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anjan
Reviews
The Ultimate Gift (2006)
Mendacious
Let me first tell you, that I am christian and I am, some sort of, an "officially christian", as I am a teacher for religious education in Europe.
But I have to agree to all those people, you gave this stuff only one point and can´t believe the high voting for this kindergarden-play.
The movie is just cheap (please read the other comments, I don´t want to recall their critics), but more - it is also mendacious. With regard to this, I especially think of the scene in Ecuador. First it is - certainly - completely ridiculous, how he managed to escape; I have never been in the hand of South-American-Bandits, but I can´t believe, that it is that easy to leave their cells. But second: He is shown as a VERY good guy, coming back to rescue his collegue. BUT: Just one scene before, we saw clearly, that there are at least five other poor people taken as hostages; and the leader of the bandits exclaimed clearly, that he will kill them all the next day (by the way: Why? Doesn´t he want ransom for the kidnapped? Why isn´t he at least interested in getting money for the Gringo, who told him, that he has a rich family?) So: What happened to these poor other guys? Don´t we have to suppose, that there were all killed - especially, after the bandits got angry after the successful flight of the Gringo and his friend? IF this had been a movie with a christian message, the "young man" would have been obliged to do everything, to free the other prisoners: He had already knocked out one guard, he could have taken his weapon and he could have tried to free the other hostages (even if it would have cost his live, Jesus etc.), by threatening the other bandits with this weapon, but he just thought of himself and his dear friend and left the others behind - and we even never see anything of a " young man´s" regret for the rest of the movie concerning the fate of the people, he left to be killed.
Anne of the Indies (1951)
Love, guilt and atonement on the caribbean
I like the film, it´s the best pirate-movie I watched hitherto (forget silly Errol-Flynn-stuff and Pirates of the Caribbean). This movie is wonderful melancholic. I compare it with "Johnny Guitar" at the sea-side (but 3 years earlier), two women fighting for a man, where mad love might lead one.
The character of the female (anti-) heroine, Anne Providence, is superb, acting without compromise like a child, lost alone on her search for a own female identity in a real man´s world. She´s a quite strange movie-hero, not a funny pirate, as most of her companions in this genre, not making jokes all the time, fighting for the poor and good and only killing the stupid spanish or british soldiers or - better - sly governors, but she´s murdering all the poor prisoners of war, after she captured a ship (look careful at this at the start of the movie), she´s primitive (she can´t even read), she is desperated and she get´s an alcoholic, she looses all her friends as consequence of her obstinacy and she´s wearing rags most of the film. This film shows a pirate "hero" a little (!) bit as he (or in this case "she", but there has been a female "Anne" buccaneer, Anne Boney) might have been in brutal reality.
The film is quite short and the story is told in a breathtaking manner. Certainly, a film from the 1950s has no exciting special effects for present time viewers (the ships swim very obvious in a bath tube), but this real drama about love (that kills), trust, betrayal, revenge, hatred and sacrifice drives one crazy. Maybe, Anne is even supposed to be Judas Iskarioth and Jesus from Nazareth in one person, being betrayed by her friend (the french LaRochelle) as Jesus; after being disappointed by the friend, delivering him to a death penalty (as Judas); than getting remorse about this (like Judas, who commits suicide according to the gospel of Matthew); and in the end sacrificing herself for the rescue of the beloved enemy (as Jesus). But, even if you are not interested in this philosophical questions of guilt and atonement, the film brings a lot of (cheap) action as sword fights and burning (plastic) ships for a very short one and a half hour.