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Reviews
Max Manus (2008)
Max Manus, just pointing out stuff others have not
First I think it is hard for a Norwegian living in Oslo to have an objective view on this movie. The way it manage to recreate an 1940-environment is so stunning it makes you forget many of the other elements in the movie.
I think the weakness of "Max Manus" is how it starts out, the part I like to call "Before returning to Norway" which is all the scenes from the start thru-out the last scene in Scotland. The first part of this section is the flashbacks Max is having from the hospital-bed, this scenes are chaotic, and gives you the feeling of rushing thru the story without there being any meaning. The only thing that makes a coherence in those scenes is the voice-over. Also how the relationship between Max, Gregers and Sønsteby starts out is not shown, we just suddenly see them walking together on "Karl Johan".
We do not see how any of the relationships in the "Oslo-gang" starts out. I would like to see just one scene which shows how random civilians join the resistance group . Also the "Oslo- gang" is not presented as complex as it probably was, you never really understand how the network works.
Then after Max returns to Norway the second, and the last, part of the movie starts. The level of emotion and intensity increases and the acting gets much better, even though the dialog never reaches Hollywood stander. The relationships between the characters are really beautifully presented, pointing out the relationship between Max and Tikken and Max and Gregers.The way the war in Finland is used as a nightmare and a violent element in the mind of Max is perfectly melting in to the story, and gives the movie a complex human impression.
The use of shaking steady-cam close-ups with changing focus is amazing, the way the use of it increases thru the movie creates a growing thrill as the story builds up. This technique of camera-use also gives the movie a revolutionizing form of realism, that I have never seen before.
The greatest scene in the movie I personally think is the scene in which Gregers gets killed. It got a feeling of helplessness and an intense atmosphere which I never felt in any other movie scene. Most of the dramatical sequences in the second part of the movie really reaches an high international stander.
What I miss with this movie is the depressing feeling WW2 probably had. That gloomy feel which "Flammen og Citronen" got. The colors could be much darker and the story could be moving slower.
In the end I must say that it is sad that so few have given any reword to "Krigerens Hjerte" which is a great Norwegian WW2 movie.
P.S Aksel Hennie rocks as Max Manus!
King Kong (2005)
It is not about the words
The first thing i do not like about this movie is the beginning, the way Jackson introduces us to the environment of New York in the thirties is to messy, to many fast going scenes and to many extras.
There are to many characters in the movie, to many story lines about different peoples and therefor the movie is to long. The part on the island is not to long, the last part is not to long, but the beginning is to freaking long! Why do we have to be introduced to every single person on board the ship? It is just like Jackson wants to make the movie more epic and complex by having to many characters.
Jackson also uses all this theatrical camera movements again and again very fast, like when Jack Black says "Scull Island" the camera zooms in to a close-up on his face, Adrien Brody repeat "Scull Island" and the camera zooms in on his face, the little emotional kid Jimmy(Jamie Bell) also get an epic close-up, and then you see a scary slow motion of what looks like a stoned Brody writing on a typing machine. See what i mean. There is also to many different camera angels.
Except all that the movie is beautiful. Great and Original filter, beautiful colors, epic backgrounds and really great animation. But the best thing is the action scenes, they really kick ass.
Now the most important part in the movie, what the story is about. The story is about how humans wants glory, how we are egoistic and selfish and how we carelessly treat animals. We see how the modern world is growing, how it destroys the nature around it. The Indigenous in the movie flee because of a gun, a weapon of the modern world(a symbol of how people of the nature slowly vanishes because of the greedy modern world). Carl Denham and the crew walk in to the prehistoric of Kong to capture the beast(tells how the modern world have destroyed the peace of the last pure places on earth."good things never last"). After a while they capture the monkey and make him play in a Broadway show of course, and you know the rest of the story....
The title of the movie is "King Kong", you know who King Kong is? Who is the one that win the fight in the end? who is the one that rules the world, the giant monster that no creature can kill? It is the modern human world, no one can kill the beast that is the modern world. The modern world kills everything in its path,animals stands no chance. The modern world is King Kong.
"It is not about the words" says Jack Driscoll about love, what does it mean? When the two women in the play Jack is watching states that love is of course about words they makes a statement of love in the modern world. We do not believe that love is magic in the modern world, there is no magic in the modern world, the only thing we believe in is technology and science, we believe that love is just hormones and stuff. King Kong is a contrast to the modern world, he do not speak in words. He falls in love with a human even though it is scientifically impossible, it is not about words but magic.
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
My interpretation of Mulholland Dr.
This movie is the scariest movie i have ever seen, it is nothing like violent horror movies, it is scary in a psychological surreal way. David Lynch is a genius, he uses elements like dreamlike floating steadycam sequences, hollow intense sound, and everyone got these deep black eyes.
I tried to interpretate my self after seeing it. I then saw the movie as being about the director Adam Kesher who is making a movie about a murder of a women,The cowboy is the movies producer, Diane and Camilla is actresses and one of the parts of the movie is actually the movie that Adam is making. This theory was full of flaws, so I read other interpretations.I am with the one with the first part being Dianes dream and that she in reality hired a hit-man to kill her lost love Camilla.
I have interpreted the meaning of the movie myself(not the story but the meaning). I think the story really is about Hollywood behind the facade. We just see a perfect version of Hollywood(just like Dianes dream is a perfection of her own life). In reality it is a corrupt place with thousand of crushed dreams(just like Dianes reality) The deformed bum( if you look closely, she looks like Cher) and the back alley is a symbol for the dark side of Hollywood. The scene at Winkies is a hint that there is a darker side to the story. And in the end before Diane shoots herself the bum is the one that reminds Diane of her parents.
The reason Camilla and Diane is lesbiens in the movie is because it is not as accepted as Heterosexuality, therefor also their relationship is a dark side of the story that Diane keeps inside of herself. Mulholland dr. is also a lesson about accepting others and what can happen if yo keep pain secret inside you.
Club Silencio is a symbol of Dianes mind. When she is still dreaming in the beginning the man on the stage tell her that the band band she hears is not real(that it is a dream and what she sees is not really happening).When the man creates thunder and Diane is shaking symbolizes that her mind is troubled, because she got reminded by the man that everything is just a fantasy. The song Llorando(crying in Spanish)is about how Diane misses Camilla. In the end when Diane shoots herself we see the blue-haired women saying "Silencio", meaning that Diane finally got silence in her mind from her troubled reality.
This is the only movie taking place in Hollywood where the environment reminds me of the Hollywood i know. I went there three weeks ago.
Forrest Gump (1994)
A deep masterpiece about humanity
This is one of the greatest movies of all time. The humor is great, Tom Hanks is great, the backgrounds are great and everything else is great.
But the best thing about movie is the lesson it gives us. It is a movie about humans and humanity, how we complicate things, how we always see the bad things instead of the good things, how we always care about what other peoples think of us, how our selfishness only make us unhappy and how all this things make us unable to move forward.
The main character is a contrast to humanity. Forrest is seen by everyone as stupid, but his uncomplicated mind makes his life uncomplicated as well. Forrest is like a feather(naive) that blows with the wind and do not let complication hold him back. He just follows some doctrines that his mother thought him, originally taken from the bible probably. This tells us something about religion, we always complicate the bible and seeks something that is impossible to find, or we question the doctrines and the stories. If we just followed the ten commandments without questioning it, everything would be perfect.
The movie also tells the American history between 1960 and 1990, but in a original and deep way. How the Nam-war and the war against communism(or any other war) was a complication created because humans seek a perfection we never can get. We see how the hippies try to seek perfection true drugs, and others also trying to find an answer trough different ways. But the only one that can live a free life is Forrest.
Forrest Gump is a masterpiece with many important lessons to learn. 10/10 for maybe the best movie ever made.