Movie Marathon...

OK, maybe I need to get a life. Two posts in the same day (Swapnil, this is the dregs, absolute low that you could ever go...sitting at home alone writing weird posts that no one even bothers to read...well..i'm so sorry...I'll write when I want to, and if I decide to spend a Sunday just relaxing, watching movies, reading and writing..then well, its my business..and no it does not imply i'm a loser with no social life...No...YOU shut up)

Anyway, yesterday night was a rehash of how some days used to go in b-school. I started on a movie marathon at 12 yesterday night starting with 'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' followed by a pretty crappy 'Dead or Alive' (a pretty illogical, slightly senseless martial arts movie. Yeah, their USP seemed to be pretty women involved in catfights...well *shrug* makes sense, but somehow the movie didn't even titillate and neither was the plot good or even any good performances), followed by a pretty interesting "Man of the Year" (even if the plot was weak,you mean to tell me that there were no tests running on the voting program before being put to use in the most watched and followed election in the world- The US Presidency race...bleh) with a good performance from Robin Williams boosting it up a bit (well he was wonderful in 'Dead Poet's Society'...somehow he just fills the shoes of the character he's playing).

And then after sleeping for 4 hours, I got up, did an errand and watched 'Ek ruka hua faisla", an old theatrical movie 'inspired' by the original 1957 movie '12 Angry Men'. I've seen both the versions and somehow I don't seem to remember 12 Angry men at all (I must've seen it an year or two back).

One thing I liked about the hindi version was the use of the atmosphere/weather. It starts with the jury assembling in the room with the temperature really rising as even the fans were not working. But at this point all the jurors are relatively cool and are joking amongst themselves as they're all relaxed with no arguments or debates happening. They're all thinking (atleast 11 of them) that convicting the defendant was a foregone conclusion and they just had to do the formalities and get out of there.

But towards the end of the movie the skies open up and rain starts to fall. But by this time the arguments are flying thick and fast, anger has broken through the fake veneer society puts upon it and prejudices have been revealed and exposed not just to the others but even to the perpetrators of the prejudices themselves. Thus, inspite of the relief through the rains, the atmoshere is hotter, more stifling and much more claustrophobic than when the weather was hot. (Something from Wikipedia. Apparently, in the english version the director started using long focal lense cameras towards the end of the movie to accentuate the claustrophobia. Not just the physical claustrophobia, but the inner, more relevant claustrophobia in the very souls of the men there.)

One flew over... was also quite an amazing movie. On the lines, in a way, of 'Clockwork Orange'. Atleast in terms of showing how society stifles choices and one man's good deed can be horrendous for the other, and that hypocrisy is too deeply implanted in people, inspite of their good intentions.I always thought that Jack Nicholson was rather an over-rated star. But this performance made me eat my hat. The evolution from the maverick, the rebel, the ladies man, the easy camaraderie-man...to the person appalled at disgusted at what he's seeing. The frustration at seeing people not trying to help themselves, and not being in a position of having an option of helping himself. Brilliant. A good but a very sad and frustrating movie, inspite of the Chief leaving the hospital in an allusion to atleast one life force being used in the correct way after all the sacrifices.

So in all three good movies, and now I'm watching De Niro's 'Taxi Driver'...yeah maybe I should go out today...well what the hell i'll go out tomorrow morning :)