Children of Men

I am happy that we watched this movie in class for many reasons. First of all, I liked how we watched something other than a documentary, but some of the time it seemed like a documentary; especially during the war scenes. The camera action was very realistic, and when the blood hit the camera it seemed like it actually happened. I thought the story line was genius, and I like to see how other people perceive what our world could potentially look like in the future. The casting in this film seemed perfect, and everyone played a believable character throughout the whole movie. It was surprsing to me that Julian Moore got killed off so early in the movie. After that happened the suspense was set up for the rest of the movie, and I was ready for anything to happen. Overall, this was a great movie and full of vivid action shots.

Holy Watergate

Wow....what a powerful movie. When the whole scandal about Catholic priests abusing boys in the church broke out a few years back I remember feeling really shocked by it. It just didn't make sense to me for these "holy" men to do such an unthinkable things. I thought this documentary was really powerful in the sense that it did not just show one side of the story, but it unmasked the scandal that has been going on for almost 2 decades from the victims as well as the abusers. This film did not only interview one or two victims, but 5 of them to create a stronger unified voice from the victim's point of view. It was heart breaking to hear each of the victim's explain their side of the story, and have them re-tell the torture they went through at such a young age. The film also made me extremely mad that higher ranking priests, such as cardinals, knew about the abuse that was going on, but still let the priests who were predators travel around to different parishes. I felt sick to my stomache when the priest (I forget his name) who admitted to abusing a few young boys explained the things he did. He brought the boys to his cabin, offered them alcohol, and then preyed on them. Overall, this was a great and very emotional movie. I'm happy that some of the predator priests were punished for their actions, and the victims got a sense of justice.

Prisoners of Paradise

I really liked this movie. It was very sad as well as moving. The film was basically about a Jewish entertainer named Kurt Gerron. For years he was one of the most famous actors during his time, and lived a good life. He always had good food, a nice house, and a loving wife. However, after WWII broke out, he pretty much lost everything. While he was in a Nazi concentration camp he basically made a "deal with the devil". He was told to help make a Nazi propogandist film showing the great life inside a Jewish concentration, although it was nothing short of hell. In return, Gerron was under the impression that his life would be saved. I think Gerron was faced with a very tough decision. If I were him I would have no idea what I would have done. For one thing you have to think, should I save my life and my families? Or should I betray my fellow race and direct a film that was a complete lie. Gerron was torn between what he should do, and in the end it didn't matter since he was killed anyways. This film was really good, and if it wasn't for this class I probably would have not seen it on my own.

Sister Rose's Passion

Usually I dont like movies that strongly relates to religion, however, I did enjoy this movie. I thought that woman, sister Rose, was very smart and actually funny. She felt very strongly about anti-semitism in the church, and took a stand for it. Sister Rose was stongly against the act of hating the Jewish in Christian teachings, and basically devoted her life to stop it. I found her to be funny because near the end she is in a meeting with her fellow co-workers strongly stating her opinions. Everyone around the table just looked at each other and smiled because she is so passionate about everything she does. Another reason I like this film was because it was short and to the point.