This isn't really about Avalon or anything King Arthur-ish, just thought the title painted a really nice visual image. These last few days have been filled with running around, paperwork, filming final shots and then cutting them into my film; which I have to say is coming along really nicely. I think this is the first film I have made that I am actually proud of but whether it pleases the powers that be is a totally different story. Sometimes when you are in school, you somehow lose your "voice" in the work you make. You somehow run the risk of making something to please someone else, thus is the "evils" that affect the arts. And this is always the thing I am always the most afraid of. Some how this has been something that has plagued me all my life and I hope this time, I can really say "This is the film I wanted to make."
In between all this rushing, I've been packing up my life in Brisbane as well. Saying goodbye after almost 3 and a half years is not going to be easy but then, nothing ever is. Especially when it comes to having to change your life again. But I think this is something that I've had too much familiarity with. Changing schools, changing countries; all part and parcel of the life I have chosen for myself.
So now, as I stand once more on the brink of a new tomorrow, I sit down and remember the road that has lead me here and this time, I allow myself to smile knowing I have done what I wanted to do when I started my journey here. Perhaps one day life will lead my past this road I once trod but until then, they will remain quiet memories for another day.
Sunday 21 October 2007
Tuesday 9 October 2007
Fitting your life into a box
As I lie in bed writing this, I am looking around my room thinking and wondering how I am going to fit all my stuff into boxes for shipping. As I get ready to call time on my life in Australia which is coming to an end in the next few weeks, I have not yet reach the place where I can look back yet but I am filled with a question, a certain wonder. A wonder of how I can pack my whole life into a box (or in case, a few boxes) and that action becomes in itself the closing act in this adventure which has taken the last 3 over years of my life. Perhaps one day I will find and answer to how I feel.
Friday 5 October 2007
Movie Review: The Kingdom
The Kingdom was the first movie I've watch since The Bourne Ultimatum and I was very glad I took the time out to catch it. The premise of the movie was simple really: a terrorist cell blows up a bomb inside a compound built for American workers in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (hence the name of the film) and a team of FBI agents fight politics home and aboard to find the man behind it. Essentially, that's the story in a nutshell. It had great interesting if somewhat stereotypical characters but the acting more then makes up for it. But it also had wonderful moments in this film with give you a chance to bond with them. Perhaps giving us characters we can identify with so easily gave us a platform from which we start to care about them much easier and much quicker; something which would prove we useful as the story plays itself out.
I have a problem classifying this movie simple because its not a full on action movie, neither is it a full on crime mystery and it also falls short on being a strong comment on the political climate that is now existing in the Middle East. Some people will see this as a flaw in the movie but I rather think it's part of what made it so enjoyable.
Good and evil is seemingly played out very clearly in this film but at the end; what you get instead of a "good guys win, bad guys end up all died" scenario is a moral mirror with which one can look at themselves and ask themselves have they been rooting for the correct side.
Terrorism is probably one of the most horrid fears in our world today and this film addresses in with no holds barred. It doesn't put faceless victims on screen but rather gives you a look at how a normal peaceful afternoon can be shattered by the horrors of terrorism. It also gives you a look at the "answer" to terrorism: Vengeance. Do not get me wrong, those who commit senseless mass murder must be punished but it must be done so in the name of justice and not revenge. The desire for payback can make violence of this sort play itself out in an endless cycle from which the only ones who will suffer are the innocent. It is clear from this film that the ones who will suffer for our inability to co-exist peacefully on this earth will be our children.
We are continually divided on many issues ranging form race, religion, ethnicity and so forth and the longer we choose not to focus on what we have in common, on what might bring us together, the longer the innocent will suffer.
What I loved most about this film is that it doesn't tell you who is right and who is wrong. It is something you decide for yourself but what you get is characters in whom you can see and understand their motivations and from there you can see yourself in their shoes. And at the end, when the guns are silence and the cost is counted, you find yourself in a moment of reflection, wishing that what you saw was nothing more then fantasy before realizing it is a fictionalised version of what is happening in the world today. 8/10.
I have a problem classifying this movie simple because its not a full on action movie, neither is it a full on crime mystery and it also falls short on being a strong comment on the political climate that is now existing in the Middle East. Some people will see this as a flaw in the movie but I rather think it's part of what made it so enjoyable.
Good and evil is seemingly played out very clearly in this film but at the end; what you get instead of a "good guys win, bad guys end up all died" scenario is a moral mirror with which one can look at themselves and ask themselves have they been rooting for the correct side.
Terrorism is probably one of the most horrid fears in our world today and this film addresses in with no holds barred. It doesn't put faceless victims on screen but rather gives you a look at how a normal peaceful afternoon can be shattered by the horrors of terrorism. It also gives you a look at the "answer" to terrorism: Vengeance. Do not get me wrong, those who commit senseless mass murder must be punished but it must be done so in the name of justice and not revenge. The desire for payback can make violence of this sort play itself out in an endless cycle from which the only ones who will suffer are the innocent. It is clear from this film that the ones who will suffer for our inability to co-exist peacefully on this earth will be our children.
We are continually divided on many issues ranging form race, religion, ethnicity and so forth and the longer we choose not to focus on what we have in common, on what might bring us together, the longer the innocent will suffer.
What I loved most about this film is that it doesn't tell you who is right and who is wrong. It is something you decide for yourself but what you get is characters in whom you can see and understand their motivations and from there you can see yourself in their shoes. And at the end, when the guns are silence and the cost is counted, you find yourself in a moment of reflection, wishing that what you saw was nothing more then fantasy before realizing it is a fictionalised version of what is happening in the world today. 8/10.
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