Star Wars: A New Hope

Fox Video and LucasFilm

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas said: "I will create a cult classic". Well, I'm sure that's not exactly what this director had in mind when he was filming the much beloved film Star Wars: A New Hope. In fact, Star Wars had trouble getting showings in theaters.

Star Wars: A New Hope takes place in a galaxy far, far away, where an evil Empire has taken control of the planets. A small underground rebellion is looking to overthrow the Empire and restart the government. Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) puts technical readouts of a threatening Empire "Death Star" into a little robotic droid, R2-D2, before she is captured.

Through a turn of events, R2 and his counterpart, C-3PO end up with a young farmboy named Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Luke is then mentored under an ex-Jedi Knight named Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). The two, along with the droids, enlist the help of self-centered pilot Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his partner Chewbacca. This unlikely band must come together to save Princess Leia from being terminated and the entire rebellion being struck down by the Empire.

There are a few scenes that are my favorite. My first favorite scenes are any with Luke in the beginning. He is a whiny little kid and since I've seen the rest of the series, it is cool to see him transform to whiny kid who wants "to go into Tashee station to pick up some power converters" to calm, cool, collected Jedi Knight.

One scene that kind of encompasses the feel of the film is when Han Solo is running after a horde of Stormtroopers in the hallway, yelling his head off. I don't know why I like this part so much. I think because that is what it feels like in most action movies, but in this instance, the filmmakers just overexaggerated everything, making it hilarious.

In fact, I like all the scenes with Han Solo in them. The character is so greedy, and yet so charismatic. I think it's because the audience can see the man underneath the exterior, who is capable of caring about a cause and people, although everything he does says the contrary.

The film is for kids, so why do adults like it so much? For one, they grew up with it. For two, it is a film that is light-hearted fare on the outside, but becomes something much deeper as the movies go on, eventually becoming an examination of the nature of good and evil and what makes someone one or the other.

This is in my Top 20 favorite movies, if only for nostalgic purposes.

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange was very controversial when it first came out, and remains controversial to this day. A young teen named Alex runs amok in futuristic Britain with his droogs. Alex is the leader of his droogs and roams through the streets at night, letting his violent and sexual nature off of its leash, not caring who he hurts in the process. Then, one fateful night, Alex accidentally kills a woman while trying to violate her. His droogs turn on him and the police throw him in jail. His violent nature doesn’t go away in prison, but Alex learns to hide it. Then, he undergoes a process that will “cure” him of his badness: the Ludovico treatment. Alex does the treatment, but it robs him of his free will, making him mechanical human, a “clockwork orange”. This movie brings up an important question: is choosing to be bad better than being forced to be good?

A Clockwork Orange was very hard for me to watch for two reasons: the dehumanization of Alex’s victims and how evil Alex was. But, as Kubrick does in all his movies, he lets the audience feel sympathy for the main character, who in this case is a horrendous person that has done bad things to other people. Alex is called a “victim of the modern age” when his own victims could also be called that as well. Kubrick completely shies away from what Alex’s victims were going through, as if they don’t matter as much as what Alex is going through. Kubrick has a habit of giving us characters that are horrible people, but he gives us reasons to sympathize with them. I’ve seen quite a few of Kubrick’s films, and the main characters are mostly males who would normally be classified as an antagonist instead of a protagonist in a movie.

The scene that stuck with me the most was the rape scene near the beginning. I know it was supposed to shock the viewer, but it was so hard for me to watch. It was so intense that I actually shed a few tears and stopped the movie for a while.

Kubrick was known for having great attention to detail and doing many takes of a scene. He was a perfectionist who knew what he wanted from his actors and the rest of the people working on the movie. His sets are always very elaborate and could actually pass for a real life place. His movies have surreal qualities to them, while retaining grains of truth and questioning the nature of humanity as it is in the present. His movies can be dated by the older camera tints, but not by their themes. Kubrick’s films continue to speak to people through their timeless questions and will continue to do so in years to come.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is an Oscar-winning film directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandlen. The story is about an Indian boy named Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who grows up in the slums of Mumbai with his brother, Salim (Maddhur Mittal). The two brothers are quickly orphaned when a group of religious rioters kill their mother right in front of them. The boys then meet Latika, another orphan, and go through a series of tragic events. Along the way, Salim becomes a gangster for the notorious Maman and Latika is separated from them. Determined to find Latika, his one true love, Jamal goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in hopes that she will be watching. Jamal sweeps the show and everyone thinks he is cheating. They torture him to ask how he knew all the answers, and he begins to tell the story of his life and how the answers to the questions just fell into his lap. Apparently, it is destiny.

Although I loved the character Latika, I thought that the filmmakers should have depicted a stronger woman in the film as well. There were so many male characters and hardly any female characters at all. Even though men weren’t portrayed in the best light during the film, there was the main hero, who was strong, righteous, and likeable. Latika was also likeable, but she wasn’t self-sufficient and relied on action from the male characters to propel her to action.

I don’t understand how this was the “feel-good” movie of the year. Yes, it had a happy ending (because, let’s face it, no one was that sad when Salim died) but the rest of the movie was pretty depressing. Religious related murders, purposely maiming a child, child prostitution, rape, domestic violence, gangs, torture, and poverty? Then Slumdog is the feel good movie of the year.
I have already seen Slumdog several times, and I like it. It’s rare that a Best Picture winner has a happy ending. The hero is a really good guy and true love wins out in the end. I would recommend this movie to anyone over the age of 15.

No Man's Land

No Man’s Land is a 2001 film directed by Tanis Danovic. The movie plot centers around the trench between the warring Bosnian Muslim and Serb sides called “no man’s land”. A group of Bosnian Muslims are opened fire upon and the (supposedly) last remaining one, Ciki (Branko Djuric), is left in no man’s land. Two Bosnian Serbs, an old man and a rookie named Nino (Rene Bitorajac), are sent in to make sure that there were no survivors. The two Serbs set a mine under a Bosnian Muslim’s body and are ambushed by Ciki. Nino survives the rapid gunfire and Ciki can’t bring himself to finish him off. Then, to add to the tension, the booby-trapped body named Cera (Filip Sovagovic) wakes up and can’t move or he will blow everything to smithereens. The rest of the movie is a half-hearted rescue mission for both sides, with crazed reporters demanding actions from the military.

The movie opens with Ciki and his groups lost in the fog, a metaphor for the chaos and uncertainties going on in former Yugoslavia. “No Man’s Land” plays with expectations about what happens in war movies where men from opposing sides meet. Generally in a movie, the two men bond, become friends, and realize that the war is stupid. In this movie, the men bond, but not in the way we expect them to. They realize that they have things in common. Ciki and Nino knew the exact same girl and they speak the same language, but they hate each other. They speak of the atrocities committed against their own side as if the other man has personally done it himself. The years of hatred between the two groups can’t be erased by a short time in a trench.

As the gun rotates between the two men, the gun-wielder makes the other man say that the war was his side’s fault. But saying it doesn’t mean that the man being forced to say it has changed inside. Both still believe that they are not at fault for what is going on. When the man with the gun demands something of the other and is asked why he should do that, the answer is “Because I have a gun and you don’t!”

The film is an anti-war film. It stresses how petty and silly the hatred between the two men is. This movie probably had an impact on Americans because it was easier for people from the United States to see the futility of war in this movie, because we don’t understand Balkan politics and haven’t experienced the hatred between the Croats and the Serbs. When I see a movie about racial prejudice during the Civil War, I realize why there is such tension between the blacks and the whites. But I haven’t lived where Ciki and Nino lived, and I don’t understand how they can hate each other when they have quite a bit in common and seem like semi-decent fellows.