Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Can you imagine finally seeing that (and the Statue of Liberty) after spending a couple weeks crossing the ocean cramped on a ship with a couple thousand other people?
It even gives me chills thinking about it.
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I agree, that was the same feeling I got looking at it. I never realized just how long Manhattan has been impressive for, it goes wayyyyy back, that height and density sooo long ago. They were miles ahead of almost every 2024 city, but in the 20s, that's so wild. But the awe and bewilderment experienced by those immigrants is hard to fathom, it would have been unimaginable in Europe, but especially in Eastern Europe. The chills feeling I got seeing the picture is the same one I got seeing the opening scene of Angels in America. It was a play originally, and adapted into two @ 3 hours each episodes by HBO in 2003. It was that early 2000s era when US cable networks were just starting to come out with those really critically acclaimed shows, and becoming the dominant force in high quality critically loved series. And boy did HBO knock it out of the park, it was a masterclass in how to adapt a play and get it just right. So naturally it swept all the major awards top honours. Most impressive of all to me is that there were EIGHT top billing main actors, and every single one of them received an Emmy nomination for acting (either lead or supporting). That's astonishing, I've never heard of any tv show, miniseries, or even movie with eight actors nominated for a major acting category in the same year. Although many factors were at play, the critical success of this miniseries along with the same success for new weekly shows (aka Sopranos) really propelled HBO into a critical darling. Here's an interesting tidbit: from the first award given for Outstanding Drama in 1951 all the way to 2003, a network series has always won. Each and every year. NBC, ABC, CBS etc. But in 2004, Sopranos won it, a first for any non basic network (HBO). And astoundingly, since winning for the 1st time ever in 2004, a cable series has won the award
every year since (2004-2024). It was so sudden, yet changed the playing field forever.
ANYWAYS, sorry I went off topic, but I really think it is one of the most well crafted films. It's a tough subject matter to tackle and very moving. But the reason I brought it up is because the opening scene is with a rabbi giving a eulogy at a funeral. But it was surprisingly poignant, one part of his eulogy really matched the feeling of that old time skyline and the gravity of those migrations. And you certainly don't need to be Jewish to appreciate or share the sentiments expressed, it's universal (also including a YouTube link to the performance in the show):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXJ3PjeQ1NI
She was not a person but a whole kind of person, the ones who crossed the ocean, who brought with us to America the villages of Russia and Lithuania - and how we struggled, and how we fought, for the family, for the Jewish home, so that you would not grow up here, in this strange place, in the melting pot where nothing melted. Descendants of this immigrant woman, you do not grow up in America, you and your children and their children with the goyische names. You do not live in America. No such place exists. Your clay is the clay of some Litvak shtetl, your air the air of the steppes - because she carried the old world on her back across the ocean, in a boat, and she put it down on Grand Concourse Avenue, or in Flatbush, and she worked that earth into your bones, and you pass it to your children, this ancient, ancient culture and home.
You can never make that crossing that she made, for such great voyages in this world do not anymore exist. But every day of your lives the miles that voyage between that place and this one you cross. Every day. You understand me? In you that journey is.
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and land-locked nature of the city 
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