and he wakes up during the reign of King Arthur. He is ready to be killed for being a witch but his rodeo rope antics and matches make people stop from killing him. I seem to remember he “foresaw” the eclipse which made more people believe him to be better than Merlin. Merlin and Morgan Le Fay are the evil doers and Will Rogers must outwit them. I enjoyed this movie and fell for Will Rogers who was a major star back then and very much endeared to the public so, when he died in a plane crash in 1935, the world was devastated.

2. A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT-1949

This version, which I also saw decades ago, is a musical starring Bing Crosby, this time as a singing mechanic who bumps his head and winds up in King Arthur’s court. There he meets and falls in love with Rhonda Fleming while avoiding being killed when he predicts the solar eclipse. This is a musical remake of the Mark Twain classic and one that I also enjoyed. 

3. LADYHAWKE-1985

I love this fairy tale with a young Matthew Broderick as a thief who falls into the sad tale of love when he meets Rutger Hauer with his hawk. At night, the boy meets up with a beautiful woman, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, with a wolf. They venture to an old castle where they meet up with a friar who tells the young thief that these 2 people are in love but a spell was cast on them so they could never be together because , when day comes, she turns into the hawk and , when night comes, as she transforms back into h7man form, Rutger turns into the wolf. The only way to break this curse involves a solar eclipse. I got a major crush on Rutger Hauer when I saw this film and just loved the Grimm fairy tale feel of this movie.

What movies can you think of that show a solar eclipse? Did you watch the eclipse, with protective glasses, of course?