Culture in the English-speaking world

Taxi Driver is a thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The movie was released February 8, 1976, so it’s almost 40 years old. It was ranked 52nd-greatest American film on AFI’s 100 years… 100 movies list and it was nominated for four Academy Awards. Leading actors are Robert De Niro who plays Travis Bickle and Jodie Foster who plays for teenage prostitute Iris. De Niro was nominated for Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA film award for the best leading actor and Jodie Foster was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Famous quote ”You talkin’ to me”  is from the Taxi Driver.

Taxi Driver is a story about a former disturbed U.S Marine, Travis Bickle. He’s deeply depressed and lonely man living in New York City. Before he became a taxi driver, he used to drive his car every night until the morning. He also spent a lot of his time at porn theaters. He applied for a job as a taxi driver, and started working every night seven days a week. Travis was disgusted by the prostitution and crimes that he saw every night, so he started intense physical training and bought four pistols from a dealer, that one of his customers had suggested for him. One night when Travis was on shift, a young girl named Iris jumped in the back of the cab. She was trying to escape from her pimp, called Sport. Sport pulled 12-year old Iris out of the car and threw a twenty-dollar bill for Travis. That twenty-dollar bill kept reminding Travis of her. One day Travis found where Iris was working and hired her for 15 minutes, but not for having sex with her. He was trying to get Iris to leave prostitution and go back to her family. He got obsessed on helping Iris, and one day he left a letter to her at his apartment saying that he will be dead soon. There was also few hundred dollars for Iris to get back to home. After that Travis shaved his head into a mohawk and tried to assassinate Senator Palantine, but he failed. Then he drives to Sport and shoots at him and kills everyone that is in the brothel. He tries to kill himself but he had run out of ammunition. He fell in to a coma, and when he woke up, the media hailed him as a hero. He then gets back to his job as a taxi driver.

The movie is a great description about society unscrupulousness. It tells us how  the dregs of the people crawl to the streets when the day gives way to the night. Taxi Driver provokes the society model harshly and as no one is doing anything about it, Travis decides to take the matters to his own hands. This quote by Travis summarizes it all: ”Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up.” The acting in the movie is great and the soundtrack was relaxing and fit the movie well. In my opinion, Robert De Niro played one of his best, if not the best role in this movie. I’d recommend this movie for those who like thriller movies and don’t get frightened about few blood spatters.

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB

I heard the theme song of the Schindler’s list in a violin concert and I thought it was the most beautiful melody I had ever heard. That is why I had to see the movie, to see if it was as good as its theme. Composer of the soundtrack in Schindler´s list is John Williams and deservedly he won an Oscar from his work.

Schindler’s list is a historical drama movie directed by Steven Spielberg and it premiered in 1993 in USA. Schindler’s list is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel ”Schindler’s ark” which was published in 1982. Leading actors of the film are Liam Neeson who plays Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. The film is almost entirely black and white except few little things are colored, for example in some scenes one little girls’s red jacket. Its purpose was to draw attention to that little girl. Spielpberg has told about the symbolism of black and white presentation as follows: ”The Holocaust was life without light. For me the symbol of life is color. That’s why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black-and-white.”

The film is set in the World War II in Kraków and it tells a story about a German businessman Oskar Schindler who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. At first, Oskar Schindler seems to be only after money but when he sees the liquidation of one Polish ghetto he begins to employ more Jews to save them from ending up to concentration camps. Those Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler are called ”Schindlerjuden”. Oskar’s accountant is Jewish Itzhak Stern who almost gets transferred to concentration camp from the ghetto. Itzhak is the one who suggests to Oskar that he could use Jewish slave labour to staff his factory to save money and Itzhak starts to forge documents for Jews who would most likely have been killed. Ben Kingsley is very persuasive as restrained Itzhak Stern. Amon Goeth is a cold-blooded SS officer who sometimes kills Jews only for fun. That is hideous to watch because Ralph Fiennes plays the role so convinsingly. Oskar Schindler is a member of the Nazi party and he has great relations with Amon Goeth who he bribes to have Jews on his factory’s staff. Language in the film is interesting because the actors speak English with German accent.

Schindler’s list is a shocking description of the Holocaust but still it’s not as dreadful as it could be. The film’s only idea is not to show the Nazis horrible terror against the Jews but to show that even in the crowd of the cruellest people there is someone who is capable of good deeds. Despite the fact that Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party and a loyal friend for many SS officers he set to his goal to save as many Jews as he could. Movie shows how Oskar Schindler evolves from Nazi supporter and hardcore businessman to kind-hearted rescuer. Oskar is also quite the ladies’ man and he likes drinking in good company. A touching moment is in the end when Oskar collapses to tears when he has to leave the Jews he had saved after Germany’s surrender in war. Oskar blames himself of not doing all he could, that he could have saved one more life. Itzhak comforts Oskar by showing the over 1000 saved Jews around them and saying: ”Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Schindler’s list is oppressive, tragic and sorrowful description of the evil of humankind but at the same time it’s touching and beautiful story about surviving and goodness. Even though Steven Spielberg is maybe best known from his scifi and adventure movies and has increased his reputation with E.T. and Jurassic Park and many others, Schindlers’s list is said to be the Spielberg’s best movie. Schindler’s list won 7 Oscars, for example Spielberg won Best directing and Best Picture Oscars, and many other awards. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes won Oscars from their acting too.

Schindler’s list is quite heavy to watch and it evokes a wide range of emotions. It makes you continually ask the same question: how anything so horrible could happen? The film manages to  capture the viewer by its breathtaking scenes and brilliant actors. While watching the movie you can’t avoid the tears and yes, I wept like a baby. Schindler’s list is a film that everyone should watch at least once in their lives because it’s an important reminder of the terrible events in our history and at the same time it shows how one act of goodness can affect on so many people. This film became one of my favourites and I hope it becames one of yours too.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb

Dear John (2010), is romantic drama-war movie directed by Lasse Hallström. The movie is an adaption of novel of the same name written by Nicholas Sparks. It is a sad story about soldier’s life when he falls in love with a college student. The soldier called John (played by Channing Tatum) is on two-week holiday from Germany while he met Savannah (played by Amanda Seyfrid). Events took place in the early 21^st century.

On the movie their romance is put to test when Savannah is about to go back to college. She promises to write John overseas until he returns. During 12-months they send many letters to each other and try to keep the romance up. However things are not simple when between them are thousands of kilometers and army. Unfortunately John’s father’s serious illness, as well as 9/11 attacks will make things more difficult.

When I saw the movie for the first time, it attracted many different emotions. In one way the movie was really sad and made me thoughtful. But on the other hand the main characters love and in front of it all making was really wonderful to watch.

I think that the theme of the movie is very well invited, because on the other John defends the country when Savannah continues her studies. Theme explains how every day, thousands of people defend our country. At the same time we are living a normal life without knowing dangers that soldiers face every day. What if your loved one would go to another country at the mercy of the war? Would you be worried about him? In fact, I can relate very well Savannah’s emotions and fear, when a loved one is far away and he could be in a real danger. With the constant fear is not good to live with. The loved ones should always be nearby.

During the movie the themes are becoming increasingly deeper and the main characters are faced with disappointments, and through them to grow spiritually. When John’s father’s illness takes him on a gurney, John will have to learn how to express his feelings towards his father. At the same time he has to take care of his special job in the army. He can’t afford to mix romance, emotions and work with each other.

My opinion about the movie is very positive; I’m going to watch it again for sure. The plot, theme and characters are insanely good and well executed. Cast suitable roles like a glove and they make the characters and the story credible. I would recommend the movie to all young adults, especially those who’s dear is currently unable to be next to you.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_John_%282010_film%29

When in war, we usually notice and remark the soldiers and leaders because they are something we actually know and can see. They are reachable, touchable, not instantly and absolutely beyond our comprehension. So, leaders are leading soldiers, but who is leading leaders? The main key of control is the key ordinary people cannot know and see. It is top secret, dangerous but still so fascinating. It definitely is beyond our comprehension.

Nowadays we all are aware of the form of war – it is global, as everything else in this century. In the time of World War II the form of war differed much from today. The electronical way of going war had not taken its first steps then. So the movie (based on real events) is about those first steps as an asocial mathematician Alan Turning is trying to break the Enigma machine which the Nazis send their coded messages.

Watching the not-so-social mathematician trying to work together with his team was everything but boring. I actually found it very interesting. He really weren’t sure what you are supposed to say and how to react in social situations. At first I was convinced him to be an Asperger or something but then I changed my mind. What if the extremely clever persons just act differently compared to the ordinary ones? The mathematician having some neurological syndrome was not an obvious thing to me anymore.

What is the problem, then? I mean, why would a genius mathematician need social skills? The thing is that trying to achieve the goal as a team is quite pointless if the leader of the team has very poor social skills. You need to do co-operation to solve the problems and to do work together, not someone who is just playing his solo.

The questions of society are well represented in two areas. The first one is the dismissive attitude towards the more beautiful sex – the scene where a female work applier is almost forbidden from applying for the mission because of her sex took my very notice.  The old gender roles were essential part of controlling the behaviour. The second one is homosexuality being illegal at that time and so the main character is forced into hormonal therapy in medical treatment because of his sexuality. I think the movie lightens how hard it must have been to live as a homosexual person.

Cumberbatch’s acting as Alan Turning made a real impression on me. His gestures were kind of  puzzled but still insensitive at the same time which fitted perfectly the characteristics you should expect an asocial mathematician to have.

I am not an aficionado of this kind of movie genre but the reason why I liked The Imitation Game so much was because of its deeper thoughts placed within the flickering scenes of action and thrill. There are wonderings about the nature of humankind. The scene in which young Turning is almost buried alive by his fellows made me feel sick with its cruelty. When having been hit and bullied, you would be expected to become a pacifist or something but later it happens Turning to be holding they key of control in the war. That very scene summarized the war – where human, always violence.