Friday, August 17, 2018

Films seen in August 2018

1. A Beautiful Planet  - iMax cinema

i2016 American documentary film that explores Earth by showing IMAX footage that was recorded over the course of fifteen months by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.The filmmakers who created the movie and the astronauts who filmed it and starred in it intended to help viewers experience the awe and wonder that come from looking down on our planet from space. It does that but in a totally secular and godless way. 
   The message is about human co-operation and achievement, the beauty of creation is incidental. One does get a feeling for the weightless environment in the space station. 
   The photography is stunning. It opens with showing the minuteness of the earth in comparison with the whole universe. Then you see the wonder of our planet from space. I see the glory of God n creation and wonder what is man that though art mindful of him. Nothing like that in the commentary. 
   They consider if there might be an environment with the necessary conditions for life on other planets in the universe. No contemplating that this is God's seen creation and he has an unseen on of the spiritual unseen realm. Whether there is life on another planet is irrelevant compared with the significance of a spiritual creation. 
   I would judge this film to be a suppression of the truth, a failure to see the glory of God in creation (Rom 1).  
  It is American. The shots of earth therefore are Americanocentric. I wanted more of UK. Scotland was omitted. Daytime panoramas were hard to understand. Night ones were better and showed the difference between communism and freedom. South Korea is full of light - North Korea is in darkness. 
   The film has the usual anthropogenic climate change project fear. I do not believe it.The ice caps are melting? It has happened before. Climate change is most likely cyclical.
   But a great experience in iMax.

2. Wuthering Heights Tom Hardy (Actor), Charlotte Riley (Actor), Coky Giedroyc (Director) 

Excellent acting in this most gripping of stories. t is years since I read the book and I had forgotten most of the story. I found the opening confusing as it kept flashing back and forth in time. Once we got back to the chronological start it was spellbinding. Hoe did Bronte dream up this plot and these characters? Heathcliff is truly the cuckoo in the nest as Hindley said. Cruelly treated by Hindley his life is one of revenge. Yet he remains tormented so the ending which differs from the book does seem appropriate. I did though miss the famous closing words. 
   One thing that intrigued me was the flawed characters of most of the people. Nelly and Lindley are the exceptions to the rule and Heathcliffe's son. One is surprised at the happy ending after so much torment and misery.Bronte was the daughter of an evangelical liar yet she portrays much of the contemporary Christianity as harsh and hypocritical. I think her other sisters were more explicitly Christian in their writing. But here we have the classic portrayal of a revengeful, tormented man and two women beguiled by romantic love, hearts ruling their heads and leading both to misery.

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