Who lives, who dies, who tells your story

I really hope at least one of you gets the title reference. The idea behind it kind of relates to the film Im going to be talking about in this post. The film is called The Imitation Game and it's based on the true story of Alan Turing and his contributions to the success of the Allies during World War II. More than that, it's also the story of how this incredible war hero, someone who helped create so much of the technology we take for granted today, was treated horribly by the very people he had worked to save. 

The film opens up in what appears to be a man sitting in an interrogation room, and another man walks in a throws a folder on the table. The screen goes to black and the audience hears a voice telling them to pay attention, because if they don't they'll miss things. Important things. This voice over almost makes the audience feel like they are being talked to directly by the main character and it makes them pay close attention to what is going on in the story afraid of missing something. It is later revealed that that voice over is from the interrogation scene from later in the film where Turing tells his story to the officer seen at the very beginning of the film. 

The film follows a three time line story structure linking them together through similar themes. They focus on three different points in his life: his childhood, his time at Bletchley Park, and the time during his arrest. This way of telling the story really helps the viewer learn a lot about Alan Turing and why he is the way he is. The whole idea of the film is judgment and how you shouldnt just someone by things that they cant change such as looks, brains, or sexual orientation. Alan Turing was an incredible brilliant man who was one of the only people who decided to tackle the problem of solving what was thought to be an unbreakable German code during World War II. Enigma had over 159 million million million different possibilities for the answer, and the Germans changed the code every single day making it even more difficult to break the code. The film focuses a lot on the hardships of cracking this code and how difficult it truly was on him. 

After all this man did for his country during the war one would think he would be treated fairly well afterwards. This however is far from the truth. He continued his work into a field of study pretty much started by himself until it was discovered he was a homosexual, which at the time was illegal. He was convicted of indecency and put on hormonal therapy which severely messed with his mental abilities. The irony of this ending is that they treated just like the computer/machine that Turing theorized in his famous paper. They treated him like he was a computer that could just be reprogrammed and have his settings altered. This movie is one of my all time favorites because with most historical films they tend to focus on the event rather than the person, but with this movie its a little bit of both. They tell the story of the event, but they mainly use it to tell the story of the man. 

photo credit: https://twitter.com/imitationgameuk

Philomena

One film that I couldnt wait to see after I first saw the trailer was Philomena. Staring Steve Coogan (Night at the Museum, Around the World in 80 Days) and Judi Dench (Skyfall, Casino Royale) and based off a true story, the film follows journalist Martin Sixsmith and an old woman named Philomena Lee on the journey to find her son who was taken from her when she was a young girl. The child was stolen from and given up for adoption without her consent by the nuns who she lived with at a convent when she was young. Decades later she is introduced to a former BBC Correspondent named Martin who decides to do a a human interest story on this woman and help her find her missing son. [SPOILERS AHEAD]

The two go on an interesting journey together starting with the very unhelpful nuns at the convent where she was forced to work. While there, Martin discovers that the nuns had in fact been lying about losing the records in a fire when in fact they burned them in a large bonfire to hide what they had been doing. With the little information they can get, they manage to trace him from that small town in Ireland to the United States where most of the adopted children ended up going. The two make the voyage overseas to Washington DC where they discover that Martin had actually met her son before. Her son's name changed from Anthony to Michael Hess and he was a prominent member of the Republican National Committee during the Reagan Administration. When Martin still worked for BBC he had actually met her son at the White House. The two go and meet one of his colleagues where they find out his was gay. His colleague also gave them the name of his adoptive sister where they find out he died of AIDS and get the name of his partner. While with his partner the biggest plot twist of all happens. Her son had actually gone to the convent in Ireland looking for her but the nuns lied and said they had no way of contacting her since she gave him up. Their journey literally came full circle as she discovers her son was actually buried in Ireland at the very convent that Philomena had visited multiple times trying to find him.

Even though she had the right to be angry and rude to the nuns about lying to both her and her son and keeping them apart forever, she wasnt. She forgive them for what they did and told Martin that she doesnt want to hate anybody and how his anger "must be exhausting." Her story is published to help bring to light the tragedies that happened to these young unwed women in Ireland who are still trying to find their children.

This film was not at all what I was expecting. When you watch this kind of film you pretty much expect a happy ending, and when one doesnt happen it kind of just leaves you hanging in disbelief. The only issue I have with this film is that it felt way to rushed at the beginning and the viewer was just immediately thrown into this story. Other than that I love the dialogue between the two characters and how the story is told. While in a way it does demonize the nuns a bit, Philomena is there to remind the viewer of forgiveness and how holding a grudge and being upset cant change anything. The film I believe is a great lesson on forgiveness and moving on. Even when you have the right to be upset, do your grieving and move on. Don't dwell on your anger too much or it can destroy you as it almost does to Martin at the end. This film is one I highly recommend everyone seeing, but definitely have the tissues ready.


photo credit: http://netflixlife.com/2015/09/25/50-best-movies-on-netflix-philomena-is-added-to-the-ranking/

A Man Out of Time

Steve Rogers started out as a small kid in Brooklyn who didn't like bullies and turned into America's hope for defeating the Nazi's during World War II. Steve, or Captain America as most people know him, was an experiment in a "new breed of super soldier" through the US Army. He became a lot more than people realized when he saved the world from Hydra in "The First Avenger." Cap was later discovered frozen and still alive after decades of being an icicle in a ship. In the first Avengers movie we see Steve begin to deal with all that has changed since he'd been asleep; but, it's not until "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" that we really see Steve coming to terms with his situation.

Steve Rogers holds his values very close to his heart, and is rarely compelled to compromise. When Steve first wakes up from the ice he tries to just jump back in and follow orders; but, he finds out from Fury during this film that America isnt the same place it was when he left. He discovered that people are willing to sacrifice those values that were once more important than anything else, "by holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection." It's at this moment that Steve begins to show his frustration and anger towards not only what happened to him, but what people are letting happen to the world. The beginning of the movie opens with this conflict of interest between Steve and Nicholas Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. when they discuss compartmentalization and how they need to take the world how it is and not as Steve would like it to be.

After this conversation Steve goes on a little reminiscing tour through DC and visits the Smithsonian exhibit on himself and goes to visit Peggy Carter from the first film. After his little visits to these places he goes to visit Sam, a man he met at the beginning of the film, where he is leading a meeting at the VA about learning to deal with their baggage. This is done on purpose because this is what Steve is struggling with and needs to hear. It is also during this scene where Sam, Falcon, explains how he lost his best friend in battle. His story is almost identically to the story of how Cap lost his best friend Bucky. And it's not accidental that the next scene is the first scene where the audience sees the Winter Soldier, who you later find out is in fact Bucky Barnes who survived the fall from the train.

One of my favorite things about this film is that all of the action sequences advance the plot in some way. They arent just thrown in there because why not. They make sense and dont feel forced. They even use deception in the mall in order to avoid an action sequence. In my opinion this movie is an almost perfect balance between character development and action sequences. It's not without it's faults of course, but the good definitely outweigh the bad. This movie is definitely one you want to see, especially if you like the Marvel movies. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Iron Man are in my opinion the jewels in the Marvel Universe crown.


photo credit: http://www.designbolts.com/2014/03/18/captain-america-the-winter-soldier-hd-wallpapers-facebook-covers/