Love Song for Bobby Long

 

I could go on forever about this movie and its music.  One, I love New Orleans and it is the central landscape and culture of the film.  Two, the dialogue interests me because there’s plenty of literary references to Moliere, Dickens, Twain, Auden, etc.  That tugs at my literature heart.  There’s a character whom you both love and are confused by because of his mistakes and how he has complicated his life by them.  You want to smack him while at the same time just sit on the porch enjoying a glass of bourbon and talk about literature, society, the city.

This movie also includes the Carson McCullers novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a paperback book that Purselane reads while waiting to get on the train but upon finishing it, changes her mind and stays in New Orleans.  I finally read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter last summer, and it was a very good read.  Also, the movie’s screenplay is based on the Ronald Everett Capps novel Off Magazine Street.  I should read it someday.

The soundtrack features several songs written and performed by Grayson Capps, plus a few old traditional songs like “Barbara Allen” being performed by John Travolta while sitting outside with friends for a cookout.  By the way, there are many versions of “The Ballad of Barbara Allen.”   A Myspace music profile was created by someone to feature several songs most loved from the film; Give it a listen.