Everything on the Saving Private Ryan forum on IMDB (and there is a LOT of discussion on this issues) indicates that the German soldier who is freed by the Americans after being taken prisoner is not the same one who kills Mellish with the knife. Many also remarked that the Germans would not have had their heads shaved in real life as they did in the film, and some alleged that Spielberg did this to try to dehumanize the Germans and make them seem more evil and soulless.
I will assume you are right (been a while since I’ve seen it, might be misremembering it) … regardless, That German soldier was still the focus of the plot. and the physical antagonist. Oppam’s motive was no different than I have ascribed. He still turned killer in his wake, after witnessing this soldier’ automatic and ruthless killing. He shot Cpt. Miller, if I am not mistaken.
Boy, your kids are hardcore if Saving Private Ryan is on their viewing list.
Cartoons teach kids useful things.
For example, Madagascar contains this valuable Nugget of Knowledge:
Kids need to know these things.
The most illustrative moment in The Incredibles is at the end when the whole family has gone to watch Dash competing in a track meet against non-super kids. They’re all cheering and deliriously happy (especially Mr. Incredible) when he wins. WTF are they so happy about? What has he done, save prove that having super powers gives you an advantage over those who do not.
The whole message of the movie is that some people are just born better than others. If you aren’t one of those people, you’re fucking worthless.
Syndrome had the right idea, just as in his day Colonel Colt did.
I thought that Dash pulled back and allowed himself to come in second. Maybe I’m remembering wrong.
Not true, though. He purposefully holds back so he wins second place, so that he can have the pleasure of the race without robbing the best non-superpowered runner from his rightful win. There is a point when the family specifically starts yelling, “Slow down!” at him, so that he doesn’t win, which earns them odd looks from a man sitting next to them.
I had to watch this movie twice a day every day for months on end, when my niece was two, so I have this scene memorized by now. Sigh. Also, it’s in the synopsis on Wikipedia.
It is. It is an assessment with plenty of precedent to recommend it.
It wasn’t the Polish people’s problem what was happening in Germany. They were just innocent bystanders. It wasn’t the French people’s problem what was happening in Poland. It wasn’t the British people’s problem what was happening in France. It wasn’t the American people’s problem what was happening in Japan and China and Korea.
In this world the Hobbits are going to be caught up in something. Nobody has found a way around that yet. The only way to ameliorate this fact is for the Hobbits to form democratic governments so they at least have a choice and for enough of them to educate themselves on the nature of the choices. Nobody has perfected that yet, either.
But it wasn’t a race, was it? Dash could have finished first, second, or where ever else he chose to finish. None of the other kids stood any chance at all against him. He wasn’t having the pleasure of competing in a race because_for him_there was no race.
Please also remember Mr. Incredible running off at the mouth towards the beginning of the picture about how great Dash would be if only he were allowed to compete. That was bullshit. When supers go up against non-supers there isn’t any competition. There is only a super, depending on how you want to look at it, toying with a normal or humiliating a normal. Mr. Incredible apparently resents that Dash can’t openly humiliate normal kids.
Dash v. The Flash is a race.
Mr. Incredible v. 1938 Superman is a fight.
Either of those two v. a normal w/o technological enhancements is a pre-destined outcome.
The message of the movie remains that supers are better than everyone else and that if you aren’t lucky enough to be born super, just learn your place. Syndrome’s biggest offense was being uppity.
And the non super kid who would have placed third doesn’t get a ribbon.
Here is a question that once puzzled a little boy: in a fight, who’d win, Mighty Mouse or Superman?
The right answer is obvious, isn’t it? Superman, of course. Mighty Mouse is only a cartoon.
“… because he was a pompous ass.” And for this, apparently he deserved to be turned into a beast – and all the dozens of other people in the castle deserved to be turned into furniture – likely forever. Hmm.
Personally, my reaction after seeing B&tB was that, though I’d loved the film, I sort of wanted to see a sequel where the reprincified Beast tracked down the “beautiful sorceress” and strung her up like the evil monster she was.
I call bullshit on this.
Yes, Dash knows that he can beat any of the other kids in a race even if he were hopping backwards on one foot. That’s not the point, though. What he wants is some recognition. He wants the other kids to see that he’s something special, even if they never see the full extent of it. This is **normal **behavior. But Helen won’t let him compete (out of fear he’ll be recognized as a super) and Bob is too busy brooding over the end of his own Glory Days to be a good father figure. After the big battle with Syndrome, the response from the public makes it clear that the Supers are still held in high regard by the public and, in effect, de-criminalizes their existence. Bob and Helen can both relax a bit and allow their kids to be “themselves.” At the end of the movie, they’re out there cheering for Dash and letting him bask in a little bit of glory himself. Despite the knowledge that they’re Supers, the family can now embrace being normal.
Syndrome is not the villain because he lacks super powers. Syndrome is the villain because he does evil things. He victimizes an entire class of people because one member, at one time of his life, crushed his ego. The whole business about Supers disdaining those without powers is his own twisted rationalization for wiping them out.
Eliot didn’t understand ET, since he treated ET as another kid, maybe even slightly younger, but also magical. ET clearly is a highly trained scientist - look at the radio he constructed. The government coming was shot from Eliot’s perspective - confusing and jagged. But what the government does isn’t evil in any way. ET was dying before they came, remember.
But the government, which treated ET as an important thing, missed what he was also. They missed the magic. Magic winning out is what drives the last part of the story. It is important that the only government guy who sees the saucer is the Peter Coyote character, who tells Eliot that he’s been waiting for ET all his life. He gets the magic also.
ET actually is far more alien than he appears at first. At the very end he actually shows that he is an adult, when he tells Eliot “be good.” He’s really beyond the simple understanding of any human in the movie, and he works that way. He might be the most interesting alien in movies after the unseen ones in 2001.
While I’m at it, to other ET commentators,. Spielberg didn’t write the script, though I’m sure he had a lot of input. Also, Jesus wasn’t the first Christ figure. It is a common mythical theme, long predating Christianity. I think Jews should be allowed to use it also.
OK, Beauty and the Beast. What’s the story really about? Arranged marriage. Your dad sells you to some horrible ugly old guy, but maybe you’ll eventually learn to love the hideous old geezer, and maybe he’s not so horrible after all, once you get to know him.
Another subtext of Beauty and the Beast is that it isn’t the Beast that changes, it’s Belle. He doesn’t really turn into a prince, she changes to where she sees him as a prince. Of course in the Disney cartoon this is literalized…the Beast literally transforms into a human, the castle literally transforms from gloomy to cheerful.
But compare this with something like “Spirited Away”. Yubaba’s bathhouse doesn’t change, Yubaba doesn’t change, but Chihiro and the audience’s perception changes, by the end of the movie the bathhouse is familiar and friendly instead of terrifying, and while Yubaba isn’t exactly friendly or cuddly, she’s not horrifying either. Nothing literally changes, but the audience sees the same places and characters with new eyes.
I disagree here – his whole demeanor changes. I don’t see Belle doing nearly as much character change as Beast. (Again, sticking with the Disney version.)
Voyager, that was an excellent analysis of E.T.. Beautifully written.
I was pretty sure that in the other non-Disney versions, he also literally changed. Is this not so?
I’m not really talking about any movie version, I suppose. Just the motif itself of girl meets monster, girl falls in love with monster.
Yeah, in the Disney version, and in lots of versions, the Beast starts as an asshole as well as a physical monster. But in other versions the Beast isn’t a monster, the only dickish thing he really does is demand that the father give him the daughter as a prisoner.
So is the Beast a monster, or is it only that the girl first percieves him to be a monster?
In the very first version, by Mme. de Villeneuve, the Beast gets beastified because he refuses to sleep with an evil fairy (who also tries to murder Belle in order to marry her dad). In this one, and in the later Beaumont version, the Beast acts perfectly nice and hospitable–putting out food, a bed, shelter–until Belle’s dad steals one of his roses on the way out.
Only by finding true love–in de Villeneuve’s case, as beautiful as the evil fairy–can the Beast get rid of his ugliness.
I sooo loved the crazy penguins.
Best part of the movie IMHO.