Redemption Comes in Many Sizes and Shapes
Redemption: a much-overused word, including in the cinematic world. The following two movies, both of which are based on real-life events, prove that redemption comes) in many sizes and shapes:
In The Pursuit of Happyness, a very somber--and serious--Will Smith poignantly plays the part of Chris Gardner, a once upon a time portable bone density scanner salesman who in 1981 found himself down and out on his luck--sans job, sans wife, sans a place to live--but who, with his little son, Chris, at his side (beautifully played by Will Smith's real-life son, Jaden), persevered, and survived a non-paying six-month internship program at San Francisco's Dean Witter office to become the sole intern whom they hired at the end of the training. To get there, though: the film has a no-holds-barred (considering its PG-13 rating) approach, depicting evictions; the life of the homeless on San Francisco's streets; nights spent in shelters; even attendance at a Revival service. It is Gardner's determination to succeed--to provide the best possible life for his child--that comes through, loud and clear...and Will Smith captures it, beautifully. His real-life relationship with his own son also shines forth--is little Jaden a star in the making? Gabriele Muccino directed; Steven Conrad (also responsible for The Weather Man) wrote the script. Ninina walked away, a little teary-eyed, but highly gratified. She needs 3.75 popcorn boxes.
"We're going to play until the whistle blows."--in We Are Marshall, Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey, who doesn't have to stretch his Texas drawl that far) first utters that phrase during a game of touch football with his children on the lawn of his house in Ohio; he repeats it when he finds himself as the new coach of the Marshall University football team in Huntington, West Virginia, in the tragic aftermath of the November 14, 1970 airplane crash that claimed 75 lives, including members of the school's team, staff, and supporters. Indeed, by the last time he says it, as he holds his youngest son in his arms right before Marshall's game with Xavier University, toward the end of a lackluster first "comeback" season, you know for a fact that he's "done some good," as he promised Marshall's president, Don Dedmon(David Strathairn), he would. In a game where winning is everything--and there is plenty of pre, during, and post football game action, with the requisite huddles, rump patting, and the like--the town of Marshall had to, in effect, be "born again," from the anguished skeleton team and staff left after the disaster, through the fiancee who was finally able to pull her life together--and, indeed, all the way to the grieving mill foreman/university board member (Ian McShane) whose son she was supposed to have married. The cast, as a whole, gave gritty, heartfelt performances: at the end, the real Jack Lengyel and his assistant coach, Red Dawson, join McConaughey and Matthew Fox on the screen. It was the shot of the memorial to the 75--and the real footage that accompanied the closing credits--that grabbed me the most. Football can be much, much more than a game...The music video producer McG directed. Ninina needs 3.5 popcorn boxes.
And then there's something I'm going to call "the anti-redemption": in The Good Shepherd, Robert De Niro's ten-year-old pet project about the history of the birth of the CIA, Matt Damon stoically--yet competently--plays the part of Edward Wilson, an upper-crust Yalie who is wooed, and ultimately recruited, by the powers-that-be involved in U.S. counter-intelligence (including by the increasingly diabetes-stricken General Bill Sullivan, quietly--yet convincingly--portrayed by De Niro himself). Alec Baldwin plays Sam Murach, the FBI liaison who keeps cropping up in Wilson's life. William Hurt, who, according to De Niro himself, is "hard to get a hold of," portrays Philip Allen, the agent who shows the young and eager Wilson "the ropes," guides him through the O.S.S. years, and eventually becomes the newly-formed agency's head. Timothy Hutton has a brief but pivotal appearance as Wilson's father, a navy commandant who commits suicide when he doesn't think he's lived up to his country's and his family's expectations. Later on, when Wilson has his own son with the originally exuberant but much put upon Clover (wistfully portrayed by Angelina Jolie), he keeps him shrouded in the secrets that ultimately...well, "anti-redemption," remember? With the exception of two gentle encounters with two women--both of them hearing-impaired--whom he feels he can help save, at least for a while, Edward Wilson, by the time he has reached the apogee of his career, is a man who has sacrificed everything for his country. A very thoughtful, provocative effort, the story (with Forrest Gump's Eric Roth as the screenwriter) is based on the life and career of James Jesus Angleton, who was the first head of counter-intelligence at the CIA. Ninina needs 3.25 popcorn boxes.
In The Pursuit of Happyness, a very somber--and serious--Will Smith poignantly plays the part of Chris Gardner, a once upon a time portable bone density scanner salesman who in 1981 found himself down and out on his luck--sans job, sans wife, sans a place to live--but who, with his little son, Chris, at his side (beautifully played by Will Smith's real-life son, Jaden), persevered, and survived a non-paying six-month internship program at San Francisco's Dean Witter office to become the sole intern whom they hired at the end of the training. To get there, though: the film has a no-holds-barred (considering its PG-13 rating) approach, depicting evictions; the life of the homeless on San Francisco's streets; nights spent in shelters; even attendance at a Revival service. It is Gardner's determination to succeed--to provide the best possible life for his child--that comes through, loud and clear...and Will Smith captures it, beautifully. His real-life relationship with his own son also shines forth--is little Jaden a star in the making? Gabriele Muccino directed; Steven Conrad (also responsible for The Weather Man) wrote the script. Ninina walked away, a little teary-eyed, but highly gratified. She needs 3.75 popcorn boxes.
"We're going to play until the whistle blows."--in We Are Marshall, Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey, who doesn't have to stretch his Texas drawl that far) first utters that phrase during a game of touch football with his children on the lawn of his house in Ohio; he repeats it when he finds himself as the new coach of the Marshall University football team in Huntington, West Virginia, in the tragic aftermath of the November 14, 1970 airplane crash that claimed 75 lives, including members of the school's team, staff, and supporters. Indeed, by the last time he says it, as he holds his youngest son in his arms right before Marshall's game with Xavier University, toward the end of a lackluster first "comeback" season, you know for a fact that he's "done some good," as he promised Marshall's president, Don Dedmon(David Strathairn), he would. In a game where winning is everything--and there is plenty of pre, during, and post football game action, with the requisite huddles, rump patting, and the like--the town of Marshall had to, in effect, be "born again," from the anguished skeleton team and staff left after the disaster, through the fiancee who was finally able to pull her life together--and, indeed, all the way to the grieving mill foreman/university board member (Ian McShane) whose son she was supposed to have married. The cast, as a whole, gave gritty, heartfelt performances: at the end, the real Jack Lengyel and his assistant coach, Red Dawson, join McConaughey and Matthew Fox on the screen. It was the shot of the memorial to the 75--and the real footage that accompanied the closing credits--that grabbed me the most. Football can be much, much more than a game...The music video producer McG directed. Ninina needs 3.5 popcorn boxes.
And then there's something I'm going to call "the anti-redemption": in The Good Shepherd, Robert De Niro's ten-year-old pet project about the history of the birth of the CIA, Matt Damon stoically--yet competently--plays the part of Edward Wilson, an upper-crust Yalie who is wooed, and ultimately recruited, by the powers-that-be involved in U.S. counter-intelligence (including by the increasingly diabetes-stricken General Bill Sullivan, quietly--yet convincingly--portrayed by De Niro himself). Alec Baldwin plays Sam Murach, the FBI liaison who keeps cropping up in Wilson's life. William Hurt, who, according to De Niro himself, is "hard to get a hold of," portrays Philip Allen, the agent who shows the young and eager Wilson "the ropes," guides him through the O.S.S. years, and eventually becomes the newly-formed agency's head. Timothy Hutton has a brief but pivotal appearance as Wilson's father, a navy commandant who commits suicide when he doesn't think he's lived up to his country's and his family's expectations. Later on, when Wilson has his own son with the originally exuberant but much put upon Clover (wistfully portrayed by Angelina Jolie), he keeps him shrouded in the secrets that ultimately...well, "anti-redemption," remember? With the exception of two gentle encounters with two women--both of them hearing-impaired--whom he feels he can help save, at least for a while, Edward Wilson, by the time he has reached the apogee of his career, is a man who has sacrificed everything for his country. A very thoughtful, provocative effort, the story (with Forrest Gump's Eric Roth as the screenwriter) is based on the life and career of James Jesus Angleton, who was the first head of counter-intelligence at the CIA. Ninina needs 3.25 popcorn boxes.
posted by Ninina Mameyez at 3:28 PM
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