Tsotsi

Posted on December 2nd, 2009 in Uncategorized by jimmygood

Tsotsi is slang for “thug” this fits perfectly with the way that the main character, Tsotsi acts, he starts fights, kills someone and then shoots a woman and steals her car. When he realises that her baby is in the car his life changes, he turns his back on his ‘gangster’ lifestyle and tries to care for the baby as best he can in his humble life, he lives in a favela and does not have many posessions.

The baby is the turning point and he leaves his friends, even killing one to protect the father of the baby and possibly for the first time in his life asks someone for hel, at first he is forceful and makes her help him but begins to warm to people and asks her if he can still come and see her if he gives the baby back to its parents.

The fact that Tsotsi is still a child himself is also very important as it shows that he is stil lvery immature and does not think about the consequences of his actions. The film follows his life while he has the baby upto the point where he gives the baby back. It is a very powerful film that demonstrates that people can change even in the worst of circumstances and portrays his change in emotion and empathy for other people in a very convinving way. While the film is quite violent and full of agression and anger it is worth a watch and has won 14 awards including one oscar for best foreign film of the year.

City Of God (Cidade De Deus)

Posted on November 18th, 2009 in Uncategorized by jimmygood

The City of God Or ‘Cidade De Deus’ in Portuguese is based on a true story of a young boy growing up in one of the most notorious favela’s in Brazil. Rocket (Buscapé) is trying yo get out of the slum and wants to become a photographer but is surrounded by violence, gangs and drugs.

The film is very hard hitting as it is based on a true story and many of the ‘actors’ were actually from the slums of Brazil themselves, Alexandre Rodrigues who played the main character, Rocket, is from the Cidade De Deus. There was also a lot of improvisation in the film such as the child losing his shoe at the end and when Rocket laughs when his brother gets hit by their Father and his brother tells him not tolaugh at him. The improvisation makes the film feel more raw and realistic and sometimes almost feels as if it is a documentary, a shocking insight into life for the citizens of the favela’s.

There are parts of this film which are designed to shock but due to the fact that some of the people in the film were from the slums and could have done some of these shocking things themselves makes it even more powerful. One such part is when Lil Ze is a young boy and shoots the people in the hotel and is laughing manically during the killings.

The film has won 49 awards and has been nominated for another 25, the fact that it has so many nominations let alone wins shows just how powerful and moving the film is. Personally i find the film is very intersting and is one of my favourite films which i find fascinating knowing that the children at the end who made a list of who they wanted to kill became the world famous Comando Vermelho (Red Command), the brutal gang who run most of Brazils slums.

Small Research Project

Posted on October 8th, 2009 in Uncategorized by jimmygood

The title of my small research project is; How does Simon Pegg create a humourous feeling? It will be based around the three films, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzzand Run Fat Boy Run.

Once Were Warriors

Posted on October 7th, 2009 in Uncategorized by jimmygood

The film follows the daily life of a family in New Zealand, it does not follow the conventional view of New Zealand being a country of calm mellow people, instead it shows a life of violence which is apparent in all parts of the world in one way or another.

The film was very powerful in the way that is showed the abuse subjected to the family and the consequences of it. The scenes that best show this are; Jake beating up Beth and the scene where Grace hangs herself after being raped by ‘Uncle’ Bully.

While the film was a very violent, it also highlighted an issue, present in most societies throughout the world; the main cause of the problems through the film were a result of poverty. Jake was a decendant of slaves and came from poverty, he thought that his children should look after themselves and that his money should be spent on what he wanted. He spent most of his money on alcohol and this fueled his violent tendencies, the money being spent on alcohol led to them falling further into poverty.

I would not say i found the film enjoyable as it was a dark and brutal depiction of the way that some people live, but rather than enjoying it i liked it as it allowed an honest insight which is not usually found within films.

‘La Haine’

Posted on September 29th, 2009 in Uncategorized by jimmygood

The film is based around three young men living in the Parisian suburbs; Vinz, Saïd and Hubert. It follows them through a turbulent day of their lives, their friend Abdel has been beaten into a coma by the police, fueling their ‘Hate’ as the name of the film suggest, to make matters worse Vinz, who is the angriest finds a policemans gun and says if abdel dies he will kill a police officer. This means that it is left upto his friends to keep him out of trouble.

I enojyed the film and thought that it was quite cleverly shot as if it was a documentary. I also thought that the storyline was almost stereotypical of such a poor area but almost believably so, Hubert said that he wanted to get out and move away from the area but Vinz did not seem to mind as he could cause trouble, before you know that he has the gun he is seen snarling in the mirror saying “you talkin’ to me?” he says it copying the way that robert De Niro does in ‘Taxi Driver’.

On the whole the film seemed quite accurate of the way that different peoples attitudes dictate their actions. However i was dissappoointed with the way that the film ended but it highlighted the fact that life is not just full of happiness and that everything will always work out in the end as it often seems to be in Hollywood films.