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Reviews
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
Good Movie
The film Beast of No Nation is a movie about how a civil war in Africa can be very brutal and inhumane. The film follows a young African child whose village was invaded by an unnamed army, and whose dad and brother are killed by this army. He runs away and stumbles into a rebel army that trains him to be a child soldier. The movie follows all of the struggles and horrors that the boy, Agu, goes through, and his mission to get revenge for his father and brother, and get back to his mother and sister. The movie goes through all aspects of being a soldier, like the cruel commandant and the killings that a kid has to do. The movie is very sad and emotional and is a very good movie for learning about what happens in some African countries, and the brutality that happens there.
The movie is not based on real events that happened, but it is a fictional story based on real life accounts of the civil wars across Africa. Since it is fictional, the filmmakers took a few artistic liberties with the film. One of these things is the fact that Agu sold a TV to a soldier in the beginning of the film, and he found the same soldier some time later in the film. Also, the commandant disobeyed his orders and left the supreme commander, which caused them to run out of supplies and eventually surrender. This mostly did not happen in reality, and they likely would have stayed together with the rest of the army. This probably happened to advance the plot, and add another internal story line.
The theme of family was very prominent in this movie. Agu being separated from his family and trying to get back to his mother, the entire squadron being one big family, and even the brotherhood between Agu and Strika all show how family is very important in the movie. God and Christianity is also very important. Agu is always speaking to God, and the soldiers all pray to God when someone dies. God is a very prominent figure especially to Agu, and he feels bad about all of the sin he commits, and eventually even feels that he can't speak to God because of all the wrongs he has done.
Overall, I thought the movie was very interesting and well-made. It keeps the viewer watching and builds so much emotion that it seems impossible that this kind of thing could even be happening somewhere in the world.
The 33 (2015)
Good Movie
The 33 is a film based on a true story, where 33 Chilean miners get trapped underground in the San Jose mine for 69 days. The film shows the hardships the miners had to go through in the mine, as well as what people on the surface did to try to get them out. The film was a good film overall that did a good job showing the history behind the story of the miners, and it did a good job being entertaining and keeping the viewer hooked throughout the film.
The director of the film is Patricia Riggen, who has made a few movies before, but nothing really historically based like The 33. This makes her somewhat not qualified to make a movie like this. The budget of the film was about 26 million dollars, which is quite a lot of money for a movie like this. The movie was released in 2015 and made 24.9 million dollars at the box office. More than half of the filming was done in the salt mine of Nemocón, Colombia, and rescue scenes were being filmed in Tierra Amarilla, Chile, so it has a very accurate portrayal of the mine, since it was filmed in an actual mine.
The director most likely wanted to make the film to tell the story of the 33 Chilean miners, and the efforts to try to get them out of the mine they were trapped in. The film seemed like it was made for anyone looking for a dramatic movie to watch, not just Chilean people, so it was made to appeal to the masses.
The film was very historically accurate. The only type of inaccuracy was the light shining through into the refuge when the first drill poked through. This would not happen considering they are hundreds of feet underground, and the drill is even blocking the hole it went through. Other than that, the director does not seem to have any bias, so it does not get in the way of the film as a whole.
The film was very educational, but it was not boring. It is a very good tool to teach people what happened to the miners, and the characters seem to be very close to what they were like in real life. If I were directing this film, I would have tried to do more to make the audience feel how long the miners were in the mine for, because to the watcher, the fast paced sequences outside the mine takes away from the 69 day length of time.
Allende en su laberinto (2014)
Good
The Film Allende en su Laberinto was about the president of Chile, Salvador Allende's final hours before he is overthrown from office and killed. Allende was a socialist president, but he was democratically elected. Leaders in the military and police did not agree with some of the reforms the new president was making. The United States also had a hand in overthrowing him, because they did not want a socialist leader in the country who was close to communism. The director of the film was Miguel Littin, who was a Chilean. He was exiled from Chile after Allende was thrown out of power. For this reason there could have been some bias in his film. The film portrayed Salvador Allende as a very noble and heroic president, who did not deserve to be overthrown. While this is an opinion that can be argued either way, the film does not properly show the other side, or the reason why the military wanted to overthrow Allende. The film was most likely created for a large audience in Chile, but it can also be used as a historical insight into what happened in the final few hours of Allende's life.
The director obviously wanted to create a film about Allende, but he did not want it to be a documentary. He obviously wanted the audience to be entertained, and to be sympathetic towards the president and put his over throwers in a bad light. The director's interpretations are sound, because they show what Allende and his close advisers went through. However, they do not show the other side of the coin, and show the reason for his overthrowing. There are most likely a few historical inaccuracies and dramatized moments in the film, but there are very few. The destruction of the presidential palace seemed a little extreme compared to the actual footage of the bombings. The president probably did not talk to himself after he died in real life, like he did in the movie. The fact that people would sometimes be having a casual conversation with a fire raging in the background is also a little unrealistic.
Other films exist about Salvador Allende, but they are mainly documentaries, unlike Allende y su Laberinto, which was probably created to be both historical and entertaining. The directors assumptions about the history are good, considering he lived through it, but his history with the topic could cause him to have some sort of bias. I don't really have much prior knowledge on the topic, but I assume the assumptions are sound. The acting done in the move is very good and helps provide a good portrayal of how characters, especially Salvador Allende. The special effects could be better, but besides that, the dialogue and the overall atmosphere of the film gives the viewer a good idea of what those last few hours of Allende's life and time as president were like.