Hotel Rwanda August 13, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movie Marathon 2006 , add a commentWhile the Rwandan Genocide was taking place during 1994 I was fourteen and not fully appreciating the scale of what was happening. I vaguely remember seeing it being reported in the media, but I think at that point in my life, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I was far too wrapped up in my own little adolescent world. I have since learnt more about what happened and as I’ve grown older I have become far more aware of what is happening in the world and the how different life can be for people only a few thousand miles away.
Hotel Rwanda tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) a hotel manager who during the Rwandan Genocide period sheltered over 1000 Tutsi refugees within his hotel, provide them with food and water and did everything within his power to bribe the Hutu militia to prevent their repeated attempts to kill the refugees.
Although the plot centres around one particular group of characters, it gives a very real insight into the scale of the atrocities that were being committed, in Rwanda at that time. It also shows you the mass hysteria, brutality and corruption that were everywhere at the time due to the ethnic rivalry between Hutu and Tutsi people.
Firstly I have to say that I haven’t stopped thinking about this movie since I finished watching it last night, I think it’s one of those movies that you can’t help but be affected by. To see the utter desperation and struggle to simply stay alive as well as the complete disregard for the lives of anyone outside of the tribal groups doing the killing, regardless of whether they are small children, women, men, with or without political agendas is completely humbling and horrific. I struggle to comprehend how human beings can kill other human beings so brutally who have done nothing more than simply descend from a different heritage. Yet we have seen it time and time again throughout history.
Don Cheadle gives an absolutely stunning, stand out performance and the direction of the movie really compels you and doesn’t let go from start to finish and way beyond, it really gives you an understanding of the situation and the struggle of the people while maintaining respect and resisting over dramatising it.
I’ve heard this movie compared to movie’s like Schindler’s List and The Pianist which I think is a fair comparison as they are dealing with similar themes. Both of those movies had a similar effect on me, leaving me thinking about them for days afterwards and still coming into my mind months and years down the line, I’m sure that Hotel Rwanda will be the same. I think if you’re like me and live a reasonably fortunate life you owe it yourself to see these kind of movies, to at least have an opinion and be aware of the struggles going on in other parts of the world for the basic freedoms and luxuries we just take for granted.
It kind of makes me feel guilty watching movies about such recent events as this, just to know that this kind of thing can be allowed to happen in the world in this day and age, while I’m going to work, enjoying my weekends watching movies, reading books and never feeling unsafe or in danger. I’m having a bad day if I run out of coffee or get stuck in traffic, which in the grand scheme of things are the least important things in the world. I feel like I should be doing something to help and make a difference, but I’m just not sure what I should be doing, I guess the fact that this movie can make me feel that way is testament to the direction and performance of the cast.
Hotel Rwanda is a brilliant, thought provoking movie that handles the Rwanda Genocide atrocities respectfully. I think you owe it to yourself to watch it and spare some thought for the estimated 1,000,000 people who lost their lives over the course of three months in 1994.
Hotel Rwanda is onthe IMDB Top 100 Movie Marathon 2006 List and that takes me one step closer to my target of making it through the list, although it all seems rather unimportant at the moment.
Mark
A blog is re-born!! August 2, 2006
Posted by Mark in : General, Movies, Movie Marathon 2006, C4 Top 50 Movies , add a commentOkay so this is how it went, I started of with best intentions back in January to rattle through the top 100 movies from the imdb.com top 250 list in the Movie Marathon 2006. Well here we are over half way through the year and I’ve still got thirty five to watch.. very slack!
Anyway the old blog has gone (I was made redundant and hosting had to go as did my screen select membership) and I now have this shiny new FREE blog thanks to the kind folks at thedvdforums/filmjournal. So I’ve transferred my posts across although unfortunately sans images… 
and I’ve got myself a sofacinema.co.uk trial and I’m getting back on the wagon.
Oh and if you were wondering about the title of the blog, well is a well known phrase, poignant when your talking about blogs I thought, a quote from the excellent Fight Club (which I can’t believe is now seven years old) and Mark is my name so I just thought it was as good a name as any for my new blog.
So I’ll be continuing my Movie Marathon 2006 and I’ll have it nailed by the end of the year, but I also watched the Top 50 movie countdown on Channel 4 recently which was on about the same time Film Four became free (albeit with adverts, but hey it’s better than a poke in the eye right??) and there was a lot of movies on that list that I haven’t seen and which aren’t in the top 100 from imdb.com. So I now have a second list which I’ll be working on in parallel. I’m telling you I’m going to be a film guru by the end of it… if only I didn’t have the memory of a goldfish and was actually able to retain some of the memories… ah well.. it’ll be fun trying.
Here’s an article with some more info and here s the list with the ones I’ve seen crossed off.. I’m going to be a busy chap!
Apocalypse Now
The Apartment
City of God
Chinatown
Sexy Beast
2001: A Space Odyssey
North by Northwest
A Bout de Souffle
Donnie Darko
Manhattan
Alien
Lost in Translation
The Shawshank Redemption
Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India
Pulp Fiction
Touch of Evil
Walkabout
Black Narcissus
Boyz n the Hood
The Player
Come and See
Heavenly Creatures
A Night at the Opera
Erin Brockovich
Trainspotting
The Breakfast Club
Hero
Fanny and Alexander
Pink Flamingos
All About Eve
Scarface
Terminator 2
Three Colours: Blue
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Ladykillers
Fight Club
The Searchers
Mulholland Drive
The Ipcress File
The King of Comedy
Manhunter
Dawn of the Dead
Princess Mononoke
Raising Arizona
Cabaret
This Sporting Life
Brazil
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
Secrets and Lies
Badlands
I don’t expect anyone will be overly interested in my posts about my movie journey of discovery but it’ll make interesting reading for me at the end of the year at the very least.
It feels good to be back!
Mark
Strangers on a Train (1951) March 12, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Movie Marathon 2006 , add a commentWell I admit that I’ve been somewhat slack over the last few weeks with the ol’ blog updates, what can I say, it’s been a busy time BUT I have still managed to squeeze in a few movies from the movie marathon and the first was Strangers on a Train (1951) which I watched a couple of Sunday’s ago.
Strangers on a Train is a Film-Noir/Thriller from Alfred Hitchcock based on the book of the same name. The plot is based around two complete strangers who meet during a train journey, one of the men is Guy Haines a top ranking tennis player in the public eye and the other Bruno Anthony who is something of a dark, deep-thinker who also just so happens to be on the mentally unhinged side. During the journey the two men make each others acquaintance and during a conversation heavily lead by Bruno it turns out that Bruno would like rid of his controlling father and Guy would be better off without his estranged wife who is refusing a divorce so that he can remarry his sweetheart. Bruno enthusiastically goes through a detailed theory he has developed where two strangers could kill on each others behalves without raising any suspicion or ever getting caught and he then suggests they use this tactic to make each others lives better. Guy talks with Bruno further until his stop without taking him seriously. The two men say their farewells and go their own separate ways. Guy gives it no more thought until Bruno turns up at his home out of the blue one evening to tell him he has murdered Guy’s wife as arranged and to ask when Guy is going to kill Bruno’s father.
I’ve been a fan of all the Hitchcock movies I have been fortunate enough to see so far and Strangers on a Train was no exception. Filmed in black and white with very memorable characters and scenes as with many of the Hitchcock movies it is a real nail biting journey. The movies climax is both exciting and dramatic.
Robert Walker does a fantastic job as Bruno who is the scheming and highly intelligent psychopath, he is very creepy to watch and this completely draws you into the movie. There is a scene at a dinner party where Bruno is speaking with a couple of the guests wives and begins to discuss murder and how to do it efficiently, it’s such a completely engaging scene and Walker’s performance prevents you from blinking, he really steals the show from the rest of the cast.
Strangers on a Train is just over an hour and half long and it moves at such a fast pace, with no lulls in the story. Hitchcock’s direction is superb with such atmosphere and tension throughout. It’s an interesting story and a makes for an excellent movie.
I’m glad I got around to watching this, it’s another one of those movies that I have had sat in my collection for such a long time and have intended to watch for months, even years. Thank heavens for the IMDB Top 100 Movie Marathon 2006!
In future I’m going to do my best to write the comments for the blog as soon after watching as I possibly can, as it’s difficult to try and cast my mind back to some of the specifics (perhaps this means I have a terrible memory), but I’ll warn you I have also watched The Sting, Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo and the Wizard of Oz in the last few weeks so I’ll be doing my best to recall those movies shortly.
Hmmmmm 36 to watch, 39 to write about!
Jarhead (2005) February 6, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Cinema , add a commentI loved Full Metal Jacket, loved Platoon and a bunch of other war based movies so I was looking forward to Jarhead (2005) having seen the adverts and I got the opportunity to watch it on Saturday evening.
Jarhead is based on Anthony Swofford’s 2003 book Jarhead: A Soldier’s Story of Modern War and is brought to the screen by director Sam Mendes (or Mr Kate Winslet as I hear he liked to be known these days). Swofford’s book (which I haven’t had a chance to read) is all about the time the former Marine spent training and then in Iraq leading up to and during the first Gulf War.
The screen adaptation of the best-selling book stars current men of the moment Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford and Jamie Foxx as the staff Sergeant and also features a cameo from Chris Cooper (who also appears in American Beauty from Sam Mendes).
Initially the movie begins in a very familiar Full Metal Jacket style drill sergeant line up with the drill sergeant (the actor playing him has OBVIOUSLY studied Full Metal Jacket LOTS) picking on and belittling Swofford. Very quickly we see Swofford get selected for the very desirable sniper squad and the training that goes with it, the snipers are commanded by Staff Sgt. Sykes (played by Foxx) who is of course a badass but also quite an amusing guy and has a reasonably good rapport with the soldiers considering the circumstances. The training section of the movie is quite short and we soon see some news footage on a TV with news of Iraq invading Kuwait and from this point on the story movies to Iraq and follows the soldiers from the sniper squad around as they train, hydrate, play football, battle with their demons and try to amuse themselves in the dessert with very little to do.
That’s basically it, there isn’t really a huge plot, the movie is more about what life was like for the soldiers day to day in the months they spent in Iraq, especially from Swofford’s perspective and how it affected him, he also talks about his Vietnam veteran father and troubled family life while growing up. There are a few amusing bits and it’s interesting to see different takes on war situations but to be honest there was nothing in this movie that I hadn’t seen executed better previously. I wouldn’t say there was anything wrong with this movie, I just found it disappointing. I watched it with Vikki, who enjoyed it far more than me, but I should point out that she has never seen Platoon or Full Metal Jacket.. So that may be a good explanation. I can imagine that this would work better as a book, it would perhaps be more intimate, which is perhaps what is missing from the movie.
I found the movie was a little bit slow in places, with nothing really exciting going on and it felt as though scenes were missing. So I’m not sure if it’s been heavily edited or if it’s supposed to be disjointed, despite it’s two hour running time. I think I would have been bored if it had gone on much longer. On the plus side it does look very nice, the cinematography is superb and it looks very slick indeed with an excellent soundtrack.
I had read several mixed reviews of Jarhead prior to watching it with some people calling it fantastic and others calling it pointless, I think it was alright, it certainly wasn’t a bad movie and the acting from Gyllenhaal and particularly from Foxx was very good, I would say that Jamie Foxx was the best thing about the movie and is very convincing. Overall I would just say it was a bit disappointing and I didn’t feel as thing there was anything new here and quite a bit of plagiarism from Full Metal Jacket, only not so well executed. It was worth a watch but I wouldn’t need to watch it again, although I would now be very interested in reading the book, so I think I’ll add that to my Amazon wish-list.
M (1931) January 31, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Movie Marathon 2006 , 1 comment so farOkay, so admittedly the movie marathon has been a little slow over the last couple of weeks. Look I’m sorry, I’m sorry… but I’ve had a lot of other things I’ve had to do and I still do to be honest, but you’re right, that’s NO excuse to skip on my commitment to the marathon. I am committed and just to prove it to you I took sometime out of my busy schedule last night to watch Fritz Lang’s 1931 movie M.
M is shot completely in black and white and is one of the early German movies with sound. The story focuses around a disturbed child killer who has murdered a number of children and in pursuit of him the police have been raiding all of the areas seedy spots and criminal hang outs which has almost put a stop to the criminals activity. After several months of unsuccessful Police searching and deciding that something simply has to be done the local criminals come together to track the killer and get him off the streets and perhaps inflict their own form of justice at the same time.
Even for such an old movie M is very stylistic and impressive, I think what is perhaps the most impressive and yet easiest thing to take for granted is the use of sound, use of camera angles, use of shadows and other techniques which enhance the movie and give it such depth. Techniques which have been imitated and drawn upon so much in the years since it was made, that this film feels strangely familiar even when watching for the first time but when watching it’s important to remember that it was this movie that really pushed the envelope and set the bar for the development of film noir and the serial killer genre which was to follow and you can clearly see it.
The killer in the movie is played by Peter Lorre who really does an astonishing job as the psychotic and haunting character, his scenes are all highly memorable due to his utterly convincing portrayal, his facial expressions drag you right into the story. There are many characters in the movie ranging from the various police officers to the assortment of criminals who all share one common goal, to get this evil child killer off the streets. The film lets you see the situation from a variety of viewpoints including the emotional distress of the mothers to the frustration of the police and the anger of the criminals at the disruption of their day to day activity.
The sound in the movie is often very quiet and for some scenes of the movie is completely absent (in fact I had to check my amp hadn’t somehow switched off) but it all adds to the overall tension. I think that part of what makes M so enthralling and successful is what it leaves to the viewers imagination, not once is a child’s murder described in great detail and no violence is actually shown, it is merely hinted at and loosely talked around. In this respect it is like some of the Hitchcock movies I have seen, and it is evident that Lang and Hitchcock had similarities, in fact they both come from the same era, both having had success with silent movies before moving to sound and both using similar techniques to captivate the viewer.
Watching a film from 1931 where most of the cast members are no longer with us really got me thinking about how characters and actors are immortalised in their movies and it also made me sad when thinking that this movie was made before World War II and at a time when the Nazis were a rising power, if you read between the lines there are messages relating to group hysteria and group judging without any specific mention to any particular groups or beliefs. Apparently though at a later point M was in-fact banned by the Nazi party.
A really absorbing and interesting movie, it doesn’t really have anything nice in the story and although there is no actual violence witnessed on screen it is still a movie that will stay with you when you come away. It’s a fantastic movie, it deserves to be in the top 100 and it has been a pleasure to watch a film which paved the way for such classic iconic movies to come. I would suggest that anyone with any interest in film should consider themselves duty bound to watch M when they can.
M has fallen into the Public Domain, I’m not sure if this is just due to the age of it or if there is some legal wranglings which have allowed it slip through the net but as a result I downloaded the movie perfectly legally from here and it’s a copy with good sound and English subtitles. From what I have heard the criterion version has an extra eleven minutes of footage and I would definitely like to see it if that’s the case.
Okay that’s another one crossed off the list, I make it another 40 to go! *PHEW*
IMDB Top 100 Movie Marathon 2006 List
Diet Cherry Coke January 26, 2006
Posted by Mark in : General , add a commentI’m a huge fan of diet coke, I absolutely love the stuff and although I know that ultimately it can’t be much good for me it is one of my guilty pleasures. Some people like to smoke, some people like to take drugs, well I like to drink diet coke! So as you can imagine I am living in massivley exciting times at the moment in the UK with a whole variety of Diet Coke variations including Diet Coke with Lime, Diet Coke with Lemon, Diet Coke Vanilla, Caffeine Free Diet Coke (my most popular choice as all that caffeine is no good for your body you know!) as well as regular, always reliable, good old plain Diet Coke.
Unfortunately for me due to a rather boring case of diabetes I’m only able to drink diet soft drinks, but from my pre-diabetes days (over 12 years ago) I fondly remember how I enjoyed the occasional Cherry Coke and I was delighted when I went to Florida in ‘97 to discover the shelves lined with Diet Cherry Coke. My delight quickly turned to bitter disappointment when upon arriving back to Blighty hoping to find a newly released beverage for sale, I instead found that it wasn’t and that there in-fact were no plans to release it at all. So naturally I spend the next nine years cursing and sulking while at the same time lining Coca Cola’s very deep pockets by continuing to drink cans and bottles of Diet Coke, enjoying the odd Diet Coke with Lime etc and of course plenty of Caffeine Free Diet Coke.
Well that brings us up to a couple of days ago, 24th January 2006 and on my usual lunch time jaunt into town and Boots I discovered 500ml bottles of Diet Coke with Cherry sat there, chilled waiting to be purchased. I feverishly fumbled for enough change to buy myself and Dan (who also happens to be partial to the odd Diet Coke) a bottle whilst quickly making my way to the checkout. Now I think I’m unlucky with checkouts at the best of times, the supermarkets especially, generally if you see the shortest queue you should AVOID it. Something is guaranteed to go wrong, someone will need a price check on something, something will get dropped, something won’t scan.. I’ve seen it all and this day was no different. I had to wait in the queue for FAR longer than you would have imagined looking at the queue initially, and then there was a discrepancy on the price of the drinks, I think they were not even registering on the tills… that’s how cutting edge boots are with their soft drinks. But eventually I managed to secure my beverages and was able to leave the shop all tensed and ready to see if this new Diet Coke Cherry could live up to the memories.
Back tracking for a moment, it was originally called Diet Cherry Coke, but it seems they had a slight update in 2005 and moved a few words around and we now have Diet Coke Cherry, a little bit of trivia for you just in case that question comes up when you’re on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ (courtesy of WikiPedia).
So I made my way outside of Boots and wasted no time in cracking open the bottle and having a sniff, I always like to do the sniff test first… yup it sure smelt like Cherry Coke.. and I took a sip and yes.. YES… it tasted like Cherry Coke, if anything it tasted better than the Diet Cherry Coke I had been drinking nine years ago in Sunny Florida. It is in fact very nice. I am assuming it has different sweeteners in it or something, but I also notice that most of the Diet Coke beverages have nil calories and this one has five calories in a 500ml bottle… I think I can live with the extra calories but I am curious to know why.
So Diet Coke Cherry gets the thumbs up from me and it is LONG overdue over here. I also have to say that Boots seems to be something of a pioneer when it comes to getting the new varieties of Diet Coke, they seem to be early adopters, they were the first with Lime and now with Cherry… hopefully they’ll be as quick when Diet Coke with Black Cherry and Vanilla and Diet Coke with Raspberry are released.
It seems that there is a lot of money to be made in fruity variations of classic soft drinks as well as with Coffee Soft Drinks (i.e. Coca-Cola Blak) at the moment as Coca Cola remove Vanilla and Lemon Coke from sale for the time being and concentrate on newer flavours and I certainly look forward to sampling them all in due course. I just wish they could make caffeine free versions of the flavoured Diet Cokes, then it really would be like Christmas!
Shi mian mai fu (2004) January 19, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, DVD , 1 comment so farAs a kid I always loved watching Martial Arts movies, although I certainly don’t profess to be an authority on these kind of movies I do feel like I know a good one when I see one. Of the most recent movies that have had wide exposure on these shores I’ve seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero and last Friday I watched Shi mian mai fu (aka House of Flying Daggers).
I’ve had House of Flying Daggers on DVD for a few months but just hadn’t got around to watching it (along with a pile of other good movies just sitting there waiting, it’s just making the time that’s the tough part) until my mate Steve came over for a boys night. I have to say that having watched it I’m not sure I would actually class it as a martial arts movie or even saying that a particularly boyish movie, sure it has martial arts in it but when it comes down to it I would say it’s a love story with a smattering of action.
The plot is actually quite complex, but in brief it is set in China during the ninth century and as part of an undercover operation the governments army uses an undercover officer to break a blind female prisoner (Zhang Ziyi) out of prison in the hope of her leading them to the leader of the House of the Flying Daggers rebel group she is suspected of being as member of. However as time progresses and having spent time together a relatively simple plan becomes far more complicated as love begins to blossom between prisoner and undercover officer.
The entire movie is beautiful with lots of vibrant colours, wonderful authentic looking costume and a completely engaging score. There are a number of action sequences and fight scenes in the movie and when watching it I felt as though each one was pushing the envelope a little bit further, each sequence was unique and was approached with anything but a typical style. For example there is a scene near the beginning of the movie when Mei (Zhang Ziyi) has to play a game to avoid being arrested, the game involves a large arrangement of circular drums which stones are thrown at and Mei must then hit with her long very elegant sleeves (see screenshot below), the way it was shot and executed is superb and unlike anything else I have seen. There is also a scene later in the movie where the two main protagonists are running through the forest being pursued by a number of enemies who are leaping from tree to tree stripping bamboo and throwing it as weapons which again is unlike anything else I’ve seen. These are just two out of the many scenes in the movie which I found particularly jaw dropping.
The movie is definitely the best of the bunch for me (from CTHD, Hero and House of Flying Daggers) the storyline is gripping, the action sequences and martial arts sequences are exhilarating and beautiful and it is a very finely crafted and inspiring movie.
Okay so it wasn’t one of the top 100 in the movie martahon, but that’s okay as that’s not soley what this blog is all about. The House of Flying Daggers is a damn fine movie and I thought it would be wrong if I didn’t give it an honourable mention, so I suggest you give it a go at your earliest convinience! *two thumbs up*
March of the Penguins (2005) January 12, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Cinema , add a commentI finally managed to catch March of the Penguins this evening which I have been keen to see since I first heard the hype about it a few months back. In case you have been hiding out somewhere with no access to the outside world and haven’t heard about March of the Penguins, why not allow me to fill you in quickly.
It’s a documentary about the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica and documents the ordeal they have to go through during the annual mating season to successfully mate, nurture and protect their eggs throughout the gruelling winter conditions until they eggs have hatched and the young are old enough to look after themselves. The male and female both have to take shifts lasting up to four months at a time without food to stay with the egg/young while the other penguin walks (and occasionally belly slides, which despite my best efforts made me giggle like a schoolgirl every single time I witnessed it) over 70 miles to the ocean to eat, recuperate and bring back food for the young. This documentary shows you the entire process from the initial walk from ocean to breeding spot and then follows throughout the winter and the various hazards that occur through to the infants first steps and eventually going their own way and Morgan Freeman narrates throughout.
I always love watching documentaries, you only have to show me some mere cats and let me hear David Attenborough’s dulcet tones and I’m a happy man, so I didn’t really have any doubt in my mind that I would enjoy March of the Penguins. Morgan Freeman does an amicable job of narrating here, although I’m aware that this movie is originally narrated in French with English subtitles for those of us who don’t speak the lingo which from what I have heard puts quite a different slant on the movie as it’s approached differently which is something I would love to see for comparison. Maybe when the DVD is released it will have a alternative audio track/subtitles etc? Wait and see I guess.
It’s a pretty awe inspiring movie showing how much the penguins have to struggle and the lengths they have to go-to to protect their young and ensure their survival, I am just thankful that human mating despite it’s ups and downs doesn’t involve standing in -70 degree temperatures, with upto 100MPH winds without food for up to four months at a time *phew*.
I really enjoyed it and would love to catch it again in its original format.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Movie Marathon 2006 , add a commentAs I’ve mentioned previously I have added all the movies I need to see from my movie marathon list to my ScreenSelect (online DVD rental service) account and they are arriving in a completely random order, so I’m doing my very best not to watch the more appealing ones first. Out of my list of 42 titles I have left to watch I have heard of of about half of them which leaves quite a few movies that I know nothing about and haven’t ever heard of. One such movie was The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) which I had the pleasure of watching last night.
Plot wise the movie is about a couple of jobless Americans both living in Mexico scrounging for work, doing odd jobs wherever possible. The two men meet up with an old gold prospector whose tales of gold to be found in the hills and fortunes to be made prove very tempting and after getting the required money together the three men head into the hills as friends and allies to claim their fortunes, but as the wealth starts to accumulate so does the tension, greed and paranoia.
This is one of the first Humphrey Bogart movies I have seen and of course I’ve heard a lot about the legendary actor from the Hollywood golden days but I’ve just not seen much of his work until now. Bogart plays the character of Fred C. Dobbs and this character more than the others becomes more and more obsessed with the wealth as greed begins to takes over his being more and more each waking moment, this is something that the audience gets to experience every step of the way. If anything I would say that the transition is a rather quick one, but the acting by the entire cast is tip top. But the show is well and truly stolen by the old prospector Howard (played by the movie’s director John Huston’s real life father Walter Huston) as the wise old man who has seen it all before and knows exactly what to expect as times goes by. An honourable mention should also go out to Alfonso Bedoya who plays the Sombrero wearing ‘Gold Hat’ and easily has the most memorable line in the movie “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.” See the pic of Bedoya in character below.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a really gripping movie from the opening scenes to the closing ones, it doesn’t feel as though there is any dead time during the movie and I was engrossed throughout. I guess that’s one of the reasons this is considered to be one of the greatest movies in existence. I honestly think I could watch it again this evening and enjoy every minute of it even though I only saw it last night. I don’t know about you, but when I’m watching an older movie like this it feels like a completely different experience, when compared to watching a current or more recent movie. I’m not sure why that is, or really how to describe the difference in feeling but I just feel like I’m in the same room as some of these characters listening in on their conversations, perhaps it’s due to the lack of special effects that I’ve become used to in recent years, I’m really not to sure, but it’s a very nice feeling and makes watching older movies feel more special somehow… more personal… but maybe that’s just me? This movie is tense and believable and is about the greed and obsession that can be caused by money and how people can be changed, which in my experience is most definitely true. It did feel a bit familiar when I was watching it and I know sure that I’ve seen other far more recent movies where money causes the end of friend ships and paranoia to grow out of control, although I can’t remember off the top of my head what they were… possibly Shallow Grave???
I was chatting to Richard today who is a friend from work and also a runner in the ‘IMDB Top 100 Marathon Marathon 2006‘ who also watched the movie recently and we both agreed that it was a movie which neither of us knew a great deal about before and yet it’s such a complete movie experience that it should almost be a crime not to have seen it (this is the kind of thing they should be teaching in schools I tell you!). Richard also made the observation that Stinky Pete the Prospector from Toy Story 2 also bares more than a striking resemblance to Howard the prospector in this movie.
I feel really pleased that so early on in the movie marathon I’ve already discovered an absolute gem and it has reassured me just in case there was any traces of doubt in my mind before, that this is most definitely a worthwhile task. Only 41 to go…
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) January 10, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Movie Marathon 2006 , 1 comment so farNow I’ve already started to worry about the health implications of this movie marathon, I mean if we do the math… I’ve got 44.. no excuse me… 43 movies left to watch and if we give each one an average length of just 1.5 hours (bearing in mind some of the MUCH longer ones I’ve got coming up i.e. Lawrence of Arabia *sigh*) then that’s over two and a half days without sleep sat on my sofa watching movies, not moving…. not burning any calories apart from the occasional blinking action or reaching for liquid refreshment, it’s quite a scary prospect. I guess it depends how quickly I get through my list and I’m sure it won’t really have any serious health impact, but never the less after an extensive gym session last night I sat down to watch Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) also known on these shores as Spirited Away.
I’ve got to be honest and say that I’m not a HUGE fan of animated movies, I mean sure I liked Monsters Inc, both Toy Stories and the Incredibles, but other than the most obvious ones I’ve never hunted out animated movies and I don’t know a great deal about them. I’m sure I’ll shock people with this next comment but I don’t think I’ve actually seen any of the classic Disney animated films *shock* *horror*. But this is the ‘IMDB Top 100 Movie Marathon - 2006′ after all and it’s no place for prejudices and preconceptions so they must be brushed aside in the pursuit of open mindedness and true movie enlightenment… or something along those lines… ahem.
Spirited Away is the fantastical tale of a little girl named Chihiro and her parents who while moving to a new area inadvertently enter into a fairytale world via an abandoned theme park where nothing is quite as it seems. A world which is full of strange monsters and talking cloth-wearing animals where Chihiro’s parents are turned into farm-yard animals and Chihiro must work a job in a bathhouse if she is to stand any chance of rescuing her parents and escaping back to the human world she misses.
Firstly Spirited Away is a lovely looking movie, all of the imagery is beautifully put together and the animation is of the highest standards, you really get to experience how the characters are feeling in the various situations and I have to admit that at several points while watching I temporarily forgot I was watching an animated movie. I guess it is really a children’s movie and is told from a child’s perspective, but I feel that it is also has enough depth and is quirky enough to hold an adults interest at the same time, in fact some parts are quite edgy and are possibly a little bit frightening for the little ones. I think that possibly with me being English perhaps some of the charm of the movie is diluted in translation and I don’t necessarily mean from the subtitles or English dub but more with visual references to Japanese culture etc that I may simply not be aware of. But it is still a very enchanting and magical movie with a vast level of detail and many memorable scenes. The score is fantastic and works really well by drawing you into the story even further. Spirited Away is a whole package with great sound, beautiful visuals and an unusual and quirky fairytale story, in fact it reminded me a bit of Alice in Wonderland or Labyrinth at times, especially with the strange and unique creatures discovered by Chihiro during the story.
Spirited away has a two hour running time (which is quite a long time when you compare it to an episode of the Thundercats… ahh my youth) but the time does go by very quickly as the story moves along at a quick pace. I am definitely glad I’ve watched it and although I wouldn’t be in a great rush to watch it again (as I’ve said previously I’m just not a massive fan of animated movies) I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is happy to be swept up in a fairytale and enjoy something a little more outside the box we’re usually accustom to in the west.
Apparently this is (I’m not sure if this it still true today, but it certainly was shortly after it’s release) Japan’s highest grossing movie ever and it has been praised by critics all over the world. I’m not sure I would rate it quite as highly as some people who have had the pleasure of watching it, but it’s without question an interesting, charming tale and I think it deserves to be recognised.
I’ll be able to tell you at the end of the movie marathon if I think it deserves to be in my personal top 100 movies, but I do have some way to go yet, that’s 2 down and 42 to go.. come on!
My movies to watch list. - I thought I would post the link at the bottom of each movie marathon related post to make it easy to find the list. I mean it’s easy at the moment with only five posts, but it may get a little more tricky to navigate as the list gradually gets crossed off and I post my thoughts - you see that’s forward planning. I’ll have to put that on my CV!