The Music School

This episode of PBS's 'The American Short Story' seriesis based on a story by John Updike. Your reaction to it will, in large part, depend on your opinion of Updike, and his long series of stories and novels that examined the conflict between how life was supposed to be and how it was in post-war Connecticutt. I was rarely impressed with his muddled characters who knew they were doing wrong by their standards, but who lacked the courage to either stop sinning or decide to absent themselves from that sort of life.

That being the case, I was not terribly impressed by this story, which consists of the reflections of a man who does not understand his motivations amidst the conflicting signals of the world, his senses, and his beliefs. He feels they should all be the same, tell the same story, and lacks the courage to understand that the stories are either false, or signs that they all form part of a greater story.

I found a VHS copy of this short film for sale online years ago for $1 and, being a huge fan of this exquisite story, I took the plunge. While I admire the attempt to create a film of "The Music School," love this erudite (and not always easy to locate) PBS series of literary films, and was happy to see the always interesting John Korty as director, the end product here is a rather stilted, perfunctory production. Still, it's worth a look for anyone who's had the good fortune to read (or reread) Updike's original work despite this short film not adding anything meaningful to add to the brilliant narrative. In fact, it's a rather desultory attempt at bringing what may be an unfilmable work to the screen. And that's its strength: it's an earnest work that admirably tries to extend a key text to a wider audience. Recommended for anyone who enjoys literary filmmaking (even when it doesn't succeed) or the importance of existential writing and its meaningful approach to examining the challenges of living in an often bewildering, mechanized world.