I am now a member of Hollywood videos – I can rent dvd’s for 15 dollars a month. This whole movie watching thing recently triggered an argument about how powerful a movie can be, if it were based on a woman’s life and experiences. My beloved friend believed that they cant be as “effective” – whatever that meant. Isnt the thought of a woman protagonist as powerful? Minus the testosterone surges - the guns in Munich, all the blood shed in Sparta, the craze for power in the Godfather, it is a very different world. The Shawshank redemption, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest, patch adams, the insider etc shall always be on my list of favourites but then I cannot downplay Erin Brockovich, Million Dollar Baby (Hillary Swank), Step Mom,Little Women, Jane Eyre, Color purple, Anastasia (Ingrid Bergman). Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady. How can you forget Scarlett O Hara in Gone with the Wind? The argument started because I was trying to describe how I felt after watching The Hours. Nicole Kidman’s oscar winning performance. I loved the movie and all the three women were amazing. I cannot understand why someone will think it was boring ( this was another friend). I would love to see Malika Oufkir's book being filmed.Somehow I cant turn my head away whenever the movie has a male protagonist and say oh, its boring. I found out that Kathreen Hepburn has the most number of Oscars as a best actress; she won it 4 times. While no actor has done so 4 times. Now my friend will say – that’s because they couldn’t find anyone else good enough and so on. Instead I would say it’s the continued strength and commitment of her performance that enabled her to win it. I would like to think of it as two sides of the balance without which there is no harmony. I wonder if everyone does that.
Couple of other interesting things -
Japan has the highest life expectancy. I found it strange since I thought Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have surely worked against it. The CNN website attributed it to their healthy diet.
And the fact that the largest supplier of weapons all over are the 5 permanent members of the UN security council. 190000 US supplied ak-47 rifles are missing from the war in iraq
