Halloween special

[John D. Leighton]

Here's my favorite Peanuts thing of all: in the Halloween
special, after Snoopy gets shot down, he starts wandering over the
"French" countryside. It's all dark, he's alone, wandering through bombed
out towns and ruined farmhouses, all while the War goes on in the
distance and the music plays in a lot of minor keys. It's so sad and all,
it really seems very dramatic. I am very interseted in the First World
War and for me that scene really captures the essence of desperation and
failure that the war represents.
It's weird to say that, but Peanuts is a very deep comic strip
and it wouldn't be consistently voted the most popular strip around if it
was only funny. When Linus tells the story of the manger in the Christmas
special, I get all choked up.
Who says that mass culture is vapid?
--
****************************
John Dyer Leighton jlei...@moose.uvm.edu
University of Vermont "Hey, that's no way to say goodbye."
--Leonard Cohen, 1967

[Tom Barrett]

In article <3aar4q$2...@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> jsam...@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joseph Samosky) writes:
>
>I've had a similar reaction to this scene; it's truly haunting, especially
>with the muted sounds of bombs in the background, along with a distant train
>whistle at one point.

As many of you probably know, Charles Schulz was in the infantry in France in
world war ii--i suspect he purposely wanted to show how bad war is in
general. i've never seen "what have we learned, charlie brown, but i
understand that has similar things in it about normandy...

tjb

[Michael O'Sullivan]

John D. Leighton (jlei...@moose.uvm.edu) wrote:
: When Linus tells the story of the manger in the Christmas

: special, I get all choked up.

I second that emortion. I've always felt that the original Xmas special
is one of the best pieces of television ever done. I get choked up a
number of times throughout the show.

Of course, during the show, my siblings and I all have to do our
imitations of the kids dancing. :-)

-miko
mi...@vt.edu