Just saw "March of the Penguins". It's a great film for kids, and grownups won't be bored!
Got "The Brothers Grimm" and "March of the Penquins" on my NetFlix queue now.
Im sorry, I saw March of the Penguins and everybody was bored. Not enough gratuitous violence and sex. Its a 15 minute flick (tops) that somebody stretched out to an hour and a half.
Hey wiz. How do you like netflix? Imsure we spend waay more than 12 bucks a month on rentals and late fees.
I am now on the one-film-at-a-time plan for $9.95 as that's all the time I have to watch, even with all the Christmastime re-runs. It's great if you have a shipping depot near you. I get a replacement movie about every four days which ends up being about 7 to 8 movies a month, or about $1.40 per movie. My local rentals are $1.99 per new release and I have to get in the car to get the film and again to return it. I can do this from my mailbox.
Of course, when such series as The Sopranos and Deadwood come back on HBO in about a month, they are both on Sunday night and I've nearly always watched the movie I received Thursday, Friday or Monday.
The last movie I saw was Kingdom of Heaven. It was a movie about the Crusades. Excellent film. Told from the Christian (supposed) side, the Muslim side, and then from an individual's side. The real message was the Kingdom of Heaven is in the heart and not a city, etc. Excellent film.
I also watched it with the special feature which gave the historical context from the viewpoint of the pilgrim's writings of the time. Ridley Scott decided to make a historical film which actually tried to remain as faithful to real history as possible. Amazing. The subtext with much dialogue to support it was not glorifying organized religion, in fact it was negative. It was also relevant to today as the war between the Christians and Moslems has not waned.
(Not to mention the Jews and the Moslems).
Exactly Lightwizard. My favorite part was when Balian asked Saladin, "What is Jeruselem worth?" He said, "Nothing." Then walked away, turned around and said, "Everything." I thought that was very moving.
What did you think of the Pope(?) or Bishop(?), not sure which he was.
It was the Bishop of Jeruselum, I believe. His last lines included converting to the Moslem religion -- one can always convert back later. Typical.
The hero had other ideas!
It was the Bishop of Jeruselum, I believe. His last lines included converting to the Moslem religion -- one can always convert back later. Typical.
The hero had other ideas!
Any devout, fundamentalist Christians who see the film will no doubt resent the implications. Both sides have for one-hundred years perpetuated the intolerance and until that's broken down, the Middle East will be in the same condition.
Lightwizard,
Many have called me a Fundamentalist Christian and I for one, thought it was right on target. I loved the way that Balian portrayed Christianity. It's in the heart. I wish all Christians could be more like that.
Scott gave both sides their bad and good characters which some historians have stated was a little too much a desire to be politically correct. The real Balian was apparantly not so kind to the Moslem population in Jeruselum. Of course, history is a series of spoken and/or written record and has been known to be not always so accurate. Other historians have said it was properly characterized.
I didn't figure it for complete accuracy, but it really did make me think. I wonder how many others were like Balian? Not enough, it seems.
I liked the way they portrayed Balian as a human being that was struggling to do the right things. It wasn't easy, but he remembered where the Kingdom of Heaven really was.
I loved it when he knighted everyone, especially the young boy and he actually lived through the battle.
(The real Baldwin, King of Jeruselum, apparantly didn't wear a silver mask but at the time was severely striken with leprosy making it hard to believe he was gatting about bare faced!)
I was very surprised at that. Weren't lepers usually banned from the public? Since he was king, was that why he wasn't banned? Or maybe they didn't ban them? Do you know?
Not sure on that -- would have to research it. Perhaps it was kept secret or at least very covert like Roosevelt's polio affliction. It could be the people did not have general knowledge that Baldwin had become a leper and therefore the silver mask would make a lot of sense. I think Scott was judicious in extrapolating the story and it also added to his staure as a great film storyteller.
I have to agree with you Lightwizard. One of the best films I have seen in a long time.
My nephew who generally doesn't like historical epics thought it was the best he'd ever seen. I had to coax him into watching it. He even gave Ridley some slack in making the hero almost super human. There always has to be a hero, though, even if exagerrated.
I'm surprised that nobody has recommended
Garden State yet.
