Category: Personal Favorites

The Birds – 1963

This was one of those movies that I have not seen in a long time, but I remember enjoying it. Not only did it have an interesting story, but it also had a bit of action, a thin but palatable romance, and some pretty unique special effects. Never before have I seen so many blue-screened birds seamlessly composited together on the screen at the same time. Of course, there were are few times when the blue-screening effects looked a little obvious, but most of the time, the birds were flying around so fast that the eye didn’t have time to focus on those minor flaws.

The plot was about the coastal town of Bodega Bay that is plagued by great flocks of birds that begin attacking and killing humans.  Just as a side note, I love that the movie never explains why. Hitchcock used a combination of live animals, puppets, and animatronic birds to create the illusion of killer swarms of seagulls, crows, and sparrows. There isn’t an academy award for animal handlers or trainers, but I think that maybe they should be included in the special effects category.

In the scene where they attack children at a birthday party, there were several examples of animatronic birds as they were attached to the kids’ necks and shoulders. You could see the wings flapping mechanically, or beaks pecking repetitively. But then, through the use of a couple of quick cuts, live birds replaced the puppets before being batted away by adults. The transitions were smooth and well-done. But it had to be more than that because there were shots of gulls swooping in and landing on the children.

Hitchcock was an incredible director. One of the things he did in this film reminded me of one of the most highly praised scenes of his career, the shower scene from his 1960 movie, Psycho. He flashed a confused series of images in quick succession, implying a lot of motion. It is a very jarring and chaotic technique that doesn’t actually put the actor in the middle of a maelstrom, though they very much seem to be. So Tippy Hedren is alone in a room and is attacked by dozens of birds. There is actually very little movement in the individual images that flash across the screen. Her head turns here. Her ankle is bitten there, a scratch appears on her cheek here, her hand is bitten there. But watch the individual images.  Some of them are almost still shots.  It was so innovative! So masterfully done!

But birds attacking people were not the only effects in the film. There was a dead man with his eyes pecked out, a really great action sequence in which a mass of seagulls attack the townsfolk, a gasoline fire, and a man being burned to death. And then there was the film’s final chilling scene in which the birds have trapped our protagonists in a house.  They have to make their way to a car through hundreds of birds that could resume their attack at any time. Just getting that many live birds to cover the ground, the roof, and every other available surface must have been a challenge in itself.  But it all looked real enough.  I say, well done, Mr. Hitchcock! Thanks for giving us something we had never seen before!

1943 – Bombardier

The visual effects for this movie were incredible… with one tiny exception.  So let me just address that one moth in the room and be done with it.  There was a shot in which a man is chewing tobacco.  A badly animated white cartoon moth is in the room and he spits his chaw at the moth, hitting it.  Little white cartoon splash marks squirt from the assaulted insect, and it flutters to the ground.  Why that little inane Looney Tunes animated moth was in the movie is beyond me.  Maybe because it was supposed to parallel how the whole movie is saved because he spits his chaw in the face of an evil Japanese officer to facilitate the climax and resolution of the film’s main conflict.  I don’t know, but it looked kind of stupid.

But aside from that, the Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects was well-deserved.  In fact, I’m almost surprised it didn’t win.  The visual effects were that good.  So it was a war film that followed the first American Bombardiers as they went through training camp, and ended with the completion of their first mission.  They were tasked with bombing a Japanese munitions depot at night.  The simulated explosions throughout the movie were pretty standard fare, but that climax kicked things into high gear.

There were great scale models, flashy lighting effects of the Japanese search lights, anti-aircraft cannons firing at the approaching bombers, the smoke, the fires, the bullets, and the fast-paced chaotic dogfight in the skies above Japan, all combined to make an exciting US mission to destroy the enemy target.  They layered separate shots of Japanese fighters on top of each other, making it appear as though there were dozens of planes flying fast and furious in a crowded sky.  That was pretty amazingly done.  And that was just the approach to the target!

The second phase of the attack was the fires that were started on the ground by a group of captured American soldiers, so that the attack party could know where to release their deadly cargo of bombs.  There were two places in the film where a character would say something like, “We’re going to give them hell!”  But both times, there was a background sound that would suddenly get loud enough to drown out the word “hell.”

And finally, when the bombs were released, hell was most certainly dropped on the enemy.  The massive explosions and fires were incredible.  I loved the shots where they showed the city from a high altitude perspective.  You can see the burning buildings and streets as the incendiary bombs exploded everywhere, releasing seething seas of flame and destruction.  It was thrilling to see on the screen.  The sheer volume of liquid fire that covered the city was a great climax to the story of the first American Bombardiers in the war.

Air Force – 1943

Air Force was a very good movie that had a lot of really intense battle sequences.  To its credit, the movie had only one main plot.  It was about the adventures of a B-17D Bomber, named the Mary Ann, and its fearless crew.  There was no love story to bog the narrative down, though there were still some very touching moments when friends and family of the crew are injured or even killed.  In fact, even several members of the crew are killed in various ways.

The story took place around the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, and Clark Field in the Philippines.  The action was almost non-stop.  The bomber arrived at, or actively engaged in, one battle after another, constantly putting the lives of the brave soldiers inside her at risk. 

As expected, there were a lot of rear projection shots, but they were cleverly done and really thrilling to watch.  When a gunner was firing at a target, we got a POV over the man’s shoulder, looking down the barrel of his machinegun.  We see the projected Japanese planes bearing down on the Mary Ann, intent on bringing her down.  But then we see the enemy planes either catch fire, or violently explode as the gunner does his job.  Very awesome to watch!

There were stunt flyers creating exciting aerial battles, ground forces fighting with the attacking Japanese invasion forces, and a final climactic scene in which several squadrons of American fighter pilots engage both the Japanese airplanes and a naval invasion task force heading toward Australia.  Bombs were dropped and battleships exploded in balls of fire.  Japanese Mitsubishi A6Ms, called “zeros” could be seen going down in flames into the water.

This sequence was also notable for its use of real battle footage.  It was only used a few times, but it was quite obvious when the sharp, clear images produced by the Hollywood cameras switched to the unsteady, grainy, hand-held images of the newsreel footage. 

Another thing that Air Force did that caught my attention was something that was done to the images on the screen during the ground battles.  To draw the audiences into the action just a bit more, whenever a bomb exploded, the focus shook for a fraction of a second.  It was a very simple, yet completely effective trick, giving just a touch more realism to an already realistic scene of chaos and carnage.

And I have to say that the cast, among whom the biggest name was veteran actor John Garfield, was really put through its paces.  The rolls were physically demanding, and they all did a fantastic job.  This movie’s effects really strived for realism and I think they achieved it.  It was a worthy nominee, and I’m sure the Academy voters had a tough time picking the winner.  If not for Crash Dive, I think this movie might have won the Oscar for Best Special Effects.

The Sea Hawk – 1940

The special effects in this epic swashbuckling action film were understated, and completely appropriate.  They were the kind of visuals that don’t immediately stand out as special effects, though they most certainly are. 

Many of them were of the choreography and stunt variety, as one could expect from an exciting adventure movie.  There was a massive sea battle, Spanish soldiers, pirates, cannon fire, sword fighting, and everything you could want.  The sheer number of extras and stuntmen was phenomenal!  They were swinging on ropes, firing pistols, climbing rope ladders, and sword-fighting like mad!  Men were falling over railings, down open hatches, and into the water!  My only complaint about the fighting scenes has to do with the fact that flintlock pistols only hold one bullet at a time, a fact which the filmmakers ignored.  But I’m honestly not sure if that falls under Special Effects, Direction, or simply fact checking for the Script Writer.  Either way, someone should have noticed that inaccuracy.

But there were also a fair amount of more subtle effects, like perfect matte paintings, incredible action sets, and wonderful lighting effects. For example, from a documentary included on the DVD, I learned that there were only a few shots of the battling galleons that were miniature scale models.  They actually built two life-sized ships which they placed in a studio lot, along with a water tank big enough to hold them.  The sinking of one of those giant vessels was very cool!

I also learned that they recycled some of the sets from another Best Special Effects nominee, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, namely, the throne room of Queen Elizabeth I.  And as I am looking for these kinds of things now, I swear I can remember seeing those exact same static cloud formations in the matte painted backgrounds of other films.

As I mentioned, the lighting effects, especially in the final climactic sword fight between Errol Flynn and his nemesis, Lord Wolfingham, played by Henry Daniell, were especially noteworthy, and for more than one reason.  First, the lighting effects were such that the shadows of the fencing men were cast up onto the wall of a great hall, making the perfectly choreographed battle seem, quite literally, larger-than-life. 

The other reason for the exaggerated shadow effects is that, apparently, Henry Daniell was a terrible fencer.  They needed to use a professional fencer, except when they did close-ups on his face.  Otherwise, they kept the double’s face in shadows, or showed him in very wide shots, in which the moving shadows dominated the image.  It was an illusion that you never even notice when you are engrossed in the exciting swordplay.  Very well-done!

Rebecca – 1940

As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, sometimes, the best visual effects are the ones you don’t see.  This is certainly the case with Rebecca.  Yes, there was the great fire at the end that burns the Mandalay mansion, but I think the movie earned its Best Special Effects nomination through the use of beautiful scale models.  The models were filmed and then composited with the live action shots.

And the big scale model of Mandalay was perfectly done.  Every little detail looked authentic, and if I hadn’t done my research and discovered that the house was a model, I would have never known.  The illusion really worked with me.

The only thing that might have given the illusion away was when the model was set aflame.  When the image was blown up to give it its size, the tongues of fire themselves looked too big. And to make it appear that the house was burning properly, the film had to be sped up to make the mansion sized flames appear to move realistically.

And while we are on the subject of the fire, I have to say that the last shot of the film was incredible!  We are inside the room with Mrs. Danvers when the burning ceiling caves in and kills her.  Then the camera begins to move through the flames to the bed, where it ends up focusing on a burning pillow with a fancy “R” embroidered into it.  The fact that the camera was panning across the room, where,  had it actually been in the room, the camera and its operator would have been destroyed by the fire.  It was a pretty cool shot!

There was also something which I’m not sure belongs in the Special Effects category.  I’m talking about the lighting effects, which were amazingly done.  There were shadows in nearly every shot of the film, emphasizing the feeling of hidden secrets, so prominent in the film’s narrative.  They appeared on the walls, the actors, and everything, really adding an extra dimension of texture to the film, both visually and subliminally.  It was Hitchcock giving us that masterful blend of imagery and story that made him such a fantastic filmmaker.  However, this might be categorized under Art Direction or Cinematography, so it may not apply.  Either way, it was a subtle effect that was pure genius.

So why did I give the Special Effects a four star rating instead of a five?  It was the rear projection shots.  They were too obvious, especially when anyone was driving.  First, the actors and the backgrounds didn’t seem to belong in the same shot.  They looked separate.  But more than that, the moving backgrounds made it appear as though they were driving way too fast.  If I was simply watching the movie, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but since I am specifically looking for those things, they are catching my attention.

Cloud Atlas – 2012

This is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time.  The movie is incredibly profound in its overall theme which is stated so beautifully at several points in the film.  It says, “Our Lives are not our own.  From womb to tomb, we are bound to others.  Past and Present.  And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”  It basically means that everything we do has consequences that can ripple throughout eternity.

Cloud Atlas tells 6 different stories, all at the same time.  The stories are all interesting in their own right, but what makes them so fascinating as they are told in tandem with each other, is that we can follow certain threads that link the stories together.  The first takes place in the Pacific Islands in 1849.  After that, Cambridge and Edinburgh in 1936.  Next is San Francisco in 1973.  Next is London in 2012.  Then we are given Neo Soul in 2144.  And finally, we have Big Isle, 106 winters after The Fall in the year 2321.

It is an incredibly intellectual film.  You really have to pay attention to what is going on, what is said, and who is saying it.  You have to watch for hidden clues and meanings.  You have to try to be an objective observer, and yet lose yourself in the subtext of the film’s underlying philosophy.  It is not an easy film to watch.  As a matter of fact, the film generally gets mixed reviews from critics.  Some, like me, believe the movie to be a masterwork of cinematic artistry.  Others just find it confusing and consequently forgettable.

Critic Calum Marsh called it, “a unique and unparalleled disaster,” and that, “its badness is fundamental, an essential aspect of the concept and its execution that I suspect is impossible to remedy or rectify.”  I got this from Wikipedia.  But just calling a movie bad doesn’t make it bad.   See, I love the movie so much that I had to understand why Mr. Marsh hated it so profoundly.  So I looked up the complete review that he wrote.  He lost the first half of his credibility right at the beginning when he said that it had 7 stories going on instead of 6.  He lost the second half when he got through his extensive review without having a single good thing to say about any aspect of the film.  From the script to the acting, from the makeup to the cinematography, from the philosophical themes to the music, from the visuals to the editing, he couldn’t find a single thing about the film that wasn’t horribly awful.  Marsh needs to understand that such an extreme position makes him lose his credibility as a critic.  But then, in his 660 word review, nearly half it was just ranting, insulting, name calling, and verbal bashing.  So I can easily discount his impossibly negative opinion.  No film merits such a review.  Even the most widely panned films of all time like Ishtar, Gigli, or even Manos: The Hands of Fate have some minor merits to their credit.

In my own assessment, there are many reasons why Cloud Atlas was so great.  It is important to note that the phenomenal ensemble cast play various roles, each showing up as different characters in each of the different stories.  The various roles played by a single actor vary in race and gender.  It is profound in showing the idea of reincarnation and souls that are connected lifetime after lifetime.  Characters that know each other in one timeline have an unexplainable sense of recognition in the next.

The stories are all told at the same time with amazing editing that takes us from story to story in sometimes rapid succession.  But it all works.  Each plot has its own look and feel that is quite distinct from the others, making it easy to follow each of the varied narratives.  And through the genius of this broken and overlapping storytelling, the connections between them become quite evident.  The different plots are so complexly interwoven that even though it will take up a significant portion of this review, I would like to copy just the 6 plot summaries from Wikipedia.

“Tribesman Zachry Bailey recounts stories to his grandchildren on an extraterrestrial Earth colony.

Pacific Islands, 1849

Adam Ewing, an American lawyer, has come to the Chatham Islands to conclude a business arrangement with Reverend Horrox and his father-in-law. In Horrox’s plantation, he witnesses the whipping of a Moriori slave, Autua, who later Stows away on the ship. Autua confronts Ewing and convinces him to advocate for Autua to join the crew as a free man. Dr Henry Goose slowly poisons Ewing, claiming it is the cure for a parasitic worm, to steal Ewing’s valuables. As Goose administers the fatal dose, Autua saves Ewing. Returning to the United States, Ewing and his wife Tilda denounce her father’s complicity in slavery and leave to join the abolition movement.

Cambridge/Edinburgh, 1936

Robert Frobisher, a young English composer, finds work as an amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher the time and inspiration to compose his own masterpiece, “The Cloud Atlas Sextet”. Frobisher begins reading Ewing’s journal, which he has found with the latter portion missing, among the books at Ayrs’s mansion. Ayrs demands credit for “The Cloud Atlas Sextet” and threatens to expose Frobisher’s homosexuality if he refuses. Frobisher shoots Ayrs and flees to a hotel, where he uses the name Ewing. He finishes “The Cloud Atlas Sextet” and commits suicide with a gun just before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.

San Francisco, 1973

Journalist Luisa Rey meets an older Rufus Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy regarding the safety of a new nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, but is killed by Hooks’s hitman, Bill Smoke, before he can give her a report that proves it. Rey finds Frobisher’s letters to Sixsmith and tracks down a vinyl recording of Frobisher’s “Cloud Atlas Sextet”. Isaac Sachs, another scientist at the power plant, passes her a copy of Sixsmith’s report. Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up his plane and runs Rey’s car off a bridge. She escapes but the report is destroyed. With help from the plant’s head of security, Joe Napier, Rey evades another attempt on her life, which results in Smoke’s death. With another copy of the report obtained from Sixsmith’s niece, she exposes the plot to use a nuclear accident for the benefit of oil company executives, who are indicted as a result.

London, 2012

Sixty-five-year-old publisher Timothy Cavendish reaps a windfall when Dermot Hoggins, the gangster author of Knuckle Sandwich, murders a critic who gave the novel a harsh review, generating huge sales. When Hoggins’s brothers threaten Cavendish’s life for Hoggins’s share of the profits, Cavendish asks for help from his wealthy brother, Denholme, who tells him to hide at Aurora House. On the way there, Cavendish reads a manuscript of a novel based on Luisa Rey’s story, and recalls his relationship with a woman named Ursula. He visits the house where she lived with her parents and discovers that she still lives there. Believing Aurora House is a hotel, Timothy signs papers “voluntarily” committing himself; in fact, Aurora House is a nursing home (in Ayrs’s old mansion). Denholme reveals to Timothy that he sent him there as revenge for Timothy’s affair with Denholme’s wife Georgette. The head nurse, Noakes, is abusive, and contact with the outside world is denied. Cavendish escapes with three other residents. He resumes his relationship with Ursula and writes a screenplay of his experience.

Neo Seoul, 2144

Sonmi-451 is a “fabricant”, a human cloned for slave labor, living as a server at a fast food restaurant in a dystopian South Korea. She is exposed to ideas of rebellion by another fabricant and friend, Yoona-939. After witnessing Yoona being killed for rebelling, Sonmi is rescued from captivity by Commander Hae-Joo Chang, a rebel. He exposes Sonmi to the larger world, including the banned writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and a film version of Timothy Cavendish’s “ghastly ordeal”. They are found and Sonmi is captured. Hae-Joo rescues her, introduces her to the leader of the rebel movement, and shows her that clones are not freed at the end of their contract but killed and recycled into food for other clones. Sonmi makes a public broadcast of her story and manifesto. The authorities intervene to halt the broadcast; Hae-Joo is killed in the firefight and Sonmi is recaptured. After recounting her story to an archivist, she is executed.

Big Isle (Hawaii), 106 winters after the Fall (2321)

Zachry Bailey lives in a primitive post-apocalyptic society called the Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Valley tribesmen worship Sonmi-451; their sacred text is taken from the broadcast of her manifesto. Zachry is plagued by visions of a demonic figure called Old Georgie, who urges him to give in to his fears. Zachry, his brother-in-law Adam, and his nephew are attacked by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. Zachry runs into hiding and his companions are murdered. His village is visited by Meronym, a member of the Prescients, an advanced society using the last remnants of high technology. Meronym’s mission is to find a remote communication station on Mauna Sol and send a message to Earth’s off-world colonies. Catkin, Zachry’s niece, falls sick, and in exchange for saving her, Zachry agrees to guide Meronym to the station, where Meronym reveals the true story of Sonmi-451. Returning, Zachry finds his tribe slaughtered by the Kona. He kills the sleeping Kona chief and rescues Catkin, and Meronym saves them both from the returning Kona and is in turn saved by Zachry. Zachry and Catkin join Meronym and the Prescients as their ship leaves Big Island.”

Five actors played parts in all 6 timelines: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, and Hugo Weaving.  For example, Hanks played Dr. Henry Goose in 1849, an unnamed hotel manager in 1936, Isaac Sachs in 1973, Dermot Hoggins in 2012, a Cavendish Look-a-like actor in 2144, and Zachry in 2321.  Berry played a native woman in 1849, Jocasta Ayrs in 1936, Luisa Rey in 1973, an Indian party guest in 2012, Ovid, a medical doctor who removes Sonmi’s slave collar in 2144, and Meronym in 2321.  Hugh Grant played Rev. Giles Horrox in 1849, a hotel heavy in 1936, Lloyd Hooks in 1973, Denholme Cavendish in 2012, Seer Rhee, the slave operator at the fast food restaurant in 2144, and the chief of the Kona cannibals in 2321.

Other wonderful actors like Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, and James D’Arcy also play multiple roles, though they do not appear in every different timeline.  The only lead role played by a lesser known actress was Doona Bae, playing the part of Sonmi-451 in the 2144 timeline.

The script itself is nothing short of genius and was put together by Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer, based on the incredible book of the same name, written by David Mitchell.  The way the stories are linked is fascinating to put together.  In fact, I have actually read the book and can say that the movie was structured differently than the book.  The film told all the stories at the same time so that the common threads of character and theme in each timeline could be seen to overlap and mingle.  The book broke all the stories except one into two parts.  The pattern can be seen as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, with 1 being the story of Adam Ewing, and 6 being the story of Zachry.  Each telling has its advantages and disadvantages, but each was structured to fit its medium.  The film would not have been so effective if it had been structured like the book and vice-versa.

As each actor passed back and forth between the different stories, they were often unrecognizable as the same person.  And this is all due to the magic of a team of 45 makeup artists.  The makeup, prosthetics, and hairstyling, in addition to the wonderful costume design made for a visually stunning journey.  The special effects were spectacular, especially in the Neo Soul storyline.

And then there was the music.  The film’s score was not only gorgeous and lush, with common themes running throughout the different eras of the movie, but it was also a distinct part of the plot.  The Cloud Atlas Sextet, written by the character of Robert Frobisher in the 1936 timeline, and listened to in the 1973 timeline, and played briefly in the 2144 timeline, was haunting and insightful.  It was yet another plot device that helped to tie the various stories together.

Another such plot device was a recurring, comet-shaped birthmark that showed up on the main character in each story.  It appeared on Adam Ewing’s Chest, Robert Frobisher’s lower back, Luisa Rey’s shoulder, Timothy Cavendish’s upper back, Sonmi-451’s neck, and the back of Zachry’s head.  It was just an intriguing little mark that drew attention to the running theme of reincarnation and the idea of history repeating itself.

Some of my favorite parts of the movie stand out to me as especially well done.  There was the depiction of the soul-mate kind of relationship between Frobisher and Sixsmith, though strangely enough, the two characters never spoke any lines to each other.  I also loved Timothy Cavendish’s daring escape from Aurora House.  Hugo Weaving’s portrayal of Nurse Noakes was both funny and frightening.  And the bar fight that allowed him and his friends to get away was so perfect.  Get a bunch of drunk Scotsmen to fight for you, and you can’t lose.

I loved just about everything in the two latest timelines.  Sonmi-451’s tragic and yet inspiring story was one that touched the heart, especially when the horrifying underbelly of the all-too-believable dystopian society is revealed, mirroring the famous tale of Soylent Green, where the dead are secretly turned into food to feed the living.  Doona Bae was wonderful as the doomed fabricant whose courage changed the world and made her a goddess.

And I think my favorite parts of the movie were those that took place in the 2321 timeline.  Hanks and Berry were awesome as Zachry and Meronym.  The language they used was sometimes difficult to follow.  It was as if English had evolved into a broken and half-forgotten dialect.  But the actors spoke it easily, making it sound natural.  The look of the sequences which combined primitive simplicity and savagery with the remnants of fantastic technology was perfectly executed.  Even Hugo Weaving, playing the part of Old Georgie, the devil, according to Zachry’s beliefs, was wonderfully creepy as he constantly tried to get Zachry to give in to his fears and darker impulses.

Cloud Atlas was a phenomenal movie.  It was quite possibly one of the most ambitious undertakings in cinematic history, but the Wachowskis along with Tom Tykwer made it work.  This movie blows me out of the water every time I watch it.  I highly recommend watching it.  But be wary.  Keep in mind that just because it might be difficult to understand, doesn’t mean it is bad.  The movie requires the viewers to use their brains.  And when is that ever a bad thing, especially when there is so much there to think about and imagine?

Contact – 1997

 

Spoiler Alert

 

This is actually one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time.  There are so many things that this film did right.  The casting was spot-on, the acting was incredible, the special effects were phenomenal, the realism of the plot was undeniable, the cinematography was amazing, the musical score was perfect, the script was intelligent, and the climax was exciting.  How’s that for a single movie?

I’ve seen this film over and over, and it never gets boring.  Jody Foster is wonderful as Dr. Eleanor Arroway, a brilliant astronomer and scientist who is obsessed with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI.  The film does a great job of developing her character so that when she finds what she is looking for, we really get to understand her actions and beliefs that propel her to the movie’s climactic ending.  Foster turned in a powerful performance.  In my humble opinion, it is one of the best performances of her career, and that is saying a lot.

The film also stars Matthew McConaughey as Palmer Joss, a theologian with whom Ellie falls in love.  And therein lies one of the most fascinating and well-written aspects of the film.  Screenwriters, James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg, did an incredible job of looking at the hypothetical situation of human discovery of intelligent life in outer space from both points of view: scientific and religious.  Each side is brilliantly explained in an easily understandable and thought-provoking way.

The film explores what would actually happen if, in our modern world, we actually found such life in the universe.  How would the general populace react to it?  How would religious groups react?  The government?  The scientific community?  In the story, Ellie nearly ruins her career in her impossible search for alien life.  Few people share her beliefs.  But when she hears a radio signal coming from deep space, she is suddenly taken seriously.

James Woods plays Michael Kitz, the skeptical National Security Advisor who is constantly at odds with Ellie as she pursues her science-fiction-like goals.  The signal that she hears is a radio signal that had left earth in 1936, traveled 26 light-years to the star constellation called Vega, and then was sent back to Earth, hugely amplified.  Along with the signal is 60,000 pages of encrypted data that has to be decoded.

Ellie’s main scientific rival is David Drumlin, played by Tom Skerritt.  He is one of the most frustrating characters in the film.  Before the message, he was always the first to ridicule Ellie for her SETI work.  After the message, he swooped in over and over again to take credit for her long years of hard work.  The decoded data turns out to be blueprints for building a mysterious machine.  Eventually, it is revealed that the structure is a fantastic transport device, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Again, the realism of the movie is perfect.  The plot goes into how the government takes over the project and slowly squeezes Ellie out of the picture.  But Ellie’s long-time benefactor, eccentric billionaire and engineer, S. R. Hadden, played by John Hurt, goes out of his way to keep her involved in what he calls “The Game of the Mellenium.”

I loved one of the philosophical arguments that the movie made.  When Ellie says of the aliens, “There is no reason to believe their intentions are hostile,” Kitz responds by asking, “Why is it the position of the egghead stat that aliens would always be benign?  Why is that Doctor?”  She replies, “We pose no threat to them.  It would be like us going out of our way to destroy a few microbes on some anthill in Africa.”  Drumlin chimes in, saying, “That’s a very interesting analogy.  And how guilty would we feel if we went and destroyed a few microbes on an anthill in Africa?”  Things like that which were so cleverly presented just fire my imagination and make me think.  Great dialogue!

The US Government decides to build the machine, and the film goes into the long and arduous process of choosing a single human to go into the transport pod, presumably to be Earth’s first ambassador to extraterrestrial life.  Ellie is on the list, but once again, Drumlin crushes her dreams by taking the position for himself.  But then a cult of religious fanatics, led by a man called Joseph, played by Jake Busey, become terrorists and sabotage the machine, killing Drumlin, in the process.  But Hadden surprises Ellie with the revelation that he has secretly built a second machine of his own.  He chooses Ellie to go.

The design of the machine itself was both fantastical and realistic, at least within the confines of the science-fiction plot.  The gigantic device used spinning concentric rings that generated massive amounts of electromagnetic energy, thus opening a wormhole that would carry the transport pod across the galaxy.  As Ellie was catapulted into space, the special effects went into overdrive.  Her journey through the wormhole was amazingly well done.  I loved how they showed ghostly images of her face emerging from her head, saying dialogue that she hadn’t yet said.  And the phrase, “They’re alive!” was both exciting and ominous at the same time. It made the point that time itself was being twisted.

And the beautiful images of her journey into the unknown were spellbinding.  When she finally reached her destination, the magical representation of a special place that was taken from her mind, a drawing of a beautiful beach she had made as a child, was a feast for the eyes.  The glowing, crystalline water, the swaying palm trees, and the bright, sparkling sky full of stars, was just gorgeous.

Then came the part of the movie that many people didn’t like, but I loved it.  The alien that came to greet her took the form of her long-dead father, played by David Morse.  He spoke lovingly toward her and had a little conversation with her saying, “You’re an interesting species.  An interesting mix.  You’re capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares.  You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not.  See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”  Wonderfully said.

But the movie doesn’t stop there.  It goes on to show that as the transport pod dropped through the machine, it, in fact didn’t go anywhere.  Ellie’s journey to the center of the galaxy, which was supposed to have taken about 18 hours, never took place.  Kits and nearly everyone else on the planet accuse her of making up her entire experience, or at the very least hallucinating it.  And you know there would be skeptics that would refuse to believe her.  A public hearing is held in which she is forced to admit that she may have imagined the whole thing.

But she refuses to deny what happened.  It shows how she, as a woman who has lived her entire life believing only what her senses can show her, now has to believe in her experience through unshakable faith.  And that, for me is the real magic of the movie’s philosophy.  It shows that there is absolutely no reason why science and religion cannot work in perfect harmony with each other, a belief I have long held to be true.  It is something that I think is stated very clearly and very beautifully in the movie.

And one last aspect of the movie that I found fascinating was the fact that Kitz, who is the head of the inquiry attacking Ellie’s fantastical story, seems to be completely aware that she is telling the truth.  The movie makes the point of saying that during the few seconds it took for the pod to drop through the machine, 18 hours have passed for Ellie.  But two things happened in those few seconds that would seem to confirm Ellie’s story.  First is the fact that the chair which had been bolted to the pod’s ceiling had been torn off and crushed against a wall.  This couldn’t have happened in only a few seconds.  And if it had, Ellie would not have had time to unstrap herself from the chair before it was destroyed.  Second was the fact that her camera recorded over 18 hours of static footage.  Kitz knew these things, yet covered up the information in what felt like a government conspiracy.    You know it would happen!!

Other actors in the film who did a great job are Jena Malone, playing young Ellie, William Fichtner as Ellie’s blind co-worker Kent, Geoffrey Blake as Fisher, Ellie’s lab assistant, and Angela Basset as Rachel Constantine, the White House Chief of Staff.  I also loved how they made thing even more realistic by using real celebrities playing themselves like Larry King, Bryant Gumbel, Jay Leno, and even real footage of President Bill Clinton.

And I have to mention the wonderful score by Alan Silvesrtri.  It was exciting and intense when it needed to be, and yet intimate and personal at the other times.  It had a grandeur about it that was perfect for the epic nature of the story.  Silvestri is truly a master of his craft.

As I did my research for the movie I read about a number of different plot holes, most of which were minor enough not to be noticed by anyone but a real aerospace scientist or astronomer.  But one glaring hole that I have always wondered about was the idea that Ellie used the machine to travel to the center of the galaxy, but nobody believed her.  Why did they not use the machine again and send another person through to either confirm or deny her experience.  I mean, here they have this multi-billion dollar piece of technology, and they don’t think to use it again to compare the results?  Of course they would!

I also learned that the book that the movie is based on goes into much greater detail about the science of the fictional plot.  They also explain a lot more about the aliens that Ellie encounters, and goes even further to show and confirm the presence of God in nature and outer space.  As one reviewer wrote, “If you like the movie I’d recommend the book. It gives much more insight on the aliens, and expands the scope as there are a number of scientists that participate rather than just one from America, and goes more in depth into the science. It also attempts to show that religion and science can get along. My favorite part is at the very end of the book where Sagan shows how God hid a message in the very fabric of the cosmos, that we could only read when we were ready.”

It kind of makes me want to read the book now.  Either way, the one catch phrase that the movie makes use of 3 times, is both profound and thought-provoking.  One person would ask, “Do you believe aliens exist?” to which someone else would reply, “I don’t know.  But if it is just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.”

Truer words were never spoken.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence – 2001

Spoiler Alert

This was a phenomenal movie, one of those films that was so sweet and beautiful that there are parts that I can’t ever watch without crying.  The movie was about the moral implications of creating artificial intelligence with the ability to mimic real emotions.  To do this, it used the fairy tale of Pinocchio as a plot device, the main thrust of the movie’s story arch.  Just like the wooden boy in the old story wanted to become a real boy, so too did the metal boy in A.I.

And it did it in such a beautiful and meaningful way.  The film starts out explaining that the story takes place in a world where Global warming has caused the sea levels to rise, submerging all the major coastal cities of the world, including New York.  The offices of one of the most prominent robotics companies is based in the drowned city.

The film is intelligent and makes you think about what you are watching and listening to.  Because of the global warming, the earth’s population has been drastically reduced.  As a result, many of the needs of society are fulfilled by mecha, robots who can simulate human appearance, behavior, and emotion.  Right off the bat, when the character of Professor Hobby, one of the leading robotics scientists, played by William Hurt, suggests that a mecha can be programmed with real human emotions, one of his fellow scientists asks the big question.  If we create a machine that can feel emotions, what is our responsibility to that machine?

It is recognized as a moral question, and if you think about it, it is a monumentally important question.  We create a mecha that can love.  That mecha will outlast us.  That machine will never grow old, never die.  Thus, the love that it feels will never fade or diminish.  Just as a parent is responsible for a human child, would we not then be responsible for our artificial creations?  What happens to them after we are gone?

And even on a smaller level, if we create a machine that loves us, what happens if our own emotions shift.  What happens to that mecha’s love when a newer model is created or even if our own fluid emotions change?  The machine’s emotions cannot change.  Well, in the story, that is pretty much what happens.

Sam Robards and Frances O’Connor play Henry and Monica Swinton.  Their son, Martin, played by Jake Thomas, has been placed in suspended animation until a cure for his rare and fatal disease can be found.  In order to help Monica let go of her son, who medical science cannot help, a mecha child is created.  Thus David, masterfully played by Haley Joel Osment, is introduced.

Osment’s performance was nothing short of genius.  The child actor had already proven himself in other dramatic films such as 1991’s The Sixth Sense, and 2000’s Pay it Forward.  He was a phenomenon!  He was an amazing actor, a wonderful and rare thing in a child.  At 12 or 13 years old when A.I. was filmed, his performance was more impressive than many established adult actors.  I cannot say enough good things about his incredible sense of emotional gravitas, his perfect sense of dramatic timing, and his ability to create a fully developed character.

The drama of the film comes in when a cure is discovered for Martin’s illness and he comes home.  David now has a child-like, pure love for Monica.  When a sibling rivalry develops between the organic child and the mechanical, both of them vying for love and attention, Monica, understandably chooses her own child over David.  Granted, it is much more complicated than that, but the emotional content is inherently powerful.

The scene where Monica, unwilling to take David back to the factory that made him, abandons him in the wilderness and tells him to run.  It was at this point that David exceeded his programing and came up with a way to make Monica love him as much as she loved Martin.  Inspired by the fairy tale of Pinocchio, David goes on a quest to find the fabled Blue Fairy so that she can turn him into a real boy.

By this point in the movie, my eyes are already tearing up.  And I’m sure that everybody has their own moments of emotional intensity.  Mine comes at a very specific moment.  Here’s the set-up.  David is joined on his quest by two companions.  First is a super-toy that David had received from Monica, an android teddy-bear named Teddy, voiced by Jack Angel.  The other is a male prostitute mecha named Gigolo Joe, played by Jude Law.  They each help David in their own ways.

After surviving a dark and gruesome experience at a flesh fair, a place where humans revel in the horrible destruction of mecha, saying that they are abominations against humanity, David and Joe become friends.  Joe learns that David is searching for a woman called Blue Fairy.  Believing that he knows all there is to know about women, and that the best place to find them is in a Las Vegas kind of place called Rouge City, they hitch a ride to the city of sin.  While there, they visit Dr. Know, voiced by Robin Williams.  It is a fun and whimsical mechanical character that gives answers in an almost comical way.  They use all their money to ask the computerized questioning service to learn the nature and whereabouts of the Blue Fairy, not understanding that she isn’t real.

Actually, understanding is the wrong word.  David knows, intellectually, that she is a myth.  But his love for Monica is so great that he chooses to believe that the Blue Fairy is real.  So powerful is his love that he desperately clings to the impossible idea that he can be made into a real boy so that Monica will love him.  He refuses to believe that he cannot be made real.  As Joe and David question Dr. Know, it becomes clear that the Blue Fairy is not real and cannot be found, until Joe figures out the right question to ask.

He tells Dr. Know to combine “Flat Fact” and “Fairy Tale.”  Then David carefully asks, “How can the Blue Fairy make a robot into a real live boy?”  Suddenly, the lights go dark and a low and ominous hum can be heard in the background.  All signs of the whimsical Dr. Know vanish and the following text begins to scroll up in front of David and Joe, as serious as a catharsis.  Robin Williams was brilliant as he read:

“Come away O human child

To the waters and the wild

With a fairy hand in hand

For the world’s more full of weeping

Than you can understand.

Your quest will be perilous

Yet the reward is beyond price.

In his book,

‘HOW CAN A ROBOT BECOME HUMAN,’

Professor ALLEN HOBBY writes

of the power which

will transform Mecha into Orga.”

David asks, “Will you tell me how to find her?”  The voice replies, “Discovery is quite possible.  Our Blue Fairy does exist in one place and one place only: at the end of the world where the lions weep.  Here is the place dreams are born.”  And Joe chimes in ominously “Many a mecha has gone to the end of the world, never to come back.”  Oh my God!  I don’t know why this little scene hits me so hard emotionally, but here is where the tears really start to flow!

And I can’t discuss the emotional content of the movie without mentioning the music.  John Williams does it again, turning in a score that encapsulated the beauty and purity of David’s love for Monica.  It was peaceful and calming, slightly melancholy, almost sad, but always intimate and happy.  Parts of the soundtrack featured two notable artists, Lara Fabian, and Josh Groban.  It was simply beautiful in its own right, but powerful when underscoring the beauty of the movie.  Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Now, I have to admit that the ending of the movie was a little hard to understand.  The first time I watched this movie, when it first came out in 2001, I didn’t get it.  David and Joe journey to the partially submerged New York.  There, David meets Professor Hobby and learns that he is not unique.  He was a prototype that was being crafted for mass production.  In a fit of depression, he attempts to commit suicide by throwing himself into the water.

Joe saves him, though they are separated forever.  But while he is under the water, David sees a vision of the Blue Fairy, renewing his belief in the fairy tale.  He uses a submersible vehicle to approach her.  It is the drowned ruins of Coney Island, displaying a Pinocchio attraction.  Unfortunately, David, along with Teddy, become trapped under a collapsing Ferris Wheel.  There David beseeches the statue of the Blue Fairy to turn him into a real boy.  He continues making his wish as years and years go by.

The earth freezes under another ice age, and still David continues his prayer, until his internal power source drains away.  Eventually, he is discovered by strange alien-like beings, and here is where I originally got lost.  I thought they actually were aliens.  I didn’t get that they were actually what the world’s mecha evolved into after the humans had died away.  They revive David and try to give him what he desires.

Using a lock of Monica’s hair, which Teddy had saved, the advanced mecha are able to revive Monica, but only for a single day.  David is allowed to spend that one perfect day with her, but once it is over, the simulated Monica would go to sleep and never wake up.  And the process could never be repeated.

It is the best day in David’s life, the best day he could ever have.

But again, the ending was beautiful and I can’t watch it without some serious tears.  Before Monica closes her eyes for the last time, she tells David that she loves him, which is all he ever wanted to hear.  The final narration bears repeating: “That was the everlasting moment he had been waiting for.  And the moment had passed for Monica was sound asleep.  More than merely asleep.  Should he shake her, she would never rouse.  So David went to sleep, too.  And for the first time in his life, he went to that place where dreams are born.”  In other words, happy, content, and finally fulfilled, David turns himself off forever and dies.

The film’s director, Stephen Spielberg really seemed to outdo himself in the creation of this film.  The sensitivity he expresses, the purity of child-like wonder and belief, the intellectual and moral issues that are explored, and the technical expertise with which the special effects were crafted, was all so amazing.  The story was captivating and engaging.  The characters were fantastic.  The visuals were spellbinding.  And the acting was first-rate.  Some have called it Spielberg’s masterpiece, and I’m almost apt to agree.

Almost.  Spielberg has put out a lot of pretty amazing movies.  It is hard to choose just one.

The Matrix – 1999

The Matrix Reloaded – 2003

The Matrix Revolutions – 2003

 

When it comes to modern science fiction, this franchise is one of the big ones.  It is a film that fires the imagination, makes you think, touches on philosophy and religion, is inventive and groundbreaking, and above all it super fun to watch.  It is a sci-fi, action-adventure, kung-fu fantasy.  These movies have it all.  And I have to talk about all three of the films as if they were one because the overall story arc is continuous and complete.

But the franchise, as a whole, is larger than even the three films.  The larger story was continued in anime, comic books, and video games, all of which were canonical.  It is widely recognized as one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of the 90s, if not of all time.  True, I hear a lot of film snobs say that the first movie was incredible, and the two sequels pretty much sucked.  But I beg to differ!  A lot!  The sequels were awesome!  Let me explain why, which I can do without even going into the plot.

The first film was new and interesting.  It was smart and engaging.  It was using filming techniques and special effects that had never been seen before.  It set up an awesome cast of characters that were heroic and beyond bad-assed!  But the movie’s main shtick was steampunk and action, mostly in the form of kung-fu fighting.  In the sequels they stuck with that shtick.  They just upped the stakes, and increased the fantasy elements.  But it was still, primarily, a kung-fu fighting movie at its heart.

Take it for what it was and enjoy it, I say.  People might claim that they had seen it all before, and on some level that might be true.  But I’d wager to say that they have never seen it done in such an exciting and unique way.  The special effects were stunning… well, most of them were, but I’ll address that in a bit.  The dramatically stylized visuals were fantastic.  The story, which drew from many different narrative tropes, has been told many times in many different movies and books.  But nobody had ever told it exactly like The Matrix.

Keanu Reeves, plays a cyber-hacker, codenamed Neo.  He is searching for meaning in a life he finds meaningless.  He is approached by Trinity, played by Carrie Anne Moss.  She says that she knows what he is looking for, and the answers to his questions can be found in a mysterious man known as Morpheus, played by Lawrence Fishburn.  But before he can meet Morpheus, Neo is captured by men who look like CIA operatives in black suits and sunglasses, led by a sinister man called Agent Smith.

There’s the set-up.  The story is too long and complex for me to give a concise synopsis.  If you want the story, read the basic plot on Wikipedia or better yet, watch the movies, if you have not already seen them.  What I plan to do in this review is mention some the things I liked and a few of the things I didn’t like.

For example, I loved the cyberpunk look of the whole thing.  The costumes, the hairstyles, the virtual environments.  The entire thing was eye candy from one end to the other.  And the special slow motion effects with people doing super-human acrobatic moves, defying the laws of physics, were so amazing.  When I think of the Matrix franchise, it is those “inside the Matrix” aesthetics that first come to mind.

The second is the look of the grubby post-apocalyptic “real” world.  The incredible CGI environments, the dirty, torn clothing, the rough, rusty insides of the hover-ships.  It was, in its own way, just as cool as the other reality.  However, I have to ask – did everyone have to wear sweaters with that same kind of vertical unraveling, or was that just the popular style?  I mean, I get it.  These people are run down and everything is supposed to look damaged.  But it looked like a costume designer found a single technique to make the sweaters look damaged and said. “Yes! Just do that to all of them.  What?  Yes, ALL of them!”

I hear a lot of people criticize the plot of the second film, and even more people criticize the plot of the third film.  In the first film, they spent most of their time establishing the conditions and back-story of the universe, and the characters.  The second movie develops those things and turns the action up a notch, giving Neo a chance to learn what he can do with the super powers he discovered at the end of the first film.  The third film increases the action yet again and gives us an epic conclusion with Neo evolving into the messianic figure he was supposed to be since the very beginning.  The overall story arc follows a logical progression to a climactic conclusion.

So I went on to the internet and tried to look up why people don’t like the sequels.  Some say that they didn’t have as much grip or intensity as the first movie.  Some say that they weren’t as philosophically deep or that they seemed to be dumbed down.  Some say they were too philosophical and required too much thinking.  Others say that they focused too much on the war to save Zion from the machines instead of on focusing freeing more people from the Matrix.  What it really comes down to is that after the spectacular first film, everybody had their own expectations about what the sequels should be.  They all got their hopes up and very few people got exactly what they wanted or were expecting.

One of my favorite things about the movies are their action scenes.  The action sequences in the first film were exciting and introduced us to the new and innovative special effects.  The opening scene with Trinity running from Agents over the rooftops was just a thrilling way to start the whole thing off.  The kung-fu sequences, first between Noe and Morpheus were fun and were actually integral to the plot.  Then the part when Neo finally fought the agents and learned how to beat them was super exciting, because while his mind was in the Matrix, his body was in danger of being killed by sentinels.

The second movie had the great chase on the freeway and the fight with the Merovingian’s men in the great hall.  There was also the fight between Neo and the hundred Agent Smiths.  But though the scene was pretty cool, I have to say that this is the first time I noticed the franchise’s biggest failing.  It was a big budget movie that had the services of some of the industry’s best CGI programmers.  But there were times when the live footage of Keanu and Hugo were mixed with CGI images of them that were horribly obvious.  Sometimes they looked plastic, rubbery, one dimensional, and just terribly done. This is mostly evident in the 2^nd and 3^rd movies.  For such a big budget film, I expect better.

Then the third movie had the awesome battle for the docks at Zion and the final climactic battle between Neo and Agent Smith.  Sure, these sequences were mostly CGI, but that made them no less exciting to watch, especially the battle for the docks.  It was chaotic and fast paced, and with the added suspense of the Hammer’s high speed approach, it was just awesome filmmaking!

Now there are two characters that I’d like to mention.  The Oracle and the Architect.  The Oracle was a great and memorable character, played in the first two films by Gloria Foster, and in the 3^rd film by Mary Alice.  And I liked that the change in the character’s appearance is addressed as part of the plot.  She is always calm and eerily insightful.  The Architect, played by Helmut Bakaitis, was also perfectly cast and wonderfully portrayed as a cold and insanely logical machine.

The character of the Merovingian, played by Lambert Wilson, may have been too long winded and full of himself, but that brings me to the point that I found it a wonderfully interesting concept that he, his beautiful wife Persephone, the Oracle, the Architect, and even Agent Smith were all programs, each having a unique personality, like real people.  But this was a sci-fi/fantasy film.  So why not?  It was just a fun joy-ride from beginning to end.  It made me think, it made me excited, it drew me in to its epic nature and its wonderfully imagined world.  I loved all three of the movies in the franchise and found that I can forgive the small lapses into bad CGI.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention several actors who gave life to some very memorable characters.  Joe Pantoliano as the treasonous Cypher, Jada Pinket Smith as Niobe, Captain of the Logos, Harold Perrineau as Link, Morpheus’ pilot of the Nebuchadnezzar, Randall Duk Kim as the Keymaker, Harry Lennix as Commander Lock, Neil and Adrian Rayment as the evil twins, and Collin Chow as the Oracles servant Seraph, all did a great job and helped to make The Matrix one of the greatest science fiction franchises of all time.