Archive for the 'History' Category

Mongol

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 6, 2008
in Asia, Assassination, Based on a true story, Biography, Drama, History, Romance and War
. 0 Comments

Here’s an amazing story that has really been needing a film - Ghengis Khan.  Mongol is an amazing film that chronicles that story of Temudjin, who eventually became known as Ghengis Khan.  One reason this is somewhat feasible is because there are many written accounts about this man and how he ruled the Mongols.

The story is really amazing how the young son of a slain ruler is kidnapped, enslaved, and jailed - yet never gives up.  He just keeps getting back up.  I can’t really comment on how Temudjin really was, I’m sure the peoples he conquered weren’t exactly happy to be conquered.  He seemed to be just in what he did though, and he didn’t forget those who were kind and who helped him.  Some parts of the film really personified “an eye for an eye.”

I’m not exactly what language was being spoken in the film, but I assumed it was the native Mongol tongue.  That’s always something I enjoy about films.  Not so great though for those of you who detest subtitles.  To that I say you should get over it cause you’re missing out on some good films.

One aspect I wasn’t sure what to expect was the war factor.  I’m glad to say this wasn’t turned into an action flick.  That would be interesting to watch, but this was mainly focused on Temudjin’s life and his relationships with people, including his best friend who eventually became his enemy.  Definitely rent this and check it out if you’re into historical films, like history, or are into Asian culture.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 2, 2008
in Biography, Drama, England, History and War
. 0 Comments

This is one of those movies seemingly everyone has talked about.  They’re just astounded with Cate Blanchett’s performance as Queen Elizabeth.  I never really heard much about the movie except Blanchett was awesome.  I do agree that she owned the role as the Queen of England, but I wasn’t super thrilled with the movie.

Maybe it’s just because I’m a guy, but I really wish they had done more with the destruction of the Spanish Armada.  That was a huge turning point in history for sea supremecy in present-day Europe.  Liz tells me that’s because the movie was centered on Elizabeth, her feelings, and her loneliness.  She had no one to love because she was too busy being the “queen-mother” of her country.  One very interesting moment, several days later, was when Liz and her sister were going on about how sad the movie was.  I didn’t even realize the movie was sad, I was just hoping for some more sea battle action.

I was definitely pleased with individual performances in this film.  They would include Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, and Jordi Mollà.  You might not recognize that last name, but you might recognize his face.  I always remember him from Blow.  Clive Owen played the role of Sir Walter Raleigh.  I thought he just did ok.  Not bad, just ok.  He seemed a bit under utilized.

I really feel like I need to see the first film where Blanchett plays Elizabeth.  It might kind of tie everything together.  I watched the extra features and they did make a humongous life-sized boat for the ship scenes.  Supposedly it was one of the biggest made for this purpose - especially since it was all shot on a sound stage.  I just wish they could have had some cooler battle scenes.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

The Other Boleyn Girl

Published
by
Lij
on March 28, 2008
in Based on a true story, British, Drama, England, History, Romance and Royalty
. 0 Comments

Ask people what they know about Henry VIII, and you’ll hear one thing: he killed his wives.

People more interested in history will also tell you about his divorce of his first wife, his splitting with the Catholic church, and his major impact on world history because of those two splits, but most people at least know that Henry VIII killed his wives.

In The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn and Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn, director Justin Chadwick attempts to explore the earlier parts of Henry’s reign. This is before Jane Seymour, before his second and third Catherines, and before he’d begun beheading people because things weren’t going his way.

Eric Bana plays the king, and he does well. Johansson plays the kindhearted Mary Boleyn well, while Portman is at once endearing and conniving. You want to like her because she is strong and unwilling to be trampled, but she’s also self-centered and self-serving. Her fate, though, is still tragic, and her final monologue is excellent.

The story follows Mary and Anne as they are ordered through their lives by the men around them — their father, their uncle, their husbands, and more. It’s upsetting to see them traded as commodities, which is basically how the men in their lives see them. Even Henry VIII, who is either in love with or infatuated by each of them from time to time, is shown as loving them only because they are what he can or cannot have.

Mary is the first sister to become the mistress of the king, who is being driven to desperation by his wife’s inability to give him a male heir. Anne only becomes the mistress of the king later, after she manipulates her way into a better place. This works for and against her.

I liked that the film didn’t try to hard to make you love or hate any of the characters. It did well to show them as human enough that you care for them, but it also showed that they were flawed. Some more than others.

Rating: ★★★½☆

There Will Be Blood

Published
by
Lij
on March 1, 2008
in Audio Review, Drama, Dysfunctional, Family, History, Horror, Religion and Social Commentary
. 2 Comments

There Will Be Blood is Paul Thomas Anderson’s first movie in the five years since Punch-Drunk Love. He’s my favorite director, and a big part of the reason is because of how often he breaks the basic rules of filmmaking, all with great purpose.

Recently, some friends and I sat down to do an audio review of the film. We talked about all of the things we loved about the movie, the questions that arise while viewing it, and the greatness of everyone involved, from Daniel Day-Lewis to PT himself.

There Will Be Blood audio review

Rating: ★★★★★

Good Night, and Good Luck

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 20, 2008
in Cold War, Communism, Docudrama, Drama, History, Journalism, Politics and War
. 0 Comments

Good Night, and Good Luck is a film about a very fearful time in American history.  It takes place during the Cold War and the Red Scare.  You might remember those from history class.  It was a time when Senator McCarthy was given a free hand in accusing whomever he pleased of being a communist.  Sounds kind of crazy, right?  In a way I think that kind of fear and aggression can be translated into how people of Middle Eastern/Arab descent, as well as anybody looking “ethnic”, can be labeled as terrorists and be detained until proven they are not.  Sounds kind of crazy, right?

I heard a lot of people describe this movie as slow and boring.  To borrow a superb line from Office Space, “Ooh, uh, yeah. I’m going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there.“  I really liked it.  I found it very interesting, especially since it was based off of actual events.

This was both written and directed by George Clooney.  Even though Clooney has done a lot of producing, this is the first movie he has written and the second one he’s directed.  I think he did a fine job.  In our Michael Clayton review, we talked about being somewhat disappointed in Clooney’s recent work.  This would be one of those movies that stands out for me.  I highly suggest this one and hope you’ve already seen it.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Charlie Wilson’s War

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 6, 2008
in Based on a book, Based on a true story, Biography, Drama, History, Politics and War
. 3 Comments

Liz and I did a double-header yesterday, the first being Charlie Wilson’s War. I’m usually not really into political movies with a message, Lions for Lambs for example, but I enjoyed this one. This movie is based on the true story of a little known senator, Charlie Wilson, who got the funding for the original “War on Terror” in Afghanistan back in the 80’s. What I really enjoyed about this movie was the end where it showed funding for schools and rebuilding the society, at a mere fraction of what had been spent on weapons and munitions, being turned down because “nobody cares about Pakistan.” Pakistan wasn’t even the country Wilson was trying to get the funding for; it was Afghanistan. It points out that time and time again, the US has funded and armed one group only to find them the enemy later on down the road. Everybody is concerned about Osama Bin Laden right now - well he was one of the people fighting the Russians back in the 80’s with our money and our weapons.

I think the acting was top notch here. Tom Hanks gave a wonderful performance as usual. I know you’ve probably heard me rant about Cast Away, but that was just a fluke in my book. Julia Roberts also did a decent job. I kinda feel like she might have stepped out of the box a little with this role, at least in reference to her more recent movies that I’ve seen. It was also cool to see Amy Adams again. She was amazing in Junebug and after seeing that, I remember her from Catch Me If You Can, another Hanks film. You might have also seen her in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny if you’re into the phenom of Jack Black and Kyle Gast. And who can not mention Philip Seymour Hoffman’s role? I was reminded a lot of his character in Punch-Drunk Love as the sofa king. He did a lot of yelling in that role, only there weren’t any redeeming characteristics.

This film is definitely a historical piece. It’s not about the 100 Year War or the pilgrims, but it’s still about a piece of history. In a way, it kind of reminded me of Blow. I think it also helps to watch films about political things at least a decade after the fact. People have had time to hear and learn about what happened apart from the media and everything else. I’d highly recommend seeing this. It has historical value as well as being very much in the present. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is even mention being assassinated in a military coup. He was the president and prime minister of Pakistan in the 70’s and 80’s. Just recently his daughter Benazir Bhutto, who also served as prime minister, was assassinated after just coming out of self-imposed exile.

Pathfinder

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 23, 2007
in Action, Adventure, Drama, History, Thriller and War
. 0 Comments

When I saw the trailers for this I thought it looked awesome. Main character is a Viking, played by Karl Urban, who was left for dead, raised by Native Americans and later fights off more Vikings who come back for more destruction. You’ll probably recognize Karl Urban from a number of films he’s been in like Lord of the Rings or Bourne Supremecy. If you’re truly a movie watcher you might even remember him from Ghost Ship. The guy’s been around. He hasn’t really had a starring role yet, to my knowledge, so this was definitely a step up the career ladder for him.

In the same way horror movies resort to gore and/or sex to keep people interested, this movie just resulted to gore to keep the audience entertained. It wasn’t very realistic gore, but it was still gore nonetheless. Besides crazy things like a man’s eye being cut out and falling to the ground like a bouncy ball, there were also many other aspects of the movie that just didn’t make sense. It made me think of when Chris Rock hosted the Oscars and announced if you’re going to do an action movie you need to hold out for Russell Crowe and not settle for Colin Farrell.

The Indians (Native Americans) seemed so naive and totally unaware. They weren’t the only people living in that area and I seem to remember from history that not all native tribes and people groups were exactly friendly so people knew how to take care of themselves. Also the Vikings were just a bit too over-the-top for me. You couldn’t tell who was playing who, they had somewhat superhuman strength and were basically organic helicopter gunships minus the flying ability. Were Vikings that violent? What really is the purpose of decimating a region? If you destroy everything there’s not much plunder to take home. I also found it interesting that people were wearing the equivalent of bathing suits in the mountains during winter without being affected by the temperatures.

Ok, ok. I’ll get off my high-horse of history, continuity and logic…but what about the cinematography? This was definitely shot as an action film but it didn’t have the finesse and grace of a car chase from Ronin or a crazy, out of control fight scene from the Bourne trilogy. The lighting was bad and it was hard to tell what you were looking at half the time.

I know, I know, I’m exhibiting High Fidelity elite-ism. I’m ok with that. Maybe you loved this movie. That’s ok. Different strokes for different folks as they say. I just know I don’t want to see this again.

The Queen

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 11, 2007
in Based on a true story, Biography, Drama, England, Family, Government, History and Independent
. 0 Comments

Finally saw The Queen and what everybody was raving about at the Oscars. Helen Mirren does indeed rock the kasbah in her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II. It was very interesting to see historical events reenacted that I remember happening just 10 years ago. I don’t know much about the royal family or what goes on across the pond, but it’s something that has always fascinated me a little. There’s just something about royalty that grabs my interest and imagination. It makes me think of knights and castles and decadence.

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it was interesting to see the queen portrayed as someone from a different generation with methodical logic and reason behind her decisions and actions. Yeah it seemed cold-hearted to not publicly acknowledge the loss of Princess Diana, but that’s just not what you did 50 years ago. It was also interesting how they pointed out some of the accomplishments and achievements of Elizabeth II’s reign. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but she’s been on the throne for 55 years or so and became queen when she was 26. That’s how old I am. I don’t think I’d do too well at being president/king of anything, let alone a country, or commonwealth.

I’ve heard people say this movie was long and boring. I guess that could be true if you’re not into historical things and dramas. This actually wasn’t that long. Only about 90 min. I’d suggest you check it out if you have time.

Letters From Iwo Jima

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2007
in Drama, History, Sequel, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

This is Clint Eastwood’s sequel to Flags of our Fathers; showing the Japanese viewpoint of the battle for Iwo Jima. It stars some of the same actors and I thought it was much better than the first installment.

Ken Watanabe does an amazing job portraying General Tadamichi Kuribayashi trying to beef up the fortifications and defenses of that tiny island in the last ditch effort to defend their homeland. He and other officers knew it was a losing battle before even going there.

There’s not many war movies out there, made by American studios, that show the “enemy’s” point of view. Especially not in the World War II era. I think it’s a good thing to view them as fellow human beings than savages. I think Eastwood did a good job pointing this out in a couple scenes where one side shows compassion for a POW and gives them medical treatment. At the same time there are other scenes showing brutality, but that’s also what happens during a war.

Being a huge fan of war movies, I would recommend Letters from Iwo Jima over Flags of our Fathers. This movie is more about the people fighting the war than epic battle scenes. Other movies like this would be Thin Red Line and Paths of Glory.

Jet Li’s Fearless

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 31, 2007
in Action, Drama, History, Martial Arts and Philosophical
. 0 Comments

I should probably start off by saying I’m a big fan of the Kung Fu/Samurai film genre. I’m not well-versed in the genres, but I’ve been trying to watch some of the classics.

I think martial arts for many in the US is all about taking a name and kicking an ass. Seriously. I see kids all the time kicking and punching and screaming like a character from Mortal Kombat. I have to admit that I too was one of those kids, however, I was impersonating the Karate Kid. I’m also not an expert on Asian culture or their martial arts forms, but I do know that the philosophy behind it is not about beating somebody up, but more about bettering oneself in mind, body and spirit. So the better fighter will actually defend himself instead of taking the opportunity to severely injure their opponent. I’m sure this blows some minds out there, but please keep reading.

Bruce Lee - one of the premiere martial artists to bring kung fu to America was constantly denied adding philosophy to his movies. All people really wanted to see was his famous one-inch-punch and those numchucks hitting somebody in the head. I have to admit I really enjoyed seeing people fly off screen after making the mistake of making contact with Bruce’s limbs of fury, but now that I’m a little older I appreciate some of the other aspects.

In Jet Li’s Fearless, Jet Li does just that. He brings the true philosophy into his last martial arts film. Some other good films I would suggest in this genre are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Kung Fu Hustle and Unleashed. I can’t deny that there aren’t awesome and amazing fight scenes in this movie, but they aren’t the main focus or theme throughout.

This movie is really about redemption. You have a man who becomes famous and reckless in all aspects of his life. He thinks he is on top, but he really still has a lot to learn. Due to some misunderstandings, he makes the worst mistake of his life and loses everything. Years later though, he gets a second chance and is able to make a difference.

If you can’t tell already, I loved this film and highly suggest it to everyone. Other than violence, there really isn’t any other objectionable material in the film to make someone want to avoid it. So please go out and rent this one and tell me what you think.