Well, we watched Schindler's List last night. Only a week or so ago we watched Hotel Rwanda.
Talk about a double-punch. It's so hard to see such inhumanity, yet so inspiring to see courageous compassion.
I'm not sure why we're watching such grim fare right now. Perhaps just for perspective. There's so much that is good and right about our lives.
Would I willingly watch either movie again? Yes, I think so. The tenacity to save a few outweighs the cruel loss of so many. In showing us at our very worst, they also show our very best.
I just remembered what my biggest pick would be - Brokeback Mountain. That movie hit a very deep, very personal nerve with me and left me torn to pieces for days and days afterwards. I can still start getting choked up when I see or hear things about it. I kept meaning to see it again to try and understand what it was that managed to strike me so deeply (hint: it wasn't cuz they were gay) but was too afraid of the intensity of emotions the movie managed to provoke.
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
yov, I still haven't seen it, though I plan to—but judging from the reactions of my straight, and gay female, friends, there was an emotional power there that spoke to just about everyone, way beyond the specifics of the relationship onscreen.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain. I think there is some subconscious reason I'm avoiding it but I can't quite say what it is.
I won't just survive
Oh, you will see me thrive
Can't write my story
I'm beyond the archetype
I won't just conform
No matter how you shake my core
'Cause my roots, they run deep, oh
When, when the fire's at my feet again
And the vultures all start circling
They're whispering, "You're out of time,"
But still I rise
This is no mistake, no accident
When you think the final nail is in, think again
Don't be surprised, I will still rise
Primula Baggins wrote:yov, I still haven't seen it, though I plan to—but judging from the reactions of my straight, and gay female, friends, there was an emotional power there that spoke to just about everyone, way beyond the specifics of the relationship onscreen.
I've seen it, and I definitely felt that emotional power. But I can certainly see how it would hit a a gay man living in this poor messed up world that much more.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
I've seen Brokeback, and I think it provides some valuable insight for us straight folks. I also enjoyed "Boys don't cry" and "Monster". There was another really good movie about a man who was in the middle of a sex change (the part was played by a woman) when he found out that he had a son and had to go rescue him from a life on the streets. I'd never remember the name of the movie, but it was well-made and well-worth watching.
I am trying to think of a movie I would never want to see again and I although it was a good movie I think Clockwork Orange fits the bill. My sister walked out of the roomafter the first 30 minutes. It's just too much of certain things, but I do think it illustrates it point very well. Maybe Trainspotting I would see again. I don't know. I thought that was good movie but I never felt the need to see it again.
Do you know, even though it's science fiction and even though I've read the book, I have never seen "A Clockwork Orange." I probably ought to. But judging from what's been said in this thread, I won't be buying the DVD.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Kubrick I just think he had some kind of weird fantasy going with topless woment. The begining of the movie is quite shocking but (at least in the version I saw), the absolute worst part they leave up to the imagination.
I saw "A Clockwork Orange" when it was in the theatres way back in 1970 or 71, and I've seen it once on dvd since then. I found it hip, deep and cutting-edge the first time, and funny, strange and corny the second. Being male and a twenty-year Navy veteran, (my blood consists of 30% salt water, 20% coffee, 10% beer and 40% testosterone) you all might not find it surprising that I rather enjoyed the topless women.
Kubrick has a reputation for emotional detachment in his films, when really what he has is a knack for depicting emotionally detached people, or more precisely, people who live in a situation/society where emotional detachment is a survival mechanism.
Clockwork Orange is not nearly so graphic, in terms of either violence or sex, as your average R rated movie these days. Heck, maybe your average PG13 movie, if you're talking violence. But what you DO see is by turns strangely compelling AND repulsive at the same time. And there IS a lot of black, black comedy in it.
My family and I went to see "The Last Mimzy" today and we all liked it a lot. Others may have been satisfying thier need for testosterone-soaked violence and video game imagery watching "300", but we saw a nice little film about two beautiful kids who found a box of magic toys and endeavored to save the future of mankind. I haven't seen such an angelic face on a little girl since "The Chronicles of Narnia". As some critics have noted, there are shades of "ET" in this film.
Others may have been satisfying thier need for testosterone-soaked violence and video game imagery watching "300"
One of the most disappointing films I've seen in a while. There was absolutely no storyline and very little plot. It also seemed to contain many political innuendo's and the movie's depiction of anything non-Greek (who seemed to have represented the 'west' in general) as monstrous wasn't to my liking. The violence and graphics were good though.
Well, keep in mind the word barbarian is derived from the Greek word for anyone who doesn't speak Greek. That says something. If the movie got nothing else right, it seems to have done justice to the Hellenic Greek world view.
I said world view, not rhetoric. But there is a xenophobic streak in classical Greek thought, just as there is one is ancient Judaic thought. When you are forced by circumstance to deal with societies much larger than your own, it's an understandable response. Not a right or good one, necessarily, but understandable.
Only a week or so ago we watched Hotel Rwanda. 
But there is a xenophobic streak in classical Greek thought, just as there is one is ancient Judaic thought. When you are forced by circumstance to deal with societies much larger than your own, it's an understandable response. Not a right or good one, necessarily, but understandable.
Nice to see you too Prim 
If the movie got nothing else right, it seems to have done justice to the Hellenic Greek world view.