Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries)

Statistics:


Release Year – 2004
Running Time – 126 minutes
Director – Walter Salles
IMDB Rating - 7.9/10
Awards – Acadeny award for Original Song among other various awards
Cast - Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna


Summary:

 “This is not the tale of impressive deeds, it is a piece of two lives taken in a moment when they were cruising together along a given path With identity of aspirations and a conjunction of dreams.”

I was always fascinated by the character of Ernesto Che Guevara. Heard a lot about him from different sources as well, and also that he is the most popular face for the t-shirts across the world. Many term him as a great revolutionary and many as a terrorist. There is a very thin line between a revolutionist and a terrorist and the distinction depends upon the perspective from which you are looking to it. But why we are talking all this here, this movie is not about a revolution…..but yes it is about the early years of a revolutionist. This movie is an adaptation of the journals which Ernesto wrote when he went on a motorcycle trip of South America in early 1950s with his friend Alberto Granado with their faithful friend, a Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa (The Mighty One). The trip starts from their home country Argentina and crosses Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela ending at a leper colony where they both thought of working for some time. Soon the youthful adventurous nature of trip was gone, when they observed the impoverished indigenous people of those countries. The movie slightly touches the early stages of transformation of a man, setting up his principles and the ultimate aim of his life, however it does not try to answer as to how a 23-year old medical student went ahead to become the most famous revolutionary leader.
In my opinion, I am not very impressed by the way the events are depicted in the film, yes those are all connected with a thread however these fall very short in comparison with the personality of the character. Or it might be that my expectations were different such as I was looking for that triggering point which transformed this person into a revolutionist. Not only this was missing, or better I say that it was never the intention from the director to depict it, but also the journey was not shown the way I was expecting. Yes, a biopic may not have all entertaining events, however it could have been made little better if not like it is now. I would recommend for one time watch to understand the political situation of South America of that time, but surely it is not a movie which I would like to watch again and again.

The Green Mile

Statistics:

Release Year – 1999
Running Time – 189 minutes
Director – Frank Darabont
Cast – Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan
IMDB Ratings – 91 among top 250 (8.4/10)
Awards – Nominated for 4 Academy Awards in 1999


Review:

This movie was lying with me since a long time, however I don’t know why I was delaying this. But its time came one day, when I made my mood to watch such a long movie already. I did not read about this movie before so was all unaware of the plot, which turned out to be in as a nice surprise. Yes the movie is little longer however it would keep you bound to it, and I can surely guarantee for this. The Green Mile, as the name suggests but it has nothing to do with any race or another such kind of stuff. Have you heard about the word, ‘The Last Mile’, if not then this denotes the last walk a convict takes before the execution, from his cell to the execution place. The Green Mile is an adaptation of Stephen King novel of the same name. The movie is about the prison guards who call the last mile as ‘The Green Mile’. The superintendent Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is a dedicated person to his job, where he thinks that he is responsible to bring calm, peace and happiness in the lives of the prisoners who are going to be executed in few days only. His associates are also groomed on the similar principles and values under his guidance. However they have got one assistant guard of different and sadistic character, who is spoiling the atmosphere of the block. They also got a prisoner, a black one, who is very huge in his appearance and was convicted under rape and murder of two minor girls. Though his appearance is huge however his behavior is pretty mild, such as he asked to keep the lights open as he was afraid of dark. Can such a person be a murderer, was the suspicion in Paul’s mind.

A person who tells daily many people about their execution sentence, but what will happen if he has to say same thing to someone close to him? Paul’s boss’ wife was diagnosed for an non curable cancer, but now he don’t know how to convey this to her. How intrigue sometimes the situations are in our lives, isn’t it….Paul also witnessed some miracles from that black prisoner, and hence was convinced that the person was innocent, however he couldn’t do anything about it. He has to stand in his execution knowing that it is wrong. How will he do all this, is this enough that you can skip by saying that you are doing just your job, though you know that something is wrong. Sometime people just get away saying that they are just doing their job, though perhaps from inside they know something is wrong. However this cannot be true always in your life, sometimes you are so powerless that nothing lies within your hands, however what matters is whether you try your best or not in the interest of right direction. Would Paul try something similar or will just go ahead with his job? I would highly recommend this movie to all of you as this would be an enchanting and electrifying experience for you.

The Great Escape

Statistics:

Release Year – 1963
Running Time – 172 minutes
Director – John Sturges
IMDB Rating – 101 of top 250 (8.4/10)
Awards – Nominated for Academy Award in category Best Editing in 1963, Won Best Actor in Moscow International Film Festival in 1963

Summary:

As the German POW camp commandant said , “We have kept all the rotten eggs in one basket”, so the trouble was welcome. This movie is about a real mass escape from a German POW (Prisoners of War) camp, Stalag Luft III, based upon the book of the same name by Paul Brickhill. The movie starts with a briefing from German commandant to the camp residents. He is shown later talking to British officer of higher rank, stating that the escape from the camp is impossible so planning any escape would be futile. British officer replied whether the commandant is asking the prisoners not to their duty as escaping from a POW is “the duty” of each prisoner.

There were shown some futile and little idiotic escape tries from the prisoners in the start of movie, all attempts were disabled by German guards of course. Then came Roger Bartlett, RAF, to the camp who was caught by Gestapo after his escape attempt. This Roger Bartlett planned with other associates of this camp, a mass escape which will create a confusing state among the Germans as all will go out in search of them. And he planned the escape of 250 people, whopping….He planned to dig three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, so that if any one tunnel is discovered then the other two will serve the purpose. He also had to arrange the escape of people out of Germany so much more to be done on dresses, false documents, ration etc etc. Now such a large scale project is to be executed in a POW which is the most secured in Germany, how will they do it? So get the DVD and set for a complex but simple, intrigue yet possible, one of the largest such attempt made in any POW. But remember, Murphy’s law applies to all such projects as well…..

Trivia:
1. Several cast members were actual P.O.W.s during World War II.
2. The motorcycle scenes were not based on real life but were added at Steve McQueen's suggestion.
3. The real-life escape preparations involved 600 men working for well over a year. The escape did have the desired effect of diverting German resources, including a doubling of the number of guards after the Gestapo took over the camp from the Luftwaffe.
4. Roger Bartlett is modeled after Roger Bushell, a British officer who was involved in the real escape and, like Bartlett, was executed for his role therein. The scarring around Richard Attenborough's eyes is a tribute to Bushell, who received such scarring from a competitive skiing accident.
5. Richard Attenborough was an RAF pilot during World War II, just like his character.
6. The newspaper that Ashley-Pitt ('David McCallum') reads on the train is the Völkischer Beobachter, a real newspaper produced for 25 years by the National Socialist German Workers Party. It served as a propaganda sheet for the Nazis and helped bring Hitler to power. At its height, it had a circulation of approximately 1.4 million. The headline for the issue seen in the film translates roughly to "Day after day, the Soviets have high, bloody losses." Given that the escape in the film occurs in the summer of 1944, this too can be viewed as propaganda. The Nazis had transferred hundreds of thousands of troops to Normandy to stop the Allied advances after D-Day, allowing for the Soviet's to launch Operation Bagration on 22 June, which pushed the Nazis back into Poland by the beginning of 13 July and sparked the Warsaw uprising. In all, the Soviet advance caused German losses of approximately 670,000 dead, missing, wounded and sick, including 160,000 captured. Although the date of the escape is unclear, given the green pastures around the Alps that the escapees encounter, one can easily surmise that the newspaper was putting a positive spin on the battles in the east.

Stalag 17

Statistics:


Release Year – 1953
Director – Billy Wilder
Running Time - 120 minutes
IMDB Rating – 252 among top 250 (8.2/10)
Wikipedia Link
Awards – Academy award for Best Actor

Summary:
This movie is considered, along with The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Great Escape, among the greatest World War II Prisoners of War movies. Set amidst a prisoner camp, Stalag 17, on the bank of Danube river in Nazi Germany, the story is about one of the barrack where American prisoners were kept. The life inside the camp is shown little differently than what I was expecting. The prisoners were shown getting regular mails, celebrating Xmas, playing volleyball etc, which seems to be little away from the reality. The prisoners of this barrack are trying various schemes to get out of camp but all failing, which resulted in the feeling that someone among them is an informer. Sefton, a POW, living in the same barrack was suspected of this. He is living life ‘luxuriously’ in the way that he barters with German guards, runs a little enterprise of his own, earns and flaunts it. One person who is enjoying his life against all odds, trying to keep himself happy, is suspected of being an informer. Envy of other residents played a big role in this, as we see in real life as well. Everyone getting against a successful person is not very rare in our lives.

Will Sefton get a chance to clear off his name from this false accusation? What will be cost of this to Sefton? Even if Sefton gets a chance, will others listen to him? There are many questions to be answered, so get set go for the movie.

Judgement At Nuremberg

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Statistics:

Release Year – 1961
Director - Stanley Kramer
Running Time - 186 minutes
IMDB Rating – 181 among top 250 (8.3/10)
AFI Rating – 10th the top ten in courtroom drama category
Awards – Academy award for Best Actor, Best Writing, Best Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium


Summary:

This movie is set in Germany in the time of 1947 when a trial was going on in which four judges of the Nazi period were convicted. A judge, Judge Haywood, from US is called to sit in this trial. It is quite an interesting and compelling scenario where a judge sitting on a bench judging about other judges revolutionizing the courtroom drama genre. One of the convicts, Ernst Janning, was portrayed as very prominent personality of his time. He has written books on law and taught in universities. He is said to stand for justice always. The defending counsel is going to use this character of Ernst Janning in his defense. Judge Haywood got interested in this, Ernst Janning, personality. Haywood read the books wrote by him to understand him more. Is Haywood getting influenced by this? How a judge can save himself from influence of external factors, and if not will these external factors influence his decision? This movie is all about this dilemma and fight. Haywood met a German lady, who was previous owner of the house in which he is staying now. He liked the company of this lady and started going out with her to plays and social evenings. This lady told Haywood how kind and good is Ernst Janning and how much all Germans love him.

In between all this, defense counsel put forward one point for debate. Ernst Janning disliked Hitler however he accepted the chief justice post in his regime. He could have rejected this post as well. Now whose move will be appreciated, one who rejects and stay away from all it or the one who goes inside the system and tries to clean and correct it. Quite intriguing, isn’t it, yes surely. Quite hard to answer this, and much depends upon circumstanced from my perspective.

Another twist came, when prosecution counsel showed a video on the brutalities inside the concentration camp. Everybody would get disturbed and angry when you see such a video. It was shown to get the similar effect on the judges from prosecution’s side. Defense counsel said that whatever was happening in those camps, ordinary German person was unaware of it all. Ernst Janning kept his silence throughout the case, until at a point where he stood and talked. What made him stood up and talking? Initially he was against this trial so he kept silence as his pride, but then he spoke and spoke well.

Now Haywood is in quite confused state, he has got quite an influence from external factors for the goodness of Ernst Janning. To make situation worst, USA government wants to acquit all the judges to win the heart of German people otherwise if they keep executing people then this would help Russia to gain over USA in Germany. What will Haywood do now? Will he pass all non-guilty, or he will pass Ernst Janning non-guilty and other 3 guilty, or all four guilty? Will he keep the wish of his lady friend? Will he keep the wish of his USA government?

Can you guess what could have happened by the last two dialogues between Ernst Janning and Haywood, given below.

Ernst Janning -…..By all that is right in this world...your verdict was a just one. Thank you. What you said in the courtroom, it needed to be said. Judge Haywood...the reason I asked you to come...Those people...those millions of people...I never knew it would come to that. You must believe it.

Haywood - Herr Janning...it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death...you knew to be innocent.

Enjoy watching the movie. I put this DVD at 12 midnight and thought that I would see in two parts, but I finished this in one shot. The story is quite compelling and interesting as well.

Das Leben der Anderen - The Lives of Others

Film Statistics
Release Year - 2006
IMDB Rating - Rated 55 among the tops (8.5/10) IMDB LInk
Awards - 2007 Academy Award in category Best Foreign Language Film
                7 Deutscher Filmpreis awards as best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actor etc
Wikipedia Link - The Lives of Others

Review
The movie is set in the turbulent times of East Germany in 1984. In those times, the rivalry between West Germany and East Germany was the reflection of the cold war between USA and USSR. East Germany was under USSR influence while West under USA. This film depicts the cultural atmosphere in East Germany under the communist regime.
Gerd Wiesler is a dedicated Stasi agent who believes in all policies of his government. Georg Dreyman is a playwright who is a true communist but against the policies of the government. Christa-Maria is the girlfriend of Dreyman, an actress, who wants to carry on with her career. Wiesler suspected Dreyman for anti-government activities and started 24 hour surveillance on him. Dreyman wrote an article against the government and published in a West Germany magazine, but Dreyman was never arrested. Christa-Maria got involved with a minister and later on paid for breaking off with him. She confessed about the Dreyman article and the typewriter’s hiding place, but Stasi did not find the typewriter at that place. What’s happening, Dreyman under continuous surveillance, doing anti-government activities which are enough for his arrest, but still not arrested? Who is saving him, or he has some bug inside Stasi? This is the story of a person who goes against all odds for the sake of right and justified. He puts everything at risk, but did not deter from the right path. But was he rewarded accordingly at the end? If you want to read the main events of the story then go ahead, or watch the movie instead of killing the excitement here, as I strongly recommend to watch this masterpiece.

Story Summary
Gerd Wiesler is shown as a dedicated and rigid Stasi agent who thinks that Georg Dreyman, a playwright, is defecting to the West. Though his superior did not agree on this suspicion however allowed him to go ahead with surveillance. Wiesler bugged the Dreyman’s house and started monitoring his activities day and night, reflecting his dedication to the policies of the government body. Dreyman was living with his girlfriend, Christa-Maria who was an actress. Wiesler was a fan of this actress. During the surveillance, he found that a minister was interested in Christa-Maria and is trying to remove Dreyman using Stasi. Though Wiesler was a true communist and believer of all policies, but this misuse of power by that minister put him disgust. He started thinking differently. Meanwhile Christa-Maria had to get into an affair with the minister as he was the only supplier for the drug which she was addicted. Dreyman came to know about the affair and tried to stop her, but she refused stating the reason that they need the minister’s support to go ahead in their field. During those days, in East Germany, it was really difficult if you came under the radar of the government.

On another side, Wiesler, had turned his point of view about the whole monitoring business. You believe in the things which you think are right, though you have not seen the reality by yourself. Wiesler, being a Stasi agent, believed in everything what Stasi was doing. However when he came to know the reality of the whole business, the human character inside him came into picture. He judged the circumstances and decided to take the right path, though it posed a great danger to his life and service. Dreyman was also a true communist, however he did not accept the extreme policies of that regime, such as stopping all cultural activities, putting people in close monitoring, stopping all foreign contacts etc. One of the good friend of Dreyman was a victim of these policies and he committed suicide one day. This provoked Dreyman to write an article on suicidal deaths in East Germany. Dreyman’s friends were quite amazed that how come he is not under surveillance, though his activities are very much provoking for the government. Dreyman also thinks that he is not under any monitor. He told to his friends that he will be publishing this article in a West Germany magazine and if he is arrested then it is sure that he was under surveillance. He parceled this article to be published in a West Germany magazine. The article was published and East Germany government was very angry over this. But Dreyman was not arrested…..why… because Wiesler is falsely reporting in this reports that he did not see such anti-government activities during his surveillance. Wiesler even met Christa-Maria and told her that she did not need any support of any minister to support her in her career as she is a great actress. This made Christa-Maria to stop all contacts with the minister, hence made him furious. The minister made Stasi to arrest her under charges of purchasing drugs. Wiesler was asked to interrogate Christa-Maria to find who wrote that article, as Stasi suspected her boyfriend for this article. Stasi told Wiesler that the result of this interrogation will also determine his future. What a person will do in this intense moment?? The human nature is hard to understand as we all behave very differently from the ideal path in such moments. What will Wiesler do? He started the interrogation and gave enough clues to Christa-Maria, not to reveal the hiding place of the typewrite. What’s this typewrite business! The East Germany government had all the information of all the typewriters given and sold in the country. If anyone write something, by getting the original manuscript the government will know who wrote this. Wow, isn’t this amazing. But Dreyman imported a typewriter illegally from West Germany and wrote the article on that typewriter. Though the East Germany government got the original manuscript, but they found that it was not written on any typewrite available in East Germany. Now they have to find that typewriter on which the article was drafted. They had all suspicion on Dreyman so were hopeful that Christa-Maria will reveal the hiding place. Christa-Maria did reveal that in the interrogation. Stasi raided Dreyman’s house and went directly to the hiding place. Dreyman came to know that Christa-Maria had revealed the place. Christa-Maria saw the expressions on Dreyman’s face and ran outside. She got hit by a moving vehicle and died. Inside the house, Stasi open up the hiding place, but there was no typewriter!!!! How this is possible, Dreyman did not know beforehand that Christa-Maria had spilled out so he couldn’t remove the typewrite. Yes, it was Wiesler who removed the typewriter and hid it in his car. What a risk he took to save Christa-Maria and Dreyman, why because he knew that the government is wrong and he decided to stood with the right cause.

This is followed by the destruction of Berlin wall and merger of West and East Germany. Dreyman once met the minister outside a play, and curiously asked that he thought that he should have been under surveillance but why he was not. Minister answered that he was under this all the time. Now Dreyman is confused and surprised that how this can be true. He went to government archives and retrieved his surveillance records. He got a good number of records, four-five times in volume as compared to other people who were in the archives. He went through all the records and after that asked for the identity of the Stasi agent who did the monitoring. He found Wiesler, now working with post office as an ordinary post man, this is the reward he got standing with the right and justice. Dreyman wrote a novel titled, Sonata for a Good Man. In the last scene Wiesler is shown purchasing the book from book store. The book is dedicated to “HGWXX/7, in gratitude”, the Stasi agent code of Wiesler. As he purchases the book, he is asked if he wants it gift wrapped and states, "No, it's for me."