Please put your final copy of your writing here before our class on December 10. For film research, use the Internet Movie Database. Remember to quote any information taken from outside sources! I will post a sample for you by Saturday night.
Sorry everyone to let the movie go to the disturbing part with poor Thelma. I didn't intend to show that to you. I apologize!
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A Film with Impact: Nineteen Eighty-Four
How to explain liking a film that, on the surface at least, is so bleakly depressing and discouraging to watch? George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, often studied in high school (but rarely fully understood), brings us a dystopian view of a society watched over by a Big Brother. It hurts to watch the downfall of Winston Smith, to view his torture at the hands of O’Brien, to see a society that demands blind obedience from its citizens, but I would argue that my distress has been worth it.
The opening scene of the film shows fields of wheat blowing in the wind and soldiers marching to war. The voiceover speaks of “our land” and “our people” who are “Fighting against the mutilation of our hopes and dreams.” Students of mine, from both the former Soviet Union and China, have been struck by the images and told me that it was exactly as they remembered. It is easy for me to feel that such propaganda is not used in Canada, but the realist in me thinks otherwise—of course it can and is, especially in supporting the so-called “war on terror.”
One disturbing scene occurs early in the film where we see the “Two Minutes Hate,” brought to life brilliantly by the film’s director, Michael Radford. Here, people hysterically rage at a screen image of their enemy, then chant rhythmically “Big Big; Big Big” when a photo of Big Brother appears. The mob mentality is striking but, in the film, the mob rants equally at another, different, enemy if that is what they are encouraged to do.
Vincent Canby in his review from The New York Times argues that in the novel, “the real subject is language, which can be abused as relentlessly by a kind of tyrannical capitalism as by totalitarian Communism.” That is exactly the point and one that, as an English teacher, I struggle with every day. Now that our capitalist system is on the verge of collapse I read that the 700 billion dollar bailout, sold as a way to “buy up distressed mortgage securities” was, instead, used “to purchase stock in banks” (“Anatomy of a Meltdown” by John Cassidy; The New Yorker, December 1, 2008).
Language can be perverted by the powerful. Through the film, I am forced to view an extreme version of this idea. When tortured, Winston Smith (played brilliantly by John Hurt), is forced to admit that 2 + 2 = 5. In fact he is forced to more than admit this absurdity, he is forced to truly believe it! How? By being tortured on a medieval-like machine that stretches his arms and legs in an excruciating way.
The film was released in 1984 but has not seen great success. Perhaps seeing our society’s flaws represented is too difficult. But, for me, it is worth squirming in my seat and averting my eyes, for the film shows me things about my own society that I would rather not believe.
—502 words
A Film with Impact: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
I like to watch artistic, historical, meaningful, and romantic movies. However, I am not a frequent movie-goer because it is troublesome to drive, to stay in a theatre for two hours and of course to cost money. Last year, when my family came to Vancouver, I really felt frustrated. It was difficult to live in a new country; I had to change my lifestyles and learnt English. One Saturday, my husband suggested going to a theatre, which was in Metro-town, to watch a movie named Elizabeth: The Golden Age. At first, I was not interested, and I thought it might not cheer me up, yet I went with my husband and my son as I did not want to upset them. To my surprise, after I watched the movie, I had a better mood. The environment of a theatre, including audio, vision, and cheerful people, does a great effect on audiences. So, watching a film in a theatre is very different from in home. After watching Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I have gone to theatres several times, but the film Elizabeth is meaningful to me, so I’d like to introduce this movie to you.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age, directed by Shekhar Kapur, with a leading actress Cate Blanchett, is a 2007 film sequel to the 1998 film Elizabeth. It’s about the Queen Elizabeth I of England in her top golden age. The screenplay is written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst; the music score is composed by Craig Armstrong and A. R. Rahman. The film opens in 1585; Roman Catholic Spain is the most powerful country in Europe, but King Philip II sees England as a threat. Meanwhile, in England, Elizabeth is being pressured to marry someone of crowned heads of Europe and princes because she has no child. As always, Elizabeth refuses to take someone’s hand in marriage. She falls in love with Sir Walter Raleigh, a famed explorer. When Spanish begins approach the English Channel, Elizabeth gives her Speech to the Troops seated on a horse wearing full armor. Although, Spanish ships vastly outnumber England’s, England, inspiring by Elizabeth, triumphs finally. At the end of film, Elizabeth seemingly triumphs personally through her ordeal and resigns to her role as the Virgin Queen and mother to the England.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a splendid historical epic that is worth spending two hours to watch. Firstly, the scenes of the movie are spectacular since the special effects are awesome. The variety of shots and the grand settings make the movie possess the ability to get audiences involved in the historical drama. In addition, the costumes are amazingly sumptuous. Elizabeth’s and other ladies-for-waiting’s costumes, with elaborate laces, are so exquisite and flawless that audiences would have a feast for their eyes. Finally, Oscar winning Cate Blanchett is really a capable and admirable actress in this film. As “a virgin queen”, Queen Elizabeth was married with her country, the sense of humanity – vulnerability, rage, pride – amid the highest levels of power is showed by Cate Blanchett thoroughly. It is her who makes the movie more impressive.
Unfortunately, as a historical movie, the fateful war between England and Spain, which should be focused on, is told mainly through montages and is over too easily and bloodlessly. In short, despite some flaws, Elizabeth: The Golden Age is historically sound, visually pleasing, and enjoyable enough for frequent movie-goers to admire.
(566 words)
A Film with Impact:the Shawshank Redemption
If you ask me which my favorite film is, I will answer without a doubt that the Shawshank Redemption. The film is about a guy named Andy spent 19 years in the prison and eventually escaped. Although the story is not an entirely original idea because there are considerable amount of prison movies in the market, it doesn’t seem to matter since the most intriguing part of this film is how the story is told. With actors’ fabulous performance and a heart-warming voiceover by Morgan Freeman who sounds like grandfather telling a story, audience engulf in the film from start to end.
The most beautiful scene in this film is he plays the music of the opera over the loud speaker, to be frank, I never thought he would do this, while the guards and warden irritate since they are locked out and unable to stop him . The prisoners stand in amazement. "And just for that one moment, every last man in Shawshank felt free" are roughly the words Morgan Freeman says in his commentary. With the cinematography and the words, the feeling of hope is even implanted in the viewers themselves. Andy enjoys his moment of rebellion with a smug smile. This results him in being confined in the hole, but Andy has no regret for what he did.
Every time I watch this movie, I am reminded of the power of hope, and reminds that if Andy could hold onto hope through twenty years of solitary confinement, prison rape, and wrongful imprisonment, then surely I can survive through a rough day at work, or a tough assignment my English teacher gives, or an ordeal in the financial crisis. Life is no fairy tale, and it is not as simple and smooth as we expect; on the contrary, it is an uneven road. Ignite your hope in your heart, and then you can go through those hardships encountered in your life.
Hope isn’t the only lesson I carry with me from the movie of The Shawshank redemption though. For me there’s also a key lesson in one of the film’s more memorable lines: “It comes down to a simple choice really, get busy living, or get busy dying”. There’s a piece of advice to remember any time you hear someone mindlessly complaining about something. See, life’s too big and busy to just complain. Don’t sit and whine; If you’re unhappy, do something about it. Get busy with life, or sit and complain and prepare for your death. Amazing the lessons we can learn from a simple movie.
It is quite amazing to think that how such a great movie would fail to make an impact on the big screen and would only pick up fame after it was leased to video in 1995. Finally, its success was received and people soon began to understand what they had been missing. There is no wonder it is top 1 out of 250 excellent films voted by people all over the world.
--501 words
A Film with Impact: Farewell My Concubine
If you ask me to talk or write about a film, always I will think of this one first. “Farewell My Concubine” is its English name, meaning “the overlord parts from his lover”. Since in the New Year’s Eve fifteen years ago, the first time I watched it during my first year at university, I’ve never forgotten it; until now whenever I see anything about this film, I still can’t help stopping whatever I was doing to pay attention to it.
That year I was 19 years old, and, for the first time, I discovered there is a kind of affection that is more than brotherly between two men through this film. I was amazed by the plot of the film and fascinated by the exquisite leading acting of the actors; moreover, I memorized a name of one of the greatest artists in Asia, Leslie Cheung. Most film reviews like to say that Farewell My Concubine is a story of two performers of the Peking Opera, told with the “sweeping historical backdrop of China in the twentieth Century”. However, to my mind, it is not about politics, nor history, nor even theater. It is a story about two men, two stage brothers whose entire lives are intertwined fatefully.
The film opens in 1924 in China. A delicate young boy is dropped by his mother into the hands of a brutal master of a Peking Opera troupe. This shy, stubborn lad is forced to be trained to play female roles because of his slender build and beautiful appearance. In those desperate days, a strong boy who is trained to play kings and warriors stands up for him all the time. They give comfort to each other and become the best of friends. Years later, the two friends become famous Peking Opera stars in the city of Beijing and own their pretty stage names, Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Xiaolou. In a classical Peking Opera “Farewell My Concubine”, Xiaolou plays a king and Dieyi plays the king’s lover who killed herself for their loyal love. Dieyi lives in the opera and wants to play the roles with his best friend for their whole lives. But a pretty prostitute, Juxian, appears and finally marries Xiaolou. From then on, the three experience many upheavals of China during several decades. Their lives are intertwined, the bonds Dieyi and Xiaolou built in childhood cannot be severed, no matter how much Miss Juxian tries to do so, Xiaolou tries to go with the flow, to not make waves. Dieyi stays true to his art, no matter what. At the ending of the film, the two friends in the perfect makeup and dress met on the stage, to play the scene where the overlord parts from his Concubine Yu. Peerless beautiful Dieyi kills himself with the real sword as he plays Concubine Yu cutting her throat for the king. Music comes slowly in the crying voice of Xiaolou’s calling “Dieyi!”
I still remember a passage in a film review like this, “It lingers in the mind, long after the last credits have run, and all that remains is the memories of Concubine Yu, and her last dance.” That also is my feeling to.
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Source of quotation:
http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/cinema/review/archives/farewell_my_concubine.php
A Film with Impact: The Green Mile
“The Green Mile” (1999) based on a novel with the same name written by Stephen King, is adopted and directed by three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont.
“The Green Mile” screens our world. The world, we could call it “The Last Mile”. Although, they call it “Green” just because of its green floor. Everybody waits for death. The diverse inmates: a French man “Del”, a white American “Wild Bill”, an aboriginal “The Chief”, and a black (nobody knows came from where) “John Coffey”, all waiting for death in the same way: electric chair.
“The Green Mile” gathers different symbols in different characters. We can see different divisions of the human’s soul in characters.
We watch our physical power in “Brutus”, the guard with a strange nickname: “Brutal”. In this story, this power is in the right service: protecting of powerless. Human concerns become real in the characters like Paul, Hal and Larry, as parents, spouses, bosses, workers, the members of society. We know their fears, loves, weaknesses, powers, mistakes and corrections.
Also, we can see our sorrowful hearts and souls in “The Chief” when he remembers his lost beloved wife, and the heavenly time he had with her when he was just eighteen year old. “Del” feels sorry for his deeds in the past, too. They encourage us to be sorry, to say sorry and look for forgiveness when still time remains.
On the other hand, in “Wild Bill” we stare on our wild ego, our evil part full of confusion and madness. Our evil part can do everything worst than worse to everybody even to two little sisters or a pregnant woman. Many of us are slaves of this division of the human’s soul. However, the devil is another person, the sadist guard “Percy”. Nobody understands why Percy is too much full of hate. His hatred targets everyone even a small, innocent creature, Mr. Jingle, a little mouse looking for food. Percy is the image of the devil, who works in our world to make every situation for everyone worst than usual. His trouble-maker personality is completely against the John Coffey. Those two different sides make the story goes to climax, the punishment of Percy and Wild Bill by John Coffey.
John Coffey brings a divine light to the story. He, with his huge figure, has a heart like a child. His brain developed in other way, not like ordinary people. He can heal those in pain. He can smell the earth’s fragrance. He is afraid of dark. Also, he hears the voices of all people around the world. The voices that are full of hatred not love. He hears the voices of victims, too, who look for help but it is too late to bring them back. Those who love each other will be victims in the hands of the evil ones.
John Coffey is tired of hearing every day these voices, too exhausted to continue healing and saving. A divine heart suffers with fear and agony of hearing and seeing unreason abhorrence that people feel about each other. Does he, in real world, wants to leave us like John Coffey? Is the time remains to make a correction to our deeds, while “we each owe a death,” in this “Last Mile”?
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A Film with Impact: The kite Runner
Before watching the movie “The Kite Runner” thinking how to show the world some scenes of kid’s life in Afghanistan during Taliban regime was bothering me. Seeing the movie based on the story “The Kite Runner” written by Khaled Husseini, an Afghan novelist, relieved all my anxieties, and gave me some hope. The Kite Runner is a great movie with special events and powerful dialogues. However, some scenes like raping a little boy, buying orphaned children and punishing women are annoying; I love the movie because it discloses the dirty faces of Taliban and their cruel rules vividly.
At the beginning of the film a conversation between Amir, the mean character after he became an adult and lives in California, with his uncle in Pakistan, “ There is a way to be good again… you should come back..,” acknowledged me that there are shame and regret involve in this movie. Later, after watching some parts of the movie I realized that Husseini wants to take his readers back to Afghanistan many years ago when Amir fails to stand by his best friend while he brutally is raped. Also he wants to shows the world that despite having the same religion, how much Afghan people lost from their religion as well as segregation.
The movie follows the story of a childhood’s friendship between two Afghan buddies, Amir the son of a rich businessman and his family servant Hassan. I enjoy watching kids being so close to each other and sharing stories, but I was so mad seeing some people don’t look so kindly on two boys’ relationship because of differences in their social castes. Hassan is raped by Asif, a violent Pashton teenager who later in the movie becomes one of Taliban’s leaders, for not speaking the same language as he does. What a shame a kite playing leads this friendship to an evil assault and a personal betrayal and destroys somebody’s life.
After watching the movie, I believed that Marc Forster (the director) and his complete team is master in movie making. I was surprised with their ability of adaptation to a different culture with a different language. Changing words from pages to screen which seems easy, but it’s a very hard task which is done perfectly in this film. Amir’s 11th birthday party, the decoration, music, and people appearance amazed me because it shows a dazzling life in Afghanistan in 1970s. I enjoy performance of the two kids and the two Iranian actors in this movie.
This is the first powerful Persian/English movie which clearly describes Afghanistan between 1970s to 2001.The movie was released in 2007, and it became one of the best foreign movies in 65th Golden Globe Awards. However, there are a lot of tragedies shown in this movie; I love watching it. I appreciate the hard work of people from many countries as they put their hands together to show a friendship, loyalty, politics, and unequal treatment in Afghanistan as well as Taliban’s personalities.
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Makassia 44939
Film of impact: Beyonce the President’s Daughter (African)
When my sister- in law was in the hospital giving birth to her daughter, my niece and I were at home watching Beyonce the President’s Daughter on the Internet because we don’t have “the time” to go to a theatre, and mainly because we frequently watch African movies, which of course might not be in a theater here. Beyonce the President’s Daughter, scripted by Abdul Salam Mumuni and directed by Frank Rajah Arase is one of my favorite romantic movies and I love it for many reasons.
In the film, Raj (Van Vicker) falls in love with an orphan named Ciara (Jackie Appiah) after she witnessed his attack by gangs and saved his life. As they started dating, Beyonce (Nadia Bukari) comes across, falling in love with Raj at her first time sighting him at a super market and she will do anything to prevent Raj’s love for Ciara and win his heart. After Beyonce’s introduction to Raj selfish mother, she wants Beyonce as her daughter- in law instead of Ciara. But is that what Raj wants? Will he follow his mother choice or his choice? Who will be the winner, the orphan or the rich?
The first scene starts with two black and one red jeeps driving through a mansion-like gate and a guard coming out of the car to open the door for Beyonce; Beyonce swaggering toward the door, falling backward in her bed for seconds, then undressing from her extravagant clothes, wearing a dress -like blue shirt, taking a wine glass, and serving herself with drink.
The scene that brings tears to my eyes, gives me a feeling of unfairness is the one Beyonce walking into Ciara house and asking her about “how much” she would “want to stop sneaking around her boyfriend.” She mocks and calls Ciara and her house names. When Ciara ask her to leave her house, she says to Ciara, “If you touch me with your filthy hands, I will make rust in jail. I will kill you and trust me, girl, nobody can do anything about it.” As Ciara pushed her toward the doorway, she did something terrible and of course, as she said “nobody can do anything about it.”
From this scene, I assumed one of Abdul Salam Mumuni, the scriptwriter of this movie, viewpoints is the world is unfair and that poor people suffer when they are fighting with a rich person for something. He gives us that message in various ways: through meaningful music, acting and dialogue, and I think that was a very effective way.
I recommend this movie for romance fan. It was released in 2006. It has seven votes out of ten and is among the top 100 African movies. It’s rating at number 15 and each of the three stars has received awards for their roles. However, many viewers said they didn’t like the ending of The Return of Beyonce, the continuation. But I like it because it’s always better to leave the viewers something to figure on their own.
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A film with Impact, “Titanic”
Kenny Lee 39820
I saw the movie “Titanic” in 2002 with my wife when we traveled to Pusan which is located 450km south from Seoul, Korea. Because my schedule is empty for hours by chance, I entered a nearby second class theater without any knowledge about the movie. From the beginning, I was impressed so much that the deployment of two submarines with modern technique to find out treasures from the sunken vessel and thousands extra actors were appeared in departure scene of the Titanic at the wharf of Southampton, England. The following is the most remarkable and impressed scene.
Rose refused any more meeting with Dowson because of her fiance’s aggressive attitude and her mother’s earnest desire to save her family. During the afternoon tea with her mother and two other women, Rose saw a little girl following her mother’s direction as mechanically by chance. Suddenly Rose recognized her reality and the strong desire to live as what she wants. She is going out looking for Dawson and found him at the stern of the ship. Rose told him she changed her mind. Then he told her to close her eyes and guide to stand on the first bar of railing. After stretching both hand outside he told her to open her eyes. She has quite fantastic feeling like she is flying. After that there is long lovely kiss in the beautiful sunset. Rose invite Dawson to her sitting room and ask a nice drawing only wearing the diamond named “The heart of the Ocean.” That would be the main highlight of this movie.
After Titanic has sank, they are looking for each other desperately and finally they met again. Fortunately they find broken piano’s cover during swimming. Because it is not enough to support two person Jack help Rose to get on and he was floating beside her. In nearby one crew officer of the ship are blowing whistle for calling boat. Jack told Rose a boat will come to save her. Rose repeated. “I love you. Jack.” Jack emphasized. “Promise to me. Don’t give up.” She repeated. ”I promise.” After a while she recognized a boat is coming to them. She started to shake Jack’s hand and told him “They are coming.” She recognized his death and she closed her eye to die with Jack. But she remembered the promise with Jack and take off Jack’s hand. She saw his body is disappearing slowly to the deep ocean. She shout “Help me” to the boat several times but her voice are too small to reach the boat. She swam to the officer and pick up his whistle and blow it as laud as she can. At last a crew of the boat listen her whistle and turning the head of the boat to save her.
This story of two lovers couldn’t keep audience without tearing. She was saved but she has changed a lot. She saw Cal at the rescued ship but she doesn’t want to see him any more and answered her name “Rose Dawson” at the question of crew who is making the list of survivors. She lived the second life with a name of Rose Dawson. We can imagine that she has lived bravely what she wants to be. In the pictures which shown at the last of the movie, Rose Dawson stand in front of a big fish, personal aircraft with pilot uniform and horse riding as a man’s posture. How much romantic movie Titanic is.
A Film with Impact: Forrest Gump
Normally, I prefer those action or adventure films which have super vision effects. But as an exception, “Forrest Gump” is one of the most impressive films to me though it has not that kind of explosive scene.
“Forrest Gump” was released in 1994 and won six Oscars awards. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and acted by Tom Hanks as the leading role. I think they really did a good job. Though there are many laudable specific, but what fascinated me most of this film is its ingenious design of plot and the character’s personality.
At the beginning of the film, a white feather was flying and finally fell to the feet of Forrest Gump, the film use this to bring the leading role to us. Gump was sitting at a bus stop and talking to the people beside him. Most parts of the film are flashbacks and these parts were brought out through Gump’s narration with other people at the bus stop. Between the parts of Gump’s story, the film would come back to the reality. You will find the people who listened to him may be changed and people’s reaction to his story is so different, someone were affected by his story and someone totally didn’t believe what he said. The film also connect Gump with most important historic events of America from 1950’s to 1970’s, such as Vietnam War, Ping-pong diplomacy between China and US, Watergate scandal, etc. Even the super stars like Elvis Presley and John Lennon appeared in this film. The film used the humourous way to show these events or famous people such as Gump taught Elvis Presley to dance. So people can learn the social situation of that time through Gump’s story. At the end of the film, the feather appeared again. It flying higher and higher in the beautiful background music and finally it fly to the blue sky with some pretty clouds. I think it’s such an inventive end which is not only the response of the beginning and give us unlimited space of imagination.
The smart plot is one of the reasons that I like this film, but what inspires me most is Gump’s insistent attitude to the life. Gump has a low IQ and think in a simple way, but maybe this is the reason why he is so successful. When he wants to do something, he just tries his best and insists on it, regardless of other people’s thought. For example, he bought a shrimp boat only because he promised it to his friend. All the people think he is crazy to do this, but he didn’t give up and finally he succeed. His spirit also affects some other people. Lieutenant Dan, his commanding officer who lost legs in the war, felt no confidence to his life. But Gump changed him, he found back his self-confidence and had a better life. I also want to mention Gump’s mother. I think she is such a great mother that she never gives up Gump because of his low-intelligence. She taught him the correct life attitude from which Gump will benefit for his whole life.
On all levels, “Forrest Gump” is a successful film. I think this is the greatest movie I have seen.
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A Film with Impact: “Gone with Wind” 1939
It was a memorable experience to watch the movie “Gone with The Wind”. That was the first time that our elementary school organized the whole school to watch a movie in the theatre. As a thirteen years old girl, I was so amazed by the beautiful dresses and turbulent love story between Scarlett and Rhett. I fell in love with this movie ever since. This was the first book I ever bought and I fed on it everyday.
The most exciting part of story is the first kiss of Scarlett and Rhett. Before Rhett left Scarlett to return to the South for the Civil War, he told Scarlett that he loved her; he took off his hat and pressed her into his arms and kissed her. That was it. Imagine, in the late 80’, all the Chinese movie never even show a scene of intimate kiss. The whole cinema was silent; everybody, I mean all the teenagers, stopped breathing; the cinema was flooded with air of romance. I tried to see the movie again after all these 20 years. I could still feel my heart pumping so hard at the scene of their kiss.
After the Civil War, Scarlett’s homeland, Tara, a plantation, was completely destroyed. Her mother was dead and two sisters were fatally ill, and her father became dement. Scarlett realized her complete passion and loyalty to the land of Tara. She remembered what her father had said to her “The land is the only thing that matters, is the only thing that lasts, something you love better than me, though you may not know it, Tara, it is the land that gives you strength”. She promised herself to restore her homeland. The silhouette against the sunset cloud sky and the broken fence, surrounding with the background music, the body of Scarlett looks so small under the sky, but the clenched fist and straight back represented the determination and strong will of this apparently fragile body.
This image has been carved deeply in my mind. Whenever I face any crisis of my life, I remembered her and her determination to fight against the difficult situation. Scarlett’s character is the source of courage for me to go through obstacles and challenge of my life.
At the end of the story, Rhett was drained of the love he had for Scarlett, he decided to leave Scarlett. It was too late for Scarlett to realize that Rhett was actually her true love. Scarlett pleaded to Rhett “I am sorry, I am so sorry about everything.” but answer was only “My darling, you are such a child, you think by saying ‘I am sorry’, all the past could be corrected.” Always too naively thinking, the love between a man and a woman could be totally unconditional. Despite of all the selfish behaviors she had done to Rhett, she still believed he would forgive her. But human still have certain limit of their patience and endurance, the love seems to be a final test of man’s patience towards women. Always too often, we fail the test.
Raised in the Chinese culture, we are caught in the school and media that love is unconditional. We heard the story of soldiers who sacrificed their own life for the survivor of others; one single person called “LeiFeng” did everything for people for free; elementary school teacher became seriously ill for the sake of educating the next generation. Obviously, the huge impact of Western American film could be profound in a communist society.
Never the less, the ending of the film gives us hope with the famous proclamation “After all, tomorrow is another day!" I love this verse. Whenever I feel my life is desperate with distress, I remembered this verse; it encouraged me along the way and nourished me with strength and hope.
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A Film With Impact: The Pursuit of Happiness
The movie that most affected my life is The Pursuit of Happiness. It is based on a true story about a man named Christopher Gardner. This man goes through a very difficult time. He puts all his family's money to buy some x-ray machines that he has to sell. However, he has trouble about selling them, and he loses some machines, his money, his home and his wife. He is left homeless and alone except for his little son.
Christopher is played by the actor Will Smith. He does a great job of showing a man's hope, dreams and his breaking down. His tears bring those watching the movie to tears. His son in the movie is played by Will Smith's real son, Jaden Smith. His son is a natural, and his acting is very real and innocent. They have great chemistry which is very important in a movie. The relationship between them adds life to the movie.
Besides the obvious chemistry, you can tell that both actors have a real bond, and it makes the movie touching, but it is also fun to watch as they play together and joke together.
Despite his troubles, Christopher does not give up. He does not give up his son to his wife either. He wants to know his son, and be a good example for him. Like his advice to his son: "Don't ever let somebody tell you, you can't do something. You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you, you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period." But instead of just talking about something, Chirstopher Gardner is a type of character and father that teaches by his life.
The strongest scene in the movie is when Christopher and his son are forced to spend the night in a bathroom. He was not able to find a place at the shelters after he became homeless. Instead of giving up and disappointing his son, he turns it into a game. He has pretending there are dinosaurs around the subway, and there is a fire on the ground to distract his son. He pretends the bathroom is a cave, and they are cavemen. The scene opens to him sitting on the floor as his son is sleeping in his lap. Someone bangs on the door, and he pushes his foot against the door as tears slowly fall from his eyes. He just covers his son's head and silently cries. The next day he goes to work.
The movie is about having strength to keep trying even when everything seems impossible. It is a very powerful message that we all need sometimes. The movie is a good message to all of us, especially, when it says that "We all have to climb mountains…Mountains that go way up high, and mountains that go deep and low." We all have problems but we all have to try, to pursue which means to go after and not give up until you have climbed the mountain.
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