Film Review №3 : The Pelican Brief .

The Pelican Brief

Directed by: Alan J. Pakula

Movie Type: legal crime thriller

Starring: Julia Roberts Denzel Washington Sam Shepard Hume Cronyn, Stanley Tucci, John Heard, John Lithgow, Tony Goldwyn, James Sikking, William Atherton ,Robert Culp

Music by: James Horner

Release date(s): December 17, 1993

Running time: 141 minutes

Budget: $45 million

Country: United States

Language: English

MPAA Rating: PG 13

Summary and Thoughts : 

The plot is set in motion by the assassination of two Supreme Court justices, a curmudgeonly liberal (Hume Cronyn) and a closeted Republican homosexual (Ralph Cosham); all they have in common is a pro-environment inclination. Spirited and beautiful law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) puts together a brief theorizing that the culprit could be a shadowy oil millionaire determined to tap a billion-dollar oil reserve in the fragile Louisiana bayou habitat of the endangered brown pelican. Her lover (Sam Shepard) shows the brief to a friend in the FBI, Verheek (John Heard), and suddenly Darby is the most hunted woman in America. Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) becomes her ally as she seeks to evade her shadowy pursuers and find out the truth behind a scandal that reaches to the highest levels of government. I like this film, and I should say, that it's my first "legal crime thrillel", so the theme of this story and its setting looks smart enough.  A craving  wish of a young specialist to achieve justice, to get into the game  of "the highest of our world", to sacrifice everything valuable in order of main purpose -  to separate the world of unfair.  All this sets and features are dedicated to our   main character of the story and to a new friend, who was embroiled into the lake  of wicked businessmen game An accurate,action film adaptation of the best-selling novel follows closely the canons of a true detective-story. We are forced to strain our gyruses, to try to find out the truth before the characters did. So, I can say, that this film is very strong image of "a good detective-thriller" with good casting, brilliant plot, based on  "The Pelican Brief" story by
 John Grisham and nice directing work.

Film Review №2 : Rendition (2007).

Rendition (2007)

Director: Gavin Hood

Genre: Thriller

Movie Type: Political Thriller

Themes: Terrorism, Crisis of Conscience

Main Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard

Release Year:2007

Country: US

Run Time: 122 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Proper names:

Douglas Freeman(Jake Gyllenhaal) is CIA analyst who after the death of his colleague has to investigate the case of terrorist attack.

Isabella El-Ibrahimi(Reese Witherspoon) is a wife of El-Ibrahimi. She is pregnant and worries about her husband. She goes to Washington for help of her collage friend.

Senator Hawkins(Alan Arkin)is a very powerful and successful senator and the chief of Alan Smith.

Alan Smith(Peter Sarsgaard) is Senator Hawkins’ assistant and Isabella’s college friend.

Anwar El-Ibrahimi(Omar Metwally) is Egyptian-born chemical engineer who lives in Chicago with his pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) and their young son, is linked to a violent organization by telephone records indicating known terrorist Rashid placed several calls to Anwar's cell phone. While returning to the US from a conference in South Africa, he is detained by American officials and sent to a secret detention facility near the location of the suicide attack depicted earlier.

Abasi Fawal(Yigal Naor) is the head of local police in the place where the terrorist attack was accused. He participates in tortures of Anwar El-Ibrahimi.

Khalid(Moa Khouas) is a young suicide bomber who wants to take vengeance on Abasi Fawal.

Fatima(Zineb Oukach) is the elder daughter of Abasi Fawal who is in love with Khalid.

Corrine Whitman(Meryl Streep) is the head of CIA who is responsible for  the North Africa.

Summaty and Thoughts :

The title of the film alludes to the fact that rendition is ‘handing over prisoners to countries where torture is allowed’. The film gets its title from the phrase "extraordinary rendition", the practice - started during the Clinton years - of transferring suspected terrorists to countries with more lenient feelings about torture. The setting of this film is very complicated as it takes place in Washington and Chicago, the USA, as well as in an unnamed North African nation (filmed in Morocco but clearly meant to be Egypt).  It helps to show all feelings of the main characters and their nearest and dearest.Anwar El-Ibrahimi was detained to help terrorists in the creation of a bomb. He was sent to Africa as it was US policy for rendition, as it was the only way to make people plead guilty in terrorist attacks and so on. Anwar decided to slander himself as he had come to the conclusion that it’s better to tell what they wanted rather than suffered torture.After the death of his colleague Douglas Freeman was assignment to be the investigator in the case of terrorism. To my mind, he didn’t have certain indifference to accused people he tried to reveal human’s emotions. Then he realized that he couldn’t work as a CIA investigator and used torture.Even although being pregnant Isabella tried to find any links connecting with her husband’s disappearance. As Senator Hawkins was worried about his reputation and his political future he decided to refuse to help Isabella.Fatima , Abasi’s daughter, run away from home because of her father tyranny. She preferred to have relationships with Khalid as he was just like a symbol of freedom for her. And only accidentally Fatima came to know that Khalid was a member of a terrorist group. Khalid decided to revenge Fatima’s father for his brother’s death. So the death of Khalid and Fatima was very symbolic as they were very young but terrorism killed them.

The rendition can be  different. But there are people in the world who know how to allocate keenly the mountains of edges , that were on the shelves of misunderstandings - to be able to interpret the words, deeds, actions.This film is a very interesting film as it makes us think that every confession has its prehistory with human’s fates, lives and emotions. It helps us to realize that rendition justly questions whether information gathered though torture is ever reliable, and whether human-rights violations only fan the flames of deadly anti-Americanism and revenge.

Extra Rendering : Christmas in Norway.

Christmas in Norway

This article was published by Lorri Brown  on Dec 22, 2012 on the website "Suite101" and tells us about Christmas traditions in Norway include Advent, Christmas Trees with the Norwegian flag, Christmas gnomes and lutefisk, a national fish dish. The author points out , that many of the Christmas traditions in Norway originate in ancient times, based on festivals of Saturnalia and other pagan holidays. She also adds , that
modern Norwegian Christmas rituals are based on the countries new national independence and national spirit in the face of Nazi occupation during World War II. The author admits, that it is a well-known fact that Julestria – The Christmas Rush , also known as Advent, Justria refers to the weeks leading up to Christmas and Originally not celebrated by most Norwegians – mainly just the clergy- following World War II, Advent (the coming of the Lord) became mainstream. Moreover , analysing the situation in the word it is necessary to emphasize that Just as in many other European countries, Christmas Eve is a time of great feasting and merry-making for Norwegians.  The author tell us, that during Christmas Eve day, people hang a sheaf of grain, sometimes referred to as a “bird tree,” in their front yard, to share Christmas with the local animals.  It would be unfair for Brown , not to mention ,that by four o’clock on Christmas Eve, people are dressed in their finest and the festivities begin. The author also adds,, that people eat from the Julebord, or Christmas Buffet, dining on ribbe (pork ribs), pinnekjøh (steamed mutton ribs) or sylte (headcheese). If we speak about traditions,  the reader should not forget that author clearly gives us a thought, On Christmas Eve, Julesvenn (similar to the Danish Julnisse) brings gifts. This tradition is a holdover from the ancient Jul feast of Viking days. December 23 is known as Lillejulaften, or Little Christmas Eve, and is when most Norwegians put up their Christmas Tree. The author says, that one should, however, not forget that Norway ratified its first constitution in 1814, after 400 years of Danish Rule. It became fully independent in 1905, when it left a union with Sweden. Because the Norwegian independence coincided with the rising popularity of the Christmas tree (via Germany and then Great Britain) the new Norwegian flag became a popular holiday ornament, remaining so to this day. The authors draws a conclusion that, saying that even Norway was occupied by the Nazis for five years during World War I, during this time the Norway flag and constitutional ribbons were outlawed. Lorri says,  ,that Norwegians found ways to declare their opposition to German rule. Christmas cards printed during the Nazi occupation featured Nisse, a Christmas gnome popular since the mid 19th Century, with the Norwegian flags and captions that read God Norsk Jul – Merry Norwegian Christmas. Despite the Nazis' attempt at destroying the cards and forbidding printers to distribute them, many of these World War II Christmas cards still exist today, a testament to a nation’s determination to reclaim its freedom. In conclusion, I'd like to say, that nothing can destroy the emotion of a holiday inside your heart, because we are extremely strong in our faith ( in miracles, in our will ) and only truly strong cain gain the from  gifts and such festive atmosphere, but from his own soul.