I actually have a small list of some philosofickle/behavioral ideas that I wanted to explore, but I really don't feel like getting into that stuff tonight. Perhaps I'll leave it for later in the week. In the mean time you're stuck with another 'this is what I've watched' post.
I saw One Week last week. It's an Canadian indie film, and is quite good. For a basic plot... It's about a guy who discovers he has cancer and buys a motorcycle to go have an adventure. He then rides all the way across the country with nothing else but a camera. Really good stuff. I forget who did it, but the narrator's voice was quite soothing to listen to. Overall it's a very good movie, but it some spots it felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be 'Canadian'. It got rather stereotypical in some spots, and certainly felt like it played up the patriotic angle. Anyways, I still recommend it. Fantastic movie.
I watched Thin Red Line this week in two or three chunks. It's a three-hour movie, so I didn't really have the opportunity to sit down and watch it all in one go. Anyways, it's about several different characters from the same Marine outfit that's attacking an island in the pacfic during WWII. I usually stick to the European theatre, so it was a good opportunity to get exposed to some new stuff. It was a fairly solid movie, good writing and good action. It wasn't quite as gruesome as I had anticipated, which was nice. I fully understand the need to depict the horrors of war, but sometimes it just feels like gore for gore's sake. Anyways, the movie revolves around three or four flawed characters, and how they're all facing their demons and fears. The main character had a lot of voice-over/narration on top of visuals, but something wasn't quite right with the mixing. It was really difficult for me to understand what he was saying. Still, it was a pretty touching movie.
Annnd, I finished reading the Diary of Anne Frank. It's a really amazing piece of literature. That girl was much more wise and intelligent beyond her age. So much of that book is quotable material, with valuable insights and unique observations. I was really sucked in as she developed her relationship with Peter and they eventually fell in love. It was amazing how it changed her outlook on the world and improved her attitude. It was so brutal, then, how the diary ended so abruptly. It just... Stopped. And then you get this pit in your stomach, because it was the end of the line for her life. The epilogue was really difficult to read. The fact that she found her friend, Lies, in Auchwitz was heart-breaking. What was even worse was when it described that Peter had left on a winter march during the retreat, and was never heard from again. It's so brutal. It also mentioned that the standard reward for leading to the arrest of Jews in Holland was $1.40 a head. Was the person that turned them in able to live with the fact that he destroyed eight lives for $11.20? How can that be worth it? I know when times are difficult you're driven to do desperate things to secure resources, but that just doesn't seem right. It certainly makes you lose faith in humanity. The very last phrase of her diary reads "...I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and what I could be, if...there weren't any other people living in the world." It's poetic on so many different levels.
And that book pretty much rounds out a triangle of depressing holocaust stories. Life is Beautiful, Jakob the Liar, Diary of Anne Frank. All exceptional stories, so well done. Of course, knowing that the latter isn't a production of any kind and unaltered truth and fact is the worst of all.
Maybe I've satisfied my WWII craving for now.
-Cril
Ludovico Einaudi - Primavera
2 comments:
1 happy movie or book for ever 2 depressing ones you watch or read, man.
Well, One Week was a happy movie. Or, two thirds of one at least. That's close enough, right?
-Cril
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