Original link: https://aaronnick.github.io/posts/the-great-movies/
I read a book the other day called “The Great Movies” by Roger Ebert, the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Art Criticism for writing a film review.
As the name suggests, most of the books written in this book are famous movies in film history. People who like to watch movies will see more or less familiar movies when they read the catalogue of this book. I haven’t read Ebert’s text before, and I don’t know how well he writes, so I found a few of my favorite movies to see if his reviews impress me.
The selected films are as follows: 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968, The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, The Silence of the Lambs. He commented on Kubrick’s great film as “a philosophical film that does not cater to us, but tries to inspire us and expand our horizons.” This comment is very accurate. While the film is recognized as a philosophical film, Ebert goes one step further to point out Kubrick’s purpose: to inspire. In fact, this is also the case. From the preparation to its release in 1968, this film was not intended to cater to the audience from beginning to end. It also caused everyone’s confusion when it premiered that year, but this did not affect its status. It tries to tell us that “we become human when we learn to think.”
Although the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” is about a prison break, its focus is actually on friendship and hope. Friendship makes it more acceptable to the masses, and hope takes the theme to the next level. Prison break films inevitably discuss the topic of freedom. As a free person, it is not only physical freedom, but more importantly, spiritual freedom. In my opinion, the old librarian was actually a free man in prison, but he was no longer free when he was released from prison, and the way he returned to freedom was also very simple-free through death.
I vaguely remember the horror of watching “The Silence of the Lambs” for the first time. This kind of horror is not a sudden shock, but the feeling of staring into the abyss – it doesn’t say anything, it is so quiet, but it Just so scary. Years later, when I saw HAL 9000’s rational manipulation of human destiny in “2001: A Space Odyssey 1968”, I remembered this feeling again. Coincidentally, Hopkins’ interpretation of the character happened to be activated by HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey 1968” – he is a calm, objective and intelligent machine, skilled in logical operations, emotional The side is blank.
After reading the film review, I couldn’t help but revisit Kubrick’s classic old film. Yesterday, I also revisited Jacques Baker’s posthumous work “The Hole”. Sometimes I’d rather spend my time rereading and rewatching these classics than spending time on something new that isn’t worth it.
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