The Color of Paradise and Other Movies - Movie Review Example

Reflection: A Review of the Literature Paradise Now is an ingeniously calculated thriller movie which fixates on the flashpoint where psychology and politics ignite in self-destructive martyrdom. The film, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, an Israeli-born Palestinian, is based on two characters in particular: Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), best friends from childhood, who belong to a terrorist cell in Nablus on the West Bank that is about to undertake its first suicide mission in two years. The issues dealt with in this movie can be easily considered as extremely touchy and sensitive, and it is a risky proposition for any artist (director in this case) to humanize a terrorist. Because director Abu-Assad chooses to peel away the stereotypes and look at the people who commit heinous actions, he guarantees two things: first, that his movie will offend a host of people, and secondly, that its prospects of commercial success are literally non-existent. The film develops into a thriller when something goes wrong during the early stages of the plan’s execution. Said and Khaled become separated and Jamal is convinced that Said may be betraying the cause. This movie is a tough film because of what it attempts to do, which is in regards to the fact that it is a rare thing for a movie to present events of the Arab/Israeli struggle from the Palestinian side, where terrorists are viewed as ‘martyrs’ and ‘freedom fighters’ instead of killers. This movie is certainly one of speculation and possible great controversy, and yet regardless is brave for dealing with such sensitive and so-called ‘faux-pas’ issues. Trois Couleurs: Bleu is a movie of great interest. The director and writer, Krzysztof Kieslowski, tells the story in this film from the perspective of Julie (Juliette Binoche), which necessarily makes the film very dark and introspective. Overall, in the end, the story of this film isn’t a terribly ambitious one, but at the same time it remains devilishly interesting and enjoyable, and maintains a slow burn throughout which leads to an explosive finale. This movie is one of a complex psychological study of emotional liberty. The plot is that Julie, wife of the famous composer Patrice de Courcy, must cope with the death of her husband and daughter in an automobile accident which only she herself survives. While recovering in the hospital, Julie even attempts suicide in her distraught stage. For the remainder of the film, she devotes herself to mental suicide, disassociating herself from all of her past memories and distancing herself from former friendships. Visually, the director uses many techniques in order to properly portray the sense of loss and Julie’s internal conflict – both of which are primary topics of issue in this film. As Julie watches the funeral for her husband and daughter from her hospital bed, the dark shadow of her finger caresses the tiny casket on the screen. This movie is one of certain emotion, and a number of critics rate this film as one of the great motion pictures of all time. The movie Tuesdays with Morrie is one based on a Detroit Free Press sports columnist named Mitch Albom (Hank Azaria) who has found success and popularity in his occupation, but on the other hand, emotionally and spiritually he is bankrupt. While watching television one night, he comes across an episode of the news and learns that his former university professor Morrie Schwartz (Jack Lemmon) is battling A.L.S. – better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. At first, Mitch is rather reluctant to pay his former mentor a visit since, at his last visit, Mitch promised to remain in contact with Morrie but failed to make good on that promise and now feels guilty for not following through on his promise. Eventually, Mitch overcomes his uneasiness and, to his surprise, finds a very warm welcome from Morrie. The two begin to discuss the issues of happiness, life, and death, and they soon to begin to meet on a weekly basis as Mitch reassumes the role of Morrie’s student. This film is another of great emotion, which includes several life lessons in its works. In the movie The Color of Paradise, the plot is surrounded around a sightless boy who is able to see infinitely more than his selfish father. Mohammed is the main character, who is a young boy that is waiting to be picked up for the holidays from the special school – which he is sent to during the year. The story remains somewhat dull after that point, as Mohammed is alone on a bench after all the children have been picked up by their parents and he is the last remaining at school. His father finally arrives after that, and rather than picking him up and taking him home, the father asks the school officials to keep Mohammed over the holidays. This is because his father, who is recently a widower, does not want Mohammed around as he wants time to himself. He is about to get remarried and does not want Mohammed to take away from the ceremony. After the school officials refuse to take Mohammed for the holidays, the child is taken back to the family’s farm where he is met happily by his grandmother and sisters. Everyone in Mohammed’s family loves him, besides his father who is obviously too concerned with his own problems and activities. This movie truly takes its time, establishing the characters slowly and as easy as it would have been to make the father a villain, director Majid Majidi never allows us to hate him; instead, we feel sorry for him. Although this movie allows for various interpretation, we nevertheless feel sorry for both Mohammed and his father, although all events would seem to lead to the father as being portrayed as mean. In the movie Zorba the Greek, the story is based around British writer Basil (Alan Bates), who is on his way towards Crete to the beach house which his parents owned until their deaths so that he can re-launch an abandoned mine and gather his thoughts once more. Soon after this, Basil meets Alexis Zorba (Quinn) who is an eccentric if not ‘crazy’ multi-laborer and womanizer who practically sells himself to Basil and pleads to go with him to the beach house. After Basil reluctantly agrees, the two go to Crete, where Zorba introduces him to both the highs and lows, the lust and greed as well as the extremes of the Greek culture and in this takes place a meeting of a courtesan in Madame Hortense (Lila Kedrova) whom Zorba flirts around with, and a widow (Irene Papas) whom Basil would later have a ill-fated fling. This film is an extraverted one which is totally about living life to the fullest and accepting life regardless of what you are dealt. In this movie, Zorba is portrayed as the spokesman for that anthem, and it is he who constitutes the main pillar in which this film stands. However, there are also certain parts of this film which suffer, mainly because one of them is that the film is probably too long and certain parts are pretty slow and there are several scenes, notably the relationship between Basil and the widow and the aftermath of their fling which may polarize some viewers. Overall, this film is one with a great underlying of morale and understanding, however the actual content of it may be found extremely dull to some viewers. The movie Antonia’s Line is a Dutch film which is a delightfully surrealistic look at the life of Antonia and her extended family. It is one particular morning when Antonia decides that it is the day she will die, and so she gathers together her family for her final moments. Maureen Gorris is the director in this film, which won the Most Popular Film Award at 1995’s Toronto Film Festival, and this small Dutch film is one of a heady, life-affirming mixture of drama, comedy, romance, tragedy, philosophy and art. Opening shortly after the end of World War II, this movie introduces us to four generations of women – Antonia, her daughter Danielle, her granddaughter Therese, and her great-granddaughter Sarah. The film actually begins in the post-war Netherlands with Antonia being the one who returns to the village of her birth. This movie is a thematically rich picture, which includes, in addition to the evident message about the importance of community, challenges the different philosophies about death, from those of Schopenhauer to those of the Catholic church. As well, it also condemns the hypocrisies of organized religion while endorsing the concept of ‘church’ as a gathering place. This film celebrates painting, math, music, and all other forms of creative expression. As well, it gently advances the director’s feminist agenda, illustrating in particular that women can thrive (not just survive) without men. This movie is certainly one with a rather feministic approach, and yet reaches people of any gender. The Pianist is a movie which came out in 2002 and was directed by Roman Polanski. Adapted from the memoir of Jewish-Polish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, the movie is based around a famous Polish Jewish pianist who is working for the Warsaw radio, and who sees his whole world collapse with the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Poland. After Great Britain has declared war on Germany, Spzilman goes home where he and his family rejoice at this news and wonder when all of this will be over. After years go by, living conditions for the Jewish people gradually deteriorate more and more as their rights are slowly eroded, and eventually, late in 1941, they are all forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. It is here where they face such things as hunger, humiliation from the Nazis and are also faced with the present fear of death or torture. Right before they are rounded up for deportation to the concentration camps, Szpilman is saved from the gruesome fate from a family friend. The finale of the movie describes the issues which occur after this, reaching incredibly sensitive and significantly realistic issues, and it is certainly an interesting and depictive film overall. The movie Do the Right Thing was directed by Spike Lee, and is based on the story of one which transpires over a 24 hour period, on the hottest day of summer in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. In this movie, we are introduced to a number of the locals, and we follow their activities throughout the day. Mookie (Spike Lee) is a twenty-something young man who works as Sal’s (Danny Aiello) pizza delivery boy, and his girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez) cares for his toddler son. This movie is incredibly complicated, as one of Mookie’s friends is on a political crusade to force Sal to put out pictures of black men on his ‘American Italian wall’. For the most part, this movie is presented as a slice-of-life drama which examines the everyday lives of a group of people; however, three-quarters of the way through the movie, something shocking occurs. This is the fact that a dead man, and a burnt down building, and a near riot – all which are of great importance in this film. This film was shot entirely on location in Bedford-Stuyvesen, mostly because Spike Lee felt that was the only way to capture the appropriate fitting atmosphere. This movie is one of great detail and intricacy, and one which reaches every form of audience. It is certainly one to be seen, and will assuredly leave an impression on each and every viewer. The movie Dreams is incredibly intricate. In the first segment, Akira Kurosawa is the young child who has not yet begun his interference with the beauty surrounding him. In the second segment, he is the young adult, who is caught in the battle between natural beauty, and man-made interference. In the first two stories, we are introduced to a young boy, who has to face basically the consequences of interfering with nature and the results that that causes. In the next film, he has to prove his innocence to a group of tree spirits, who are angry because the boy’s family was responsible for cutting down their peach trees. It is from this point on that the film begins to get weak, and we now encounter a group of mountaineers who barely manage to survive a snowstorm, and an army commander who is battling with the demons of having survived a ‘pointless war’. In this movie, the director goes a step further with his dream-turned-short film, in which we see Mount Fuji in flames. It is an incredibly interesting story, in which we see a peek into many things such as Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, as well as the main protagonist journeys through the master painter’s paintings, in an attempt to follow and understand him. Despite the obvious message in these short stories, the film overall lacks impact. Perhaps seeing them as dreams forces you to look upon them as mere figments of someone’s imagination, and not as dreaded realities. Return to Paradise is a movie which begins with three young Americans who are enjoying the interval between college and real life with blissful far niente in Malaysia, where they go native, smoke hash, and make love to luscious village maidens. Later on, two of them, Sheriff and Tony, decide to go home, but Lewis – another character – decides to stay on and help with relocating orangutans in the wild. After, this Sheriff dumps his spare hash in the trash before taking off with Tony. Then we see these two in New York, where Tony has an office job and the somewhat laid-back Sheriff is a limo driver. After this, two years pass and suddenly there pops up Sheriff’s limousine a beautiful young lawyer named Beth, who informs him that because of his excess hash, Lewis was arrested as a putative drug dealer, and has been in jail all of this time. He will hang in eight days unless Tony and Sheriff go back to be tried with him. It is in this movie that both the bonds of friendship and strength of character are put to test, and the issue of how we value the measure of our lives and the lives of others is truly put to the test. This movie is one of great intricacy and wonder, and makes all viewers wonder what is happening in each next step. Read More