Schindler's List(Matt)

I first watched this movie in high school as part of a fairly intensive study of the Holocaust. I can still remember seeing this in the theater. In the years between then and now I had forgotten a lot of the movie. I am afraid to admit that a lot of the movie back then was lost on me as I was a snotty teenage kid who cared neither for black and white movies nor for movies that were too serious.

It's because of this that I was excited to approach this movie a second time. The difference was amazing. This movie really was hard to watch. It's not like most of the scary films that you see where some monsters are attacking people in areas of low light. Most of the horrifying things that you see on screen actually happened. I read that to create some of the scenes that Spielberg took accounts from people who saw it happen. People that actually lived through this craziness.

This movie really does a good job of making what happened during the Holocaust become real. It's one thing to hear stories or to read in history books about how the Jews were treated and murdered during this dark period of humanity's history. It's another altogether to actually witness it with your own eyes and ears. To see it happen right there on the screen. It gives me chills just thinking about it. It's much more powerful to me than books or told stories, and I feel like this is most likely the case with most of my generation and those under it. I feel like this movie should be required viewing for every person in the world, once they are old enough to understand it that is.

I was so focused on this movie that I hardly noticed any acting at all. That is a sure sign that it was good. The use of black and white worked really well, as it helped to transport me to that period of time. There is a bit of color in the film, and it is used brilliantly.

I agree with John completely here, I don't have anything bad to say about this movie. Go see it. 10 out of 10.

P.S. Did you know that Spielberg refused to make any money from this movie at all? He donated everything he made.

~Matt

Schindler's List(John)

This was a powerful film. Any movie that can make me shed a tear is doing a darn good job of being a movie in my opinion. Granted, the movie was about a real tragic moment in history, but the film was still able to bring that sadness and horror across the screen.

Liam Neeson is an underrated actor. I first saw him in Darkman, an old B-movie, and he was awesome in it. But, I never thought he was of the acting caliber that he demonstrated in Schindler's List. I can't help but wonder why he hasn't been cast in more blockbuster films. Ben Kingsley was amazing as usual. These two actors were able to portray the division that was apparent between Nazis and Jews, but also show that everything isn't black and white and that some Nazis had Jewish friends and vice versa. Ralph Fiennes made me hate his character, which is a good thing.

The choice of shooting this film in black and white was a good one I think. It set the scene perfectly. Throughout the whole film, the movie is in black and white, with the exception of a few moments. These moments stand out, I think, because black and white are used to represent despair and tradgedy and the color moments are used to represent hope. It was a unique way of showing pivital moments during the film.

I couldn't find anything I disliked about this film. I was completely moved by it and immersed the entire 197 minutes. Acting was top notch, the unique film style was interesting, the score was amazing and the story gave me an appreciation of what the Jewish people faced during the Holocaust.

I give it a 10 out of 10.

- John Murphy

Schindler's List

Origin: U.S (Amblin, Universal) 1993
Length: 197 minutes
Format: BW/ Color
Director: Stephen Spielberg
Producer: Branko Lustig, Gerald R. Molen, Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Steven Zaillian, from the novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Photography: Janusz Kaminski
Music: John Williams
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathon Sagall, Embeth Davidtz, Malgoscha Gebel, Shmulik Lev, Mark Ivanir, Beatrice Macola, Andrzej Seweryn, Friedrich von Thun, Krzysztof Luft, Harry Nehring, Norbert Weisser
Oscars: Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, Branko Lustig(best picture), Steven Spielberg(director), Steven Zaillian(screenplay), Allan Starski, Ewa Braun(art direction), Janusz Kaminski(photography), Michael Kahn(editing), John Williams(music)
Oscar Nominations: Liam Neeson(actor), Ralph Fiennes(actor in support role), Anna B. Sheppard(costume), Christina Smith, Matthew W. Mungle, Judith A. Cory(makeup), Andy Nelson, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, Ron Judkins(sound)
Links: Schindler's List Wiki, Schindler's List Trailer, Schindler's Ark Wiki

---

Working from a well-constructed script by Steven Zaillian, adapting Thomas Keneally's nonfiction novel - a fascinating account of the Nazi businessman Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of over 1,100 Polish Jews - Spielberg does an uncommonly good job both of holding our interest over 185 minutes and of showing more of the nuts and bolts of the Holocaust than we usually get from fiction films.

Some things that are not in the film that actually did occur in real life:

- Shindler's wife, Emille played a major role in saving Jewish lives after he resumed living with her while he was establishing a mock munitions plant in Moravia. Also, during this time, Schindler continued to betray her with other women.

- Some Polish Jews had to bribe Schindler in order to make his list.

Jacob's Ladder (Matt)

Well this turned out to be quite a gem of a movie. After reading the description posted here I was intrigued and as it turns out that reaction was justified. This movie was one of the more original films I have ever seen.

Lets start with Tim Robbins. Wow. This guy is underrated in my opinion. His name should be right up there with the greats. Everything I've seen him in he has been amazing and this movie was no exception. The character that he was playing was really a complicated person and he made it totally believable. I can think in particular of a scene where he is overcome with a very high fever and he is forcibly placed into a bathtub filled with ice water. He had to show us a character that's sick and delirious, at the same time the character is in immense pain from the ice water and wants out but he can't escape the many people holding him in the water. It will be a while before I can get that desperate look that he had on his face out of my head. Pretty powerful stuff.

The story itself was really unique. I won't go into much detail here as I don't want to give any major plot points away but it's fairly safe to say I've never seen anything like this before. The story had a bit of a Mothman Prophecies feel to it, but that's not completely accurate because the stories are very different. The similarity in the two stems from not knowing what is real and what is not. I spent the whole movie trying to figure out what was going on and to be honest after it was over I still wasn't sure. It took a conversation with the co-writer of this blog before I got a solid grip on it and once I did I knew this movie was a winner.

The only negative I have about this movie is that I really had a hard time figuring out what was going on. As I just mentioned, I didn't get it until after the credits rolled. This can be both a pro and a con however depending on how much you enjoy thinking about a movie after you've seen it.

This beauty gets 8.5 sleeping demon hobos out of 10.

~Matt

Jacob's Ladder(John)

I love this movie. If you go into this film with no knowledge of it whatsoever, it is an absolute trip. The movie makes you think one thing is happening while an entirely different thing is taking place.

Tim Robbins is a great actor. I've enjoyed pretty much every movie I've seen him in. He delivers on the scarred war veteran, working at a post office, who just wants to get away from having to think about things.

The real thing that made me love this movie though, were the creepy moments. Stuff would happen randomly that made my skin crawl. And it seemed like every one of these moments hit home in their creepiness.

There were some confusing moments, but after I watched the entire film, I was able to connect the dots. I was also taken out of the film a few times because I kept thinking of all of the other work the supporting cast had done: McAuley Culkin(Home Alone), Jason Alexander(Seinfeld) and Eric La Salle(E.R). Every time they showed up on screen, I was thinking: "There's George" or "There's Kevin McAllister".

With that said, I highly recommend this movie. I picked it up on a whim and loved it on first watch. It definitely made me think and it's a showcase for how good a "life during and after death" movie can be.

I give it a 9 out of 10.

- John Murphy

Jacob's Ladder

Origin: U.S (Carolco) 1990
Length: 115 minutes
Format: Technicolor
Director: Adrian Lyne
Producer: Alan Marshall
Screenplay: Bruce Joel Rubin
Photography: Jeffery L. Kimball
Music: Maurice Jarre
Cast: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason Alexander, Patricia Kalember, Eriq La Salle, Ving Rhames, Brian Tarantina, Anthony Alessandro, Brent Hinkley, S. Epatha Merkerson, Suzanne Shepherd, Doug Barron
Links: Jacob's Ladder Film Wiki, Jacob's Ladder Wiki, Jacob's Ladder Trailer

---

Jacob's Ladder is a horror movie as ethereal journey. Most of the film takes place in the spiritual world re-envisioned as the concrete environment of New York City, where the soul of a dying man named Jacob Singer(Tim Robbins) is lost and confused in the fleeting moments before death. His journey to the afterlife stretches out into a tormenting series of flashbacks, visions and eternal questioning.

Director Adrian Lyne uses a body horror technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head around at a low frame rate, resulting in horrific fast motion when played back. Filmmakers have since achieved the effect by digitally removing frames from footage shot at a normal rate.

Raging Bull (Matt)

This is our second round with the De Niro, Scorsese duo and I have to say I liked this one much better than the other. The plot was more organized, the actors were more real, and the film overall was just well... better.

Robert De Niro is amazing. Before we started this blog I had never seen any of his early work, and I liked him purely based on his new material. The viewing of his older stuff however, has elevated him to me from more than just a good actor to more of an icon. A true movie star. His acting in this movie was amazing. I will point out as an example that often parodied scene where he is looking into a mirror and rehearsing a speech: "I coulda been a contenda". Watching his facial expressions in this scene I was just amazed. He pulled that off so well.

I wasn't sure at first about the film being in black and white. I thought it would have a negative effect on the experience of the movie. Now that I've seen it, I think the movie would have been fine being in color, but I have no problems with the fact that it wasn't. I wasn't ever taken out of the story by the lack of color and ultimately, that's what matters to me.

I was swept into the story of this boxer and I stayed interested till the end. This is by no means my favorite movie ever but I liked it. I'll give it 7 brother face punches out of 10.

~Matt

Raging Bull(John)

I think I may have liked this movie a little better than Taxi Driver. And I think the only reason is I was able to completely understand this movie. Taxi Driver was very psychotic and there were some fairly confusing plot points. However, with Raging Bull, I had no problem understanding what was going on.

Once again, De Niro delivers an excellent performance. While I'm not certain if he captured the real Jake La Motta, as I know nothing about the boxer, he definitely made me believe that I was watching a man who had a lot of security issues sprinkled in with a self-destructive nature. His rise and fall throughout the movie was entertaining to watch and reminds me of a lot of characters in other Scorsese films. Joe Pesci was great as well. He provided some excellent comic relief in my opinion.

I really didn't take much notice of the score in this movie. The thing I noticed the most regarding the sound was that all of the dialogue outside of the boxing matches was very quiet. It was hard to hear most of the dialogue. Inside the ring, however, the sound seemed like it was amped up in order to convey the chaos that was happening.

The was the film was shot was very unique. The entire movie, with the exception of a few scenes, was shot in black and white. I'm not sure if it was because it was in black and white, or if it was the angle of some of the camera shots, but this movie seemed like it was actually made in the 40s and 50s.

I really liked this movie. De Niro was amazing once again, and the movie pulled me right in. I'd have to give it a 8.7 out of 10.

-John Murphy