I don’t remember what the first movie I ever watched was. I think it was probably some animated thing, but I don’t remember what exactly it was nor what was happening. I do however, remember watching Independence Day, and it was the first film I ever saw in theatres. Not exactly the best movie for an 8-year old to see but oh well.
This seems fairly self-explanatory. Nurse Ratched, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Looking for nice scenery is something you — or at least I — don’t remember about days, months, years later. Sure, I might think to myself, “Man, that movie was really good! Oh, and the scenery was nice too. So anyway…”
I thought of films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain because I can picture them both having really great scenery, but I can’t actually remember anything specific from either film. Then I remembered hearing that according to Tarsem, all the locations shot in his film The Fall were on location and weren’t digitally enhanced in any way, which I found really surprising and, if true, pretty amazing. There are some fantastic color schemes in the film that look too amazing to be real, like the little town of blue houses, incredibly highlighted and bright against the background.
For all those who haven’t heard of the film, it’s a really great one. Take my word for it. Here’s the trailer:
Maybe I’m merely making assumptions about people, but I don’t think the average person who watches a film cares much about the soundtrack — I’m talking original soundtrack as opposed to a collection of songs that the producers shelled out to pay for — after watching a film.
[If I’m not super tired when I come home tonight, I’ll post more]
When this film was released back in 2006, I went to see it with my sister and friend in the theatre, and everyone else in the room were all older people. We wondered if this meant that only older people cared about global warming or perhaps they just weren’t into documentaries.
When the credits roll, there’s some animation about some small things we can do to fight global warming like planting a tree, turning off lights and the tap. Simple things like that. I think this film in particular really brought to people’s eyes the reality of global warming, and allowed us to have worthwhile conversations about climate change and how to stop it. I also think the film was fundamental in helping start the green movement and the move to organic products and food, which I’m really thankful for.
Watching this movie really made me aware of my own carbon footprint and trying to do things differently. An Inconvenient Truth is what a documentary — and any film, for that matter — should to do: affect people enough to create change.
I can’t remember which movie made me fall in love with this man, but James Stewart… well, what can I say about him? I’ve seen him as the innocent and charming regular Joe in Harvey; the paranoid neighbour in Rear Window; running around trying to dodge a plane shooting at him in North by Northwest; questioning life and death in the pseudo-Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life; as a determined lawyer in Anatomy of a Murder; the observant, patient impromptu detective in the underrated Hitchcock classic Rope; and James flexing his romantic comedy muscles with Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.
I think the last Stewart movie I saw was the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which is arguably one of the best performances in his career. Sure, he was still young when he made the film and would have a long career ahead of him, many more years to improve his acting through experience, but he is the reason this film is heralded the way it is today. Stewart has that dopey, boy next door charm that works perfectly here in the film, as a naive man from a small town in the US who gets recruited to be a senator. Believing in the true democratic idea that he thought the country was all about, he is slowly shaken by corruption, lies, and betrayal, especially when it comes from a fellow senator and mentor of his. Eventually, he takes to a filibuster and here in the clip below, Jefferson Smith has one of many speeches he gives to the Senate, allowing Stewart to really take command of the role. It’s basically an Oscar-nominated role just with those speeches alone.
Two words: Meryl Streep.
Back in my VFS days, I was in a documentary class and had to put together a project for an idea that I wanted to be made into a documentary. I was concerned about gay teen suicides because of the fact that there was no real solid number that said how many teens were killing themselves a year, and it was something I really wanted to explore. So I did research and found out about many publicized gay teen suicides in history (we’re talking mainly US), including that of Bobby Griffith. A book had been written about his life and his mother’s gradual shift from conservative Christian to understanding gay rights activist. It was called Prayers for Bobby, and this was 2007.
I picked up a copy of Prayers for Bobby and after reading, found out that it was going to be made into a Lifetime TV movie. Super excited, I checked up often on the film, anxious to know when it was going to be shown on TV. I ended up *cough* downloading it because I don’t have Lifetime here at home and man, it made me cry like nothing ever has. So many good, emotional moments that I really can’t put into words. You have to see it yourself.
With the highly publicized recent teen suicides in the US, I think this film is more relevant than ever. I read somewhere that an estimated 3000 teens a year kill themselves because of their sexual orientation, and some of them aren’t even queer but bullied and harassed that it gets to that point where they can’t think of anything else to do. My documentary project is still with me, waiting to be made, and after last year, I seriously thought about realizing it. I’ve decided that if I don’t get into UBC when I apply next year, I will go around the US and Canada, interviewing people and speaking with those affected by gay teen suicides. I will try my best to finally make my project.
We’ll see how that goes.
aaron's random musings 