AMISTAD (movie review)

The movie Amistad is accurate, they really showed in the movie how the slaves were actually treated before. The movie was entertaining and educational.  Amistad seemed realistic to me throughout the entire movie; from how the slaves were taken in their village to how they were tortured to how they fought for their freedom on court. In the movie, they showed how they were treated like animals in the ship, they hit them with a stick, they were given only a small amount of food, they got shot, and they got thrown away in the sea. In my opinion, the movie actually seemed somewhat biased towards the slave's point of view. It was always shown that the slaves had come from such happy lives where all was good, into a life of beatings, labor, and sickness. Granted they did come into this, but as they said in the movie, in the Mende tribe, they have something of the same thing as a slave. If a person is indebted to another, or something happens where the consequences would require this, then that man would become a sort of servant or slave to the man he owed. The Mende seemed to do the same thing to their slaves, only on not quite the same level. I do however, agree that white men have treated slaves horribly and there is no excuse for it, but watching the movie, one does pick up a sense of bias towards the slaves. 

You see what HOPE really means in the movie, the slaves were fighting for their freedom on court with the help of Atty. Baldwin. They find ways and they did not give up no matter how much the Americans are trying to bring them down. They fought for their rights and knew what trust is; when Cinque trusted to tell everything to the Atty. Baldwin. 

The scene where the slaves were all freed was very fulfilling knowing that after all they have been through, they received the freedom that they deserved. It showed that there are always chances for everyone. Cinque also gained a friend when he gave Atty. Baldwin a tooth. That part was very touching.

In the movie, you learn so many things; we should not discriminate people. We are all human and we are all equal. Whether you are dark-skinned or fair-skinned, whether you belong to a high class of social status. We all deserve freedom, we all deserve to be happy, and we all deserve to live. Also, the lesson in the movie is that we all have second chances, just like how Cinque and his men or tribes gained their freedom.

Babel

The movie "Babel" focuses on four interrelated sets of situations and characters. The first set of situation and characters are Abdullah, a goatherder in Morocco, Yussef and Ahmed, the sons of Abdullah. Abdullah bought a rifle to kill the jackals, he then gave his rifle to his 2 sons to do the job. Yussef and Ahmed were in the mountains where they ended up competing between themselves to whoever has the best aim and doubtful of the rifle's range. So they test it out aiming at rocks, then to a car, then to a bus. Yussef's bullet hits the bus hitting a tourist, named Susan Jones, which is the second set of situation and characters. Together with her husband, Richard Jones, Richard orders the bus to go to the nearest village in hoping for medication for his wounded wife. After, a helicopter comes at last. After five days in the hospital, Susan recovers and is sent home.


The third set of situation and character  tells the story of Chieko Wataya , a rebellious, deaf Japanese teenage girl, traumatized by the recent suicide of her mother. She is bitter towards her father, Yasujiro Wataya and boys her age, and is sexually frustrated. She starts exhibiting sexually provocative behavior, partly in response to dismissive comments from a member of her volleyball team. While out with friends, Chieko finds a teenage boy attractive, and following an unsuccessful attempt at socialising, takes off her panties and exposes herself in an act combining flirtation and contempt. Chieko eventually encounters two police detectives who question her about her father. She finds one of the detectives, Kenji Mamiya, attractive. She invites Mamiya back to the high-rise apartment she shares with her father. Wrongly supposing that the detectives are investigating her father's involvement in her mother's suicide, she explains to Mamiya that her father was asleep when her mother jumped off the balcony and that she witnessed this herself. It turns out the detectives are, in fact, investigating a hunting trip Yasujiro took in Morocco. Yasujiro is an avid hunter and during a trip in Morocco he gave his rifle, as a gift, to his very skilled hunting guide, Hassan, who at the beginning of the film sold the rifle to Abdullah.

The fourth set of situation and character is in United States/Mexico where Richard and Susan's nanny, Amelia, babysits Debbi and Mike while Richard and Susan is away in Morocco. Amelia is forced to take care of the children longer than planned and becomes worried that she will miss her son's wedding. Unable to secure any other help to care for them, she calls Richard for advice, who impatiently tells her to cancel the wedding. Without his permission Amelia decides to take the children with her to the wedding in a rural community near Tijuana, Mexico, rather than miss it. Her nephew Santiago leaves Amelia and the 2 children in the desert, Amelia left the children in the desert to find for help. But when she came back with help, the children were not there. They were already found by the patrol and Richard.

Since the movie is multi narrative, time affected the plot and the story in a way that it is a bit confusing. But if you analyze it, you will just understand it. But with time, the plot and story of the movie is really showing the viewpoints of each situations and characters understanding further the story by connecting each subplots.


The causal motivation in the movie is because of curiosity, Yussef and Ahmed tested the range of the rifle which caused the problem in the movie. They were firing at the bus unknowingly clueless that the bullet can reach the bus which caused to his a civilian which is Susan. Also, if Abdullah did not give his rifle to his two sons in the first place, there wouldn't be any problem.

The Royal Tenenbaums

The movie "The Royal Tenenbaums" is a representation of a messy family whose father is trying so hard to get his children's affection back. He would do everything even the craziest ideas just to do so; Royal's attempt to reconcile with his family by feigning terminal illness. (His children, fleeing crises of their own, have all moved back home.) A disbarred lawyer, he comes on like a con man whose biggest con is admitting that he is one.

Men were portrayed in the movie as obtaining the position of 'power', their roles are of being a genius in international finance like Chas Tenenbaum, a successful tennis prodigy like Richie Tenenbaum. Women are portrayed as smart people, whose characters like Margot Tenenbaum is a playwright and Etheline Tenenbaum who is a noted archaeologist and an author. 

Royal Tenenbaum is the father of the Tenenbaum children, he is a lawyer and a failure as their father. In the movie, he is trying to win back the affection of his children whatever it takes. Etheline Tenenbaum is the mother of the Tenenbaum children who "makes their education her top priority." Later on, Ethel finds love with Henry Sherman, her accountant, the complete opposite of her estranged husband Royal. Chas Tenenbaum is a smart finance, he has become overprotective to his children after his wife died in a plane crash. Margot Tenenbaum is a playwright, he mopes herself inside the bathroom and she keeps on smoking. She is the adopted daughter of the Tenenbaums. Richie Tenenbaum is a tennis prodigy who had a nervous breakdown in one of his tournaments and he is secretly in love with Margot.  Eli Cash is a "friend of the family" since the children were very young, considered Richie's best friend, Eli has "always wanted to be a Tenenbaum."