Captain Phillips

LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!! I saw this movie when it first came out and was completely invested in it the entire time. Its so intense and real it's incredible. The actors are all amazing and you really feel like their emotions. The actors that played the pirates were discovered during an open casting call and never had any experience acting. I think that they made the movie. Everything was just so real. It takes a lot for me to cry in a movie, but by the end of the movie I was bawling. I recommend this movie to everyone.

United 93

Fantastic movie. I have always been interested in learning more about the attacks of September 11th, 2001. This movie was heartbreaking to watch, but the movies that make you feel something whether it be happiness or sadness are the most powerful. Seeing the terrified and confused faces of the people aboard that plane made it all feel very real. I could not imagine calling my family from a flight, telling them its been hijacked, then telling them goodbye. As we talked about in class, there is a line between knowing your going to die, and knowing your going to die and trying to save as many other people as you can. There are no words to describe what crossing over that line must feel like, but that is exactly what the people on flight United 93 did.

Apollo 13

I really liked this movie. Personally, I think going to the moon would be the most terrifying trip in the world, even out of the world. There are so many things that could go wrong as shown in the movie. I never understood if even stepping foot on the moon would be worth the risk of getting there and returning in one piece. Yet, the actors in this movie showed the fascination people have with space and the moon. People dream of being astronauts and going up into space to step foot on the moon and this movie showed why. As terrifying as it was, it kept me on edge even. Knowing that these astronauts had a huge chance of dying and only a slight chance of making it back was scary. Overall, I thought it was a great, informative, and powerful movie. 

 

I believe the funding should continue for NASA. The is an endless amount to discover about space and the universe we live in. We are only a tiny speck on the huge canvas. The more we discover about the universe we live in, the better.

I feel like the journey to get there is so incredibly dangerous that until we have a way to ensure there will be no deaths or danger getting up there, then we shouldn't go. I also think the racing other countries to get there is incredibly dangerous. When you rush and race, that is when people make life threatening mistakes. 

Parkland

I loved this movie.  Knowing that this movie was made to represent what really went on that day behind the scenes makes it so much more interesting to watch. Knowing that this is an actual historical event that changed the lives of people across the country intensified this movie. Not only did I think the actors were great (Zac Efron was my favorite), but learning about Zapruder and how his life was effected was also interesting. What shocked me the most was Oswald's mother and how crazy she seemed. Im not sure if the movie just made her seem like that or if she really believed that  her son was a secret spy. Personally, I think she just wanted to get famous whether she realized that being the 'famous' mother of the assassinator of JFK was a good thing or a bad thing.

The Pianist

This movie was very hard to watch for me. Not because it was bad or boring, but because it was so emotional and real. It was filled with many scenes that were almost to hard to watch. Movies about the Holocaust are always hitting home for me because I have family that have survived and lived through it. Hearing horrible stories about what they had to go through is hard, but watching it and seeing what it was like is even harder.

I think that what  Hosenfeld saw in Szpilman was the courage to survive. Among the hundreds that were killed every day he was still alive and maybe he admired that about him. Once Hosenfeld heard him play, I believe he knew right then and there that this man shouldn't be killed or taken. The music transformed him when he heard something so beautiful being played in the middle of destruction. Also, Szpilman must have realized that if Hosenfeld hadn't killed him already then he was not going to. He did not have any other options than to trust him.

Defiance

I loved this movie. For one, Holocaust movies really capture my attention to begin with, but this took it to another level. The story of course was amazing, but the actors really put this movie above others. I loved Daniel Craig who played the role of Tuvia. I liked that he had a romantic side to him, but was so strong and a good fighter. I did make me upset that he left to fight not alongside his brother for a while, but when he came back to help them it made the movie. Another thing I enjoyed was the bonds you could see and feel between all of the people. The scene where all of them didn't know what to do when they got to the river also captured my attention. You could see on all of the characters face how scared they were, but they put that aside to get across the river and live. Working together and helping  people you might not even know was what they did to survive.

I think that the statement, "our revenge is to live" meant that the best revenge that the Jews could have on the Germans was to escape them and have a life somewhere else. To even survive made the Germans mad. Usually getting revenge on someone is trying to hurt them or bring them down in some way, but all that the Jews had to do to get revenge on the Germans was to survive. I do believe that humanity and revenge can coexist and in fact, they have to. I remember reading somewhere that, "A thirst for vengeance is nothing if not timeless." Revenge is something that everyone wants when they are wronged. I don't think the desire to hurt someone who hurt you will ever go away in our society.

The Godfather

This was one of the first movies that we watched in this class that I did not enjoy. I think that in my mind I was expecting it to be some action filled, intense, super good classic movie because that's the reputation it has. In the beginning, the movie was pretty slow and I felt like I was always waiting for something to happen. The only things that happened were shootings and the killing of characters for different reasons, some of which I was confused on. It was hard for me to keep track of what was going on in the movie at all times. I also think some scenes, like the scene of Michael in Italy, were purposeless and added nothing to the movie. The only thing I did like about the movie was that it was told from the inside of the family instead of the outside. It was the one thing that made the movie interesting to me. It's hard to say if I would recommend this movies to others because there is such a mix of people who like it and dislike it. Talking to my family about it, my mom hated it and my dad loved it. It's a very hard thing to say if I would recommend this to others, but personally, I did not enjoy it.

Vito Corleone is the center of the film because he was the head of the family. All decisions were either made or passed by him and he had to approve. He was a family man and did everything for his family including trying to protect them. You could see how deeply upset he was when his son died and he was willing to agree on a decision to stop the family from getting hurt.I had mixed feelings about when Vito died among his tomato plants. I thought that the killings and violence would end when he died, but his son Michael took over and the violence increased and continued on.

This story was told from the inside which made it unique and different from other movies about organized crime. It's different from what many know about organized crime because we see how the people on the inside feel. In this movie, a lot of the killings and shootings were because of personal vendettas that the characters had with each other and told from the inside, we can see why different people were enemies.

Personally, I don't understand why this movie is called a classic. There's so much hype around it then when I actually got around to watching it, I was let down. People may like it because it's one of the few, maybe the only movies that is told from the inside ring of organized crime. For me, I didn't enjoy the bloody shootings and hearing about personal problems between families. If you like complicated movies with blood, shootings, and violence then I can see why so many like it.





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