Faith through Film and Fiction

This week for the free choice film topic I watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, since I have been wanting to watch it since it is about the Holocaust and it was also on Netflix. In hindsight, I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to watch this movie because it was one of the saddest movies I've ever seen on a very depressing topic. The movie starts off by showing some kids running down a street in Berlin pretending to be airplanes. This is contrasted as it shows a Jewish ghetto in the same town being evacuated as the people are moved to concentration camps. The kids seem oblivious to this though as they continue to play with there careless attitude. What separates this movie from the whole category of World War II movies is that it is told through the eyes of an eight year old boy whose father is a Nazi soldier in charge of a concentration camp. As the family moves closer to the camp, the main character, Bruno, thinks that the concentration camp is a farm and that the Jews are farmers. No one wants to explain to him what the reality of the situation is, so instead they just tell him how his father is improving the homeland, which will make life better for everyone (except the Jews). Bruno's innocence is highlighted throughout the movie to shed light on how awful the situation was, as Bruno fails to realize the smoke in the sky is from burning Jews, the Jewish servant Paval was beaten to death for no reason, and the boy he befriends is a Jew. When Bruno fails to recognize the horror of the situation, he is taught obvious propaganda by both his father, sister, and tutor that the Jews are evil and Nazi's are good for punishing them, as the country cannot succeed with the Jews in the way. I think that this took an interesting view because it showed how the Nazi's used propaganda to gain support from the youth, which was one of their largest supports. In the end, Bruno cannot grasp his mind around the idea that all Jews are bad, as his friend Shmuel is a Jew, and yet seems just like him. The character development of both Bruno and his mother was obvious as all the other characters remained the same throughout the plot. The ending of this movie was probably one of the most tragic and chilling scenes that I've ever seen, but the final shot of the door in the camp as the camera zooms out was a perfect summation of the consequences of the Holocaust on both human lives and innocence. I would give this movie a 9 out of 10 for movies about World War II and the Holocaust.

For my film review, I went to the movie theaters and watched Captain America: Civil War with my family for Mother's Day.  I have only seen one other Captain America and also enjoyed it.  This one was really good because there wasn't a huge "enemy" like usual.  It was just one man who got the Avengers to fight against each other.  In general, the plot was about this german solider who was friends with Captain America when they were younger.  The solider gets in trouble and becomes a wanted man so Capt. America helps him try to escape and prove his innocence.  IronMan and a few other Avengers end up having to fight Capt. to obtain the german solider and bring him back to the government.   My favorite scene in the movie was the airport scene where the Avengers are all fighting each other.  Marvel introduced Spider Man and included Ant Man in this scene as well.  Ant Man added comedy into it and I really loved how they used Spider Man as a younger adolescent.  This scene might be one of my favorite action scenes of all time.  I love how they included all of the different super heroes in the scene.  I thought Spiderman did a great job for being introduced into the film.  Overall, I would give this movie a 9/10 for action film.

This weekend I had the pleasure of watching Meet the Fockers with my Dad. My Dad highly recommended this movie and I am defiantly glad that he did because it was a very funny movie to watch. I looked online and saw that this movie got a lot of bad reviews but I completely disagree with them. I loved the setting of this movie and the story line and how it revolved around family in a weird and different way that the majority of movies do. I thought there were a lot of funny jokes that created awkward moments between the two different families and it brought great contrast and conflict for the entire movie. I would rate this movie a 8/10 and would defiantly recommend this to a friend if you are looking for a funny movie. I love watching Ben Stiller and any movie that he is in I really enjoy and I also thought that Robert De Niro (played Jack Byrnes) played his part really well and was hilarious.

I don't know a lot about film noir, but I think Sunset Boulevard seems to capture it perfectly with the music, voice over, and over dramatization. The opening shot is of a man shot dead in a pool. This seems to be an allusion to The Great Gatsby. We are then introduced to the main character Joe, a struggling write, and the story plays out from there.

For my film noir film I chose to watch Chinatown. I chose this movie just because I was looking at a list of film noir movies and I saw this one and was pretty sure you mentioned it. Anyway this movie starts out really interesting, to be fair it never stops getting interesting it just gets a bit creepy. I really liked the setting of the movie in L.A. and in the 30's it helps to give the movie some historical context. I found the acting to be fantastic. The actors really create these intricate, dark characters. I think Polanski did a great job in casting. I thought that the editing, cinematography, and sets were fantastic. The dialogue was great, and some lines just really make you listen and think. This movie is a pretty dark movie which become extremely evident closer to the end of the movie. The whole incest thing was sad, creepy and made me a bit angry because I mean incest wth. And the very ending of the movie is pretty depressing not just because of how it ends but also what it implies about what might happen if it weren't the end of the movie. I think for the genre this film is great, towards the end it wasn't as great for me personally but I think it really got the point across. I'd give this movie a 8/10.