5.3 ~ #16

"Apocalypse Now" (1979)

From Netflix: "Francis Ford Coppola's timeless epic adapts Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War, where special operations Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) must travel deep into the Cambodian jungle to locate and kill the mysterious -- and insane -- Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando). This double feature includes the 1979 Oscar-winning masterwork set in the Vietnam War, along with the re-edited and expanded 2001 director's cut, Apocalypse Now Redux."


Finally got around to watching this. I've had it at home for almost 2 whole months and I couldn't bring myself to watch. I'd seen a few scenes of this when I was in middle school and I expected something REALLY gory and sad, what I got instead was almost three hours of BLAH.

I really couldn't make myself care enough to pay full attention. Maybe I missed something crucial that would make me understand it's brilliance, but although I watched the whole thing, I'm pretty sure I could have lead a full existance without ever having seen this.

Dennis Hopper was the best part of the movie...he was only in it for about 20-30 minutes at the end, but his acting made the whole movie. I really hope he won something for his role...though true to the film, I don't care enough to actually look it up and see for sure.

Well, at least now I can say I've seen it, though that's all I can say about it.

Trying to get back on track, though at this point I think it's safe to say that the schedule is screwed...but I will do my best to catch up on the list as quickly as possible! :)

8.2 ~ #12

"Braveheart" (1995)

From Netflix: "Enraged at the slaughter of Murron (Catherine McCormack) -- his new bride and childhood love -- legendary Scottish warrior William Wallace (Mel Gibson, who also directed the film) slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule. With vivid battle scenes and a heaping portion of legend, Gibson's epic won five Oscars, including Best Picture."

I REALLY didn't want to watch this film. I remember being nine years old when my dad took my sister and me to the theater to watch this, and my elementary school aged ass walked out of the theater and waiting outside for 2.5 hours because I couldn't stand how ridiculously bloody and horribly sad the movie was...and now here it is on this list, so I can no longer escape it...

Not even fifteen minutes, there's shacks full of hung corpses, the child being called in to check out how his dad's heart was cut out, and then that theme song...which made me actually pause the movie just so I could look this up...(LOL I HAD to! That song was the JAM back in the day...and I've just successfully dated myself LMAO)

Seriously though, this is not a movie to watch at work (which I did) because the movie is a very emotional one to watch...it makes you desperately sad, uncontrollably angry, and you can't unleash your emotions just anywhere. If you are going to watch this movie, make sure you do it in a space where people won't think you're crazy for changing your mood 37 times in the span of three hours.

Oh...I hadn't mentioned this movie is 3 hours long? Well, it is. (Good thing I love all things medieval.)

It's also remarkably violent and gory, which is cool if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not.

The movie is also sad, but in a way that makes you feel grateful for your lot in life. There's a lot of wisdom to be taken away from this movie, if you let it hit you...One to watch at least once, perhaps more often if the violence doesn't bother you...Really a beautiful film...

5.2 ~ #7

"Amistad" (1997)

From Netflix: "Steven Spielberg directed this story about the 1839 revolt aboard Spanish slave ship La Amistad and the uprising's tragic aftermath. An African-born slave (Djimon Hounsou) leads a mutiny against his brutal captors. Because the ship is in American waters, a U.S. court must decide the slaves' fate. In an eloquent courtroom speech, ex-president John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) argues for the Africans' freedom."

To be completely honest, I've been avoided watching this movie. I am very passionate about civil rights and have very strong feelings watching anything having to do with slavery, the civil rights movement, etc. and I was told this is the kind of movie that stirs emotion and makes the most stoic person cry. Well, I have a confession...I am a crier. So I was not looking forward to watching this film at ALL.

It's remarkable to hear how the characters address the slaves that the movie revolves around..."savages", "beasts of burden", "creatures of prey"..they are compared to livestock and heirlooms in one scene. It is so shameful to think that this country was founded in order to escape persecution, and yet every new group of people that has come to this land for exactly that purpose has been met with just that...persecution. Disgusting. Slights like this, I believe, are the reason that though I was born here, I do not consider myself an American but a child of Cubans. I don't wish to identify myself with a country that treats it's immigrants in such a manner just because I had the serendipity to be born here. I appreciate very many things about the liberties I'm given in this country, but as a result I appreciate more the struggles of the people that had to fight to make it this way. And we still have a LONG way to go...

But I digress...

The acting in this film is phenomal...Matthew McConaughey plays probably his best role ever, Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman...well, they never disappoint, do they? And Djimon Hounsou is so beautiful and haunting in his role...he really makes you feel his desperation and his strength without words, just through his eyes. Amazing.

Wow. Saying I cried watching this movie would be an understatement. Sobbed intermitently through the last hour and a half is more like it. There was a full 8 minutes about an hour and 15 minutes in where I couldn't breathe because the sobs were coming so hard...

I don't know if I would watch this movie again. It was very hard to watch and remarkably sad to imagine that people had to go through exactly this. That being said, it is a beautifully made and remarkably acted movie that everyone should watch at least once, if only to appreciate it cinematically, but ideally to take away the story with you and let it be a part of you...because the fact is that if you live in America, this story, regardless of whether you've heard it or seen it, IS a part of you.

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The other movie for this week, "Apocalypse Now", had a "short wait" indicator on Netflix, so I will be watching it and reporting on it as soon as it's available...

For week 6:
#8: "As Good As It Gets"
#9: "Babe"
DOTW: "High: The True Tale of American Marijuana"

4.3 ~ #6

"Amadeus" (1984)

From Netflix: "F. Murray Abraham earned a Best Actor Oscar for his imperious performance as Antonio Salieri, a mediocre composer whose churlish young rival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce), wins immortality with his musical genius. Not happy to see his talent eclipsed, Salieri dons a disguise and deviously plots revenge, obsessed with muffling Mozart's maddening laughter. Milos Forman's masterful drama also won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director."

Longest movie yet, clocking in at 2 hrs, 40 min. Good thing it was interesting, otherwise that would have sucked. It was actually a very enjoyable movie.. I watched it with my little brother and my father, both of whom had seen it before (I told you I was doing this project for a reason LOL).

The story is told in flashbacks by a character by the name of Salieri, a colleague of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The character of Mozart is a braggart, arrogant, dirty-minded and selfish...an eternal child in the worst sense. He has a grating laugh and a sense of entitlement that is understandable from a child star, but irritating nonetheless. He is forward with his thoughts, salacious with his words, and thinks only of himself and his music. After watching this movie, I'd love to read a biography of him, just to see which of his traits were exaggerated, if any.

Salieri grows up wanting nothing more than to have the musical talent to praise God through music, and to be known by the people around him for his talent. He lives a chaste and humble life, so that God may reward him with the gift he craves. He is obsessed with Mozart's talent, and thinks God sings through his compositions. So when he meets Mozart and discovers he is a vulgar brat, he wonders why God would "choose such an obscene child to be his instrument". He takes this, among many other happenings, as personal slights against him from God himself, and decides he must do drastic things to have even half the glory of Mozart, whom he considers an enemy.

Mozart is admirable in that he lives as pure ID in a time where everyone else ran on pure superego. He just lives his passion and ignores any societal responsibility that interferes with his good time. Salieri seems to suffer from severe delusions of grandeur, as he seems to look at everything that happens in the world around him, from deaths to the failures of his colleagues, as something that God is doing directly as a favor to him or in order to spite him. This movie also shows the amazing things that people are capable of doing and thinking of when they allow themselves to truly be overcome by something.

Very good movie, overall :)

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For next week:

DOTW: "Modify"
#7: "Amistad"
#8: "Apocalypse Now"

Watch along! Discuss! Tell your friends! And thanks for reading! :)

4.2 ~ #5

"American Beauty" (1999)

From Netflix: "Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is struggling to endure marriage to uber-realtor Carolyn (Annette Bening), an unfulfilling career and a sullen teenage daughter (Thora Birch). Deep into a midlife crisis, Lester becomes infatuated with a friend (Mena Suvari) of his daughter. Soon, he's quit his job and is working at a fast-food joint in this dazzling blend of social satire and domestic tragedy from director Sam Mendes that scooped up five Oscars."

Another 2 hour wonder. Not that I minded AT ALL.

I've seen this movie a couple times before this week (I lie. More than a couple. I developed a mild obsession with it in high school). I totally see why it's on this list. So much so in fact, that fifteen minutes in, I started it over because my mother had never seen it and I felt she HAD to. Then at about 20 minutes in, I started it over AGAIN because my sister had never seen it, and I felt she HAD to.

The director of this movie had never worked on film before, only in stage productions, and now with my training in photography, I can really appreciate that in the cinematography. The lighting in this movie is PHENOMENAL! The score is amazing as well, which for some reason I never really appreciated before either. Kevin Spacey is mind-blowing as the main character of the film, and Annette Bening is my all time favorite actress ever, so it goes without saying that I loved her in this as well. Everything about the film seems so organic, like we really are catching a glimpse at these people's lives and not watching a movie...And I always cry at the end of this film, no matter how many times I watch it. Not a sad cry, but a so-much-emotion-built-up-inside-you-you-have-to-get-it-out cry. It's a movie that really stirs the soul and makes you truly grateful for every seemingly insignificant thing you've ever encountered or experienced.

This truly is a film that everyone on earth should watch at least once. I credit this movie with teaching me early on that one should always be kinder than maybe one deems necessary at first glance, because EVERYONE is broken, EVERYONE is battling demons, and you never really know what people are dealing with or why they do what they do, sometimes even in situations where you feel you know everything about a person, you might be surprised. I think another great message to take away from this movie is that people need to learn to slow down and just LIVE. Don't be so consumed with making a living that you forget to make a life...and of course, the most important moral of all...

"there's nothing worse in life than being ordinary."