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Children of Men

Children of Men takes place in a dystopian future in the year of 2027 in the UK, a global crisis that no new-born has come to the world for 18 years, which has dragged the global community into economic and political chaos. The future women lost the ability to give birth and illegal immigrants float around the world at all times. The rebellions become a routine for the society. The government keep watching its people and has absolute authority over the nation. Since the number of working labours decreases drastically and no young people joins the working class, an economic downturn follows inevitably. The global inequality rate increases, which makes people move from more severely damaged countries to relatively richer countries. This substantial immigration causes instability of global governance. While conventional liberal democratic governments lose their control over the region, some dictatorial regimes start to prevail around the globe. The refugees are treated inhumanely and are subject to mass deportations by the authoritarian regime. This somehow absurd scene happens to sound pretty familiar even in today’s ‘harmony’ global governance. In the movie, I noticed a unique part of this movie and that is the iconic use of religious iconography. For instance, the scene where character Kee reveals her pregnancy to Theo in the barn resonates the picture of the Virgin Mary in the stable. And that is reinforced by Theo uttering ‘Jesus Christ’. Another example is when Theo, Sid and Marichka standing over Kee resemble the three wise men at the birth of Jesus. The other significant thing about the society in the movie is the media use. The presence of media is really pervasive. It’s not hard to tell the great difference between the reality and what the government presents in the media and this great difference creates a tension between them while the sick media of the movie also satires the uncontrollable omnipresence of media in the real world. Last most important thing I noticed is that the film utilizes a significant formal emphasis in which the rise en scène is as critical as the narrative. And that offers audiences a magnificent experience, where the sets, music and the extras speak for the story of the movie’s universe. Next, I want to talk about the shooting techniques of Children of Men. First to mark out is the camera angle shots. At the beginning of the film, Theo views the television from a very low point of view showing him as weak whereas the high angle of him watching Jasper’s death taking place shows Theo as in control. The higher angles comedy show power and this portrays Theo as hero compared to in the opening scene. In the end, I would like to recommend this movie to some of my friends regarding its violent scene and the feeling of suffocation it expresses to the audiences since some of the people literally prefer a brighter side of the story, some others just don’t.

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Forrest Gump

The movie Forrest Gump follows the story about the life of  Forrest Gump from his childhood times to his successful life. Forrest Gump is born with an IQ of 75 which is considered as stereotypical ’stupid’ kid in the movie. Despite his IQ disability, Forrest has really good intentions to the rest of the world. Under the oppression of a bunch of bullying kids in his hometown, Forrest discovered his special ability to run and met his life-long friend Jenny. His mum tried her best to give Gump a great live-in condition and taught him the lesson that he should choose his own destiny and pursue his dream despite the judgement from others. Then Forrest joined the Vietnam war. Throughout the brutal warfare, he experienced the pain of losing his war buddy and annealed himself with the result of winning awards and saving others’ lives. After getting back home, he created a famous shrimp fishing fleet for the memory of his dead friend. The funny thing is he meets the president several times. Despite all of these, what strikes me the most is that Forrest always manages to turn each downfall into something happy and good while unsatisfying things occurred during his life, for instance, the scene of Gump finally gets out of the constraint of his leg braces he figures our that he can run way faster and longer than most people. Also, another thing I find out about Forrest is about his innocence. He had been spending lots of lots of effort on pursuing his childhood sweetheart Jenny even though Jenny didn’t really like him until she was on the verge of dying. During each period of Gump’s lifetime, he thinks back of his childhood with Jenny and he realizes how important she is to him. What constraints you from being successful is not having a low foundation, but your slacking mind. Forrest Gump is the one that inspires other healthy people with his ‘innocent like’ optimism and unbeatable resistance. There’s a unique part of this movie I noticed is the use of feather throughout the storyline. I think the feather especially at the beginning and the end is used to represent the theme of Forrest Gump, which is the unsettling spirit of fighting destiny. And the feather is used to question whether things are predetermined or simply accidental. In the movie, almost every single character has their own view of destiny either successful or failure, except Forrest Gump. No matter how big the challenge seems to him, he never questions about his existence until later times in the movie. He chooses to let life take him wherever as if the feather being blown by the light wind. Talking about the filming techniques of this movie, the major one is the lighting in this movie. The lighting in the movie sets the tone of the plot, from positive to negative scenes. Next one I want o talk about is the famous music using in the movie. The therapeutic soundtrack helps set the scene more emotional enhanced, which makes the movie more realistic for the special period of that time. Last but not least, I would recommend this classic inspirational movie to other people because the story of Forrest Gump could inspire people of ages to work hard on their path to pursue their dreams.

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V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta introduces a dystopian future in which the government monitors its citizens on every single scale, trample on their freedom and civil rights. Chancellors Sutler’s genocidal use of biological warfare against the lower class people of England reveals the dystopia of the movie. His violent and cruel schemes are not for the well being of England, but for the consolidation of his already-unlimited power over his people. In order to keep control over the people, the government constrains the opposition groups into the concentration camp and poisonous those people with inhumane biological mass destruction weapon. The whole of Britain is ruled on fear within the society, chaos and the manipulation of the people’s lives. The opposite side of the hideous dystopian regime is enigmatic V. This V turns out to be the only survivor of the government’s hideous genocide movement. He utilizes the fear within people’s minds in order to help them realize that they are the one should not be afraid, but the government over them should be. In this case, Evey is the one chosen by V to implement his scheme. After several mind-blowing events happened on her, Evey realizes her position should be as a free-living human and makes her decision to help V promote his beliefs to the British public. The implementation of V’s retaliation for the authoritarian government on November the fifth redistributes the power to the people and makes what could be V’s most significant move throughout his life. After V’s personal sacrifice, I think V not only redefines the system but also gives the public an opportunity to step ahead and seek to actively disrupt it. Let’s talk about the elements of narrative in this film, the costume fo V tells the audiences that V is a man with a story. That thick black cloak and special mask beneath his face wraps his deep secrets inside and leaves people an impression of being enigmatic. Next is the movements in the film, especially during the fight between V and the government assassins. The camera completely catches every single movement of V during the fight, the shot when the knife stabbed into the flesh, the crispy sound of the gunshot and the acute actions by V reflect V’s hatred on the authoritarian regime and that dark-without-an-ending time period. Last, is the natural light in the film. Throughout the whole movie, I believe there is not even a single shot of a sunny day. The weather in the movie is always foul or rainy and the light in that environment is always in a dark and grey style. That dramatic emphasis on natural gives people a feeling of suffocation and oppression, which resonates the absolute control from the British government to the people. In the end, I would highly recommend V for Vendetta to all the audiences since it is a great movie for people to rise up their ideas on upholding their civil rights. And I think that is critical to everyone living in the modern world.

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Godzilla

Godzilla describes the story of a monstrous creature awoken by American nuclear testing happened near the coast of Japan. The human sees it as a threat due to its gigantic size of more than 165 feet tall and its horrific appearance - a mixture of a lizard and a dinosaur. Once the Dino Might was awoken, Godzilla continues to go on a ’trip’ within the cities of Japan, which causes huge destruction and a horrible nightmare to human nature. Without knowing the real purpose of Godzilla, the human made the final decision, which is to kill the creature as soon as possible even though it may actually be innocent after all. The dystopian characteristics of Godzilla are probably the sarcastic fact that Godzilla is ‘waken’ by the radioactive explosion wave of the nuclear bomb created by humans. Godzilla probably would never come out if the nuclear bomb is never tested, so at some point, humans directly cause the disruption of Godzilla’s dormancy. What more shameless human have done is blaming everything on innocent Godzilla and use whatever they can to kill the creature. It turns Godzilla should be the victim, not the selfish humans. Talking about the elements of the movie, the playing of the music in the very beginning and when the guitar falls on the ground. There is a scene that the movie is not actually showing how Godzilla looks like but showing the reaction of the villagers, how terrified they are, how inclement the weather is, how the weather destructs the residential houses. It is foreshadowing and ominous the fact that the Godzilla is yet to come. It shows the messy footsteps of the people and the scared face of the girl reporter, which reflects the degree of terror spread by Godzilla. So the film producer is good at using the people’s reaction to reflect the horrifying scenes. The movie focuses a lot on the debris and the sea of flame made by Godzilla to show the destructiveness of it. In addition, the scene of the hurt people in the hospital might also be what Japanese people experience during the second world war. Last but not least, the use of an oxygen bomb on Godzilla satires the use of the atomic bomb on Japanese land, which shows their psychological dilemma on the use of the oxygen bomb. The revelation the movie tries to tell the people is that if we keep conducting nuclear tests, another ‘Godzilla' will reappear somewhere else in the world, which may not be like the horrifying creature, but enough to teach human another lesson. Furthermore, the artistry of Eiji Tsuburaya’s special effects work encompasses far more than the sheer spectacle of a man in a rubber suit laying waste to those scale-model cityscapes. To sum up Criterion’s extraordinary Godzilla, I would like to call it a milestone of the last century Science fiction movie. Some of the shots in that movie is still not outdated and could catch the attention of audiences of all ages.

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Dunkirk

Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan is an absolute masterpiece. The story took place in the battle of France during the second world war. After months of blitzkrieg started by the German, a large number of French soldiers were trapped in the coastal city of Dunkirk. The decision was made by the British and French command to evacuate the 400000 men left on the coast of Dunkirk. The story portrays the evacuation from three perspectives: land, sea and air. Commander Bolton and Colonel Winnant lead the retreat on the East Mole. As part of emergency recruitment of civilian ships, Mr. Dawson, his son Peter and his friend George shipped to Dunkirk to offer support during the rescue. Meanwhile, as hundreds of transport ships attempt to rescue as many soldiers as possible, the royal air force was fighting the German planes in the airspace. The movie has little dialogue while Nolan creates suspense from cinematography and music. Even the movie has different perspectives, I feel that Dunkirk is trying to narrate the story in a historian’s point of view in order to resonate with the audiences around the globe and capture their hearts and minds. Different from the conventional idea that soldiers protect the people, at Dunkirk, it was the people who came to the Dunkirk evacuation. This moves the audiences. The use of film music in this movie is fascinating when the soldiers are waiting near the coach, abroad the ships and the soldiers are abandoning the broken ship. Despite a high degree of authenticity in Dunkirk, there are too many elements of the narrative are used in this movie. First is the costumes of the soldiers and the ordinary people in the movie. The authentic costumes worn by the soldiers show the audiences not only the accurate portrayal of the soldiers during world war two, but also the horrible conditions of the soldiers at that time. Second, the significant element is the film music within the movie. The original soundtrack by Hans Zimmer was a huge part of Dunkirk. From The Mole to Impulse, the music truly enhanced the intense emotion of the whole scene, which is absolutely fascinating. When the soldiers were waiting near the coach, abroad the ships and where the soldiers were abandoning the sinking ship, the film music went intense and strong as if it’s telling the audiences something bad is coming. Third, is the camera angle of Dunkirk. Throughout the whole movie, the shooting of the camera is always linked to the storytellers point off view. And this tells the audiences what is important in the movie. If someone were to ask me if I liked this film, I would like to tell them yes. Dunkirk is worthy of its high-profile reputation. Despite the camera shooting master skills, the unforgettable soundtrack is especially what makes me admire the movie constantly. Dunkirk is a movie of vision and filled with epic shooting angles and a great balance of rich historical content and the cruelty of the war.

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Hotel Rwanda portrays the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a  well-educated manager of a luxury hotel and he knows how to achieve what he wants and the way to survive in a political conflict. In the year 1994, two Rwanda's ethnic groups, Tutsis and Hutus ended up into violence after years of conflict due to the measured skin tone and the pursuing of preferred positions. During the madness, more than a thousand Tutsis refugees survived under the protection of Paul. With the essential skills made him successful as a hotel manager, Paul took risk many times during his negotiation between him and the insane Hutus killers. What made him difficult is not only the oppression from the Hutus but also the apathetic attitude from the international communities. In the end, it came down to Col Oliver who is a UN “presence” in Rwanda and Paul acting as saviours to save more than a thousand lives they have become responsible for. What makes this movie successful is not the magnificent performance given by the actors, but also the appealing story plot behind it. The name Hotel Rwanda may sound like a cozy story about hotel management, but it’s actually a story about heroism and survival. Paul as the manager of the luxury, who is supposed to have the opportunity to leave out of the conflict before the disturbance, chose to stay in Rwanda even though his hotel was on the edge of collapse, the economy was falling down and the country was in absolute chaos. Meanwhile, Nolte’s performance was also the part touches me the most. He worked as a peacekeeper in Rwanda, but sarcastically what the higher demand gave him is not to behave as a peacekeeper, instead, as a cold bystander. In real life, his character is steady, wise, honest and has a spirit of challenging the impossible. After struggling over his dilemma of saving the Hutus or following the orders, he made a wise but risky choice in ignoring his orders and doing whatever he can do to help to save these refugees. I remember when he made his hard decision eventually as if the brilliance of humanity illuminated the grand land of Rwanda. Talking about the mood throughout the whole film, I believe the mood is filled with sad emotions. Still, remember the scene of the manager totally cries out of control after finding out the dead bodies of the Tulsis and the parts he talks to the other guy about humanity and why human kill makes the movie more emotionally appealing and thought-provoking after all. The movie leads the story through the manager’s point of view and intends to educate the public about the inhumane massacre happened at that time. In the movie, several elements of the narrative were mastered. First is the use of natural light, I feel the whole movie has consisted of dark and dusky days, which relatively satires the distortion of human nature at that time. Second is the physical relations between the soldiers and the Hutus during the killing. During the killing, the killers are always standing over the Hutus, which seems more authoritative at the point. Last but not least, I would like to strongly recommend this movie to the audiences over 15 years ago since the movie consists of various violent and dark scenes. But the movie itself is definitely a high 5-star movie despite its perfect performance and inspiring revelation.

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Ghosts of Rwanda

Ghosts of Rwanda is a PBS documentary about the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. With a deep feeling of grief, the documentary was released in the 10th anniversary of the Genocide which is considered as one of the worst massacres of the 20th century. I believe the purpose of the documentary was to not only grieve over the death of the nearly a million people but also to contemplate what galvanized the tragedy and how the mankind should prevent it from happening again as a community. With the interviews with several government officials and diplomats, Ghosts of Rwanda offers eyewitnesses who had experienced it firsthand. The documentary made a few connections between Rwanda Genocide and the Social Psychology, such as the psychological explanation about why the soldiers from other countries didn’t make any move despite the warnings and threat they received beforehand and how the conflicts were ignited between the Hutus and the Tutsis. As a matter of fact, Ghosts of Rwanda set up a chronological look at Rwanda from the dawn of the conflict to the aftermath. Starting with the Rwanda civil war resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, it’s not hard to tell the difficult situations in Rwanda at that time, which include abrasiveness and racism. And unfortunately, the international communities literally spent no effort on solving these frictions between Hutus and Tutsis. In addition to portraying what happened to the Tutsi minority, the documentary also showed international communities’ pathetic and indifferent attitude towards them. With a point of view intended to the audience, the documentary showed the audience the conversation between them and the UN officials. We can see that the United Nation was purely worthless throughout the whole event. Just like what the UN often does in severe world conflicts, they symbolically addressed their so-called concern with preventing the regime change and incident deteriorating, and they made no waves, not even a friendly diplomatic effort. Later on, after the massacre started, the other countries’ embassies received the information about how inhuman the whole events were going, but those ‘civilized’ and ‘rational’ minds still chose to not intervene because saving these people were not there best interests, instead, they may cause some problems to them. While watching the documentary, I was actually appalled by the double-standard and the hypocrisy behind these ‘masterminds’. These gentlemen always became the innocence after the conflicts and pointed their fingers to the real victims. Therefore I believe such a thought-provoking film is intended to audiences of all ages. People are able to learn more about the filthy secrets under the tip of the iceberg. Talking about the Ghost of Rwanda’s elements of narrative, the tensive situation and human conflicts have arisen naturally from the setting fo the documentary which is the genocide in Rwanda. At the same time, such a hard setting exposes the audiences the sad and depressing mood of the whole shots and expresses the theme of the documentary at some point which is the expectation for hope in human society. After all of these, I would like to rate this documentary a 5 star regarding the revelation this documentary brings to the society and master shots behind the editing. In the end, that 5-star rating obviously shows how much I want to recommend this documentary to the other people.