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derbocholter
Reviews
Darkest Hour (2017)
The Underground scene ruined the movie!
Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill does a fine job, there is no doubt about it. The plot itself is okay, but lacks a clear climax, which is not altogether negative because this lack of a real climax lends itself well to the partial realism of the movie. The movie also does a fine job of showing the importance of Churchill's attitude when it comes to Hitler: No surrender, and you can't reason with a Tiger when your head is in its mouth. If Churchill had continued the disastrous appeasement policy the world would probably look very different today.
But the scene that ruined the movie for me is the Underground scene. First off, any viewer can guess that this scene never happened whereas all the other scenes that are fictitious at least seem plausible and possible. But the Underground scene is just too much. I imagine the English people to have been very divided at the time about the question whether it made sense to negotiate with Hitler or not. But the director here is adamant about showing us that the English people as a whole were unified in their will to fight fascism. He represents a cross section of the English people, with minorities represented as well, and all of them show support for Churchill's resolve. This scene, to me at least, is pure populism. I belive that Churchill made the right call and that it doesn't matter whether the English people were behind him or not, because history showed that he was right. There's no need for additional pathos here and there is also no need to make the audience believe that politicians are in touch with the common people or take the people's view into account.
If the director had decided to drop this scene I probably wold have rated the movie 8 out of 10.
Brother (2000)
You never know when it's enough until it's more than enough
Let's face it. Takeshi Kitano is not an aesthete. But he knows how to make you pay attention. He uses violence in order to show the ruthlessness of nowadays society. But that is what makes him so smart. There were two things I learned from this movie.First thing: The more you get the more you want, and you will not stop before your desire takes a turn for the worse. Second thing: The more violence you see the less you care about it. After leaving the cinema, I felt like shooting some people as well. I know I shouldn't, but I do not want to blame the movie for my being desensitive. It's just that this movie excited me, and I appreciate the melancholy that lies within.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The essence of hope
I have seen this movie like a thousand times, and I enjoyed it every single time, because every single time watching it, I remarked new anecdotes that I hadn't in the previous watching. Morgan Freeman is definitely on his best performance ever,(I just love the part where he sits in front of the rehabilitation committee for the last time and tells them how it feels to be in prison for more than 20 years), and Frank Darabont can surely be proud of directing an intelligent movie, but Tim Robbins deserves to be mentioned due to an excellent performance as well as all the other actors. I appreciate the way in which this movie combines two crucial topics of every life: Hope and disillusion ! And I guess I also liked it because there aren't any women in the movie! No offence!