Steven D. Greydanus: Unlike the magical Singin’ in the Rain, Gene Kelly’s An American in Paris doesn’t transcend the musical form; but it’s still one of the great exemplars of the genre. The plot, characterizations, and love story are all paper-thin, but they’re just a pretext for Kelly’s effervescent dancing and choreography, and George Gershwin’s timeless music.
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Frederica Mathewes-Greene: This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement. A family of superheroes — Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl, and their children — are living an anonymous life in the suburbs, thanks to a society that doesn’t appreciate their unique talents. Then it comes to need them. In one scene, son Dash, a super-speedy runner, wants to try out for track. Mom claims it wouldn’t be fair. “Dad says our powers make us special!” Dash objects. “Everyone is special,” Mom demurs, to which Dash mutters, “Which means nobody is.”
Wikipedia: Het is een gedramatiseerde reconstructie van de Japanse aanval in 1941 op Pearl Harbor, de aanval die ertoe leidde dat Amerika formeel in de Tweede Wereldoorlog betrokken raakte.
De film toont niet alleen de aanval zelf, maar ook de aanloop naar de aanval. Zowel de Japanse als de Amerikaanse marine worden gevolgd, waarbij sleutelfiguren worden uitgelicht, met hier en daar ook aandacht voor diplomaten en politici. De scènes over Japanse personen zijn Japans gesproken en gaan vergezeld van Japanse muziek. In feite zijn het twee aparte films, door twee geheel gescheiden film-teams, die later samengemonteerd zijn, met de scènes in chronologische volgorde.
van C.S. Lewis. Jeffrey Overstreet: Lewis described a story’s sequence of events as “a net whereby to catch something else.” While Aslan’s intimidating power and glory has escaped them, the filmmakers have “caught” the essence of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. And they’ve blessed the holiday season with a first-class family film that will stand tall after Lewis’s detractors have spent their feeble arrows. (Philip Pullman’s criticisms are shown up as more and more ridiculous as time goes on.)
With its story of a savior who suffered the consequences for others’ sins, and whose power proved greater even than death, this meaningful myth reflects rays of hope into a culture paralyzed by the chill of unbelief, where many really would prefer a winter without a Christmas. Those who respond to the movie’s roar by running to Lewis’s book will find Deeper Magic in its pages. Meeting them there, Lewis himself will lead them “further up, further in.”
van Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen, Out of Africa). Jeffrey Overstreet: Babette is quietly fighting the Gnostic lie that the spiritual life is separate from physical experience. She is revealing the glory of God to them through food. She shows them that food, like all of God’s great gifts, is meant to be celebrated and shared with vigor, reverence, and gratitude. It might even have the power to make friends out of enemies.
The Anchoress: Portrayed so perfectly by the perpetually likable James Stewart, it is easy to miss the fact that George Bailey is not a simple and good-natured cornpone from upstate New York; he is a man whose heart and faith are essential to him, because they balance out a real bitterness that shows itself in little ways. A man who has had to cast aside every dream in order to do “the right thing,” Bailey is -thanks to an old injury- denied even dubious adventure of soldiering during World War II. Watch him spit in disdain at himself and his situation, after he has responsibly handled a blackout drill in his neighborhood. When the big man from the small town comes beeping by in a slick, shiny car and a shinier woman, see George Bailey’s lip curl, not because his wife is wearing a baseball cap and sitting in his old clunker, but because she is so clearly content with the cap, and the clunker, and with comfortable, sacrificing, trapped old George, who always wanted so much more. He adores his wife; he wants what she wants, but why doesn’t she want more?
He kicks the car door.
George Bailey, who is a very good man living by what our post-Christian era might consider “quaint” morals, is deeply distressed. He loves much. He hates, too. Where there is great goodness, there is always equal potential for badness and mayhem, and it is a testament to James Stewart’s talent, and Frank Capra’s direction, that we barely notice Bailey’s flaws for all his good points. The truth is, though, that Bailey’s flaws are what define him; they challenge him, constantly, to transcend his own instincts. Subconsciously, I think we see the man in full -good and bad, light and dark- and recognize ourselves in him.
Brothers Judd: I have to admit, I normally loathe these stories where one betrothed, or the other, or both, break off an engagement because they've found "true love." (I guess at the time it was also considered daring to implicitly criticize war profiteering by having Joan choose the poor sailor over the industrialist.) But the movie's so enchanting and the use of myth so effective that I eventually surrendered to it. Powell and Pressburger made many great films and this one, though I'd not rank it with their very best, is delightful. Highly recommended for husbands who owe their wives a chick flick.
Wikipedia: The Deer Hunter meditates and explores the moral and mental consequences of war violence and politically-manipulated patriotism upon the meaning of friendship, honor, and family in a tightly-knit community and deals with controversial issues such as drug abuse, suicide, infidelity and mental illness. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
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