Extraordinary measures (released in 2010) - A medical drama starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser

The movie directed by Tim Vaughn is a real life drama which is immortalized in print by the Pulitzer prize winning novelist Geeta Anand. She wrote the book called “The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--and Bucked the Medical Establishment--in a Quest to Save His Children " about a dad who goes about setting up a 100 dollar company to find a cure for his children's affliction.
The story is about John Crowley and his family who live a idyllic life. Crowley has a great job s a medical marketing executive in a big Pharma company and is on the fast track of success. But their lives are shattered when their youngest kids are diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, Pompe Disease. Pompe Disease makes the internal organs swell causing muscular dystrophy and is always fatal. Many children thus afflicted do not see beyond their 10th birthday.
Crowley unable to bear his children, Meghan and Patrick's suffering, quits his job and vows to find a cure. After some research he zeroes in on Doctor Stonehill, a grouchy researcher who shows promising result. Crowley manages to convince him in setting up a biotech company which will develop a cure for Pompe disease.



With Crowley's business acumen and Stonehill's medical genius they soon develop a cure. But living with two eccentric personalities is not a cake walk. Crowley has to bear grouchiness, temper tantrums and outbursts. But he keeps up with it even when a big Pharma company swallows their small one.
John Crowley is the undisputed hero who goes to extraordinary measures to alleviate his kids suffering. He cajoles, pampers, yells, threatens and implores with the eccentric geniuses to work towards the cure. He is solidly supported by his wife and other children. You can see his determination as he walks away from his fast track success just to get his children alive.
In the end they develop a cure but even the success is tempered by the lack of common ground between the men. Dr. Stone hill develops an animosity towards Crowley and his tactics. Will it affect the cure and eclipse the guiding spirit of the company. One has to watch the movie to see two different men sink their animosity to save the lives of many. The film also explores the bureaucratic hassles faced by the protagonist and also informs the viewers the methodology of medical research.
Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford star as John Crowley and Dr. Stonehill respectively. They are ably supported by Keri Russell as Mrs. Crowley and the cute child stars. The film was a moderate success and had a mixed reaction from the critics. It is an extraordinary film which tugs at the heart strings, even though some of the scenes are too long and tends to have a documentary feel. But thanks to Crowley and his team, today Pompe disease is curable and thousands of children are saved from a fatal fate with this research. A good movie for all ages.

Regarding Henry (released in 1991) - starring Harrison Ford and Annette Bening

An American drama film released in 1991, Regarding Henry co-stars Harrison Ford and Annette Bening. Henry Turner is a callous, narcissist, and opportunistic lawyer who has no morals and values in life. He lives for wining his cases and is a workaholic who neglects his wife Sarah and daughter Rachel. He also has a string of relationships with many women and is not very much bothered by it. His daughter studying in an elite school is very unhappy and is a troubled teen with no avenues to dissipate her angst.
Henry wins a malpractice case for an errant hospital against a poor man who had informed about the wrongdoings in the institution. One night he runs out to buy cigarette's, he is shot as he interrupts a robbery attempt. One bullet pierces his frontal lobe of the brain which is the epicenter for feelings and behavior. Another one pierces his heart causing heavy hemorrhage cutting off the oxygen supply to his body. Doctors revive Henry who has suffered debilitating disabilities and a loss of functional motor skills.



So as a paraplegic, Henry regains his motor functions with the help of his physiotherapist, Bradley, but his emotional well being is doubted upon. He suffers from memory loss and his behavior under goes a drastic change. A child like Henry notices his sylvan surroundings and apartment and completely delights in them. He develops a new relationship with his wife and daughter as he spends more time with them. As he invests in his relationships, Henry starts to fall in love with his wife again.
As he returns to his job, he is not able to be his old arrogant self again. His compassionate and giving outlook does not work well with his firm. They soon take away his cases and assigns him only desk jobs. But Henry is not fazed and decides to give up his practice. The family shifts to a new smaller residence and starts life anew. During relocation Henry comes across letters which details Sarah's affair with a colleague and becomes angry and leaves. But he is confronted by his fellow lawyer Linda who tells him about his affair with her. A much chastened Henry reconciles with this wife and moves away from his old life. He understands that the plaintiff was right in his earlier hospital case and gives him all the relevant papers to help him mount an appeal.
He symbolically takes out his daughter Rachel from her elite school and puts her where she is more happy. Regarding Henry was a critical and box office success. Harrison Ford did not want to be associated with the movie and had to be persuaded by the director Mike Reynolds. Regarding Henry remains a major milestone in the life of Harrison Ford as a serious performer. Annette Bening was named best new comer of the year for her work in this movie.
A tearjerker drama which is well executed. So grab some tissues and enjoy the emotional roller-coaster.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999), directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Nicholas Cage - movie did not do too well

After a couple of movies such as Casino and Kundun, Martin Scorsese returned to the same location that is a staple of his movie, the gritty New York areas where he takes people with deep emotional conflicts and shows up the progression of these conflicts. In 'Bringing Out the Dead', Scorsese made a movie where he depicts the life of a deeply traumatized paramedic working the night shift in a New York Hospital (he has been traumatized by some of the experiences that he has seen, especially that of a young homeless girl; and his job is one that exposes him to profound grief shown by others - typically the relatives of people who area admitted to emergency services and who often do not survive). He is what you would call a typical recipe for a person heading to a collapse, with his nerves and emotions driving him to a point of collapse.
He realizes that he is headed to towards burnout, already suffers from insomnia, and wonders whether he will, in his current condition, meet another victim whom he cannot save; and he attempts to try and get fired. And then he gets salvation.
The movie was based on a novel by Joe Connelly (screenplay for the movie by Paul Schrader); but even though the movie is now considered a pretty good movie, it was a disaster at the box office with the US box office collections only making half of the $32 million budget.



The movie is a frantic 3 days, where the main character has 3 different partners in terms of his work as a paramedic (and the 3 partners also portray their roles - with 3 entirely different types of characters, one being very engaging, the second being more of a stirring type of person, and the third being more crazy). The path to salvation for Frank Pierce (Nicholas Cage in a pretty fine performance) comes from his meeting with the daughter of a heart attack victim that Frank had helped save; he meets Mary (Patricia Arquette) when she often comes to visit her father in the hospital.
It is Mary who, in her interactions with Frank, passes on her compassion and her feelings of helping others, which finally takes Frank out of his depression; repair his feelings about the people he was not able to save, and finally cure his insomnia.

The Big Sleep (1946)

Mighty strange name for a movie, and one would wonder about what the name means .. the name actually is meant to represent 'death', as in the final sleep. In 1939, Raymond Chandler wrote a book where he created the famous detective persona of Philip Marlowe, and set it against a mystery involving deception, revenge, many people betraying each other, and an overall complex story line. It was but natural for such a story to be made into a movie, and this piece of fiction was made into 2 movies, one made in 1945, and the other made in 1978. The movie, released in 1946, starred the famous stars, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as the lead stars. It is tough to make such a complex case (so complex that even the author apparently left one murder in the story unsolved), and this effort was done by Director Howard Hawks, with screenplay by William Faulkner.



One story about the filming that portrays the complication of the story was that when the Director was unable to figure out as to who killed the chauffeur Owen Taylor, he sent a note to the author Chandler, and Chandler could not figure out either. By the time of the movie release, the 'story' of Bogart and Bacall was in full flow, and Bacall's agent wanted to get more screen presence of Bacall in the movie, and new scenes were added for this purpose. And of course, this also meant that scenes of Martha Vickers (Carmen) were cut in order to give more significance to Bacall. Another interesting point was that the novel had to be censored to fit into the production mores that were in force in Hollywood at that time.
The movie is about the investigation by Private Detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) of a case given to him by General Sternwood (Charles Waldron). The General wants him to resolve some gambling debts owed by his younger daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers) to a bookseller called Arthur Geiger. In this visit, Carmen tries to flirt with Philip, but he remains indifferent to her. He also meets the General's recently divorced older daughter, Mrs. Vivian Rutlidge (Lauren Bacall). And Philip plunges headlong into a mystery involving nymphomania, pornography, murder, deceit. At the center of all this is Carmen, and involves the murder of Geiger. In the end, after some murders, a lot of violence, eventually he is able to learn the true facts of the case and figure out what to tell the police.

Jezebel (1938)

Jezebel is a very unusual name, standing in the scriptures for a cruel and immoral Queen of Israel, the wife of king Ahab of Israel. She persuaded her husband to start the worship of the Tyrian god Baal-Melkart into Israel, breaking the traditional worship of Yahweh. She was condemned by God, and consequently died a horrible death (and as a result, this name is almost never used as a name for children). The name, after this movie, also stands for a headstrong, arrogant lady who will do only as she pleases; and in the process loses all that she wanted, including the love of her life.
The movie starred Bette Davis, the leading female actress of her generation, at a time when she was struggling with the thought of not being considered for the role of the female lead in the great Civil War, 'Gone with the Wind'. In the midst of this came the movie, Jezebel, with a strong woman oriented role grounded in tragedy and eventually leading to despair, and which was also set in the Antebellum, the pre Civil War south. The movie was directed by the famous director, William Wyler.



Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) is a strong-willed lass in New Orleans, in love with, and engaged to the banker Preston 'Pres' Dillard (Henry Fonda). There is a ball, the most important party event of the year, where unmarried ladies are expected to wear white dresses. However, Julie is mad when Preston is unwilling to go with her for shopping for a dress, and in spite, orders a red dress (against the convention). She refuses to listen to anyone, and goes to the ball with Pres, where she faces shocked looks and disapproval. It is there that she realizes that she has committed a huge social blunder, but by then it is too late. Preston refuses to move away from there, and forces her to do a dance, till a time when they are the sole couple dancing.
Their engagement is broken, confirmed by the slap that Julie delivers to Pres. She refuses to go to him to ask for forgiveness, fully expecting that Pres will return to her. Instead, he goes off to the North, and Julie withdraws into a shell. A year later, Pres does return, but he is there with Dr. Livingstone to help in the preparation (by getting the authorities to take preparation) for avoiding a plague of yellow fever. This time, Julie pleads for forgiveness, but it is too late, Preston is already married, and introduces his Northern wife Amy (Margaret Lindsay).
Julie tries to get her admirer, Buck Cantrell (George Brent), to quarrel with Preston so that they would have to fight a duel, where Buck is an expert. However, things go wrong where Julie's brother Ted is the one who agrees to the duel, and in the duel, Ted unexpectedly wins, and Buck is shot. And then the final event. The yellow fever epidemic sweeps the town, and Preston is affected; he has to go to a quarantine center (located on an island). Julie convinces Amy that she will go to the island since she knows the local situation, including being able to handle the slaves (she wants to do this as repentance), and Amy agrees.

Oscars:
# Academy Award for Best Actress - Bette Davis
# Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Fay Bainter
# Academy Award for Best Picture - Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke (nominated)
# Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Ernest Haller (nominated)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

There are 2 types of war movies; the ones that take a slightly more romantic view of war, and then there are the ones that seek to portray war more realistically. They depict war as something that dehumanizes human beings, with no nobility being there. People suffer huge emotional and physical trauma, including both the people who take part in it, and the collateral damage to civilians (people in the territories where the war is taking place and the relatives and friends of the war participants). There are a number of movies that came out during and after the Vietnam War that portray the horrors of the war, such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, etc. The Deer Hunter is another movie of the same type, that takes 3 people who enter the war as soldiers, suffer the horrors of the war including capture and torture in a VietCong Prisoner of War camp, and then takes their experiences just after the war (not their life, but their experiences still related to Vietnam).



The film was loosely based on a screenplay called "The Man Who Came To Play" (by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker) depicting people who come to Las Vegas to play Russian Roulette (the game is a dangerous game of taking a chance with a bullet in a gun, just not knowing which chamber the bullet is in); this screenplay idea was then combined with an idea about a group of steel workers who go to Vietnam for military service, with their life now revolving around the effects of the war and its aftermath. The movie showed several serious and challenging subjects such as suicide, mental illness, the effects of war, etc.
The movie centers around these 3 Rust belt workers, Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken). In their service in Vietnam, they are captured and help in a POW camp; the guards, to relieve their boredom, force the prisoners to play the game of Russian Roulette. Steven shoots the bullet above his head, and is punished by the guards for not following the rules of the game. Nick and Michael manage to overcome the guards, kill them, and escape along with Steve.
Escape in Vietnam means floating down the river, and that is what the 3 friends do. Only of them (Nick) manages to escape in a rescue helicopter, while Michael jumps in after Steve who has fallen into the river, since Steve's legs were damaged in the fall. Steve and Michael eventually manage to make it friendly lines, and lose contact with Nick, who eventually finds himself in a Saigon bar playing Russian Roulette all the time.
By the time much later that Steve and Michael reunite, Nick has become totally lost to everybody else, his only place being the Saigon bar. By the time Mike manages to locate him, Nick no longer can remember anything and refuses to go back to the US, and then it happens. He finally shoots himself in the head.
The Deer Hunter won
Best Picture,
Best Director (Michael Cimino),
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken),
Best Film Editing, and
Best Sound.

Nominated for
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro),
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep),
Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece

Psycho (released in 1960) was arguably Alfred Hitchcock's most famous movie, and acknowledged as one of the best movies of all times. The movie set new standards in the field of horror movies, something that slasher movies later have found it difficult to emulate. This was also a movie that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to use to establish his reputation, especially when 'Vertigo' had failed 2 years earlier (neither the critics nor the audience gave it much of a reception); and the story of a murderer (a novel by Peter Bloch) was something that appealed to him. He had not made such a movie in the past, although he had made his name in suspense, and the making of a movie of the genre of a psychotic murderer would be a different movie.


To that extent, the story of Psycho was something that Hitchcock guarded to a very high degree. Even the film rights to the novel were bought under a different name so that viewers would not guess the twists in the story. This quest for secrecy manifested itself in several different ways. Hitchcock forbade most promotion on the usual media - television, radio, and print interviews so that there was no fear of revealing the truth. In addition, critics were not allowed the usual private screenings, but had to see the movie with the general public, so that the plot remained secret (even though preventing the critics from their screenings might cause reviews to be not so positive).
The movie also struggled on a different front. The studio for which Hitchcock was supposed to make another movie, Paramount, was not happy with the script or with the thought of Hitchcock making this movie. They did not believe that the script was suitable for a movie, and in fact, such a movie was essentially a pet peeve for Hitchcock. Accordingly, his usual budget was denied, causing Hitchcock to raise money on his own and cut costs. He hired his regular staff, managed to get the lead star Janet Leigh for much less than her regular fee; the overall budget was less than a million dollars.
The movie was reviewed poorly by critics, but turned out to be a major commercial success, earning some $32 million overall. Since the movie was produced by Hitchcock's company, his share of the profits was much greater than one would have expected otherwise. The success of the movie led critics to change their views, do a re-review, and the movie earned a total of 4 Oscar nominations.
The movie is a gripping psycho drama, with a shower murder scene that is one of the most famous scenes ever; this scene has been copied and parodied many times. There has been countless research done over the decades to evaluate as to why the scene has had such an impact to users; as an aside, it has been popular lore that the scene impacted the actress Janet Leigh so much that she found it difficult to take a shower after that.
The movie is set in a out-of-the-way motel called Bates motel. It is run by the young man called Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who lives with his ailing mother. And who arrives to this motel ? The lady on the run, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). She is in love with Sam Loomis (John Gavin), but both of them do not have much money. They are in dire need of money since Sam is in debt and also has alimony payments to an wx-wife that are ongoing. Marion steals $40,000 from the office in Phoenix, Arizona that she works in (she is asked to deposit the money in the bank, but she runs off with the money), and wants to drive to the town in California where Sam works.
She is suspicious, wondering about whether the police is after her; in this state, she even changes her car to try to throw pursuers off her track. In this state, she finds a motel on the way, and is persuaded to stay there. She finds Norman Bates a bit strange, but nothing prepares her for her end. When she is showering in her motel room, an apparently elderly woman attacks her and is stabbed to death (with a powerful musical score playing in the background).
Norman finds the corpse of Marion, and in order to protect his mother, he dumps Marion and all her belongings (including the car) into a nearby swamp. However, it is not the end; a private detective Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam) is hired to find Norman. He manages to find the Bates motel, and starts to question Norman who gets all nervous. He meets the same end as Marion, being slashed to death by Norman's mother after being pushed down the stairs. When Milton does not report back, Marion's mother Lila and Sam get concerned and contact the sheriff. When the sheriff is told about Norman's mother, he is surprised since Norman's mother had died 10 years back.
Sam and Lila investigate further, and slip into the motel. They find a slip of paper talking about the money that Marion was carrying ($40,000), and so decide to confront Norman's mother. Lila is tasked with talking to the mother, while Sam would divert Norman. However, Norman soon has a fight with Sam and knocks him out; Lila is shocked when she discovers the preserved body of Norman's mother; and the secret is out - Norman is wearing his mother's clothes when he comes with a knife to kill Lila. Sam arrives just in time and knocks Norman out.
In the end, a psychiatrist explains the truth; Norman and his mother lived together with no one else. So when Norman's mother took a lover, Norman killed them both, and then tried to erase the guilt by preserving her body, and acting as her (in a classic case of split personality). In this reverse state, the split personality is jealous of any woman to whom Norman comes in touch with, and kills such a women. His psychosis prevents him from realizing the enormity of his crimes. Norman lands up in a cell, his mind dominated by his mother. In this alter ego, she believes that she is harmless and Normal is responsible for her current state.

Vertigo (1958)

Imagine not being able to stand on a tall step-ladder because of the fear of heights - called as acrophobia. This fear forms the basis for the movie, now known as one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest movies, and part of any list of the top 10 movies of all times. The movie however did not always have that reputation. When it released in 1958, it did not create much of a stir, and got a total of 2 Academy nominations (nominations in technical categories - Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color and Best Sound). It did not win a single Oscar, and was essentially not acclaimed for some time.
And then came the re-evaluation. In the 1960's, the movie started catching the attention of critics and reviewers, and got much more attention when it was re-released commercially in October 1983 and then on home video in October 1984. In the next few years, Vertigo was recognized as being among the best films ever made. Alfred Hitchcock rated it as his favorite movie.


The movie was an unusual movie in the sense that it combines the familiar Hitchcock trait, obsession, with some great sets, a story that is very gripping. Adding a touch of the paranormal to this story also enriches the whole movie; when coupled with a great double role by Kim Novak and the obsessed role played by Jimmy Stewart make this movie worth watching in a repeat mode. For those who have not seen the movie, it is worth watching.
The movie is shot in some great locations in San Francisco, and a great many of the fans of this movie make it a point to visit them. Some of the locations features in the film include such locations as Fort Point at the Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of the Legion of Honor, Muir Woods, Mission San Juan Bautista, Mission Dolores, Palace of Fine Arts, and a few others.
The movie is all about the obsessions of a former police detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson. He has always suffered from acrophobia (fear of heights) to some degree, but this develops into a full blown acute fear when he watches his police partner plummet to death during a chase on rooftops (Scottie himself is clutching onto dear life on his fingertips). It is now of the level that he cannot continue in the police force and resigns.
And this fear forms the backdrop of the movie. At such a time, he gets a case from an old wealthy friend, Gavin Elster, to have his wife Madeleine followed. Elster believes that Madeleine may be possessed by the spirit of a woman called Carlotta Valdes who killed herself a 100 years back. And Madeleine plays the part, visiting the grave and moving around in a trance. At one point, Scotties saves her when she throws herself into the San Francisco Bay. They are traveling together when she wants to visit the Mission San Juan Bautista, and then runs up the bell tower. Scottie is unable to follow because of his acrophobia, and can only watch in horror as she throws herself off the tower to her death.
Scottie suffers from depression over this whole incident, and starts to go back to the places that he visited along with Madeleine. And then he meets Judy Barton who looks a lot like Madeleine. She does not tell him the truth about being hired to act as Madeleine while Elster uses Scottie as a pawn to actually throw his real wife off the tower (she writes a letter to Scottie about this, but destroys it soon enough). However, Scottie's obsession with Madeleine starts to show, making Judy dress up like Madeleine (including even the hair style).
Eventually Scottie forces her to go up to the top of the bell tower, and she confesses the truth to him, making him rage at her. However, Scottie has made it to the top of the bell tower, and this emotional turmoil causes him to lose his fear of vertigo. They reconcile, and then Judy pays a terrible price for his escape from acrophobia. She gets scared of a shadow (a nun) and falls down; Scottie is able to look down at her, thus showing that he has lost his fear of heights, but at a massive price.

Apocalypse Now: A very dark movie

(This review will contain the story of the film, so if you feel that your surprise of the movie is being spoiled, feel free to stop reading at any point of time)
There have been many movies made on the Vietnam War, covering a wide spectrum from comedies to gritty to outright patriotic, and many of them cover the angst and the horror of war; however, if you want to see a movie that does not cover the war as much as takes a look into what the horror of war can do to the human mind and spirit, Apocalypse Now is the movie to watch.
This movie is a movie that almost made the director, Francis Ford Coppola (director of the Godfather series), into a mad person. In fact, there is a documentary by his wife, Eleanor Coppola, called Heart of Darknessthat describes the struggles in shooting this movie on location in the Philippines, and makes for a good companion to the movie DVD.


For Francis Ford Coppola, this movie was a mission for him, to the extent that when the financing for this movie dried up, he used the money he made from the Godfather movies as well as a loan in order to complete the movie. The movie was derived from Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness (1899), as well as drawing elements from Herr's "Dispatches" (1977). The movie starred 3 people in great roles along with a number of upcoming actors, with Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall. Coppola had to struggle with both Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando, with Martin being out of shape, and Marlon not even reading the novel that Coppola wanted him to read.
The movie went way over budget, with a cost of $ 31 million vs a budget of $13 million (and overcoming a typhoon and a near-fatal heart attack for Martin Sheen). The movie finally made good for Coppola, earning over $100 million, and earning respect at the Oscars as well. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Film Editing, but the film won only two awards: Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro) and Best Sound.
Enough about the circumstances. What was the movie about ? The movie took a army officer, smart, witty, decorated and a war hero, and now a deranged renegade Colonel named Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando). In an shock to his system, he had administered vaccination to the children of a village, and then got called back when he was told that the VietCong had cut off the arm of every such child (that war was this brutal). This incident pushed him over the edge, and he moved out of the normal military chain, believing that the war has to be fought at this level. He sets up a small compound in a temple in the jungle, and sets up his own army that treats him like a god, and kills VietCong intelligence agents without mercy. It is decided that he needs to be taken out, executed, and the man who is selected to do it is also decided.
It is Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), a man who has been inactive for several weeks now in Saigon, whiling away the time and at the starting point of a depression. He is informed by intelligence operatives that he will have to cross the border into Cambodia, and take Kurtz out. He is given a boat to go upstream into the river (representing the actual Mekong) and armed with a squad of 4 ill-fated soldiers, by-the-book Chief Phillips, a Navy boat commander; GM3 Lance B. Johnson, a tanned all-American California surfer, the Cajun Engineman, Jay "Chef" Hicks, and GM3 Bubba Tyrone, also known as "Mr. Clean", a 17-year-old from "some South Bronx shithole".
The PBR (Patrol Boat, River) has a landing zone from where they have to start, and it is here that they meet the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry (Aerial Reconnaissance) commanded by the eccentric Lt. Colonel William Kilgore (Robert Duvall was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor role). The Cavalry has just completed a mission over a target, and when they meet, Kilgore realizes that the starting point has a great beach with 6 foot waves ideal for surfing. It is estimated that they need to make the zone more friendly for starting the mission as well, and hence the Cavalry decides to attack the village located over there.
In an incredible scene, the helicopters attack with advance broadcasting of Wagner's 'Ride of the Valkyries' in order to weaken the villagers and the VC over there. The helicopters defeat the village causing mass mayhem, and then a giant napalm strike is used to destroy a forest just for greater safety. At this point, Kilgore goes from the scene, but not before uttering these dialogues, very famous indeed:

"Smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know one time we had a hill bombed...for twelve hours. And when it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em. Not one stinkin' dink body. The smell. You know that gasoline smell. The whole hill. It smelled like...victory. Some day this war's gonna end."

And the boat starts upriver, with a number of incidents including a stop where there are 3 Playboy Playmates, an incident with a tiger, and on. The crew also loses 2 of their men as they approach the compound, and see sights of people who had attempted to get close to Kurtz. As they approach the compound, one of the crew stays back and is eventually killed, another mingles with the natives and Willard is caught and imprisoned. Kurtz lectures Willard (you get a feeling of the horror that must have been witnessed to hear him speak); Willard watches what happens over a number of days, essentially free.
In the final scene (somewhat controversial since a water buffalo was killed for this scene), Willard kills Kurtz with a machete and walks away. Kurtz utters his final words, "The horror... the horror," as he lies dying and these are the words that are repeated as the screen turns black. Coppola so wanted to make this film a black description of the brutalities of war that even the credits of the film are not scrolled.

Rainman: A movie that won multiple Oscars

Writing this blog is a humbling experience, and incredibly rewarding. I had seen Rainman a long time back when I was a small kid, and for the purpose of this review, I watched it again. It is an incredible movie, and literally shows you what great cinema is all about. The movie was released in 1988, and won a number of Oscars, and won a double, with the Oscar for Best Picture and the Golden Globe for Best Picture; this is the only movie to have won both. It also won numerous other Oscars, including the ones for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Dustin Hoffman), Best Director (Barry Levinson), Best Writing, and Original Screenplay.
It was not easy to present a story about an autistic person, and make this as a major movie. The movie went through a number of possible directors before Barry became the director. The movie was driven by the power of Dustin Hoffman, and he drove hard for the movie to finally get made. The movie helped to get real-life understanding of what an autistic person is all about, and contributed tremendously to popular understanding of this affliction. However, the character played by Dustin Huffman is not the only kind of autistic there is. Not all of them are possessed of a photo-graphic memory, or the ability to do calculations at great speed. However, it is true that they do need much greater care and understanding, given that they live in their own world (no easy way to make somebody understand what exactly autism is all about).
Rainman is essentially the story of 2 brothers coming to meet each other, almost without knowing that each other exists. One of them is a major operator, used to letting his smooth talking doing all the work and making a fast buck. The other is a autistic savant, living in a mental institution.
Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is a LA used car dealer, living up to the usual stereotype of a user car salesman, with glib talk, incredible powers of persuasion, and money problems. He is in the middle of a major deal that could land him in a great debt if it fails. At this point, he hears that his estranged father has died, and left $3 million to a trustee. Charlie is estranged from his father upon an incident earlier where he had defied his father and taken a car out for a joyride. His father reported the car stolen, and Charlie's father was the only father who did not bail out his son.
Anyhow, Charlie travels to settle his father's estate and realizes that his father has essentially cut him off, and left his entire fortune to a trustee. When Charlie travels there with his girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino), he finds a shock. The money has been left to an elder brother, Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman), whom he did not know existed. He had some very early memories of a 'Rain Man', but those were just memories.
Upon reaching the asylum, he is told that his brother is autistic. He is explained that this means that his brother has difficulty in conveying what he thinks, difficulties in understanding things, and in a twist, does not understand the concept of the inheritance that he has received. He feels that he has been cheated out of the money and makes a plan to try and get his share of the money.
Charlie wants to take Raymond back to Los Angeles (the mental institution is based in Cincinnati), so that he can get custody of Raymond as a way of getting hold of the money. There is a fair amount of frustration for Charlie in doing this. Raymond refuses to travel by plane due to the fear of a plane crash, and even after a lot of persuasion, refuses to travel by air. Eventually, they decide to travel by road, and that too, not on the major highways but on smaller roads.
And hence goes the adventure that eventually changes Charlie's perception of his brother, making his get closer to his brother. And this is what the movie is all about. He faces tremendous frustration on the way, since it is not easy for him to understand what Raymond is thinking, and it is equally difficult for him to make Raymond follow what he wants. So, for example, Raymond unwittingly causes the break-up of Charlie and Susanna by entering into their room when the couple was having sex. Charlie is furious, and screams at an uncomprehending Raymond. Susanna is much more sympathetic, and wants Charlie to apologize; he instead screams some more. Susanna is disgusted with Charlie's behavior and walks out.
During the journey, Charlie and Raymond have a number of experiences, such as when Raymond scares a waitress by quoting her phone number and address (he had memorized the phone book to 'G' when he was bored), she gets spooked, but eventually understands. In another display of his abilities, he is able to give the exact number of toothpicks that have spilled on the floor very quickly.
Raymond repeats things sometimes a lot, he wants to see a favorite TV program when they are in the middle 0f nowhere, refuses to go out if it rains, trying to take the wheel when Charlie is driving, and so on. Eventually, Charlie softens and feels closer to his brother.
Charlie has not forgotten his money wanting nature. His deal has failed, and he is now in debt, so he uses his brother's incredible abilities to win money at blackjack in a casino at Las Vegas. Charlie also reconciles with Susanna in Las Vegas. Eventually, Charlie spurns an offer of money and wants Raymond to stay with him out of genuine affection. Raymond is unable to decide what to do, whether to return to Cincinnati or stay with Charlie. In the end, and this is a major deal where the movie avoids a syrupy happy ending, Raymond returns to the institution in Cincinnati with a promise by Charlie to visit in 2 weeks. However, Raymond has improved considerably.