Angela's Ashes (1999) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the ... See full summary » Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 22 titles created 09 Oct 2011 a list of 30 titles created 15 Dec 2011 a list of 35 titles created 10 Dec 2012 a list of 21 titles created 01 Jan 2013 a list of 37 titles created 28 Mar 2014 Search for " Angela's Ashes " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Another 5 wins & 11 nominations. See more awards » Videos Edit Storyline Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink. Written by KB-26 The Hopes of a Mother. The Dreams of a Father. The Fate of a Child. Genres: Rated R for sexual content and some language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 21 January 2000 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Las cenizas de Ángela See more » Filming Locations: $54,628 (USA) (24 December 1999) Gross: Pierce Brosnan and Stephen Rea were considered for the role of Malachy.

See more » Goofs When Frankie gets the beginnings of conjunctivitis, and he rolls his eyes back, the edges of his full-eye contacts are visible. See more » Quotes Narrator : [First lines] When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how my brothers and I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood. The happy childhood is hardly worth telling. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood. And worse still is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. A Mother's Love's a Blessing' Written by T.P. Keegan (United States) – See all my reviews In the very opening scene of Alan Parker's `Angela's Ashes,' we are informed by the narrator and main character, Frankie McCourt, in a phrase that turns out to be a masterpiece of understatement, that he had a `miserable childhood'  but just how miserable we may not be quite adequately prepared to see. Based on the author's Pulitzer Prize winning autobiographical memoir, this compelling film plunges us directly into the wretchedness and squalor of life in Depression-ridden Ireland, a setting overflowing with disease, starvation, joblessness and despair.

Indeed, by the time the film has hit the 25-minute mark, we have already witnessed the deaths of no fewer than three of Frankie's little siblings. The film, like the novel on which it is based, never flinches from portraying the brutal reality of the life the people of this dreary town must endure. Yet, the film is also, at times, rich in humor and a sense of that unquenchable optimism that somehow exists in even the most hopeless of circumstances. Frankie, despite the harsh conditions of his life, remains a boy focused on the good things that come his way, enduring even a loving but utterly irresponsible ne'er-do-well father (beautifully played by `The Full Monty's Robert Carlyle) with an indulgence and tolerance borne of filial devotion. As Frankie grows from young boy, dutifully fulfilling the parental role for his younger brothers, to a man verging on the edge of adulthood, he feeds on his dreams of moving to America to start a new life full of hope and promise.

The people and situations he encounters on this road create a stunning tapestry of life, teeming with bitterness and coldness it is true, but also with occasional, albeit momentary, displays of warmth, kindness and compassion  whether they be from a seemingly bitter aunt who, much to his astonishment, buys Frankie a brand new set of clothes in which to start his new job, a teacher who inspires him to see life beyond the circumscribed limits of this dreary Irish town or a compassionate priest who counsels Frankie in a moment of dark despair. These help to counterbalance the deadening effects of his father's thoughtlessness and drunkenness, the death of his first love by consumption, the often brutal treatment he receives at the hands of both his teachers and fellow classmates. And all the while there stands his mother, the anchor that holds him firmly in place, a woman beaten down by poverty, the untimely deaths of her children, the fecklessness of her otherwise loving husband - yet a woman so full of the quality of stoic self-sacrifice that it is from she that Frankie draws the strength he needs to move on in his life.

Emily Watson provides a luminous portrait of this woman, triumphantly conveying the longsuffering reserve that helps shield her from the ugliness and dreariness of her life and provides her with the strength to carry on and build into her children a sense of moral rectitude. And the three boys who portray Frankie at various stages of the drama are utterly perfect in their wide-eyed naturalism, as they look upon a world often incomprehensible in its drabness and cruelty. It seems to be becoming a truism lately that, if you want to see the bleakest portrayal of life imaginable, go to see a film set in Ireland. Nowhere does the sun shine less frequently, nowhere do the drab colors of gray and brown so heavily predominate, nowhere does poverty seem so all encompassing and inescapable. The Ireland of `Angela's Ashes' is surely no exception. The filmmakers, moreover, cast a scathing eye on the mindless superstition, bigotry and hypocrisy to be found in much of the blindly pro-Southern Ireland, anti-Protestant, anti-British, anti-Northern Ireland attitude perpetuated by the Catholic Church there in the 1930's.

Thus, in the depths of McCourt's autobiographical story, lies a diatribe with its roots planted deep in political and social protest. Yet, because of our fascination with the boy at the center of the narrative, these qualities filter through subtly, never dominating the proceedings. `Angela's Ashes' is rather, from beginning to end, a moving story about goodhearted, ordinary people learning to cope with the immense hardships life throws their way. In the long run, it certainly makes one happier with one's own lot in life. `Angela's Ashes,' for those who can take its uncompromising view of reality, is a richly rewarding experience. 38 of 43 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Angela's Ashes Summary - eNotes.com Angela's Ashes Summary Homework Help Angela's Ashes Summary Angela's Ashes tells the true story of Frank McCourt's childhood in the slums of Limerick. Frank is born in America, but his family moves back to Ireland during the Great Depression. This does nothing for their financial situation, and three of Frank's siblings die. Eventually, Frank grows up and moves to America, where he becomes a teacher.

Frank's mother and father meet in New York, where they conceive Frank before they get married. When Frank is just a boy, they move back to Ireland in the hopes of escaping the Great Depression. Frank and his family live in the slums of Limerick. Three of Frank's siblings die, and his family struggles to survive on the meager income of his drunken father, who can't keep a job. Frank works a series of menial jobs to make ends meet. At Leamy's National School for the poor, Frank gets a generally poor education, but does receive encouragement from one teacher, who urges him to pursue higher education. The end of the memoir sees Frank moving to America. link Link Angela’s Ashes was written after McCourt had retired from teaching creative writing. He had jotted down his memories of various events and vignettes over the years and had unsuccessfully attempted to write a novel about his early life. When he began writing Angela’s Ashes, he envisioned that it would be one volume, culminating with his mother’s death and cremation in 1981, thus the title, but it concluded instead with McCourt’s return to America in 1949 when he was nineteen.

The book begins with the separate arrivals of McCourt’s parents in New York—Angela from Limerick and Malachy from Northern Ireland—their marriage, and the births of their first four children. Frank, the oldest, was conceived before his parents’ marriage, an event which traumatized him when he learned about it years later. The first pages of Angela’s Ashes are written from the first-person viewpoint but from the perspective of when the work was composed in the 1990’s. Then the author, by accident he claimed, began telling his story through the eyes of his young self, a technique that gives immediacy to the work. Angela’s Ashes relates the events of Frank’s life until he was nineteen. He was born during the Great Depression, and the family’s return to Ireland when he was four was no solution to the family’s economic crisis.

Settling in the Limerick slum where Angela grew up, the McCourts struggled with a litany of tribulations, including the deaths of three of Frank’s younger siblings, his alcoholic father’s inability to get and keep jobs, his mother’s depression due to the deaths of her children, and the almost impossible task of surviving with no income, little food, and miserable housing. The McCourt boys attended Leamy’s National School, an institution for educating slum children to the age of thirteen or fourteen. Upon finishing school they would take menial jobs, such as Frank did when he delivered telegrams. The teachers were brutal taskmasters, but a few were also inspiring. At least one recognized Frank’s literary bent, encouraging him to pursue his education—an impossibility given the family’s economic plight and class status. The Catholic Church played a major role in Frank’s life, not often for the better, as the fear of damnation pursued him during his childhood and afterward. Frank lost his virginity to an older girl, and when she soon died from a heart condition, he feared that she had gone to Hell.

At the age of seventeen or eighteen, he took a position writing debt collection letters for an old woman, and when she died he stole a few pounds, adding to the money he had previously saved. All together, his funds then totaled enough to pay for ship passage to America, his birthplace, so familiar to him through Hollywood films. More Content: Summary (hide) link Link Frank McCourt’s parents emigrate to New York separately in the late 1920’s, looking for work. McCourt’s father, Malachy McCourt, was from Toome, County Antrim, Ireland, and his mother, Angela Sheehan, was from Limerick. They had five children while living in New York: Francis (Frank; b. 1930), Malachy (b. 1931), Eugene and Oliver (b. 1932), and Margaret (b. 1935). The family experiences hardship in New York because their father is unemployed and constantly drunk, and they are starving. Frank notes a distinct difference in the temperament of his father and in the climate of the house generally when his father brings home wages, a rare event. Margaret dies unexpectedly, and Angela goes into a deep depression.

The family returns to Ireland and, since they are unwelcome among the McCourts in Toome and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Dublin, they go to Limerick, where Grandma Margaret Sheehan helps Angela find and temporarily pay for a furnished room for them all. Soon after returning to Limerick, Angela loses the baby that she is carrying, Malachy goes on the dole, and they receive public assistance. Oliver dies, and the family moves to a new flat. Frank and Malachy attend Leamy’s National School. Angela is severely depressed, and Malachy tends to the children. Eugene dies of pneumonia six months after Oliver, and the McCourt family moves to a flat that is directly beside the only lavatory serving the entire lane. At Christmas, they have a pig’s head for dinner. Michael is born in 1936. Representatives of the St. Vincent de Paul Society come to investigate whether the family has a genuine need for assistance. They determine that the situation is deplorable at the McCourt house.

On Frank’s First Communion Day, he is excited for the Collection, where he will be able to go to all of his relatives and collect money as gifts. He is very ill after Mass and misses the Collection, but is still able to see a film. Malachy, Sr., decides that Frank needs to learn the Latin Mass and teaches it to him so that he can be an altar boy, but the church turns Frank away. Angela has another boy named Alphonsus (Alphie) in 1940. Malachy drinks away the baby’s baptismal present money, and Frank feels torn about his feelings for his father when he is sober versus when he is drunk. Immediately after being confirmed, Frank contracts typhoid fever and spends three and a half months in the hospital. There, he meets a girl named Patricia Madigan, who later dies of diphtheria, and she introduces him to Shakespeare. When Frank goes back to school, he is put in his younger brother Malachy’s class until he writes a composition titled “Jesus and the Weather,” which allows him to return back to his proper class. Frank begins to talk of going to America when he is older.

Things are changing in the lanes because of World War II. English factories need workers, and Angela will not have more babies, so Malachy goes to England to work but does not send money back home. They are penniless and again must go on public assistance. Frank has an eye infection and returns to the hospital for a month. When he is released, Angela goes into the hospital with pneumonia. The children stay with Aunt Aggie and Uncle Pa until Malachy briefly returns and Angela gets out of the hospital. Malachy sends a money order for three pounds from England, but that is the last time he sends money to his family. The family again goes on relief, and Frank is humiliated to see his mother begging at the priest’s house for a scrap of food. Frank gets a short-lived job with Mr. Hannon on the coal float and earns the respect of the boys at school. Malachy comes home at Christmas, stays a few days, and never returns. Destitute, Angela and the boys go to live with Angela’s cousin, Laman Griffin, who dislikes the boys and begins an affair with Angela. Frank’s teacher, Mr.

O’Halloran, tells Angela that Frank should continue his education at high school and attend a university, but the Christian brothers will not accept him and he never attends high school. Frank reaches puberty and is preoccupied with his body. He gets into a fight with Laman Griffin, who strikes him. Frank then lives with Uncle Pat, who has a house to himself since Grandma recently died. Aunt Aggie, in an uncharacteristic act of kindness, buys Frank new clothes and shoes for work. Frank earns one pound a week at as a telegram boy and saves up money from each check to fund passage to America. Angela and the boys move into Uncle Pat’s house, and Frank begins to support the family. On the job, Frank loses his virginity to Theresa Carmody, who later dies of tuberculosis and leaves Frank heartbroken. He then meets Mrs. Finucane and works for her at night as a letter-writing debt collector. Malachy is absent when Frank turns sixteen, so Uncle Pa buys him his first pint of ale. Frank gets drunk and slaps Angela because of Laman Griffin.

The next day, he confesses his sins to a Franciscan friar, who tells him that God forgives him but he needs to forgive himself. Frank works for Eason’s and Mrs. Finucane until he is almost nineteen. By this time, Angela is working for an old man and Malachy, Jr., shovels coal with Uncle Pa. Mrs. Finucane dies, and Frank helps himself to some of her money. With it, he finally has enough money to leave, so Frank books passage on the Irish Oak, arrives in America, and agrees with a shipmate that America is a great country. Frank McCourt dies at 78; late-blooming author of 'Angela's Ashes' - LA Times Frank McCourt dies at 78; late-blooming author of 'Angela's Ashes' Frank McCourt Eric Feferberg / AFP/Getty Images Frank McCourt called Angelas Ashes, his tale of growing up in grinding poverty in a slum in Limerick, Ireland, his epic of woe. The book came out in 1996, when McCourt was 66.

Frank McCourt called Angelas Ashes, his tale of growing up in grinding poverty in a slum in Limerick, Ireland, his epic of woe. The book came out in 1996, when McCourt was 66. (Eric Feferberg / AFP/Getty Images) Dennis McLellan Frank McCourt , the retired New York City schoolteacher who launched his late-in-life literary career by tapping memories of his grim, poverty-stricken childhood in Ireland to write the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir "Angela's Ashes," died Sunday of cancer. He was 78. FOR THE RECORD: Frank McCourt obituary: The obituary of author Frank McCourt in Monday's Section A said surviving family members included his wife, Ellen; his brother, Malachy; and his daughter, Maggie. He is also survived by brothers Alphie and Michael and three grandchildren. — McCourt, who was recently treated for melanoma and then became gravely ill with meningitis, died at a hospice in New York City, his brother Malachy told the Associated Press.

"I'm a late bloomer," a 66-year-old McCourt told the New York Times shortly after publication of "Angela's Ashes" in 1996. McCourt, the Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants who returned to Ireland with the family during the Depression when he was 4 years old, had spent three decades teaching English and creative writing in the New York public school system. At elite Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where he taught for many years, he had always advised his creative writing students to write about their own lives and families. But McCourt didn't write his award-winning personal tale of growing up in grinding poverty in a slum in Limerick, Ireland -- his self-described "epic of woe" that concluded when he immigrated to the United States at 19 -- until several years after he retired as a teacher in 1987. Described in Newsweek as "the publishing industry's Cinderella story of the decade," "Angela's Ashes" rose to No. 1 on bestseller lists, was translated into more than 20 languages and sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.

It also won the Pulitzer for biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and was turned into a movie in 1999. In the process, "Angela's Ashes" propelled its author from obscurity to fame and fortune. The white-haired publishing sensation made the rounds of the talk shows, was the subject of a "60 Minutes" profile and was in constant demand as a speaker because, as Newsweek pointed out in 1999, "he's witty, articulate and he's got the perfect Irish brogue: lyrical but penetrable." "At 66, you're supposed to die or get hemorrhoids," McCourt told the Hartford Courant in 2003. "I just wrote the book and was amazed and astounded that it became a bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize. It still hasn't sunk in." When he returned to the U.S. in 1949, he told Newsweek, "all I had was this story. It took me two years and all my life to write it." The oldest of seven children, McCourt was born Aug. 19, 1930. His parents were young Irish immigrants.

His heavy-drinking laborer father was unable to find work in the Depression, and the couple moved back to Ireland, where conditions were much worse. The family lived in Limerick -- in "one of the juiciest slums this side of Bombay," McCourt wrote -- where their small, dank home was next to a smelly, rat-infested privy shared by the other families on the block. McCourt's infant sister had died of unknown causes while they were still in New York, and about a year after the family arrived in Ireland, McCourt's young twin brothers died of pneumonia six months apart. At 10, McCourt himself was hospitalized for typhus. Whenever McCourt's father did manage to briefly land a job, he spent his pay drinking in pubs. During World War II , he left to try to find work in a munitions factory in England but rarely sent his pay home. McCourt's long-suffering mother -- the Angela of the book's title -- sought help from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and sometimes was forced to beg.

McCourt, who began stealing bread and milk for the family, dropped out of school at 14 and took a number of menial jobs, including delivering telegrams. "I certainly couldn't have written 'Angela's Ashes' when my mother was alive, because she would have been ashamed," McCourt told the Hartford Courant. "Her generation and my generation, to a certain extent, were never proud of having grown up in poverty and adversity. We always wanted to give people the idea that we grew up in kind of middle-class, or lower-middle-class, circumstances." After arriving in the U.S. in 1949, McCourt got a job as a houseman at the Biltmore Hotel in New York. Drafted into the Army during the Korean War , he spent two years in Germany. Although he didn't have a high school education, he later said, he was "fairly well read" and managed to "talk" his way into New York University . After graduating in 1957, he got a job teaching English at a vocational and technical high school on Staten Island. A decade later, he received a master's degree from Brooklyn College.

As a teacher, McCourt would regale his students with his horrifying and often hilarious tales of his childhood in Ireland. In the late '60s, he tried to write a book about his early years but considered his effort "appalling" and set it aside. "I was going through my James Joyce period, studied and affected," he told the New York Times in 1997. "I was still struggling to find my voice. "All along, I wanted to do this book badly. I would have to do it, or I would have died howling." It wasn't until 1994, after observing his young granddaughter, Chiara, developing her vocabulary that McCourt discovered a way to best tell his story: through his eyes as a child. Storytelling came naturally to McCourt, whose skills were nurtured over pints of Guinness at places such as the Lion's Head tavern in Greenwich Village, which was a hangout for newspapermen and authors such as Pete Hamill and Norman Mailer . "We were all storytellers growing up," McCourt said of his family in a 2000 interview with the Toronto Sun. "That's all we had. There was no TV or radio.

We'd sit around the fire and make up stories. My dad was a great storyteller. We'd mention a neighbor, and he'd make up a story. "But I also had to be a great storyteller to survive teaching. I spent 30 years in the classroom. When you stand before 170 teenagers each day, you have to get and keep their attention. Their attention span is about seven minutes, which is the time between commercials. So you have to stay on your toes." In the mid-1980s, McCourt and his actor brother Malachy wrote and began performing in "A Couple of Blaguards," a two-character comedy musical revue about their early years. McCourt also wrote " 'Tis: A Memoir," a 1999 sequel to "Angela's Ashes," covering his life in the U.S.; and "Teacher Man," a 2005 memoir about his years as a schoolteacher. Married and divorced twice, he married his third wife, publicist Ellen Frey, in 1994. Besides his wife and his brother Malachy, McCourt's survivors include a daughter, Maggie, from a previous marriage. A miserable liar?

Angela's Ashes inspired a new literary genre - but was Frank McCourt REALLY telling the truth? | Daily Mail Online A miserable liar? Angela's Ashes inspired a new literary genre - but was Frank McCourt REALLY telling the truth? comments Angela's Ashes: The memoir won the Pulitzer Prize - but was it filled with falsehoods? Rarely has a book had such a compelling opening line. 'When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.' And so Frank McCourt, who died on Sunday aged 78 after a battle with skin cancer, launched a new literary genre: the misery memoir. Dozens have followed him - so much so that they are now generically called 'mis-lit'. These tales of childhood woe have become highly lucrative. Called 'inspirational memoirs' by publishers, 'mis-lit' now accounts for nine per cent of the British book market, shifting 1.9 million copies a year and generating £24 million of revenue.

HarperCollins recently admitted to a 31 per cent increase in annual profits thanks to 'mis-lit'. But as well as starting a publishing phenomenon, McCourt's searing bestseller Angela's Ashes, which has sold some five million copies, also began a terrible feud. Locals called him 'a conman and a hoaxer', and claim he 'prostituted' his own mother in his quest for literary stardom, by turning her into a downtrodden harlot who committed incest in his book. One thing is not under debate - when it came to writing limpid, magical prose, McCourt was the real thing, following in his countrymen's footsteps to emerge as an Irish writer par excellence. So just who was the real Frank McCourt? Did he win the Pulitzer Prize with his lyrical, poignant memoir under false pretences? Or was he indeed the ultimate rags-to-riches story, who survived the grinding poverty of Limerick's slums to rise like a phoenix from the ashes, triumphant? The truth is, we may never know. Perhaps, as McCourt did in Angela's Ashes, we had better begin at the beginning.

In the book, set in the Thirties, McCourt writes that his parents returned when he was four from New York to Ireland, against the tide of Irish emigration. His family consisted of 'my brother, Malachy, three, the twins, Oliver and Eugene, barely one, and my sister, Margaret, dead and gone'. His mother, the Angela of the book's title - had become pregnant in New York after 'a knee-trembler - the act itself done up against a wall'. Four months later, she married Malachy McCourt, her family having pressed him to do the decent thing. So began a downward spiral into alcohol and poverty, with a feckless father drinking his wages away. Subjective: Frank McCourt said the memoir chronicled his family and his emotions Far worse was to come. The death of their daughter at seven weeks sent McCourt's parents into an abyss of despair, from which they never emerged. They return, despondent, by boat to Ireland - with Angela pregnant again. But soon, one of the twins, Oliver, has died, too. His second child's death precipitated McCourt Sr's complete decline into alcoholism.

He promised coal for the fire, rashers, eggs and tea for a celebration of Oliver's life, but instead took his week's dole to the pub. School, full of bare-footed slum children, is no relief. The masters 'hit you if you can't say your name in Irish, if you can't say the Hail Mary in Irish. If you don't cry the masters hate you because you've made them look weak before the class and they promise themselves the next time they have you up they'll draw tears or blood or both'. Then, worse. 'Six months after Oliver went, we woke on a mean November morning and there was Eugene, cold in the bed beside us.' He had died of pneumonia. Another brother is born, Michael - Angela's sixth pregnancy. As her husband continues to drink away the dole, a friend tells her off for cursing God, saying: 'Oh, Angela, you could go to Hell for that.' 'Aren't I there already?' she replies. Another baby arrives, Alphonsus Joseph.

No matter that his family fight for charity vouchers for food, furniture and medicine and share a stinking lavatory with six other houses, McCourt Sr drinks the baby's christening money. His father leaves for England, finally abandoning his family. When they are evicted for not paying rent, Angela takes her family to live with a cousin, Laman. McCourt wrote that his mother and her cousin had an incestuous relationship. 'She climbs to the loft with Laman's last mug of tea. There are nights when we hear them grunting, moaning. I think they're at the excitement up there.' Laman also beat the children. At 14, McCourt got a job as a telegraph boy. At 19, he left Limerick behind for ever for a new life in America. He first lived in Connecticut, where he became a teacher. He wrote Angela's Ashes in his mid-60s, and became hugely wealthy. But how much of his landmark book was true? Did McCourt cross the line between fact and fiction?

Limerick locals, horrified at the squalid depiction of their town, counted a total of '117 lies or inaccuracies' in the 426-page book, that range from obscure details to wrongly accusing one local man of being a Peeping Tom. They called for a boycott of the film of Angela's Ashes. Grinding poverty: The film adaptation starred Emily Watson and Robert Carlisle Paddy Malone, a retired coach driver who appears in the frayed school photograph on the book's original cover, is among McCourt's most furious detractors. He, too, grew up in the Lanes of Limerick and went to the same school as McCourt. 'I know nothing about literature, but I do know the difference between fact and fiction,' says Malone. 'McCourt calls this book a memoir, but it is filled with lies and exaggerations. The McCourts were never that poor. He has some cheek.' Malone recalls the family having a pleasant green lawn behind their home, and Angela being overweight - despite the graphic descriptions of hunger in the book. Limerick broadcaster Gerry Hannan spearheaded a campaign against Angela's Ashes, confronting McCourt on a TV show and calling him a liar.

Although he is too young to remember the period of which McCourt writes, Hannan is convinced McCourt has twisted Limerick's history to make his book more shocking. 'As far as I'm concerned, he's a conman and a hoaxer,' says Hannan. 'He knew the right things to say to get the result he wanted. He's a darling on television. He's got this beautiful brogue and he can put the charm on. And don't get me wrong, the book is beautifully written. But it's not true.' Their three biggest criticisms of the book, aside from the endless grinding misery it depicts, include the description of a local boy, Willy Harold, as a Peeping Tom who spied on his naked sister. It turns out that Mr Harold, now dead, never had a sister - which McCourt did later acknowledge. They also disputed McCourt's account of his sexual relations with Teresa Carmody, when he was 14. She was dying of TB at the time, and locals were outraged that he sullied her memory.

Frank Prendergast, a former Limerick mayor and local historian who grew up within 200 yards of McCourt's house, says that if McCourt did suffer, it was because he had a feckless father. 'He suffered a unique poverty because his father was an alcoholic, not because he lived in Limerick,' says Mr Prendergast. 'But he has traduced people and institutions that are very dear to Limerick people.' McCourt said: 'I can't get concerned with these things. There are people in Limerick who want to keep these controversies going. I told my own story. I wrote about my situation, my family, my parents, that's what I experienced and what I felt. 'Some of them know what it was like. They choose to take offence. In other words, they're kidding themselves.' Time will tell whether his impressionistic account of a brutal childhood endures. But whether embellished or not, it certainly left its mark on Limerick - and on literature itself.

SparkNotes: Angela’s Ashes: Analysis of Major Characters Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs & Symbols Frank McCourt McCourt writes his memoir in the present tense from the perspective of a young boy. The memoir often distances Frank, the young boy who simply reports on events without forming opinions, from McCourt, who offers the reader a deeper, more adult perspective on those events. Frank is lively and streetwise, thoughtful and sensitive. Though physically weak and prone to infection, he has emotional strength and a survivor mentality. He is also a highly intelligent, diligent student and a quick thinker. As the narrative progresses, Frank strives to reach beyond the limitations forced upon him by poverty. He becomes determined to achieve success in life and to provide for his family and, indeed, he is relieved to leave school at age fourteen in order to get a job. Though he does not explicitly acknowledge it, Frank is burdened by the necessity of acting as a father figure for his family. As Frank matures, he starts to suffer from an overwhelming sense of guilt. He worries that by sinning he has doomed himself and the people he loves. Frank channels the disappointments of his difficult life into self-recrimination.

Frank escapes his fears and guilt by reading, watching movies, listening to the radio, and daydreaming. He also thinks optimistically about the future, gradually focusing not just on what he wants to do for his family, but on what he wants to achieve for himself. Frank reconciles himself to the fact that in order to reach America, he will have to take risks, pass up safe jobs, and perform ethically dubious tasks such as writing threatening letters for Mrs. Finucane and delivering Protestant newspapers. Angela McCourt Despite constant poverty, a criminally irresponsible husband, and the death of three of her children, Angela is a loving mother who retains her sense of humor. Angela must sacrifice her standards of dignity and class in order to provide for her children. Still, she never lowers her expectations for her sons—she raises them to be well-behaved, conscientious, kind, and hardworking men. Frank often reacts harshly to the measures Angela takes to help her family, condemning her for begging outside a church and later for sleeping with Laman Griffin. However, despite Frank’s hostility to some of her decisions, it is clear that Angela is simply struggling to cope under highly difficult and painful circumstances.

McCourt makes it clear that Angela’s first priority is her sons’ welfare. Malachy McCourt (Sr.) In some ways, Frank’s father can be considered the antagonist of Angela’s Ashes, because his actions keep the McCourts destitute. (As antagonist is a character or obstacle in a literary work that opposes the protagonist and causes the major conflict.) While his family suffers from crippling hunger, and his children contract diseases caused by weakness and malnutrition, Malachy drinks excessively and comes home roaring that his sons must be ready to die for Ireland. Frank’s father drinks himself into a stupor partially to dull the pain of the deaths of his twin sons and baby daughter. But McCourt emphasizes that Malachy’s drinking is more than just a means of coping with bereavement; it is an illness that constantly jeopardizes the survival of his family. Despite the burdens that Malachy’s alcoholism places on Frank’s shoulders, Frank almost always remains loyal to his father. He treasures the times that he and Malachy sit chatting and drinking tea in front of the fire and loves his father’s way with words, his lively imagination, and his flair for storytelling.

When Malachy goes to work in England, he uses his physical distance to justify abandoning his family, leaving them without his emotional or financial support. More Help Angela's Ashes Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 41 out of 46 people found the following review useful: A Rarity: A Film Totally True To The Book from United States 4 March 2006 I doubt if I would rate this film that high if I hadn't read the book. Frank McCourt's best-seller is so good, and this movie is so true to it, that if you liked one, you'll like this because rarely has film been so close to a book. It's amazing, given what normally is the case. Even though the film brought no surprises, I still thought it was fascinating because of the fantastic cinematography in here and the great job done by the actors. The muted colors in this film are beautiful and the lighting is superb. Then again, it's hard to go wrong with a nighttime streetlight-lit shot of cobblestone streets. The directing talents of Alan Parker were never more evident than here. He should do more movies.

The book, "Angela's Ashes," is a biography of McCourt and his extremely poor Irish family. All three boys who play McCourt at various times in his development are excellent here. The whole cast is excellent, for that matter, led by "Angela" (Emily Watson) and husband Malachy (Robert Caryle). Two sadder-looking faces, you never did see, and a more rainy, dreary town (Limerick) you never did see....so if you're looking a happy, uplifting story, pass this one by. However, if you want a film totally true to a great book, wonderfully photographed film and one acted well ....and with some unique humor to it, check this out. I don't want to leave out the humor, the key ingredient in McCourt's otherwise- depressing days of growing up. Humor and dire poverty never went together so well as McCourt made it sound through his book and the filmmakers did through this movie. Was the above review useful to you?

49 out of 63 people found the following review useful: A Masterpiece from Duxbury, MA 2 February 2000 Angela's Ashes is a gentle movie about love, suffering, striving, and eventually, triumphing. There are no explosions, no aliens, no car crashes, no easy answers. The acting is uniformly excellent with Robert Carlyle's performance as Malachy McCourt especially outstanding. Beautifully photographed, funny and devastating by turns, Angela's Ashes is an experience to be treasured. Was the above review useful to you? 38 out of 43 people found the following review useful: Moving drama from United States 22 July 2000 In the very opening scene of Alan Parker's `Angela's Ashes,' we are informed by the narrator and main character, Frankie McCourt, in a phrase that turns out to be a masterpiece of understatement, that he had a `miserable childhood'  but just how miserable we may not be quite adequately prepared to see.

Based on the author's Pulitzer Prize winning autobiographical memoir, this compelling film plunges us directly into the wretchedness and squalor of life in Depression-ridden Ireland, a setting overflowing with disease, starvation, joblessness and despair. Indeed, by the time the film has hit the 25-minute mark, we have already witnessed the deaths of no fewer than three of Frankie's little siblings. The film, like the novel on which it is based, never flinches from portraying the brutal reality of the life the people of this dreary town must endure. Yet, the film is also, at times, rich in humor and a sense of that unquenchable optimism that somehow exists in even the most hopeless of circumstances. Frankie, despite the harsh conditions of his life, remains a boy focused on the good things that come his way, enduring even a loving but utterly irresponsible ne'er-do-well father (beautifully played by `The Full Monty's Robert Carlyle) with an indulgence and tolerance borne of filial devotion.

As Frankie grows from young boy, dutifully fulfilling the parental role for his younger brothers, to a man verging on the edge of adulthood, he feeds on his dreams of moving to America to start a new life full of hope and promise. The people and situations he encounters on this road create a stunning tapestry of life, teeming with bitterness and coldness it is true, but also with occasional, albeit momentary, displays of warmth, kindness and compassion  whether they be from a seemingly bitter aunt who, much to his astonishment, buys Frankie a brand new set of clothes in which to start his new job, a teacher who inspires him to see life beyond the circumscribed limits of this dreary Irish town or a compassionate priest who counsels Frankie in a moment of dark despair. These help to counterbalance the deadening effects of his father's thoughtlessness and drunkenness, the death of his first love by consumption, the often brutal treatment he receives at the hands of both his teachers and fellow classmates.

And all the while there stands his mother, the anchor that holds him firmly in place, a woman beaten down by poverty, the untimely deaths of her children, the fecklessness of her otherwise loving husband - yet a woman so full of the quality of stoic self-sacrifice that it is from she that Frankie draws the strength he needs to move on in his life. Emily Watson provides a luminous portrait of this woman, triumphantly conveying the longsuffering reserve that helps shield her from the ugliness and dreariness of her life and provides her with the strength to carry on and build into her children a sense of moral rectitude. And the three boys who portray Frankie at various stages of the drama are utterly perfect in their wide-eyed naturalism, as they look upon a world often incomprehensible in its drabness and cruelty. It seems to be becoming a truism lately that, if you want to see the bleakest portrayal of life imaginable, go to see a film set in Ireland. Nowhere does the sun shine less frequently, nowhere do the drab colors of gray and brown so heavily predominate, nowhere does poverty seem so all encompassing and inescapable.

The Ireland of `Angela's Ashes' is surely no exception. The filmmakers, moreover, cast a scathing eye on the mindless superstition, bigotry and hypocrisy to be found in much of the blindly pro-Southern Ireland, anti-Protestant, anti-British, anti-Northern Ireland attitude perpetuated by the Catholic Church there in the 1930's. Thus, in the depths of McCourt's autobiographical story, lies a diatribe with its roots planted deep in political and social protest. Yet, because of our fascination with the boy at the center of the narrative, these qualities filter through subtly, never dominating the proceedings. `Angela's Ashes' is rather, from beginning to end, a moving story about goodhearted, ordinary people learning to cope with the immense hardships life throws their way. In the long run, it certainly makes one happier with one's own lot in life. `Angela's Ashes,' for those who can take its uncompromising view of reality, is a richly rewarding experience. Was the above review useful to you?

24 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Affecting look at the human face of poverty from Atlanta, GA 22 July 2000 The trouble with making a movie out of a Pulitzer Prize winning book is that no matter how good and true to the book it is, it will usually be a disappointment. This has a lot to do with the difference between reading a story and seeing one. When one reads a book, it is usually done over time, perhaps a week or two. The words stir the imagination and the scenes described become images, usually more illusory than real. There is plenty of time for this process to work. A film, in contrast, is viewed over a period of about two hours, where the viewer is perceiving rather than imagining. The portrayals are well defined and no matter how creative the director, it is very difficult to create scenes that equal those of readers who have previously conjured fantastic images in their heads. I believe this is the reason this film was such a disappointment to so many viewers who had read the book. Thankfully, I saw the film first, so I had no preconceived notions. With that fresh perspective, I must say that it was outstanding.

It the story is taken from the memoirs of Frank McCourt, who recounted his childhood in Ireland in the 1930's and 1940's. It is a poignant and compelling story of a poor family struggling to survive. The images are powerful depictions of the indignity of indigence in a world where hunger and disease were common and people went almost as frequently to the cemetery as to the market. Alan Parker brings us a starkly realistic view of McCourt's Ireland. He scoured Ireland to find a ghetto that brought forth the images described in the book, but after an exhaustive search, he decided to build the lane from scratch using McCourt's photographs. Upon visiting the set, McCourt said it was chillingly accurate and he couldn't believe he wasn't back home. Parker desaturated the color to give the film a very stark look, consistent with the squalor he was trying to portray. Paradoxically, the loss of color intensity intensified the power of the images. Though I'm not a big fan of this technique (I like rich and vibrant color), in this case it was the perfect choice. The film suffers a bit from excessive length, undoubtedly because there was so much to cover.

However, when Parker bombards the viewer with disturbingly hopeless imagery for well over two hours, it becomes tedious. This is another advantage of reading a book. You can more easily put it down and come back to it. Parker sometimes overdoes certain ideas that he could have condensed. We could have done without half a dozen vomiting scenes and all the chamber pot activity. One or two such scenes would have gotten the message across. The cast was consistently excellent. Parker saw over 15,000 child actors before casting the three boys who played Frank at various ages. All three were wonderful, but my favorite was Michael Legge, the oldest Frank. He was the most hopeful person in the film, giving him character and determination, without losing his idealistic innocence. Emily Watson is a great dramatic actress and rose to the occasion to endow Angela with superhuman strength, courage and persistence in the face of crushing hardship and sorrow. Robert Carlyle was also terrific as Frank's father. He made the character a lovable man with fatal flaws. Despite his heinously irresponsible behavior squandering money on drink as his family starved, his charming nature and effusive affection for the children evoked as much love from us as disgust.

This is a brilliant production. Though many who read the book were disappointed, I must point out that Frank McCourt, who wrote the book, was unabashed in praising it for its realism in capturing his impressions and feelings of the times. I rated it a 9/10. Other than a bit of overkill, this is superb filmmaking giving us an affecting look at the human face of poverty. Was the above review useful to you? 21 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Good adaptation of a great book from Vulcan 13 May 2005 Alan Parker has made many films which adapt material from other media. I have been less than thrilled with most of these, but I've enjoyed one or two. Angela's Ashes is one of his better works, but it adapts a book which< I would argue, can not be properly adapted. This is a very pure, almost sterile, adaptation of the original memoir "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. It chronicles vignettes in the family history of the McCourt's, a poor Irish Catholic family struggling to survive in early 20th century Ireland.

The film, like the book, is stark, painful, hopeful, powerful, and deftly accurate. More than a period piece, this film works as a dramatic rendering of social history. Unlike the book, this film depicts Frank's childhood from a disembodied third person perspective, though it is liberally complemented by an effective voice-over narrative drawn almost directly from McCourt's own prose. Frank is the oldest of several siblings (many of whom never reach adulthood), in a family suffering from poverty, alcoholism, and persecution. Although the film has many positive messages, like the lives of the McCourt's, it's not an easy road. Those who wish to be simply entertained should probably not bother. The performances are all exquisite. Kudos to the cast and the director for making them all look so great. Visually, the film is stunning for its starkness and powerful use of contrast. The pace is a little breathless at times, but, given the richness of the original work, this is appropriate. All considered, this is a very worthy representation of the book.

The only quibble I have stems from the very act of translating what was a very intensely personal, first-person memoir into a third-person medium like film, not from anything the production team did, or from the script and cast. It would likely have been impossible in a mainstream film to depict the texture and poetics of McCourt's prose to the extent that viewers would really feel that they had grown up with him and knew him like a member of their own family. This is how the book made me feel, and seeing the movie after the book I was reminded of the feeling, but not quite so powerfully affected. I would agree that reading the book first will help you enjoy this film, however, I also believe that this stands well on its own. Was the above review useful to you? 23 out of 30 people found the following review useful: I suggest you read the book... and keep an open mind. from New York 7 March 2004 I've read both Angela's Ashes, and 'Tis (the sequal also by McCourt), and I think that really helped get a good perspective of what's going on.

A lot happens that we aren't shown in the movie, which makes sense considering a word for word rendition of the text would be far too long. But reading the book provides you with a little more background- more insight as to WHY the family is in the situation it is (the mother was "knocked up" and the two were forced into marriage and family life that probably NEITHER were ready for), and especially the impact of the death of the little baby girl had- most notable in the father. All in all, it was a great film... seriously. It's the memories a poor Irish childhood- but the best part is that much of it is told through the eyes of a 'child' (even if its in retrospect). The reason that it is unique, I think, is that if the viewer is open enough, they can get beneath the obvious misery that we're pelted with and really see the innocence of a child through out the story.

I get really irritated with those that brush it off as "been there, done that", or "Woe is me, I was a poor Irish child." I think that shows ignorance and disgusting apathy- go watch a movie where stuff explodes to keep your feeble mind occupied, because you obviously are too shallow to understand what you're seeing. Imagine yourself as that child- in a nation full of families stuck in the same rut. This isn't some Hollywood drama concocted... this is(was) someone's LIFE. And the movie sticks very much to the book- I remembered many of the exact lines word for word from the text. Also... a few people have complained about the 'incomplete' ending. That's pretty much exactly where the book ends- read (horror of HORRORS!) the sequal, 'Tis, to find out the rest. Either way- very touching film. Definitely dark and deep, and I recommend it to anyone who has an open mind. Was the above review useful to you?

11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: An evoking look at Irish life from United States 19 February 2000 Angela's Ashes is a well made picture, and one of the better movie to come out this year. Also, this film is Alan Parker's best since Pink Floyd's The Wall. The picture evokes a feeling of sorrow for the young Frank McCourt, in a tale that never has any definite answers, it just leaves them open. The acting is superb, mainly by Emily Watson as the loving mother Angela McCout and Robert carlyle who gives his best performance since Trainspotting here as the father with almost three different personalities. We watch as young Frank goes through three periods of his life in the poverish Ireland and thankfully in the end everything turns out OK. This makes the film even better. Along with a gentle and moving score (by oscar winner John Williams), this film is very provocative, touching and dramatic. Well done. Was the above review useful to you?

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: A miserable Irish childhood is overcome from florida 2 October 2001 Being married to a man from Ireland, I can really relate to this movie. I went to see his family home in 1978 and he grew up in very similar circumstances. The movie portrays the depression and drinking problems the Irish have. Emily Watson is great as his mother- she has to swallow her pride and beg so her kids can have food and clothes. The Vincent De Paul society is a great presence in Ireland. The way the kids are beat in school is right on- my husband tells me horror stories of how the priests and nuns treated him. Like Frankie he was able to get out of the country when he was 19-- This movie captures both the good and the bad of McCourt's book. I showed it to my son so now he understands his father a lot better. As a whole the movie deserves a lot of credit for staying true to McCourt's words. Robert Carlyle is good as Frankie's father. Everyone in the movie-- fits one type of Irish personality. We still keep candles burning in front of the statue of Mary at home.

I will watch this move again so I can pick up on some of the other aspects of Irish life. from Saffron Walden, UK 25 September 2005 By rights, 'Angela's Ashes', Alan Parker's film of Frank McCourt's account of growing up in astonishingly deprived conditions in the impoverished theocracy of inter-war Ireland, should be unwatchable: just how much misery can a viewer be expected to take? But in fact, Parker tunes the misery level to perfection, and the movie is never as gruelling as its subject matter might lead one to expect. And while it doesn't quite have the emotional impact of the work, say, of Ken Loach, our foremost chronicler of contemporary poverty, there are still fine performances from all of the cast, most especially from the luminous Emily Watson (playing the eponymous Angela, whose ashes, however, appear to have disappeared from the screenplay). There are some nice stylistic touches as well: Limerick may be one of the wettest cities in Europe, but in this film, it lives under a perpetual cloud, though it gets a little brighter when the hapless heroes move into a slightly better class of house. But only a little.

This is a movie that leaves you with a sense of sheer amazement and horror at how recently people lived in worse conditions than we would treat animals; and at the scale of the social and economic transformation that Ireland has undergone in McCourt's lifetime. And also at the unrivalled brilliance of Watson's skills as an actress. Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: A fine drama 2 March 2002 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Angela's Ashes is based on a 1999 memoir of the same name by Irish-American author Frank McCourt. Both the novel and movie detail his experiences growing up in the impoverished slums of Limerick Ireland during the time of the Great Depression. McCourt was, strangely enough, born in NYC but his parents decided to pack up the family and move back to Ireland upon the death of their infant daughter. When the baby dies, Angela (Frank's mother) shuts down completely and is unable to care for her other four children. Some less than helpful relatives intervene and soon they are on a boat.

The deaths of McCourt's three siblings (two the result of disease and malnutrition) provides for some of the most haunting imagery. I think back on the scene where one of Angela's beautiful twin boys lies white in death on her bed as she cuddles him in her arms. In another particularly poignant scene, ten-year-old Frank goes looking for his drunkard father Malachy in a pub and sees him drinking right on top of his dead baby's casket. It's scenes like this that make Angela's Ashes such a heart rending experience. It would have been easy for this film to turn into nothing but a couple hours of despair, but thankfully, McCourt has a good sense of humor and filled his memoir with plenty of comedic anecdotes to be sprinkled here and there. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 17:

Question: Who wrote the book "Angela's Ashes"?
Answer: Frank McCourt