Film Editor’s Comment
Children of Men, The Departed, Aliens, The History Boys, Borat, Easy Rider, The Host, Marie Antoinette, Twelve Monkeys, Jackass Two, Falling Down, The Prestige, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, Dog Day Afternoon, Pan’s Labyrinth, Deja Vu, Casino Royale, The Untouchables, Flags of Our Fathers and Babel.
There’s a decent chance that out of the above list, you can pick out half a dozen very much worth seeing. Starting with Alfonso Cuaron’s brilliant Children of Men this Thursday, a five-pound membership card will get you into as many of these movies as you please (and there are still others not mentioned above) for only £1.50. Compared to £5.50 for City Screen, and £4.95 for Vue at Clifton Moor, it’s great value for a chance to see a movie on the big screen.
Children of Men stars Clive Owen as an office worker in a vision of Britain in the future, where no children have been born in the past 18 years. Though it plays heavily on nightmare-future movie conventions, the film, adapted from P.D. James’ novel of the same name, effuses a spirit of hope and defiance lacking in other works of the genre. Minority Report and Blade Runner, while great films in their own right, suffer like most Philip K. Dick novels from being insufferably bleak. Not so Children of Men. It instead weaves a redemption plot: Owen’s reborn activist escorts a newly pregnant girl cross-country to a safe haven that may exist only in myth. Driven by a supporting cast that display an almost incredible warmth, Cuaron gives the story a rich emotional core, without ever stepping into cloying sentimentality. Check out Michael Caine as a hippie. No foolin’.
Flags of Our Fathers is unmissable, despite its obviously American slant. Reuniting Academy Award winners Clint Eastwood (Best Director 2004) and Paul Haggis (Best Original Screenplay 2005), who last collaborated on Million Dollar Baby, the film revolves around the battle of Iwo Jima and the six American Servicemen who were subjects of the most iconic photograph of the 20th century, raising the American flag on top of a battle-scarred hill. Along with its sister piece, Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood has been able to establish himself as one of Hollywood’s great directors.
YSC has outdone itself this term and membership is well worth the money.
