BIG FISH

In this third review I want to treat the film Big Fish, which was directed by Tim Burton and released in 2003. This is a startling story taken from two different points of view:

• Edward Bloom's perspective: he is the main character of his own adventure which is the tale of his whole life. He has spent his entire life being the hero of the fantastic tales he tells to everyone, confusing real life with his imagination.
• William Bloom's perspective: he feels his father has been cheating on him about the story of his life and that Edward always tried to be the hero and the person focused among
  everyone, even in his son´s wedding. William spends years without talking to his father, bearing a grudge. He only realises the reason why his father has made up his whole life when Edward is about to die.

In my opinion the main magical scene of this film is the very final one: Will helps his dying father to make up the final and utopic moment of his life tale, in which every single fantastic character of the story encourages Edward to face his pretty ending.

Although I find it a great film I must highlight the downside of the unrealistic and too utopic life of the main character and the fact that he doesn´t have his feet in the ground, so he keeps living something unreal, and we must be realistic and be aware of what is surrounding us.

However this is a searing film that makes you reflect on the posibility of facing the difficulties life brings with our better actitude, as John Lennon said once: “you may say I´m a dreamer but I´m not the only one”, which means that beyond good or bad times, or even death, we always can see a guiding light to make us cheer up and continue fighting, and the best source to find it is not much further than our imagination.

Big Fish has a compelling plot based on the statement that you only have to believe in something to make it real. The moral of it is that the extremely realistic and pesimistic points of view are not always the best ones and that one needs some emphasis and hope to live happily.

SECOND REVIEW: GRAN TORINO

My second writing will consist on a review of the film Gran Torino, which, I must say, is one of the best films I have ever watched.

This poignant feature film, released in 2008, tells the evolution of Walt Kowalski, a narrow-minded, Korean War veteran who lives in a neighbourhood taken, little by litlle, by foreigners.

After his wife dies, Walt feels that the only hope he had in his life was gone. He realises that he does not know his own family and he does not even want to get to know them. He has no feath or objectives but obsessions and contained anger. Notwithstanding he discovers a “second family” to take care of and fill with affection: an extremely supersticious Hmong family residing next door.

Gran Torino is a lavish story which limns some social problems such as racism, feath departed, loneliness, street gangs or prejudices.

Personally, I find this film a great source of reflexion: even if you are the most narrow- minded and apathetic man in the world you may have feelings of affection, protection, respect, admiration, friendship and love for the most unexpected people. No matter the colour of their skin, their religion, their traditions, their political ideas, their profession, etc. since they can be the kind of person you may share your life with, and they can become as, or even more, important than your own family or those you considered “friends”.

Everyone should consider this conclusion and stop believing in races, good and bad religions and discriminations with no reason, and start thinking about good and bad people who commit good and bad acts. I am not suggesting taking as extreme meds as Clint Eastwood shows on his film, but thinking in a more terrenal way, worrying about the problem of those good people nearby and not mentioning God or Jesus at any minute while crossing your arms when someone else is suffering around you.

About the linguistic aspects of the film, I would highlight two differenced extremes: on the one hand the continous mention to religious figures such as “Jesus”, “Christ”, “God”, etc; and in the other hand there is a clear use of the slang, characteristic of suburbs and marginal areas like the one shown in the film.

Finally, I totally recommend this film to everybody. In fact, it is one of those searing films which can make you laugh and cry in a short period of time, that is why it is one of my favourite films. My score for Gran Torino would be definitely a 10 out of 10.

FIRST REVIEW: BILLY ELLIOT

Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, is set in Durham (Northern England) during the eighties. The film basically tells the story of a young boy whose passion is dancing; and its struggle to accept his vocation and to show it to the rest of the world, despite his family’s situation.

It is important to analyze the main characters of this film to get to know Billy’s influences and pressures, and the actual importance of his effort:

-         Jackie Elliot (Billy’s father): he’s a mistreated, revolutionary miner who reflects the suffering of his whole life. The character experiments a big change all along the film: he refuses from his son’s hobby and try to stop him to do ballet; but suddenly he realises that he has got a really talented son and makes a great effort to try to give Billy the life he deserves.

-         Tony Elliot (Billy’s brother): he follows his father’s revolutionary steps and acquires an extreme behaviour which will make the familiar situation even more difficult. He finds his brother’s interest for dancing a proper effeminate hobby. He does a great effort to get to accept Billy’s goal and the means his father is taking to provide him.

-         Mrs. Wilkinson (ballet teacher): she has a terrible familiar situation and breaks out through ballet. She is Billy’s unconditional support from the beginning of his conflict and tries him to achieve what she has never achieved.

-         Billy Elliot:  he is a young boy searching his own life’s sense, since he cannot find its place in the mainstream he’s supposed to live in. He found some consolation and happiness while he is dancing, but confessing his passion would cause an extremely embarrassing situation for him. Moreover the feeling that his late mother would be his only support, takes him to undercover the ballet lessons until he realises that he has to demonstrate his abilities to the rest of the world, even if he has to fight his own family.

Dealing with the language aspects of the film, I found it a little bit weird to understand in some scenes: the language variety they use is colloquial the most of the time, with lots of swearwords and, sometimes, wrong structures such us “me” instead of the possessive pronoun “my”. I think that this use of the language is important in the film, since it helps the characters to emphasize their low social stratum and it gives more drama to the situation.

From my point of view it is a fond story. Personally, I found the magic of that film in the fact that a boy, whose fate is to be a mistreated miner, find himself refraining from the violent situation he lives in, through ballet: an inconceivable activity for a person like him. In addition, it contains the message: “never give up pursuing your dreams”, which is suitable for everyone. From my experience I can admit that it is a hard task when your condition doesn’t help the aim that you are bound to achieve, but it is much more pleasant when you see your progress than if you had not made such a great effort.