Best Picture

What film deserves to win Best Picture this year?

Christians don’t want Brokeback Mountain to win because of its open homosexual message.

The Rolling Stones, The Newsboys, Sandi Patti, Michael W. Smith and Caedmon’s Call all get nominated for Best Musical Group, who deserves to win?

How many Christians are there in this country? How many homosexuals are there in this country? Where are all the great Christian films?

I could keep asking questions, and making statements, but let me just answer the ones I’ve already asked…

Brokeback Mountain deserves the Best Picture award this coming Sunday night.

The Rolling Stones. (Although it was sort of a trick question since Sandi Patti and Michael W. Smith are not “groups”)

Supposedly there a quite a few Christians in this country.

Even by high estimates there are somewhat less homosexuals than there are supposed Christians.

Has the term “great Christian film” been used before?

I’m sorry, there was another question, can I really answer a question with another question?

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Crash

Each of these movies deserves its own full-length review, but I think it is interesting to compare them to on another instead. I saw Three Burials on Friday night, and then Crash on Saturday night. Although the settings and styles of these films are completely different, there is a common theme: Growth. All of the main characters in both films start out at a certain point in their lives, and over the course of their respective stories they go through some pretty dramatic personal growth. I find this interesting because most movies don’t seem to have time for growth. Usually the characters are already established and exist only to further the story. In Three Burials I was surprised to see both the protagonist and antagonist grow, and definitely in directions I didn’t foresee. Then in Crash, there are nine different main characters, each of whom grows personally during the course of the film. I really enjoyed the fact that the film began with a cast of stereotypes and through some tough situations it dashed those stereotypes to pieces.
Independent films are supposed to be fresh, entertaining and thought-provoking. Instead they have merely become cheap, recycled, Hollywood, formula crap. Three Burials and Crash break away from that sad trend. Hopefully with the evolution of the media, with the immense variety and simplification of production, the cream will rise to the top.

P.S. Crash contains the biggest example of a director flat-out messing with his audience. It was my favorite part, after it was all over.

Capote

Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yes I do realize that the first sentence was just some actor's name. Philip Seymour Hoffman . There it was again, I'm not sure that it is truly a sentence, but this is a blog, so sue me. Forget the story, because it's very forgettable. This is a film created around a character and a perfomance that meets the challenge. Hoffman playes Capote, a famous aautor I guess, mostly because he says so in the movie. He hangs out with Harper Lee quite a little bit, I know her from To Kill A Mockingbird, that's cool I guess. I could tell you some of the details, like how Capote befriends a murder suspect in the case he is investigating for his next novel. Or I could tell you about the relationship that developes between Capote and the one of the other character. I could tell you that Capote is a homosexual, but you probably already knew that, or figured it out from the previews. I can't say I really enjoyed the film, and for the most part there wasn't really anything of substance to follow. But I can appreciate Hoffman's performance. This is one of those roles where the actor seems to dissappear, and you wonder what he was like between takes or after shooting each day. How can someone so completely take on a different character without becoming that person at least a little bit?

Good Night And Good Luck

I don't have much good to say about George Clooney. Of course I don't know him personally, so my opinion of him is based primarily on the political and social views he has expressed in public. This being said, I found much to my suprise that I really enjoyed this movie. The film is a quick, direct and clear glimpse into the life of Edward R. Murrow, the famous journalist. It is not a biography, rather a chapter in his life which the filmmakers obviously believe captures who Murrow was and what he stood for. David Strathairn plays Murrow (and is nominated for an Oscar) and he does a wonderful job. Strathairn delivers his dialouge with conviction, and I thought that his first speech is one of the best written and delivered of this past year. This film is about beliefs, and people who stand-up for and express them. In a time when there is much debate over news, journalism and truth, it is interesting to see a film that deals with the subject so directly. Is there such a thing as unbiased journalism? Even if you plug the "facts" into a computer and have it write the story, you still chose which information to include/exclude. What seperates Michael Moore from Fox News from CNN from Chritianity Today from, well you get the idea. George Clooney may be on the oppisite ends of the political spectrum, but I think we may agree on something.

The Searchers

“The Searchers” is not a cowboy movie, it is the cowboy movie. There have been other good cowboy movies and there have been some bad ones too. “The Searchers” captures the quality of the cowboy. The setting is Texas, a rugged, harsh and unforgiving time and place. This is the backdrop for a tragic and heartbreaking incident which sets in motion the search for a lost girl. The searchers are the heroes of the story, two cowboys, one hardened by experience, and one who is about to be. This film by John Ford is an unflinching exploration of two men’s perseverance and determination in the face of overwhelming obstacles. This movie is about love, compassion, family and right versus wrong. This isn’t a Roy Rogers white hat/black hat cowboy movie though. John Wayne, who plays one of the two heroes, shouldn’t be wearing a white hat, and he knows it. What is motivating him on this quest? Is he such a cowboy that all he automatically does what is brave, without thinking about it? I think not. Even with flaws, even in his fallen state, there is something deeper, something that drives him to do what is right. As I watched this film earlier this evening I realized that in many ways the making of this film, just its existence neutralizes all those mediocre, even bad cowboy movies. No, it probably does more than that, ten, no more than twenty years from now “The Searchers” will stand the test of time, while so many other supposed cowboy movies will fade and perhaps even pass from our memories. Truth has an uncanny knack for survival doesn’t it?