Like & Share

Monday, October 22, 2018

Movies!

Movies seen over the summer that I liked and hope that you may either see in a theater near you or perhaps download or rent to watch at home.

BlackkKlansman

A Spike Lee joint features a real life story of Black police officer Ron Stallworth, who as a part of the Colorado Springs Police Dept is assigned to the intelligence unit. Stallworth is able to infiltrate a local chapter of the KKK and uses a fellow white officer to gather intelligence and play his role. This film makes a connection with the events last year in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This movie was very amusing with one scene where Stallworth played by John David Washington (Denzel's son actually) is on the phone with David Duke effectively lets him know his organization had been infiltrated by a Black police officer.

This is one movie I recommend especially to consider the issue of race in this nation. I'm not certain of why the connection with Charlottesville as sad as the one loss of life had been. If nothing else this film should be a reminder that hate exists and of course we shouldn't stoop to the level of hate that the Klan had historically represented in America

Operation Finale

Featuring Ben Kingsley as Adolph Eichmann this movie is a dramatization of the real life Israel operation in Argentina to bring to justice Eichmann who was one of the organizers of The Holocaust. It was a very suspenseful movie especially when they plan the operation to get Eichmann and then to smuggle him out of Argentina to put him on trial and eventually execute him.

I suppose you can say this movie is the polar opposite of BlackkKlansman. Again this is a film about hate in this case I can believe the Israelis who capture Eichmann really hated him as the Holocaust in Germany was a fresh memory for those who are on this operation. There was even a scene where once Eichmann is resigned to his fate he does attempt to get under the skin of one of the operatives who actually does take the time to really talk to him and not interrogate him.

Again this is a case of never stooping to the level of hate that the perpetrators engage in.

First Man

This film is about Neil Armstrong the first man (oh yeah that title was on purpose wasn't it?) to set foot on the moon. Another historic dramatization we get to know about the man who suffered his own tragedies and as he might have grieved inside for his daughter who died during the course of the movie kept his grief often bottled up. In recent years at least before his death, Armstrong had somewhat avoided the limelight although he was a crucial part of human history.

So we see the progression from the Gemini project to ultimately Apollo which sent astronauts to the moon. We see the many tragedies that had fallen the space program of the 1960s before Armstrong's historic 1969 Apollo 11 flight. And it underscores the fact that many of America's first astronauts during the 1960s had been civilian and military test pilots.

This film almost reminds me of Apollo 13 release in 1995 and is one of my favorite movies. I was heavily into Star Trek and it fit in to my interest in space at the time. It was a real life "trek" that proved to be almost disastrous but thanks to the work of the Apollo 13 crew and the people of NASA back on earth no one lost their life on that mission. Everyone came home safe.

In this case, we already know how First Man was going to end. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were going to land on the moon successfully. They both secure their place in history as the first two people to land and set foot on the lunar surface. No disaster here it was a success however this film had one controversy.

There wasn't a scene where Armstrong and Aldrin planted the American flag on the moon. I know that Ryan Gosling who plays Armstong tried to say the story de-emphasized this as well this is a high mark for human history. Regardless there are those who see this as a high point in American history and was disappointed that we didn't see the American flag planted on the moon by the astronauts.

Venom

This really shouldn't be the only comic book film on this list as I had also seen the recent Ant Man sequel. The fascinating thing about these comic book movies is that more often than not I may discover storylines that I have to go back and research. If you're into comic books you may know all this, however, I'm not up on all the story lines so thus I can watch the movie and catch up on the story that had unfolded right in front of me.

I always thought of Venom as a villain and I learn has been portrayed as more of an anti-hero. Especially during the course of this movie as it goes into symbiosis with a washed up TV journalist who loses his job going rogue. In the long run venom saves the world form a megalomaniac businessman who engage in very unethical behavior under the guise of curing human diseases.

This movie was wild and since Venom in my mind is often portrayed as a foil for Spider-man - whom he will in the future also become into symbiosis with - now I have a better idea of this character. And this film shares the same universe with the Marvel Cinematic Universal perhaps Venom will encounter Spider-man in a future installment.

Perhaps I'll talk about Ant Man another time.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are now moderated because one random commenter chose to get comment happy. What doesn't get published is up to my discretion. Of course moderating policy is subject to change. Thanks!