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stuarth@stuarth.co.uk
Reviews
Touching the Void (2003)
Amazing film of an amazing story. Go see it.
The entire cinema was totally captivated and silent right through this film.
The story, published I the book of the same name has been a legend and must-read within the climbing community for years. Everyone should see this film and learn why, and how far human beings can push themselves.
The format of documentary with talking heads alternating with re-created action scenes is unusual and works very well. It gives an opportunity for the real life characters to say how they felt in a way that would have been impossible to put over any other way. Both Simon and Joe talk in understated terms of what they went through and the tension builds as they describe some detail and your imagination fills in how you would feel if it had been you, not them.
The fact the Joe and Simon are talking you through their experience acts as a spoiler. You know they will live. But perhaps without this you'd be bored - knowing they were going to die and just seeing how long it was going to take, just like so many 4th rate straight-to video releases.
The cinema was more silent than any I've been to in a long time, all the faces were locked to the screen. The film making is amazing, the story is amazing, go and see it now.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Filler... but good filler.
The Lord of the Rings films really needs to be seen together. The book was written to be read as one book but was split into 3 books by the publisher.
I loved the 1st film - the Shire was a wonderful haven. I love the third film - the concluding battle scenes blow your socks off.
This film is amazing and I love it - but I have to say - it does feel a bit like the filler between the first and third films. It builds the characters, it adds some new ones and it progresses the plot and has some wonderful scenes. Avoiding spoilers as best I can- who could forget the moment when the siege is brought to an end.
Great film - but in my opinion - overshadowed slightly by then 1st and 3rd parts.
Schindler's List (1993)
Wonderful, horrible film.
This film shows how low human beings can go in their treatment of each other. It shows how deeply people can care about each other. It's all true and it clutches the heart strings like no other film I think I've ever seen.
This isn't a film where you leave on a massive high like watching superman when you were a kid, wanting to run and jump and shout all the way home. This film is dark. This film's hero starts as a shallow man intent on making money and not caring about how it happened. He is changed into something great and worthy by how he behaves when he becomes aware of the reality of circumstances around him.
Its gritty. It should be compulsory viewing. It's a wonderful film. But it really not going to cheer most people up.