DVD Collectors Online

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, a review by Antares

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (2000) 78/100 - Our nation was forged upon a dream that all men are created equal, but for the breadth of our existence, our history has been consumed by the nightmarish flames of inequality, intolerance and racial bigotry. In 1931, on a train bound for Mississippi, a few white, wild boys of the road, tried to exercise what they thought was their God given right to bully a group of young colored boys. What ensued was a fight, upon which the colored boys vanquished their oppressors, and tossed them from the train. Incensed at their treatment, the white boys sought out the local sheriff and told of being attacked by the colored boys. A message was sent ahead to Paint Rock, Alabama and that local sheriff formed a posse to meet the train. When the train was stopped, two young white girls got off one of the rail cars and proceeded to tell the sheriff that they had both been raped by a group of colored boys. And like a runaway train with no breakman, one of this country's greatest miscarriages of justice was set in motion. Nine men, all colored and ranging in age from 13 - 33 years old were arrested and charged with rape. They barely survived being lynched that day and the National Guard was called out to protect them from mob violence. Their trial was mired in Jim Crow justice, a perjured victim and a recanting of the original charge by the other victim. Yet, throughout multiple trials, which repeatedly found its way up the judicial food chain, all the way up to the Supreme Court, these defendants were repeatedly found guilty of the charges.

The documentary itself, relates the events and incidences that occurred during the years this fiasco took place. It never really delves too deep into the motivations of the main victim's reasoning for creating the lie. It only scratches the surface of the incident and is best served as an introduction to the story for those who have never heard of it.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on December 2nd, 2014)

Black, a review by Tom

Title: Black
Year: 2005
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Rating: 12
Length: 119 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: Hindi: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Spanish

Stars:
Amitabh Bachchan
Rani Mukherjee
Shernaz Patel
Ayesha Kapur
Dhritiman Chaterji

Plot:
I know now that there is God...
He is not in the holy spirit we pray to... He isn't written about in
religious texts...
He is someone who is a part of our lives... Whom we live for...
Because of whom we live...
Michelle Mcnally is "special" in more ways than one. She cannot see ... nor hear nor speak...She inhabits a world of infinite black ... of a seamless, endless void where nothing reaches her and she reaches nothing. Her world is frightening in its complete remoteness. On the sheer will of her ferocious rage against destiny, Michelle struggles to stay afloat in the impenetrable whirlpool her life has become.
Into this devastating isolation enters a battle weary teacher, Debraj Sahai, life's wounded but arrogantly insolent warrior. With a single minded obsession, Debraj takes up a challenge that is next to impossible - to lead this wild, uncontrollable child into the light of knowledge.
Thus begins a journey of two headstrong individuals. They will overcome failures, obstacle, even ridicule as they tread the path less taken. What they seek is that moment of miracle when the ray of knowledge will penetrate through the dense black of Michelle's life...Black is the cathartic tale of a deaf, mute and blind girl who saw what people with sight fail to see, a vision of her God. Michelle Mcnally saw what other lesser mortals could not.
She saw her God, heard Him and walked with Him into the light...

Awards:

Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Actor Award	Amitabh Bachchan
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Actress Award	Rani Mukerji
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Background Score Award	Monty Sharma
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Cinematographer Award	Ravi K. Chandran
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Director Award	Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Editing Award	Bela Sehgal
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Movie Award
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Sound Award	Bishwadeep Chatterjee
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Best Supporting Actress Award	Ayesha Kapoor
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Critics Award for Best Movie
Filmfare Awards	2006	Won	Critics Award for Best Performance	Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji
IIFA Awards	2006	Won	Best Actor	Amitabh Bachchan
IIFA Awards	2006	Won	Best Actress	Rani Mukerji
IIFA Awards	2006	Won	Best Director	Sanjay Leela Bhansali
IIFA Awards	2006	Won	Best Movie
IIFA Awards	2006	Won	Best Supporting Actress	Ayesha Kapoor

Extras:
Featurettes
Interviews
Scene Access
Trailers

I stumbled across this movie when I went through the filmography of one of my favorite Bollywood actresses, Rani Mukherji. I became curious when I read, that this movie is about a blind, deaf and mute woman (Michelle), I wondered how this would work. If someone can pull this off, then it's Rani Mukherji. And I was not disappointed.
This movie is heavily influenced by Helen Keller and the movie "The Miracle Worker", which I have never seen. Also this one is a very atypical Bollywood movie. There is no singing, no love story and this movie is "only" two hours long. It has won multiple awards and is the record-holder for the most Filmfare awards (Indian oscars) won. And I can understand why, especially the actor awards. Both Rani Mukherji, who plays the adult version of Michelle, and the girl who played the character as a child, were faboulous. It is probably the best performance Rani has given to date. Amitabh Bachchan was great as always playing Michelle's teacher.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on August 7th, 2009)

The IT Crowd: Version 3.0 - (mini) marathon, a review by Tom

02. Are We Not Men? (2008-11-28)
Writer: Graham Linehan (Writer)
Director: Graham Linehan
Cast: Chris O'Dowd (Roy), Richard Ayoade (Moss), Katherine Parkinson (Jen), Matt Berry (Douglas), Paul Bazely (Michael), Cavan Clerkin (Dan), Jon Foster (Barry), Derek Ezenagu (Luke), John Willie Hopkins (Postman Harry)

Another great episode! Really funny what Moss did to hide from the police.

Rating:

(From The IT Crowd: Version 3.0 - (mini) marathon on July 31st, 2009)