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Reviews
Hoe duur was de suiker (2013)
Very enjoyable
My sister recommended this movie and it was everything she said it would be. I'd never seen a movie from this era based in South America - and it's a good historical look into the Dutch colonies and slave trade, which many people wouldn't learn much about.
Watching a story set in this time period and following the life of a slave is usually an exercise is masochism. You know that historically, life was not good for slaves, so how can this possibly end well? Luckily in this film things went better than expected.
I would love to see more films on this topic, especially ones that people can watch without having to bring tissues along. I love a film with good plot that also teaches me about history.
Also, the diverse languages shown in this movie is something very rarely seen in big movies. I'd love to see more of it, as I didn't feel it actually took anything from the story or the dramatic feeling and it helped place the film in context.
The Giver (2014)
Please stay at home and read the book.
Alright, let me start by saying I haven't actually seen it yet. But let me tell you (if you bother to keep reading) why I probably won't watch it. I read a lot of books that get turned into movies, and it's generally not good and I regret watching it. But I still do - I like giving movies a chance.
But for me, the Giver is different. This book led me into the dystopian genre. It was my rite of passage, from child to teen. And I see the summaries and the trailers and the cast list and I just can't see how they're going to really capture the essence of this amazing story.
For one thing, the film is in colour. I'm not giving anything away (I think) when I say that this is not true to the book. The actors are teenagers. What made this book so great to me was that the characters are children. 11 years old. Jonas is supposed to be innocent - naive. He is very literal and very precise in what he does. He is unquestioning in his trust - like a child. He hasn't hit his rebellious teenage stage yet.
And why is there a girl on the cover?? Are they trying to turn this into yet another action/romance, rather than focusing on the larger message - an attempt at perfection through corruption of the human? Again, the children are supposed to be eleven!
Also, movies don't seem to be able to tell you a story without immediately giving everything away. The Giver was written so wonderfully because you only understood the dark nature of the world much later into the story. Well I did. It was my first foray into dystopian fiction and it represented the broadening of my mind. Nowadays everyone's a sceptic and they'll all watch and complain about how they saw everything coming. But for me, the book was a shock. I was surprised at how dark this seeming paradise was.
I'm getting very disheartened with dystopian films. I will continue to read the books, always, but I think I'll step away from the film industry on this one.
I'll finish with this. Natalie Babbitt reviewed Lowry's book, saying "The story has been told before in a variety of forms — Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 comes to mind — but not, to my knowledge, for children." The book is written for children, or young teens, and it uses children to send this warning about society, which gives it a whole new perspective. A child thinks differently. The way teenagers are depicted in films (especially as they are acted by adults now) can not ever hope to accurately capture the real message.