Lion Review

A deviation from the top 1000 films of all time to review Lion, a film that I watched for my mum's birthday.

Saroo (Sunny Pawar) is a five year old boy from Ganesh Talai in the slums of India.  He spends his time with his older brother Guddu, including following him to work at night.  When Guddu discovers that Saroo has done this, he tells him to wait for him until he returns.  Saroo waits and falls asleep in a train-car, which takes him to Calcutta.  He is alone in this strange town, with nobody to help him, and to make matters worse, he only speaks Hindi, whereas everybody else speaks Bengali.  Eventually he is taken to an orphanage and from there, he is adopted by a Tasmanian couple John (David Wenham) and Sue (Nicole Kidman.) Twenty years later, an adult Saroo (Dev Patel) begins looking for a way to return home.

This is a poignant and heart-breaking film, and the fact that it is based on a true story, makes it that much more powerful.  The performances were strong, with Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, both quite rightly, up for Oscars.  The first act of the film is set in Indi, spoken in Hindi and seen through the eyes of five year old Saroo.  It is obvious that he has come from an impoverished background, yet as he has come from an impoverished background, yet as he has never known any different, he doesn't complain about it.  Rather he is a jubilant child, which makes his character more nuanced and interested to watch.  He becomes more nuanced when his life changes in the few hours that it takes for the train to take him to Calcutta.

Lion ends with a line reading that 80,000 children a year go missing in India and to follow the journey of one of them was interesting to watch.  Even after Saroo arrives in Calcutta, he is determined to get home by following the train tracks, demonstrating his will for survival.

Another thing I liked was how subtle and understated the darker elements of the film were.  Lion is rated PG, which means for the most part it is family friendly, but there are many allusion to more sinister parts.  Saroo's orphanage is implied to be a dark place, where the children are locked up, yet the best example of my point is when Saroo also becomes the victim of a paedophile.  When Saroo is walking along the trainlines to get home, he is taken in by a supposedly friendly woman who is actually grooming him for a paedophile.  She bathes him and presents him to the paedophile who inspects him, whilst he is still dripping wet.  Very little is said or done to indicate this man's hidden agenda, but it is clear what he wants.  Later, Saroo sensing something is amiss, runs away.  The threat of this violence was far more chilling and effective than actually seeing it first-hand.  If we had seen it, it could have lost its effect altogether.


Although I especially liked the time and pacing spent on developing Saroo's character, I feel that other sections did not receive the same treatment.  The best example of this is Saroo's adopted brother Mantosh.  We first see Mantosh as a child, the same age as Saroo and it is clear that he is so mentally disturbed, that whenever he is scared or angry, he begins hitting himself.  This was particularly frightening to watch, considering his young age, but I don't feel like anything came from this subplot.  As an adult, Mantosh, is only in a handful of scenes and it is made clear that he is a disappointment compared to Saroo, and also a great drain on John and Sue.  I feel much could have been done to have developed this subplot.

The second subplot I had issues with was Saroo's relationship with his on/off girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara.) This criticism also ties into my last issue with the time jumps.  The first time-jump of twenty years is perfectly logical, as we don't need to see Saroo growing up, but then there are time jumps of two or three years, which are random and abrupt.  After the first time jump, we see Saroo begin his search for home, as well as his relationship with Lucy.  Then there's a time jump of two years, and we see Saroo is still searching for home.  What are we supposed to believe? That he has been searching for two years? Also at this point, his relationship with Lucy finishes, as his obsession with finding home consumes him.  Then there's another time jump of two years, and we see that Saroo and Lucy have rekindled their relationship.  Has nothing happened to them in these two years to change this outcome?

Secondly, and this is a massive nitpick, but I find it weird that we never saw the pair kiss.  We see them before and after sex, of course we don't see them having sex, nor do we need too, but it doesn't show them doing the one thing that would kick it all off, which I found peculiar.

Nevertheless, this was a tragic and uplifting film, especially at the end when Saroo returns home to find his mother and sister waiting for him.  Guddu was killed by a train on the night of Saroo's disappearance.  This uplift was only amplified by how the real-life documentary footage of the real-life Saroo reuniting with his mother is shown, but also by the final lines of the film, which explain that throughout his whole life, Saroo has been mispronouncing his name.  His name was Sheru, which means Lion.

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India review

Number 102 on the top 1000 films of all time is this Indian epic, sports drama film.

Set in Victorian Indian, the British Raf is in full force.  The village of Champaner is suffering from a terrible drought and to only make things worse, Champanur's commanding office, the arrogant and obnoxious Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne) imposes double Lagaan (taxes) upon the people.  When they come to protest his decision, they become captivated by the game of cricket that he and his men are playing.  After Captain Russell chastises them for interfering, the young rebel Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) insults the cricket game.  In retaliation, Captain Russell challenges the villages to a game of cricket.  If they win, he will cancel Lagaan for the next three years, but if they lose, they will have to pay triple Lagaan.  Bhuvan accepts and puts together a rag-tag team of cricketers to beat Captain Russell at his own game.

Although on the surface, this film is purely about a game of cricket, the far wider political implications are obvious.  The film was set about 30 years before the Indian independence movement in the 1920s, and it is clear that Bhuvan and the others are fighting for more than the cancellation of Lagaan; they're fighting against the unwelcome occupation of the British forces.  Even the puppet ruler, the Rajiji, comes to support Bhuvan's team.  Bhuvan also receives help from Captain Russell's sister Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) who sympathises with the Indians and aids them in their mission.  What was even more impressive was how quickly Elizabeth was able to learn Hindi, especially as she was initially relying on an interpreter.  Anyway, by setting up the film like this, the Indians are positioned as the under-dogs, and I found myself rooting for them quickly.

Lagaan had a large cast with many different characters making up Bhuvan's team, from a fortune-teller, to a doctor, to a woodchopper, to a cripple, all with their own skills to offer.  Whilst initially, they all argued and fought with each other, seeing them unite in the face of their common enemy was great to watch.

I loved the inclusion of the cripple Kachra, which I think was one of the best parts of the film.  Kacha served to expose the hypocrisy in Indian culture, as despite how they are discriminated against by the British, they themselves discriminate against Kachra, due to how he is an untouchable.  Although his deformed hand allows him to unpredictably spin the ball, the others are disgusted by the thought of him, due to his lower caste.  It is only after Bhuvan chastises them for their hypocrisy do they relent.  This occurs within one scene and I do wish they had made a bigger deal out of this.  Although having said that the fate of the team rests in Kachra's hands in the final act.

The last section of the film is dedicated to the actual cricket match and, despite how I'm not a cricket fan at all, I found this highly entertaining.  I had no doubt that the Indians would win; they were the underdogs after all and there was no way they were going to lose to the British.  Yet the match was still unbelievably close.  It was tense, which was how it's supposed to be.  The British batted first and soon rumble all of the Indian team's tactics.  And then when the Indian team bat, their batters drop like flies, leaving only Bhuvan and Kachra.  Whenever one of the Indian batters was eliminated, the pain and failure on their faces was evident.  They were so passionate about winning that I become quite excited seeing whether they would actually do it, which of course they did.  But the interesting thing was that I became as wrapped up in their battle, as the two teams did.

All this being said, the film wasn't the best Indian movie that I've seen.  That honour would go to Rang De Basanti, with 3 Idiots as a close second.  Funnily enough, Aamir Khan stars in both of these films too.  Whilst the diversity of the Indian characters was great, I do feel that the British characters were all the same and drawn very stereotypically.  Captain Russell is your daily villain with little to him, but his arrogance and impudence.  Whilst this may have been typical of the time, his character could have been far more interesting.  Having said that, it was gratifying to see his arrogance become his downfall.  When his superiors hear of the wager he has made, they tell him that he will pay triple Lagaan and be sent to Central Africa if he loses.  Right at the end of the match, Captain Russell mistakenly catches a ball that has gone beyond the boundary, thus giving the six runs that the Indians needed to win the match.

My second criticism would be all of the singing.  I've seen Indian films before and I know that the songs are part and parcel of the whole show, but I really didn't lie them here.  They were tedious and stopped the film cold.  In some cases, they felt increasingly out of place, such as when Elizabeth sings about her realisation of love for Bhuvan.

This notwithstanding, I did enjoy Lagaan.  Despite being close to four hours, it flowed well and was paced nicely, other than the singing.  Aamir Khan was great as usual and the anti-colonial message makes this necessary viewing.

Robot Wars Battle of the Stars Episode Two

The second in Robot Wars Battle of the Stars edition, seeing C-list celebrities fight against each other in the chrome-clashing, metal-mashing, steel-smashing show that is Robot Wars.  Enough talking...

LET THE WARS BEGIN

Robo Savage Vs Kadeena Machina

Robo Savage is the robot operated by Welsh footballing legend Robbie Savage and some of his non-descript friends.  No prizes for guessing how he came up with the name of his machine.  Robbie Savage was mentored by Jason Marston from the Thor team.  

Robo Savage is very much a machine embodiment of the Welsh flag completed with dragon wings and the red, green and white paint job.  Robo Savage's weapon was a flipping arm capable of lifting three tons.

Their opponent was paralympian Kadeena Cox who was mentored by Ellis Ware of the Pulsar team, who were grand finalists in the last series.

Kadeena's machine was unimaginatively called Kadeena Machina, but her robot was sleek and stylish.  It looked quite similar to the machine S3 from the days of old, with a small and squat bodyshape with a 15kg spinning disc that spins at 2000 rpm.  Although Angela did point out that Kadeena's wheels are exposed, Ellis makes the good point that the less weight they have in armour, the more they can put into the weapon.

3...2...1 ACTIVATE 

The battle began quietly with Robo Savage getting some tentative flips in and Kadeena Machina's spinning disc being deflected by Robo Savage's armour.  After some more dancing around each other, Robo Savage tries to get another flip in, resulting in its flipping arm becoming bent and buckled by Kadeena Machina's vicious spinning disc.  Robo Savage then begins running away, but it can't get away from Kadeena's flywheel, as it shreds Robo Savage's wheel, tears up the dragon wings, thus immobilising the Welsh machine.  A good win by Kadeena Machina.

Dee Vs The Soldier Ant

Dee was operated by Rizzle Kicks member Jordan Stephens who was a great sportsman and very entertaining, if a little obnoxious.  Mentoring Jordan was John Reid from the Terrorhurtz team.  Dee is a simple pink thwackabot.  This basically means that their robot is essentially a big mace/spike to thwack other machines into submission.

The Soldier Ant was operated by TV historian Neil Oliver and his two sons.  I liked Neil, as it was obvious he was a family man and he was doing the show for his kids, which was great to see.  The Soldier Ant is something out of Desert Storm, armed with a 3 tonne hydraulic crush.  Neil Oliver was assisted by Will Thomas from the Shockwave team.

3...2...1 Activate

Dee's biggest weakness was its huge pneumatic tyres, which were a juicy red target for the Soldier Ant's hydraulic claw.  The Soldier Ant tried to take advantage of this weakness by repeatedly grabbing hold and pinning Dee, but their weapon wasn't strong enough to penetrate Dee's armour.  Whilst Dee wasn't being pinned down was spinning around the arena, showing that it was a robot that difficult to control.  Thwackbots like Dee are notorious for being difficult to control, due to the nature of their weapons.  The general idea is that the robot would charge into its opponent with its own momentum sending its hammer crashing down onto the enemy machine.  This was the theory, yet rarely did it work.  The only exception is the S4 grand finalist Stinger.  This time round, The Soldier Ant was able to take full advantage of Dee's unpredictability by grabbing hold of its and piercing its wheel.  The decision went to the judges who unsurprisingly awarded it to The Soldier Ant.

The Soldier Ant Vs Robo Savage

This was a good fight between two good robots.  The Soldier Ant gets the first blow in by lowering its crusher into Robo Savage's sweet insides, but doing no real damage.  Robo Savage didn't take kindly to his by then flipping over The Soldier Ant, which suffered a weakness common amongst crushers-no or an ineffective self-righting mechanism.  The Soldier Ant was down for the count.  Matilda flipped them back over after they had been immobilised and the two had a tousle, which The Solider Ant eventually lost.

The Kadeena Machina Vs Dee

This battle was over before it even begun.  Dee went on a kamikaze run over to be sent flying across the arena by the sheer force of The Kadeena Machina's spinning disc.  Dee lost a wheel which went in one direction, whilst the rest of the robot went in a completely different direction.  The Kadeena Machina were the obvious winners.

Robo Savage vs Dee

This fight was the most controversial and closest fight we've had so far.  Dee started as per usual by spinning wildly and in fairness, they did get some good hits in.  The sparks flew as the two robots connected.  And as Dee is an invertible machine, Robo Savage's flipping arm wasn't that effective at flipping it.  However, what it was good at was puncturing Dee's tyre, but Dee also managed to buckle Robo Savage's flipping arm.  There wasn't any clear winner by the end of the fight and the decision went to Dee, which Robbie Savage was not happy by.  There was bickering galore, which I imagine was played up to the cameras.  Dee was still out either way, but that didn't stop Robbie Savage from kicking off.

The Soldier Ant Vs The Kadeena Machina

The final fight saw the group winners The Kadeena Machina against the hydraulic crusher The Soldier Ant.  

The Soldier Ant started strongly by staying away from The Kadeena Machina, but they failed to inflict any damage themselves.  The Kadeena Machina punished The Soldier Ant for this by first shredding their wheel, then their crushing ant, before finally tearing out The Soldier Ant's removable link (kill-switch) immobilising it.  

The Kadeena Machina were through to the final, but The Soldier Ant was a worthy opponent.

The Kadeena Machina Vs Robo Savage

Robo Savage began this battle tentatively, spinning around, wondering how they would take on the fearsome The Kadeena Machina.  However, Kadeena had no such reservations.  She went in for the kill, buckling Robo Savage's wheelguard and tearing up the wheel itself.  With one hit, The Kadeena Machina had won the battle and the contest.

Robot Wars Battle of the Stars

Robot Wars Episode One

Robot Wars Episode Two

Robot Wars Episode Three

Robot Wars Episode Four

Robot Wars Episode Five

Robot Wars Episode Six

The Apartment Review

SPOILERS

Number 101 on the top 1000 films of all time is Billy Wilder's romantic comedy The Apartment (1960.)

C.C Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is an office drone working in a big New-York based insurance company.  He begins to curry favour with his directors when he allows them to use his apartment for their extramarital affairs.  Happy with the attention and adulation he receives, he allows them to continually do this, indifferent to their actions.  That is until his personnel director Mr Sheldrake (Fred Macmurray) takes an interest in the life attendant Fran Kubelik (Shirley Maclaine.) Baxter has his own attraction to Kubelik and seeing Sheldrake's interest in her, finally decides to take action.

The Apartment is only a film that could have come out in the 60's. It is a film of its time. In today's politically correct culture, I think that it would be crucified for its obvious sexism.  The directors are romanticised for their extra-marital affairs and Sheldrake slaps Kubelik's arse when he leaves the lift.  This isn't a film for the easily offended.

This is more of an observation than a criticism, because I did enjoy the film.  As IMDB user Cwelty1 points out, The Apartment "isn't the laugh out loud comedy of Jim Carrey or the Farelly brothers, but a subtle, nuanced comedy about two people who have been jaded in love," which is a very appropriate description.  There are definitely some funny moments such as how Baxter's neighbours view him as a player who knows how to keep the ladies happy, but he is also an empathetic character who I came to root for.

This was partly because of Jack Lemmon's great performance of him.  It is obvious from the start that he is a good, but flawed and lonely man.  He is a people-pleaser, unable to say no and readily accepting his rewards for helping his directors conduct their private business.  This is what makes his transformation great to watch.  Within Fran Kudelik, he finally finds something worth fighting for.  Mr Seldrake promotes Baxter to an executive assistant position, accompanied with his own office and other privileges.  However, the film concludes with Baxter giving everything up, as he quits his job to be with Fran.

Jack Lemmon was great as the reluctant hero Baxter and Fred Macmurray was very good as the villainous Mr Seldrake.  Whilst he might not be your typical big bad villain, he is most definitely the villain of this piece.  Macmurray played Mr Seldrake as the sleazebag that he was.  Charismatic and charming, but definitely a sleazebag.  He manipulates Fran into believing that he is leaving his wife for her, but he is lying.  He is telling the same lie that he has told to the long line of women who came before Fran.  Seldrake's callousness extends further when he makes no effort to help Fran after she overdoses on sleeping pills.  It is Baxter who helps her going so far to cover Seldrake's arse.

All in all, this romantic comedy is a funny and entertaining film, which emphasises the importance of standing up and fighting for what you love.

Robot Wars Battle of the Stars Episode 1 Recap

Robot Wars returns for two celebrity specials where C-list celebrities build and operate fighting machines with the help of Robot Wars veterans.  These celebrity specials operate the exact same way as the regular show did.  The contestants took part in a round-robin with straight-out wins being awarded 3 points, and wins from judges' decisions 2 points.  The two robots with the most points face off in a head to head.

LET THE WARS BEGIN

Arena Cleaner vs Interstellar MML

Arena Cleaner is the robot of Radio 1 broadcasters Scott Mills and Chris Stark, mentored by Dave Moulds of the destructive Carbide machine.  Arena Cleaner is a baby-blue, low to the ground machine armed with a 3mm hardened steel rotating hammer.

Their opponent is space scientist and TV presenter Dr Maggie Aderine-Pocock (yeah I'd never heard of her either) who was mentored by Shane Swan from the Dantomkia machine.  Interstellar MML is your basic wedge-shaped robot with a forward-hinged flipper aiming to topple robots over.

Interstellar MML was hoping to send robots interstellar, but they ended up being taken to the cleaners by Arena Cleaner.  Arena Cleaner tore them to absolute pieces, sending wheels into orbit and reducing Interstellar to pieces.  Despite having a less than imaginative name, Arena Cleaner trashed Interstellar by carving gashes into its 2mm steel armour.  Arena Cleaner were the convincing winners.

Jar Vs The Cat

Olympians, the Brownlee brothers, mentored by Gabriel of the Sabretooth team controlled the machine Jar.  Considering that the Sabretooth machine has a pretty bad track record, I can't help but think that the Brownlee brothers could have received a more successful.  Jar is a triangular wedged machine armed with a hammer.  Although Jar's lack of armour covering their CO2 bottles leaves a lot to be desired.

Their opponents were sports and tech presenter Suzi Perry (yeah I'm clueless again) who was mentored by Craig Danby of the Foxic team.  I don't remember much of Foxic other than it did a lot of running away and losing.  Suzi Perry's robot was called the Cat modelled on, you guessed it, a household cat.  Similarly to Arena Cleaner, it was built low and flat to the ground with a horizontal spinner.  Suzi named it The Cat, because although cats might look cute and cuddly, they can be vicious if they're antagonised.

Onto the actual fight, which wasn't really a fight, but more just pushing and shoving and calling names.  The Brownlees went for a full-on assault and all credit to them, they withstood The Cat's spinning hammer.  However, when they tried to hit it with their hammer, they missed, hit the floor and knocked themselves out instead, and also dislodging one of their CO2 bottles.  The bottle later fell out when Jar was hoisted by Sir Killalot.  A disappointing result for Jar and the Brownlees.

Arena Cleaner vs The Cat

The next fight was between the two teams leading the score table: Arena Cleaner and The Cat, also the two spinners, interestingly enough.

We've seen the destructive power of the Arena Cleaner, but, this time, it was the Cat that showed its claws.  The battle started quietly enough with both machines sizing each other.  Arena Cleaner made a tentative attack, which the Cat withstood.  Both robots spun around in circles for a bit, as the celebrities proved they're not the best drivers, then carnage ensued.  Bad driving from Scott Mills and Chris Stark, saw Arena Cleaner drive into The Cat's spinning hammer, which resulted in them flying across the arena, their wheel being shredded, drive chain become dislodged and inevitably becoming immobilised.

Jar Vs Interstellar

Time for the two robots at the bottom of the score table to try and score: Jar and Interstellar MML.

Although Jar was certainly aggressive, they were again very inaccurate with their hammer.  They hit the arena floor more than they hit the scarred Interstellar.  Similarly to previous grand finalist in the original Robot Wars, Terrorhurtz, Jar's weapon is too powerful for its own good.  Every hammer blow sends it spinning out of control.  This is what hindered them so much in this battle.  That and poor engineering.  A problem with Jar's CO2 bottle caused all of the compressed air to vent, rendering their hammer useless.  Although Interstellar weren't able to take advantage of this, as they couldn't get further underneath Jar to flip it and then they became immobile on one side.  The decision went to the judges who awarded it to Jar.

Interstellar MML vs the Cat

Just like Jar, The Cat's powerful spinning hammer makes it difficult to control.  A couple of glancing blows sent the Cat spinning away and Suzi Perry was unable to recover from this.  Poor driving sent the Cat into the CPZ where they conked out.  Interstellar won this fight by doing very little, although they did get in one flip at the end.  However, this wasn't enough to keep Interstellar in the contest, which didn't make any sense to me.  Interstellar won this fight straight out, thereby giving them 3 points.  A point more than Jar received when they won the judge's decision, so I think that Interstellar should have been kept in over Jar.  Although all credit to Dr Maggie, she was an enthusiastic and energetic person to watch.

Jar Vs Arena Cleaner

Blink and you'll miss it.  The fight hit from Arena Cleaner knocked out Jar, ending their run in the competition.  And then in great style, Arena Cleaner takes on Shunt.  I think they'll live to regret that decision.

Special bonus round

Whilst Arena Cleaner and the Cat were preparing for their final battle, Angela Scanlon and Dara O'Briain fought each other in the Robot Wars arena.  Angela competed with the Behemoth machine and Dara with the TR2 machine.  Whilst both of them were terrible drivers, Angela was far worse.  Whilst operating the Behemoth scoop, she almost flipped the machine over, which allowed Dara to come in and flip Behemoth across the arena.  After this, Angela tries to operate the pit release by repeatedly sending Behemoth crashing into the arena wall.  Eventually, she does operate it, but Dara again flips Behemoth into the side wall.  Angela manages to recover only to keep almost flipping Behemoth over.  Although Dara attempts to make her feel better by allowing her to flip TR2.  I would say that Dara and TR2 were the winners, but were there really any winners in this contest?

The Cat vs Arena Cleaner

The grand final of this episode saw the two spinners compete against each other for fame and glory.  Both robots have exposed wheels and as we've seen before, this is a massive weakness.  Arena Cleaner took full advantage of this weakness by shredding one of the Cat's tyres and then the other.  Arena Cleaner and Scott Mills and Chris Stark were the convincing winners of this first Battle of the Stars.

Robot Wars Episode One

Robot Wars Episode Two

Robot Wars Episode Three

Robot Wars Episode Four

Robot Wars Episode Five

Robot Wars Episode Six

Ikiru Review

SPOILER ALERT

Click here for my previous review of the Third Man

Number 100 on the top 1000 films of all time is Akira Kurosawa's 1952 Ikiru.

Ikiru (translated as "To Live) follows the story of Kanji Watanabe.  Watanabe is a middle-aged civil servant who has been stuck in the same dead-end job for thirty years.  His wife is dead and his son and daughter-in-law have little time for him and even less respect.  When Watanabe is diagnosed with stomach cancer and told he only has 6 months to live, he vows to live his life to his full potential.

Although Ikiru, at times, is tedious, confusing and difficult to follow, it is meaningful, poignant and touching.  It is also a very dreary film, particularly a scene where Kanji sings Gondola no Uta in possibly one of the most depressing parts of a film that I have watched.

Despite being released in 1952 and being partially inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Illyich, it is as relevant now as it is then.  Watanabe works as a bureaucrat in city planning where he performs the same monotonous tasks day after day.  He has no passion in his life or anything to live for.  This idea isn't too dissimilar to modern-day office day workers stuck in menial positions who lack any form of excitement in their lives.  However, after being diagnosed with cancer, Watanabe decides to do something about the problem.

Firstly, he meets an eccentric writer and the two of them frequent bars and stripclubs in a hedonistic and futile way to find meaning.  However, Watanabe soon finds this isn't the right scenario for him and I'm glad that Ikiru tackled this issue.  There's a definite conception that clubbing, drinking and doing drugs are the best ways to live your life to the maximum, and whilst it might work for some people, it certainly isn't universal.  It doesn't work for Watanabe who, the following day, soon encounters one of his female subordinates, Toyo, who has just resigned from her previous job.  Watanabe becomes attracted to her zest for life and keeps finding excuses for the two of them to spend time together.

Toyo eventually tires of him and confronts him of his true intentions, which is where Watanabe asks her what the secret is to loving wife.  She confesses that she doesn't know, but reveals her new job, making children's toys, has given her purpose in life.  Watanabe, inspired by how she gains happiness by helping others, decides to return to his bureaucratic job to push for a new children's playground.  Although you could argue this is cheesy and sentimental, I think that Ikiru did well to touch upon this idea.  Sometimes the best way to find happiness in your own life is to bring happiness to others.

If Ikiru falls down anywhere, I think it would be in its final act, which cross-cuts between flashbacks and the present-day narrative.  The present-day narrative sees Watanabe dying from his cancer and his former co-workers gathering together to commemorate him at his wake.  Killing off your protagonist is a brave move for any film, especially halfway through the film, and sometimes it does work, but I don't think it did here.  Although we see Watanabe in flashbacks battling to have this playground created, his presence is lacking dearly in the present-day scene.  This is a character that we've empathised and sympathised with for the past 90 mins and for him to have died so suddenly was quite jarring for me as the viewer.

 There was no longer a particular character for me to focus upon, as Watanabe's co-workers discussed amongst themselves what made Watanabe so passionate about creating this playground.  The co-workers then decide to live their lives with the same passion that Watanabe displayed in the last months of his life, but fail to do so, once they have returned to their old jobs.  This was a nice note to end the film on.  Saying you'll live your life differently is one thing, actually doing it is a whole other thing entirely.

Click below for my reviews of Akira Kurosawa's other films:

Rashomon

Yojimbo

The Seven Samurai 

The Third Man Review

Number 99 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1949 film noir The Third Man.

Set in post-WW2 Vienna, American writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in Vienna to meet his childhood friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) only to discover that Lime has been killed in a traffic accident.  Suspecting there is something more to it, Cotten embarks on an investigation to find the truth and to discover who the mysterious third man present at Lime's death was.

The Third Man has become known as a standout classic in the Film Noir and thriller genres and its easy to see why.  This is a film that has received considerable praise for its unconventional "Dutch Camera" angles and harsh stage lighting, which all contribute to the tone and tension of the film.  The highly stylised monochrome cinematography made the film atmospheric and suspenseful.  Although, of course, nothing new now, the "Dutch Camera" angles helped to set the Third Man apart from other noir films of the era, like Casablanca, Double Indemnity and Citizen Kane.  The quirky tilt shots and angles were engaging and added a new facet to the film.  They also contributed to the unsettled tone of the film by emphasising how alienated and out of place the characters were, especially the American, Holly Martins.

As a thriller, this film keeps the tension up with plenty of twists, turns and moral ambiguity.  I won't ruin the big twist here, but it was certainly a good one.  The moral ambiguity, especially centring around Lime's character, and also the film's ending, tie in well with the social context of WW2 Austria, at the beginning of the Cold War.  Although, Austria was being shared by Britain, France, America and Russia, there was no love lost between America and Russia, which was something that translated well into the film.  Tensions run high in the film, as Martins faces a number of obstacles that prevent him from finding the truth, including some of his key witnesses being murdered, Lime's ex girlfriend and army officers who are initially unwilling to help.

Finally, we come to the famous speech of the film and probably what provides the biggest food for thought:

"You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Are good results the result of bad environments or intentions? Is it possible for good consequences to stem from good environments? Is it ever as black and white as this? Let me know your thoughts below.