SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)

Country: USA
Language: English | Hebrew | German | Polish
Director: Steven Spielberg

Schindler’s List is a film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman established in Poland. It is directed by Steven Spielberg and, in my opinion, is his best work ever.

The film revolves around the Holocaust as Schindler struggles to wit it out in the beginning and later on tries hard to save each life he can. This is probably the most graphic film on the subject and at times you feel grateful that it is shot in black and white.

It kind of works as a documentary that takes you inside the Nazi occupied Jewish ghetto, Auschwitz and other such places, you see the live telecast of atrocities with very profound background music.

Spielberg has surpassed himself and directed one of the best pictures on the subject. He really makes you feel the pain of so many innocent people and you wonder how and why did it happen at all…

I, personally, never judged Nazis and even praised them subtly as they were the real reason that weakened the English and forced them to abandon their colonies, and hence, India became independent. But Schindler’s List made me realize what I had done and made me feel guilty for even having pronounced the word “human” in a sentence that carries the word “Nazi”. So, if a film can change one heart, I think it is successful.

Liam Neeson is a very talented actor but he is too underrated. He really deserved an Oscar for this performance. Precisely, Liam Neeson is Oskar Schindler.

Ralph Fiennes is so good an actor that you don’t even want to praise him for his role of Amon Göth. Fiennes is also much underrated.

The use of color in the filming is so precise that you sometimes wonder if it is a film or a painting trying to communicate something to you.

QUENTIN TARANTINO

If I say that Quentin Tarantino is God’s greatest gift to movie-making, I will not be exaggerating.

He is an angel sent to save so many things and to give a new form to many older faces. Tarantino is not just a director, he is a writer as well and an excellent one at that. His films have a strong visual appeal and at the same time his dialogs are nothing less than literature.

Tarantino has made us remember the B-Class that has always entertained us and has always gone unacknowledged. He has given us not only immortal characters but different immortal worlds that one desperately wants to visit.

There is no other man in film-making business that is so open to new ideas and presents them so well.

He is coherent in his own way but when you oblige him to be coherent, he says “Coherence, What’s that shit?” But in the end once again what you get is a masterpiece.

The cinematography of his films is such that you get hypnotized just as you get hypnotized by McDonald’s logo when you are really hungry. It gives his films a tasty feeling as if you were not watching a movie but eating the “Big Kahuna Burger”.

Just like his films are homage to older genres, he is homage to Hollywood itself.

OLIVER STONE

The films that we see are the works of directors just like the novels we read are the works of writers. So, it is not possible to speak of cinema without speaking about the directors who created it. Hence, I started these write-ups on directors of feature films starting with the ones I like most.

And to begin with, Oliver Stone is a well deserving candidate. I consider Stone one of the best directors of Hollywood because he is capable of keeping a storyline coherent mixing reality and drama just in the right measurements and then he has his own subtle style coming through.

With films so different from each other like U-Turn and Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Natural Born Killers, all well directed and great in their own way, Stone has proved again and again that he is able to direct different actors as well as scripts.

What makes a director really good is the viewers’ faith in him that if his name associated with a project there is no idiocy expected. I think Oliver Stone qualifies that test and you don’t expect a mediocre film if he is the director.

AVATAR (2009)

Country: USA | UK
Language: English
Director: James Cameron

It cannot be denied that James Cameron is master of Science Fiction. And that he is way ahead of his time. He proved it in 1984 with The Terminator and he has proved it again with Avatar.

The film is one of the most brilliant in years and has elements from classics like Dances with Wolves, Instinct and The Matrix. The cinematography and the animation are such that beautiful is a very poor word to define it.

The concept is very entertaining and at the same time it gives a lot of messages to the human race.

It emphasizes the destructive nature of the human beings and their lack of farsightedness. The evil inherent in their very being which, indeed, is a grim reality. It also shows through symbolism that a few good that are there are partially paralyzed.

Avatar also makes an effort to make us see how disconnected we have become with nature and how the only thing that we are after is our comfort, more comfort and some more comfort. We prefer to drive a car instead of taking a walk and later desperately try to burn out the calories we have saved in the gym. The film points out the very ridiculous thought structure of humans.

The film also shows how most of us just prefer to do what others are doing, without being able to meditate on our own actions and their consequences. The people who cannot even think right have the right to decide what is right and what is not right.

The actors are fitting but they are not special in any way. Their performances are okay. It is ironic that Sam Worthington defended the human race against machines in Terminator: Salvation and here he defends others from human race.

The satellite Pandora is a kind of “amplified” earth with every thing akin but with an ethereal touch. The design is impeccable.

Great work Cameron! You live up to yourself.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2002)

Country: UK | USA | Ireland

Language: English

Director: Kevin Reynolds

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, this film has been accused of deviating from the book extensively. However, it was the film I saw before seeing any other based on the book or even before reading the book; and, surprisingly, all other films(though I can’t say the same for the book) have failed to impress me after having watched this version.

The film begins with Edmond Dantes, played by James Caviezel, meeting the exiled Napoleon and captivates your attention right from the beginning, right to the end. An intense drama follows with one of the most impressive stories of revenge, prison-break and love.

The direction is very tight and doesn’t let the script waver for even a second.

James Caviezel appears in a role that no one could have played better than him. I think Mel Gibson saw The Count of Monte Cristo and hence, chose him to become Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ.

Another great actor Richard Harris plays the Priest who teaches Dantes and gives him the keys to Monte Cristo. Harris’ performance is nothing less than perfect.

The bad guy Guy Pearce also makes you hate him thoroughly which ensures his success as a villain.

The dialogs are very good and so is the plaque of “God will give me justice” shown throughout the film.

This is an excellent film if not an excellent adaptation.

THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986)

COuntry: France | Italy | West Germany

Language: English | Latin

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Original Title: Der Name Der Rose

The Name of the Rose is based on a book of the same name by Umberto Eco. I cannot compare the film with the book as I have not read it and I don’t find it necessary to read it. This is a very tightly directed film with almost no errors in the flow of the script. Jean-Jacques Annaud as his other works, has created a flawless film.

The film takes you to the dark world of medieval Christianity that seems more sinister than hell itself. The crimes inside a monastery, the covert battle between the “not-so-good” and the “not-so-evil” give you the same sensations that a horror film like The Exorcist gives you. The monks seem to suffer the diseases triggered by isolation and look monstrous which is not so different from the history. And then, there is a Franciscan monk William of Baskerville played by Sean Connery, one of the few people who really seem to understand religion, accompanied by his assistant Adso of Melk(Christian Slater) who is also the narrator of the story. The film also has an air of Sherlock Holmes’ books and doesn’t fail to deliver a surprise ending. Then there is this little touch of love for a woman that gives the movie a sweet fragrance.

Sean Connery is one of those actors who keep getting better and better with age and their charisma goes on increasing. His performance as William is remarkable and unforgettable.

Christian Slater is a good actor who lacks charisma and cannot play a leading man. But here he fits in perfectly.

All the other actors are also perfect for their respective roles, especially Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. as the Venerable Jorge.

The last line uttered by Adso, now an old man, “I couldn’t even know… her name.” leaves you with a distant fragrance that has faded but still has an exceptional force.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: Frank Darabont

A film that rightly carries “redemption” in its name. One of the greatest works of mainstream Hollywood. You, kind of, feel redeemed yourself after having watched this masterpiece.

Tim Robbins is a great actor and he delivers one of his best performances as Andy Dufresne, a banker who is [wrongly] convicted for the murder of his own wife and her boyfriend. He is one of the two key characters of the story along with Red played by Morgan Freeman.

Morgan Freeman is truly a master class actor. Calling him a great actor is considering him much less than he really is. He communicates years of suffering through his eyes and at the same time an incredible self-confidence that those years have given him; and then you feel a friendliness and caring attitude oozing out of him. Freeman is the soul of the film.

Clancy Brown and Bob Gunton are not bad either.

The dialogs of the film are very impressive without being too dramatic. The lines uttered by Red in the end where he says “I want to talk to that boy…” are immortal as is “Get busy living or get busy dying” said by Dufresne.

The beauty of the film largely depends upon the beauty of the book it is based on written by Stephen King. It is one of most flawlessly written screenplays ever.

As you see the blue Pacific in the end you realize that the cinematography is very brilliant and it is so soothing to your eyes that you feel as if you are looking at a sea after yourself passing years of confinement in the dark.

And the end is totally a “redemption” where you want to run and hug Red when he arrives with open arms and then you want to hug Andy when you look at him and you really feel as if you have hugged them when they hug each other; and, that’s the moment when you realize that you have been through one of the best directed films ever. Frank Darabont is a great director indeed.