It is the story of a man, Charlie, and his autistic brother, Raymond, whom he never knew existed until his father died and left basically almost all of his multi-million inheritance to an "unknown" party. In an attempt to win the money back for himself, Charlie finds his long-lost brother Raymond and takes him on a trip of their life to the West coast. The movie is funny, heart-touching, and all around great.
The acting by Tom Cruise (Charlie) and Dustin Hoffman (Raymond) in this film are both phenomenal performances. It is Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of an autistic adult that really captured me and stood out as talent the most.
Both of them really do a fantastic job though in their roles! If you haven't seen this movie yet, you need to immediately! I loved it and I am sure you will too!
Next week, we're shifting genres and going for something a little more eerie. I will be watching one of my personal all time favorites, Silence of the Lambs!
Well, I think I easily went through an entire tissue box on this one and found my new favorite movie! This entire time I could not stop thinking about my own relationship with my mother. The acting in this film was wonderful, with some of my favorite stars such as Jack Nicholson playing the characters.
In this movie, the mother-daughter relationship of two very close women is portrayed. It starts in the daughters infancy, but quickly forwards to her adulthood, when she marries a man, Flapp, against her mothers better judgement. They move away and just like her mother had predicted their marriage becomes filled with lies and cheating, but they never do fall out of love.
Back at home, the widowed mother develops an interesting relationship of her own with the feisty astronaut from next-door. This leads to many laughs and funny parts of the film and also shows how lonely it can be once your children are gone and your spouse as well.
I really do not want to give anything away because I honestly want everyone to really watch this one! I cried straight through from 30 seconds in all the way to the rolling of the credits. It's an amazing film, even though I did find myself feeling a bit homesick and calling my mom 'just because' as soon as it was over.
Phenomenal! This is an all around classic that everyone should see (mature audiences only though!). The acting in this movie was amazing and the whole plot was awesome. The movie neared three hours long but it did not feel overly lengthy and I really did not want it to end! (In fact I continued to watch The Godfather : Part II, which is the sequel, after I finished the first one). The movie won three oscars and it definitely deserved all of the awards and critic acclaims that it received.
For those of you who do not know what exactly The Godfather is all about, let me fill you in. WARNING: contains spoilers!
Basically, it is the story of the Corleone family. "Don" Vito Corleone, who is the head of the New York located Mafia family, is known as the Godfather. As the head of his family, he takes care of those he loves and those who show him respect and uses violence and threats to control and stop anyone who shows disrespect to or stands in the way of his families futures and fortunes. The Mafia family is run by Don and most of his son, Sonny, who will take over his position when Don passes away in the future. There is also another son, Michael (Al Pacino), who in the beginning of the film is just returning from war. He has an American girlfriend and explains to her, and all the viewers, in the beginning of the film that he is not like his family and this is not his type of business. Throughout the movie, trouble brews between the different major New York Mafia families because some of the rivaling families are trying to bring drugs into their business for money, but old-school Don Corleone does not want this happening. The rivals end with attacks against all the families towards each other and also results in Don Corleone being shot, although it was not fatal. After this happened, it was clear that no one was safe or to be trusted. Michael takes it upon himself to take revenge on the man who ordered his father dead and ultimately hopefully protect their future from more attacks. He, in a way, joins the family business a little more because he goes and shoots the man who ordered the assassination of his dad and the crooked cop that was working with the guy.
Oh no! Michael! He then has to flee to Italy to hide out until the situation boils down. He does not even say goodbye to his girlfriend, who sits waiting for him to call her day after day. In Italy, Michael meets a new woman, who he loves and takes in marriage. Everything seemed to be going well until Sonny, who was supposed to take over the business eventually, was shot back in New York and killed. It was then apparent that Michael too might be in danger. When he is about to move to a safer location, an explosive implodes in his packed car, while his wife was in the vehicle. After this loss, he returns to America and it becomes his responsibility to take over the family business one day. He goes back to his old girlfriend after years of dissenting her and she takes back his hand. Although it is no longer the man she once knew because he is now a Mafia man who orders men killed without flinching, something he promised he was not involved in.
Towards the end of the film, Michael makes some serious business moves for his family. One of these moves is deciding to move to Las Vegas (which is where he is located in the sequel, which I also recommend). The cinematography in the whole film is dark, but one of the last scenes in the film I found most tasteful. Towards the end, Michael had ordered a bunch of his rivals to be murdered by hit men. At the same time, Michael is becoming Godfather to his nephew, whose father he has killed at the end of the film too. During the baptism, the film shoots between shots of the church service and the hit men killing off his opponents. The entire time that it goes between shots, the church service is read as a voice over. The entire scene honestly sends chills right down my spine and I bet it would to you too.
This movie does not need my recommendation. You should just see it. It honestly is one of the best, if not the best in my opinion, movies of all time. Do not miss out.
Coming up next, we have One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1976)
And finally there is color! I cannot believe I had never seen this classic musical before now! When I was watching the movie, I was surprised how many songs I knew that they sang in the film!
It was a classic story that practically anyone knows. A modern day Romeo and Juliet. Yet another love story in my list of movies (I know how to pick 'em!) that made my heart twist and turn.
Here's the basic storyline--
The two gangs of New York, the Jets (the white immigrants) and the Sharks (the Puerto Rican immigrants), have been in a huge feud since both of them moved into the west side of the city. It just didn't seem big enough for both of them to live in together. The only solution the two gangs can come up with is a fight to settle the problem once and for all. Before the fight happens however, Tony, a former member of the Jets gang and a best friend of one of the head guys, meets Maria, the younger sister of the leader of the Sharks. It's love immediately. They quickly move forward in their relationship by making plans for their future. They talk of things like marriage and how they will make it work dispute their differences.
Then, it happens. The fight. Maria sent Tony to stop the fight and he went with every intention of doing just that. However when he arrived, things escalate and get more heated than anyone could have anticipated. Maria's brother stabs Tony's best friend, resulting in his death. Tony, who just watched his best friend be stabbed to his death, took revenge in the heat of the moment, stabbing Maria's brother right back, ending his life.
What to do now? Maria is informed what happened by one of her brother's friends. But then Tony shows up and their love is enough to help them fight past this tragedy. She forgives him and they plan to run away and spend their lives together. Tony leaves her and tells her to meet him at the place where he worked and they would leave from there. Maria is held up by a police man asking her questions, so she sends her friend to tell Tony that she will be late. However, when her friend gets there to tell Tony, the members of the Jets stop her and abuse her and mistreat her in awful ways. After being treated in such mortifying and degrading ways, she leaves and tells the Jets that they can tell Tony he will never see Maria again, because she was killed by a member of the Sharks after he found out she was planning to leave with Tony.
When Tony hears this, he finds himself with no choice but to go out into the night and look for the man he believed murdered Maria so he can take his life too. Eventually, Maria finds him and he sees that she is alive. They are together-- it looks like the perfect ending until the man who Tony went to find in the first place spots them, shooting Tony down to his death.
Tony is taking his last breaths in Maria's arms. They are surrounded by all the members of the Jets and all the members of the Sharks. She tells them all that is all of their fault that Tony was killed. Because of their prejudices and inability to live among each other peacefully like humans, she lost her love of her life. At the end of the film, all the members of the Jets and Sharks slowly wander out of the scenes together. They walk out as individuals at the end of the film, no longer as two entirely separate entities. They come together to carry Tony's lifeless body from the screen and the movie comes to an end.
Not only was this story beautiful and heart wrenching, but the acting, singing, and dancing throughout the entire film were all phenomenal. Musicals are not something that I normally watch, but I found that I really enjoyed this one. Everyone was very talented and that is obviously one of the main reasons that this movie received such praise and was nominated for so many awards.
Maybe musicals are your thing-- maybe they are not. Either way, I think that anyone would enjoy and appreciate this film and it definitely is a must see!
Now enough of these love films! Get ready for next week because I am going to make you "an offer you can't refuse"-- read this next post or you will seriously regret it!
Get ready for... The Godfather (1972)
Ahh, another black and white, wartime romance filled my screen this week and in turn filled my heart. This 1954 Academy Award winner is a classic for anyone who loves the romantic films. I really had no idea that this film and my film from last week would both be romances. I was delightfully surprised. After all, there is nothing better in my mind than getting to watch romance and tragedy unfold in the islands of Hawaii.
Before I dive into the plot and characters of the movie, I just have some other aspects of the film to address. First of all, I love how once again there was no R-Rated material in the film, yet it was still so heart-wrenching and captured me so deeply from beginning to end. Secondly, I love how the romance is not cheesy like it can end up being in a lot of present day's romantic movies. It was actually good acting and the actors looked sincere and really made me believe in the lines of the script.
Now, you may be wondering, what is this movie all about? Well, the setting is Hawaii, 1941, right before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurs. Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, who is the main character, transfers to the military company stationed on a Hawaiian island. He is given harsh treatments at this new station because he would not comply with the Captain's request to join their boxing team, despite the fact that he has so much talent in the boxing ring. They make him do the most difficult tasks and constantly pick on him throughout his time in Hawaii. He eventually meets a girl named Lorene/Alma and falls into love with her. Their story of love develops but is crushed at the end because of a tragedy that happens in the last minutes of the movie. December 7, 1941. A quiet morning suddenly disturbed by the droppings of bombs, by gunshots, by explosions. The attack on Pearl Harbor is set off, and Private Prewitt meets his end during the chaos that ensued. At the end, the audience sees his love sailing back to the mainland, which had forever been her plan to live out the "proper life" as she referred to it.
That is not the only love that develops in the movie. There is also the scandalous love between the Captain's wife, Karen, and his First Sergeant Milton Warden. This love is more secretive but also very captivating. The Captain had cheated on his wife and left her alone for years and she had developed the habit of cheating on him as well. They develop an actual real love relationship throughout the film and he tests her love for him by questioning her about her prior relations. Their love eventually is also broken because the Captain resigns from his position in Hawaii and she is forced to move back to the mainland states with him. She realizes she will never see her love, Warden, again.
In the end of the film, the two women, who have lost the loves of their lives, meet on the boat back to the mainland. They speak of the troubles that have bereft them of their loves and one realizes that she knows about the others relations. It ends with a sadness that neither of the two women got what they truly wanted and the men never got to have what they cherished in their lives either.
Overall, I thought this film was very enjoyable. I never saw myself as being really interested in films from this era but I do find that they are entertaining with great plots and dialogue. They capture the audience and I can totally see how this would be one of the prime time entertainments during the era it was produced. It was a great film-- a little bit long finishing just two minutes under two hours, but definitely worth the time.
I really hope you guys will check it out!
Stay tuned for next week. We are jumping straight into the sixties with West Side Story (1962)!
Well, this romantic war drama really had me captured beginning to end. The 1942 movie, Casablanca, is set during World War II and is set in the town of Casablanca. One of the man characters, Rick, owns a popular nightclub in the town. At the time, people needed letters of transit to travel around freely in Nazi occupied territories-- such as Lisbon, from which it was easier than other places to travel from to the United States. A man, Ugarte, enters the saloon one night with two letters that he obtained after killing two German couriers. Ugarte intended to sell the tickets to the highest bidders, but ends up being arrested by Captain Renault, an officer who coordinated with the Nazis at the time. Before being placed under arrest, Ugarte left the two letters with Rick for safe keeping. When the two highest bidders show up at the bar to get their letters, Rick is taken back when he sees the one and only love of his life, Ilsa, at the table accompanied by her husband, Victor. Here is where the love story that everyone awaits for comes in. Victor and Ilsa need the letters to get to America in order to continue Victors work for the Czech Resistance. Both assume that Rick has the letters and attempt separately to retrieve the letters from Rick. The story of how Rick and Ilsa met is recounted as well. The two met in Paris, while Ilsa was under the impression that Victor had been killed in war. They plan on leaving on a train together, but Ilsa leaves Rick on the platform of the train station. The reasoning, the movie reveals later on, is because Ilsa found out that her husband was actually still alive. When they run into each other at the bar Rick owns, the old flame still is evident between the two. When trying to obtain the letters from Rick, Ilsa confronts him at gun point. When he denies her the letters, instead of shooting, she confesses she never stopped loving him and wants to be with him. Rick tricks Renault into getting Victor to a plane that can take them to where he needs to go. When this all happened, Ilsa was under the impression that she would remain in Casablanca with Rick. However, when they get to the plane Rick tells her that the right thing to do is go. In exact words, he says that she will regret it if she stays, "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." She leaves with her husband and Rick and officer Renault decide that after all this, the best thing for them both might be to leave Casablanca. The movie ends with them walking off together with intentions of joining the Resistance.
I hope you could follow that... this movie had a lot going on in it! It is very hard to capture the right picture without giving an exact script! It was a beautiful movie. It had all the action and romance you could ever want mixed in to make the perfect combination of the two. I never really get a chance to watch too many old films like this. It is all in black and white and has an instrumental soundtrack. After watching this, it really got me thinking about how much the film industry has changed in such a short amount of time. In this film, there is no cursing, there is no nudity, there is nothing with any sort of profanity at all basically. In today's day and age, that is almost unheard of unless you are watching something similar to a Disney film! This film still captured the beauty and passion of the love between the characters without having to display them in an R-rated way. It really shows how the media has changed their tactics on getting peoples attention. It was a great film and could be watched by all ages. There is some action scenes, with a little bit of violence such as shooting guns (but this IS a wartime movie afterall!). The acting was wonderful and I really felt a connection to the characters. It is no wonder that this film has earned a soft spot in the hearts of thousands and won the Academy Award in 1942. It was definitely a good watch and I recommend it to anyone! It is nice to travel back to this age. I assure you that you will not regret making this your next movie night blockbuster!
In the words of Rick, "We'll always have Paris",
--Kirk
Sneak peak at next week's film-- get excited! From Here to Eternity
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Hello! Welcome to my Passion Blog! I hope you all will be back again and again each week. Basically, my passion is movies. I love all movies-- every genre. I love to watch comedies, dramas, romances, war films, horror flicks, and more! I enjoy them from the comfort of my own couch in my living room and in the movie theatre (as long as I am accompanied by an all large combo of my favorite movie theatre snacks!). In my blog, I will be going through 12 different Academy Award winning films, starting all the way back in the 1940s and working up to present day through an assortment of different films.
Next week, you are all in for a real treat. I will be traveling back to 1942 to watch the Academy Award Winner Casablanca.
Curious as to what Casablanca is all about? Check out this trailer!
