Les Miserables
Dominic Piancentini ’15
The much anticipated “Les Miserables” opened in theaters this winter on Christmas Day. This musical, set after the French Revolution, tells the story of one man discovering who he is and the people he affects in the process. It was clear to me that director Tom Hooper had read Victor Hugo’s original novel. Aspects of his story and setting, not found in the stage adaptation, were able to fit into film’s grander format.
The all-star cast, including Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter, performed their lines almost entirely in song. For the most part, their voices were incredible. Russell Crowe’s voice took a little getting used to, but through the film I began to realize that if Javert sang, this is probably what he would have sounded like.
Throughout the film, there were a lot of close-ups of the actors’ faces, especially during their characters’ solos. In these scenes, emotion seeped out of their performance, and for me these emotional performances were the most impressive part of the movie. On the stage you can’t see the actor’s facial expressions as well, and this new aspect of the story makes it all seem real… even though they’re singing. All in all, it was the best stage to film musical I’ve seen, so go see it on the big screen while it’s still showing!
Django Unchained
Libba Smith ’13
All in all, I did enjoy Tarantino’s latest film, “Django Unchained.” The movie follows Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is freed by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) in order to become a bounty hunter and free his wife. His wife is a slave on a plantation called “Candieland,” owned by the notoriously brutal Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). However, I would not want to watch it again. I saw the movie with a group, and while most were unaffected by the graphic scenes, I often found it too heartbreaking to watch.
However, the violence and the frequent racial epithets are necessary to convey the brutality of the time period. While Tarantino is clearly paying homage to the Spaghetti Western style, the film also presents an unflinching portrayal of the slave system, presenting the viewer with the constant fear and dehumanization techniques used by slave masters. The film escalates to absurd heights, culminating in typical Tarantino amounts of bloodshed, which in turn mirrors the absurdity of slavery itself. The film does have its more mild moments, however; my favorite scene, featuring a cameo from Jonah Hill, perfectly mocks the Ku Klux Klan and had me laughing out loud. The movie is thrilling to watch, with satisfying liberation and revenge, but I would never call it a popcorn flick.
Zero Dark Thirty
Madeleine O’Neill ’16
“Zero Dark Thirty” follows the complicated trail that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden through the eyes of a CIA operative named Maya. Overall, the movie wasn’t bad — especially the last scene. The raid that resulted in Bin Laden’s death was intense and well done. Unfortunately the first two thirds of the movie weren’t as solid; they were too long and sometimes hard to follow.
The most disturbing part of my experience seeing “Zero Dark Thirty” was the fact that several people in the audience laughed whenever someone who looked Middle Eastern got shot. The director, Katherine Bigelow, tried to downplay the ‘us vs. them’ feel by including a friendly Pakistani translator and a Muslim CIA chief, but they were awkwardly implemented and didn’t really work.
ZDT was, however, a fair depiction of America’s torture program. If you’re like me, and you don’t think America should ever torture anyone, then ZDT will make you mad — there are some extremely graphic torture scenes. The movie doesn’t gloss over the horrible and illegal things America did in trying to find Bin Laden. There are strong suggestions in ZDT that information gathered through torture led to the discovery of Bin Laden, a fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee has called “grossly inaccurate.” But at the same time, the film shows that torture often led to false information and that Americans made a lot of mistakes — two facts that don’t get brought up often.
The Hobbit
Kate Schiller ’13
From the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy comes “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” The film is the first installment of a planned trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” and follows a company of dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard as they move toward reclaiming a mountain kingdom from a dragon.
Although in two hours and 40 minutes the company never reached the mountain, the film still managed to be entertaining and exciting. Foreshadowing and subplots related to events in The Lord of the Rings, such as the mysterious Necromancer (Benedict Cumberbatch) helped justify the long run time.
The film was shot in a newfangled faster frame rate, which is supposed to better imitate how the human eye actually sees. However, its unfamiliarity left many viewers unhappy with the film’s visual effects. Seen in 2-d and the normal frame rate, the film has the same beauty and stunning New Zealand scenery as Jackson’s first trilogy.
Based on a children’s story, The Hobbit has its fair share of silliness and whimsy, but Middle Earth is still full of scary orcs, trolls and goblins. Jackson was again able to build suspense despite the ending’s inevitability. The famous riddle scene with Gollum (Andy Serkis) was chilling and satisfying,. For fans of Middle Earth, nine hours of this will just mean a longer LOTR marathon day, which can only really be a good thing.