EXTRA CREDIT CHANCE!!!
Watch any of these excellent movies and write a five paragraph essay telling me what you thought about it. (30 pts. possible for each essay)You may do this assignment for as many movies as you would like. All of these movies are available from the public library. You may do a maximum of three essays per academic quarter.
Evita- After more than a decade of false starts and several
potential directors, the popular Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical finally made
it to the big screen with Alan Parker (The Commitments) at the helm and
Madonna in the coveted title role of Argentina's first lady, Eva Perón.
A triumph of production design, costuming, cinematography, and epic-scale
pageantry, the film follows the rise of Eva Perón to the level of supreme
social and political celebrity in the 1940s. Like
Madonna, Perón was a material girl (she was only 33 when she died); she was instrumental in the political success of her
husband, Juan Perón (Jonathan Pryce). But Eva was also a supremely tragic
figure whose life was essentially hollow at its core despite the lavish
benefits of her nearly goddess-like status. The film has a similar
quality--it's visually astonishing but emotionally distant, and benefits
greatly from the singing commentary of Ché (Antonio Banderas), who serves as a
passionate chorus to guide the viewer through the elaborate parade of history.
The Last Emperor- You remember the
saga: taken from his mother at the age of three, Pu Yi is brought into the enclosed walls of the Forbidden
City to replace the
real emperor. There he becomes a pampered prisoner and hollow symbol of an
older monarchy that has since given way to a ruthless, 20th century republic.
With his pining loyalists beheaded or kept at bay by armed soldiers outside the
City's walls, Pu Yi is tutored by an English gentleman (Peter O'Toole) and wed
to a kindred spirit (Joan Chen). Eventually cast from his gated paradise, Pu Yi
(wonderfully portrayed in adulthood by John Lone) becomes, by turns, a playboy,
a dupe to the Japanese, and a victim of China's cultural reforms and
re-education programs. This longer cut largely top-loads the film with greater
reason to feel compassion for the emperor, with his often wordless
sense-adventure in the mysteries that could only be known to one little boy
plunged into indecipherable alien decorum, robbed of
self-determination and common sense by his infinite privilege. Added scenes (including some in the political rehabilitation
camp where Pu Yi is held for a decade) fill out not so much added facts as
density of experience. This improved The Last Emperor is richer in soul
and a pronounced sense of Bertolucci actually directing this film in the most
personal and profound sense.
Tokyo Story-
An elderly couple go to visit their children in Tokyo, but the children mostly
don't have time for them. They learn to accept how things have come out. Not
much of a story on the surface, but the strength of the movie is the vivid
portrayal of the family, the fine acting, and the emotions brought up for the
viewer. If you have children--or parents--you will be deeply moved.
Ran- (Warning- A bit bloody and violent- Rated R in the
1970’s) As critic Roger Ebert observed in his
original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a
younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira
Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation
of Shakespeare's King Lear. It's a film for the ages--one of the few
genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of
the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the
king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides
to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. When one son
defiantly objects out of loyalty to his father and warns of inevitable sibling
rivalry, he is banished and the kingdom is awarded to his compliant siblings.
The loyal son's fears are valid: a duplicitous power struggle ensues and the
aging warlord witnesses a maelstrom of horrifying death and destruction.
Although the film is slow to establish its story, it's clear that Kurosawa, who
planned and painstakingly designed the production for 10 years before filming
began, was charting a meticulous and tightly formalized dramatic strategy. As
familial tensions rise and betrayal sends Lord Hidetora into the throes of
escalating madness, Ran (the title is the Japanese character for
"chaos" or "rebellion") reaches a fever pitch through epic
battles and a fortress assault that is simply one of the most amazing sequences
on film.
Dreams-Produced with assistance from George
Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Dreams is an omnibus of eight short stories
and parables that spell enchantment at every turn. The opening story, "Sun
Under the Rain," emerges from director Akira Kurosawa's personal
memories, as a child (whose house is modeled after Kurosawa's childhood home in Koishikawa) witnesses a fox's wedding ceremony
in a magical forest. The Garden of Eden motif continues in "The Peach
Orchard," while Lucas's ILM special effects group shines in the glorious
"Crows" segment, in which an art admirer finds himself living within
the paintings of Van Gogh (played with concentrated energy by Kurosawa
enthusiast Martin Scorsese). In the idyllic closing fable, "The Village of
the Watermills," a centenarian claims that "people nowadays have
forgotten that they are also part of nature." The equally wise Kurosawa
reinforces the old man's claim through these vivid but ultimately
life-affirming tableaux.
Empire of the Sun- This very
underrated film poignantly follows the World War II adventures of young
Jim (a brilliant Christian Bale), caught in the throes of the fall of China.
What if you once had everything and lost it all in an afternoon? What if you
were only 12? Bale's transformation, from pampered British ruling-class child
to an imprisoned, desperate, nearly feral boy, is nothing short of stunning.
Also stunning are exceptional sets, cinematography, and music (the last courtesy of John Williams) that enhance
author J.G. Ballard's and screenwriter Tom Stoppard's depiction of another,
less familiar casualty of war.
Chac: The Rain God- A cult film from the
1970's that was lost for years and now newly restored, Chac: The Rain God is
based on ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh, as well as Tzeltal and Mayan
folk stories. This magnificently photographed film, shot in the Chiapas region of Mexico by director Rolando Klein, focuses
on a small village during a terrible drought. Desperate for relief, thirteen
men set out on a quest to save their people from starvation. They seek a
solitary Diviner who lives in the mountains and knows the ways of the Ancients;
they hope that he can summon Chac, the Rain God. A
dazzling portrait of a Native American spiritual quest, Chac is a visionary
masterpiece as powerful and revolutionary as Walkabout, El Topo, and Aguirre,
The Wrath of God.
Gandhi- Sir Richard
Attenborough's 1982 multiple-Oscar winner (including Best Picture, Best
Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley) is an engrossing, reverential look
at the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who introduced the doctrine of nonviolent
resistance to the colonized people of India
and who ultimately gained the nation its independence. Kingsley is magnificent
as Gandhi as he changes over the course of the three-hour film from an
insignificant lawyer to an international leader and symbol. Strong on history (the
historic division between India and Pakistan, still a huge problem today, can
be seen in its formative stages here) as well as character and ideas, this is a
fine film. (Not really a part of the curriculum, but this is too
good to not include)
Rhapsody
in August (1991)
Legendary auteur Akira Kurosawa directs a tale about four
Japanese youngsters who visit their elderly grandmother -- a woman who's never
forgotten the horrors caused by the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II.
She tells her grandchildren about these horrors (which included the death of
her husband). Her understandable long-held prejudice against Americans gets put
to the test when her Japanese-American nephew visits them.
The Last Samurai
(Warning-Rated R for violence) 2003-While Japan undergoes tumultuous transition
to a more Westernized society in 1876-77, The Last Samurai gives epic sweep to
an intimate story of cultures at a crossroads. In America, tormented Civil War
veteran Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is coerced by a mercenary officer
(Tony Goldwyn) to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern
weaponry. Opposing this "progress" is a rebellion of
samurai warriors, holding fast to their traditions of honor despite strategic
disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader (Ken Watanabe), Algren learns,
appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic
battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test. All of which makes
director Edward Zwick's noble epic eminently worthwhile, even if its Hollywood
trappings (including an all-too-conventional ending) prevent it from being the
masterpiece that Zwick and screenwriter John Logan clearly wanted it to be.
Instead, The Last Samurai is an elegant mainstream adventure, impressive in all
aspects of its production. It may not engage the
emotions as effectively as Logan's script for Gladiator, but like
Cruise's character, it finds its own quality of honor.
Picture Bride 1995
(pg-13) The first feature by Hawaii-born filmmaker Kayo Hatta, 1995's Picture
Bride takes us into unexplored story territory in its tale of a young Japanese woman (Youki Kudoh of Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train)
who leaves her home in 1918 to become the mail-order wife of a sugar plantation
laborer (Akira Takayama) in Honolulu. Her first shock is discovering that her
husband is actually 20 years older than his photograph; after that, life just
becomes hard as the intensity and dangers of plantation work eclipse all joy. Hatta
achieves an admirable authenticity in her portrait of the island community and
the ghosts it (literally) harbors; she also gives us a strong sense of racial
and class divisions that crackle like live wires through Oahu's booming
industries at the start of the century. Tamlyn Tomita is excellent as the woman
who becomes Kudoh's closest ally and friend in this new world, and the late
Toshirô Mifune has a memorable, small part as a traveling narrator of silent
films. This is an original, fascinating, and touching work.
The
Twilight Samurai – (warning- not rated- probably pg-13)Slow-paced
and subtle in presentation, The Twilight Samurai captures a side of the
famed samurai that is rarely seen. Set in a northeastern province (Shonai) of
late nineteenth century Japan, the film tells the story of Seibei Iguchi
(Hiroyuki Sanada)--a low-ranking, debt-ridden samurai who, after losing his
wife to consumption, struggles to care for his two young daughters and senile
mother. Emphasizing the conflicts between duty and family, and love and class
rank, director Yoji Yamada has created a film that is deeply engaging on
several levels: a classic tale of honor, love, and courage.
(Blurbs are
from www.amazon.com)