A Film with Impact
Please put your final copy of your writing here before our class on December 10. For film research, use the Internet Movie Database. Remember to quote any information taken from outside sources! I will post a sample for you by Saturday night.
13 comments:
A Film with Impact: Nineteen Eighty-Four
How to explain liking a film that, on the surface at least, is so bleakly depressing and discouraging to watch? George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, often studied in high school (but rarely fully understood), brings us a dystopian view of a society watched over by a Big Brother. It hurts to watch the downfall of Winston Smith, to view his torture at the hands of O’Brien, to see a society that demands blind obedience from its citizens, but I would argue that my distress has been worth it.
The opening scene of the film shows fields of wheat blowing in the wind and soldiers marching to war. The voiceover speaks of “our land” and “our people” who are “Fighting against the mutilation of our hopes and dreams.” Students of mine, from both the former Soviet Union and China, have been struck by the images and told me that it was exactly as they remembered. It is easy for me to feel that such propaganda is not used in Canada, but the realist in me thinks otherwise—of course it can and is, especially in supporting the so-called “war on terror.”
One disturbing scene occurs early in the film where we see the “Two Minutes Hate,” brought to life brilliantly by the film’s director, Michael Radford. Here, people hysterically rage at a screen image of their enemy, then chant rhythmically “Big Big; Big Big” when a photo of Big Brother appears. The mob mentality is striking but, in the film, the mob rants equally at another, different, enemy if that is what they are encouraged to do.
Vincent Canby in his review from The New York Times argues that in the novel, “the real subject is language, which can be abused as relentlessly by a kind of tyrannical capitalism as by totalitarian Communism.” That is exactly the point and one that, as an English teacher, I struggle with every day. Now that our capitalist system is on the verge of collapse I read that the 700 billion dollar bailout, sold as a way to “buy up distressed mortgage securities” was, instead, used “to purchase stock in banks” (“Anatomy of a Meltdown” by John Cassidy; The New Yorker, December 1, 2008).
Language can be perverted by the powerful. Through the film, I am forced to view an extreme version of this idea. When tortured, Winston Smith (played brilliantly by John Hurt), is forced to admit that 2 + 2 = 5. In fact he is forced to more than admit this absurdity, he is forced to truly believe it! How? By being tortured on a medieval-like machine that stretches his arms and legs in an excruciating way.
The film was released in 1984 but has not seen great success. Perhaps seeing our society’s flaws represented is too difficult. But, for me, it is worth squirming in my seat and averting my eyes, for the film shows me things about my own society that I would rather not believe.
—502 words
thanks, brad... this is my attempt of my writing, i hope u like it~^^*
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When I was a little girl, I used to watch TV with my brother and sister. We usually watched the classical movies at home during the night time, but nowadays I miss watching movies with them mainly because they now have a family, and I have something else to do, basically doing nothing important.
I remember one night during I was in elementary school, my sister persuaded me to watch the movie called “Gone with the Wind,” and since I couldn’t watch it during the school night, my sister agreed to videotape it for me to watch it next day. Next day, I watched the movie quietly and I didn’t know that the movie was so spectacular, and I didn’t know that the movie had won eight Oscars and gotten many nominations.
Also, the reviews were great, I noticed that the many review websites have raved about the movies still, one website quotes “first and only published ... best-selling Civil War and Reconstruction Period novel of 1,037 pages that first appeared in 1936...” That clears shows the movie was so amazing and unspeakable movie.
The reason why I chose this movie is I didn’t know how much she; Scarlett O’Hara struggled to save the land and her family from the starvation. Since then, the movie charmed me into live like her, Scarlett O’Hara every day. Her courage to overcome the struggles has influenced me.
I think the main character; Scarlett O’Hara’s life reflected my life in an optimistic way. I was sort of optimistic person myself because when I learned ASL (American Sign Language) Part-Time, and Full-Time courses over at VCC, and whenever I speak ASL at the end of each term with final exams, I was confident with myself and I could, no, I would pass, and guess what? I did and graduated.
Also, the setting has showed my life how to overcome the struggles throughout life. Especially, when about to give up my life after graduated from high school and I felt like my “educational path” doesn’t seem to go anywhere. During that time I watched the movie a lot, and it really displayed how to defeat my struggles.
I haven’t defeated my struggles; however, I managed to cope with my life. When I didn’t know what to do with my life, the movie helped me a lot especially during the scene after the main character ate a radish, and then swore to god that from now on, no one in her family could be starving on the land that had impact on me because once you set your mind on something and doing it, you will be successful.
So, my overall impact on this movie has changed my life inevitably. When I after graduated from high school, I didn’t know what to do about my life, and about to let go of my life, the movie helped me enormously and changed my life without a doubt. Especially during the time learning ASL, I was somewhat confident with myself that I could do it, and I graduated two years ago.
Words:521.
Source:www.filmsite.org/gone.html.
Shark Will Eat Me
I have been watching hundreds of films since I was ten years old, and most of them I have forgot. But this one I can’t shake it away for any reasons, it terrified me when I was ten years old and left a strong impact on my mind.
I don’t remember whom I went with to watch the movie, “Jaws”, surely it wasn’t my parents, but I remember it was my grade 5 or 6. Since I was grade 5, I often went out with my classmates and went to the movies sometimes.
I was totally terrified by the scene which is a man was bitten in the middle of his body by the shark and the legs were up and down in the bloody ocean. I can’t remember what my reaction at that moment. I think I might sit there with a white face; I got nothing to hold; I didn’t scream. I was not used to screaming.
That night, I didn’t tell my parents I went to the movie. I swallowed the fear by myself and went to bed. I remember I turned on all the lights in my bedroom, then crouched on the bed, scanned around the four corners and the floor, and quickly hid under the quilt motionlessly.
I didn’t fall into sleep. I didn’t close my eyes. I didn’t move at all. I listened carefully. It was in summer and I was totally covered by the quilt. I felt very hot, so I pushed away my quilt a little bit to have more space to let air come in. I didn’t think anybody could notice that I moved my hands because I did it very gently and slowly. Then I kept frozen under the quilt.
I must fall into sleep finally because I dreamed. In the dream, my house is flooding. The water is pouring into the hallway to my waist high. A shark is coming to my house. Nobody is there. I am alone. I am extremely scared.
Even now, I still remember the scene in this dream.
Since then, I often dreamed something related to “water”. Sometimes I dreamed I was walking on the edge of cliffs among the ocean. I dreamed I struggled to pass through an endless field covered with water. I dreamed a dark stream full of kinds of snakes. I was scared by different kinds of water in my dreams. The fear in the dream always stayed with me a while as I awaked, and I never forget these dreams in my life.
Did I watch “Jaws” again? Yes, I did. Many years later, I watched it again. It didn’t terrify me anymore. I know it is not true. The shark is not real. The man didn’t die. It is fictional. So, why had I been impacted by it so much? I think it is the belief. At my ten- year-old age, I believed it could happen. I believed the shark could come up to the shore and eat people. I believed it.
Belief can turn fiction to non-fiction. It’s just like the kids believe Santa Clause is coming and delivering the gifts on Christmas Eve and it is real.
The Sixth Sense
When this movie came out in theaters, I saw the preview on TV so many times. That was about thirty seconds, with a vomiting girl ghost and a little boy’s frighten face. I hated to watch the preview, because it made me scared especially at night. I categorized that the Sixth Sense as a horror movie, and promised to myself not to watch it.
A few months later, The Sixth Sense was at rental video shops already. My coworker told me that I should watch it. She said it was a good movie and not scary at all. I believed her words, and rented it. I watched that in the living room by myself, when my brother was in the next room, in case if I get scare. Turned down the volume a couple times when the scary sounds and scary ghosts came up, except that, I really enjoyed it.
I told to my coworker about I had watched the Sixth Sense, and then she asked me a question “When did you realize that about Bruce Willis?” “What do you mean?” I didn’t understand the question. She asked me “You know that Bruce Willis was a ghost, right?”
“….what?” I hated my brain. Why I didn’t realize that such a surprise ending? I watched the movie in Japanese! My coworker laughed and said that “You should watch it one more time.”
This summer, I visited to my mother in-Low in the United States, and found The Sixth Sense on her shelf. My husband and I started to watch it, and I felt the movie was just a completely different movie with what I had watched almost ten years ago. The movie actually shows a lot of hints about Malcolm’s (Bruce Willis) non-existent. Refer to Cole(a little boy, Haley Osment) “ They don’t know they were dead, and they see what they want to see.” The cole’s words are obviously the point; Malcolm’s point of view is exactly what he wants to see. The door was locked to the room where Malcolm had been killed, but it shows only the door knob. He didn’t (could’t) see the fact that a table and books were unusually blocking the door until the end. Another example, when his wife was sitting at the table at a restaurant, Malcolm came and had a seat in front of her. Even though he talked to his wife, she didn’t say anything. That looked she was angry when I watched that at the first time, but I noticed that waitresses didn’t serve him, and his wife didn’t see him.
You see everything when you watch it second time. That is the impact about The Sixth Sense for me. It is very clear to see the struggles of Cole, but it is not easy to find Malcolm’s deep struggles at first. Second time watching gave me the satisfaction of seeing each scenes, just like putting right pieces puzzles together.
490 words
It Should Be Romatic
“One daughter married! Tell the servants, ring the bell and they can have a bowl of punch.” This is how the mother, Mrs. Bennet, reacts after she is told that her run away daughter is married. Despite, initially she is lying in the bed whining about her poor nerve that caused by this youngest daughter. Yet, she turns out to be so exciting, jumping out of the bed, hurriedly, thinking about nothing but to announce this to the neighbors and the acquaintances. Her second oldest daughter can’t understand the tremendous change of her mother and questions her behavior. “When you have five daughters, tell me what else will occupied you mind.” This is the answer Mrs. Bennet gives while her rushing out the door. An answer shockingly throws into my face.
I saw this movie, a rerun on the TV channel,--“Pride and Prejudice”--released 2005, it is a highly acclaimed story of love and marriage, as classic as the other adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels. I’m supposed to admire the dancing of the balls, the scenery of the England country side. But I lost track of the joy and romance that the director-Joe Wright created elaborately for the viewers. Because I can’t help myself focusing on how the women were at that era, though it was almost 200 years ago. Those girls who were not born in blue blood or rich families, what they have in general will be searching a marriage. And the most important thing of this is especially to marry the wealthy one. The competition in marriage pursuing begins at their very young age—15 years old as they were out in the society.
This isn’t an easy task, for the girls or the mothers, for people are classified at that time. They are either noble, rich or they are the common civilians. And if they are one of the nobles or the rich, things are much easier than everyone else. But if you are not luckily to be one of them, it will be an oceanic trench laid. To be friend with someone who is not you rank is one thing but to marry someone is many other concerns involved. How’s her family’s reputation, who her other sisters married to are all matters and to top all these is how much dowries will be contributed to the marrying man.
I’m pleased that all these won’t happened in the society that I am in now. And as a mother, I am very glad that my daughter would not face any of those unbearable frustrations. But I would be much happier if I can simply enjoy this movie that full of giggles of naïve unmarried girls circling in the balls or chasing their peers in the field, instead of to think about their society status or rankings or what they’re going to end up being maids or a governess if they can’t get married. Can’t I just sit and watch a movie, enjoy the entertainments and adapting to the popcorns without using the brain?
Word Count: 507
A New Comedy Movie/2008
What is your reaction in a wonderful celebration to a man with his strange pet, a pig? It is the first main scene of the movie of “How to Lose Friends& Alienate People.” Therefore, the man, Sidney Young, is guided to a special room by the securities. Presence at such meeting with movie stars had been his childhood wish, so he doesn’t like miss the meeting. Sidney leaves the room with an artificial moustache. While he is talking with a woman, his pig appears among people again, so he escapes. In this part we see a person with an abnormal manner so that all guests hate him. The scene is an emphasis on the name of the movie.
Sidney is a successful movie-writer in England, and he is invited to work at “Sharps Magazine” in New York. In the first appointment with the boss, he wears his favorite T-shirt. When the boss points to his wearing, Sidney thinks the boss likes it, and gives him one, but the boss throws it out. Here, Sidney shows a pure behavior though it is unusual to a boss. Also, his normal habits are strange for people in dancing and to find a couple in New York, but he finds a couple in the bar.
In a big shindig he sees a daughter, Sophia, who was with him in London, and he wished to make her famous, but she ignores him because another person is her agent, and she is introduced to the magazine supervisor who guises as a gentleman. In addition supervisor has illegal relations with some female staffs, he steals Sidney’s idea. Therefore, the writer invites a daughter to come supervisor office, and she does with a tape. While she is naked, dancing, and trying to sit on the supervisor knee and Sidney is filming, the boss’s wife arrives simultaneously. The boss recalls Young to protest his scheme, and says, “Sidney, you are not Robin Hood.” But when Sidney leaves the office, the most staffs clapping to him in the front of the door because they are bothered by the supervisor; people love Sidney who likes honesty lifestyle.
He becomes magazine supervisor, and wears formal dress. In a celebration in the Shangri- la hotel, Sophia is nominated the best actress. While she was on the scene to get her certificate, he saw his mother ring in the Sophia finger, and finds out Sophia tricked him to get the ring. In spite of his position, he attacks to Sophia and fights face to face to get the ring and gets. All people are wonderful to this fighting and the boss is laughing. He leaves the celebration to find a co-worker daughter, Alison, who is honest and a writer. He finds him in another city and gives her the best his mother memento.
Actually, I think the name of the movie is funny and inverted. Although the honest behaves are strange sometimes as the first scene, people like it and admire who his/her manner is far from falsity. 208 words
An Unforgettable Movie—Schindler’s List
A lighter, a watch, or even just a box of cigarettes, for today, those are just some trifles, but when time turns back to 1940’s, every of those could mean one person’s life.
Schindler’s list is a based-on-truth story happened during the world second war in occupied Poland. Oskar Schindler comes to Poland and starts a factory without any his own money. He persuades the smart Jewish business men to invest for him and uses them as cheap labour. He earns a lot of money and enjoys a dissolutely luxury life. Oskar Schindler is definitely not a saint in the beginning. He loves women and has countless girlfriends. He pays bribes to the German officers, the most powerful ones. His first purpose to Poland is very clear, to earn money, and he actually makes it happened. As he mentions himself to his wife “you cannot create a thing that makes all difference in the world between the successor and failures—war”. He is the beneficiary of the war.
Once an one-arm old man transferred by Itzhak (his Jewish accountant) to his factory comes to show his gratitude and repeatly says to him “You are a good man and god bless you”, he doesn't realize something in the deep of his heart is touched. Few days later, this old one arm man is killed on the way to his factory by the Nazi when he was required to shovel the snow and he is unable to handle the shovel properly.
From that moment, Oscar Schindler continuously witnesses all the atrocities done by the Nazi, and the only safe protector to the Jews is his factory. So with his money and good relationship, he saved finally 1100 Jews from the oven of the dead camps. They remain in his factory until the day Hitler unconditionally surrenders. They are the only survivors from the holocaust in Poland and finally reach American and slowly develop to over 6000 population which is more than the Jewish population in today’s Poland.
The first time I saw this movie was thirteen years ago, but the scene of the Nazi commander shoots people in the early morning from his balcony as taking a morning coffee is totally unforgettable until today. The entire movie is made in black and white, which creates a documentary feeling. The only colourful item in the motive is a red coat wore by a little Jewish girl, the only spot highlighted when she follows the crowd to the camp. Oscar Schindler notices her and cannot help feeling sorry for her. The second time he sees this red coat is when the Nazis are burning the body mountain, they dig all the bodies from underground and put them together. The ashes fall from the sky like snowflakes, then he sees the red coat—again highlighted, on a handcart to carry the bodies.
The director interviewed many survivors, and each of them remembers Oscar Schindler for saving their life and the redemption from spending the rest of their lives to hate the Germans. The actor of his accountant is Ben Kingsley—another great actor who acted as Mohandas Gandhi in 1982 and rewarded the best Oscar Actor.
This is a great movie directed by Steven Spielberg—a Jewish director himself. It’s influenced me for years the understanding about the war and humanity. It clarifies one point: what we should learn from the history is not to hate someone or think to revenge one day; what we should learn is not to repeat the mistakes made by human beings.
A Film with Impact: “Forrest Gump”
“I am not a smart man but I know what love is.” This is not a movie about hero or great worrier but a stupid man called “Forrest”. I like it because it’s a movie of friendship and love. Can a stupid person live a normal life as we are? The movie tells us they can do things even better than we can do. Love better than we love.
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get” My Mom used to said. He asked his mother “What my destiny will be”. “Your destiny needs you to find it out by yourself.” his mother told Forrest Gump before she died. His destiny is to married Jenny, the woman he loves all his life. There are a lot of impacts happened in the movie but the most touching one is the love to Jenny. There is a scene that he speaks to the tombstone of Jenny Gump. “If you need anything, just tell me, I will bring it to you.” said by Forrest. His face was twisted and full of pain and the tears just running down from his face too. The voice is sad and murmuring low. I believe Tom Hanks is a good actor in this movie. And this movie did bring him an Oscar award as best actor in 1994.
There is an American dream of Jenny. She wants to be famous. She is smart and dare to expose her in the playboy magazine. She went to a theatre of no name singing “blowing in the wind” as John Baez except with naked body. On the contrary, a young man is going to fight for the country in Vietnam and rescue her from harm and humiliation. She just ran away and asked him leave her alone. Eventually, she never became famous but traveled like a Gypsy woman and sleep with too many men in her life. Forrest became famous as a hero, millionaire, and celebrity. It’s an irony to the life of Jenny compare to Forrest. I feel shame for Jenny. I feel sorry for Gump when all the mail was return. He wastes too much “true love” for a woman who didn’t worth of it. “You don’t know what love is”
BBC said it is a love story “Nominated for 13 Oscars and winning six, including Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis and Best Actor, "Gump" captured the imagination with its mix of comedy, drama, issues like AIDS and war, while managing to maintain a love story at its big budget core.” “And full of American Dreams”, some dream became nightmare like Jenny’s. Some dream makes us became hero or somebody
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Even Forrest was a made-up person in the movie but I do believe there are some people did live his life simple and valuable like him. Jenny said ”I wish I was with you when you travelled to the beautiful place you told me”. She is sick in bed for the last few days to live. There are women in the TV show everyday. They want to be live like a “material girl”. It’s Madonna’s American dream. Unfortunately, the happiness always came late.
If I am Jenny, will I marry a person who is retard or stupid? I guess not. ”The pea and carrot” was together in the childhood. They are different in some way so they will have different destiny. “Forrest” is too lucky in his life to be alive to the end of the story. American movies are made of American dream. I like the song “Against the wind” when he is running across the America.
Someday, I will ride my motorbike across the beautiful America too with my true love sitting right behind me.
Word count: 639
A Film with Impact: No Man’s Land
One evening in February 2002, eight months later of my leaving from the Republic of Macedonia, the former state of Yugoslavia, I seated in a cinema in Vancouver, and watched “No Man’s Land,” a sarcastic version of Bosnian war. Without heavy land battles or tons of realistic blood and guts bursting out of bodies, the film’s director (also the screenwriter), Danis Tanovic, brilliantly displays the absurdities of war in a trench with two enemy soldiers. Their dialogues made me laugh, but brought my profound sadness to the people on Balkan Peninsula at the same time. In the darkness, I could not help thinking about the following wars in Kosovo and Macedonia, and the days that I had been there.
In the beginning of the film, a group of Bosnian soldiers bump into a morning shooting from Serbian. The only Bosnian survivor, Ciki, finds a temporal shelter in a trench between two frontlines and later encounters the Serbian hunter, Nino. Soon they find their awkward situation; neither of them can safely creep back to their own side without being shot. Under the fire from the Serb army, they argue about who started the war. They blame each other for initiating the war and destroying the beauty of the country. None of them has the intent to take the responsibility of the terrible consequence of warring. The conflict is soon settled by Ciki’s rifle. Or sometimes Nino would win the arguments when he has the gun. The arrangement of the plots not only wins my laughter, but awakes my consciousness of the silliness of the war.
In a war, no matter who is the invader or defender, every participant would go killing, burning, or even raping in a direct or an indirect way, and create hundreds and thousands of widows, widowers and orphans. No one would be the winner. Even the people outside the war would be affected.
I had witnessed the tragedies caused by the war. Maybe they were not as severe as the ones happened in the war field, but they troubled people’s life. In Macedonia, I used to have a masseur, who graduated from medical school with a Doctor degree. She never got in practice due to the radical change in the society, so she turned to learn a useful skill and became a masseur. I still remember the feeling under her treatment. It was difficult to reach complete ease, for I knew I was taking the advantage of the war. The ironic part is that she tried to comfort my guilt because my guilt would never fill up her pocket.
She was not a single case. During that period of time, many Macedonian people had the same difficulties. They had not prepared for a divided Yugoslavia or a new Macedonia. There were not enough work opportunities in the new system. Some of them were luckily employed by UN Preventive Deployment Force or missions as interpreters or drivers, but soon lost their jobs when these foreigners ended their projects. Most of them had been trapped down to the gap between the communism’s centrally planned economy and the capitalism’s market economy. I do not mean that they would get rid of the throes in economic transformation but the pains may be milder. If there were no these wars (including Bosnian, Kosovo and the civil war in Macedonia), they should have a better chance to develop their life.
Almost eight years passed, I still feel the intensity of “No Man’s Land.” I appreciate Tanovic’s efforts to display a microcosm of war in a trench. From time to time, these two enemies’ dialogue mixes up with my memories in Macedonia. They would remind me the meaninglessness of war and make me stand more steadily to against war.
--625 words
A Film with Impact: "CJ7"
My family and I usually enjoyed watching movies in the weekend in our living which we used to call "A Home Theatre", and we saw a lot of movies which mostly showed adventure, action, or my favorite actors. Last weekend, coincidently, my brother-in-law rented "CJ7" which was a social and humor Chinese movie with English's captions.. It was about Ti who was a poor and hard working father, worked at a construction site to support his son, Dicky Chow to go private school, but poorly Dicky Chow was insulted at school. I liked to see familiar human's lifestyle in this movie, but I hated its society.
At first sign of the movie, I saw Ti's built and brown figure in the white short sleeves cotton shirt with a yellow helmet on his head sat on the edge of the top tower eating lunch in a radiant and quiet day. I said to my brother-in-law, Andy and my sister, Kim that I liked this movie because I could guess that society would be unfair to low class people, and I used to watch this kind of movie's plot in Vietnam.
At the scene father and son rolled up and slept in a tiny corner of a smashed building, liked a cage to me. I could feel the warm and tight the relationship between them. I really admired Ti as a single father who gave all his love to a son. Besides that, they reminded me of some low class Vietnamese back home who are lack of materials, but not love. Their minds are free while sleeping. They accept poorness, but don’t steal or rob because of self respects. However, bitterly, society looked down on these kind of people. Like in CJ7, I saw poor father and son were excluded in this society, and people in this society just handed around with people have the same level.
When I saw the scene of Ti started falling off from the high tower at construction site, we just said, "Oh no!," and then quiet. Tears started dropping from our hearts and we thought that Ti was just treated a bit nice from his boss, so he shouldn't die, and he couldn't suffer more than that, and we didn't want his son to be an orphan. I thought it must be his destiny before dying he was treated well. Vietnamese usually believe, suddenly we are treated nicely, and there is something is going on. We just hoped and hoped he was still alive. Luckily, he didn't die.
After seeing CJ7, I guess it was a true life. Poor people aren't accepted in some ways even though they want to live the right way. In society, I see poor is poorer, and rich is richer. It is unfair. In order to catch up with higher class, some people have to do bad things, so I don't wonder that there are a lot of criminals everywhere. To me, I only respect and empathize for naive and honest people like Ti and his son.
A Film With Impact: WALL-E
Recently, from my window at the most isolated portion of my workplace, I have been looking up on a construction site, watching these machines do their work like there is no tomorrow. From a distance, these massive and mean machines appear to have a life of its own. Suddenly, I smiled and jokingly told to myself “I have got to stop watching too many Pixar films”.
WALL-E, Pixar’s latest animated film presents a robot named Wall-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), who is designed to clean up a polluted and an inhabitable Earth in a span of 5 years. However, the plan failed, leaving millions of people stuck on space for the next 700 years. His life suddenly takes a new path from being a junk collector to being Earth’s savior when Eve, another robot, is sent on Earth to provide information about the planet’s condition.
The new Pixar film displays a wonderful message about environmental issues. It vividly shows the fragility of our environment and the effects of pollutants and garbage to our ecosystem. Upon watching this film, I suddenly remembered those corporations who are against what the scientists and environmentalists are fighting for. The actions of megacorporation Buy n Large, who in the movie is responsible in turning Earth into a lifeless planet, somehow depicts our present struggles and fear in the future.
In another section of the film, Pixar portrayed future humans as being morbidly obese couch potatoes, which resulted from their excessive consumerism and dependence to robots in space for 700 years. I must say, at first, I was not really paying much attention to their appearance because I was deeply fascinated by Pixar’s work. However, when a great crowd of obese people gathered together for a meeting, then I realized that there is something very wrong about this society. I give credit to Pixar in their depiction of this issue, which is very likely to happen in our society, considering that one third of adult Americans are already classified as obese. WALL-E indeed makes a good point about fitness and obesity crisis, especially on delivering the message to those parents and children watching the film. (American Obesity Association—AOA Fact Sheets)
Wall-E tells a story in a straightforward manner, offering love and beauty. That is why I salute Pixar’s amazing work and their reputation of delivering humour to the audience and at the same time still staying on message. The movie WALL-E definitely is one of the best movies Pixar has ever produced. Overall I gave this movie 9.5 out of 10 for mixing a lot of elements; from telling a love story, to promoting awareness regarding our politics and current events, and watching our health. The movie not only brings joy to the children, but at the same time, presents major issues our society needs to solve.
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Life is Beautiful
Through the movies about the Nazi holocaust, we usually remember the Nazis’ cruelness and the Jews’ tragedy. However, this is not the main topic of “Life is Beautiful”, a movie which shows a child in a Nazi concentration camp, Giosue. He is convinced that he’s playing a game to win a tank, but he is actually being hidden from the Nazis to get the prize of his own life. Isn’t this impacting?
Without doubts, my favourite character is Guido, Giouse’s father and the game’s creator. At the beginning of the movie, when Guido’s in his friend’s car, he seems to be absentminded: he insisted telling his friend that he should stop the car while hearing that they don’t have brakes anymore. But we might be fooled because from there to the end the cleverness of Guido is his great allied.
Guido is a imaginative man; he easily creates stories, but it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t live in the present with his feet firmed on the Earth. He takes advantage of anything around to pursue his purposes and , of course, always accompanied with a great humour. Although Guido never seems thinking in a way of how conquer his wife, Dora, he is aware of any opportunity to approach her. There is a very funny scene where Guido gets a key by asking Maria from the sky for the key to open Dora’s heart. What Dora doesn’t know is that in the house beside them there is an actual Maria who always drops the key when is called. This is not the most realistic scene but it makes me realize how we let to go even silly things that we can use to enjoy our lives if we want; if we are aware of them and free our imagination to use them.
I like the way Guido behaves; he is positive and enthusiastic. It’s a good example to follow but a really hard one. He never complains about his situation in the concentration camp or is worry about the uncertain future. He just knows that he wants to keep his family alive. He takes advantage of anything around that may help him to convince his son that they are playing a game in which Giosue can not cry or ask for food, and where he has to be hidden in order to win. As well, Guido uses his ingenuity to communicate to his wife that their son is alive.
After I watched this movie several times, I realize how important is to be aware of our present like people and things that are around us. Anything, even the smallest thing can be an opportunity to enjoy our lives. Even in the worst circumstances we should get the best of our present and make it work in our benefit, just like Guido did in the concentration camp to save his son’s life.
The Exorcist
I could sense the fear and the tension in the air form the top of the stairs. My older brother and sister were watching a movie and I decided I had to go see what it was. It was at this point my Mom saw me going downstairs and promptly ended my plans. It wasn’t fair! After all, I was nine years old! I didn’t know a thing about the movie except that it was really scary and that my siblings were barley allowed seeing it at the time. How scary could this movie be? I later found it was called the “The Exorcist.” Such a title gave away zero part of the plot to me at the time. Both my brother and sister laughed and said I would be too scared, being the youngest in the family I naturally fed off the joy of proving them wrong. A short time had passed when I was flipping channels and saw that “The Exorcist” was just about to start. I turned off the lights, shut the door so no body could see me watching it, and waited in anticipation.
I was disappointed after about ten minutes, nothing even remotely scary had happened. Before I completely floated away on my cloud of self praise I was quickly brought back down when the first scary scene took place. “The Exorcist” is about a young girl who is possessed by a demon. As a viewer, it truly seemed as if she was being controlled by pure evil. The girl mother, after trying everything else imaginable, resorts to an old Catholic ritual called an exorcism. Two priests perform the exorcism and not successful. One of the priests calls out and offers his own soul but before the demon could settle in his body he sacrificed himself.
Being nine years old at the time, this was a lot to take in. I never told my brother or sister I saw the movie at the time, they would have known I was lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I couldn’t let everyone know they were right, and that I wouldn’t be able to handle it. Every time I closed my eyes I would see scenes from the movie. Eventually I had to tell my mom I watched the movie, he reaction was the typical mother reaction, I knew I had that coming. She tried her best to tell me how it wasn’t real and that couldn’t really happen to anyone. My come back to her was “How could you possibly know?” She said, “I just know.” I didn’t buy it for a second! Since exorcisms are real, and at one time were used, how could it not be real? That thought alone can still keep me awake to this day.
Last year I watched “The Exorcist” for the second time. I was older, and thought that because I was so little before it was most likely my imagination getting the best of me; not the movie. I was wrong. It was déjà vu all over again. I felt like a complete fool, being scared from a movie. It wasn’t until then I realized how terrifying this movie truly is. This film was a humungous success and made a substantial profit. In Britain the film was not released on video until 1999. “The Exorcist” was labeled the scariest move ever by “Time Magazine” and is constantly given this title from anyone that watches it. To this day images of the movie send a chill down my spine.
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