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Movies you've seen lately
Renegade:
I'm starting to find these movies rather tedious being, seemingly, rather teen oriented.
...The Giver...
-4wd (December 14, 2014, 01:18 AM)
--- End quote ---
Ok, while perhaps it's not the best flick out there, it's certainly better than a lot of others.
I enjoy subtext and themes a lot. Even if a film doesn't particularly "float my boat", I'll give credit for other things -- the core message is one of those things that I'll cheer for.
Don't read this as it contains possible spoilers - and is somewhat ranty
I found that the theme in the The Giver was really good. Sure, it was in your face and blatant, but it is a worthwhile theme (free will and being informed).
When I look around me, I see far too many people screaming for that exact same "sameness" in The Giver. People don't want choices. They want conformity. They hate free will with a demonic fury that I find sickening. "Let's all do things *this* way and no other way at all."
Those are the people that I think are extremely dangerous. Their ideas are a cancer that infects society. The society in the film there was completely cancerous. People were emotionally and intellectually castrated. With that "soma" element playing a part there.
The idea that your life should be determined by anyone other than you is nothing other than outright evil. And not some candy-assed caricature of evil. Really, deep seated, sinister evil.
Eliminating free will is the ultimate evil.
And yet we have throngs of people screaming for exactly that. Multitudes of them eager to strip you and everyone of choice.
While the film is pretty simple in that message, I appreciate that someone took the time to at least say so. It's probably even more important for teens to understand that, because from my generation, there are far too many seriously sick and evil people out there that somehow think that they have right to dictate how other people live.
And that doesn't even get into historical accuracy, which the film doesn't address, but it alludes to it in a subtle way.
So, yeah... I really do enjoy seeing films that promote free will and similar ideas. Even if they're not all that deep.
Rant over. ;)
Verdict on "The Giver": Worth a watch for those that enjoy the genre, or the message. ;)
40hz:
@Ren - from the The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce ;)
Liberty
n. One of Imagination’s most precious possessions.
The rising People, hot and out of breath,
Roared around the palace: “Liberty or death!”
“If death will do,” the King said, “let me reign;
You’ll have, I’m sure, no reason to complain.”
- Martha Braymance
--- End quote ---
Freedom
n. Exemption from the stress of authority in a beggarly half dozen of restraint’s infinite multitude of methods.
A political condition that every nation supposes itself to enjoy in virtual monopoly. see: Liberty. The distinction
between freedom and liberty is not accurately known; naturalists have never been able to find a living specimen
of either.
--- End quote ---
40hz:
Moonrise Kingdom.
All star line-up in one of the best send-ups of a small-town-young-lovers-runaway-coming-of-age flick ever.
Dry surreal humor. If you like this sort of thing it's well worth a watch. Recommended. :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
40hz:
Did you ever watch a movie that had a very good premise, a mind blowing opening, ridiculously flawed plotting, and an ending that absolutely crashed and burned - and yet you still liked it?
I have. And I watched it again last night and still liked it :)
It's called Smilla's Sense of Snow based on a novel of the same name by Danish author Peter Hoeg. Great cast (Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Vanessa Redgrave, and Richard Harris in major roles) and some beautiful cinematography throughout. Part scifi, part murder mystery, part - oh, I don't know what! It's a complete and total mess. And a fun one as long as you don't expect to come out of it knowing exactly what is going on; or why what you think is going on should even be an issue.
Even reading the book (like I did) won't help. There's a great deal in it that is presented as significant, but doesn't do more than prompt a "so what?" out of me. Perhaps you need to be from Denmark, or live there, to appreciate the subtext and context of the information in the story.
Either way, I liked the film. Maybe for no real reason other than to imaging how much I'd like to rework the script into something that made sense. And possibly to have another look at Ms. Ormond doing her thing. She's an extremely talented actress who's largely disappeared off the radar these last few years. Not too hard on the eyes either. ;)
MilesAhead:
I watched Smila myself awhile back. My premise is that many full length feature films have a good 20 minutes at the start. You don't know where it's going. Maybe the film has an original premise or bohemian lead characters. But too often around the 20 minute mark the cliches start to kick in. Often it's possible to predict the plot line.
I don't remember much about Smila other than that I watched the whole thing. :)
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