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jgfox
Reviews
Blut und Ehre: Jugend unter Hitler (1982)
How a society can be perverted ... one by one, family by family
I saw this when it first aired (English version) and was mesmerized by its portrayal of the rise of the Nazi party. Party propaganda reached all phases of family life. It was persistent, methodical, and effective. Wonderfully directed and acted. I think it is a classic in its portrayal of family life and the slow corrosive effect of propaganda. After watching it, I had a better understanding of how a targeted society can be perverted . one by one, family by family.
I believe I have a copy of it on tape . have to visit the basement, find it, and replay it.
Gladiator (2000)
Great epic - Great film
What a great film!
Ridley Scott of `Alien', `Blade Runner', and `Legend' fame has delivered a wonderful and moving film.
The opening battle scenes between the Roman Legions and the barbarian hordes in Gaul were equivalent to the opening scene in `Saving Private Ryan' and the brutal attack in `Paths of Glory'. Absolute reality cold, miserable, dirty, dangerous, vicious, - but organized and executed with Roman efficiency and uncompromising courage. I felt I was there and I really didn't want to be there.
Russell Crowe is terrific. The movie Hero with Charisma is back. He is the link that ties the movie together and there are no false steps. No over or under acting just a performance that makes you believe that Maximus existed and had to do what had to be done.
Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius should get a Oscar nomination for his performance.
Jacquin Phoenix is the psychotic Emperor Commodus and proves the maxim that a great movie with a larger than life hero always needs a great villain.
While the special effects were exciting and important, I didn't think that they dominated the movie or accounted for its success. I give the credit to old fashioned directing, great screen play, wonderful music and cinematography, great sets, editing, and fine acting.
The Games
`Spartacus' was about the training and the revolt of gladiators. `The Gladiator' centers on what it would be like to actually participate as a gladiator in the `Games'. For about seven hundred years from the Etruscans to the fall of Rome the Games bound the Roman culture together. On a weekly schedule throughout the Empire - tens, hundreds, and thousands died to entertain the populace. Ridley Scott presents the Games as simply part of the Roman life no moralizing, no cute scenes, no Christians, - just its brutality and its vicious, addicting, emotional appeal.
Gritty, tough, epic in scope and very moving.
The Matrix (1999)
Best SF movie I've seen in years!
This is a classic movie - a beautiful and powerful movie. There is so much packed into it, that I had to see it twice in a week. It is a unique success!
You can enjoy it as an action-film, or as a serious SF drama, or as a graduate course in philosophy and literature. It is densely packed with ideas and questions as to the meaning of "reality". Of all the SF films I have seen in the last 50 years, I have to put this one in the top 10.
Yes, it is a complicated story and, yes, you have to pay attention, but it is all tied logically together. The fight scenes are choreographed as beautifully as a ballet. (The actors trained for 4 months just to ensure that they used the minimum amount of fight doubles.) The special effects are seamless and greatly enhance the story. The enemy forces lead by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) are fascinating, dangerous, and remorseless. All actors hit their marks and deliver.
It is a "dense" movie with many layers and literary and cultural allusions. Example, Neo (Keanu) apartment number is 101. That is the same room number used in Orwell's 1984 in which Winston Smith faces his worst fears and is broken.
Don't miss it - or you will never get free of the Matrix!