Mrohnoes

Over on the "Noah" board, I made a thread wherein I expressed my opinion on that film. I also mentioned that it was the first Darren Aronofsky film that I had ever seen, which surprised the people who read my review, and so they recommended a few of Aronofsky's films, and the one that was recommended the most was Requiem For A Dream. And so, I rented the film off of Amazon, and gave it a watch, unprepared for what I was about to witness.

Requiem For A Dream is like no other film I've ever seen, and even now, as I type this, I'm still attempting to figure out what I make of the film, but I will do my best to put my thoughts into a cohesive manner, so here it goes:

I was going to start off by talking about how the film handles its depiction of people doing drugs, but I'd rather you look up Confused Matthew's review of the film, he discusses it better than I ever could, so instead, I'm only going to talk about the performances and the direction.

Everyone in this film gave great performances. Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and especially Ellen Burstyn (who deserved her Oscar nomination) each turn in some of the best acting I've ever seen from each of them, and that helped give each of their characters extra depth.

Then, there's the directing by Aronofsky. The way he shot and edited the film is REALLY trippy and bizarre, but it works, because it gives you the feeling that you too are on drugs, which gives the audience a little bit of insight as to what the characters experience when they, you know, "do the good stuff". And you could also say that it helps the audience know why the characters do the drugs in the first place.

Oh, and the ending to the film? Without a doubt one of the darkest endings I've ever seen in a film, and yet it's somewhat poignant in its message. I refuse to tell you what happens in it, just so you know.

If you haven't seen this movie, I wholeheartedly recommend it, but I will warn you that you will not, I repeat NOT, be prepared for what you will see.

You know, before I saw 42, me and my dad caught one of the trailers for the movie a few months before it came out. His reaction was something like this: "Let me guess, it's gonna about racism and how bad it is or some bull, isn't it?" I walked into 42 with these words in mind. I walked out of 42 having learned that that's not what the film is about (I'll explain later on).

42 is a well-written, well-directed biopic on Jackie Robinson, one of America's greatest sports heroes (and the movie does a great job at proving why he is just that). Before I talk about Jackie himself, I MUST bring up Harrison Ford as the owner(?) of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, who is the best character in the movie. Ford turns in his best performance in a long while and he makes the character passionate, determined, and wise, but he's kind-hearted as well. But what makes Rickey such a great character is why he signs on Jackie Robinson in the first place. As he says a few times in the movie, Rickey is doing this for the money, and he knows that if he signs on Jackie, the Dodgers will go to the World Series, which will get Rickey more money. On the surface, money seems to be his motive. But what if he had a different goal in mind? I believe his real goal is to put an end to racism, and the film hints at this a number of times. To me, this goes to show what a great man Rickey is, fighting the good fight against 40's prejudice.

As for Jackie Robinson himself, he too is a great man, caring about his wife and respecting his teammates through and through, and Chadwick Boseman does a decent job at portraying this. The story itself is also great, and it's enhanced further by a lot of little details, like how some white people cheer on Jackie, or seeing one of Jackie's teammates using his technique of leading-off the base. Little details like these just make the story all the better.

One of the problems that some critics had with 42 was that, as a movie that deals with racism, it didn't do a very good job of doing so. However, as I said I don't think 42 is actually about racism. I feel that it's more about prejudice against those who are different from you, and I can think of 2 scenes that point to this: The very first scene and the scene where one of Jackie's teammates put his arm around him, showing that they're good buddies, which riles up the white people in the stands.

Now then, with all of that said, I have to say that the movie does have a few flaws, though most of them are minor. Another one of the problems that some critics have with the movie was that it felt a little safe. Before I saw the movie, I didn't know what they meant by that, but now, I believe they mean that the film was safe when it came to the hate towards Jackie Robinson. And I have to say, I do kind of agree with them, since the worst we see are a Phillies player continually insulting Jackie and some hate mail and death threats. I also feel that the romance between Jackie and Rachel Robinson could've used more development. All of the right elements are there, I just think that more screen time would've allowed their relationship to become really good. Speaking of relationships, I think that the relationship between Jackie and the rest of his teammates could've been developed more. There are a few scenes that explore the dynamic between the team and Jackie, but I think at least 1 more scene would've made it complete.

All in all, this is a must-see for everyone, regardless of your skin color or your opinion on baseball. 42 gets a 9 out of 10 from me.