Saving Mr Banks (or why I cry whenever I see this film)

So while this film was released a while ago, I only got to see it in Easter with my brother. I'd never really heard of P. L. Travers, though I'm sure much to her chagrin, I had watched the Disney version of Mary Poppins and always loved it. Unlike many Disney films it is the one that holds a really special place in my heart, because whenever I went to see my granny, I would always watch Mary Poppins at her house. I was never an entire convert to Disney, unlike some of my friends. I wasn't keen on Sleeping Beauty, because I loved the original ballet, I never really watched Cinderella or Snow White, I only like Beauty and the Beast, because Belle read books and so did I!

Perhaps it's because I've always liked tragedy in stories, that the Little Mermaid left me unimpressed (where was the suicide? Where was the true heartbreak?) and the Hunchback of Notre Dame, became a Disney film I hated (the witchhunts, the madwoman, the nonacceptance of society of sexual relationships outside marriage, were all wiped out). You would be forgiven in calling me strange or even precocious, but then I adored Grimm fairy tales and Greek myths and legends when I was younger, so in many ways I can easily understand Travers' disgust of Disney's sweetening of traditional fairytales and the lessons to children that all they need is 'a spoonful of sugar!'

I'm not denying that there is something good about innocence and acceptance, which many children have, but there does seem to be now a bit of a backlash towards some of the more sugary, sweet stories. We have Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Hobbit and even some of the Disney films are getting darker in tone. Mary Poppins (film) still dealt with a distant father, too concerned with making money and keeping order, to really notice his children. The version of Mary Poppins in the book is rather different from the film version, who Travers certainly considered too trivial and sweet. But perhaps one of the things in the Mary Poppins film was how easy it was to identify with the film's protagonists. I have a younger brother, a feminist mother and at one point a father who became very distant from me and my brother.

With Saving Mr Banks this theme of redeeming a relationship with a father, became even more applicable to me. I certainly enjoyed the brilliant acting of Emma Thompson (Pamela Travers) and the witty one liners in the script, but what makes me weep without fail is Pamela's past with her family, and her father especially. For me, I can watch a dozen romances without shedding a tear, because I have not been in a similar situation and I always need to emotionally identify with a film before I cry. Having learnt a little more about the truthful account of Travers and her relationship with Disney, I realise there's a fair bit of sweetening, and bias in Disney's favour, for the sake of a happy ending. But I didn't expect an entirely truthful depiction, because this a biopic and not a documentary. And I am perfectly fine with that, because the story and acting are wonderful.

During my childhood, I had admired my father a lot, he is intelligent, creative and inventive. He taught me about birdwatching, gardening, read me stories and even made them up at times. He encouraged my imagination, my learning and my playtime. In the same way Pamela Travers/Helen Goff shares a similar relationship with her father. He has all the time in the world for her, loves her and urges her to pursue whatever it is she wishes to accomplish. But the need to make money at the bank he works at, and the sinking depression Travers Goff fell into, sours this relationship and those of the family.

The same happened to my family, soon my father was making money because he needed to, not because he wanted to. After every family outing or day out shared with my father I was expected to count every penny we had spent, even if I didn't want to, because I wanted to enjoy the day we had spent together. Sadly, this also happened around my teenage years, so I began to have less and less to do with my father. While I don't blame anyone, Pamela's feelings of guilt, reminded me of my own, because I winded up spending very little time with my father. When I watched the film I was reminded how much I had loved and respected my dad, but through our own mistakes we had driven each other away. Saving Mr Banks concerns the saving of all fathers, either if they mistakenly put money before their children's happiness or forget their own happiness with a need to make money. As the Sherman brothers so succinctly, and ironically, put:

You're a man of high position,

Esteemed by your peers.

And when your little tykes are crying,

You haven't time to dry their tears,

And see them grateful little faces,

Smiling up at you,

Because their dad, he always knows

Just what to do. 

You've got to grind, grind, grind,

At that grindstone,

Though childhood slips like sand through a sieve,

And all too soon they've up and grown,

And then they've flown,

And it's too late for you to give,

Just that spoonful of sugar,

To help the medicine go down.

Pamela Travers certainly had a difficult past, which she tried (and in many ways failed) to hide away. I think really she didn't want a film to be made at all, and when it had to be, made the process as difficult as possible through her many complaints. Partly because of psychological trauma, partly loyalty to her books, but mostly because she wanted to. But for me the film means a whole lot more than a woman making a fuss over the movie interpretation of her book. It's the closest a film has come to representing my childhood and knowing I've been lucky to still have a chance to continue loving and admiring my dad, and knowing he still loves and admires me.