Change Your Image
yorkrandir
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Into the Mind (2013)
Like art film? This is for you. Just want to see cool skiing..? you might be bored.
'Into the Mind' is an intense, unrelenting, and at times difficult to stick with film. All the same, for those who want to sit down and watch a film that requires a little thought (a rarity in the extreme sports genre) it is a highly rewarding hour or so.
Straight off the bat, this is not meant to be a ski-movie, but rather a movie in which the central character happens to be an elite skier.
We follow him as he tries, fails, and then tries again to conquer the goal he has set himself. In aid of this we are treated to several flash-backs and cut-aways which illustrate his state of mind, his hopes, fears, aspirations and beliefs, as well as the path he has trodden (literally and figuratively) to get to where he is.
All in all these scenes are highly effective, using extreme sports (in the main part skiing, but also touching on others) to illustrate the battle we have with nature and our own will during the course of our lives. However, the film-makers tend to take it a little too far adding symbol into symbol, allegory into allegory, with one too many wildlife shots, one too many rotating landscape sequences, and not enough human interest. This in one sense is understandable, as the stock in trade for more narrative extreme sports movies is just to cut in fly-on-the-wall footage or the protagonists talking to camera. 'In the Mind' is definitely trying something new, and largely succeeding, but in places it feels like the film-makers just finished their "101 in Image Metaphor" at film school, and are trying to bundle in as much as they can.
Speaking of image... this film looks AWESOME. Clearly they had a budget for the highest quality of cameras, and had the people who knew how to use them. It is the kind of footage that brings tears to the eyes, and is so good that most of the time, even if you don't get/like what the film is trying to do narratively, it makes it worth watching anyway.
Skiing wise this film is also mouth droppingly good... in my own subjective opinion, i've not been this wowed by the things they are skiing and how they are skiing them since snowboard film 'The Art of Flight' and Sherpas Cinemas' debut 'All I Can'.
That said, I'm only giving this film a 7. Why? Whatever the producers might say, it's clearly a ski film. It has been marketed as a ski film. Although there is some amazing skiing in the film, I don't think the film makers have managed the balance between providing enough awesome skiing and telling the narrative story they wanted to. Considering that ultimately the protagonist decides not to take on the quest that is driving him, there is no pay off or climax in terms of the amazing line we are waiting to see at the end. For those who have bought into the premise of the film, that's not too much of a problem, but for those who started watching just for great skiing, and stuck with it in the hope that at the end the guy would smash the monster mountain, that might come as a massive let down. I started watching this film as a ski film, and it was luck that I happen to like art film as well, but I don't think I can recommend this to a lot of my ski friends, and that has to speak volumes.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
All Style... no content.
(Possible Spoilers)
The Passion of the Christ is a confusing film. It had the potential to work on so many different levels, and to transmit the story of Christ to many new people. It also had the potential to inflame and upset. Ultimately it failed to meet any of these potentials, at least for me. I feel I should put myself in context here. I am not a Christian, nor do I follow any other religion. I was educated at a Catholic school, and am studying archaeology at university, so I feel that in some ways I am qualified to talk about aspects of religion and of history. I know the Gospels and I know the history, religious and otherwise, of the area.
Having said this, I entered the cinema not really expecting anything.
So for me the film was a confusing experience. To take the positives first, Gibson has created a quite stunning work of art. The majority of the film is beautifully shot, the soundtrack is stunning, the acting is terrific, and the prosthetic and digital effects are flawless. The recreation of period spoken Aramaic and Latin is also, as far as I could tell, flawless... certainly in the same league as the linguistic work done for Lord of the Rings. Often it is said that truly great art is done by those who do it for the greater glory of whatever they believe in, and the beauty of this film is certainly testament to Gibson's belief in his subject matter. However, the film really falls down when it comes to making an emotional connection with the viewer. For a start this film assumes that you are familiar with the Gospels. For those who have not read the relevant part of the Bible, the film does not make much sense. Why do they hate Jesus so? There is no relevant context for his death. The film then becomes the persecution of this one innocent man, and his forgiveness of his persecutors. This in itself is perhaps a worthy aim for a film, to show forgiveness in the face of everything. But Gibson's relentless punishment of Jesus, and his showing us every wound and insult make it difficult to see through to this. The lack of a real motive for his punishment also takes away from the overall effect. If we were shown what Jesus was teaching and why the Jew's were so incensed with him, expecting a warrior King and receiving a preacher of Peace, we would better understand the point of all that suffering. And I can only make this critique because I have been educated to some extent in Christianity. For those not familiar with the Old and New Testaments none of this is immediatly obvious. Which brings me on to the next point. Gibson's constant portrayal of Jesus' suffering is unnesesary, and de-sensitises most of the audience to the violence very quickly, or else forces the more squeamish to leave. By the time we get to the part of the film where the cat-o-nine tails are brought out we are used to the suffering and the blood. It may still upset us, it may still make us feel sorry for Jesus... but it doesn't startle or shock us anymore. What made the violence in Schindler's List so upsetting, horrifying and emotionally engaging was the way Spielberg showed very few moments of actual violence, instead concentrating on the effect that violence was having on other characters, or showing the aftermath of the violence. When the nails are struck into Jesus' hands and feet on the cross is one of the few moments when actually showing the violence is really nessecary, and by the time Gibson gets us there we are no longer shocked at this violent act. It may be horrible to watch, but it is no more emotionally shocking than when Derek hammers a knife into the foot of an alien in Bad Taste. Which is a great shame.
This film could have been a great film. It had the potential to have even non-believers crying in their seats, such is the power of the story of Jesus. But it needed context. There is no death without life, and to understand the ultimate sacrifice we needed to understand the life of a great man. This film had the potential to educate, but in the end it did not. I did not come out of the film feeling any different emotionally from when I went it. To get anything out of this film you need to have gone into it with something. Christians going in will come out stronger Christians. Anti-semites will come out stronger anti-semites (though they will have missed the point entirely, since the one strong message the film seems to have is to forgive). Non-believers will come out still not believing. And film lovers will come out thinking "that could have been so much more". Overall, The Passion of the Christ is an example of 'All Style... no content'. A beautiful piece of art for the most part, but with not enough content to make an emotional contact with any viewer who does not go into the cinema with part of that contact already in place.