Avainsana-arkisto: history

The Egyptian

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The film The Egyptian was produced in 1954 in Hollywood starring by Edmund Purdom and Jean Simmons. It has been directed by Michael Curtiz and it is based on the novel of Mika Waltari with the same name. The Egyptian is so far the only Finnish novel which has been made a Hollywood-film.
The plot is an autobiography of Sinuhe, an Egyptian physician from 14th century BC. Sinuhe is an orphan but a poor Egyptian physician adopts him as his own son. Sinuhe becomes a physician after his studies in the temple and in the Hose of Life. During his studies Sinuhe makes friends with Horemheb and he loses his belief in gods. After saving the life of Akhnaton, who becomes a Pharaoh, Sinuhe is appointed as a Royal Physician. Sinuhe begins working as a physician but he gets seduced by Nefernefernefer and he loses all his property to her. Sinuhe gets cursed by the Pharaoh and his adopted parents die. Sinuhe buries his parents and escapes abroad with his slave Kaptah. There Sinuhe sees the misery of all man, no matter of their nation or colour of their skin. He prospers and sees new inventions such as iron, invention by the Hittites.
Sinuhe returns to Egypt, where Pharaoh Aknaton has initiated a new monotheistic cult of Aton. Pharaoh forgives Sinuhe. Sinuhe meets also his old beloved Merit and reveals that they have a son, called Toth. The priests of the ancient gods and Horemheb and other soldiers consider Pharaoh as improper to be a ruler and they want Sinuhe to kill him. Sinuhe doesn’t agree until a civil war between believers of Aton and believers of ancient gods begins. Merit is killed in the side of Aton followers and Toth and Kaptah escape from Egypt and Sinuhe never meets them again. In the end Sinuhe poisons Pharaoh Akhnaton and Horemheb becomes a new Pharaoh. Because Horemheb considers Sinuhe as a dangerous Believer of Aton he expels him to the coast of Red Sea where Sinuhe writes his story.
In my opinion this film was a great example among Hollywood-films: It doesn’t matter how in-depth or philosophic the actual story is: in Hollywood it will be just entertainment. Compared to Mika Waltari’s original novel The Egyptian is lackluster. The plot is also very simple and it does harm Sinuhe’s story of life. Sinuhe’s journeys to foreign countries and his idealistic period are neglected. There are also missing some important characters, such as Minea and Aziru. There is hardly anything intellectually challenging in the film. It doesn’t reach same levels as Waltari’s actual novel.
Even though the plot isn’t very good, The Egyptian earns some acknowledgment. The setting, the costumes and the special effects were very nice when it’s remembered the technology of those days. Also the music has to have a little credit because it was really nice part of the film.

Written by Jussi Seppälä

Wuthering Heights (2009)

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Wuthering Heights is a romantic movie and based on the novel by Emily Brontë (released 1847). This old love story has inspired many directors particularly since 1939, when the first film of the story was released. I watched version of the motion which was released in 2009 and directed by Coky Giedroyc.

Wuthering Heights is a traditional and unique romantic movie at the same time. It tells Cathy Earnshaws and Heathcliffs story. Next I’ll tell a little bit about the plot, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading! So, Cathy and Heathcliff are childhood friends, whose friendship turn into love. They can’t get married because Cathy has a highter social status than Heathcliff. Heathcliff goes away, and Cathy marries Edgar Linton. Later Heathcliff comes back, but Cathy is pregnant to Linton. Cathy gives birth to a little girl and dies herself in the birth. Cathy and Heathcliff both knew that they love each other, despite they both got married with someone else. In a sense they get each other in the end, in a sense not. Anyway, their love story is so touching, love between them is passionate and strong and it’ll never finish.

There are two actors who starring Wuthering Heights; Charlotte Riley (Cathy Earnshaw) and Tom Hardy (Heathcliff). Their roles have been criticized, but my own opinion is, that they suit quit well in their roles. I’ve red later that Riley and Hardy got engaged after the film, and you can notice their chemistry in the motion. Some scenes are a little bit too dramatic and make me smile though I must be touched. And other scenes make me cry, too.

Camerawork is usual and classic, I don’t have nothing to say about it. There aren’t any special effects in the film, too, and only a little bit music. At the beginning music creates exciting feeling and with the picture it’s nearly scary.

I can’t decide if I like the movie or not. I like it at the first sight, but when I watched it second time, I was more critical. I don’t believe I would watch the film third time. Nevertheless, the story is very beautiful, and I can recommend Wuthering Heights to everyone, who likes romantic movies. This is the motion, which worth to watch; but maybe one time is enough!

The Young Victoria

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The Young Victoria

The film is describing 1800´s history, when 18 years old Victoria became the queen of United Kingdom. The plot of film based on true story, which increased film´s interesting and gave information about real history. Film´s plot was a little bit drag and in the beginning it was difficult to get into the plot. In the beginning film described too much about that times history and scheming to Victoria, because everyone wanted to take advantage of her. I think that the film should been more interesting from the beginning if you had previous knowledge of that topic. The film´s plot could have been clearer. The film bettered toward of the end, because you get into plot. I would have wanted a little bit less policy and history and more describing about personal life of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Their life described only in general level. The film included also funny scenes. The film´s rate of progressing was slowly but sometimes it still moved on long steps. The Young Victoria is all in all impressive film.

 The films characters were true and they have lived in during the 1800s. The Queen Victoria is historically significant person and many people have previous information about her, which helped to watching in question film. Characters of film were believable and their appearance and costumes was invested in very much. In the film was also involved animals and they brought more authenticity.

The films characters not really develop in the story line at all because they are only described in Queen´s youth years.

 The film has good and delightful actresses. Emily Blunt (Queen Victoria) acts the leading role excellently and she empathizes to her character amazing well such as Rupert Friend, who plays Price Albert. Also others actresses plays their roles well, but they maybe stayed in the shadow such as Paul Bettany who plays Lord Melbourne.

 Genre of the film was romantic drama, but I think that movie emphasized too much history and policy. The film would be able to go beneath the surface and describe more in-depth their personal life.

Written by Elisa