Day 16: Imprisonment

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

DAY 16, MOVIE 1:
In the Name of the Father (1993), directed by Jim Sheridan. This is based on the true story of an Irish man who is falsely imprisoned for the bombing of a pub. He spends 15 years in prison with his father, as they try to prove their innocence. The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the falsely imprisoned, and as always he gives a great performance. He plays Gerry Conlon the he should have, by portraying him as the far from perfect man he was prior to his conviction, and as a strong fighter for justice once he is thrown into prison with his father. This separates In the Name of the Father from other courtroom dramas about a falsely accused, most times the portrayals of the accused are watered down, in an attempt to make the audience like them (The Hurricane comes to mind), but director Jim Sheridan and Daniel Day-Lewis do not shy away from the fact that Conlon was not a good man before he was a prisoner. The first half of the film was the most interesting, as it followed Conlon in his daily life as he runs from the police, hangs out with hippies, and steals. Then he is suddenly captured by the British police, and is tortured until he confesses to a bombing he didn’t commit, and is sentenced to thirty years in prison. That whole half was very engaging, because the story spent time with this man who delved into who he was. However, once he and his father were sent to prison, that’s where the entertainment value hit a snag. The movie became more like every other prison/courtroom movie. Conlon’s life in prison felt explained, rather than shown. And the courtroom scene at the end was exactly the same as every other movie about a person being proven innocent (lawyers shouting, the judge’s oh-so-dramatic freeing of the defendant, etc.). This was a good movie, and I will say it did deserve its seven Oscar nominations, but due to the lack of going the extra mile in the second half, I’m not surprised it didn’t win anything.

DAY 16, MOVIE 2:

Network (1976), directed by Sidney Lumet. This is one of Lumet’s three best films, as well as one of the greatest films of all time. Network is about a TV news anchor who goes mad, and the network he works capitalizes on his rants and ravings. Even though the events portrayed in this movie are rather fantastic, this movie is not too far from the truth. If you’ve ever wondered the thought process behind TV networks and the news, then just watch Network. Every day this movie becomes more relevant to our time. There are so many aspects of the media that this movie addresses, including: using shock value to grab viewers, overnight successes, squeezing every bit of profit out of a hit, sacrificing actual news for entertainment, disguising corporate agendas as news or entertainment, and of course the influence of the media on the public. This movie blatantly explores society’s enslavement to television, and does a good job at it. When news anchor Howard Beale becomes a raving lunatic ranting about society, everyone listens to what he says. Why? Because he’s on television. One of the most powerful lines in this movie is Beale’s rant about television itself, and how there is an entire generation that gets their “truth” entirely from TV. But as he says, “Television isn’t the truth, it’s an amusement park.” What I’m amazed by with this film is how its still relevant today. The way Beale shouts his political and social viewpoints can be compared to the radio’s Rush Limbaugh. The way people blindly accept Beale’s viewpoints can is very similar to Oprah’s following. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; I am positive there are hundreds of other parallels between this movie, and people in the media today. So now I think I’m going to end my blogpost of the day with a question to those of you have seen Network: What are some parallels you see between this movie and our society today?