The Shawshank Redemption

During the first two years of his incarceration, Andy works in the prison laundry. He attracts attention from "the Sisters", a group of prisoners who sexually assault other prisoners, and their leader Bogs. Though he persistently resists, Andy is beaten and raped on a regular basis. Later, he overhears Hadley complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance. After explaining a legal loophole to Hadley, Andy is reassigned to assist the prison librarian, elderly inmate Brooks, a pretext to allow Andy to work on financial requests full time. Andy's financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and by visiting guards from nearby prisons. Hadley delivers a crippling beating to Bogs, after his gang's brutal assault puts Andy in the infirmary. Andy is left alone by the gang from then on.

Andy helps to expand the prison library by writing weekly letters to the state government for funds. When one donation to the library provides him with a recording of The Marriage of Figaro, he plays an excerpt over the public address system, well aware he will receive solitary confinement for doing so. Warden Norton develops a scheme that uses prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and receiving kickbacks. Norton has Andy launder the money under the false identity of "Randall Stevens", in exchange for allowing Andy to keep his private cell and to continue maintaining the library. Brooks is freed on parole and moves into a halfway house. Unable to adjust to the outside world, he hangs himself. Andy dedicates the expanded library to him.

In 1965, Tommy joins Andy and Red's circle of friends, and Andy assists him in getting his GED. When he hears the details of Andy's case, Tommy reveals that an inmate at another prison, Elmo Blatch, claimed to have committed a nearly identical murder, suggesting Andy's innocence. Norton, fearing Andy might tell of his corruption if released, refuses to cooperate. After they argue, he throws Andy into solitary confinement for two months. Norton has Hadley kill Tommy, claiming he was attempting an escape. Andy returns to his regular cell block and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town, and setting up a hotel with boat rides for his customers. While Red shrugs it off as unrealistic, Andy instructs him, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package.

The next day at roll call, Andy's cell is empty. When Norton, angry at Andy's disappearance, throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, the rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy has dug with the rock hammer over the last two decades. The night before, Andy switches Norton's ledger with his prison-issue Bible. Taking the ledger, his chess set, and one of the warden's suits, he escapes through the tunnel and a narrow sewage drain during a thunderstorm. After escaping, Andy poses as Randall Stevens to withdraw most of the corruption money from several banks, then sends evidence of Norton's corruption and murder of Tommy to a local newspaper. The police arrive at the prison, and Hadley is arrested, but Norton commits suicide to evade arrest.

Red receives parole after serving 40 years and is allocated the apartment where Brooks committed suicide, and works at the same grocery store. Red begins to feel fear of the outside world, just like Brooks. Red remembers Andy's advice and visits Buxton. There, he finds a cache of money and a note left by Andy, telling him to get to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to skip the border to Mexico. The two are happily reunited on the beach to begin a new life.

The good the bad and the ugly

Blondie and Tuco have an agreement to "capture" Tuco and turn him into the authorites for the bounty then shoots the hangman's noose before Tuco dies in the gallows.  Blondie, weary of Tuco's incessant complaints about the dividing of the profits from their scheme, abandons him in the desert, keeping all of the money. A livid Tuco manages to make it to another town and rearm himself with a revolver. Some time later in another town, Tuco enlists three outlaws to come with him to kill Blondie. As the three men break into Blondie's room, Blondie shoots and kills all three of them, but to Blondie's surprise Tuco climbs up through his back window and aims his gun at Blondie and captures him while a skirmish between Union and Confederate troops rages on outside. As Tuco prepares to kill Blondie by fashioning a noose and forcing Blondie to put it around his neck, a cannonball hits the hotel and demolishes the room, allowing Blondie to escape.
Following a relentless search, Tuco captures Blondie using the same scheme with another partner (Tuco doesn't allow Blondie to shoot the rope this time and the unfortunate "Shorty" is hanged) and marches him across the harsh desert. When Blondie finally collapses from dehydration and heatstroke, Tuco prepares to kill him but pauses when a runaway ambulance carriage appears on the horizon heading their way. Inside, while looting the dead soldiers, Tuco discovers a dying Bill Carson, who reveals that $200,000 in stolen Confederate gold is buried in a grave in Sad Hill cemetery but falls unconscious before naming the grave. When Tuco returns with water, he discovers Carson dead and Blondie slumped against the carriage beside Carson's body. Before passing out, Blondie says that Carson told him the name on the grave, so now Tuco and Blondie know half of the secret of the location but neither can get the gold without the help of the other. Tuco takes Blondie (both disguised as Confederate soldiers) to a Catholic mission run by Tuco's older brother Father Pablo. Tuco nurses Blondie back to health, and the two leave, still disguised. They inadvertently encounter a force of Union soldiers (whom they take for Confederates due to thick coatings of grey dust on their uniforms). They are captured and marched to a Union prison camp.
Angel Eyes has Wallace beat and tortured Tuco into revealing Sad Hill Cemetery as the location of the gold, but Tuco also confesses that only Blondie knows the name on the grave. Convinced that Blondie would not be easily broken, Angel Eyes offers to take Tuco's place in the partnership to recover the gold. Blondie agrees and rides out with Angel Eyes and his posse. Meanwhile, Tuco escapes while being transported by train to his execution, killing Corporal Wallace in the process.
We next see Blondie, Angel Eyes and Angel Eyes' gang arriving in a town that's rapidly being evacuated due to heavy artillery fire. Blondie finds Tuco and tells him of Angel Eyes's involvement. The two resume their old partnership, stalking through the wrecked town and killing Angel Eyes' henchmen before discovering that Angel Eyes has escaped and left an insulting note for them.
Tuco and Blondie find their way to Sad Hill Cemetery, but it is blocked by large Union and Confederate forces who are separated only by a narrow bridge. Each side is preparing to fight for it, but apparently both sides have been ordered not to destroy the bridge. Reasoning that if the bridge were destroyed "these idiots would go somewhere else to fight", Blondie and Tuco wire the bridge with dynamite. During the process, the two trade information, Tuco revealing Sad Hill Cemetery as the gold's location and Blondie saying that the name on the grave is Arch Stanton. The two then take cover as the bridge blows up and the two armies resume their battle. The next morning, the Confederate and Union soldiers have gone. Tuco abandons Blondie (who has stopped to tend to a dying young Confederate soldier) to retrieve the gold for himself at the cemetery. Frantically searching the sea of make-shift tombstones and grave markers, Tuco finally locates Arch Stanton's grave. As he digs, Blondie appears (now clad in his trademark poncho) and tosses him a shovel. A second later, the two are surprised by Angel Eyes, who holds them at gunpoint. Blondie kicks open Stanton's grave to reveal just a skeleton. Declaring that only he knows the real name of the grave, Blondie writes it on a rock in the middle of the graveyard and tells Tuco and Angel Eyes that "two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're going to have to earn it."
The three then walk in a giant circle and have a standoff in which Angel Eyes dies at Blondie's gunshot. The Tuco and Blondie split the money but Blondie makes Tuco put his head into a noose hanging off a nearby tree and then Blondie rides away and shoots the noose. 

Order of Films

1. V for Vendetta
2. Friday Night Lights
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. The Great Debators
5. The Good the Bad and the Ugly
6. Cinema Paradiso
7. The Graduate
8. Ben Hur
9. Psycho
10. Gone with the Wind
11. The Simpsons Movie
12. Citizen Kane

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta was directed by James McTeigue and starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, and Stephan Rea was about the world as a dystopia in the 2030’s. London is run by a dictatorship and everyone has a curfew. Evey goes out after curfew to visit a male friend and is almost raped by authority figures. A mysterious man known as V comes to Evey’s rescue and kills the three men. He then takes her to see him blow up a building.

London’s dictator tries to explain away the incident as a controlled demolition, claiming the building was no longer structurally sound, but V takes over the state television broadcast the same day, exposing the lie. He urges the people of Britain to rise up against the oppressive government and meet him in one year, on 5 November, outside the Houses of Parliament, which he promises to destroy. Evey helps V to escape, but is knocked out in the process.  V takes Evey to his lair where she is kept for a few weeks before escaping from V during one of his “escapades” in which she agreed to help. Evey is captured again and tortured for days for information about V. She finds solace in notes written by another prisoner, an actress who was arrested for being homosexual. Finally, Evey is told that she will be executed immediately unless she reveals V's location. An exhausted but defiant Evey says she would rather die, and is released. Evey discovers that she has been in V's lair all along, and that her imprisonment was staged to free her from her fears.  The notes were real, but they were passed by Valerie to V years earlier when he was similarly imprisoned. Although Evey initially hates V for what he did to her, she realizes she now feels stronger and free in spirit. She leaves him with a promise to return before the 5th of November.

Evey then helps V to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5^th. V dies in the process but now London is back to normal.

I give this movie a 10 out of 10

It was a great movie that made one think about virtue and question their own virtue.

The Great Debaters

The Great Debaters is a drama about a black debate team in the south in 1932. Shot in 2007 by Denzel Washington. Starring Denzel Washington, Denzel Whitaker and Forest Whitaker, based on a true story of a temperamental debate coach who molded the students of a small East Texas college into a formidable team that gave even Harvard's elite squad a run for their money.

Convinced that they could invoke great change if given the confidence and tools needed to do so, Tolson implores his students to take responsibility for the future while furtively attempting to protect them from his clandestine role as an organizer for the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Chief among Tolson's promising young students is a 14-year-old prodigy named James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker).  James Jr. has seen the raving effects of racism all around him, and longs to live in a future where no one must be in fear simply because of the color of their skin. Other talented debaters on Tolson's team include fiercely independent student Henry Lowe, and Samantha Brooke, the first ever female ever to join the Wiley College debate team. While most educators may not have recognized the remarkable potential of assembling such a disparate team, Tolson's unique vision truly set him apart from the pack as the team begins to experience a series of consecutive victories on their road to challenging Harvard at the National Championships.

Psycho

Psycho is a horror film shot in 1960 by the famous Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins this film grossed over 32 million dollars. The film begins with Marion (Leigh) having a fight with her boyfriend Samand stealing money from her work and leaving with it. She gets a room at a roadside motel ran by Norman Bates (Perkins). Bates seems to live at home with his sick mother who doesn't like other girls recieving any attention from Bates. In her room, Marion resolves to bring back the money and apologize, she goes into the bathroom to take a shower and a shadowy figure sneaks into her room with a butchers knife and stabs her to death.          
Marion's sister notices that Marion is gone and raises it to the attention of the local police. The sheriff goes to Bates' house to investigate and walks up the stairs where a figure that looks like an elderly woman stabs him and he falls down the stairs. Marion's sister Lila and Sam decide to investigate on their own. When they arrive at the Bates Hotel, Sam distracts Norman while Lila walks up to Bates' house, she goes downstairs where she finds the skeleton of Norman's mother. Norman, having overpowered Sam, rushes in with the knife that has already taken two peoples' lives. But before he lunges at Lila, Sam subdues Norman. Noman is arrested and taken to jail.

In his cell, Norman is thinking minacle thoughts to himself as his mother. The movie ends with Norman thinking that he will trick the policemen that he isn't a danger to others and that he won't even hit a fly.
I give this movie a 9 out of 10 (10 being high)

                                                  (Left to Right) Madison, Me, Randy
                                                                      Seniors Baby!

                                                         Mascot of Perham High School

                                              My first car, a 2002 canary yellow Chevy Cavalier
          I'm on top of the car and some of my friends James and Madison are goofing off on the inside

Where I spend most of my time during fall and spring for girls and boys tennis

The Simpsons Movie

Satire-

·         The government listens to everyone’s conversations

·         “If you have a greasier sandwich, you’re in Mexico!”

·         “The government actually found someone we’re looking for!”

·         Arnold S. elected as President of the United States

·         Homer is stuck between a rock and a hard place

Puns-

·         Harry Popper (the pig)

·         “Black is the worst color! Oh, sorry Carl”- Lenny

“It’s ok I get it all the time.”- Carl

·         “I was elected to lead not to read”- Arnold S.

·         Dome Depot

·         “There aren’t any answers in here!”- Homer flipping through the Bible

Irony-

·         “For once the rich white man is in power”- Mr. Burns

·         “Don’t look where I’m pointing!”

·         “I’m troubled, I’ll stop tomorrow”

·         “If you don’t believe me, believe in America”

·         The sign in the Simpson’s home that says “God bless this house” and the house is destroyed

Parody-

·         Green Day

·         Spiderpig

·         The Inconvenient Truth

·         The scissor lift

·         The Titanic

The Graduate

The Graduate is a drama-comedy movie filmed in 1967 by Mike Nichols. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross, the film opens up with Ben (Hoffman) attending a party that his parents are hosting in his honor for graduating from college. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of Ben’s father’s partner asks Ben to drive her home. When they arrive at the Robinson’s house, Mrs. Robinson invites Ben in for a drink and tries to seduce him until her husband arrives home. Later on Ben succumbs to Mrs. Robinson’s attempts and they meet in hotel rooms at night.

 Ben’s father and Mr. Robinson set up a date between Ben and Mr. and Mrs. Robinson’s daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). Ben takes Elaine out and tries his best to be rude to her which includes taking her to a strip bar. Ben finally realizes that his behavior is too terrible when Elaine begins to cry. He explains his situation (to an extent) to Elaine and they reconcile. When Ben drops Elaine off at her house, Mrs. Robinson threatens to tell Elaine about their relationship but Ben manages to tell her first. Elaine doesn’t want anything to do with Ben anymore.

Ben follows Elaine back to college and kind of stalks her and gets an apartment just so he can be close at hand. Ben has decided that he is going to marry Elaine but her family tries to stop him. Ben finds out that Elaine is getting married to someone else and he rushes to the church where the ceremony is being held and stops the wedding. He and Elaine run off together even though Elaine is already married to the other man.

My Top 10 favorite Movies (Subject to change)

10.The Proposal

9. The Green Lantern

8. Tangled

7.  The Lion King

6. Iron Man

5. The Chipmunk Adventure

4. Charlie St. Cloud

3. The Sandlot

2. Horrible Bosses

1. Bridesmaids

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a 1941 drama directed by and starring Orson Welles that is about the life and death of Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy newspaper company CEO. The film opens with the feel of a horror movie, a somewhat stormy-looking night and a view of a gigantic mansion. The scene cuts to an elderly man on his death bed clutching a snow globe.  There is a close up of his mouth and he utters one word. “Rosebud.”

The film is composed of many flashbacks of Kane’s young adult life. From when he first bought a newspaper to when he was a rich man. He was married twice and divorced twice.  He started out as a good guy, a rich man looking out for the poor men. You don’t find out who Rosebud is until the very end when they are zooming out of one of Kane’s storehouses and you see a sled with the work “Rosebud” painted on it.

 I did not like this movie. It was very serious the whole time. I can see why the critics loved it so much because it has countless hidden meanings and mysteries behind it. I give this movie 4 out of 10 (10 being the highest).

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Gone with the Wind (1939)

             Gone with the Wind is a romance-drama about Scarlett O’Hara (played by Vivian Liegh), a southern bell’s struggle through the Civil War in 1861. With brilliant supporting actors, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, and Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind is a timeless classic. Filmed in 1939 by Victor Fleming, the film received 10 Academy Awards, a record that stood for 20 years, only to be surpassed by Ben Hur in 1960. Gone with the Wind was shot using Technicolor, using only the colors red and green to make all of the glorious colors portrayed on screen; an amazing achievement for 1939.

            The film starts and after the overture, we see an 1861 cotton plantation called Tara. This is an extremely successful cotton plantation where the O’Haras live in luxury. Scarlet is a beautiful young lady that all of the boys are literally head over heels with, but she continues just to string them along for fun. Scarlet is not completely heartless, however, she is in love with a striking man named Ashley who is engaged to one of his cousins Melanie Hamilton. The O’Haras are invited to a barbeque held at Twelve Oaks, a plantation owned by Ashley’s family. Once again scarlet is hailed by love-struck suitors. Scarlet, in an attempt to get away from love’s madness, goes inside and meets up with a friend who gives scarlet details about Melanie. When they make it to the second story of the grand house, scarlet walks to the window and sees Ashley and Melanie kiss, just then Melanie’s brother Charles proposes to Scarlet and she agrees.

            Scarlet and Charles are married the day after Melanie and Ashley. Scarlet and Charles are married quickly because Charles had to leave to join the fight for the South in the Civil War. Scarlet is almost instantly widowed when Charles dies from pneumonia and measles.  Scarlet is thrilled when her mother wants to send her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. O’Hara believes that Scarlet is excited to see “Melly,” but Mammy, the O’Hara’s black housemaid, knows that Scarlet is only leaving for Atlanta to wait for Ashley’s return.

            Eight months later, Melly goes into labor with her first child while the Union Army is holding siege over Atlanta. Since the labor is early, it becomes complicated and Scarlet and her young housemaid, Prissy, eventually deliver a healthy boy. Melly becomes extremely weak and feverish from her delivery. Scarlet calls Rhett, a captain for the Confederacy, to bring her and Melly home. Scarlet is eager to get home to see her mother. Rhett successfully gets Scarlet, Melly, Prissy, and the baby out of the city but tells Scarlet that they would have to go on without him.

Once home, Scarlet learns that her mother died of typhoid fever only days earlier. Scarlet’s father is beginning to lose his mind, when asked questions about what to do next, he responds with, “I’ll ask Mrs. O’Hara” and “Mrs. O’Hara will know what to do.” Scarlet walks out to the garden and rips a carrot out of the ground and eats it, then stands up and declares, “As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again.”

            Later, a carpetbagger (otherwise known as a Yankee), offers to buy Tara to which Scarlet rudely refuses. Mr. O’Hara, in a rage, chases after the carpetbagger on a horse and falls off to his death.

            Scarlet, in a desperate attempt for money, visits Rhett in jail. Rhett turns her down saying that his foreign bank accounts are frozen. On her way back to Tara, Scarlet runs into her sister’s fiancé Frank Kennedy and eventually marries him for his money. When Ashley is about to take a job with a bank in the north, Scarlett lies and tells him she needs help running the mill. Later on, after Scarlett is attacked while driving alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union troops, and Frank is killed.

Only days later, Rhett proposes to Scarlet and she accepts. The two have a daughter and name her Bonnie Blue Butler. Rhett is wrapped around her finger from the beginning. He spoils Bonnie rotten. After having a child, Scarlet’s waist went from 18.5 inches to 20. Afraid of losing her figure, she tells Rhett that they will no longer have any more children and they will sleep separately. After a fight, Rhett tells Scarlet that he wants a divorce, but Scarlet refuses, saying that it would be a disgrace. Rhett then decides that he will take Bonnie with him to London, England, only to bring her home a short time later after Bonnie cries for her mother. When home Rhett accidently pushes Scarlet down the stairs, unaware that she is pregnant again. Scarlet suffers a miscarriage. A few days later Bonnie rides up to her parents on her pony and tells them to watch her jump. Scarlet afraid that Bonnie will get hurt, demands that Rhett stops her, but Bonnie, being spoiled rotten, will not listen and does that jump anyway. Bonnie falls off her horse and breaks her neck and dies.

Melly tries to comfort both Rhett and Scarlet but collapses because of a second pregnancy. Later on her deathbed, Melly tells Scarlet to take care of Ashley and her first born child. Scarlet leaves the room and goes to comfort Ashley. Rhett seeing that Scarlet went to Ashley instead of himself leaves for home. She pleads with him, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along, that she never really loved Ashley. However, he refuses; saying that with Bonnie's death went any chance of reconciliation. Scarlet pleads Rhett to stay saying “Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" He answers, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" and walks away into the fog.

Scarlet says that if she keeps thinking about how to get Rhett back she will go crazy and decides to think about it the next day. Then she realizes that she does have a place to go saying, "Tara! Home. I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!" Scarlett then returns to the plantation.
I give this movie an 9 out of 10 (10 being the highest).

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