Here
is the largely unknown 1961 true story of how three African American women played a
major part in the NASA space programme which led to John Glenn safely taking
the first American trip to orbit.
The three women
were mathematicians working in a segregated area of the NASA complex, and they
lived a life of using ‘coloured’ bathrooms, and sitting on the ‘coloured’ side of
buses and having ‘coloured’ coffee and tea pots, writes David Flynn.
These women Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn were
called “computers,” by other NASA personnel, and they were segregated to work
on figures for the space programme.
The life of these women is touching to watch, and the movie is
told in a sentimental style, but it also shows the impossible and frustrations of these NASA employees.
‘Hidden Figures’ is told with humour and as the movie went on,
it showed the ambition of these women, and also the awareness in them of being
pioneers for their race.
Octavia Spencer is deservedly nominated for an Oscar for the
role of Dorothy, yet it’s a huge surprise that Taraji P. Henson was not
nominated for the substantial role of Katherine.
Kevin Costner plays a supporting role as NASA boss, Al Harrison,
and brings personality and humanity to the part of the chief who helped to
break down the borders of race. Kirsten
Dunst plays the part of the women’s boss, Vivian Mitchell, and it’s pity she
wasn’t given more to do in her role.
None of the supporting characters were overtly racist, but the movie
portrayed many of them as being racist in a way in which they weren’t aware.
Also it’s fascinating to watch, on a different level, the early
days of the space programme. The dramatic elements of John Glenn’s trip to orbit is shown in
an action-packed way that can only be enjoyed.
It’s a very important movie to be seen, and it probably gives a
message for today, fifty-six years later.
Here
we have truly one of the most violent and realistic war movies that has ever
come out of Hollywood. However despite
the severe war scenery in WW2 in the Japanese islands, the movie is beyond gripping.
The movie starts off as an All-American story of a
boy with a difficult father and sympathetic mother and close younger brother. The boy, Desmond Doss, played in adulthood by
Andrew Garfield, falls in love with a local girl Dorothy, played by Teresa
Palmer.
Violence was anathema to Desmond due to all he had
seen at home, so after the US enters WW2 he enlists as a conscientious objector
in the army. A conscientious objector is
an individual who wishes not to take up arms in a war conflict.
The story begins with parents, Tom and Bertha Doss
played by Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths, bringing up two boys in Depression
America. The father had demons from his
own WW1 days, but unfortunately he takes out those feelings on his wife and
children, and his influence breeds violence among the boys. However Desmond rebels and vows to relinquish
violence at a young age.
In the army, Desmond has to battle to keep his ‘objector’
status, and he is tested constantly by his commanding officer, Sgt. Howell, who
was played well by Vince Vaughn, taking a break from comic roles.
The sheer violence in ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ takes away any
image of glamour or romanticism about war, which is unusual even in modern film,
writes David Flynn.
It deserves its six Oscar nominations. It
should do better at the Oscars than it did at the Golden Globes or the British Film
Awards where it only picked up an award for Best Editing, which of course it
deserves.
Desmond’s true worth, through Andrew Garfield comes
through at the Battle of Okinawa scenes.
It
was fantastic to see the great John Hurt performing in this movie in a role
which although wasn’t major was very pivotal to the story of widow Jackie
Kennedy in the aftermath of her husband’s assassination.
Sadly John Hurt died last weekend of a long illness,
at the same time his movie, ‘Jackie’ is on international release. It’s now all the
more poignant watching Hurt as the priest leading Jackie to a time of
acceptance in her new life, writes David
Flynn.
‘Jackie’ portrays the eight days behind the scenes
of the life of the young widow, following the assassination of her husband,
President John F. Kennedy. It was a time
when she had to make serious decisions about the US President’s funeral, and
also she had to look to her future with her children.
The movie shows an amazing recreation of the 1960s
White House, including the officialdom and the personnel, through the eyes of
Jackie. The pain of the young widow and
how she managed to triumph over the terrible adversity of having been beside
her husband when he was shot is very vividly shown, thanks to the talented
actress, Natalie Portman.
A CBS tv broadcast of Jackie in happier days opening
the White House to the cameras is cleverly mingled in with this new movie..
The production of ‘Jackie’ is amazing
from the outdoor scenes, shown with great cinematography, to private scenes in Jackie’s
bedroom,
The acting of Nathalie Portman is
deserving of the Oscar, although she has huge competition from Emma Stone of
‘La La Land’.
The torn brother in law, Bobby Kennedy
is played with raw emotion by Peter Sarsgaard.
However it’s a pity more of the Kennedys or Jackie’s family, the Bouviers
weren’t shown supporting her or the children.
The concentration of Jackie’s grief in the movie was built around Bobby,
and the White House officials.
Production and set design deserve
great accolades, from the creation of the 1963 Oval office, to Jackie’s rooms
at the White House.
Billy Crudup shows great facial
emotion as the journalist that interviews Jackie for Life magazine, some months
after the funeral
For those of us who had heard of King
Arthur’s ‘Camelot’ in connection with JFK and Jackie, this movie reveals it was Jackie who came up with the well-known term
about the thousand days of JFK
The movie successfully interspersed
real old footage with new footage of the JFK trip to Dallas, and the eventual
funeral in Arlington Cemetery.
Also while there have been many film
versions of the Jackie Kennedy story, this movie shows the most graphic interpretation of the
assassination, with blood and all.
The private time of the Kennedy widow
is open to all, through ‘Jackie’ and the audience will feel they are intruding
on this most private time.
An
old fashioned Hollywood musical in a modern setting with two of the biggest
stars of the minute could sound like a narcissistic disaster. It’s anything but. It’s one of the coolest movies of the year
(and its only January), and is a fascinating visual display, not to mention it has an
unforgettable score, and of course the storyline’s not bad either.
Emma Stone could get the Best Actress Oscar for this
movie in a couple of months’ time, writes
David Flynn. Her face displayed and
told so much more than her well written dialogue could have. She could dance and she could sing, and she
was brilliant in it all. She played Mia,
an actress working in a coffee shop between gigs.
Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian, a talented jazz
musician who is reduced to playing covers in a wine bar, and then later plays
in pool parties in Beverly Hills. Ryan
is not a great singer, but he got good songs to sing, and he somehow had a
charm with those songs.
The talented duo meet and encourage each others
careers, and their separate ambition meets successes and disappointments. The careers cause frictions similar to the
characters in the different ‘Star is Born’ movies. The chemistry was magic between both leads.
‘La La Land’ gives a huge glimpse into Hollywood
life, and the world of movie auditions and the empty side of that world. There is also a nod here to Gene Kelly movies
of the early 1950s.
There is a lot of colour in the storyline and it’s
portrayed well by the cast. It’s one of
the most attractive films of modern times and is a carousel of love and jazz.
It took seven of the Golden Globes that it was nominated
for, and it could take up to 10 BAFTA awards, and it will also figure in the 14 Oscar nominations it has received.
A prequel of sorts to the Harry Potter universe is displayed in a
$180 million production, with the long title of ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to
Find Them’.
This story from the mind of JK Rowling
features a new young wizard, Newt Scamander, who stops off in Pre-Wall Street
crash New York, while he is on his way with a special mission to the State of
Arizona. Newt is an English wizard who
holds a suitcase of magic animals.
Newt’s suitcase gets lost and has ended
up in the possession of an innocent baker, Jacob, played by Dan Fogler. Along the way, roving wizard, Tina, who is
trying to get her credentials back from the Wizardy group, encounters and tries
to bring Newt to his destiny, (and get him registered as a real wizard!) and
both of them end up trying to save New York in the 20s along with the wizards
reputation worldwide.
Behind the Newt plot, the underworld
of Wizards is at risk of being upended by a vocal force against wizards, writes David Flynn.
Eddie Redmayne, who has been having a
great acting career of late, plays Newt, and the actor is very watchable in
anything. Katherine Waterston, another
current star plays Tina, and quite well she does so. Somewhere in there is Colin Farrell, playing
a complicated wizard, who would probably be the main baddie, along with
Samantha Morton as Mary Lou, who is working Public Relations against the
wizards. Dan Fogler, does well with his
role, is a good actor, and has great facial expressions, but Jack Black does
come to mind for the role.
‘Fantastic Beasts’ is a great
production, with great old New York sets, which look great on a galactic screen.
A dark movie with a strong storyline, which could have been a run
of the mill feature, but for the director, Denis Villeneuve, left the
cinemagoer feeling like they were watching something like a documentary, rather
than a work of fiction.
Through this atmospheric thriller,
there is much sadness due to the early display of the life of the lead
character, Dr. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams. It’s probably the first time there has been a
sci-fi female movie lead, since Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies, or Jodie
Foster in ‘Contact’ in 1997. In fact
there are minor similarities in the story to the Oscar nominated movie,
‘Contact’.
The plot of ‘Arrival’ involves aliens
hovering in ships over cities all over the world, and is now showing at Athlone IMC. Louise
is an expert linguist, and from her academic teaching job at a university, she is
headhunted in X-Files fashion, to help with communications with the aliens, by the
US military, and a Col. Weber, played by Forest Whitaker
The tension builds well in the first twenty
minutes, but it waned a bit after that for another twenty, until the movie
really found its feet.
Jeremy Renner was subdued in his lingual
role, where he played Ian, but after watching the whole movie, it will become
obvious, why he plays his role as he does.
The difficulty and frustrations of
Louise and Ian while communicating with the aliens are acted well by both stars,
and the feature never lets up on its dark tone.
The sense of war being at close hand
is shown and felt by the audience, as China and other countries become hostile
to any talks with the aliens.
The atmosphere in the movie is intense,
and there are times it all looks like a view of real people's lives. It takes a while to build up, but when it
does, it displays a masterpiece, writes
David Flynn
Many
adults today remember growing up watching actors Robert Vaughn and David
McCallum star in the spy drama series, ‘The Man From UNCLE’. Sadly a link with that time is severed with
the death this weekend of Robert Vaughn, who played Napoleon Solo for the four
years the hit series was on the air.
‘The Man From UNCLE’ was a major drama series,
and at the time in the mid 1960s, many children were encouraged to write away to
join the UNCLE club and received a wallet with secret agent messages in return.
Robert Vaughn was nominated for three
Golden Globe acting awards for ‘The Man from UNCLE’.
Vaughn was also the star of many movies,
including the seminal western, ‘The Magnificent Seven’.
He won an Emmy Award for playing in the
1970s political miniseries, ‘Washington Behind Closed Doors’.
In 1986, producers of the tv series, ‘The
A-Team’ brought him onto their series, for its fifth season.
Veteran
actor, Robert Vaughn from ‘The Man from UNCLE’ was cast as General Hunt
Stockwell. Stockwell promised the A-Team
a pardon for taking part in dangerous missions, much different than they had
done in the previous seasons. While
there had always been comedic elements in the series, this fifth season was the
darkest, with nobody really knowing Stockwell’s real motives.
In
recent years, he played a comedic role on the No. 1 British soap opera, ‘Coronation
Street’.
Those are just a few examples of the screen
time served by the suave Robert Vaughn, writes
David Flynn.
Three generations of moviegoers and
television watchers experienced the work of this actor.
He passed away on 11th,
November, 2016, aged 83 years. Deepest sympathy is extended to his wife, Linda, son Cassidy, and daughter, Caitlin. May he
rest in peace.
