My name is Nobody (1973) - a comic Western

Spaghetti westerns were all the craze starting with the 'Man with No Name' series, starring Clint Eastwood, and directed by Sergei Leone. More directors and stars got into the act, and soon, there were a number of such movies in the market. However by, the early 1970's, the whole concept of spaghetti westerns were becoming a joke, and there were a number of movies made on the concept of creating a comedy western. There had been other comedy westerns made, such as the Trinity series (They Call Me Trinity and, Trinity Is STILL My Name!). Both of the Trinity movies also starred Terence Hill (making him the star of comedy westerns, while Henry Fonda was the star of serious westerns). The movie was mostly directed by Tonino Valerii, with Sergei Leone directing a few scenes, but since there was the involvement of Sergei, the movie came to be known as a Sergei Leone movie (something that Torino was not happy about). The music by Ennio Morricone was superb as usual.



However, 'My Name Is Nobody' is the story of a famous (and old) gunslinger Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda); since he is famous, he is constantly hunted by the younger punks who want to challenge him, and if they win, they will be the next famous ones. Jack, after a lifetime of fighting, now just wants to hang up his boots, and is in Europe, hoping for some peace and quiet.
The movie starts out with 3 men challenging Jack, and they are dispatched in a barber's shop; and there the name of the movie is born, since, when asked who can defeat Jack, the barber replies "Faster than him? Nobody!"
And Nobody is Terence Hill, who is a big fan of Jack, and wants to setup him against a finale sequence against the Wild Bunch, a bunch of bandits. Nobody keeps after Jack, finally managing to get him into the fight against the Wild Bunch. Job and fight done, Nobody thanks Jack by setting up a fake fight with Jack, which is apparently won by Nobody, letting Jack off in retirement on a boat to Europe.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - Global Warming scenario accelerated

This was a movie released in 2004, at a time when the Bush Administration was steadfast in claiming that there was no global warming (or rather, that the science proving it was not confirmed), and there were sections of the scientific community and in society that were unhappy over this attitude of the administration. The fact that the admnistration was much closer to the business community which would be affected if measures needed to be taken to fight global warming compounded the response of this section of society. So keep in mind this fact while watching the movie, given that it touts that global warming can cause huge damages to our community, and that the political leadership is too blinkered to be able to take effective measures.
Global warming is a fact, and nations all over the world are talking (mostly talking) about how to address this problem, and are debating who needs to take what steps. It is a game for rich nations to worry about the effect on the economy, a huge debate between rich and poor nations about responsibility and steps to be taken, but it is coming and will keep on affecting us. This movie took the scare due to global warming to a much higher level, and keep in mind that there are almost no scientists who share the vision of a much accelerated change that is shown in the movie.



The movie was hugely successful (earning more than 650 million dollars), and brings to its viewers a vision of the full power of Mother Nature. The movie however did not earn much critical acclaim for its scientific background, and was criticized by a number of scientists working in the Global warming area; the feeling being that the movie, by showcasing a sudden onset of disaster and moving away from the decades based impact of global warming and makes the whole science seem freakish and unconvincing. One area where the movie won a lot of praise was in the area of its special effects, especially the disaster scenes.
The movie starts with scientific research on the ice shelf, Larsen Ice Shelf. Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is drilling for ice cores in the Antartic for NOAA. Suddenly, the ice shelf separates, and Jack almost dies. Jack travels to a conference on Global Warming in New Delhi where diplomats from all over the world have gathered in order to present his theory, but of course, politicians (including the Vice-President of the United States (resembling Dick Cheney)) refuse to believe him. However, the weather has other ideas. Another scientist (Professor Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) of the Hedland Climate Research Centre in Scotland) looks at Jack's theory and does not dismiss it. When he returns to Scotland, data from 2 water buoys in the North Atlantic show sudden drops in the temperature of the water. Unknown to humanity, the deep chill caused by global warming has begun.
Professor Rapson and Jack talk about Jack's theory, but Jack's theory was over a long period of time, not supposed to happen suddenly. Jack starts to build a computer model based on his theory, and on data, and the model is horrific in terms of what will happen. And the weather systems all over go haywire. Tokyo is hurt by a huge hailstorm, Los Angeles is decimated by tornadoes, planes get caught in the weather turbulence. Eventually, air traffic is stopped. British RAF helicopters are suddenly frozen as they pass through the eye of a superstorm. The human element to the movie is the father-son relationship between Jack and his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who have travelled to New York City for a competition, when the weather system turns haywire. Jack heads to New York to get them back to safety.
The predictions of storms, of an ice wave are so strong that it is recommended to evacuate the Northern Unites Stated and move to the South and to Mexico. In the meantime, Sam along with friends have taken refuge in the New York Public Library. Eventually, Jack manages to make it to the Library and get help for everybody over there, after the superstorm has passed.

Apollo 13: 'A successful failure'

Why the title of 'A successful failure' ? Well, because the third manned mission to the moon, part of the Project Apollo was a failure to make it to its target, but managed to be successful in a return journey back to Earth. There had been 2 successful moon landings so far, a major success for the US in its space program. The 3rd such mission did not have the same amount of public involvement, and yet turned out to be an extremely riveting adventure, because of the drama involved. An explosion in space, power failure, less air, and the consequent on-the-spot-engineering to make things work out and get the 3 astronauts back to Earth made for an excellent story waiting to be told. The incredible thing was that it took so long to be made into a movie, released at a time when the current generation would not know or remember about this incident.



The whole incident was turned into a 1995 movie starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris; the movie was in turn based on a book called 'Lost Moon' by Jim Lovell (the actual commander of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission; the other members of the mission were Command Module pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise) and Jeffrey Kluger. The movie was praised by critics for a good dramatization of an epic episode during the space race while being accurate to the actual events and the scientific facts. Some of the scenes involving weightlessness were filmed abroad the NASA flight that is actually used to mimic microgravity for a brief periods of time, the KC-135 aircraft called the 'Vomit Comet'.
The movie starts out with details of the build-up to the Apollo program, covers the first landing on the moon, and then moves onto the actual planning of the crew for the Apollo 13 mission, including the fact that the crew was not originally planned for this mission. The movie then covers the lift-off into space with a slight problem, and soon moves into the actual disaster, with the explosion, leaking of the oxygen tanks, cancellation of the lunar landing mission, and then the entire drama of the magnificent engineering feats involved in working out how to get the crew back from deep space (where there is no possibility of a rescue mission).
The movie was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won 2 awards (but none of the acting and other high profile awards):
* Won - Best Film Editing — Mike Hill, Daniel Hanley
* Won - Best Sound Mixing — Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, David MacMilan
* Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role — Ed Harris
* Nominated - Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — Kathleen Quinlan
* Nominated - Best Achievement in Art Direction — Michael Corenblith, Merideth Boswell
* Nominated - Best Original Score — James Horner
* Nominated - Best Picture — Brian Grazer
* Nominated - Best Visual Effects — Robert Legato, Michael Kanfer, Leslie Ekker, Matt Sweeney
* Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay — William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert

Metropolis (1927)

The Metropolis was a movie that was seemingly way ahead of its time. It's a movie about the conflict between the rulers (the technologically advanced class) and the the workers who toiled to provide for it all (and who were seen as the subjugated sections of the population). Metropolis depicted this scenario, set in the year 2026, with hugely futuristic settings. The movie was not something that is easily viewable in its original creation - it was deemed too long (at 210 minutes), ruthlessly chopped and modified for multiple reasons (whether to it into the 90 minutes allowed by theatre owners, or because parts of the subject were deemed too controversial in the United States, or because the sound era started soon after and the movie was adjusted in terms of frames per second to fit into the sound compatible format). In addition, parts of the original movie were found in Argentina, and parts of the original movie were never recovered.



The movie was made in Germany, as probably one of the earliest great science fiction movies, made by Austrian-German director Fritz Lang and one of the most expensive movies of that era, costing around 7 million Reichsmarks at that time (approx $200 million as of now). The movie was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou (in a twist, the movie was praised by the Nazis, and Thea soon became an ardent Nazis; she and Lang finally divorced in 1934).
The society of 2026 was divided into 2 rigid groups with the planners living in luxury, and the workers toiling underground in pretty bad conditions. The skyline has plenty of Gothic style skyscrapers (probably inspiring the Tyrell towers in the classy Bladerunner made much later). The city is run by Johann 'Joh' Fredersen (Alfred Abel), who looks for ways to ensure that the workers remain in their conditions. However, there is a charismatic and beautiful lady, Maria (Brigitte Helm), who advises the workers against trying for a revolt, and instead wait for the arrival of a figure known as the 'Mediator'. It is the Mediator who will bring together these 2 separate sections of society and improve the conditions of the workers. She has an admirer, Frederson's own son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), who is disgusted at the conditions in which the workers toil and live, and joins Maria's cause.
And then starts the true future. The scientist and old rival of Fredersen, Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), builds a robot in the shape of Maria. He uses this robot to first preach discord in the young rich men of Metropolis and then descends to the underground sections where the robot inspires rebellion in the workers. In this rebellion, they destroy the important 'Heart Machine' and then realize that the destruction in turn causes the flooding of their own quarters. They chase Maria, and burn her, and then realize that she is a robot. The real Maria is chased by Rotwang, and followed by Freder, and in the climatic end, Rotwang falls to his death; and Freder carries out his destiny of being the Mediator by uniting Frederson with the workers.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Based on a famous book by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath was an incredible movie. The novel was published in 1939, and was made into the movie in 1940 by the famous director John Ford (who was the only Director to win 4 best Director Oscars, including one for The Grapes of Wrath). John Ford also made a number of westerns, many of them starring John Wayne, but is also very famous for movie such as The Grapes of Wrath and How Green is my Valley). Interestingly, the USA is a land very much against Communist ideologies, so The Grapes of Wrath could have faced trouble due to its leftist ideology; it however did not because of the power of the story.
The movie is now counted as a classic, seen as among the 25 best films ever made. The images portrayed by the ex-preacher and by Connie bring out the desperation of the times. The acting of Henry Fonda, portraying the lead role of Tom Joad is seen as embodying the resilience of the human spirit, the way that he keeps on going inspite of the problems and struggles that he has to go through. Further, the movie provides a strong canvas on which the struggles of people in the dust bowl is painted with broad strokes. These people were poor and not owning the land on which they till, and facing increasing mechanization; with the dual effect forcing them off their land.


The Grapes of Wrath was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and won 2 of them.
Academy Awards nominations (1941)
* Best Actor in a Leading Role, Henry Fonda
* Best Film Editing, Robert L. Simpson.
* Best Picture, Darryl F. Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson.
* Best Sound Recording, Edmund H. Hansen.
* Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, Nunnally Johnson.
Academy Awards wins (1941)
* Best Supporting Actress, Jane Darwell.
* Academy Award for Directing, John Ford.

The movie, set in the Depression era, takes the plight of farmers in the Dust Bowl who are forcibly dispossessed from their land and left destitute. They did not own the land, and when crops failed, banks took over the land and started bringing in the age of mechanization by bringing in huge machines to work the land. These farmers, then, left with no option, get attracted by the promise of a much better life in California, working in farms and fruit orchards, with good pay. However, the trip there is painful across the desert, and when they eventually reach, they find that they have been brought to California on a dream which is false. Farmers are out to exploit them and pay them rock-bottom wages, betting on so many families arriving there that people are desperate for work.
This is captured in the story of one family, the Joad family. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda), released early (4 years out of a 7 year sentence) makes it to his family farm to find it empty (in between meeting an old and crusty ex-preacher Casy). He soon learns that his family farm had been repossessed by the bank, and after a bit of discussion with a neighbor Muley Graves (who is deranged after his own farm has been foreclosed), he learns that his family is now at this Uncle John's farm (which will also be foreclosed the next day). The family decides to make a move to California with the promise of getting into better times.
After making the difficult decision of deciding what to take and what to leave, the family sets off, packing the family jalopy full. Along the way, the trip starts taking its toll, with both Grampa an Grandma dying. The family also struggles past suspicious state troops across each state border that they cross. During the course of the journey, they struggle to maintain their pride, and yet they are getting into worse things. Then starts the struggle with the migrant camps (taking up half of the movie).
In the camps, they get into more trouble. Tom is on parole, so he has to avoid trouble, and yet he is not one to take bad behaviour from others lightly, fighting back when he can. Once Casy takes the rap for one such fight and gets run out of town. They finally find work at a ranch, but soon Tom realizes (after a discussion with Casy) that there is a strike ongoing against bad conditions and low pay, and once the strike is broken, the wages will get much lower, and that is eventually what happens. In another fight, Casy is killed, and Tom fights back, killing the attacker (but gets wounded in the face).
This mark on the face is enough to identify him as the person who fought back, and Tom realizes that he will have to leave his family. They manage to leave the camp and for the first time, move into a decent camp run by the Department of Agriculture; which is in much better condition and not subject to intimidation by Sheriff's deputies. However, Tom soon realizes that even this place is not safe for him and he has to move on, and he finally leaves, after a great scene between him and Ma. Tom wants to continue doing what Casy was doing, but is not clear as to what that will mean; he then makes his final departure, leaving Ma. And Ma makes her own statements, show-casing the power of the human will, no matter what the struggles that they go through, she will not be afraid, and will continue to hold the family together. The movie ends on an optimistic note, as opposed to the book that ended on a far more negative note.

Documentary: Planet Earth - BBC Series

If there ever was a set of movie documentaries that you wanted to show to people, children, kids, etc. that showed the beauty of this earth, its wonders, and fears of what would happen in the future, this documentary DVD is the one. This 5 disc DVD version of the BBC series contains 550 minutes of coverage, essentially the 11 episodes. It has been stated by many to be one of the greatest nature/wildlife series ever made. Narrated by the British director, Sir David Attenborough, each section of the documentary covers either a specific habitat such as mountains, caves, deserts, etc or covers a specific geographical area. This is without doubt a must have series to be shown as part of the schooling / education of children, giving them a good overview of the world around us, its challenges, future, things that they are unlikely to see in the normal course of things.
This is one series that has to be seen to be believed of what the intrepid cameramen of Discovery Channel have been able to capture through their sheer perseverance in remote locations. The HD technology has captured some scenes and images never seen before and some seen before but never with this clarity and beauty. 5 years, 62 countries and 204 locations, over 2,000 days in the field, using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations is what it took to make this series, and the result is a lifetime TV series. It would hook even full blown adults.

See a trailer of this series:



The series does not drill the message of global warming in your face, although you see it in the case of the polar bears, who are getting affected by the reduction in the ice pack, and hence losing their natural habitat. You get to see some animals about whom you would not have even known that they existed as, such as a rare species of leopard which no longer exist. The movie is set in nature, which includes the hunting by animals, so death is all around, but presented in a natural way. It might also quench the curiosity in many people about how such things are shot on camera, with the DVD containing a section on such nature filming. The series culminates with a section on the future, getting a set of experts in a discussion.

The series is available on DVD, on Blu-Ray and on HD-DVD:

DVD

HD DVD

Blu-Ray