esteban1747 Reviews

The Nile Hilton Incident (2017)

Film noir based on real events

[7/10 · 16 January 2022]

What is original in this film is that a gendarme named Saleh gets fully into the adverse realities of the Egyptian world prior to the fall of president Hosni Mubarak, and discovers the entire entanglement of corruption existing at the levels of the repressive and the governing dome. Saleh addresses the issue of corruption in a believable way, where he is just as corrupt as everyone else around him. Everything was paid and everything was bought, whoever did not enter the game was in serious danger of death. The film shows the beginning of the popular protests, which demanded the resignation of the entire Egyptian government and improvements in general for the population. The violence was evident, on the one hand, the repressive forces with all their anti-riot weapons and the population with the force of their cries demanding freedom and well-being.

How to Be a Good Wife (2020)

Instructions for servility

[7/10 · 16 January 2022]

French comedy, funny at times, which delves into the conventional precepts as lessons for young girls aspiring to marry and be good wives. Teaching center was located in Alsace, territory recovered by France from Germany. The study material and classes were very typical of a feudal regime; nothing to do with the moments lived between 1967 and 1968, date in which the film is fitted. This conservative instruction still prevails in the minds of many people of older generations and even of those who miss absolute monarchies. Within all that doctrine, if it can be called that, it is taboo to talk about divorce, abortion, women's liberation, much less homosexuality. Girls didn't even know what was a masturbation. What matters is that those women learn well to understand her husband, his needs and his concerns. The merit of the movie was to show how harmful were those conservative postulates, and how the world evolves and brought about new attitudes. The film elapses during 1967 and 1968 when youth protests occurred in France and Italy, which they did not achieve their objective of seizing power, but had an enormous influence on the behavior of the new generations from that moment and henceforth, with more liberalism and less prejudice.

Yara (2021)

Real story in Northern Italy

[8/10 · 16 January 2022]

This film has no fiction, but a lot about the reality of gender violence. A teenager disappeared in Bergamo, a city in northern Italy, capital of the homonymous province and part of the Lombardy region. In fact, she was kidnapped by the end of 2010, weeks later she was found dead in an open field on the outskirts of Bergamo. That shook Italy, so the police took the task of investigating the incident with very little chance of discovering the culprit, unless the necessary resources were put in place for this purpose and develop a thorough investigation. This was what the prosecutor Letizia Ruggeri set out to investigate for years and with traditional methods. Fortunately, we live in a world where there is scientific development in the field of molecular biology; it is known what a gene is, a short segment of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and an important part of the chromosomes. They tell us as a whole the hereditary material of the human body and the way it works. Therefore, there was no need for the services of Sherlock Holmes or detective Philip Marlowe. The film clearly shows the political baseness and the entanglements of an opposition to harm those responsible for the investigation, and as usual, without proposing any other alternative to get the truth of the case.

Maudie (2016)

Maudie, not a fool but an intelligent woman

[8/10 · 16 January 2022]

Film based on real events from the 1930s in Nova Scotia, Canada. The plot shows us many of those things that happen in our societies. There is no fantasy, but a lot of truth without the need for invention. Gender violence is present, which is still denied in modern societies. A phenomenon reversible with relevant laws but also with attitudes as long as the man really possesses internally good sentiments. Other problems are shown, of which no much talk about them, e.g. The theft of children, who are made to appear dead when in fact they are born healthy and become merchandise for other parents who want to adopt. The female hero of the film managed to overcome countless obstacles, managed to succeed in what she learned on her own, to paint. Her life found refuge in painting to the extent that those who had previously taken her for a fool realized that they were in the presence of an intelligence.

Monster (2003)

Slavery still weighs on women

[8/10 · 4 June 2021]

When one watches movies based on real events, such as this film, one realizes that the people's consciences has a lot to do with living conditions. As some philosophers say, people thought is a direct emanation of material conditions. The first thing to analyze is how the person is deformed, i.e. How he/she may become an offender or a delinquent. If the person is always mistreated in childhood, reaches adolescence poor and lacking school education, what alternative does she have for life? One must earn to eat and live. Aileen's life was that, all a martyrdom, and suffering the abuse and violence of men. Violence generates violence and that was evident in the life of that woman. This is a film and also a lesson of injustice on women.

Trouble with the Curve (2012)

Aspects of life and sport

[8/10 · 4 June 2021]

A very suggestive film, since in the end, although it is not the only important thing about the film, a young prospect has trouble hitting the curve in baseball. An orphan girl and lawyer, her inaccessible father, separated for various reasons, as part of each one's destiny, meet again. His father took his daughter to a new environment, and separation lasted for long. Whenever this happens plenty of misunderstandings and resentments may raise, something shown by the film with clarity. The film is not of one plot, it touches treatment of father to daughter, equality of women, and from the sport point of view that nobody can pretend to know in deep the sport sitting at a computer watching figures and records of the players. Sabermetry has come to complement the knowledge about the performance of athletes, but it does not replace the work of the scouts, who has the ability to see details that are not written anywhere.

Wolf Totem (2015)

An aggression to the ecosystem

[7/10 · 4 June 2021]

The so-called Cultural Revolution in China was a socio-political process carried out in the second half of the 60s of the last century, as a way to intimidate anyone who thought differently from what the great chief preached and ordered. This process brought thousands of workers and students to rural areas of the country in order to interact with farmers and shepherds and to promote the thinking of the great leader. Inner Mongolia, a Chinese territory, did not escape of the young people incursions, the so-called Red Guards or Hóng Wèi Bing, in charge of enforcing the indications and goals of the Supreme Leader. That is the value of the film and its subtlety, it addresses an aggression to the ecosystem, including its natural fauna and how local and outside entities react to a problem created to solve supposedly another. The film highlights when the laws of nature are not considered, and adverse rules are imposed, which finally may bring about the extermination of species and biodiversity. The wolf is a predator at the top of the food chain and as such is an ecosystem regulator. If the wolf disappears, the ecosystem becomes unbalanced and the populations of its prey may grow without limit. The shepherds warned that the rabbit, a pest in that environment, would proliferate and seriously affect the grasslands. A useful film for those who do not understand nothing more than money and nothing about the protection of fauna, flora and the environment in general.

Jacqueline Sauvage: It Was Him or Me (2018 TV Movie)

The real life of Jacqueline Sauvage, wife, mother, and worker

[9/10 · 4 June 2021]

Film based on the real life of Jacqueline Sauvage, wife, mother, worker in the family business and in her home, simply a true sentimental and material support for her entire family. Jacqueline's mistake was to marry, when she was not yet 18 years old, to another young man, who later underwent a metamorphosis to become more a beast than a human being. That husband was very searching in life, with Jacqueline, they created a family of 3 daughters and a son and a family business, but he was a drinker, he suffered from jealousy for any nonsense and drunk he became aggressive. Over time, he began to see the children as alien to his life, but desirable, I speak of his daughters, for his wishes. In the end, Jacqueline took justice on her own. The value of the film does not lie in highlighting the mistreatment that Jacqueline and her children suffered by her husband/father, but in the vicissitudes she faced in trials, where justice was not much different from that existing at the time of Louis XVI. The trial occurred in the middle of the new millennium, on September 10, 2012 in a town in France, not in Paris or Lyon, where this can happen and go unnoticed, a small town where everyone knows each other and everyone knew about the violence of Norbert Marot, Jacqueline's husband, not only with the family, but also with the neighborhood. The film highlights a problem that also seriously affects rich countries, such as gender violence and abuse of women in general, something that has not yet been overcome. Justice everywhere should put more efforts to reduce substantially this problem.

Kansas Raiders (1950)

Another western divorced with the historical reality

[5/10 · 21 December 2020]

It is good to recall history, but it must be true to what happened and not paint antiheroes as heroes to some extent. This is what one can see in the film. The protagonists are the brothers James and Cole, Kit Dalton and the infamous Col. William Clarke Quantrill, all criminals if we stick to the story.

So it was not better to have as protagonists those of the Union army who persecuted and finally defeated those rebels? Anyone who watches the film and doesn't know the story gets a picture of Quantrill's boundless bravery. The only positive aspect was that it was clearly demonstrated how these Confederate hordes killed every human being in their path. From a historical point of view the film is a mediocrity in my opinion, which does not teach anything positive. The value of the film is its presentation in technicolor and the actors who make up the cast.

The Big Country (1958)

An instructing western-drama

[7/10 · 21 October 2020]

This film is a western and a drama at the same time, which contains many morals. The first is that bravery is not necessary to publicly be expressed in acts of violence. Personal achievements are better to keep and not brag about them. The fight and disagreement between two people should not be transferred to the family and community level. They must be resolved between the two involved. Love should not be confused with pride. The film shows how the most economically powerful tries to reduce the poor, aspect not much delved in this film . Gregory Peck acted at highest level, Jean Simmons quite similar. Charlton Heston did not convince, Carroll Baker showed her acting skills. Burl Ives was the efficient as always.

The Insult (2017)

An excellent film with history

[8/10 · 20 October 2020]

Simply wonderful, interesting, instructive, all the positive qualifications that can be given to a film like this. The story is there, the confrontation between Palestinians and Lebanese Falangist groups in the past. The Lebanese director-screenwriter Ziad Doueiri had the idea of presenting a plot based on a fact, in his personal opinion, insignificant, from which the water was heating and then boiling, to end in the tragedy of a trial. During the legal process, the differences between the different groups emerge, the Christian sympathizers, many of them guided by Falangist entities, and on the other the Palestinian refugees, who seemed more like illegal Mexicans in California than Arabs in a brother country. A third factor is not seen in the film, the one that brings about these differences. That factor affects both parts, even if one of them is reluctant to recognize it as such. There is a huge rejection among these groups, difficult to eliminate. Each one is assisted by its reason each one believes it owns his truth. In these circumstances, lighting the wick is extremely easy. One bad word is enough and everything will catch fire. There was, as there was also an unpleasant response, highly offensive, capable of setting a whole forest on fire.

Crown Heights (2017)

A good critic to covered injustice

[8/10 · 17 October 2020]

Once again, the enormous weaknesses of a country's judicial and prison system are demonstrated. Once again, it is clear the level of poverty and misery of several black families, which survive as means of drug distribution in many cases. According to a statistic that appeared at the end of the film, there are more than 2.5 million convicts in the United States, of whom an estimated 120,000 are innocent. Imagine an innocent sentenced to life imprisonment, who returns the life lost in prison? That, if it is finally proven innocent, which does not always seem very likely. The plot of this film is a sharp nail to assimilate for those who proclaim the existence of another pleasant and unreal environment. Tyrannies and dictatorships without mercy are condemned, something very fair, but criticism of the imperfections of the so-called democracy is not accepted, it is scary to speak about it when it comes to gross violations of human rights. Congratulations to the director and the rest of the team that made this movie.

Yao (2018)

A film and a cultural entertainment

[8/10 · 17 October 2020]

Not many people know Sub-Saharan Western Africa, its way of living and thinking. They live in poverty, families with few resources to be able to eat the bare minimum daily, even so, they have what is called resilience. Adapted to the evils left by centuries of colonial domination, to which the corruption and inefficiency of many of their authorities are added. The families somehow achieve a balance of life, which leaves them time to enjoy some little things.

Watching this film was like remembering previously seen realities by me. The film is presented as a fable with its well-added ingredients from the customs of the ethnic groups that make up Senegal. All is about a trip of famous actor of Senegalese origin to the land of his ancestors, and a child from a village in northern part of the country, who due to his sympathies to the actor decides to travel with no means to the capital with the sole objective of meeting the artist. From the meeting, unexpected or unknown events begin to occur for the actor, a man who was actually unaware of the culture of his ancestors.

The film reflects the hospitality of its people, the free way of living, not very given to worrying much about time, also the evil that is generated in some to deceptively obtain what they do not have, the behavior of the police, local beliefs, their rhythms. A film made with many truthful bits of the everyday.

Yao is a cultural entertainment, which takes the viewer into a country, where several ethnic groups live and about seven local languages are spoken, in addition to French, the official language.

The Long Walk Home (1990)

The film has undoubted merits

[8/10 · 17 October 2020]

The strange thing is that I do not remember hearing the name Rosa Parks mentioned in the movie, which does not detract from its merits. Where segregation and discrimination exists, injustice prevails, and the so-called law and force is the prescription, obviously the law of those in power. It was good to see the strong reaction of the black people guided by the Montgomery Improvement Association. They did not have any choice than to move in their vehicles or long walks to their jobs. Wonder how a person in hours or days becomes conscious of the excesses of discrimination. She may be empathic, but something else above is not realistic. More emphasis should have put on what the black people did in those heavy days. In any case, the film has undoubted merits since it reveals the degree of hatred and repression suffered by the blacks.

Intruder in the Dust (1949)

An old film with an actual problem

[9/10 · 17 October 2020]

This film shows that supremacism of the whites in several countries of the planet is a form of inhumane treatment, which does not seek any way of normal relationship. Fortunately, populations are not homogeneous, they tend to have minorities that oppose those majorities and offer a rational opposition. There are people who do not agree with slavery, nor with extreme discrimination, but accept segregation, not integration. Other minorities advocate a normal relationship regardless of the color of their neighbors' skin.

The acting of Puerto Rican Juano Hernández, as a black man accused; Claude Jarman Jr., the teenage defender; David Brian, the alleged defense attorney, and Porter Hall, father of the victim, who as usual embodied his role to perfection, were all of high level, nothing to envy to those stars of higher category films.

The Upside (2017)

A billionaire and a miserable

[8/10 · 7 February 2020]

A very successful remake of a comedy-drama, directed by Neil Burger, which deals with the life of two beings with different stories. One with culture and a lot of money, another uneducated and without money, but with a lot of ingenuity to make live a fantasy world hitherto unknown by the billionaire. What one lacks is left over to the other, so the life of one is complemented with that of the other. The idiocy of the rich class is evident at times, a very positive aspect of this film. There are many who boast knowing and are true ignorant. What you have as a soul is many times richer in those beings that lack wealth, at least they are better able to understand the needs of persons next to them. Good acting by Bryan Cranston, and a magnificent one by Kevin Hart, who really stole the show.

The Irishman (2019)

A film with history and reflexion

[8/10 · 7 February 2020]

At present it was very convenient a film as such, which deals with mobsters and the murky world surrounding it (unions, politicians and others), it´s the world where words as nasty, bs, rats and other vulgar words-expressions are quite common. The good thing here is that these elements always finish in prison, they mock the law but up to a limit, and usually the rats are all trapped at once. Hoffa was a powerful man but supported by other groups. With no support of the power Hoffa, union´s boss, would've been nothing. That's why it is a good film for reflexion, moreover for those who claims victory early not taking into account that support can sink any time. Interesting film and plot, congrats to Martin Scorsese for bringing together a group of experienced actors, who, as usual, excelled in this film. Joe Pesci was simply outstanding, Al Pacino and De Niro also but a little bit less than the first mentioned. The make up of these actors was also extraordinary. They look young, then a bit older and finally ancient, magic make up.

1917 (2019)

"1917", another evidence of the miseries of wars

[9/10 · 28 January 2020]

When one hears a politician boasting of the armament that his country possesses, one claiming that he has the mother of weapons, the other the father, while some "cockerels" of the third world are also doing nearly the same, those who do not solve food and housing and in the end they end up offering slogans with death as an inescapable promise, it is because those presidents or supposed courageous men have never been in war. The film "1917 (2019)" of British director Sam Mendes, based on the stories of a family predecessor who had the misfortune to participate in World War I, is a clear example of the number of lives lost in a war, the pains that cause in the families of the fallen ones and the economic damages that it causes. This film reflects the damage with many details, one of them is the hatred among rival soldiers, to the point of assaulting when they are doing you a favor of life or death. Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay, both managed to attract all the attention of the public throughout the film and their performance was such that they looked like the same soldiers on the battlefield. They managed to bring reality to the big screen. There were no foolish scenes of those vulgar war movies that show non-existent supermen in those confrontations. It is a quality film, with a real plot, well-designed fiction, and excellent photography.

Joker (I) (2019)

Joker, villain or victim of a system?

[8/10 · 28 January 2020]

I still remember Jack Nicholson playing the role of Joker in "Batman (1989)", and supposed that probably the film has something to do with Batman again. Wrong, this is a different film with another approach, where Batman is absent better to say, is nearby. Joker is a clown, of the many that one could find in Times Square in New York, He made a living by making people laugh, sometimes even with his own misfortunes. The film tries to explain or justify Joker´s antisocial behavior or his aversion to the high bourgeois character, Thomas Wayne, that is Bruce's father, aka Batman as an adult. It is the society that exploits and pays them with crumbs, so it is not just Arthur Fleck (Joker), there are many more discontents and those who want to exterminate everything that oppresses them. The film makes you think and reflect of the situation where this people try to survive. Joaquin Phoenyx's performance as Joker is very convincing, as he is repulsive, disgusting, hateful, everything the director and screenwriter tried to reflect with his performance

Concussion (2015)

In Spanish the title is "The truth is painful" but in the pockets of the magnates

[8/10 · 28 January 2020]

We always learn with good films, and this is the case. Dr Omalu (Will Smith) asserted that many animals have better protection of their head and brain than the human being, e.g. the tongue of the woodpecker extends through the back of the mouth out of the nostril, surrounding the entire skull, which becomes a kind of safety belt for that vital organ. The human being has none of that, you hit your head and you stay with the blow, which in the medium term will bring fatal consequences, many more if repeated weekly. The film is a clear evidence of the abuse of the human being in American football, sport causing several deaths for the same reason. The NFL's attitude is quite similar to that of cigarette producers in the 1990s. They denied all the damage that tobacco caused to human health. The racial aspect is again addressed in the film. Dr Omalu arrived in the US with an idea, which later changed. Good acting of Will Smith and Alec Baldwin, both demonstrated one again their versatility to play different roles.

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)

An evidence of a sad reality

[9/10 · 28 January 2020]

The plot goes around a real event, a murderer, presumably a member of KKK or any supremacist movement in southern US, who decided to kill a black rights activist late at night, in 1963, i.e. in a totally adverse environment for those who were not whites, and where the supposed justice was in their hands, almost all of them as racist as those who practiced apartheid in South Africa. The value of the film is that it shows us how a large part of a population thinks about the institutional that existed in the past, how there are white people who do not want that story to be touched again and do not accept that at present the justice corrects what it did not do before. The performances of Whoopy Goldberg and Alec Baldwin are outstanding. In superlative terms, the one achieved by James Woods as the typical racist man. This actor in the scenes managed to cause disgust and rejection, and the same can be said of those who embodied the white defense lawyers in the film.

By the Grace of God (2018)

Church crime

[8/10 · 29 December 2019]

The film is a good confirmation of the abuse of several priests over innocent children. Its values are of showing the misery of criminals and the hypocrisy of their bosses trying to cover these shameless acts. This abuse will remain till the church supresses ancient celibate, but it will tale time present Pope does not seem to have the courage for such suppression. The consequences of the abuse go beyond the physical ones, they have a long-term negative moral efectts on those persons ego suffered the abuse.

The Innocents (2016)

Miseries of the war

[8/10 · 14 January 2019]

Plot recalling real events of the post-war Poland in 1945. While this country, especially the Jewish population, was cruelly treated by the Nazi hordes, the liberation was not rose-colored. The Russian liberators have historically not been welcome on Polish lands. Many battles in the past took place between both countries. The Red Army suffered an extremely merciless war on the part of its adversaries. You have to be in the skin of those people to judge them, but still there are things that are intolerable, and the savagery has no justification. The rest you can imagine, when troops are occupying a nunnery, the soldiers' actions and the contradictions of nuns following the gospels. The film shows the negative side of both sides in this situation. French actress Lou de Laâge plays excellently the role of assistant of the French Red Cross in Poland, seconded by Polish actresses Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza among others as nuns, and the Parisian Vincent Macaigne as Red Cross physician.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Broken loves and lives by ambitious people

[8/10 · 14 January 2019]

One cannot agree with the criteria given by some analysts, who said that this film is not scary and is not so tragic. It is really scary, let´s suppose that tomorrow human cloning will be approved, something that ethically would be inconceivable. On the one hand, some want to reproduce certain types of humans, on the other hand, others look for a simple massive reproduction to produce organs as spare parts for those opulent who need them. The movie shows nothing but children slaves of people lacking ethics. The film is well done in general, and it is perfect for polemics, perfect to discuss what we should avoid to happen in the coming future. Obviously, one is touched by this story, but deep reflections of it are necessary.

Gett (2014)

A divorce case in Israel

[9/10 · 14 January 2019]

Resolving a divorce case in a courtroom led by rabbis does not seem an easy task. One who does not know the internal aspects of the Talmud can only suppose that there are precepts or laws that are described in the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, on which the decisions of the judges are based. Without going into religious details, it is observed that man, as in the rest of religions, has a power that women do not possess. The man can refuse to give the divorce and there is no law that forces him to do the opposite, whereas if it were the other way around, probably the same thing would not happen. The film has an interesting and low budget plot, the controversies and the statements in his scenes give it a high value. The final result is not what one always expects, but it is something that is within the established in that society. It is an interesting film, which increases the knowledge of the world where we live in.