Dennis D. McDonald (ddmcd@ddmcd.com)consults from Alexandria Virginia. His services include writing & research, proposal development, and project management.
It is 1937 in Foshan China, a city dominated by rival martial arts academies that constantly test who is the best. Over all lords the wealthy but humble merchant Ip Man whose fighting technique is acknowledged by all as superior.
I have no idea how factually accurate this movie about Emperor Hirohito’s emergence following Japan’s defeat in WWII is. As a movie, though, it is engrossing, thoughtful, and occasionally, visually dazzling.
This animated tale about a young girl growing up in Iran during and after the Revolution as personal freedoms are inexorably removed is simultaneously touching and difficult to watch.
This is some movie. It’s scary, emotionally draining, funny, exciting, tense, thoughtful, violent, whimsical, cruel, and in a few places, just plain weird.
I’m a sucker for 18th Century costume dramas, especially if part of the time is spent in sailing ships. This one, despite being landlocked, is heads above most.
This dizzying and perplexing movie bathes the viewer in a warm and beautiful gauze of, love, death, loss, and redemption. Forget the narrative and go with the flow.
Very few movies accurately depict either research-based advances in life-saving surgery OR the deadeningly real impacts of racism on life, mind, and spirit. To see these two themes intertwined with such ferocious dramatic impact in a film is nothing short of amazing. Yet here it is.
This epic film by Santosh Sivan (The Terrorist) follows the historic emperor Asoka as he brutally unites ancient India through warfare, then recants and proselytizes Buddhist philosophy after seeing the errors of his power hungry ways. His road is littered with broken hearts, family infighting, murder, massive battles, and tragedy.
Watching this movie about the last days of Hitler in his bunker as the Red Army slowly made its way through bombed-out Berlin, I recognized something -- the actor playing Hitler is Bruno Ganz, who also played the lead guardian angel in Wings of Desire.
That the issues raised by this faux history of events kicked off by the massacre of Israelis at the 1972 Olympics are still so relevant is a testament to Spielberg’s intelligence and sense of morality.
It also helps that he’s a terrific film-maker who is willing to attack complex topics in an intelligent, personal, and thoughtful way.
This documentary about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago is the perfect companion to the book The Devil in the White City. While the latter's serial murderer is never mentioned in the documentary, the visual splendor of the Fair is portrayed in a detailed and awesome manner on the screen.