Amazing Grace

Yesterday, I was able to see Amazing Grace at my local cinema. It's one of those films Christians promote to the friends etc. though perhaps not in the same way as The Passion of the Christ or The Chronicles of Narnia.

I think it is certainly well-filmed (the detail is rather excellent) with more than reasonable performances. But as with most films, there is a flaw or two in it. It wasn't until the film was finished that I realised that there was a lack of depicting the slave trade concerned in the film.

We only get a glimpse of it, with at least only two Africans seen on screen, while African boys are shown in a dream that William Wilberforce has. It would have been nice to at least have seen WHAT was being abolished rather than talkingabout it. There are references to the cruelties but instead of seeing slaves being abused, we see a fallen horse being whipped. I would have settled for seeing how slaves were treated in London without it being gratuitous.

It is essentially a slave trade movie without the slaves. Now, Quentin Tarantino described his film Reservoir Dogs as "a heist movie without the heist", but that film was good in how the heist concerned wasn't important in the plot, but the characters involved and what happened after it all went wrong. The Passion of the Christ is another example, focusing on Jesus' suffering and death, with a few flashbacks to earlier in his life and hinted at the Biblical epic that could of been. This could justify the critics' view that the film was mainly preaching to the converted. It would have been interesting to see why this man was being tortured to death.

Getting back to Amazing Grace, it is faithful to William's Christian faith and I was surprised at the subtle line from a character "I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great Saviour." though some may take it as propaganda.

United 300

I am not normally one to complain about "offensive" material in the Media, but it is interesting to see that the recent MTV Movie Awards awarded the new "Spoof Award" to United 300, effectively a spoof of the claustophobic docu-drama United 93, which reconstructs the 9/11 events on Flight 93, and the comic book epic300.

I have watched the short film on YouTube now and the plot is essentially the same as both films but involves German hi-jackers as opposed to the original terrorists. I admit the low-budget send-up of 300 was creative, with the costumes and the near spot-on impersonation of Gerard Butler. But one would wonder if this film is an insult to those who died on 9/11.

One could adapt the claim against Monty Python's Life of Brian and say that if 9/11 didn't happen then this film couldn't have been made - at least in the way it was.

Then again I included actual footage of 9/11 in my college music video of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

College Final Major Project

I finally got my FMP completely edited and mastered today. It is a ten minute factual programme on the Church's past clashes with cinema (Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ etc.). All I have to do now is finish the paperwork.

Citizen Kane

Today, I finally watched the film that is hailed is [one of] the greatest films of all time. And who am I to argue with that? The techniques used to film Citizen Kane were new back then, so I've heard. The angles, lighting, montages, narrative structure (interviews followed by long flashbacks that make up the film) are excellent, though shouldn't be done too much in filmmaking otherwise a film would be remembered more for how a story is told rather than the story itself.

I was slightly mistified by the final revelation but overall a great piece of filmmaking. And THAT performance by Orson Welles! I knew very little of him before seeing this.

The Family of Blood

Watched "Part Two" of the latest new Doctor Who adventure that began with Human Nature. This is perhaps one of the best new stories so far and perhaps an all-time classic. Performances were excellent and the ending was especially rather moving.

In last week's Doctor Who: Confidential writer Paul Cornell compared the story to past ones such as Superman II (in which the Man of Steel gives up his powers to be with Lois Lane) and the story of Christ. As in THE story? He could be referring to how Jesus as the Son of God gave up his place in Heaven to come and live on Earth as a human being (albeit with his divinity).

But watching this episode, I was reminded of the controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ in which Jesus is tempted (in a vision by Satan) to be completely human and live a normal life with marriage and children. I refer to the scene in the episode where "John Smith" and matron Joan envision a possible marriage, children, and John dying an old man. All this takes place in "The Last Temptation". But in both cases, the characters give up this possibility to face their destiny as saviours - Christ dies on the cross as a sacrifice; John Smith becomes the Doctor (again).

Children's TV On Trial

Anyone been watching the "Children's TV on Trial" season on BBC Four? The key feature has been the five part series looking at kid's TV from the 1950s to now. How things have changed!

We have gone from one channel to hundreds, black and white to multicolour, formal to as informal as you can get, puppets to CGI, taste and decency to well... things that may appear to be "indescent" but deal with important issues. From patronising kids to over-patronisation (e.g. Cbeebies).

I just hope they make more programmes like the older ones though some of the new stuff looks interesting, such as In the Night Garden from the creators of Teletubbies.

Powerpoint for presentation

Well, I have at least a day to finish my powerpoint presentation which I started yesterday, but I have my notes and stuff to do it.