Top Five Reels Meme

Following Hooiching on her latest meme, returning in kind for a meme favour. I'm a little of a movie buff and have watched tons and tons of them before I discover anime in later life. There are countless of good movies selections to pick from, but I will try to have a rounded selections of older series instead, here goes,

1. Shawshank Redemption

This movie comes as a surprise to me since I'm not a big Stephen King or horror fan. As the matter of fact I did not know that he wrote to book and only saw the credits at the end. A very good plot twist and the pace was excellent, bet you did not know if the main character, Andy Dufresne, looks liked he could be heading down hill and tries to kill himself but no, he manages to escape thru a poster in the wall.

A major theme of the film is hope, symbolized in the music, and is present throughout the story of the film. The movie uses Andy Dufresne to bring hope and redemption to the fallen world of Shawshank Prison and its convicted felons.

The character Andy has some striking (albeit imperfect) parallels to the most famous messianic figure, Jesus of Nazareth. Both are condemned though innocent, both undergo a version of death, resurrection, and ascension, and both bring hope and redemption to their followers. Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine, whereas Andy's first wonder was convincing the guards to give the prisoners beer.


2. Sixth Sense

You have to admit that as an experience movie goer, there is not much of storylines that can stump you but in the case of Sixth Sense, it totally stumped me till the every end and I loved it. Who could have guess the ending? I did not till the ring drops on the floor, absolute brilliant piece of movie writing.

The color red is used prominently throughout the movie in situations where the dead are present (see the color of the balloon and Cole's sweater at the birthday party, the tent in which he first encounters Kyra, the numbers on Crowe's tape player, the doorknob to the locked closet, the grieving mother's dress, etc.) Shyamalan's film The Village similarly portrayed the color red as having connotations with evil and the supernatural (specifically, the mysterious monsters that inhabit the woods surrounding the village).


3. My Fair Lady

I like a little singing in some of the movies and this one have lots of good tracks to sing to. A nice little classic that you don't mind seeing as a rerun.

No dubbing was done for Harrison, whose singing voice was closer to speaking on pitch and rhythm than to actual singing. In addition, the actor declined to pre-record his musical numbers for the film, explaining that he had never sung the songs the same way twice and thus couldn't pre-record them and convincingly lip-sync to a playback during filming as musical stars had been doing in Hollywood since the dawn of talking pictures. In order to permit Harrison to sing his songs live during filming, the Warner Bros.

Studio Sound Department, under the direction of George Groves, implanted a wireless microphone in Harrison's neckties, marking the first time in film history that a wireless mike was used to record sound during filming. Both the sound department and Harrison earned Academy Awards for their efforts.

4. Star Wars (Episodes 4 to 6)

I'm sure lots of ppl will have this as one of their all time fav movies. To me it was real, original and it had a gripping storyline. Not many movie have sequels then and even now, characters in the sequels do not grow as the story progress. Sci-fi teach was first class and was out of this world by then standards. George Lucas was a pioneer and a great visionary. I think episodes 4 to 5 stayed true to the original idea and feel of Lucas's vision, the subsequent ones are a little too much on visual impact, drowning the storyline and making it less enjoyable.

Unlike the traditional science-fiction/fantasy films preceding it, the Star Wars world was initially portrayed as dirty and grimy, rather than sleek and futuristic. In interviews, Lucas tells of rubbing the new props with dirt to make them look weather-worn, a concept he has referred to as "a used or ancient future".

George Lucas embraces a style of epic storytelling that uses motifs, common themes and concepts which he alters slightly each time they occur. The concept is lifted from Romantic (early 19th century) music, but Lucas applies it both visually and as an integral part of his storytelling.

5. Indiana Jones series

I liked the adventure, the hat, the whip and most of all I happen to like Harrison Ford's acting, nuff said.

Indiana Jones, "Obtainer of Rare Antiquities", is modeled after the strong-jawed heroes of the matinee serials and pulp magazines that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg enjoyed in their childhoods. The two friends first discussed the project during the time of release of the first Star Wars film. Spielberg told Lucas how he wanted to direct a James Bond film - Lucas responded that he "had something better than that".

The character was originally named Indiana Smith; However Spielberg disliked the name, and Lucas casually suggested "Indiana Jones" as an alternative. Indiana was the name of an Alaskan malamute Lucas owned in the 1970s (the same dog was also the inspiration for Chewbacca)

Hope you enjoyed my movie raving, have a nice day! No, there will be no tagging today. Cheers!