| Mary Poppins: is there a deeper meaning? |
| When I was younger, my favourite film was, without a doubt, "Mary Poppins". The musical film about the magical nanny for some reason had me utterly transfixed. However, a year or so ago I decided to get the video out again to see what all the fuss was about. My dad was talking to his boss on the phone in the same room and had to explain that the howling, wolf - like noise that he could hear in the background was actually not a wolf running amok in our house, but me suddenly understanding a load of jokes I had never 'got' before. The film, of course can be interpreted in different ways. On one hand you have the frolicsome musical that I enjoyed when I was little, but then you also have the somewhat higher, deeper story about how someone enters the life of a family not just to look after the children, but to save them all and improve their lives. The children require saving from their authoritarian father who will simply "pat them on the head and send them off to bed" when he comes home from work. They long for a nanny that will play games and take them on outings, while their father looks for a nanny who will rule them forcefully. When Mary Poppins comes into their house, she appears at first to fufill the requirements of both parties, but as the stories the children tell their parents off how they have spent their time become wilder and stranger, Mr Banks feels obliged to reprimand her and threaten her with dismissal. Mrs Banks, the children's mother also needs saving from Mr Banks who is disgusted by the activities of the suffragettes, of which Mrs Banks is one. She is secretly upset by the way that he behaves towards the children. Mary Poppins shows no sign of campaigning for Women's Rights herself, but by the end of the film Mr Banks appears to have changed in his attitude to the Suffragette Movement, and towards his wife, and is perfectly happy to have "Votes for Women" sashes for ribbons on the kite that he makes for the children. Mr Banks is the member of the family most in need of saving, as he needs saving from himself. He is happy at first with his life, with his family and his job at the bank, but towards the end, after he has come home from his disastrous day with his children at work, he at first thinks that Mary Poppins has been plotting all along, as of course she has. Her failed plan of sending the children to work with him to bring them closer causes him to lose his job, and he finds that even Bert, the man who changes his job daily, is much happier than him because of his outlook on life. Mr Banks discovers this as he loses his job and finally finds humour in his life, and understands the meaning of "Supercalifrajilisticexpialidocious". This is the turning point in the film as Mr Banks finally finds real happiness, with his family and takes them all to "go fly a kite". So how does this apply to our lives? Well it could be seen to be political. Mary Poppins is the bringer of revolution in an autoritarian government (represented by Mr Banks). You can see how the state of the "country" is deteriorating in the feelings of the oppressed children and wife, and the constantly quarrelling servants, and then how it is lifted again as Mr Banks learns to accept everyone, even the suffragettes, and to treat everyone as equal. Is this a symbol that it will be communism that saves the political situation? "Mary Poppins" could be a political look into the future, on behalf of the film writers who hope for or anticipate this kind of change. The strange thing is the predictions of Admiral Boom, who appears to be a mad old man with a passion for all things maritime. He always knows what is going on everywhere and warns people what they are facing where they are going. Perhaps he symbolises the writers of the film, who are giving our country this prediction for the future and being dismissed as just film writers. (And the parts where he shoots the cannon on the hour, every hour are the funniest sequences in the film.) So, is "Mary Poppins" a political allegory for the future? Of course, the purpose of making the film was primarily to make money (very capitalist!) and to entertain parents and children alike with a musical adventure, and not to make any type of point at all, however it is interpreted by certain mad obsessives we could mention. So, in conclusion, I have to say that no, there is absolutely no deeper meaning to "Mary Poppins" at all. |
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