The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields is the story of the Cambodian genocide, but more than that, it is the story of the deep friendship between two reporters ^ one American, one Cambodian covering the war.  Its themes are the ones you'd expect from such a movie...war as hell, friendship and human triumph through Pran.  The destruction of war is masterfully rendered...distorted limbs and broken bodies enter the foreground as the camera pans and continue on into the background...one is left with the thought of the carnage that continued on off screen.

Some of the music choices were a bit...odd.  I'm talking about some of the more techno/electronic background songs they used.  They certainly were interesting but they were a bit out of place.  However, as corny as it is, I did like the use of the Beatles's Imagine at the climactic ending scene.  It's fitting, after all the awful things depicted in the movie, to use a song that dreams about the end of war, religion, prejudice and all the other ills of the world.

Truly a beautiful story.

Oh.  And there is this army guy in the beginning and I was like "OMG! The guy from Coach!" As in the TV show coach from the 90s.  Weird. I hadn't thought about that TV show in like, a decade.

The Last Emperor

I'd been wanting to re-watch The Last Emperor  for a while now and I picked up when I saw the DVD at the library.  Well, this movie is depressing!  Modern Chinese history is pretty depressing in general.  The score and appearance of Ryuichi Sakamoto (a personal favorite) in the film are a plus.  The film has all the smut to keep people interested like the threesome scene or the breastfeeding scene.

Spartacus

I've just had Direct TV installed at my house, so I expect to be watching more cooking shows than movies in the coming days!

However, I did finish Spartacus, the film about the leader of the Roman slave rebellion.  It was...really long.  Just over three hours.  Kind of weird to think this was directed by Kubrick.  Kirk Douglass, the star, had an incredibly stoic face and a weird chin dimple.  I enjoyed the scenes in the Roman senate and the alluding to the future Julius Caesar...but I do like history.  The "oysters and snails" scene was also pretty intense.

The close up of the dude in the above scene was pretty harrowing.  

宮本武蔵

Musashi Miyamoto was a famous Japanese swordsman.  Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto is the first in a trilogy about him...the origin story.  Miyamoto is played by the great Toshiro Mifune.  I thought all the actors did a great job with facial expressions.  Example:

Now to see the next two movies!