42

Every season brings in another professional sport and marks the end of the last one and in that season I myself probably only watch four to five games a year.  Obviously I am not a huge sports fan, I know few enough of the players on Cavs and even less for the Indians or Browns (being born in Pittsburgh I am really more of a Steelers fan anyway).  The point is though, that because I am not such a big sports fan I normally do not like most sports movies but for some reason 42 was special.  Maybe it was the fact that this movie was well acted, written, and directed or maybe it was just a good story, regardless I very much enjoyed it.  I also recognized Alan Tudyk (though not his name, that I did have to look up) whom I remember from Firefly so it helped that he was in here as well.
Perhaps more than the cast, acting, or directing was the fact that this movie was not so much about a team winning a game as it was about a man challenging the racism in the 1940's society.  Jackie Robinson did a great service not only to African Americans by furthering the civil rights movement, but also to everyone else by helping to shape a society that we can all be proud of.  Mr. Ricky tells Jackie that it was because of him that he could love baseball again, and in a way it is because of him that we can all love America again.
Robinson also claimed that a person's life was measured by the effect it has had on others.  While it is not the only thing that matters it is definitely the most important and by measuring in such a way Jackie has definitely lived a very successful and meaningful life.

Cinderella Man

I am actually very surprised by the number of good and even great movies we have been able to watch in class as I assumed that like going to the movie theater, around half of the movies would not be so great.  I'm going to be totally honest though and admit that Cinderella Man was the first movie that we watched in this class that I was not overly fond of.  It was not a bad movie so much as it was just, at least for me anyway, something forgettable.  I never became to attached to the story's protagonist and his issues and to some extent I didn't really care about his struggle as much.  Of course what Braddock was going through was sad on a rational level but that was it.  In many but not necessarily most movies there is something that allows you to connect to the protagonist and his struggles.  Whatever that emotional piece is I did not find it in Cinderella Man.
The movie's title is "Cinderella Man".  A comparison to a Disney princess is the last thing I would normally expect when talking about a boxer, yet in this case the title is fitting.  It refers to the unbelievable and almost fairy-tale like story of Braddock's rise to fame and glory in a time of almost complete hopelessness. 
The one scene that I did find to be emotional in this movie was when Jim explains to his son why he can never steal.  People often speculate about how they would act one way in a given situation but I believe often it is hard to tell unless you were actually in that situation.  There are certain things I would not do purely for the sake of my own survival, among them murdering an innocent person, but I would be willing to steal to save my own life. 

The Godfather

The Godfather is considered by many to be a classic and one of the greatest movies of all time.  While there are a few classics that I personally have a hard time enjoying, the Godfather was not one of them.  I have heard more about this movie than almost any other and naturally I went in with high expectations.  Amazingly I was not disappointed.  To me the best thing about the Godfather was that it focused on developing a good well though out and detailed plot and characters rather than focusing on large special effect filled battle scenes like many modern movies tend to do.  I enjoyed both gladiator and brave heart but both of them used more than their fair share of action and special effects, unlike the Godfather. 
One of the coolest parts of the movie was that it was told from inside the family rather than by a bystander or other character. Remarkably it is still possible to relate to some of the characters as they are portrayed as much more than simple criminals.  In fact, the criminal aspect of Vito Corleone is merely a small piece of his character and his primary concern is for his family. 
While Vito himself may not be the most honest or moral people in the world he is the lesser of two evils when pitted against the other heads of the mafia.  While there is no doubt that he was not a great person I could not help but feel sad when he died.  As I stated before when I think of Vito I think of him more as a caring father or grandfather and as the "Godfather" only as a secondary role.  While I do think he was in a sense almost "evil" I do not think that the world was better without him.  I think the world would be better without the mafia but I think that Vito himself would only be replaced by someone more ruthless and cold. 
Despite being criminals the Corleones were a very close and devoted family which is an honarable quality and something less common today.
All in all I do think that the Godfather deserves its spot as a classic and has definitely made my top 10 movies of all time, probably even my top 5. 

Kill The Irishman

Kill the Irishman was a very different movie from all of the others that we have seen up until this point.  What made this movie different was that it occurred less than a mile from where many of us go on a daily basis (at least for me anyway).  So for that reason I feel like I got some thing out of it that I did not get out of Gladiator or Braveheart but unfortunately there were a few things I did not like about it as well.
I have no doubt that he is a great actor but I did not find Ray Stevenson to be as interesting or inspiring as the stories protagonist as I had hoped he would be.  Though I personally I am not a big supporter of Mel Gibson to his credit he was very good as William Wallace in Braveheart and Russell Crowe was great in Gladiator.  For whatever reason I just didn't find Kill the Irishman to be on the same level as the previous movies.
After watching Kill the Irishman I would have to describe Danny Greene as being complex and in a sort of grey area.  By no means is he morally admirable but neither is he as corrupt as many of the people around him.  There is a piece of me that wants to say that he experienced some sort of moral epiphany or that he had a true desire to change and that is why he ended up in opposition to those who would surely kill him yet I can't bring myself to say that.  I think his motivations were based in pride and in a concern for his own well-being more than for any moral high ground or change.

Glory Reflection

Upon first looking at the list of movies that we would be watching this year in class a few stuck out from the rest.  Among two or three others was Glory.  Like many other movies I had heard good things about Glory but was not sure that I would feel the same way.  As it turns out, Glory is my favorite of the movies that we have seen so far.  One of the most important reasons I liked it was that unlike so many other movies, it felt like the story was the key part of the movie.  This movie was made to tell a story about the 54th and while there was some action it did not feel like it was getting in the way of the story but rather the battles served the further advance the story in a way that is uncommon in most movies today.  This movie is also for the most part anyway, pretty historically accurate which is always good.
One thing I was a little worried about was that Matthew Broderick was the story's protagonist.  This is only because I have only ever seen him as Ferris Bueller and it was a little weird for me personally at first because of the difference between the two characters.  I was pleasantly surprised and I feel like he did a good job in the role of Shaw.
I also very much enjoyed watching the relationship between the different members of the 54th change throughout the movie and noting their radically different perceptions on the current war and the 54th itself.

Throughout history there have been many martyrs who died for their country.  This is not so hard to believe as in many if not most cases it is not so much the name of the country that people will fight and die for but rather the idea behind the country.  To many people the United States are a symbol of freedom and justice and it is for those ideals that so many people are willing to fight for. 
There is no doubt that Shaw and the 54th are heroes.  Many members of the 54th gave their lives during the war.  Shaw himself knew that unlike many of his fellow officers in other situations if he was captured it meant certain death and yet he decided to remain with his soldiers.  Furthermore, Shaw volunteered the 54th to lead the charge on the fort at the end of the film even though he knew that he and many of his friends may die. 

The significance of this story lies not in that there was an African American regiment but rather that that regiment which many people including many officers looked down upon actually played a key role in the war.  The 54th proved that they were just as good if not better than the other units and that is why they were so important.

Kingdom Of Heaven

For some reason this movie seemed to be a bit different than the other two that we saw.  It was not that it was bad and the other two were good so much as it was just different.  I agree that they were shown starting with the best but they were all good.  That being said there were some things that I didn't like about the movie.  For starters like most movies there is a fair amount of historical inaccuracies and though it will probably never happen I wish they would just try to be a little more accurate.  More than almost any period in history though I am interested in warfare during the middle ages so it was kind of cool to see the weapons and tools the army had (like the Trebuchet).

I also think that Kingdom of Heaven has a lot of applications to today.  The struggle for control over the Jerusalem region is one that continues to this day with multiple factions claiming it to be their right.  To be honest I thought that the movie was either going to portray the Christian Crusaders or the Muslims in a positive yet one-sided light and was pleasantly surprised to by their focusing more on how all religions should be allowed to worship there.  I was interested in the characters as well as there were more here than in the other two movies that we saw.  Naturally I was a little disappointed to learn that that too was not very accurate.

Braveheart Reflection

When I first heard that we were going to be watching Braveheart I was not too excited.  Personally, I don't really like Mel Gibson so watching one of his movies would not have been my first choice.  Regardless, I actually ended up liking this movie.  The story was told in a way that was interesting and yet still managed to convey the basic ideas of the time period.  As usual my complaints are about the historical accuracy of the film as a whole.  One of the problems I had with gladiator was that they actually changed the way that Commodus died.  Here, they had the French Princess play a larger role than she actually did.  As for characters, I liked Wallace and Longshanks well enough though there was no character who stuck out to me as being truly incredible.  I also struggle to find any applications to today.
The idea behind the quote "Every man dies.  Not every man truly lives," is a common one.  Just because you physically survive does not mean that you have lived life to the fullest.  What Wallace was saying was that life under the British rule was not freedom and that without that freedom life was not truly worth living.  I take back what I said earlier, this does have an application to our real lives today.  In order to truly experience life and all it has to offer, we must first find and support something we are passionate about.  It can be a political, religious, social, or moral idea but as long as we have something that we would be willing to fight for.