Schindler's List (The Saving of the JEWS)

         Amidst the horrible fate, struggle for life and the fear that the Jews had been facing, there comes this man who had change everything. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) who came to the city of Ghetto to make his fortune there did the opposite. This man became the hope of the Jews and serves as the refugee of those slaves who struggle for survival and who longed for peace, happiness, and acceptance

            The movie tries to imply the theme of the good versus the evil. The character of Oskar Schindler who possesses many hidden dimension and a man named Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) who has one constant dimensional attitude, pure evil.The story proves the wreckage of war and the overpowering of goodness against the evil ruler.

         

   

             Violence and persecutions where showed in the movie, making it more brutal and cruel. The story started in a man who wants to make a fortune, as a member of the Nazi party; he bribes the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) and the SS officials for him to acquire a factory producing enamelware. He appointed Itzhack Stern (Ben Kingsley)  to help him run the business and bought the Jews to be his workers for the fact the Jews slave are less expensive. As he does everything for the growth and development of his business, he at the same time had lived with the Jews and saw the horror that these people had been facing every day. He had felt the fear that these people had, and the brutal treatment of Goeth  and the Nazi Officials.

            

              

            Killing is a norm in that city. Goeth  had done lots of killing, shoots people from the balcony of his villa, many people were killed just to empty the Ghetto, the officials treated these Jews like animals, no humanity, purely evil; no forgiveness, purely massacres yet the Jews still lived with hope and faith that one day, maybe one day, they could live a life wherein fear is the least feeling they could feel.

          

 There is this scene in the movie wherein Schindler saw a girl wearing a red coat who tries to hide from the officials, and then he saw that red coat in the place wherein all corpses were meant to be burned then he made an inference that the girl had face her tragic death.

          

               Upon seeing the people strive for life, Schindler pity them, instead of focusing on his business, he does everything like bribing Goeth and the Officials, spending his own money, telling them that he wanted to build another factory and again bought the Jews slaves to be his workers just to hide his true objective and that’s to protect the Jews from Goeth. On the other hand, the Officials and Goeth accepted Schindler’s gifts and bribe, clueless of Schindler’s main motive. Some of the most dramatic scenes includes Schindler rescuing  Stern in the death train, snatching his workers from the maw of death, redirecting a trainload of his male workers from Aushwitz to  his hometown Czechoslovakia and when the women’s train is misrouted to Auschwitz, Schindler finds ways, bribing the commandant to ship them back out again.

            Itzhack Stern had found out that Schindler is not into making money but cares more on saving life. Schindler, commanded Stern to make a list of Jewish people to be sent on his hometown, the Czechoslovakia. Stern told Schindler that the list is a life and that all around its margins lies the gulf, and thus, that statement made Schindler to be more obsessed in saving the life of the Jews.As the Jews were moved on the Czechoslovakia, Schindler ordered his officials that in his factory killing were not allowed or else, the official who does the killing will be condemned to death and that makes the Jews slaves secured and safe. Also, Schindler allowed the Jews to have their Sabbath; this is the day of the week wherein the members of some religious groups (the Jews) do not work instead had their prayer, offering their thanksgiving to their God.

            Then, the war was over, yet the Nazi Official was said to kill the Jews but Schindler persuaded them, giving them two options either to kill the Jews,and then return to their family as a murderer or to let the Jews live and return to their family as a man. The Nazi Officials choose the latter making the Jews more thankful to Schindler. On the other hand,AmonGoeth was persecuted because of killing hundreds of Jews yet Goeth believed that he has done nothing wrong making me conclude, that indeed, he is a mad man. 

            The Jewish people thank Schindler for saving their life. He became the hero of the Jews, the protector and their shield. Yet, Schindler burst with tears, with regrets, telling the Jewish people that he should have done more; that he should have saved more life but the Jewish people said he had done enough.

            The movie is a holocaust. It has showed the brutality, the unlawful killings, and the destruction of family and life due to war. It perfectly showed the deliberate murder of the Jewish race that made the viewer’s sympathize more to the Jews and effectively portrayed the Jewish people’s life during the war. Also, it has showed the almost destructed hope and how it was renewed by the arrival of a man who became their Savior (Schindler). Now, they were called as the Schindler’s Jews.

            The ending had nurtured the hope of the viewers by showing the Schindler’s Jews visiting his grave, giving him flowers as a sign of gratitude. They are the Jews who survived the horror and the terror caused by the war, who had witnessed the brutality of man and found goodness and entrusted there life to a German person named Schindler.

           

BABEL

BABEL

Babel is a multi-narrative film with multiple stories, characters and perspectives and with colliding time and space yet, the film Babel tackled the different issues around the globe and really presented what was happening in reality that each of us were experiencing or soon will be.

The film presented four situations involving the characters in each scene having different struggles and motivations. Also, the film had presented different issues such as the economic difference of each country, the inaccurate information of media, the peer pressure experiencing by those teenagers and the international displacement of labor.

Let’s tackle first the life of Susan (Cate Blanchette) and Richard (Brad Pitt) who were still in pain due to their child’s death; having their vacation at Morroco and experiencing unexpected tragedy when Susan was shot by a bullet that appeared from nowhere, the couple was so much in fear and confusion, wondering who the suspect could be. Then, the issue was spread and the media concluded that it was a terrorist attack making it worst to the part of Yuseff and his brother Ahmed who shoots the bullet unintentionally.

 Yuseff (Boubker Ait El Caid) and Ahmed are at the same time having their motivation in terms of who among them is the best son. Jealousy and rivalry is the issue of the two brothers that end up in committing such an innocent crime.

As we see in the movie, it was also presented the economic difference of each country. Yusseff and Ahmed living in Morroco having the same culture and having poor economic status, wherein in America, the children was living a happy and secured life with their nanny Amelia having a parents who can provide all their needs. 

In connection, Amelia, (Andriana Barraza) the nanny of the two kids were having a trouble in processing her documents and works illegally in America, this presented the common problems of every overseas workers who decided to work abroad and the horror that awaits if get caught by the officials. Amelia was portrayed as a loving and caring nanny of the two kids; she was so eager to attend to his son’s wedding and decided to leave the children to the other nannies, who were also working there, yet all of them refuse due to some personal reasons, so Amelia decided to bring the children with her. Amelia had achieved her goal in attending his son’s wedding but the conflict is still about to start. On their way home, his nephew Santiago chooses to travel in different route for them to arrive easily but due to the check point that the police officer  were conducting at that time, they were stuck in a gasoline station, Santiago was worried and hesitant. The police officer asked Amelia for the children’s parents consent but Amelia couldn’t show such thing. Santiago drove the car as fast as he could and they were chased by the police officers. This scene creates terror to the children who just experience this kind of situation, thus, this tries to imply our first time and how we will be clueless on how things will end. In the case of Santiago, he left and abandoned the children and his Aunt Amelia in the dessert. Amelia was in a situation wherein she has to save the life of the children, the safety of the two relies in her hands.

While in Tokyo, a girl named Chieko, (Rinko Kikuchi)  who at that time experiencing a peer pressure being with her friends. In her case, she struggles for love and affection and at some point the acceptance of the society in her condition. It was portrayed in her role how it was to be a deaf girl and how hard it is to be misunderstood and to think that no one cares and no man could accept her. At some point, we see Chieko as an insecure girl, knowing she has this kind of condition was a struggle for her, the death of her mother made it worst making her feel all alone without nobody to lean on and being left out of her friends she thought she could count on.

These four characters from different places, owning different language and practicing different culture were connected with one single thing.

Babel is a film that presented the reality of life, the different situations makes the viewer’s appreciate the film for at some point, they had experience such situations.  Although it is a multi-narrative film, it has no intention to confuse the viewer’s rather its objective is to make the viewer’s understand the story and the struggle that each character is facing. As we can see each character possess different motivations and each motivations was effectively portrayed in the movie.

Despite the class differences, each character in Babel grapples with a life-like obstacle. Susan and Richard, an upper class couple, tries to revive their marriage in a holiday destination to forget the pain of their child’s death; the African family, though intact and happy, struggles in having low income; Amelia, immigrant labourer, wants to attend her son’s wedding in Mexico when she is obliged to look after two children in the USA; Chieko, thedeaf mute, motherless who tries to overcome with the loneliness coming upon her in a city. All of these are the motivation of each character that was successfully presented in the film.

In the ending, we might say that the movie ends leaving us hanging. Yes, it might be true, in the case of Amelia during the interrogation, the police officer had deported her and said that she has to go back home, she asked about the children but the officer said that it was none of her business yet it gave us clue that the children were safe. In the case of the Amelia, she was left clueless, and there are some points in our life wherein we were left clueless, having no idea with someone we care a lot. In Morroco, it was being showed how Yusseff surrendered and how Ahmed was killed, despite the rivalry Yuseff had a flashback of the happy moment they have with his brother Ahmed making the movie more realistic, when we lost someone we love we are bound to remember the memories we spent with them. Susan and Richard were rescued and were safe and that tragedy strengthened their relationship as a couple while in Tokyo, Chieko had found the love and acceptance she had longed to his father.

Royal Tenenbaum

        The Royal Tenenbaum is presented to be a movie that was derived from a book that actually didn’t exist. The movie was directed by Wes Anderson who was said to make an extensive and careful use of typology. The movie was all about a family having a father who deceived them after saying he has a stomach cancer just to win back his wife and children’s attention. The movie showed the absurd some aspect of the behaviour of each Tenenbaum child. Also, it has an ironic representation that something should happen, that it is odd and amusing for it involves some contrast resulting a great sense of humor pervading the film.

The Royal Tenenbaums was a story of a family having three children who were believed to be geniuses and their father who had considered being a failure father to them resulting to a great frustration of the three as they grow up and have their life. They were reunited once again and the memories of their childhood that meant to be forgotten were remembered once more including the hatred and the mistrust.

                                                                                  

The men of the Royal Tenenbaum were Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), an eccentric father of the three children, who is considered as a failure father, he has a very humorous role behaving in a clever and witty way that came up with deceiving his family, telling them he has a stomach cancer and have habits and opinions that is very much different for those of most people. He is also a very proud man. 

Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller) was said to be an international finance genius when he was a child. After the death of his wife, he became very obsessed with the safety of his two children. He hated his father very much that he doesn’t like his sons to hang out with their grandfather. 

We also have Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson), the strong silent type man who contains his emotions and always in control. He is a tennis prodigy and was secretly in love with his adopted sister Margot who had lost his career because of a nervous breakdown during his play and was said that the cause of it was the marriage of Margot and Raleigh the day before his game. He is represented as a man with rugged features with long hair and mustache. 

Also, we got Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), the friend of the family who always wanted to be part of the Tenenbaums. He has a secret affair with Margot and do have a drug problem. He presented the character of being rough and ready, also having a rugged feature and possessing a long hair that is always ready for action and had a very tough feature.

On the other hand, the women in the Royal Tenembaum movie were Margot Tenenbaum and EthelineTenenbaum. Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a playwright and an adopted daughter of the Tenenbaums. She is said to be a promiscuous women and a secretive one. She has a husband whom she kept on ignoring and also a heavy smoker since she was twelve. 

Lastly, we have EthelineTenenbaum (Anjelica Huston)who is a noted archaeologist and an author. She is very traditional women whose duties and activities are concerned with the running of home and family. She believed that education should be the most priority among all.

The Royal Tenenbaum is considered as a comedy-drama film. The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award and was ranked as 159^th greatest film ever made in 2008 by the Empire.