Central Station Film Review

Central Station

     Central Station is a Brazilian film from 1998 that was directed by Walter Salles. Central Station chronicles the journey between two strangers who learn to care about each other. Dora is a deceptive letter writer who works in a train station. One day one of her clients is struck down by a bus and her son, Josue, is left to fend for himself. After taking pity on the boy, Dora takes him home. Initially Dora grows weary of his presence and sells him to a child trafficker. She feels remorseful and steals him back, now devoted to return him to his birth father whom she knows about through a letter she had to write. Things do not go as planned of course. They have to be on the run from the people Dora stole Josue back from. They get stranded at some sort of religious convention in the desert. Josue’s father is difficult to find because he’s changed his address several times. Even with all these obstacles the pair of loners grows closer together. In the end, Dora does not find Josue’s father, but she does leave him with his two older brothers. She knows it’s the right thing to do even though it hurts her greatly, and she prays that he will not ever forget her.

     The themes in this film are poverty, maternal instinct, and doing the right thing. The area that Dora works in is so poor that most of the population can’t read or right. This is why Dora writes letters for people. The other areas shown in the film are also run down and poverty stricken. The area that Dora leaves Josue in is the projects for that region. Dora had maternal instinct, whether she likes it or not. If she didn’t have this she would have left Josue there and not cared what happened to him. I also think she grew to care for him as a son as time went on instead of caring for him as a friend. She was very protective of him at certain points. Dora was also forced to do the right thing. She had a conscious and it grew over time. She took Josue into her home because of a mix of maternal instinct as a woman and because she wanted to do the right thing. The whole plot of the movie was Dora trying to do the right thing. It never really seemed to work in her favor, but at least she tried.

     Central Station is probably within my top 3 films that we watched this semester. I don’t know what it was about this film, but my attention was kept the entire time. The only criticisms I have of the film is that Josue’s voice was really, really obnoxious when he would yell. Also, I’m still kind of confused on whether the father is alive or dead, and whether or not he really cares about Josue’s existence. I think what was different about this film is that Josue was a brat. It was hard to care about him at some points. I think the character that viewers would feel for more would be Dora. She wasn’t so much a charity case as she was just a normal person trying to do something nice for someone else. I would definitely recommend this film to people who were looking for a film from Brazil.

Children of Heaven Film Review

Children of Heaven

     Children of Heaven is such a weird title for a film that doesn’t really have anything to do with Heaven, although it does have a lot to do with children and shoes. The film was created in Iran in 1997 under the direction of Majid Majidi. In Children of Heaven, Ali loses his sister Zahra’s shoes when a blind man accidently puts them in his cart. Ali and Zahra decide to share Ali’s shoes instead of telling their father. He appears to be very strict or abusive. The sharing of shoes is strenuous for both children because they have to switch shoes between classes and Ali is usually late for his schooling. Zahra goes to school one day and sees another girl wearing her shoes. She follows her home and finds out that her father was the blind man who accidently took the shoes. All seems lost, so Ali decides to join a race. The prize for coming in third place is a new pair of shoes. Ali seems to grow closer with his father after working as gardeners and prepares for the foot race. He ends up winning the race and is depressed because he let his sister down. In the end, the excess money from winning the race and working as the gardener provides new shows for Zahra and the start of a better life for the family.

     The themes in Children of Heaven are a lot simpler than and not as obvious as in other films. I think this is because the film doesn’t shove them down your throat like other films do. Obviously poverty was a theme in this film, as it seems to be in a majority of the films we’ve viewed. I think that the special bond between children is another theme showcased in this film. Zahra knew that other child took her shoes, but seemed unable to confront her about it either. The other girl was even kind enough to give Zahra back her lost pen even though it was obvious she needed it more. Even the bond between Ali and Zahra was very special, but that was a different bond – the bond between brother and sister. The whole family dynamic was a little different than usual. Striving for what you need and what you want is another theme in Children of Heaven. Each character, whether Ali or his father, had to really work hard if they wanted something.

     This was probably my least favorite movie we’ve viewed this semester. I was very bored the entire film. Children of Heaven definitely could have been cut down into a short film that ran for about 30 minutes. Ali was really annoying since he was crying in almost every single scene. The captions were off so it was kind of comical yet unprofessional looking. I just can’t really think of anything nice to say about this film. I don’t think it was absolutely intolerable, but it just did not have one star quality to it. It almost seemed like someone in our class could have made a film with the same quality.

Tsotsi Film Review

Tsotsi

Tsotsi is a South African film that was released in 2005 after being directed by Gavin Hood. In Tsotsi, a young thug takes on more responsibility than he can handle and must deal with the consequences. Tsotsi lives in the projects in South Africa and only relies on Aap, Boston, and Butcher for friendship. They go around robbing people, drinking, playing craps, and even kill on occasion. One night Tsotsi robs a very wealthy politician of her car and after driving for several miles, he realizes that her baby is in the back seat. Knowing that he can’t bring it back for fear of being arrested, he decided to keep the baby in his car, which is not very good. He forces a young woman named Miriam to help him take care of the baby because he is incapable of doing it himself. As the film progresses he starts to develop a soul and other positive qualities that forces him to really reflect on the life he’s been living. Tsotsi starts to realize he has to bring the baby back, but how?

     The most important theme in Tsotsi is decency. I think this was made pretty obvious when Teacher was asking Tsotsi in the bar if he has decency. He didn’t at the point, but Tsotsi did develop decency as the film progressed. Teacher had decency enough to leave the group and know that killing was wrong. The family was decent enough to not having Tsotsi shot dead when he tried to return the movie. Miriam had decency enough to help out a baby and thug who she had no attachment to. Another theme in Tsotsi is poverty. Tsotsi and his friends lived in poor conditions, with a huge city just a short drive away. It was kind of weird how there were two totally different living conditions right next to each other. Your wealth also creates some sort of caste system. It seems like the people in the slums got no respect from the police, but the wealthy political family who was trying to find their baby was able to talk down to and yell at the police without fear. I think another underlying theme in Tsotsi is the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. I’m under the assumption that Tsotsi’s mother was dying of AIDS. I think this because of the way she looked and the way the father did not want Tsotsi to touch her for fear that he would get sick as well.

     I would have to say that this is probably my favorite film from the whole semester. My favorite part of the movie was definitely the music. I didn’t understand a single word that they were rapping, but it sounded good and the instruments sounded perfect for what was happening in each scene. The plot was a little predictable at times, but I feel like all the little subplots kept me interested enough to not get bored. The timing was perfect so slow points like talking or walking didn’t seem to drag on at all. The acting was well done and Tsotsi definitely gave the best performance. The actor who played him really showed every emotion possible throughout the course of the film. I would definitely watch this movie again.

Walk On Water Movie Review

Walk On Water

     Walk On Water was the only film this semester we were required to watch on our own time. Walk On Water was made in Isreal in 2004. Eytan Fox was the expert who directed this thriller. The film enters with Eyal who is an assassin who is hired to kill people who are enemies of the Jewish population. He experiences hardship in his life when his wife commits suicide and it destroys him so much that his agency figure’s it’s better to give him a downgraded assignment. This is all they think he can handle – find and kill a Nazi, who just happens to be well on in years. The way he finds the old man is through getting to know his two grandchildren, Axel and Pia. Despite his initial intentions, Eyal actually becomes friends with the two people he’s trying to use to achieve his goal. There’s a fall out between the friends when Eyal finds out that Axel is gay, but eventually he gets over it. Eyal tries to accomplish his goal of killing the grandfather, but ends up not being able to do so. However, Axel ends up killing his grandfather for some reason. The film ends with a cliché ending that was a little dull, but I guess it was a good way of finishing with a happy ending.

     The theme that sticks out to me in this film the most was homosexuality. I wasn’t expecting Axel to be gay. Once we found this out, I expected that Eyal was going to be secretly gay too. So, it was shocking to see this wasn’t the case and I thought it was kind of breaking the mold. All the other themes had to do with the war and its aftermath. The gay theme also ties into the theme of acceptance of others. This film pointed out that it shouldn’t matter what someone’s income, color, ethnicity, or orientation is because we are all humans. Another theme in the film was letting go of the past. The Jews and the German’s needed to get over their past hatred for each other, even though the Jews was justified. Not judging a book by its cover was the last theme I noticed. I picked Pia and Axel and Eyal as not seeming very compatible. So, I think this goes to show that you can find friends in people you would least expect it.

     This was an enjoyable movie to watch. It actually struck some of my interests. I’m from a military family so my father’s generation was very into WWII movies, so it’s been something I’ve grown up around. This film wasn’t a war movie, but it still touched on a lot of things that films from that genre usually do. The only negative thing I have to say about Walk On Water is the ending. I could have cut it when Axel kills his grandfather. The rest of the film having to do with the epilogue was a little much. Pia and Eyal getting married, really? Since we were going by continent, I feel like I would have preferred Walk on Water over Children of Heaven. I may have liked a little action thrown into this film, instead of more suspense. Aside from the end and yearning for some action, this was a great film. It was definitely worth watching.