Film reviews
Sep. 15th, 2005 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matilda36A lot has been happening and I haven't written it down, so I'll break it down in sections and post it over the next couple of days. Let's start with the films I have been watching: Little Buddha; Alexander and Cinderella Man.
On Sunday I watched again little Buddha. Recently I have been reading a lot about Buddhism and I was able to enjoy the film much better. I still think that it's a very western film and Bridget Fonda's pregnancy at the end looks a bit forced, but I really liked the characters of Lama Norbu and of the father and their interaction. Also I love the use of the eastern settings made by Vittorio Storaro. A deep love of India and the other locations and a deep respect for the people comes through clearly in this film.
The opposite happens instead in Oliver Stone's Alexander. I am quite easily pleased with my films, but this film is wrong on sooo many levels that I don't know where to start. Oh I know: Colin Farrel's hair. The Angelus'wigs inflicted on David Boreanz during his Angelus flashback have given me endless hours of mirth. The things his hairstylist did to to Alexander's hair are just...wrong: from bad die jobs, to a blond hero sporting very dark roots to that heinous crime: the mullet, nothing is spared. From there everything goes downhill: Darius is made to look like an air traffic controller, the battle scenes are appalling: airplane shots of two armies in desert camouflage fighting on a desert do not help to understand Gaugamela and later on using red for the whole battle with the elephants scene can only be interpreted as an admission of shame on the director's part. But the reason why I do agree with critics and audiences around the world in saying that this film sucks it's its heavy racist undercurrent. Stone tries to pass it as a characteristic of Alexander's generals by making Tolomeus the narrator, but the moment we enter Babylon you find more evil easterners stereotypes than in an Edward Said book, culminating in Alexander big "You have been contaminated the moment you entered Babylon" speech. I simply hope nobody gives Oliver Stone a dime to produce another pile of rubbish like this one.
The third film I watched is "Cinderella man". I liked it. It's your typical Ron Howard film: well directed, well acted, telling a nice, human story of hardship and victory. Russel Crowe can act only the part of Russel Crowe, but he does it very well and makes you really feel for the characters: first Johnny Nash and now Jim Braddock. Not a masterpiece, but I did come out of the cinema feeling good and full of hope. I guess that the film did his job.
On Sunday I watched again little Buddha. Recently I have been reading a lot about Buddhism and I was able to enjoy the film much better. I still think that it's a very western film and Bridget Fonda's pregnancy at the end looks a bit forced, but I really liked the characters of Lama Norbu and of the father and their interaction. Also I love the use of the eastern settings made by Vittorio Storaro. A deep love of India and the other locations and a deep respect for the people comes through clearly in this film.
The opposite happens instead in Oliver Stone's Alexander. I am quite easily pleased with my films, but this film is wrong on sooo many levels that I don't know where to start. Oh I know: Colin Farrel's hair. The Angelus'wigs inflicted on David Boreanz during his Angelus flashback have given me endless hours of mirth. The things his hairstylist did to to Alexander's hair are just...wrong: from bad die jobs, to a blond hero sporting very dark roots to that heinous crime: the mullet, nothing is spared. From there everything goes downhill: Darius is made to look like an air traffic controller, the battle scenes are appalling: airplane shots of two armies in desert camouflage fighting on a desert do not help to understand Gaugamela and later on using red for the whole battle with the elephants scene can only be interpreted as an admission of shame on the director's part. But the reason why I do agree with critics and audiences around the world in saying that this film sucks it's its heavy racist undercurrent. Stone tries to pass it as a characteristic of Alexander's generals by making Tolomeus the narrator, but the moment we enter Babylon you find more evil easterners stereotypes than in an Edward Said book, culminating in Alexander big "You have been contaminated the moment you entered Babylon" speech. I simply hope nobody gives Oliver Stone a dime to produce another pile of rubbish like this one.
The third film I watched is "Cinderella man". I liked it. It's your typical Ron Howard film: well directed, well acted, telling a nice, human story of hardship and victory. Russel Crowe can act only the part of Russel Crowe, but he does it very well and makes you really feel for the characters: first Johnny Nash and now Jim Braddock. Not a masterpiece, but I did come out of the cinema feeling good and full of hope. I guess that the film did his job.
