Having just read "Playing the Enemy" by John Carlin, I wanted to quickly follow it with the movie. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela is a role that anyone would jump for. After 27 years in prison, Mandela emerges as the likely new leader of South Africa. But no one is quite certain of how the Afrikaaner and the Native Black will work together.
One power symbol of the Afrikaaner culture is the green and gold jersey of the Springboks rugby team. The black populace saw that as a symbol of oppression and wanted to do away with the entire sport. But Mandela saw that the Afrikaaner would go along with any changes if they were allowed to hold on to something they held dear.
Mandela sets about to bring together these two sides through the rugby game. Using his powerful personality, he has the ability to charm and influence the opposition. The culmination comes at the Rugby World Championship of 1995, held in the home country of South Africa.
To take such a powerful story and book and turn it into a movie, required some interesting plot points. The monologue to explain an important theme, the presentation on a board to show a development, the journalist to serve as a narrator and an opposition point. In fact the yellow journalist was reminiscent of the character Freddy Lounds in Manhunter and its remake Red Dragon.
Matt Damon as Francois Pinnear does a nice job to show the earnest but politically dim rugby player. In the book, Francois has a more dramatic leadership role. But the real star of this movie is Morgan Freeman. As he should be playing the role of a lifetime.
The Hurt Locker
Academy Award for Best Picture in 2009, this movie obviously benefitted from post Bush Administration war weariness. And War is Hell, even in the 21st Century. The movie did a good job of showing the reality of war being fought inside a country where civilian life is going on right alongside. Now perhaps all wars have been like that, but the cell phone and the video camera and the DVD play a role in this new war.
The movie centers around a 3 man Explosive Ordnance Demolition team. To defuse the bombs, the IEDs, one member of the team puts on a bulky bomb suit and walks toward the bomb which has the ability to explode over a very large blast zone.
The suit does not make the wearer invincible. In the early part, the suit wearer Thompson is killed by a blast, and the two remaining members, Swanson and Eldridge, meet the replacement James, played by Jeremy Renner. I had not seen many movies with him until this year, but he has emerged as a new tough guy.
James is bold to the point of recklessness to his new teammates, who are both impressed and scared of this trait. The movie follows three major battles as the days to the end of the tour of duty count down. Each soldier expressed his good and bad sides during these missions. The theme of friendly fire and fragging is a strong one, as is the PTSD and detachment from regular society.
The setting plays a character as well as the Iraqi Desert and its towns and people are like a constant presence, sometimes threatening and sometimes now. But hard to tell when. A good reflection on the all -volunteer army of the USA today and its light/dark sides.
* * * 1/2 of 4 stars
The movie centers around a 3 man Explosive Ordnance Demolition team. To defuse the bombs, the IEDs, one member of the team puts on a bulky bomb suit and walks toward the bomb which has the ability to explode over a very large blast zone.
The suit does not make the wearer invincible. In the early part, the suit wearer Thompson is killed by a blast, and the two remaining members, Swanson and Eldridge, meet the replacement James, played by Jeremy Renner. I had not seen many movies with him until this year, but he has emerged as a new tough guy.
James is bold to the point of recklessness to his new teammates, who are both impressed and scared of this trait. The movie follows three major battles as the days to the end of the tour of duty count down. Each soldier expressed his good and bad sides during these missions. The theme of friendly fire and fragging is a strong one, as is the PTSD and detachment from regular society.
The setting plays a character as well as the Iraqi Desert and its towns and people are like a constant presence, sometimes threatening and sometimes now. But hard to tell when. A good reflection on the all -volunteer army of the USA today and its light/dark sides.
* * * 1/2 of 4 stars
Chinatown
In the Fathom Events classic series, Chinatown, listed as a top 10 movie was showing. The time conflicted with the Memorial v. San Benito football game, and I couldn't do both, so I decided on football and to watch on DVD. I even checked it out from the library for free.
I made the right decision to go to the football game. Memorial won 13-12. And Chinatown lost.
Made in 1974, it's hard to imagine the effect a 1930s neo-noir film starring a young Jack Nicholson as the Sam Spade of his day would have on the audience. It's also hard to a modern viewer as to what cop movie cliches might have been original ideas when this movie was made: the private investigator previously kicked off the police force, the interaction with his old police buddies, the love affair, the Law and Order "You could be arrested for [fill in the blank with your choice of offense] threats, the corruption at the highest levels, and so on.
Good points are the snappy dialogue and the light/dark cinematography which is very evocative of Southern California. Many of the scenes were set either in the morning or in the evening, giving it an extra sense of time passing.
The story involves P.I. Jake Gittes who is hired to investigate an affair by Hollis Mulwray by Mrs. Mulwray. He investigates and found what appears to be some hanky-panky. But then he finds out that the person who hired him is someone other than the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway). Rather than calling off the chase, he dives deeper to figure out who set him up and decides that he has uncovered a big scam involving the water rights affecting all of SoCal.
Much of the movie Gittes wears a ridiculous bandage on his nose after a famous scene of getting his nose cut by an assailant (cameo by Roman Polanski). Perhaps this is to humanize him or to remind the audience of what a great threat he is facing (no pun intended :)
Jack Nicholson reminded me of another actor who played a wise-cracking, funny tough guy who made a reliable but not great leading actor: Michael Keaton. In the end, that's the review of Chinatown: Good, not great.
I made the right decision to go to the football game. Memorial won 13-12. And Chinatown lost.
Made in 1974, it's hard to imagine the effect a 1930s neo-noir film starring a young Jack Nicholson as the Sam Spade of his day would have on the audience. It's also hard to a modern viewer as to what cop movie cliches might have been original ideas when this movie was made: the private investigator previously kicked off the police force, the interaction with his old police buddies, the love affair, the Law and Order "You could be arrested for [fill in the blank with your choice of offense] threats, the corruption at the highest levels, and so on.
Good points are the snappy dialogue and the light/dark cinematography which is very evocative of Southern California. Many of the scenes were set either in the morning or in the evening, giving it an extra sense of time passing.
The story involves P.I. Jake Gittes who is hired to investigate an affair by Hollis Mulwray by Mrs. Mulwray. He investigates and found what appears to be some hanky-panky. But then he finds out that the person who hired him is someone other than the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway). Rather than calling off the chase, he dives deeper to figure out who set him up and decides that he has uncovered a big scam involving the water rights affecting all of SoCal.
Much of the movie Gittes wears a ridiculous bandage on his nose after a famous scene of getting his nose cut by an assailant (cameo by Roman Polanski). Perhaps this is to humanize him or to remind the audience of what a great threat he is facing (no pun intended :)
Jack Nicholson reminded me of another actor who played a wise-cracking, funny tough guy who made a reliable but not great leading actor: Michael Keaton. In the end, that's the review of Chinatown: Good, not great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)