JACK

US, 2004, 104 minutes, Colour.
Stockard Channing, Ron Silver, Anton Yelchin, Erich Anderson, Brent Spiner, Wendy Crewson.
Directed by Lee Rose.

Jack is a telemovie about a fifteen-year-old and his struggles with his coming of age as well as his parents’ separation.

Stockyard Channing is strong as the mother. Ron Silver has a complex role as the father who has separated and has acknowledged his homosexuality and has moved in with a partner. Anton Yelchin (Alpha Dog, Charlie Bartlett) is convincing as the young Jack who is supportive of his mother, shocked by his father and wants to hate him. However, he idealises the family of his best friend and discovers tensions within that relationship. In the end, he has to rely on his father and get to know him and understand him better.

The film was written for the screen by A.M. Holmes who wrote the original novel, and directed by Lee Rose who is a writer, producer and director.

1.The social and family issues, developed for a television audience?

2.The American town, homes, school, bowling alleys, restaurants? Audiences identifying with the realism?

3.The strong cast, the focus on Jack, Anton Yelchin’s performance, handling crises?

4.Jack and his story, his age, his father leaving, living with his mother, the puzzle about his father? At school? His infatuation with the girl? Max his best friend? His idealising of Max’s family? The meals with his father, his voice-over and comments, awkwardness? His father telling the story about his relationship? Jack’s reaction? Dislike, hatred and revulsion?

5.Jack’s reaction about sexuality, homosexuality, the stigma, the graffiti on his locker, his fears, men in relationships, imagination, hatred?

6.Anne and her life, her marriage to Paul, the quarrels, the break-up? Paul’s leaving? Her coping? Helping her son, not wanting to take sides? Finally exhausted?

7.Paul and his situation, the past, his search when he was young, his love for Anne and marrying her, their continued friendship? His family? Unhappiness, leaving, Bob as his partner, sharing, coming for the furniture, Anne’s reaction, the meals with Jack? Acknowledging Jack’s being upset? Trying to deal with it?

8.The Burka family, nice, the demanding father, the passive mother, their going away, the violence, leaving, Max’s passive reaction, Jack and his shock, helping the mother, the visits to the house, Anne helping her? The comparisons of life between the two boys? The effect on Jack and their discussions?

9.The girl, her father being gay, his partner, the bowls alley, Jack and his failure, kissing the girl, the discussion? The clash at school? Paul and his bribing Jack to come to meetings because the girl was there?

10.The crisis with the Burka family, his mother being out, phoning his father, discovering a love for his father, understanding, dealing with the situation?

11.Contemporary problems: family, divorce, sexuality, homosexuality, partnerships? A story for audiences to identify with as well as clarify their attitudes and emotions?

THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT

US, 1953, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Charles Winninger, Arlene Wheelan, John Russell, Stepin Fetchit, Russell Simpson, Henry O’Neill?.
Directed by John Ford.

The Sun Shines Bright was made by veteran director John Ford the same year as he made the romantic African thriller Mogambo. The Sun Shines Bright is something of a remake of a film of twenty years earlier, Judge Priest, with Will Rogers as Judge Priest and Stepin Fetchit as his friend Jeff Poindexter. Stepin Fetchit also appears in this film with Charles Winninger as Judge Priest.

The setting is Kentucky after the civil war, the Confederate veterans still proud of their achievement, Union cavalry also resident in the town. Judge Priest is an elderly widower who runs his court in an eccentric but humane way. He is up for re-election with a conservative and pushy opponent.

The film focuses on Judge Priest and his life, his relationship with his friend and servant Jeff Poindexter – Stepin Fetchit doing his seemingly kowtowing performance, popular for twenty years but embarrassing to look at in later decades. The film also focuses on a young woman played by Arleen Wheelan, a teacher of the African American children who discovers that her mother was a local prostitute who has come back to the town to die. She asks to be buried but the religious leaders refuse. Judge Priest leads the procession, his Union ally marching with him and many of the townspeople joining in, to the scandal of the ladies of the town. In a high point of the film, Judge Priest delivers a homily on John chapter 8, the story of the woman taken in adultery. This is a very moving interpretation and application of the parable story of Jesus’ compassion.

John Ford is best known for his cavalry westerns. He also won four Oscars for best director: The Informer, The Long Voyage Home, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man.

1.The film as a piece of Americana, 19th century, Kentucky, the post-Civil War period? The law in Kentucky?

2.The work of John Ford, American nostalgia, interpretation of the 19th century?

3.The black and white photography, the town, the river, its atmosphere?

4.The musical score, the use of ‘Dixie’, the use of Stephen Foster songs – and the title of ‘The Sun Shines Bright on My Old Kentucky Home’?

5.The aftermath of the war, the Confederates, the veterans and their memories, the division and its meetings, the general and his not going to the meetings, his hard line about his daughter? The judge, the squad, Dixie? The memories? The Union presence in the town?

6.The relationship between whites and blacks, the Stephen Foster songs – and the style? The African American singing? The court sequence, the grandfather and his grandson, the job? In the town? The 19th century tradition, the aftermath of the civil war? The 20th century attitudes?

7.The judge, his personality, life, a widower, his experience of the war, his close friends, administering the law in his court, his eccentricity, the young African American man, the madam? Helping the boy to get a job? His opponent? The doctor? Lucy Lee? His stopping the lynching and the influence on the Union soldiers? Their later marching and saluting him? Lucy Lee’s mother, her death? The issue of the funeral, his leading the march? His sermon?

8.Ashby and his return to town, his style, his attraction towards Lucy Lee, her teaching? Their walking in the procession for Lucy Lee’s mother?

9.The doctor, his work, the situation, Lucy Lee, the truth?

10.The woman and her return to the town, her story, illness and death? The madam in the court? The arrangements for the funeral?

11.The election, the votes, campaigning?

12.The funeral, the march, the people joining in, Lucy Lee in the buggy, in the church, the significance of the sermon, the women condemning the mother, John chapter 8, the judge’s application?

13.The women of the town, their judging the prostitutes?

14.The vote, the closeness, the northerners coming in, saluting the judge and voting for him? The judge voting for himself and winning the election?

15.American history, memoir, nostalgia?

TASOGARE SEIBEI (TWILIGHT SAMURAI)

Japan, 2002, 129 minutes, Colour.
Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa.
Directed by Yoji Yamada.

Twilight Samurai is the first in a trilogy by prolific Japanese director Yoji Yamada. Having made many popular films and television series for several decades, he turned his attention to the transition period in the 19th century from the feudal system to a more modern Japan. This was the era of clan clashes but also the end of the Samurai age.

While there are some battles in his films, the focus is on the human drama. He focuses on people who want to be rather obscure, lack ambition, but are humane in their relationships and in their service to the lord?

In this film, there is a widower who is looking after his two children, lacking in means, unkempt and not looking after himself in personal cleanliness. His friends mock him and call him the Twilight Samurai. However, he is challenged on behalf of his friend for an honour fight which he does with a bamboo stick rather than a sword (which he had sold for his wife’s funeral). There is also a confrontation at the end, preceded by a long talk about the differing values, the change in society in Japan at the time.

There is also a rather tender love story where a young woman who has married an alcoholic brute is divorced and would like to marry the samurai, her childhood friend. However, he is so controlled that he does not know how to accept this offer.

As with the other films in the trilogy, the photography is beautiful, the construction of the film humane and elegant. The succeeding films were The Hidden Blade (2004) and Love and Honour (2006).

1.The impact of the film as a Japanese drama? The samurai background? The lack of emphasis on martial arts and on the more human story?

2.The 19th century, the village, the samurai’s house, the fields? The small community? The colour photography? The musical score?

3.The introduction to Seibei? At work, his fellow workers going for a drink, his going home, his care for his two daughters? The hard work? Their complaints about his cleanliness and smell? At work, the discussions about the dried codfish, the arrival of the lord, his comment on his cleanliness? The officials and their being upset? His saying he would do better?

4.The voice-over of the little girl, the death of her mother, the expensive funeral at the demands of the family? Their poverty? The two sisters, five and ten? Their love for their father, not being lonely? Going to school, studying Confucious, studying sewing? The angry comments of the uncle about Seibei, about girls and their learning?

5.Seibei’s mother, dementia, her presence in the house, the family’s care for her? Her recognising Tomoe? Not recognising her son?

6.The visit from the friend who had been to Edo? The story of his sister, the drunken husband, the divorce? The sister visiting Seibei, getting on well with the children? The return home, her husband and his brutality? The challenge to the duel?

7.Seibei and his standing in for his friend? Preparing for the fight? No sword because of the sale? The bamboo stick? The discussion with his opponent? The fight and his victory? The news going round the town, his fellow workers and their amazement?

8.The change of situation, the clan wars after the death of the lord? Civil wars? Seibei and his being caught up in this?

9.Tomoe, her coming to the house, her looking after the children, their delight in her presence? Cleaning the house? Her brother and the fishing, proposing the marriage, Seibei and his refusal? His later regret?

10.The preparation for the fight, the demands of the lord, the loyalty to the clan? Obedience? Tomoe helping to prepare his kimono, his hair?

11.Going to the site of the fight? The people around, the corpse and the flies? Going into the house? The samurai intending to run? Seibei and his strict code for the killing? The drink, the discussions? The samurai and the story of his wife, her death, his daughter’s death? Feeling slighted? The fight itself? The samurai’s death?

12.The aftermath, the daughter as an old woman at her father’s grave? The story of his life and his death in battle? Tomoe as their stepmother, her kindness, her burial with Seibei?

13.A humane story – and a different perspective on the samurai tradition?

CHOKE

US, 2008, 89 minutes, Colour.
Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Brad William Henke, Kelly McDonald?, Jillian Jacobs, Bijou Philips, Viola Harris, Joel Gray, Matt Molloy.
Directed by Clark Gregg.

Choke may not be finding its way to the must see list for many people. It is about sexual addiction, an issue that we notice in the news or in articles about celebrities, but one which we don't feel the need to follow up in detail. Choke is often frank in its dialogue about the addiction, often quite explicit in its verbal references though no more explicit visually than many another film. When we know what the film is about and how the topic is treated, Choke self-censors itself.

The point can be made that sex addiction is a legitimate subject for a film. It is just that we are not quite used to it and, because it takes up sexual themes, language and behaviour, many will not feel comfortable about it. But, with alcohol addiction stories or drug addiction stories, real examples need to be shown, the consequences of the addiction need to be spelt out.

One of the draws of Choke for some audiences is that it is based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club. Palahniuk is preoccupied with men's psychology and behaviour, the violent identity in Fight Club that leads to brutality and viciousness, the sexual identity in Choke that leads to promiscuous, lewd and abusive attitudes, imagination and behaviour. There are glimpses of some clients of a sex addicts' anonymous group and some details of their stories but the focus is on Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell very effective in both serious and sardonic mode) who is obsessed with anonymous sex and his best friend Denny(Brad William Henke) who has a more familiar self-abuse problem.

It should be noted that the tone of the film is often light and humorous – an interesting way of dealing with a subject that creates both prurient curiosity as well as disgusted aversion. Victor and Denny work at an 18th century American display town, not guides but 'historical interpreters'. They are supervised rigorously and upbraided in 18th century English by their supervisor, played by Clark Gregg who has written the screenplay. The action veers between the town and the addicts' meetings and the men's homes.

However, a great deal of the action takes place in a mental institution where Victor's mother has long been resident and suffers from dementia, imagining men from her past life as Victor visits her – and she criticises Victor to them. His preoccupation is that his mother confides in one of her imagined friends that there is a secret as to who Victor's father really was. There are many flashbacks to mother and Victor wandering the American roads by themselves, his mother being smotheringly protective. She is played to the hilt by Anjelica Huston.

Victor also meets a sympathetic doctor (Kelly MacDonald) who concocts an experiment to get his DNA by impersonal sexual encounter (which Victor finds impossible) but then is able to tell him that he is a clone from an experiment with a Jesus' relic. Victor begins to think of himself as Jesus-like with a good effect on the aged inmates of the institution. These sequences, in the chapel with a crucifix looking down on Victor and the doctor, capitalize on the Christian tradition of humour but many may find this offensive.

Not everyone's drama or comedy but Choke tries to find ways of bringing sex addiction to the attention of the cinema public.

1.The reputation of Chuck Palahniuk? Fight Club? Issues, male issues, macho style? Irony?

2.The title, the reference to the scam, its use throughout the film?

3.Modern America, apartments and bars, institutions, the historical village? American heritage?

4.The tone, comic and ironic, serious underlying the comic? The atmospheric score?

5.Victor, his age, character? His story? Introduction, voice-over, self-analysis, self-deprecation? His sex addiction? His descriptions, the visuals, the raunchy tone? The women? Denny and his friendship, the comparing of their addictions? The addiction course, the people at the meeting, the girl and Victor’s indulgence with her? Later – his impotence and her rejection? The various steps in progress through the course, Victor at stage four? His comments?

6.A film about sex addiction, people’s reticence, the facts and realities? The variety of forms? Ordinary people, their attitudes, fantasies, acting out, talking? Therapy?

7.The visuals of the sex addiction, realism, suggestive, suggestive of other realities? Verbal expressions, frankness?

8.Victor, his work, the background of his dropping out of medical studies? His work with Denny? Their eye on the girl who acted as the maid? The slacker attitude? Lord High Charlie and his rebukes, his use of the antique language? The stocks, public punishment – as part of the routine for the visitors? The staff, their characters, infighting? The girl, Victor’s sexual advances, in the hay, Lord High Charlie seeing her and being upset? Victor and his dislike of Charlie yet his helping him? Victor and his other encounters, computer dating – and the dinner with the woman who wanted him to invade her house and assault her? Her anger with him?

9.Denny, his sexual addiction, abuse? With Victor and watching the stripper? Talking with her, becoming friends, her character, the dates, Victor sneering? The break in their friendship? Denny inheriting the property, renovating it, Victor coming to help, the girl and her working with Denny? The change in her life?

10.Victor’s mother, in the institution, her age, the flashbacks, her depressions, her highs? Victor as a child, being fostered, back in the custody of his mother, their travelling the countryside, the outings, her refusal to let him go to the playground, the takeaway food meals, on the buses? The bond between mother and son? Her sayings? An eccentric character?

11.Victor’s visits, his mother refusing the food, her medication, the response of the doctors and Victor’s discussions with them, the different floors and his mother finally going upstairs? Her not recognising her son, imagining lawyers coming to visit, confiding secrets to them? Talking to Victor as if he were the others? Victor introducing Denny as Victor, trying to get the confidential information?

12.Paige Marshall, as a doctor, nice, her speaking of her debt to Victor’s mother? Her being very proper? Her wanting to help Victor’s mother regain her memory? The experiment, the scientific background, sex and DNA? Victor’s inability? His search about his origins? The discussion of the diary, in Italian? Paige’s story, the relic, the indication of the cloning, Victor seeing himself as a descendant of Jesus? The effect? His posing and language Jesus-like? His talk about this theme? With the inmates of the institution?

13.The women, their stories, sexual problems, the attraction to Victor? His Jesus-like manner, assuming characters and helping with their therapy and overcoming their problems?

14.The discovery of the truth about the doctor? Her being an inmate? Her story about medical studies, depression, dropping out, indebtedness to Victor’s mother?

15.The choking, the scam, watching it in various restaurants, the owners and their taking a cut, his setting up the scene, choking, the wealthy people coming to his benefit, helping him? The woman and her gratitude towards him and the effect that it had on her husband helping him? The finale – and his own choking and the police having to help him?

16.The going back to the course, breaking off? The next steps? Healing or not? His future?

17.An attempt on film to look at sexual addiction in contemporary American society? The serious themes? Using comedy to help audiences cope with the seriousness and embarrassment of the the themes?

FOUR CHRISTMASES

US, 2008, 88 minutes, Colour.
Vince Vaughan, Reece Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, John Favreaux, Mary Steenbergen, Dwight Yokum, Tim Mc Graw, Kristen Chenoweth, Colleen Camp.
Directed by Seth Gordon.

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, Christmas in the movies meant something like the cosy sweetness of Meet Me in St Louis or the perennial It's a Wonderful Life. In the 21st century, in a franker age and with so many families unlike the nuclear families of yesteryear, then Four Christmases will have to do.

It is often quite funny. In fact, the message is not too much different from that of the old days. Hope does spring eternal. Families should be close and the season is one of peace and love. Four Christmases adds a nativity play and images of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (albeit in a humorous, happy-clappy congregation) that are a contemporary reminder of Christ in Christmas in an age where some cities have substituted 'the holiday season' and banned representations of the Gospel story. (In fact, this film was re-titled Four Holidays in some countries – which rather ignores and/or belittles the point. It kept its original title in the US and the UK.)

Brad and Katie are a modern couple, unmarried, playing innuendo games in the opening scenes which deceives no one who has seen this kind of sequence before, happy in each other's company and trying to avoid Christmas family gatherings (when we meet the families we can understand why) by pretending to be going to do charity work in Burma but in reality hightailing it for Fiji and scuba diving. Fog in San Francisco. Planes grounded. TV news cameras everywhere interviewing frustrated travellers. Guess what! And guess who sees their offspring on TV! This means four Christmases on the one day as they visit Brad's father, Katie's mother, Brad's mother and Katie's father with some good comedy sequences and some personal discoveries and learning more about each other and, finally, some good advice and the traditional ending.

Vince Vaughn is just right as Brad. Reese Witherspoon is as resourceful as Elle Wood was but more serious-minded. And the stars for the parents are a treat. Robert Duvall provides the rough and down-to-earth Dad. Mary Steenburgen is the glamorous, flighty mother. Sissy Spacek provides unself-conscious humour with a board game. Jon Voight has the wise-in-retrospect role.

Those who hanker after the niceness of the past may be put off at first, but the film grows on you and becomes very likeable. The characters – even the gallery of parents and oddball siblings – are engaging in their own way.

1.A holiday film, about holidays? Comedy? Serious underlying themes?

2.The American atmosphere, San Francisco, the countryside? Locations, families and homes, the season?

3.The Christmas atmosphere, the musical score, the songs?

4.Families, broken, children, the bonds, new lives? Issues of marriage, having children or not?

5.The introduction to Brad and Kate, the sex games, the revelation that they were together? At home, for three years? Their lives, work, bonds together, talking? Friends – and possible clashes? The holiday, not wanting to meet their families, the cover of charity work and the jokes about this, the fog, the television interview, the phone calls and their being unmasked?

6.Having to spend four Christmases on one day, the family bonds, endurance, the effect on each?

7.Howard and his sons, crusty, a worker, blunt, at home, the mess, the fights, Brad’s name as Orlando and the reasons? The grandkids? Denver and his wife? The physical attacks on Brad, his trying to defend himself, the brothers putting him down, the effect on Kate? The comedy style, the gift of the satellite, the dish, the disaster in the house, Brad humiliated, the code for them to go? The effect on Kate?

8.The contrast with Marilyn and her style, Kate’s sister, the extended family, aunts, Gram Gram and her comments? The comparisons of families? Pastor Pat? Kate, the photos, her being a blimp, her fear of the funhouse, the memories? Her niece, the gifts, taunting Kate? Going into the funhouse, overcoming her fears? Going to church, the pageant, Pastor Pat and his Pentecostal style? The family in church? The congregation? The pageant, Marilyn volunteering Brad and Kate, being Mary and Joseph, the preparation, Kate and her nervousness, forgetting her lines, Brad eager, taking over and an achievement?

9.The contrast with Paula, her partner, Brad’s school friend and his reaction to this, their memories of the past? The comedy, the grandkids coming over, the daughter-in-law, the gift of the board game, Kate trying to control, Paula always intervening, Denver and his wife and their winning quickly? Brad and Kate losing the game? The reaction and Brad leaving, not wanting to go to Kate’s father’s house? The seeming break-up of the partnership – the discussions, the quarrels?

10.Creighton, the family, a more serious event, everyone together, the reflections, Creighton and his speech, his acknowledgments of his failures, encouraging Kate? Brad returning? His change of heart?

11.The year later, the birth, the marriage, trying to keep it secret, their love and commitment to each other, the TV interview as the first baby of the year – unmasked?

12.The themes of family values – no matter what?

A SIMPLE PLAN

US, 1998, 121 minutes, Colour.
Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, Billy Bob Thornton, Brent Briscoe, Chelcie Ross, Becky Ann Baker, Gary Cole.
Directed by Sam Raimi.

A Simple Plan is an ironic title for a story of three men who chance upon a treasure and think that they know an easy way to keep it. Almost immediately the unforeseen occurs. The simple plan becomes a desperate attempt at survival.

The film was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 1998. The versatile writer and actor (Sling Blade) Billy Bob Thornton received an Oscar nomination for his performance as the slow-witted Jacob who gradually develops a conscience as the simple plan goes awry. Bill Paxton has one of his best roles as the decent man who makes one evil decision and opens up his own way to perdition. Bridget Fonda as his wife is something of a Lady Macbeth avariciously urging her husband on to further evil.

For movie buffs, the surprise is the director, Sam Raimi. He is best known for his horror movies, The Evil Dead series, and for his thriller, Darkman, and his western, The Quick and the Dead). This is an austere and wintry movie, without the fancy flair of his thrillers. It derives its power from its atmosphere, Danny Elfman's moody score, its performances and the insight into character.

Perhaps even more extraordinary is that Raimi's next movie was the sentimental baseball portrait, For Love of the Game, with Kevin Costner. He then returned to more eerie drama with The Gift.

1.The impact of the film? Critical acclaim? A crime film, a psychological drama, thriller?

2.Sam Raimey and his films, the background of horror, dramas, his later comic strip films?

3.The title and its irony, a simple plan as a story, as a fable? The moral perspective?

4.Hank and his voice-over, his comment on the action, his assessment of himself and the others?

5.The Minnesota settings, winter, bleak, the snow, the forest? The town, the workplaces, the homes? An atmosphere of realism? The atmospheric score?

6.Hank at work, his relationship with Sarah, her pregnancy? His relationship with Jacob, his brother, the memories of their father, the farm? Jacob’s friendship with Lou? Their being unemployed – and perhaps unemployable? Their reputations?

7.The drive, the chatter in the car, the fox and the chicken, the crows on the bare branches? Their joking, issues of education, Hank’s vocabulary? The snow, hitting the plane, the discovery? The bag with the money, the dead pilot? The police passing by, Jacob talking about the plane, Hank improvising?

8.The discussions about the money, the morality issues, the American dream? The American dream to be earned rather than stolen? The speculation about drug money? Hank and his stances, the counting of the money, his keeping the money? The details of the plan to keep the money hidden, quiet? The possibilities with the money? Hank and his discussions with Sarah, her cooking the meal and seeming calm, yet her mind ticking over and thinking about the repercussions?

9.Sarah, the idea of putting some of the money back in the plane and keeping the rest? Hank and Jacob and their return? Jacob and his fight with the farmer, the discussion about the fox? Jacob and his violence, killing the man? Hank discovering he was still alive, smothering him? The body, throwing it off the bridge? The information on the TV news – and the celebration of New Year’s Day? Lou and his being informed by Jacob, coming to Hank, trying to blackmail him with his information to get money, Hank giving him forty dollars? Sarah and her idea of taping Lou confessing?

10.Lou and his demands, the pressure from Nancy? The plan to trick Lou, getting him to drink, going to his home, talking with him, Lou and his joke, pretending that he had killed the farmer? Hank taping it? His getting the gun, the threats, Jacob shooting him? Nancy and the angry confrontation, Hank shooting her? Getting the stories right, the interrogation by Carl? The questions, Jacob’s version, Hank improvising again?

11.Sarah and the birth of the baby? Jacob’s gift? Sarah’s demands, her finding the article, the truth about the agent? Her speech about the need for money, her materialistic approach to life? Hank going to the plane, her phone call, trying to get him to come back?

12.Hank and Jacob as brothers, their stories about their father, Jacob talking about their father killing himself? The farm, the inheritance? Hank using this as a motivation for Jacob to trick Lou into coming to make the confession? Jacob and his talk about relationships, a girl, hopes for the future? Joining in the search for the plane, the deaths? His final plea to Hank, the end of his life, wanting him to be shot?

13.The agent, his arrival, his pretence? With Carl, Hank asking about the badge? Carl and his jokes about Hank’s enthusiasm for police matters? The search, the agent and the face-off with Hank, his acknowledging the truth? The confrontation with Carl, Hank trying to warn him, his death? Hank shooting the agent?

14.The pathos of the aftermath, Hank and Jacob, the brothers, Hank’s grief in killing his brother?

15.Hank, going home, Sarah? The dominance of Sarah over Hank, his finally burning the money – free from the situation, free from Sarah’s dominance?

16.The moral issues of the film, in an American context? The theme of gaining the whole world and losing one’s soul?

9 ROTA (The Ninth Company)

Russia, 2005, 139 minutes, Colour.
Fyodor Bondarchuk, Alexeksi Chadov.
Directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk.

The Ninth Company is the equivalent of a Russian platoon. It uses the conventional picture of recruits, their training, their going into action, the difficulties in camaraderie, the fighting in outposts, their being overwhelmed by the enemy, death and survival. It is a critique of war and warfare.

The actor-director, Fyodor Bondarchuk, is the son of Sergei Bondarchuk who made the epic Russian War and Peace as well as the English language Waterloo with Christopher Plummer and Rod Steiger as Wellington and Napoleon.

The film shows a group in Siberia being recruited and sent for training. There are familiar scenes of training and difficulties as well as rivalries among the recruits. However, the setting is Afghanistan in 1988, almost a decade after the Russian invasion – and the lack of progress that the Russians had made in quelling their enemies. This serves also as background, since the film was made in 2005, to the American bombings and occupation of Afghanistan from 2001 – and the seeming futility of trying to make peace in that country.

The film is strikingly made, photographed, with some very vivid and violent war scenes.

1.The impact of the film? Its popularity in Russia? Universal appeal?

2.The familiar platoon framework, recruits, training, initial action, under fire, deaths? The comment on war and warfare? Its effect on soldiers?

3.The Afghan setting, the background of the Russian war in Afghanistan in the 1980s? The final retreat? The message for war in Afghanistan in the 21st century?

4.The colour photography, the locations, Siberia, Afghanistan and the desert and mountains? The special effects for warfare? The staging of the battle sequences? Musical score?

5.The focus on the variety of recruits, their being at the station, getting ready to go, the farewells, the young man and his girlfriend, the cynical commenter? The travel to the camp?

6.The recruits, the sergeant major and his discipline? Their bunks, the hardships of the training? The familiar details of the physical training? The men together, their conversations, the preoccupation about sex? Their going out, the women in the town? The young woman at the Afghan border – and sexual relationships? The farewells?

7.In Afghanistan, the young men and their eagerness, the experienced soldiers, the officers?

8.The skirmishes, the fighting, the strategies? The different terrain? The nature of the enemy? The Islamic background and the warnings to the recruits? The Islamic soldiers from Chechnya?

9.The human relationships, in the battlefield, helping each other, stress, crises?

10.The Christmas celebration, the peace, the sudden attack? The men under fire – and the long sequence of the battle, the enemy advancing, the firing against them, their being overwhelmed, hand-to-hand combat, deaths?

11.The aftermath? The few survivors? The announcement of the retreat from Afghanistan and the failure of the war there?

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

US, 2008, 103 minutes, Colour.
Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connolly, Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Jon Hamm, Robert Knepper, James Hong.
Directed by Scott Derrickson.

Almost sixty years ago, The Golden Globe awards had a special prize for a film Promoting International Understanding. The 1951 winner was the now classic science-fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. This remake is called a 're-invention' – and it is again a film for fostering peace and encouraging the preservation of the planet's environment.

This screenplay acknowledges the script of the original and has many of the same plot elements. However, it is able to take advantage of the current cinema technology to create some striking effects, for a different kind of spacecraft, the initial appearance of the alien Klaatu, the destruction of trucks, Yankee Stadium and mysterious bugs which threaten all humans. But the effects do not dominate the plot and its message impressive though they be.

And this is a strong message film, a touch didactic at times. In the post World War II Cold War atmosphere, Klaatu came to Earth to warn against violence and aggression. For the 21st century, the aggression is taken for granted. As soon as an alien appears, the suspicions and paranoia mean that American defence forces open fire without time to question whether the alien might be friendly. This is the ethos of the Bush administration, embodied by Kathy Bates, the Secretary for Defence, a cross between Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice and Hilary Clinton. And it is dramatised vigorously by weapons used against the spacecraft and the huge protective robot GORT which is now not just metallic but biological.

The aliens are critical of humans for their exploitation and destruction of the environment and judge that to save the world, humans must go.

However, it is the ordinary human experience that is important. While Keanu Reeves' Klaatu moves through the action somewhat robotically at first but, step by step, absorbing emotion and understanding, it is Jennifer Connolly's widowed scientist who brings the genuine human feeling and concern to the drama. With the words of her professor friend (John Cleese in a brief appearance) in mind that awareness of the need for change looms persuasively when people are standing on the precipice, she tries to persuade Klaatu that humans can change for the better. However, her stepson (Jaden Smith who appeared memorably with his father, Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness) embodies all the worst aspects of suspicion, violence, mistrust and aggression. It is through his experience and change of heart that audiences will appreciate the need for change.

The film is very audience-friendly, moves at a good pace, is more than a cut above formulaic science fiction and is a plea for environmental consciousness through an entertainment.

1.The classic status of the original? A reinvention for the 21st century?

2.The message, the original in the atmosphere of the Cold War, post-war reconstruction, the desire for peace? The contrast with 21st century aggression, wariness and suspicion, paranoia about outsiders, the destructive mode? The issue of the environment, recreating the Earth?

3.The locations, New Jersey, New York, Central Park, the ordinary? The contrast with the secret laboratories, headquarters? The special effects, the alien, especially shedding its skin? The space vehicles? The destruction? GORT? The attempts to destroy him? The musical score?

4.The introduction of the science, Helen and her class, astrobiology? At home, her relationship with Jacob? His absent father, the razor? His attitudes? The story about his father and Helen marrying him, his death? The phone call, Helen taken?

5.The speculation of the scientists in the plane, the officials, the secretary of defence, the situation, the evacuations from the cities? The various briefings? The decisions about handling the situation?

6.The sphere in Central Park, the approach, the bombardment? GORT and Klaatu? Helen approaching, the shooting? The laboratory, the shedding of the skin, the scientific tests? The alien emerging? His body? The background of the prologue in India, 1928, the experience of the sphere, the scientist? Taking his DNA and using it later? The issue of the injection, Helen substituting the injection? The escape?

7.Klaatu and the interrogation, detecting the truth? His warnings? The aliens, their civilisation, their judgment of humans? The spheres all round the world, collecting samples to save the Earth? The plan for the destruction of the humans? Klaatu and his wanting to speak to the leaders? This not being allowed?

8.The portrait of the forces, their shooting? The fear and evacuations? The sphere in Central Park? The colonel and his attempts at bombardments? The secretary for defence, in herself, connections with the president, being in charge, her speculations about the mission, the breaking through of the defence barriers and shields? Klaatu having no fear? Her realising that humans were the victims? The secrecy? Putting out the information for television that he was an escaped convict? The pursuit of Klaatu? Helen’s plea? The end of the secretary waiting for some answer?

9.Klaatu, Helen and Jacob? Jacob’s aggression, his father and Iraq, death? His issues with Helen? Antagonism towards Klaatu and suspicions? The phone calls, being with his neighbours? With Klaatu and Helen in the car? His advocating violence? Seeing the information on television, ringing the authorities, the helicopter pursuit? In the forest with Klaatu, the bridge and his slipping, his being saved? Learning? Taking Klaatu to the cemetery for his father’s grave, for the meeting with Helen?

10.The decision to visit the professor, his Nobel Prize background, the equation on the board, Klaatu correcting it? The discussions, the human situation, on the precipice – and people discovering honesty and truth on the precipice? The possibilities for some kind of change?

11.Klaatu, his gradually becoming more human? His meeting with the other alien, the alien and the language, speaking in English, his years on Earth, his family? His decision to stay on Earth even if Earth was destroyed? Klaatu and his decisions, the spheres and their disappearing and taking off? The puzzle about humanity?

12.Helen and her pleading, Klaatu listening, sharing humanity – and changing his mind?

13.The vision of hope despite environmental destruction? Science fiction and message?

THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME

Japan, 2006, 98 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an anime film, from a popular story of the 1960s.

The film is designed for a children’s audience but may please adults as well. The animation style is that popular in the films of the 1990s and the first part of the 21st century, emanating from Japan. Some of these films are very striking including Howl’s Moving Castle, Steam Boy, Pogno.

The film shows an adolescent girl who is clumsy at home. She also enjoys playing baseball and other tomboy activities. When she finds a mysterious acorn in the science laboratory, she is able to time travel – and rather likes going back to alter history just for herself. Her aunt, who has a talent for time travel, urges her to be more thoughtful about others. This involves her friendship with a young boy at school who offers to date her. She reacts badly. However, she discovers that he is also a time traveller and has used up all his opportunities in order to save his friend and a young girl from an accident with bicycle and train. However, the young girl discovers that his kindness has enabled her to time travel once again and she brings everything back to where it was in the beginning.

The film is entertaining, the heroine is very vigorous. There are some messages for younger audiences about time travel enabling people to change – but also enabling them to accept life as it is.

1.The popularity of the film? In Japan? Worldwide? For adults? For children’s audiences?

2.The animation style, the bright colours, the vivid characters, action? The Japanese anime style? The musical score? The voices? (The American dubbed version/the American subtitled version?)

3.The focus on Makoto, awkwardness at home, with her parents, with her sister and their fights (especially about the pudding)? Makoto at school, awkwardness in the classroom, setting fire to the science laboratory? Playing baseball? Her friends? Kousuke, the girl who was attracted to him? Trying to organise his meeting her? Chiaki and his friendship?

4.Her getting up in the morning, at home, people commenting about her being late? At the level crossing? Her flying over the train on the bike, the visuals of her travelling through time? Her visit to her aunt, the explanations? Her continually leaping, into the water, across the train? Her changing things to suit herself, her exam results, her future study, overseas …? Her self-centredness?

5.The aunt, her own experience, her advice to Makoto?

6.The boys, baseball, school, classes, science experiments? Their friendships? Makoto trying to intervene?

7.Makoto and the two boys, the splitting of the path, taking the bike? The variety of possibilities shown? Makoto and Chiaki, her rejection of him?

8.Chiaki, his attraction towards Makoto, offering of dating? His explanations of his own time travel, wanting to see the art, Makoto going with him? His loss of opportunity to return home? His saving the boy and the girl on the bicycle?

9.Makoto, her realisation of her selfishness, Chiaki and his not being able to return? Her discovering one more opportunity? Taking it? Bringing everything back to where it was – and her leading a normal life again?

10.The comedy, audiences identifying with Makoto and her activities? Her friends? The message about changing life or accepting it as it is?

WE OF THE NEVER NEVER

Australia, 1982, 134 minutes, Colour.
Angela Punch Mc Gregor, Arthur Dignam, Martin Vaughan, Lewis Fitz Gerald, John Jarratt, Tony Barry, Tommy Lewis, Mawuyul Yanthalawuy, Tex Morton.
Directed by Igor Auzins.

We of the Never Never is the classic novel by Mrs Aeneas Gunn, published in 1908. While it was published as a novel, it is a fictionalised account of her own experiences in the Northern Territory.

Jeannie Gunn was born in 1970 and died as late as 1961. She went with her husband to a spread in the Northern Territory and became involved with the Aborigines. The film is interesting in its portrait of the treatment of Aborigines around the turn of the century. There is much discussion about the treatment of Aborigines – as, for example, the taking of the children dramatised in Rabbit Proof Fence. However, Jeannie Gunn was ahead of her time, relating well with the Aborigines, both teaching them and learning from them. The missionary style – especially in its dressing up of the women and manners – was very prim.

Angela Punch Mc Gregor had won a number of awards at this stage of her career including awards for The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Newsfront. She was to win an AFI best actress award in 1984 for Annie’s Coming Out. Arthur Dignam was also a strong presence in films, especially The Devil’s Playground. There is a strong supporting cast of character actors including Tommy Lewis who was Jimmie Blacksmith in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

The film has magnificent photography of the Northern Territory and is very impressive. The director, Igor Auzins, unfortunately died prematurely. He directed a number of television films but his feature films included High Rolling, Judy Davis’s debut, and The Coolangatta Gold.

1. The impact of the film and its quality? Award nominations? Award for photography? Classic story? Relevance for the 80s and subsequent decades? The influence of the novel in its time, throughout the 20th century? Influence of the film? For women? For aborigines?

2. Production values: the use of Northern Territory scenery, flora, cattle station, atmosphere of the l9th.-20th. century: decor, costumes? White colonial style? Aboriginal lifestyle – at the end of the 19th century? The emphasis on the beauty of the Territory? Lesser emphasis on the harshness? Remoteness? The editing and its impact? Particular styles of photography – especially helicopter, cranes? The sweep of the Territory? The musical score and its mood? The main theme?

3. The experience of Jeanie Gunn and her transferring it to her writings? The popularity and influence of her books? Her role as woman at the turn of the century, in the remote Never Never, as wife, mistress of the settlement, her experience? Her viewpoint and focus? Angela Punch MacGregor? capturing the atmosphere of the times yet her contemporary style for modern audiences?

4. The parallels between the first decade of the 20th century and the 80s? The looking again at the times with contemporary eyes? The background and context for the questions of rights in the 80s?

5. The film's viewpoint: the feminine sensibility, the opening and the ending and the focus on Jeanie Gunn? Audiences recalling what had happened to her during the film? The continued focus on her, the use of close-ups, screen compositions to indicate her presence for other characters, for the incidents? The feminine sensibility with her relations preparing her for the wedding, the secondary role of women, her being a support to her husband rather than "a mate"? Her love for her husband? Feminine stereotypes? Her attitude towards her husband, love for him, sharing his work? Her wanting to participate in the journey and the lifestyle? Her attitudes towards the men and winning them over? Her resentment towards their shutting her out – for instance in the care of the sick and dying? Her l9th century presuppositions about manner, lifestyle? White presuppositions? Sympathy for the aboriginals yet presumptions of superiority; yet her openness and assertiveness?

6. The film's viewpoint on men: Aeneas Gunn and his strength, experience? Looking after the station? Attitude towards his wife? Towards the aboriginal? His dedication? The supremacy of men – the tough image of the workers? The rugged image and the avoidance of emotionalism? The film offering a critique of lPth. century masculine attitudes? Their place in the 20th century?

7. The film's viewpoint on aboriginals: the background of 1788 and the white invasion being taken for granted? The repercussions in the 19th century of domesticating the aboriginals? Taking over the land and being at home in aboriginal territory? The non-understanding of aboriginal attitudes towards the land, home, survival, ownership? The presupposition about the land having to be productive? 1901 and Federation? The White Australia Policy? The domesticating and localising of aboriginals, their homes, clothes, food? The substituting of white names for traditional aboriginal names? Boundaries of property? The aboriginal knowledge of the land, where water was, etc.? The bringing in of cattle – pro and con? The aboriginals and cattle work, gardening work? The white looking down on aboriginal religion, mythologies? God, death and tradition? Corroborees? The attitude towards religion and superstition? The vestiges of the old way of life being highlighted? The contrast with the humiliation of the aboriginals and their knowing their place? The domestication of the women: clothes, becoming maids, housegirls, scrubbing, washing, gardening? Aboriginal hostility – the mockery of the whites, the non-violent reaction? The blacks being prejudged by the whites? The possibilities of sharing, the need for a growing respect and care? Jeanie Gunn showing the possibilities of relationship? Learning and sharing customs, religion, traditions? Language? Bet Bet as the bridge between the two worlds? The corroboree at the end for Jeanie and the indication of hopes?

8. The picture of pioneering: the remoteness of Melbourne and the other cities, ideas about the Northern Territory, the remoteness? Hardships and the men supporting one another as mates – and therefore excluding any mateship from women? The hazards of travel by ship, train, the railway station, the rain, the expanse of the Never Never – from the opening credits throughout the film? The Wet, the difficulties, the station and the work, the cattle, the horses, the crossing of the river by flying fox? The lack of comforts, the bullock wagons and the bringing of possessions from the south? Expectations, the small community, the Chinese cook, rivalries? The courage and perseverance of the pioneers?

9. Life in the Northern Territory, remoteness, beauty, harshness, the green, the noises and the frogs, the birds, floods, drought, cattle, weather and storms, work and survival? Life in remote Australia?

10. Australia in the 19th century: colony, Victorian in style and manners, culture, the status of women, religion and culture? The verge of change?

11. Jeannie: feminine, her being warned, her decision to marry, love for Aeneas, the marriage, the fa rewell, the trip, the telegram and the audience warned by Mac, her arrival, travel – the fox, the flying fox, the water, horse, the men? Admiration? Arrival? Her love for Aeneas as a basis for sharing, hopes, changing the homestead etc.?

12. Her being established in her home, the change, her not wanting to be confined – though being confined when the trunks arrived? Watching the horses, going on the ride – the incident with the bull and her climbing the tree? Her being saved? Her making the point about women in the North – tolerated yet wanting to change things? The men and the clashes? The change and their giving of gifts? The aborigines: the women and the scrubbing, the men and their work, the washing, the swimming and the talking, the walk – and the goanna? The men and the clothes? Goggly Eyes and the garden, the water, his death? Bet Bet and her going on walkabout?

13. The clash of views on aborigines, women? The film's pros and cons? Language, change? The issue of illness – the man not wanting Jeannie to attend him? Goggly Eyes' death? Aeneas' death?

14. The experience of one year? The final corroboree, Bet Bet leading Jeannie to the corroboree? Her future?

15. Aeneas as a character, his place in the North, impact on Jeannie, love, travel, the horses, leadership, his library, handling the cattle, the aborigines? Sympathetic or not? His taking the side of the men? In action? Illness? His love, death and the pathos of his dying?

16. The sketches of Jack, Dun, Dinny and their work? As characters, tough, bigotry, the reaction to the corroboree, the shooting, to the aboriginal stockman? The gifts? The farewell?

17. The aboriginal stockman and his place in the group? Prejudice?

18. Life and death: the man with fever not wanting to be tended by the woman? His funeral? Jeannie's reaction? Goggle Eyes' death and her tending him? Preparation for Aeneas' death?

19. A film showing Australia in the 19th century? Through 20th century eyes? A perspective on aborigines, women, Australian traditions?