Hello! So, this is a thread where we can talk about movies that moved or touched us, even if they are not GLBT related. There is a thread for GLBT related movies here. You can talk about any movie you want, but I'd like to encourage you to tell us about a movie we might not have heard of, especially foreign movies.
I'll start. Recently I watched movie called "Machuca," a move made in Chile which presents the 1973 military Coup d'état and the events leading up to it through the eyes of an eleven year old boy named Gonzalo Infante.
Here is IMDBs fairly accurate summary of the movie, edited by me to be less grammatically horrendous. (no spoilers):
"In 1973, in Santiago of Chile, The President Salvador Allende is the first socialist president democratically elected in a Latin-American country. The principal of an elite Catholic School for boys, Father McEnroe, makes a trial of integration between students of the upper and lower classes, by admitting several very poor boys into the school. The bourgeois, upper-middle class boy, Gonzalo Infante, and the boy from the slum Pedro Machuca become great friends, while the conflicts on the streets leads Chile to the bloody and repressive military coup of General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973, changing definitely their lives, their relationship and their country."
That being said, here's what I love about the movie:
It all takes place through the eyes of eleven year old Gonzalo, a rather sensitive boy from a well off family. As the summary says, he becomes very good friends with a boy Pedro Machuca, who lives in a wooden hut in the slums with his mother and baby sister, with no electricity or running water. Gonzalo's home life is very dysfunctional; his mother is having an affair with a very rich man, and often goes to his house after picking Gonzales up from school, leaving him to sit in the living room of the man's house, knowing full well that his mother is fucking another man. The man buys Gonzalo very expensive and nice gifts, but it doesn't change his disposition. Meanwhile, his father suspects something is going on, and his sister is dating an older man who is nothing but an ass to Gonzalo... you get the idea.
Pedro's family life is no less disturbed. On top of being dirt poor, his mother is being threatened by who I can only assume is some type of loan shark of the slums. He and his friend (who is kind of like a sister to him) Silvia, along with Silvia's father, make spare money by selling miniature flags to demonstrators of either political party, socialist or not.
Gonzalo and Pedro get a rather extensive look into each others lives, and come to realize that neither of them have it easy, despite what different outspoken politicians say about "living off the government" or "being a spoiled rich snob." As the political tension mounts, the boys' friendship is strained by the air of impending violence.
I won't give any more of the plot away, but I will say that the climax of this movie was heart-wrenching, and will definitely leave you in tears. This is, to say the least, a movie that will make you think, and make you realize just how much destruction political strife can cause. It is masterfully and subtly done, despite some over-the-top scenes, and it does a good job of making it, not about political and class warfare, but about two young boys, caught in the middle of a struggle that they are forced to take sides on, trying desperately to maintain a friendship despite the glaring differences in their upbringings.
Father McEnroe is another awesome part about the movie, and definitely not what you'd expect from the principle of a Catholic School (he's about as different as can be from Sister Mary). The movie does a good job of not portraying Catholics as assholes, as so many movies tend to do (not that they don't have a point, but it gets kind of tiring after a while and frankly has become a stereotype). The Father is an intelligent, strong, good-hearted man, and I think even if you take a radical stance against the Catholic Church, you won't be able to help but applaud his actions and words.
That was way longer than I planned on it being. But I really recommend watching this movie, it is fantastic. You can probably find it on amazon or ebay, it's not all that rare and was made in 04, but I managed to get it from an *ahem* alternative, Canadian-hosted source. You should definitely check it out.
I'll start. Recently I watched movie called "Machuca," a move made in Chile which presents the 1973 military Coup d'état and the events leading up to it through the eyes of an eleven year old boy named Gonzalo Infante.
Here is IMDBs fairly accurate summary of the movie, edited by me to be less grammatically horrendous. (no spoilers):
"In 1973, in Santiago of Chile, The President Salvador Allende is the first socialist president democratically elected in a Latin-American country. The principal of an elite Catholic School for boys, Father McEnroe, makes a trial of integration between students of the upper and lower classes, by admitting several very poor boys into the school. The bourgeois, upper-middle class boy, Gonzalo Infante, and the boy from the slum Pedro Machuca become great friends, while the conflicts on the streets leads Chile to the bloody and repressive military coup of General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973, changing definitely their lives, their relationship and their country."
That being said, here's what I love about the movie:
It all takes place through the eyes of eleven year old Gonzalo, a rather sensitive boy from a well off family. As the summary says, he becomes very good friends with a boy Pedro Machuca, who lives in a wooden hut in the slums with his mother and baby sister, with no electricity or running water. Gonzalo's home life is very dysfunctional; his mother is having an affair with a very rich man, and often goes to his house after picking Gonzales up from school, leaving him to sit in the living room of the man's house, knowing full well that his mother is fucking another man. The man buys Gonzalo very expensive and nice gifts, but it doesn't change his disposition. Meanwhile, his father suspects something is going on, and his sister is dating an older man who is nothing but an ass to Gonzalo... you get the idea.
Pedro's family life is no less disturbed. On top of being dirt poor, his mother is being threatened by who I can only assume is some type of loan shark of the slums. He and his friend (who is kind of like a sister to him) Silvia, along with Silvia's father, make spare money by selling miniature flags to demonstrators of either political party, socialist or not.
Gonzalo and Pedro get a rather extensive look into each others lives, and come to realize that neither of them have it easy, despite what different outspoken politicians say about "living off the government" or "being a spoiled rich snob." As the political tension mounts, the boys' friendship is strained by the air of impending violence.
I won't give any more of the plot away, but I will say that the climax of this movie was heart-wrenching, and will definitely leave you in tears. This is, to say the least, a movie that will make you think, and make you realize just how much destruction political strife can cause. It is masterfully and subtly done, despite some over-the-top scenes, and it does a good job of making it, not about political and class warfare, but about two young boys, caught in the middle of a struggle that they are forced to take sides on, trying desperately to maintain a friendship despite the glaring differences in their upbringings.
Father McEnroe is another awesome part about the movie, and definitely not what you'd expect from the principle of a Catholic School (he's about as different as can be from Sister Mary). The movie does a good job of not portraying Catholics as assholes, as so many movies tend to do (not that they don't have a point, but it gets kind of tiring after a while and frankly has become a stereotype). The Father is an intelligent, strong, good-hearted man, and I think even if you take a radical stance against the Catholic Church, you won't be able to help but applaud his actions and words.
That was way longer than I planned on it being. But I really recommend watching this movie, it is fantastic. You can probably find it on amazon or ebay, it's not all that rare and was made in 04, but I managed to get it from an *ahem* alternative, Canadian-hosted source. You should definitely check it out.
