classic movie reviews-Dances with Wolves

I am a fan of Kevin Costner for a long time. Amazingly, the movie I saw to become his fan was not a critically acclaimed one, like ‘The Untouchables’ or ‘The Bodyguard’ or ‘Waterworld’ or ‘Wyatt Earp’ or ‘Open range’ or JFK’ or many more, but a cheesy action flick named ‘3000 Miles to Graceland’. I saw it after a year of its release (2002) and immediately became a fan of this talented actor. The character he plays (Murphy) in the film is a memorable one to me, and I still remember how angry Murphy will be when one mentions any jokes about Elvis Presley in the film. He holds a ‘connection’ to Presley in the movie.

Well, this post is about ‘Dances with Wolves’ and not ‘3000 miles to Graceland’. Hence, we will see about the masterpiece movie which he has directed.

‘Dances with Wolves’ is originally a screenplay written by Michael Blake. In the book ‘Four screenplays’ by Syd Field, Syd writes about the film in detail. He explains about how the screenplay was written and how Costner kept supporting Blake while he finished it, and how Costner decided to make the film and asked Blake in turn to write the novel. Costner supported Blake coz it was Blake’s novel, named ‘Stacy’s Knights’ which was made in to a film, and it starred a young Costner, in the early years of his movie career.

Blake finished the novel after much struggle, and when it was published, it attracted a very limited audience. Then, Costner started to film the screenplay. It was the year 1990 when ‘Dances with Wolves’ was released. Costner made his directorial début. The film won 7 Oscars including the best director Oscar for Costner. Considered to be one of the epics on the Sioux tribes of the Red Indians.

The movie begins at a hospital. It’s the period of the American Civil war. We see Lieutenant John .J. Dunbar. His leg has to be amputated, since it’s badly injured. But, Dunbar looks at the other soldiers wriggling in pain after their amputation, and he runs out, steals a horse and heads straight to the field where the gun battle is on, trying to commit suicide by getting trapped among the gunshots.

Seeing Dunbar fearlessly heading towards the enemies, the union troops are rejuvenated, and they start attacking the confederates, ultimately winning the battle. Dunbar is awarded the horse and is named as a hero. He is then offered the choice of his favorite posting, by the union General.

Dunbar asks to be posted at the western frontier. The reason – he wants to visit and feel the frontier which will lose its nativity – the army is planning to launch an attack on the Indians. He goes to a Fort – Fort Hays – to report to the major about his posting, and the drunk major shoots himself after assigning orders to Dunbar. Dunbar leaves the fort with a wagon driver named Timmons, carrying fresh supplies of food and ammunitions to his assigned post. He has to report to one Captain Cargill at Fort Sedgwick which is in the western frontier.

Dunbar finds the Fort Sedgwick deserted. He asks Timmons to leave and starts to set up his own camp. He sees a wolf which he names as ‘Two Socks’, because of the color of its legs. Timmons gets caught and scalped to death by the Pawnee Indians in the frontier, and Dunbar, unaware of the impending danger, starts to explore his surroundings. Once, while bathing in a nearby pool, Dunbar sees a Sioux Indian – the leader of the Sioux tribe named Kicking Bird approach his camp. After seeing Dunbar running towards him from the pool naked, the Indian is frightened and runs away. Dunbar immediately prepares the camp to face the battle – he sets up guns and prepares hideouts.

The Indians try to steal Dunbar’s horse but in vein. After seeing all these ‘not so rosy’ incidents, Dunbar decides to visit the Sioux village to improve relationships. While Dunbar nears the village, he encounters ‘Stands with a fist’, an English girl who’s been brought up in the village by Kicking Bird and his wife. She tries to cut her hands and legs in order to follow a traditional custom of mourning for her dead husband, but faints since she has lost blood. Dunbar brings her to the village. The villagers are frightened by his arrival, and Dunbar leaves.

The leaders of the village hold a meeting to discuss about Dunbar and decide that he must be observed. The next day, Kicking Bird goes to Dunbar’s camp, and Dunbar greets the convoy with coffee. Eventually both the parties become friends, but there is one thing which stands as a barricade – the language barrier. Since ‘Stands with a fist’ was born English, Kicking Bird assigns her to translate whatever Dunbar says, and she reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Dunbar helps the village when he tells them about a huge herd of Buffalos. The Sioux hunt the herd along with Dunbar, and Dunbar kills many buffalos with his gun, and this act of Dunbar makes him a hero among the tribes. The minute difference of Dunbar reluctantly becoming a hero among his people in the war, and now Dunbar happily becoming a hero among the Sioux is captured well in the movie.

Dunbar becomes an inseparable part of the Sioux from then on, and he slowly learns the language too, with the help of Stands with a fist. They both fall in love gradually, and Kicking Bird gives her permission to come out of her mourning and to marry Dunbar.

While Dunbar one day plays with ‘Two Socks’, the wolf, the Sioux see this and name him as ‘Dances with Wolves’.

While the majority of men from the Sioux camp go for a war with the Pawnee Indians, Kicking Bird makes Dunbar stay in the village as a protection for the women and children. One day, while a Pawnee army comes to attack the camp, Dunbar facilitates killing the army with the help of his buried guns at his fort. While Kicking Bird returns, he learns everything, and the marriage of Dunbar with ‘Stands with a fist’ happens.

While Dunbar finally reveals to Kicking Bird that the white men will soon start coming like waves to attack and kill the tribes, Kicking Bird plans to move the village to the winter camp. Dunbar, while shifting, realizes that he has left his journal back in the camp, which contains all the information about his tryst with the Sioux. He runs to the port, and finds a battalion of white soldiers. They kill Dunbar’s horse and they torture Dunbar, asking him to tell the location of the Sioux.

While Dunbar is taken to the Fort Hayes, the Sioux attack the convoy and they rescue Dunbar. Dunbar goes to Kicking Bird, telling him that Dunbar’s presence will always attract the white men, and it will be a risk to the Indians. Reluctantly, Kicking Bird agrees to leave Dunbar behind. Dunbar and his wife ‘Stands with a fist’ leave the camp and we learn that after some years, the white men indeed arrived, and the Sioux Indians were killed. The movie ends.

“Dances with Wolves’ is a film which talks about relationships. It shows us a heartening display of how a man who wanted to die became rejuvenated while being with people he didn’t even know about. The story of John Dunbar. It won seven academy awards including best film, best director and best screenplay.

This is the highest grossing Western of all time, with a domestic take of $184 million in the US. It achieved this figure without ever reaching #1 on the box-office charts. Also, this is the first western to win a best picture Oscar after Cimarron (1931) – about 50 years between these two movies

MICKEL JACKSON-A KING OF POP MUSIC

A.R RAHMAN-A LIVING LEGEND OSCAR WINNER,INDIAN MUSIC MASTRO,SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC DIRECTOR

Born - 6 January 1967
Achievements - AR Rahman holds the credit for totally overhauling the style in which music was being made in India. Though with a career spanning just over a decade, Rahman has already sold over one hundred million records world-wide and more than two hundred million cassettes. This has brought AR Rahman into the category of the world's top 25 all-time top selling recording artists.

AR Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman, who is better known as AR Rahman, is a world-class musician of India. Born as A. S. Dileep Kumar on 6 January 1967 at Chennai in Tamil Nadu, AR Rahman holds the credit for totally overhauling the style in which music was being made in India. Soundtracks and scores composed by him for Indian films have a strong impression of classical, folk, jazz, reggae, soft rock and other genres. Due to his creative brilliance, AR Rahman is often referred to as the Mozart of Madras by his fans in India and abroad.

The biography of AR Rahman's career spans somewhere over a decade, but he has already sold over one hundred million records world-wide and more than two hundred million cassettes. This has brought Rahman into the category of the world's top 25 all-time top selling recording artists. Though AR Rahman is the undisputed leader in Indian contemporary music in the present times, he has seen his share of struggle in the professional life.

His father, R K Shekhar, who was a composer, arranger and conductor for Malayalam films died when Rahman was just 9 years-old and his family rented out musical equipment as a source of income. Later there was a turning point when Dileep Kumar decided to rechristen himself as A R Rahman. This incident happened when Rahman's sister was very ill once. A Muslim friend suggested if he prayed in a particular mosque, his sister would recover and so did happen. This caused the entire family to convert to Islam.

The life history of AR Rahman's music career started scaling upwards 1991 onwards when began his own studio and started making music for advertisements, television channels and so on. Rahman got his very first break into the Indian film industry when film director, Mani Ratnam offered him a chance to compose music for his Tamil film, Roja at mere Rs 25,000. This movie turned out to be blockbuster hit andAR Rahman then there was no looking back for A.R. Rahman.

Roja debut made AR Rahman bag the Rajat Kamal award for best music director at the National Film Awards. This was a historic moment as for the first time ever in Indian film industry, this award was being handed to a first-time film composer. There was no looking back for AR Rahman after this as film offers just started pouring in. There are now an impressive number of music tracks created by Rahman and all of them have sold like hot cakes across India and even abroad. He has made songs for super hit films like Rangeela, Dil Se Taal, Rang De Basanti, Bombay et al.

world classic movies-CARANDIRU

What is our conception about a prison? The place where people spend their life for the crimes they committed; the place where immoral people live; the place where murderers, lunatics and psychotic killers roam around. The common man views the prison as something bad and gloomy. It’s like a place where the common man fears even to step in.

But, is this the reality? Are prisons bad to that extent? It’s true that people spend their lifetime inside the dark cells, for the crime they committed in that random second – when a flurry of emotional thoughts blocked the rational part of their mind – which prompted them to act wildly. As a result, he spends years and years behind the bars, repenting.The world of a prison is unique. There are very kind people inside the prison, too.‘Carandiru’ is based on a book written by a doctor – ‘Estação Carandiru’ (Carandiru Station) by Dr. Drauzio Varella, based on his experiences when he visited the Carandiru Penitentiary at Sau Paulo, Brazil, the biggest prison in Latin America.

The film begins with a fight. We see many people shouting from behind the bars, as two people violently collide. They are separated, and an elderly man, who seems like he is the boss, addresses the two men. He says this is a disgraceful act and it is a bad example. One of the fighters, named Dagger, says to the elderly man that the other guy tried to stab him from behind, and hence, he acted only to defend himself. The other guy, Lula, shouts in angst that it was Dagger who murdered his father, and Lula wants revenge. Dagger laughs and tells Lula it was his mother who paid him to kill his father, as he was physically abusing her. Lula cries out in anguish, and calms down after digesting the truth.
The elderly man, named ‘Black Nigger’, asks the two fighters to calm down, and he welcomes the doctor to the prison. The doctor, dealing in AIDS especially, sets up a small ‘workplace’ at the prison and starts diagnosing the inmates. While treating them, he comes to know that there are almost 7500 prisoners inside the prison, which is capable of hosting only 4000. And, most inmates have been afflicted with AIDS, due to drugs and homosexual activities prevalent inside.

The doctor converses with the inmates and they start to narrate their stories of how they came to the prison. We hear the story of the black nigger. He and his friend, ‘fatso’, hosted a jewellery theft without ‘spending a single bullet’, and even before dividing the loot, Black nigger kills the third guy who assisted them, out of sheer suspicion when he turns towards the black nigger with his hand covered with his coat. Fatso draws out his gun, and tells black nigger that they indeed planned to kill him, to divide the money with them. They dispose the body, and after two days, Black nigger is arrested for the murder, as fatso has revealed everything to the dead man’s brother.

Fatso too is arrested for the theft. The doctor asks the black nigger what happened to fatso, and he replies that while trying to escape through a tunnel they dug, fatso was stabbed by his friends since he was struck inside the tunnel.

While the doctor finishes his day and returns in the bus with his blood samples, he thinks he has to pick one of the two possibilities – either to return back to the prison the next day or to forget everything, like a bad dream. The next day, the doctor is back.

While the doctor treats the patients, we see some of the interesting members of the prison. We see Chico, a man with 18 children, waiting to be released to see all of them again – he loves makes huge balloons inside the prison. We see ‘Highness’, the drug dealer inside the prison, and we hear his romantic story of how he successfully wooed a white woman and a black woman and married them both, and how he was arrested – by accepting the charge of burning their house which was indeed done by the black woman when she burnt their house seeing him in bed with the white woman. We see Zico and Deusdete, two childhood friends, and how Deusdete killed two guys who attacked his sister and came to the prison. We hear the story of two friends in crime – two bank robbers. All the stories are shown in flashbacks.

We witness a love story between a transgender named lady ‘Di’ and a fellow inmate ‘No Way’. They both marry, at the end. We witness the black nigger complaining to the doctor he is unable to sleep, as he always has to resolve conflicts between the prisoners since he is their leader. The doctor says he has stress, and gives him medication. The doctor gradually earns the good will of the prisoners and becomes a man they can trust.
The ‘Visitors’ day’ arrives, where all the friends and relatives can visit the prison and can spend a day with the prisoners. We see the children of Chico, the two wives and the children of ‘Highness’, the black nigger’s family, Deusdete’s sister and many more. All the inmates happily spend their time with their families. We even see ‘Highness’ making fierce love with his white wife.

Zico turns mad gradually due to his addiction to drugs. He pours hot water on his childhood friend Deusdete and kills him, out of sheer lunacy. This act of violence infuriates the inmates and they kill Zico by stabbing him violently. ‘Highness’ talks to Ezequiel, a fellow inmate who owes a lot of money to Zico, to accept the crime, since he is an AIDS patient and if he accepts it, will be given a separate room and new cloths, till he dies. Ezequiel accepts the crime.
We see the doctor kick-starting a foot ball match between the inmates. While the match is underway, the doctor leaves the premises and we hear his narration – ‘When I walked in two weeks later, all I could see is the holes in the prison walls caused by bullets. It was silent everywhere, and it has been transformed in to a solitary building’.

We see what has happened. While the football match is going on, we witness a small dispute inside the prison caused by an inmate hitting the other, since he was drying his underwear near the other person’s cloths. This dispute sparks a huge war inside the prison, and everywhere, people attack everyone. The football winners enter the prison premises gleefully, and immediately on seeing the fight, most of them start to participate in the fight. We hear the doctor’s voice at the background – ‘Till then, there was humanity, and once the fight started, everyone became animals’.
The situation worsens inside the prison, and paramilitary forces are brought in. The warden announces everyone to stay calm and to end the fight. Some of the prisoners shout from their windows to the warden that they want peace, but most of the agitated inmates shout against the warden that they need more space and humanitarian treatment inside the prison.

The warden orders everyone to drop their weapons and to remain calm. We see a lot of daggers thrown out of the windows. Suddenly, a few agitated prisoners throw a flush toilet on the warden and the paramilitary forces, and there begins what is called in history as ‘Carandiru Massacre’.

The paramilitary forces enter the prison and start shooting whomever they see. All the inmates start to scramble for their life frantically and everywhere, we see blood. The military mercilessly shoot everyone, and we hear howls and gunshots all over the place.
‘Highness’, Black nigger, lady ‘Di’, ‘No way’ and many inmates hide in their cabins, and the military spares a few of them. The others are killed even after their surrender. It’s brutal killing everywhere.The military orders the survivors to assemble outside, naked. We see all the survivors seated at the open grounds, naked, all through the day and the night. It’s a heart-breaking sight when we see fellow humans seated and treated like animals.

The blood soaked prison floor is washed, and it’s a river of blood, flowing down the steps of the prison. We see a lot of corpses. A dog starts licking the pool of blood.

The doctor visits the prison after two weeks, and it’s empty now. The walls are pierced by bullets, and the huge open space between the blocks is now deserted, with broken down rooms. The doctor sadly looks around him. The guards open the prison doors for the doctor, and when he comes out, the film ends with the guards closing the doors.

We learn from the end credits that the prison was demolished soon after. We also learn that almost 111 prisoners died in the riot, and not a single military man was wounded.

‘Carandiru’ is a Portuguese film, directed by Hector Babenco and was released in 2003. Director Hector Babenco shot the film on location in the actual penitentiary, and in neo-realist fashion he used a huge cast of novice actors - some of whom are former inmates. The real Carandiru prison was demolished in 2002; it was transformed into a park with arts facilities. One block (#2) was left intact to be used as a museum. The film was the last thing they used the prison before demolishing 90% of it.

Carandiru is a very interesting film, which is way different from the 'prison-dramas' we usually see in english. This is how a prison will be, and it's very much realistic. The stories of the prisoners are interesting to watch. All through the film, humanity is the one thing the inmates want, and it’s the only thing they are deprived of. The emotional outbursts of the inmates during the visitors’ day touch our heart.

Carandiru was the highest grossing Brazilian movie of the year it was released (2003). The film was screened at many film festivals like Cannes film festival, Toronto Film Festival, Canada; the Hamburg Film Festival, Germany; the Edda Film Festival, Ireland; the Muestra Internacional de Cine, Mexico; the Sundance Film Festival, USA; the Bangkok International Film Festival, Thailand; and others.Try seeing Carandiru and get a hold of the life of the inmates, for, they too are human beings like us and all they wanted, is a hint of kindness.

world classic movie reviews-INDIANA JONES

The man with the hat is back – This time he is aged, accompanied by his son and his wife; Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull has opened on 30th across India, and is receiving tremendous response all over. At the point of writing this article, it has grossed $359,881,000 world wide – it stands #116 in the world’s top grossing movies till date – that too, within ten days of release ! I’m sure it’ll gross even more and will stand on par among its prequels, in the days to come.

Okay. Having said this, how is the movie? Is it good like its predecessors? Nice question. The answer – If you are satisfied about a flick and if there are more parts of it to come, go see them with an open mind. Don’t always have the original one in mind and expect the sequel to be like the original. Sometimes, they do surpass the original & sometimes they don’t. Well, then what category does the new Indy adventure belong to? To me, I loved it. It was interesting, every scene of it. I never felt bored for even a minute. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Before writing further, lemme tell about what I felt about Indy all these years. I saw the previous 3 movies a few years ago. I loved the first one, hated the second and again loved the third. So, when I got the news that it’ll be released in India on 30th of May, 2008, I felt exited. I wanted to go see it the first show. ‘She’ booked the tickets in B’lore (Which again was a complete surprise – I never expected it), and off we went, to see Indy.

As soon as Indy was thrown out of the car’s trunk – his hat – the famous one – comes first, thrown in to the sand, and then we see Indy’s shadow, pushed to the ground and slowly rising, wearing the hat – I let out a huuuuuge whistle in the theater ! From that moment, began the adventure, filmed in great style. Throughout the movie, Indy is first reacting to the circumstances and then starts acting on his own. The film is filled with fantastic CGI work, with good camera (Spielberg’s regular ‘man Friday’ - Janusz kaminski). The screenplay is good throughout (David Koepp, again a Spielberg regular).
This film also has something, which also is a ‘Spielberg regular’ – The Alien! It comes in one scene, without dialogues. Spielberg’s love for the aliens is widely seen in most of his movies.

Harrison Ford is terrific as Indy. He looks like the same man from the previous three movies, without being worn down by his age. He is fit, muscular and casual. This time, he pairs with his son and his first heroine (from Raiders of the lost Arc), to uncover the secret behind a crystal skull. It has been filmed in such a way that the tone of the film is exactly like the previous 3 movies. It’s not digital, and it has the same kind of color shading. It figures that comic book kind of look also throughout. The stunts are also enjoyable. The chase inside the jungle, the final confrontation, the bike chase – every stunt has been well done.

Overall, this movie will make you smile – Go see Indy and cheer for him, as he exactly carries on from what he left 19 years ago - adventure in full throttle !

world classic movies review-THE SHINNING

Here is a film which is hailed as one of the scariest horror movies in English. This is a widely acclaimed film throughout the world, and is still being liked by many true fans. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, who is deemed as a perfectionist, ‘The Shining’ was released in 1980. The movie has been adapted from a Stephen King novel.

Imagine you are left inside a very large house with only your wife and your son. You have to stay there at least for another five months. Nobody is around - not even a single house nearby. Mostly the house will be surrounded by snow, all through the months. How will your reactions be, in such an environment? Will you come out successful at the end of the five month stint, or will you perish?

The answer to this question forms the bottom-line of ‘The Shining’.

The movie begins with a series of fantastic helicopter shots of a car moving on a hill-road. We see Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) coming to a Hotel named ‘Overlook’ for an interview. The job is to look after the hotel for five months in the winter, when the hotel is closed. Jack seems delighted that he has got an offer, and despite the manager’s warning that the previous caretaker chopped his family and two daughters in to pieces, stacked them and ultimately shot himself, Jack accepts the offer. He says the loneliness is very well needed as he is right now on a writing assignment.

At the same time, in Jack’s home, his little son Danny seems to be agitated. He has the power of precognition, and is aided by ‘Tony’, some kind of supernatural power which warns him of the future happenings. He says Jack has got the offer. Exactly at the same moment, Jack rings home to tell his wife Wendy about his new offer.





The family goes to the hotel, and the manager Stuart shows them all the rooms. The chef Hallorann takes Wendy and Danny inside the store room and the kitchen, and while conversing with Danny, Hallorann reveals to Danny that he is aware of Danny’s supernatural power, as he himself uses the power at certain times, and that he learnt it from his granny. Danny enquires him about the room no 237, and what has happened over there. Hallorann answers Danny that there are certain incidents which are not pleasant, and it will be good if Danny stays away from the room.

The next day, jack and his family are the only inhabitants of the Hotel. A month goes by. Jack gets busy in typing his material while Wendy takes care of the daily activities. Danny moves around the long corridors of the Hotel in his small cycle. Once, Danny sees the ghosts of the two girls of the previous caretaker. The phone lines are cut due to the snowfall outside, and one day Danny goes in to the room 237 which is open, at the exact moment when jack dreams about chopping his wife and child. After a while, Danny returns, with a dazed look. There are strains on his neck, and Wendy thinks it was Jack who tried to beat the child. Jack doesn’t reply, and he goes in to the ‘Gold Room’ in the hotel, and talks to a creepy man named Lloyd who appears to be the bartender. We hear Wendy shouting Jack’s name, and she comes to Jack, apologizing to him for having accused him for the son’s bruises. She tells him that Danny told her he was attacked by a lady bathing in the room 237.Jack goes in to the room, and he sees a nude lady in the bathtub. She comes near him, hugs him and kisses. Suddenly she turns in to an old lady, with decayed skin. Jack runs away from the room.

He goes to his wife, telling her that there is nothing suspicious about the room. They both argue about shifting Danny outside the hotel. Jack now returns again to the ‘Gold Room’ which is filled with guests now. He meets a person named Delbert Grady in the room. Jack recognizes him as the previous caretaker who murdered his family, but Grady denies it, tells Jack that Jack has ‘always’ been at the overlook Hotel and JACK is the caretaker! He further tells Jack to set right his wife and the child, as his child is trying to bring in a nigger from outside in to the hotel.

We see Danny sitting in the bed, doing some kind of a queer action, and we see Hallorann at Florida, miles apart, doing the same action as that of Danny. They both communicate mentally and Danny sends the message to Hallorann that something is queer in the hotel. Hallorann calls the telephone department and requests them to call the wireless of the Hotel frequently as the phone lines have been destroyed, just to make sure everything is alright and he starts to the hotel.

Back in the hotel, Wendy learns about what Jack is actually writing in his book, and with a baseball bat in hand, she comes to jack. She asks him to go away, and while jack tries to stop her, she injures him. She locks him up in the store room, and Jack tells Wendy that he has destroyed the wireless and their car so that no one can get out.

After a while, Jack hears a sound near the door, and it’s Grady. We hear Grady’s voice from outside that Jack has failed to do his duty. Jack tells him to give him one more opportunity, and after getting Jack’s word that he will do his duty, the door suddenly opens.

Danny is awake in the bed, and he repeatedly utters the word ‘Redrum’ – the reverse of murder and writes it on the door. Wendy wakes up, and at the exact moment, Jack starts hitting the door with his axe. Wendy and Danny run away inside the Hotel, and after a chase, they hide. Meanwhile, Hallorann too arrives at the hotel.

What happened at the Hotel? Was Jack the ‘perennial’ caretaker? What happens to Wendy and Danny? What’s the mystery about Grady telling Jack that Jack has ‘always’ been the caretaker at the hotel? What happened to Hallorann? Rent the DVD and see it yourselves.

Now, Stanley Kubrick – the world knows how methodical he was. He has directed award winning movies like ‘Spartacus’, ‘Lolita’, ‘2001: a space odyssey’, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (the review will soon follow), ‘Full metal jacket’ etc.. He was an innovative director par excellence, and he used a creative tool which was discovered during his days with great efficiency in this movie – the Steadycam It is said that ‘The Shining’ was only the second movie to make use of the various nuances of the Steadycam. ‘The Shining’ has a lot of things to vividly talk about, and which have been discussed a lot by the movie fans. The camerawork is exceptional in the film, with smooth, clear and perfect shots giving the audience the satisfaction of watching a great film.

Jack Nicholson as ‘Jack’ has done a great role. It is to be noted that Kubrick considered Robert De Nero and Robin Williams for the role of Jack, but finally picked Jack Nicholson, as De Nero was considered not psychotic enough for the role and Robin Williams was considered too psychotic for the role. Jack Nicholson’s role demands an eerie sort of acting, and he has mastered the role. We get psyched out when we see him with an axe at the end.

The best thing about the movie is the way Kubrick has placed his shots. Both the magnanimity and the creepiness of the hotel are well portrayed, with the long shots and the low angle Steadycam shots. When Danny goes around with his cycle and when the Steadycam follows him, the music and the camera give a creepy feeling to the audience that anything might happen anytime.

This is the kind of the movie which doesn’t show ghosts but frightens the audience. The mastery of Kubrick is evident all over the film.

Overall, me and my friend, while watching the film yesterday night, were pretty sure that someone is gonna open the door anytime with an axe in hand. Njoy the film, friends, and post your feedback.

PS:- This movie might attract a few while some viewers might also get confused. Some might dislike it totally. Don’t come to any sort of a decision by reading this post, but rent it and try seeing it yourselves without any judgment.

classic movies-Hotel Rwanda

Genocides.

They happen because of the hatred people have towards each other. When abhorrence develops in the minds of a group of people against their opponent caste, the results are dreadful. We read in newspapers frequently about one caste attacking the people of other caste in our villages (and cities too). Look at what’s happening in Sri Lanka. It is happening in Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir... Everywhere. Just imagine we are a part of this genocide. Around us, people are getting killed, and we don’t know when our turn will be. Lunatics are waiting outside to kill us at any time. What will our reaction be, in such a dreadful situation?

Hotel Rwanda is one such tale against genocides.

Paul Rusesabagina is the manager of a hotel in Kigali, Rwanda - Hotel Mille Collines. There are two major castes in Rwanda – The Hutu and the Tutsi. The Hutus are in power in 1994, and their president is Juvénal Habyarimana. We see Paul purchasing groceries for the hotel, in the initial scenes. He comes to the Hotel along with his assistant Dube. While Paul is working busy in the Hotel, Dube and others hear radio news which tells the President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane has been shot and the president has died in the crash.

The radio proclaims that the Tutsi caste is responsible for the crash as the president was a Hutu. The radio says the Tutsi’s are planning for an attack on the Hutus for a long time and now they have sparked the dynamite by assassinating the president. Tension mounts up in Kigali, and military is summoned to reinforce peace. The U.N also sends Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) with an army to Kigali. The colonel talks to Paul and says things are under control, and the government is trying to reinforce peace all over the country.

There is an armed force named Interahamwe which absolutely hates the Tutsi caste. They proclaim in the radio that the Tutsis are cockroaches and they need to be killed to keep the country clean. Paul’s friend tells him the military is very minimal, and it won’t be able to control the crisis, if it happens. He also tells Paul to flee from the country, as his wife is a Tutsi. Paul assures his friend that the military will be able to control the crisis and even the U.N is here. All the world media is looking at the situation, and hence nothing would happen.

One man who is the neighbor of Paul comes to him and tells that the Interahamwe has decided to launch a brutal attack on the Tutsis. The code world will be ‘Cut the tall trees’. If this word is issued in the radio, it means the massacre will start. Paul worriedly comes in to his house and searches his wife and children, and they all are gathered in a room, with many other neighbors. The neighbors are Tutsis and they have come for refuge to Paul, since he is the ONLY Hutu who can be trusted. There is no power, too.

Next day, Paul goes to the hotel, and while traveling in the car, he switches on the radio, and suddenly hears the proclamation of ‘Cut the tall trees’ getting repeated again and again. Terrified, he reaches the hotel. The crisis has already begun. He runs to his home, and there is military which finds out he is sheltering Tutsis and the military says all the Tutsis are to be killed. Paul offers money to the military general, and saves those Tutsis and brings them all to his hotel.

In the Hotel, there are a lot of foreign people staying, and rooms are being allocated to all the refugees. Everywhere, it’s havoc outside, and Tutsis are killed in bunches. A woman from Red Cross brings in many Tutsi children and asks Paul to keep them safe. Paul hurriedly enquires to her about his sister-in-law, her husband and her two children who live near the school where the children are rescued, and he asks her to bring them here. She tells she‘ll try and goes off. Later he learns that the house is severely damaged and the parents are missing. The children are with an old lady living near their house.

Meanwhile, we see an army coming to the hotel to kill all the Tutsis. Paul calls the Hotel’s owners and they (Jean Reno) talk to the high authorities and as a result, the army withdraws. News reaches Paul that the while people are going to be rescued from the hotel by their countries and the black people are left as castaways. All the white people slowly move towards the buses waiting for them, and some of them (The news channel camera man Joaquin Phoenix) react about their spinelessness to help the blacks. The buses start, and in a beautiful shot, the poor black people who’ve left behind, stranded in the hotel, are shown. Rain pours down, and Paul takes everyone inside.

General Oliver tells Paul that he has received orders that some black people have got visas and they will be taken to the neighboring countries. In the list he reads out, Paul’s name is at the last. His wife and children are relieved that they are safe. When the truck comes to carry the blacks, after placing his family inside the truck, Paul whispers to a friend to take care of his family, and suddenly jumps out. He says he can’t leave the refugees as such, and goes to them. His wife cries, and the truck moves.

Back in the hotel, Paul learns from the radio that it’s an ambush to bring the people outside the hotel. Hutu fanatics attack the truck, and General Oliver somehow manages to bring the truck back to the hotel.

Now, all the routes are shut. Everywhere, it appears bleak, and Paul doesn’t know what to do. A policeman tells him that soon, the higher officials in the military will be thrown out, and then, everyone in the hotel will be killed. Paul goes to meet his friend to get groceries for the hotel, and after collecting them, the friend tells Paul to help to kill the cockroaches present inside, and if he helps, then he will be spared along with a few of the Tutsis. He asks Paul to take the road by the river, as it is the only clean road.

While traveling on the river road, the car bumps as if it’s been moving on rocks. Paul stops the vehicle and when he comes out, he staggers on something. When he looks at the road, he realizes that the entire road is filled with bodies! Thousands of bodies are lying on the road, making it a bloody sight. Paul cannot withstand the sight of his fellow countrymen lying as dead bodies, and he rushes to the hotel. He cries in a bathroom, and he tells his wife that if something happens to him, she has to go the terrace along with the children and jump down, as suicide is better than being tortured and killed.

He goes to a general in the Hutu army, who initially was Paul’s friend. Paul threatens the general that USA is carefully assessing the situation and when it attacks the Hutu army for the massacre, the general must need someone to vouch that the general was helping the Tutsi refugees. Paul says he will vouch for the general. Reluctantly, the general agrees to help Paul and with his help, all the refugees are brought to the neighboring city, and from there, to Tanzania.

In Tanzania, Paul is able to find the children of his sister-in-law. That was the only happiness to his family, after the attacks.

The movie ends with a beautiful song sung by children, when Paul and his wife take some more children to be accommodated in the bus to Tanzania.

Hotel Rwanda is a thumping tale. It’s a true story which portrays the massacre of millions of Tutsis by the Hutu fanatics. It happened in 1994, and it is estimated that almost 500,000 people were killed in the genocide. To read more about the Rwandan Genocide, take a look at this link.

If we think about it, genocides happen all around the world. Paul asks Dube in this film about why are genocides happening, and Dube gives a beautiful one word answer. It’s all due to hatred, he says. Hatred towards fellow people. If this hatred spreads among a community, then genocides happen. But, as seen in a touching manner in the movie, the people getting killed are in no way associated with the attacks at all. Only the innocent people, women and children die in these genocides.

The movie presents a soulful solution to stop genocides. It’s Love. Love towards a fellow human. Paul risks his life in saving more than 1000 refugees, who belong to his opposite caste. What was the need? He could have easily joined forces with his caste members, to kill the refugees. But instead, Paul chooses to save them. At the end, all the people thank Paul for saving their lives, and Paul smiles seeing the smile on their faces. Love must be the only solution in this world, the only solution which can create miracles.

Hotel Rwanda was released in 2005. Its an English film starring Don Cheadle as Paul, directed by Terry George. It was nominated for three Oscars (Best Actor, best supporting actor and Best Original Screenplay). The real Paul Rusesabagina and his wife accompanied the director while he went to Rwanda, and at that time, many people have welcomed him at the airport. This shows the power of Love, isn’t it?

See Hotel Rwanda, and get a feel of a single person’s iron will to save thousand people who have come to seek refuge under him. Hotel Rwanda is a classic, spreading the message of love against genocides.

classic movies-The Curious Case of BENJAMIN BUTTON

Saw Benjamin Button at Satyam Cinemas on 28th Feb, Sat. I knew already about the film that it’s not the usual kind of a David Fincher film but it’s more like the Darabont way of filming. I read a few reviews and was eager to see it, and as soon as the film was released, booked a ticket and went to see it. It was an evening, and I was sporting a new haircut (‘Downspike’), and while in to the lobby, felt that I’m in line with the general mood set (Tee hee).

This is an abridged version of Scott Fitzgerald’s short story with the same name, written in 1921.

The film began.

We see an old lady in a hospital (Cate Blanchett, with a brilliant make up), at her last few minutes (hours, may be). She tells the story of a blind clockmaker who made a huge clock to be hung at the New Orleans railway station, and while he was making it, happens to lose his son at the world war I, and then decides to make the clock to tick backwards, as he believed that it will bring his son back to life, and the other victims of the world war. After the clock was hung at the railway station, he disappeared from public view. We see him sailing a boat in to the sea. That was the last of him.

After telling the story of the blind clockmaker, the old lady asks her daughter to read out a journal. The daughter starts to read it aloud for her dying mother.

The daughter’s voice slowly changes to that of a male. It’s a journal of a man named Benjamin Button. It begins in New Orleans at the end of the World War 1. We see a mother giving birth to a baby boy, and the father rushes in to see the mother, after being told that she is going to die. The father sees the child, and is terrorized, as the child has all the physical appearance of a very elderly man, with wrinkled skin and with cataract. The father keeps staring at the child, and suddenly, grabs it and runs away. He places the child at the entrance of an old age home.

The caretaker of the home picks up the child, and decides to keep him with her. She announces the arrival of this queer child to the members of the home, and there starts the story. Benjamin, the child starts to grow backwards. While during the birth, the child features the look and feel of a very old man, and from that day, starts growing backwards. Initially, the boy is not even able to walk, and moves in a wheelchair. The boy looks exactly like an old man, and is considered to be one, by many.

After a few years, Benjamin meets Daisy, the grand daughter of an old lady who comes to live at the home. They both develop a good friendship, and roam around.

Benjamin, now physically at his sixties (mentally, at his teen) goes to work in a ship, as a sweeper. He also meets a new person called Mr. Button, who comes to visit Benjamin one day (his father, who left him at the home). Mr. Button asks Benjamin that he will visit him at times, and Benjamin accepts. He develops a good friendship with the ship’s captain who takes him to bars and to women (The captain asks Benjamin, thinking that he is an old man, about any experiences with women, and Benjamin says no. The captain gets flabbergasted and takes him to women). They go to various places, with the ship. At every new place, Benjamin sends a postcard to daisy, as asked by her when he left for work.

Once, at Russia, Benjamin gets to meet a lady named Elizabeth. They both get attracted, and they spend every night at the hotel reception, and they talk till daybreak. She is already married, and slowly the friendship turns in to an affair. Benjamin writes about this to Daisy that he has fallen in Love with the lady. Suddenly, on the day the pearl harbor got attacked, Elizabeth disappears, leaving a note thanking him for everything.

Benjamin’s ship is requested by the US navy to join the World War 2, and after some travel, where Benjamin tells that even though they are in to the war, they didn’t see even a glimpse of it, spots a German submarine and engages in a battle. The boat gets severely damaged. At the end, Benjamin escapes death and returns home. While on his return, he sees a humming bird. It’s quite unnatural for humming birds to be seen at such heights (he is standing on the upper deck of a sailing ship), and it gives him a different perspective about life and death.

While at home, Mr. Button again meets Benjamin, and reveals the truth that he is Benjamin’s father. Mr. Button asks Benjamin to take care of all his properties. Benjamin’s immediate reaction is to go home to his foster mother, but eventually, he accepts his father’s will.

By this time, Daisy becomes a successful Ballet dancer. Benjamin meets Daisy and she wants to make love to him. Benjamin refuses, and Daisy leaves. Later, Benjamin learns that Daisy has fallen in love with a fellow dancer, and he decides that their lives have separated, from that instance.

Suddenly, one day Benjamin receives the news that Daisy has met with an accident at Rome and rushes to see her (The montage shown about why Daisy met with the accident is a very creative one). Daisy doesn’t want him there, and Benjamin stays for a few days at Rome. She also is very surprised at his youthful look (by this time, we get to see the original Brad Pitt. All the while, from the beginning, the reverse process of Benjamin getting younger is nicely shown). After a few years, Daisy returns to Benjamin.

They both start a life full of happiness, bubbling with youthfulness. They love each other truly, and they spend time together, with Daisy all the while realizing that Benjamin is growing younger day by day, while she is growing older.

Daisy eventually gives birth to a baby gal, Caroline. Benjamin tells Daisy that she can’t raise two kinds together, as he is growing younger day by day, and one day, sells all his properties, leaves everything to Daisy and Caroline, and slowly walks out of Daisy’s life, altogether.

He goes to various places, and sends greetings to Caroline during every one of her birthdays. One day, when Caroline is 12, Benjamin meets Daisy in her dancing school. He looks absolutely young by this time, like a teenage boy ( I was reminded of Varanam Aayiram schoolboy Surya. They both have worked hard supported with a stunning Make up!). Daisy introduces Caroline and her husband to Benjamin, and tells them Benjamin is an old relative. That night, Daisy meets Benjamin in the hotel, and makes love. Daisy and Benjamin realize that soon, Benjamin is going to turn so young.

Benjamin again disappears. Daisy gets a phone call from her friends one day that they have found a boy named Benjamin, who likes to play piano (It was taught to him by Daisy’s grand ma) and who is always in a state of confusion, and is not able to connect with people. She meets a very young boy there, realizing that Benjamin just has a few more years. From that day, Daisy visits him frequently, taking good care. Benjamin had lost his memories, and he just sees Daisy as yet another old woman.

One fine day, the clock at the railway Station which was ticking backwards, is removed. Immediately, we see Benjamin, now a baby, at Daisy’s lap, slowly closing his eyes. He dies peacefully.

Back at the hospital, while the hurricane Katrina thundering down outside, Caroline leaves her mother’s room for a smoke. At this time, a humming bird flatters it’s wings at the window, and Daisy sees this. She closes her eyes slowly, and dies. We are shown a room, where the backward running clock is kept in a box, still ticking. Slowly, water floods the room and raises to the brim of the box, as the clock still keeps ticking. The movie ends.

Well, this is all about Benjamin Button. The movie is nicely made. The visual effects are very good, and the acting is excellent. Although we see some glitches in the make up for Brad Pitt to show him older (Just like Kamal Hassan terrorizing everyone with his amateurish make ups In Dasavatharam), this is balanced by the acting and music.

Cate Blanchett is stunning. She looks very beautiful as a ballet dancer. Slim, charming and strikingly good. Brad Pitt has also done a good role (The theatre was erupting wildly with whistles and claps when we see a young Benjamin riding a bike, with sunglasses). The only hiccup with this movie is that the story was lacking the emotion. It was like an ordinary story. It would have been more effective if the story had the emotion and interest which would keep the audience ‘in’ to it. I felt that this film cannot be watched twice, and there is something missing in the story, altogether. Had this film had the emotional content, it would have been the definite Oscar winner, surging ahead of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, which was filled with this emotional content, which ultimately won the Oscar, even though it had hardcore masala embedded all over it.

In short, I experienced the same feeling I had, after watching ‘The scent of a woman’. David Fincher has definitely proved that he can also take dramas. Nice effort.

Go see Benjamin Button, for the sheer technical delight this movie offers.

world classic movies-spring,summer,fall,winter and spring

Our life is a complicated mixture of various aspects. We are not in a constant mood every day. Hour by hour, minute by minute, the mood changes, and hence the character. When we look back at how we fare honestly, we will realize about the deeds we have committed which affected others intentionally. Are there ways to drive away the guilt in our mind and to calm it down? What will happen if the actions committed in haste settle down in our mind like rust and it becomes difficult to scrap them away from the layers of our mind to make it clean? Is salvation a mirage?

There are too many unanswered questions in life. Even though we know the answers ourselves, we fear pursuing them, and are afraid to get rid of the guilt. What will happen if we get to live life as per what the mind says, and then what if we want to be clean and to spend the rest of our lives in remorse?

Spring, summer, fall, winter and spring is one such epic tale which spans three generations.

Spring

We see two big artistical gates open up slowly and reveal the stunning image of a Buddhist temple in the middle of a lake. All around, it’s surrounded by mountains and forests and looking at the temple itself is like looking at heaven. We get to see an old pontiff and his very young apprentice. There is a small Buddha statue in the temple, placed inside a bowl- like erection filled with water. There are a few goldfishes in the water. The Buddha is smiling, and the statue is a spectacular one. There is a door placed on two sides of the hall, and the little boy is sleeping on one side. The monk opens the door and awakens the boy. There is no necessity to open the door, as there is empty space all around it. It’s only needed to walk around the door to go to the other side, but that’s not the custom. The initial ten minutes of the film doesn’t have more than a few lines of dialogue. They go to the shore, collect herbs and return back. There is a dog in the temple, and the boy plays with the dog. We see a small montage of the young boy playing in the temple. The visuals are stunning.

One day, while in the forest, the little boy playfully catches a fish, ties a stone to it with a string and leaves it back. The fish is unable to pull the weight of the stone and shudders in the water. The boy laughs. He then does the same treatment to a frog and a snake. The monk silently watches from the back. While the boy is sleeping in the temple, the monk ties a big rock at his back with a rope. In the morning, the boy comes to the monk dragging the rock and complains that he is unable to walk. The monk asks the boy didn’t he do the same thing to the fish? Didn’t he do the same thing to the frog? Didn’t he do the same thing to the snake? The boy answers yes to all the questions, and the monk asks him to go to the forest and free the fish, frog ad the snake from their burdens. If any of them dies, then the boy will carry the burden in his heart to the rest of his life, the Abbott adds.

The boy goes to the forest, dragging the stone and trips down a few times. The monk secretly follows him. The boy finds the fish dead. He frees the frog, and the snake also is dead. The boy starts to cry deeply, as he is now aware of his blunder. The monk watches.

Summer

The doors open again, and we see the temple. The apprentice had grown to his teen age. He collects herbs as usual, and he meets a mother and her young daughter. He brings them both to the temple. We see a Rooster now in the temple. The monk has become even more aged. The mother says her daughter is sick, and the master invites them in. The daughter has to stay for a few days to become alright. The mother leaves the next day. Gradually, the teenage apprentice starts to glance at the daughter with lust. It is very natural, and once, he tries to touch the sleeping girl. She slaps him, and the trainee instantaneously turns to Buddha and starts praying fanatically. The girl gently touches him after seeing his predicament, and the door opens. The monk comes in, asks the boy why is he praying in such an untimely hour, and the boy keeps on praying.

The boy then starts playing with the girl in the temple, and the monk looks at this with a smile. They gradually become close, and once, the boy pushes her in the lake and takes her to the shore, and they make passionate love. That night, the apprentice is unable to sleep, and he keeps looking at the girl sleeping on the other side. The girl opens up her blanket, inviting him and the boy secretly goes to her. He tries to open the door in font of him, but fearing the creaking sound, goes through the empty space near the door. It has been filmed like the boy is breaking a custom. They make love.

This continues for a few days, and while they are asleep in the boat after making love, the monk notices. He drags the boat to the temple and pulls the plug, so that water floods in to the boat. They wake up with a jolt, and the boy pleads to the monk to forgive him. The monk says it’s a very natural thing, and desire leads to attachment and it will further lead to killing and orders the girl to leave as she has become alright. The apprentice cannot endure her absence, and at night, steals the Buddha idol and leaves the temple.

Fall

The doors open up again and we see the temple. The surrounding has changed. We see a very old monk returning from a neighboring village with a food parcel. He now carries a cat with him. On the parcel paper, the monk reads the news that a man has killed his wife and has fled. It’s the apprentice. The monk modifies the small shrunken cloths of the apprentice as he expects him at any moment. The apprentice returns to the temple. He has changed a lot, and looks like a guy from a city. He is angry to the core and breaks down to the monk that he cannot tolerate his wife going with another person. The monk tells that sometimes, others too will start liking our beautiful possessions. The apprentice stabs his knife on the floor of the temple many times, unable to control his temper over his wife he murdered. He tries to kill himself by sealing his eyes, nose and mouth by cloth. The monk beats him up brutally. The monk says he cannot kill himself. He ties the apprentice to the ceiling and places a burning candle beneath the rope. The apprentice falls down. The monk then writes down the hymns of the Prajñāpāramitā Hrdaya – a sacred Mahayana Buddhist sutra – using the cat’s tail on the wooden floor of the temple and orders the disciple to carve them out with his knife.

At the beginning, the apprentice does this with anger, and slowly his anger dissipates. He does it obediently. Two police officers come to the temple in search of the murderer, and the monk says it will take a day to finish up the carving. The apprentice carves all through the night, and faints. The police officers and the monk start painting the carved out sutras. The apprentice wakes up after a long time, and sees the entire floor painted with the carved out sutras. He then goes with the police officers in the boat. The boat stops in the water without moving further, and the monk waves his hand. The boat then moves. Later, the monk creates a pyre in the boat, sits inside sealing his nose, eyes and mouth using cloth, and burns himself.

Winter

After many years, the doors open again, and we see snow everywhere. The entire lake has frozen. We see a middle aged man (Kim Ki Duk himself). He slowly walks towards the temple, and offers his salute. He then goes to the frozen boat, salutes it and digs out the bones of the old pontiff. He places the bones in a red cloth and places it as the ‘bindi’ – the dot in the forehead - of the Buddha he earlier carved in the snow. We see a snake this time inside the temple. He cleans the temple and starts practicing the vigorous meditative customs, in the freezing winter. One day, a lady comes to the temple with her child, covering her face. She stays there and at the night, leaves the temple secretly, placing her child at the temple. She staggers in to a hole in the ice the monk dug when he arrived, and dies. The monk pulls the body from the ice the next day.

The monk now ties a big stone at his back, and starts to climb the tallest mountain nearby, as repentance to all his deeds he committed in his life. He painfully climbs the mountain finally and places the statue on top. From there, the temple looks like a tiny dot.

Spring, again

Now, we see the cycle complete. There is a little boy at the temple with the monk. The little boy plays with a Tortoise now. We are reminded about the monk, who did the same in his younger days, torturing the fish, frog and the snake. The movie ends with the beautiful shot of the status at the mountain, and the temple looking like a tiny dot.

Spring, summer, fall, winter and spring is a touchy tale about the cycle of life. What we did will come back to us. This concept is told in pictures. Everywhere in the film, I just felt like I’m walking inside the jungle surrounding the temple. The cinematography is excellent. I’ve never seen such a beautiful location anywhere.

Also, during every season, a different animal is used to portray the seasons. A dog, a rooster, a cat and a snake. There are a lot of allegorical meanings attached to them.

At times, when Kim Ki Duk shows us the mystical temple through long shots, it felt like heaven. I felt contented just seeing the shot.

There is also the untold story of the old pontiff we see at the beginning, that he might have also faced such a life, before he came to the temple. The movie makes us to think a lot.

The music too, is wonderful. For the first ten minutes, I didn’t hear a single chord other than the small bit playing when the doors are opened. That too, the music is not boisterous. It uses the exact music we hear at Buddhist temples. Not a chord more; not a chord less.

Watching this film was a wonderful experience which cannot be expressed. Watch it and feel the peace in your heart.

classic movie series-Angels & Demons - Bond with brains

After the great success of ‘Da Vinci Code’, Robert Langdon has become a household name among world movie fans, and among high expectations, ‘Angels & Demons’ released last week in India. It features Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Ewan Mcgregor and Ayelet Zurer among the leading roles. The screenplay is by David Koepp & Akiva Goldsman. Now, Koepp is a fantastic writer who can influence the audience with his writing style. Examples: Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park, Spiderman, Snake Eyes, Panic room, Indiana Jones and the kingdom of crystal skulls and many more. One of the most talented writers of Hollywood. Ron Howard has directed this one too, as like Da Vinci Code.

The novel Angels & Demons is a prequel to Da Vinci Code. This is the first ever Novel to feature Robert Langdon, the symbologist from the Harward University. Went to see this movie keeping in mind all these details. I have not read the novel, and hence was totally unaware about the story or the plot.

The movie begins in a laboratory (CERN – Geneva). Something called antimatter – which contains a powerful magnetic field, which, when the batteries run out, can destroy the surroundings like a nuclear bomb. Three vials of this antimatter are stored in the laboratory and one vial is stolen suddenly, when the chief scientist Vittoria Vetra ( Ayelet Zurer) finds her father dead and his eye pulled out to break in to the storage area.

We then cut to the Vatican where the Pope’s funeral is taking place. All the cardinals arrive to elect the next Pope and the everyday activities are taken care by Patrick Mckenna (Ewan Mcgregor), who holds the designation of a camerlengo – a cardinal under the Pope’s office to carry out the various religious ablutions.

We see Robert Langdon approached by a representative of the Vatican. He tells Langdon that four cardinals have been kidnapped along with one vial of antimatter, and they have received a threat that one cardinal will be killed an hour, starting at 8 PM. Also, they have a video which shows the antimatter placed in a secret location, with the battery power slowly running out. When the entire power runs out, Vatican will be destroyed completely.


Robert Langdon arrives at Vatican. After hearing the recorded telephone threat, he finds out that a secret organization called ‘the Illuminati’ – which is about 400 years old – is responsible for the threat and he also discovers that each cardinal will be executed at one altar in the Vatican – the location unknown. With such a clue in his hand, he begins his journey of moving around Vatican to find out the four altars and to stop the killing and to find out the antimatter. This is the synopsis of the movie.

Unlike Da Vinci Code, this movie is a bit lesser in pace and suspense, as it doesn’t have any startling revelations or any mysterious secrets being revealed. Having said that, the movie has its own touch of intricacies about Vatican and about the various churches and altars and about – yes – Galileo Galili’s book which contains the information about all the altars in his period.

Tom Hanks has done justice to the role of Robert Langdon, as we hold his image when we read or talk about the symbologist, just like we think about Brosnan or Connery when we refer Bond. Also, somehow he fits in to the role with ease and they both have many similarities – just think about having Will Smith or Stallone as Langdon – and you will know what I am talking about. Tom Hanks and Langdon, both are like refined gentlemen who believe brain rather than in the gun. They both appear like they will solve any mystery which relates to working out with the mind and the brain.

The new leading lady is Ayelet Zurer. She too has acted well, the type of female leads we see in action oriented movies – as a side kick to the protagonist who occasionally surprises him with her wift reactions and sudden deductions.

Ewan Mcgregor – well, I was unable to recognize him in the movie at first look. He absolutely looked like a cardinal of Vatican with a tight face which reflects the responsibility he has been awarded with – the power to run the Pope’s office until a new one is elected. Nice piece of acting. But, half way through, his character becomes very predictable.

Near the end of the movie, we know what’s going to happen finally. This reduces the pace to a certain extent. But, even then, this movie can be watched as a sheer entertainer we get to see usually in the summer.

Overall, my rating will be 6.5 out of ten. See Robert Langdon work like a highly educated, decent Bond - bond with a Ph.D, and enjoy the show, folks!

PS:- I was fascinated to read that Clint Eastwood expressed interest in directing this film! But eventually it had to be Ron Howard, as he did Da Vinci Code.

world classic films- Before Sunset

imagine you are meeting someone after a very long time – say nine years. You didn’t have any kind of details about the other person in these nine years, and you absolutely have no idea about the whereabouts. Suddenly, while you are casually looking at some point, if that person stands there looking and smiling at you, what will your reaction be? Especially if that person is of the opposite gender?

Before Sunset is a beautiful portrayal of emotions. It is the sequel of ‘After Sunset’ which was released in 1995. In the movie, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has grown to be an acclaimed writer, and he writes a book about the girl he met nine years ago at Vienna. While talking at a book store in Paris which is incidentally the last leg of his promotional tour, he suddenly looks at Celine (Julie Delphy), the girl whom he met nine years ago for a few hours. He quickly finishes his talk, and even though he has very little time left to catch his flight, he goes to Celine and asks her to have a coffee with him.

Celine accepts and they both start to walk towards Celine’s favorite coffee shop, a few blocks away. They have very little time left before they separate again. They start talking about their plan to meet at Vienna after six months when they first met, and how Celine missed the meeting as her Grand ma passed away. She asks Jesse was he present at Vienna and was he disappointed since Celine didn’t turn up, and Jesse tells he too missed the meeting. As Celine asks Jesse to give a valid reason for his absence, she discovers that Jesse indeed was present at Vienna to meet Celine. This makes her sad, and Jesse convinces her that there is nothing to be done, as that was the way things went.

Slowly, their conversation turns personal, and Celine discovers that Jesse is married and has a kid. Celine too has a boyfriend who is a photojournalist. They talk about various topics – about Celine mostly and their interests. Gradually, Celine starts talking what’s hidden in her heart. She tells Jesse that since they separated after their first meeting, she is unable to be united with any male. She tells that every time she is with a male, she feels lonely inside, and only when she is lonely without anyone by her side, she feels comfortable. That’s the reason her boyfriend is a photojournalist, traveling across countries most times.

She expresses her anguish about not being with Jesse. They both know in their minds that after their first meeting, they have never been happier in their lives. In some way, every incident happened in their lives for the past nine years reminded them of each other.

Celine becomes emotional while they travel to her apartment in a hired car. She starts to cry, having had all her memories about their first meeting and the irony of life that they were never together after the first meet. Jesse gently tries to stroke her head, and pulls back. Jesse tells Celine about his married life, and how sour it is. Just for the sake of his son, he tells Celine, that they both are living together, and there is nothing similar between them both, and every day it’s like hell.

They both realize that they have created a vacuum in their minds since they first met, and only they can fill the vacuum in each other’s hearts. But, it’s impossible to get united after these years, as they both have their own lives to pursue. They both know about this bitter truth, but even then, they want to be with each other till the last possible second.

world classic movies review-A Motorcycle diaries

A bike; two absolutely mad friends; a continent to travel. This is ‘Motorcycle diaries’ in a nutshell.

Alberto Granado and his young friend Ernesto Guevara de la Serna decide to make a road trip. Not of a few kilometers but to travel around 10,000 kilometers – an entire continent – South America. Ernesto is a 23 year old medical student and Alberto is a biochemist. They both decide in 1952 January about the trip they were planning for a few years, and to start on a journey which, later is referred to as the starting point in Ernesto’s life transforming him altogether.

In an old 500 cc motorcycle called ‘La Poderosa II (The mighty one) which belongs to Alberto, they both set off for a journey inside South America. They traveled through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and to Miami, before returning to Argentina. Imagine such a journey in 1952 throughout an entire continent – that too, in a motorcycle! It was this journey, which transformed Ernesto from a medical student to one of the greatest revolutionary leaders the world had ever known.

They face several incidents – happy and sad – which leaves a deep impact on Ernesto’s mind. He slowly starts to understand the poverty, oppression, illness and suffering among the people of South America. Where ever they both go, they see poor people being browbeaten by filthy landlords. The poor doesn’t have proper medical aid, and they die whereas the rich landlords exploit these poor people.

All the while, Ernesto keeps writing letters to his mother in Argentina. In those letters, Ernesto gives a vivid account of the miseries of the people he has witnessed. Slowly, these incidents transform his mind, and ultimately at the end of the journey, a new Ernesto is born.

They both visit a leper center in San Pablo in the Amazon forests in Peru. Ernesto becomes touched and moved by the leper patients staying there, in one bank of the river and the doctors staying on the other bank of the river. The patients didn’t even had the minimal needs to be serviced. No cloths, no proper food, medicines and money. One night, Ernesto jumps in the river and swims across to the other bank, where the patients live – traversing a distance of two and a half kilometers.


Ernesto keeps track of all his journeys through a journal. He writes in the journal about the journey as follows.

"This isn't a tale of derring-do, nor is it merely some kind of 'cynical account'; it isn't meant to be, at least. It's a chunk of two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams. In nine months a man can think a lot of thoughts, from the height of philosophical conjecture to the most abject longing for a bowl of soup – in perfect harmony with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's a bit of an adventurer, he could have experiences which might interest other people and his random account would read something like this diary."

The original book was published only in the year 1993. From then, it has become a hit and has been in the New York Times best seller list a lot of times.

Now, for the people who didn’t guess who was Ernesto (I know 99 % would have guessed by this time), he was none other than ‘Che’ Guevara, the great guerilla warrior, who played a significant role in liberating Cuba. He slowly transforms from a medical student in to a leader who cares for the people throughout the journey.

See Motorcycle diaries, and get a chance to share the love, the fun, the joy, the hunger, the passion, the madness and the glory of two ordinary people, who traversed throughout the continent of South America.

World classic movie review-city of god

There is a lot of news these days about criminals. Are they born as criminals? However bad they might be, how do they become criminals and a menace to society? What is the root cause? If we start exploring their lives from their birth, there will be one moment – a single incident - which triggered the aftereffects. We will know that only from that incident, the person has transformed in to a criminal.

What if we witness the life of a criminal from his close quarters? What if we travel along with him in his life’s journey, witnessing every incident in his life?

‘City of God’ is one such film which excellently portrays the story of a young criminal ‘Li’l Zi’.

The film begins in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in the sixties. We see chickens getting prepared for a feast. Everywhere its music and joy and people – mostly teenagers and young boys - are in a state of madness. One chicken escapes from the feast, and people start to chase the chicken frantically. We see a teenage boy – ‘Li’’l Zi’ – whom we don’t have a clue about – chasing the chicken and starts shooting it with his gun. The chicken enters a narrow lane and on the other side, we see another teenager of the same age – walking with his friend. The friend tells this guy that he will be killed by ‘Li’l Zi’ once he sees him. Suddenly, there appears the chicken before this guy, and behind it, Li’l Zi with his gun.

Li’l Zi shouts at the guy to catch the chicken. Slowly, the bewildered guy moves to catch it when we see police cars arrive at his back – the other end of the street. Suddenly Li’l Zi and his men start cocking their weapons and the chicken catcher understands his predicament. He is caught in the middle of a war and anyways he will be shot.

While he is frozen in his bent position, we hear his voice at the background, telling that his name is Rocket, and how he got himself in to this awkward situation, is the story he is going to narrate.

The camera rotates around him, and when it completes a circle, we se a small Rocket – in his early years – bent in the same position. They are playing football. Rocket narrates the story of three gangsters – Rocket’s elder bro Goose, Clipper and Shaggy. They three are the young rebels in the City of God, the place in Janeiro where all the poor people and castaways live. The trio loots money from the rich and distributes it to the poor people in the livelihood and hence are always sheltered by the people.

The trio plans for a heist. To make big money – and Li’l Dice – a small boy – gives them an idea to loot the nearby motel. They go on, place Li’l Dice as the watchdog and while robbing the motel along with its inhabitants, hear a warning shot from Li’l Dice and flee. After a while, back in the city of god, they learn that many people were murdered in the motel. The police track down the trio and two of the trio dies. One guy joins the church.

We now are shown what happened in the motel. We see Li’l Dice fire the warning shot, and after the trio flees, he enters the motel, shoots everyone and runs away. While he is counting the money along with his friend Benny, we see Goose approaching them and forcefully taking all their money and while he walks away, gets shot by Li’l Dice and dies.

The period is the seventies now, and Li’l Dice has grown to be the don of that place – changing his name to Li’l Zi. Rocket too grows up, but he is afraid towards the criminals and joins college. He joins the hippy group in the college which enjoys smoking weed and drinking. We learn that Carrot, a local drug dealer, is the only opponent to Li’l Zi.

Li’l Zi’s friend Benny is the mastermind behind all his operations. At one point of time, Benny is tired of all the gangster stuff and decides to call it quits. He makes friends with the hippy gang and with Rocket. He gradually woos Rocket’s girl and after her advice, decides to quit the criminal game. He hosts a final party before he leaves, and in the party, gets shot by a man aiming at Li’l Zi and dies.

Li’l Zi knows that the murderer was sent by Carrot, his only opponent. While Li’l Zi marches towards Carrot’s place along with his gang, he witnesses a young girl walking along with her boyfriend, and since the girl ignores him, humiliates the boyfriend – named Knockout Ned – a kindhearted gentleman and rapes the girl in front of Ned.

He then attacks Ned’s house and kills his uncle too. A heartbroken Ned is approached by Carrot and ultimately he joins carrot’s gang. Then starts the bloodiest gang war the city has ever witnessed – Li’l Zi trying to wipe out Carrot and Carrot retaliating.

In the mean time, Rocket doesn’t want to stay in such a hell of a city and joins a news paper. Since the magazine publishes Carrot’s photographs, Li’l Zi is offended and he thinks his photograph should also be published so that the people will get to know who the real criminal is. Since Rocket is good with the camera, Li’l Zi sends word for Rocket and makes him to photograph him and his gang in various poses.

The pictures accidentally get published in the paper and Rocket is sure he will be killed by Li’l Zi. The next day, he is approached by the magazine to shoot more photographs of the gang war. Since they offer him good money, Rocket goes to the city with his camera, and it was at this situation when the chicken was chased by Li’l Zi and landed exactly in front of Rocket in the opening scene.

Seeing Rocket, Li’l Zi asks him to take the pictures of his gang again, and while Rocket prepares for the shot, the police arrive and the fight begins. Rocket flees from the place, hiding somewhere nearby and taking pictures of the fight. Knockout Ned is killed by a boy from his own gang whose father was killed by Ned in a bank robbery earlier.

The police capture Li’l Zi and Carrot and while Carrot is being taken to the station to be shown to the press, Li’l Zi is frisked and all the money he had is being stolen by the police. Rocket takes pictures of everything. After the police are gone, the local Runts – a pack of small children who were robbing the city earlier and who were thrashed by Li’l Zi - arrive and they shoot and kill Zi, as Zi has murdered one of their boys earlier while stopping them.

Rocket has photographed everything, and he thinks about publishing the photographs in his magazine. Since the photographs of the corrupt cops will bring him danger, he decides to publish the photographs of Li’l Zi alone.

While Rocket is walking, we see the Runts talking about the people in the city who have to be killed, and they make a list. The film ends here.

‘City of God’ - a Portuguese film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Co-directed by Kátia Lund, is a strikingly made film about the young boys becoming in to gangsters. It has been filmed based on a Portuguese novel by the same name. Most of the actors were local lads.

The film features so many innovative attempts with the camera and editing and is said to be the trendsetter in these areas. It features many superb non-linear scenes – like the scene where the flashback begins, the scenes where Rocket tells the story of the motel heist, the scenes which shows how Li’l Zi became the local don eliminating his opponents etc.. The lighting is excellent, followed by the realistic music.

The film was not actually shot in Cidade de Deus (city of God) slum as it was too dangerous. It was shot in a neighboring, less dangerous area. Most of the cast were local lads. From initially about the year 2000, about a hundred children and youths were hand-picked and placed into an "actors' workshop" for several months. In contrast to more traditional methods (e.g. studying theatre and rehearsing), it focused on simulating authentic street war scenes, such as a hold-up, a scuffle, a shoot-out etc. A lot came from improvisation, as it was thought better to create an authentic, gritty atmosphere. This way, the inexperienced cast soon learned to move and act naturally.

City of God is now at the 17th place in the IMDB’s list of top 250 movies ever and it was also chosen by Times in its list of 100 top movies. A very realistic film indeed, City of God is a wonderful film.

world cinema reviews-RUN LOLA RUN

Everyday we undergo the same mundane life. Each day, we do the same actions we did the previous day, and life thus moves like a boring drama. For most of us, there is nothing exiting or interesting in life. What will happen if something important suddenly occurs, which might change our life forever? How will we face it? How will it be, if there are more possibilities and consequences for the same incident? There is always the question of ‘What if’ in every incident occurring in our lives. What will happen if we get to see all the possibilities for a single incident happening?
Run Lola Run is a wonderful attempt of presenting all the three possibilities for a same incident, in a girl’s life.
The movie begins in Berlin when Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni, who is working under the local Don Ronnie. Manni’s assignment is to bring 100,000 deutchemarks (German currency) after selling some diamonds. Manni finishes the deal, but Lola fails to pick him up after the deal, as her bike gets stolen on the morning. So, Manni takes the subway instead, and when he sees a few police officers, panics, and in the hurry, leaves the money bag in the train itself. A vagabond picks up the bag.
Now, Manni’s predicament is that he got to deliver the 100,000 deutshemarks to the local Don, Ronnie within 20 minutes, which is the deadline. If he fails, he will get killed. He calls Lola in such a situation. He shouts at her that he will rob a near-by departmental store for money. Lola pleads him to be patient and to wait for some time as she will bring him the money. She starts thinking about whom will help her with the money, and decides to go to her wealthy father.
The first of the three possibilities begins here.
Lola is thundering down the steps of her apartment, and she sees a dog downstairs. It snarls at her, making her to run faster. Since she doesn’t have any vehicle and the time is closing on her, she runs to her father’s bank to get the amount. While running, she diverts the attention of a man who has just started his car, and he jams his car with a BMW. She also passes the vagabond who has taken Manni’s money. A person tries to sell his bicycle to Lola as she is running, and she refuses.
Lola reaches her father’s bank. The father declines to give money. He further says that he is gonna marry another woman, as Lola and her mother doesn’t respect him. He also adds that he is not the real father of Lola. Saying this, he asks the security to take Lola away. Lola rushes to Manni, as there is very little time left. As she is running, she passes an ambulance which stops at some workers carrying a big piece of glass.
Lola arrives a few seconds late, and witnesses Manni entering the departmental store with his gun. Lola decides to help Manni, and she assists him in robbing. They both escape, but then are cornered by police officials. While Manni throws the money bag at the police, a tense policeman shoots Lola in her chest. While Lola is dying, we see a flashback where she is asking Manni about the kind of love he has towards Lola. Manni replies it’s genuine, but Lola remains skeptical. The first story ends.
The second possibility begins when Lola decides not to die in vein, after all her struggles. So she says ‘STOP’. At this point, the film again starts from where Lola begins to run. This time, the man with the dog at the stairs trips her down, and she starts limping a bit. Again, she once more diverts the attention of the man starting his car, who jams his car another time on the BMW. Likewise, she crosses the vagabond with Manni’s money and the bicycle seller for a second time. She goes to her father, but because of the limp, arrives a few seconds late to the bank, when she overhears a woman talking to her father that she is pregnant by someone else. An exasperated Lola robs the bank, runs out and she tries to stop the ambulance for a ride, but being diverted by her, the ambulance crashes on the piece of glass the workers were carrying. It stops there. Lola runs to Manni, and while he is about to cross the road, gets rundown by the same ambulance. After he dies, we see another flashback sequence where Manni questions Lola about the kind of love she has towards him.
The third possibility begins now. We see a faster Lola who jumps across the barking dog and growling back at it, scaring the dog. The person starting the car succeeds in his attempt, and the BMW passes by. Lola recognizes the person as her father’s colleague, and since he was able to start his car, he goes to the bank and picks up her father. As a result, Lola loses track of her father when she reaches the bank. Without knowing what to do, she keeps running. Her father, who is riding the car with his friend, gets involved in a deathly car crash, the driver distracted by the vagabond riding a cycle which he bought from the bicycle seller from the previous two stories.
Lola goes to a casino, plays roulette betting on the number ‘20’ (which symbolizes the twenty minutes she has to run) and wins a lot of money (deutshemarks 127,000). She rushes out, hides in the same ambulance which stops at the workers carrying the piece of glass. Inside, she finds the security of her father’s bank, who has suffered a heart attack. She holds his hand, and after some time, his heart beat returns to normal.
In the meantime, Manni borrows a phone card from a blind woman to call Lola. While returning the card, he accidentally catches sight of the vagabond with the money, and he chases him, gets his money back. He then goes to deliver the money back to his boss, and when Lola arrives, she sees Manni shaking the boss’s hands. Manni comes to Lola and asks what she carries in the bag in her hand. The film ends.
Run Lola Run is a fantastic attempt of a very different concept. The screenplay is amazingly handled, and the movie is a treat to watch. From Wikipedia, I learned that this concept has been inspired from the Polish director Krzystof Kieslowski, who handled the same theme in his previous movies. The director Tom Tykwer directed ‘Heaven’, which Kieslowski wanted to direct, and couldn’t do so as he died before the film.
The German film was released in 1998 and won many awards including the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, and seven separate wins at the German Film Awards (thanks to Wiki). This film contains about 1581 transitions (edits, dissolves, fades, wipes, etc) in 71 minutes of action (i.e. excluding the credits, and pre-credits sequence). This equates to an Average Shot Length of about 2.7 seconds. Interestingly, the editing is relatively slower towards the end of the film. For most contemporary films, the opposite is the norm. Lola screams for twenty seconds in the Roulette scene, she also bets to the number twenty, the only bills she had were twenties, the first story lasts twenty minutes and twenty minutes was also the time she had to get the money.