Uncategorized

SIR WALTER RALEIGH FALLS FOR A QUEEN IN ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE Elizabeth: The Golden Age dramatizes the era in which England defeated Spain, the superpower of the day, in a naval battle. Rather than focusing on the naval commander who is responsible for the victory, the film imagines a supposed relationship between Queen Elizabeth

THE LAST LEGION CONNECTS THE FALL OF ROME WITH THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR Based on the novel by Valerio Manfredi, The Last Legion begins chronologically in Rome with the crowning of a boy, Romulus Augustus (played by Thomas Sangster), as Caesar. The Goths soon overwhelm Rome, and their leader takes his place on the

DOES GOYA’S GHOSTS PAINT AN ALLEGORICAL PICTURE OF THE AMERICAN INVASION OF IRAQ? Director Milos Forman fills the screen with a montage of Francisco Goya’s grotesque paintings, both at the beginning and at the end, but between the artistic bookends is a very odd story, though Goya in Bordeaux (2000) is a more accurate portrayal

RESCUE DAWN IMMORTALIZES DIETER DENGLER In 1997, Werner Herzog produced a documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly about a German born in 1938 in Schwarzwald who was inspired to become a pilot when he saw an American airplane overhead as World War II ended. Dieter went to the United States, became an American citizen, became

TALK TO ME HONORS THE FAVORITE SON OF WASHINGTON, DC In 1984, at the age of 53, Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene, Jr., (played by Don Cheadle) died of cancer, and his memorial service was attended by approximately 10,000 persons, more than any other native-born Washingtonian in history. The biopic Talk to Me recounts his life from

Golden Door (Nuovomondo), directed by Emanuele Crialese, reenacts experiences faced by many immigrants arriving in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The primary focus is on the family of Salvatore Mancuso (played by Vincenzo Amato), whose difficult, traditional lives in rural Sicily are ably portrayed when the film begins. In those

AMERICAN PASTIME HITS A HOME RUN The film American Pastime, directed by Desmond Nakano, begins in Los Angeles during early 1941, when the happily Americanized Nomura family (portrayals of the director’s parents and grandparents) is entertaining members of the multicultural mix of the city with great expectations for the future, including a baseball scholarship for

THE ORWELLIAN WORLD COMES ALIVE IN RED ROAD Red Road, directed by Andrea Arnold, focuses on Jackie (played by Kate Dickie), who is obsessed with Clyde (played by Tony Curran), a felon recently paroled for an offense of some sort. The film takes place in Glasgow, is in English, but has English subtitles for the

YEAR OF THE DOG CELEBRATES ANIMAL RIGHTS In the Chinese twelve-year Zodiac cycle, the most recent year of the dog was 2006. The film Year of the Dog, which evidently takes place in 2006, revolves around Peggy (played by Molly Shannon), whose best friend is her beagle dog, Pencil. She sleeps with her dog and