Ashdoc's movie reviews

The thin red line ( 1998 )



Film that looks at war philosophically and gives us doses of philosophy through the thoughts of characters along the way . Comrades fight , some of them die , but the war goes on . Soldiers are fighting because they have to , not for some grand cause . One man dreams of being with his wife all through the fighting , only to receive a letter from her that she is divorcing him to marry another man . Their commanding colonel ( Nick Nolte ) is ruthlessly self centred and is ready to send them to their deaths just because he wants the glory of having captured an objective and promotion for himself . The second in command disagrees and is sent back from the fighting . Many soldiers show humanity to other soldiers while others don't . To each his own . Many soldiers are plainly afraid during the fighting and their expressions are ones of fear .

The movie deglamourizes war , more specifically the second world war . The battle shown is for the pacific island of gudalcanal and the americans are trying to wrest it from the japanese . The japanese have a strong bunker on top of a hill there and the american soldiers have to reach near it , give co ordinates for mortar fire and attack it after the mortar shells explode . They succeed at some human cost , but the fighting never ends . More fighting , more lives lost .

The photography of the jungle ( gudalcanal is tropical region ) is ethereal and the flora and fauna of the jungle have been photographed too well . Music in the background is good too . Acting is appropriate for the situations . Shows war shorn of it's glory , and without celebrating it . Tries to show what every individual thought of war when he fought it . The individual soldier's fears and expectations , some justified and some belied .

Verdict---I would give it four stars out of five .

Well said Ash, it's been a long while since I seen this one, but I remembered it as being something special.

Suntan ( 2016 )---Greek film



Middle aged doc arrives on a greek island to practise medicine as general practitioner . First few months he works hard when it is winter . As a doctor he is respected by everybody .

But as summer arrives the island is converted into a hedonistic paradise where groups of totally naked women and men frolic and make love on the beaches , smoking and drinking and partying with abandon . A goodlooking blonde girl half his age arrives with her friends to his clinic , and he soon joins with them to have fun in discos and beaches . Very soon doc and the girl ( named Anna ) are making out .

But the whole affair brings out the doc's deep seated emotional problems . He has been alone for years without a partner or anybody and is yearning for companionship . But the director does the unbelievable--he actually makes the doc get obsessed with Anna and dreaming of a permanent relationship with her , something that only a man totally out of his senses would do . For Anna is a free bird who sleeps with multiple partners even shamelessly in front of the doctor , and one wonders how any sane person can dream of permanent bliss with such a person who often changes partners several times every night .

Worse , the doctor does not back off even after Anna has rejected him several times and goes to make a total mess of himself . He becomes a drunkard , does not attend to his patients , and finally gets kicked out from his job . But the director makes him go even further into the abyss . The mad doctor kidnaps Anna and plans to rape her , but stops himself ( finally !! ) and begins to attend to her wound instead . The director shows the doctor stoop to ever low levels of degeneracy , but at least he does not show him do rape ( whew !! ) .

You get to see some good chicks naked and their lovely breasts and private parts in the movie , but I also had to tolerate seeing naked men with their privates strutting about in complete abandon . As an easterner I wondered about the complete absence of morals of these young people who wander around naked and sleep with anybody . Do they settle down with somebody as they turn older ? I don't know but I certainly hope so !!

Verdict---two and a half stars .

Waterloo ( 1970 )



Waterloo movie's main achievement is the fact that it manages to win a bit of sympathy for the loser of the battle of Waterloo , Napolean Bonaparte . Inspite of him being a megalomaniac who invaded large parts of Europe , you do feel for the great man as he nears the end of his illustrious career as warrior .

The movie was made with Russian soldiers as extras , which reduced the budget as they demanded less pay than westerners and allowed for the creation of large armies of actual men rather than create them by special effects . That indeed is the special point of the film ; it really shows large armies of real men manoeuvring and skirmishing and clashing in battle .

The movie begins with Napolean surrendering before his enemies and being forced to abdicate to the island of Elba , but a wave of popular emotion in France brings him back to power . The scenes of crowds of French men and women cheering him are authentically portrayed . Marshals who have promised to keep Napolean in an iron cage are forced to accept him back and he forgives them generously because he needs them to command his armies . But his enemies led by the British are not ready to accept him as ruler of France and war is certain .

The British forces are led by Arthur Wellesley , a slim and cool person who is not ruffled by changes in fortune when battle is going on or when persons close to him are killed ; His own daughter's fiance is destined to be killed in the coming encounter . As news comes that Napolean is on the march , Wellesley coolly asks the ball dance that is happening to go on . He shockingly talks about his own soldiers as scum , but accepts before his wife that the scum are wiling to lay their lives for him .

The tension in the two camps on the night before battle is well built up , and Napolean has ill health because of the tension . The battle is all or nothing for him , and France is alone against the armies of Britain and Prussia . The Prussians are led by Blucher but are away and it is not certain whether they will arrive to impact the battle in time .

As the two armies confront each other , it is a grand spectacle for a connoisseur of war movies . The British are in red uniforms , the French are in blue and the Prussians are in black .Perfectly disciplined formations of men go into battle with drums beating and guns roaring and firing yellow flames and acrid smoke . The charges of heavy cavalry are well pictured , with masses of horsemen charging the battleground in ever increasing speed filling you with awe and the enemy with fear .

At first the battle goes in favour of the French as they manage to storm a well defended fortified position of the British , but when Napolean is taking rest his marshal orders a charge of cavalry without infantry support . The British infantry which is well dug in defends doggedly by making several square formations . However Napolean still manages to retrieve the French position and soon Wellesley is in dispair as he is staring at defeat . But the French marshal ( Degrouchy ) who was supposed to stop the Prussians sticks too rigidly to orders and does not follow their forces . This allows Blucher and his Prussians to arrive to attack the main French troops just when needed by their allies the British . The battle decisively swings in the favour of Napolean's enemies because of this and all is lost for him.....his troops however refuse the British offer to surrender and prefer to to be mown down by artillery guns to redeem their honour ; the final scene is full of pathos as the victor ( Arthur Wellesley---the future Duke of Wellington ) surveys the battlefield .

The movie scores in acting , and photography and colours are good . Background music is decent too . I would rate it three stars out of five .

American Made



This review contains spoilers

It is the swinging seventies and the cold war is in full swing . CIA agent Monty Schafer ( played by Domhnall Gleeson ) surprises TWA pilot Barry Seal ( played by Tom Cruise ) by showing him photos of his smuggling of Cuban cigars , and asks him to join the CIA to fly reconnaissance missions over south America where communist revolution is brewing . Seal is a happy go lucky character who salivates at the thought of his own plane to fly and agrees without a thought . At home however his wife Lucy ( played by Sarah Wright ) has other ideas about the new 'job' which entails going without the perks of a regular salary , but Barry is too hooked to the adventurous life .

Soon the CIA asks Barry to act as courier between themselves and general Noriega of Panama , but here Barry's crooked side manifests itself . He agrees to fly drugs for the Medellin cartel into the USA . His expert flying skills come handy here as he has to fly from a small rough airstrip with a heavy load and has to fly between treetops . But he has a flair for drug smuggling . He even designates the spot where he will drop the loads in USA , overruling the ideas of the drug lords . The drug lords begin to call him 'the crazy gringo who always delivers' and begins to trust him .

But soon he is caught in drug lord Pablo Escobar's lair in a raid by anti narcotics police and the CIA has to rescue him as he is too useful to them . But now he is a slave of the CIA ; after all they can hand him over to the police . But the CIA has grander uses for him . They shift him and his family to a remote town called Mena in Arkansas , and his wife's severe objections to this shift are silenced by Barry by simply throwing what a woman is impressed by most---money what else .

In Mena Barry gets his own airfield to run guns supplied by the CIA for the contras in Nicaragua and soon his operations are expanded to more planes and more pilots . Money begins to flow in such vast amounts that the local bank opens a vault exclusively for Barry and the local sheriff turns a blind eye to the happenings . Wads of cash literally overflow in his house because in return trips after delivering guns Barry brings drugs into USA . Lucy is too happy as long as the money flows in and even brings her brother there . But the brother is caught by the sheriff laundering cash and in return for this perfidy he is killed by the drug mafia . Barry and his family are in a dangerous business indeed .

But the CIA is ever ready to help Barry whenever he is in trouble because he is so useful to them . We soon get to see Barry acquire an aura of invincibility in the film because even if the top lawmakers try to bring him to book , he is saved by the unseen hands of the CIA . He is worth it too . Only he knows how to avoid the patrols of drug police in the air , dodging them by flying low and slow whereas their planes are too fast and run out of fuel too soon . In fact , Barry and his cronies fly so slow that once one of them falls asleep and Barry has to jolt his plane's wing with his own plane's wing to wake him up .

The CIA then asks Barry to fly the contras to USA in order to train them . Mena town soon hosts a mini army of them , but many don't want to fight and disappear in the USA becoming illegal migrants . There are some hilarious incidents like the drug lords ordering their men to shoot down Barry in English and Barry and his co pilot cowering without realising that the man given orders does not understand English and a prank is being pulled off . The whole movie has this breezy air and seems to not take itself seriously . Tom Cruise too has done acting in a self mocking manner that has the audience sniggering at his air of breezy self confidence and his ability to get off serious trouble without a hitch .

But actually this is a very dangerous game . One mistake and you are gone . And this mistake is made by colonel Oliver North when he releases on live television pictures secretly taken by Barry which shows him in company with Pablo Escobar . The CIA once more saves Barry from the law , but from now on Barry is a man marked by the mafia for certain death....Lucy proves her loyalty to him by wanting to stay with him even in this hour of danger , but he forces her to stay separate for sake of the kids . His own days are numbered . He makes a video regretting not having asked more questions when the CIA recruited him , but now it is too late to save his own life....

The movie scores on acting , while colours and photography of the dense green jungles of central and south America is good . Also good is photography of Barry's famed flying skills .Background music is appropriate for the situations .

The whole scandal was occurred in President Ronald Reagan's presidency , and his support for the whole CIA operation is the secret of Barry's invincibility in front of the lawmakers who want to catch him . But the CIA's duplicitous nature is seen when they drop Barry like a hot potato and abandon him when their use for him is over . They even deny the existence of Schafer who was the agent who initially contacted Barry and destroy all papers related to the operation . Of course , Barry is crooked too and worth dropping as he is mixed with the drug mafia . The CIA turns a blind eye to this as long as it suits them but in the long run pawns like Barry have to be sacrificed for the sake of the security of the nation and the sanctity of the democratic order . Of course !!

Verdict---Good .

I had a lot of fun with Kong: Skull Island, even if the film had a lot of flaws in-terms of logic, glad you enjoyed it. I can't bring myself to watch the "Life" film. I can't escape the "been there, done that" feel I have from the trailers, even though I really enjoy the cast involved.

Victoria And Abdul



Review has spoilers

This film deals with the unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria and an Indian servant called Abdul Karim , which the British establishment had tried to be kept hidden because it was embarrassed by it . It was uncovered by Shrabani Basu , who wrote a book on it ; the movie is based on the book .

It is the late nineteenth century and Britain is at the peak of it's power , with the ceremonial monarch being Queen Victoria ( played by Judi Dench ) . She is getting really old and has plenty of children and grandchildren . But she misses her long dead husband and is in need of company .

At this juncture arrives an Indian servant called Abdul Karim ( played by Bollywood actor Ali Fazal ) for presentation of a ceremonial coin to the queen . He catches her eyes by looking directly into them ( something that is forbidden ) . She is intrigued by his strapping good looks and striking tall personality , and asks for him to be bidden to her office to meet her . He immediately strikes up a conversation with her , impressing her with his knowledge of poetry and carpets . He talks about the city of Agra that he comes from , and of the iconic Taj mahal that stands in the city and of the Mughal emperor who built it and other kings of India and Persia . And the lonely queen wants more of his company .

Soon he is everywhere with her , in parties as well as lonely outings to remote lakeside places . The queen even arranges for him to act in a play with him playing Persian king of kings and British women cowering before him . Everywhere he is wearing his Indian turbaned headgear and his Indian clothes . In that era he appears totally out of place in the British establishment . And predictably the British establishment is appalled .

The Prime minister is shocked that the queen has built a durbar hall ( place of audience ) in the Indian style at Abdul's advice , and her son future king Edward is more shocked that she has made this servant her munshi---some sort of secretary . She even plans to made Abdul a knight , and the whole staff practically revolts at this idea and forces her to drop this plan .

Clearly the servant from a conquered people ( the Indians ) has grown too big for his boots and his wings have to be clipped . The chance for doing so arrives when the queen asks the royal doctor to examine him and his wife for not having children . And he is diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease---gonorrhoea . But the Queen asks the doctor in front of her staff to cure his disease , rather than kick him out of his job as they demand . This even though Abdul has been proven to be untruthful about his past ; he has claimed to be from a family of noble origin though actually his family are just clerks who keep records in Indian jails .

Prince Edward approaches Abdul's sidekick ( played by Adeel Akhtar ) to further malign his past in front of the queen . But the sidekick who has been complaining about being forced to remain in Britain flings choice words and expletives about the British empire instead , thus showing his loyalty to his comrade but also inviting his own death ; the British poison him . The queen grows worried about Abdul , who she has begun to regard as her son . She asks him to go back to India for his own safety . But Abdul stays on .

It is only after her death that the British manage to send him back , but only after they have set fire to all evidence of him and destroyed it....or so they think . But in the modern era Shrabani Basu uncovered it all and hence we have this film based on her book .

The movie's setting is in palaces and amidst royal pomp and grandeur . But the lavishness has not been exaggerated . Photography is decent , of dinners set in the backdrop of blinding rain and chats beside expansive lakes . Music is decent too , of trumpets blowing when the Queen makes her appearance in public and of piano and of a Scottish dance . The movie tries to make the ending sentimental but I was not impressed . Judi Dench has put up a reasonably good performance as the Queen . Rest are appropriate in their roles .

Real life photo of Queen Victoria and her trusted munshi Abdul

Exodus ( 1960 )



The real problem for the moviemakers was an impossible one---to match the novel on which the movie was supposed to be based . And EXODUS is one of the most influential novels of the 20th century , a masterpiece if there ever was one ( GODFATHER and CARPETBAGGERS are others ) . But the novel is so vast in scope and scale that it was not possible to pack all it's events in one movie , even though the movie was already long at 3 hours 15 minutes . A miniseries would have been more apt to film the novel , but it would not have had the grandeur of a film would it ?? Certainly not in the era of small TV sets which did not have HD ; the movie was made way back in 1960 when TV technology was in it's infancy . So a cinemascope movie that left out some of the events in the novel was made .

The movie starts with an American nurse ( played by Eva Marie Saint ) who is a volunteer at the internment camp of holocaust survivors in Cyprus wanting to adopt a young danish Jew girl and take her back to the US . But fate has other plans as a rebel Jew ( played by Paul Newman ) who had fought in the British Jew brigade smuggles many Jews including the danish girl onto a ship which is renamed the 'Exodus' , and the ship is destined to sail to Palestine . The Danish girl ( played by Jill Haworth ) is in love with a holocaust survivor ( played by Sal Mineo ) and wants to go to Palestine and not America . The American nurse also boards the ship , and the rebel Jew threatens to blast the ship by dynamite if the British authorities do not remove their blockade of the ship . So they relent and allow it to sail to the cheers of the Jews not only in the ship but also in the internment camp . Their joy is to be seen to be believed ; the call of the holy land promised for 2000 years and now at last in reach after innumerable sufferings is something that others like me will not even begin to understand....

All the Jews have stories of persecution and horror to tell ; the stories are beyond the imagination of those who have led secure lives . For example , the holocaust survivor loved by the danish girl had chosen to co operate with the nazis to bury murdered members of his own community by dynamite in order to save himself , and the nazis have done unspeakable things to him . The British officers guarding the internment camp also look at the Jews with condescension and think of them as troublemakers .

The movie has two love stories---one of the american nurse who first loves the character played by Newman , but feels different from his family and rejects him until a life and death situation makes her realise her love for him . The other is of the danish girl who has fallen in love with the holocaust survivor . The two lovers are opposites ; he has seen the worst form of persecution under the nazis , while she has seen compassion as all danish citizens marched out wearing the star of David ( jewish symbol ) when the nazis asked the Jews to identify themselves thereby hiding the Jews . Naturally she has a wide eyed innocence about her . But it is she out of all people who is selected by fate for death at the hands of the Arabs ; she who constantly worried about the holocaust survivor...such is the hand of destiny in the midst of war .

And war it is , as the Jews and Arabs have to fight it out for claiming Palestine . The film has bomb blasts and assassinations and full scale fighting . The Jews' moment of triumph is shown in the movie---when the United nations passes the resolution for partitioning Palestine to form a Jewish state . And more fighting has to be done . Some Jews like the character played by Paul Newman are friendly enough with some Arabs that an Arab friend lays down his life to save him ; he is buried along with the danish girl . Naturally , the character played by Newman dreams of a nation where Jews and Arabs with live like equals . But as history tells us with the benefit of hindsight , dreams are not always fulfilled !!

Inspite of it's shortcomings , the movie has the ingredients of an epic . And I went on to like it as I saw it more . Acting is not natural but theatrical , but the director has woven the events into a well told story . Music is of course the strong point of the film , and is tinged with emotion with the Israeli national anthem being it's theme . Photography is okay .

Verdict---Good .

Three stars out of five .

Duel ( 1971 )



Review has spoilers

This movie was the first ever directed by Steven Spielberg in 1971 . It won him recognition as a director .

The film shows a man driving from his town to another town in his car after a minor tiff with his wife . On the way he overtakes a trailer carrying inflammable liquid . The driver of the trailer is some psycho who takes this overtaking personally and begins to follow the car and try to ram the car .

The frightened car driver stops at a cafe , but the trailer stops outside the cafe . The car driver does not know whom among the people assembled in the cafe is the trailer driver and gets into a fight with the wrong person who he thinks is the trailer driver . But the man soundly beats him up .

Soon the trailer leaves ( it's driver was not in the cafe at all ) and car driver breathes a sigh of relief and resumes his drive , only to find that the trailer is waiting for him ahead . The choice before the car driver is to turn back and head back home , which any normal person would have done . But he decides to challenge the trailer....otherwise how would the movie become interesting

As the car tries to overtake the trailer , the trailer driver inexplicably signals to let him overtake . But as he tries to overtake , the car driver sees another car coming from the opposite side at high speed ; the trailer driver has led him to a death trap , but the car driver's expert driving saves him and he overtakes . But soon he discovers that the trailer has a very powerful engine and he can't match the trailer's speed and the trailer is catching up .

The car driver has to stop at a train crossing with the train roaring in front of him , but to his horror the trailer arrives and tries to push his car onto the train to kill him . After the train crosses the car driver tries to stop at a phone booth to call the police , but the trailer arrives to smash the phone booth from which the car driver jumps out just saving his own life in time . The trailer then swerves back to try to kill him again , but again he just escapes .

The car driver then swerves his car off the road to a dirt track to avoid the trailer but the trailer follows . The dirt track however ends in a dead end . So is it certain death for the car driver ? No....Watch him trick the trailer driver into smashing into his trailer into the valley below .

In all this madness the face of the trailer driver is not shown even once ; he remains an unknown quantity , adding to the suspense . And his reason for trying to kill the car driver is unfathomable except for the conclusion that he is a psycho .

Spielberg keeps the tension alive and the drama on high gear throughout the duel between the two unequal vehicles ; one car against a huge trailer , and the trailer carrying some inflammable liquid which might explode in a ramming . Background music is appropriate for the situations and photography is decent too . Colours of the movie are not that impressive though . There is not enough time to build the characters of the two protagonists at all in the one and a half hour short movie . The thrill is in the situation created .

Verdict---Good .

Three stars out of five .

Godfather part one



Review has spoilers

Godfather---I have read the novel several times many years ago , and the characters have been etched in my mind since then . The Godfather himself , his hot headed son Santino/Sonny and his mistress , his younger son Michael and his first wife Apollonia and his second and far more important wife Kay , the family advisor Tom Hagen who fails to advise properly , the heads of the family battalions Clemenza and Tessio , Rival dons Barzini and Tattaglia , and above all singer Johnny Fontane ( who was surely based on Frank Sinatra ) ; I have digested and consumed these characters in my mind during the period I read the novel again and again in my bid to analyse them , and then I forgot or rather tried to forget them when I moved on to other things in life . Compared to the times I read the novel I have seen the movie fewer times...only about three times I guess . Today was the third time . The last time I saw it , it was years ago and I wasn't reviewing films . Next time I see the movie might be years down the line , and I don't know if I would be reviewing films at that time at all....it's a now or never time to review the movie....no my review is not important , it's the movie that is important....

Out of the movies based on the three novels ( Exodus , Carpetbaggers and Godfather ) that have impacted my mind enough to read them again and again , Godfather does the best justice to the novel it was based on . Exodus movie makers had to leave many events in the novel out of the movie , but director Francis Ford Coppola has managed to pack many of the events in the Godfather novel into his movie . And he has packed them in such a way that the movie is as great as the novel itself . And inspite of the limited time that a movie gives , he has managed to build every character well . Of course , he has been backed by top class acting by his lead actors . Also backed by fabulous music as background score.

The colours of the movie have a brownish hue about them , and the theme is dark---the life and happenings of a mafia family over a period of time when they lose their might and how the eventual heir manages to recoup that might . But the recoupment comes at a terrible price at the end ; the heir loses the trust of his wife in the climax scene . This is important however only to people like me who consider women's opinion important ; in the world of gangsters the opinion of women is not so important really . It's a man's world of guns and knives .

Yeah , they are gangsters really . But seeing the movie ( and also while reading the novel ) one might feel that it is the history of the ups and downs of some empire that is being recorded . The mafia head honcho is not just head he is a combination of God and father . People come to pay homage to him and kiss his hand as if he is some emperor . The people who are under his protection are never denied any demand they make . Singer Johnny Fontane asks for role in a movie and the movie's producer ( who refuses to entertain the Godfather's proposal ) gets to see his favourite horse's beheaded head on his bed the next day....no one can refuse the Godfather .

But even an emperor has powerful enemies , and so does the Godfather . At first the enemies try to co opt him into their narcotics business , but he is a man of principles that are not seen outside the movies ; he refuses to enter such a dirty business . Result---his attempted murder . For the money in narcotics is too much and his son Santino/Sonny has shown an itch for it . But once his father is attacked the son has to fight back . And Sonny does fight back in typical hot headed fashion well acted by James Caan .

But the enemies strike back again to try to kill the Godfather ( Marlon Brando) and his younger son Michael ( Al Pacino ) has to save him at cost of being given a damaging blow on his face by a crooked police captain who is an ally of the drug dealers . The Godfather never wanted him to be part of the crime business , but circumstances have sucked him in it never to leave him ever . His girlfriend Kay ( Diane Keaton ) will have to adjust eventually , even though she is not Sicilian like the entire mafia fraternity .

Riven by the need for revenge , Michael decides to kill the main drug dealer Sollozzo and the police captain in a meeting for negotiations . The movie perfectly shows the tension on the face of a person out to do a gangland killing for the first time . Once he kills , he has to flee to his father's homeland Sicily . And in his absence , the mafia gang war hots up like nothing else . Sonny becomes the de facto head of the family ; actually family being just glorified term for gang . But writer of both the movie and novel builds up the characters of these mafia gangsters as if they are great statesmen .

Yeah all great statesmen , except Sonny . In true unstatesmanlike fashion , his great weakness is his temper . And when his sister gets beaten by her husband , he shakes all security considerations aside to go and give a savage beating to his brother in law . His enemies ( the five families in alliance with the dead Sollozzo ) quickly latch on to this weakness . The brother in law ( whose ego has obviously been massively bruised by the beating he got ) is induced to beat his wife again to induce a security ignoring trip by Sonny to beat his brother in law . And as he barges out of his well protected den without his bodyguards , he is gunned down . In Sicily too , Michael who has fallen madly in love with a Sicilian girl and has married her has to see his wife killed in a bomb meant actually to kill him . How the mighty family of the Corleones have fallen.....

It's time for the Godfather to negotiate a peace with the enemies . But first a word about his acting on hearing and seeing his son Sonny dead . I feel Marlon Brando is at his finest at expressing grief at his son's death . Every muscle of his face seems to quiver with sorrow , especially when he takes the body to be laid to rest to the undertaker who had come to ask his help to take revenge on his daughter's molesters in the beginning of the movie . The daughter's molesters were soundly beaten by the Godfather's men , but such mafia help comes at a price ; you have to repay your dues to the mafia any time they ask....

At the peace negotiations , Godfather Don Corleone has to compromise with his enemies to bring back his son Michael from Sicily . And he has to promise not to take revenge for Sonny . Michael comes back and marries Kay , but the enemies are taking advantage of the Corleones' weakness to take over their territory . The Don tells Michael how to deal with them after his death , because as long as he is alive he cannot break his promise to not renew the war . In real life such gangland promises are not worth the paper they are written on , but the makers of the movie build a larger than life image of the Don as a great man ; he seemingly never breaks his promises . It is important not to get carried away and remember that only in the movies do such people exist .

Once the Don is no more , the enemies ( Barzini and Tattaglia ) make the first move to eliminate his successor Michael by co opting one of his lieutenants . But the Don had already warned Michael of this move before he died ; not for nothing was he called the Godfather . Michael then unleashes his true potential . He shows how cold and calculating he is by becoming godfather of his sister's son . Thus he puts his brother in law the father of the godchild in the dark about his true intentions to kill him in revenge for his part in Sonny's murder . Then he kills him after forcing a confession of his part in Sonny's murder from him . And he also carries to fruition an already well crafted plan to destroy his enemies like Barzini and Tattaglia and their cohorts within his own gang by gunfire . Just how loudly do the guns boom in the movie ? Watch it for that....

Verdict---Great .

Four and a half stars out of five .

Murder On The Orient Express



This was the first time I saw any version of this famous murder mystery on celluloid . Though of course , the solution to the mystery was known to me without having read the novel because the novel is so famous.

Detective Hercule Poirot is called to London from Istanbul for solving a case and he has to board the Orient express to get there quickly . Little does he know that the orient express itself would be the scene of a murder....
Of course , the forebodings of such a happening are already there . For a sinister criminal ( played by Johnny Depp ) asks Poirot to protect him from people who are after him , but realising his criminal propensities Hercule refuses .

Meanwhile the train has begun on it's journey , and it is as lavish as could be during that day and age . Luxurious cabins and a restaurant with the finest collection of liquor and sumptuous food are it's hallmark . The landscape it moves through is mountains full of snow , and the photography of that is at it's best . The train is not large and has an engine and four five bogies .

We are soon introduced to the assembled cast and their differing personalities . They include a princess ( played by Judi Dench ) , a black doctor ( played by Leslie Odom ) , a highly religious person ( Penelope Cruz ) , a character played by Michelle Pfeiffer among others . Hercule Poirot himself is played by Kenneth Branagh .

Here Hercule Poirot himself is shown to have a past love , a woman whose framed photo he carries and remembers ; he is not a detective with a mechanical brain but a person with emotion .

As the train ploughs into the balkans in the country of Yugoslavia , we are witness to thunder and lightening in the sky . And that starts a avalanche of snow that comes collapsing from the mountains and derails the train's engine . The train stops above a bridge in the spectacular snowbound countryside until rescue teams will arrive to put it back on track . Of course , the sumptuous food is still warm and ready to be served .

But we are served murder instead . And the murder is of none other than that of the character played by Johnny Depp . A man who knew himself to be marked because of the evil deeds he had done and carried a gun with him all times ; not that the gun could save him....

As Poirot investigates , he finds that the murdered man was having an assumed name and the real person was connected to some real bad deeds in the past . And he soon finds out that every person on the train had been somehow affected by the crimes that the murdered man had done . So who among them was the killer ? The answer to the mystery has made the novel a classic .

The background music is good and acting is appropriate for the situations . In the end is the dilemma for Poirot---whether the murderer should be punished or the murdered person deserved what he got ? I haven't seen the earlier versions of the movie and therefore cannot compare with them but was satisfied by what I saw on screen .

Verdict---Good .

Godfather part three



Saw this movie on netflix . On seeing this movie my reaction was---why didn't the whole Corleone saga end with the end of the first Godfather movie ? At least that showed an uplifting ending with Michael becoming the next Godfather . The next two movies have a depressing hang about them with Michael's wife Kay leaving him in part two and he being forced to kill his own brother Fredo in the same part , leaving Michael increasingly lonely .

The third part completes the tragedy , with Michael dying alone on a wheelchair grieving for the lovely daughter who was the apple of his eye but was killed in another mafia war . Yeah I know these are mafiosi and therefore criminals and actually deserve to die dog's deaths , but after seeing three back to back movies I was getting kinda sentimentally attached to the family of the great Don

So the movie begins with Michael trying to legitimise his empire , something that he had promised to his wife in the first part . But his health is increasingly failing while his son refuses to join the family business , a smart decision because anyone joining the family business has a big chance of getting killed .

In order to legitimise , Michael offers to buy out the Vatican's stake in a real estate company called Immobiliare . The deal would make him a powerful man . In a meeting the other Dons ask Michael for their share in the deal , but he does not want them to get involved as he is in a bid to legitimise himself . So he gives them money from another legitimate deal .But he does not give anything to Joey Zasa , a Don who has already been at loggerheads with Michael's nephew Vincent ; Vincent is illegitimate son of Michael's older brother Sonny . Zasa walks out of the meeting in a huff and attacks the meeting in an armed helicopter , killing most of the assembled Dons .

But Michael escapes only to suffer a diabetic stroke . Vincent takes revenge by killing Zasa . On recovering Michael shows that he may be weak in body but not in mind ; he tells Vincent that it is not Zasa who was the real enemy because Zasa lacked the firepower for such an audacious attack . Michael goes to his ancestors' homeland Sicily to find out who was backing Zasa . He soon discovers an elaborate plan to swindle him on the Immobiliare deal by a group of Dons whose leader is Don Lucchesi and second in command Don Altobello .

His plans to legitimise himself thus roadblocked and himself losing all his friends , Micheal is brought to a crossroads of life . He meets the man who is going to be the next Pope in order to get a breakthrough on the Immobiliare deal , and is forced by the father to confess his sins including murdering his own brother .

In all this saga , only Vincent and his sister Connie are loyal to him , and Michael decides to retire and anoints Vincent as the new Don / Godfather . But the enemy Dons have an elaborate plan ready to kill Micheal---a deadly assassin who never misses his mark .

A further complication is that his own innocent daughter is in love with Vincent . Michael forbids this relationship not only because she is in love with her own cousin but also does not want his daughter to live a dangerous life as a Don's wife , for Vincent will be in constant danger as a mafiosi .

All this comes to head at the performance his son Antony is going to give in a theatre . The assassin is coming to kill Michael brushing aside all the elaborate security arrangements of Vincent , and at the same time his own daughter is going to confront him because she is too much in love with Vincent .

But the Michael/Vincent/Connie trio have both inherited the genes of the original Godfather , and they manage to kill many of their enemies before the enemies can strike . The new Pope has ratified the Immobiliare deal too , before he himself was killed . In fact it would have been a perfect ending except for a complication---a woman in love , Michael's daughter who else . She barges to confront Michael over his non acceptance of her love for Vincent at the same time the assassin hired by his enemies fires a bullet to kill Michael....the assassin is killed by Vincent , thus sealing Michael's triumph over his enemies . But the triumph has come at terrible price , for the assassin's bullet has killed Michael's precious daughter....

So we learn two lessons from the whole Corleone saga---

one -- that crime never pays . This was something we were supposed to learn in school , but the whole saga of the family and the associated deaths dins it more firmly into our heads like nothing else can .

second -- whatever any Don or Godfather thinks about women as immaterial is not true , and women are important . For in the end Michael dies in grief for a woman , his own daughter . Sophia Coppolla who is director Francis Ford Coppolla's own daughter , has brought an innocent charm to her role as Michael Corleone's daughter . After the climax scene I sat almost in tears of sadness because of her death and the death of the great Don and for the end of the Godfather series....no more enemies to encounter and no more stories to see . Of course , there would be other crime movies , but none would have the grandeur of the Godfather .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .

The whole 3 movies

__________________
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Hare Krishna ( December 2017 )



'Hare Krishna' is an English language movie on the story of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , the guru who started ISKCON ( International society for Krishna consciousness ) and was responsible for introducing his unique brand of Hinduism in the west . His brand of Hinduism consisted of worship of Lord Krishna , an avtar of the Hindu God Vishnu .

The movie shows his early life in short , and he was born in Calcutta in British ruled India . His father wanted him to devote himself to spiritual pursuits rather than materialistic pursuits and he got his own idols of Krishna and Krishna's platonic friend Radha since childhood for prayer . Yet he spent much of his life as a successful pharmacist who had a wife and children . During the Indian independence struggle , he was a follower of Gandhi .

His own guru Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati however advised him to follow the spiritual path rather than political path and asked him to follow the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , a guru who had lived and taught in the fifteenth century . These teachings asked followers to spread the message of Krishna by chanting the Lord's name and dancing on streets singing verses praising the Lord . Above all Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati asked him to spread Hinduism in the west rather than India .

It was in 1965 at the ripe old age of 70 that Prabhupada decided to renounce the world and become as ascetic spreading the name of Krishna in the west . He decided to forsake his ties with his wife and children who had grown up by now and could take care of themselves . Above all , he took the incredible decision to go to America and spread his brand of Hinduism there . This , even though he had no contacts there and no means of survival except his own stupendous faith in his own beliefs .

On arrival in USA , he distinguished himself by not being a hypocrite like other Indian gurus who had come to US to live in posh houses and travel by luxury cars . Instead he lived in nondescript housing in New York and his first targets were drug addicts . In fact it was these drug addicts who took pity on this old friendless lonely man and offered their help . But it was they who got helped instead .

Prabhupada asked them to spend their time in singing the name of Lord Krishna as a way of reaching out to God . As the drug addicts began to do so , their entire time was spent in this and their entire attention was focused on reaching out to God in this manner . And a miracle happened ; the hippies were soon off the drugs . They had found a way of channelizing their energy and time and stopped using drugs . Indeed soon they were off meat and alcohol and began living the life of orthodox hindus .

Soon the august guru Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada decided that his disciples should now dance on the streets chanting the name of Krishna and singing hymns in the Lord's name just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's followers did in the fifteenth century . And the western world awoke to the phenomenon of westerners dancing chanting the name of a hindu God from the east on the streets of American cities .

Some of the more enterprising American converts decided to rope in American music stars to spread the message of the swami , and various bands like the Grateful dead and others began to chant the mantra given by the swami to his followers in their concerts . The mantra was ''hare Krishna hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna hare hare , hare Rama hare Rama , Rama Rama hare hare''---Rama being another avtar of Vishnu .

To contact the Beatles and bring them in their fold , the members of the newly registered ISKCON went to London . To stand out among the Londoners , the devotees shaved their heads and went bald and began to wear yellow robes of hindu ascetics . George Harrison was so impressed that he cut an album in honour of the Hare Krishna movement .

The heart as well as leader of the movement was Prabhupada , who at the age of seventy plus still danced tirelessly and sang the name of God for hours on end . He worked till late night , writing commentaries on the holy book of Hinduism ( Bhagwat Gita ) . In the age where young people were disillusioned by America's defeat in the Vietnam war , he gave them a spiritual path to lead their time and not waste their lives as hippies doing drugs and free sex .

He also went to the Soviet union to spread his message in the time when it was controlled by communists and the godless marxists created numerous difficulties for him . But he gained followers who spread the message by underground means in Russia and translated the swami's works into Russian . Back in America however all this was creating a backlash . The swami was accused of propagating a cult and using mind control techniques to enchant America's youth . Young people who had joined his movement were kidnapped by people hired by their parents who did not want their children singing and dancing to the name of a strange eastern God wearing outlandish saffron coloured attire . A court case was launched against the movement .

But the courts declared that the movement was based on spiritual beliefs that had been practised in the ancient land of India for 5000 years and that there was nothing wrong with them---a triumph for the swami . And he decided to take his movement where it had all began , to India . When they landed in India , the Indians were simply astonished at the sight of westerners practising their religion of Hinduism more fervently than themselves . Indians could not bring themselves to believe this and tried to rub off the white colour of the skin of the devotees in the hope that rubbing it off would expose brown skin .

By the time the swami died , his movement had become firmly established in America and numerous beautiful temples had been built in the new world . After his death the movement had further expanded with new temples being built . This whole story is brought out by numerous interviews of the western disciples of the swami , who speak emotionally about the holy man in the movie which is more like a documentary . One disciple goes on to say that when Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada spoke , it was as if it was the Prime minister of an entire galaxy speaking . A touch hagiographic perhaps....

The movie has good music and good photography with clips of the swami speaking . A fine effort by ISKCON to advertise themselves . Critics would find flaws but the movie will energise the faith of believers . That's what it has been made for .

Verdict---good .

Three stars out of five .

Operation daybreak ( 1975 )



1942---the heyday of nazi occupation of Europe . Hitler's right hand man Reinhard Heydrich is appointed as the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia ( modern day Czech republic ) and he quickly unleashes a reign of terror there , giving orders for murder of countless innocents . To stop him , the British parachute three Czechoslavs with orders to assassinate Heydrich . The Royal air force drops two of them in the wrong position 200 km away from their intended target .

The two are questioned by a german patrol and have to kill the germans . But they are helped by czechs who bribe a german driver to take the two to a doctor because one of them is wounded slightly . To the surprise of the two , the doctor first questions them and then unites them with the third member of the group . The mission is on and they prepare plans to kill Heydrich while hiding in a church along with the Czech underground resistance .

The members of the Czech resistance do not agree with the idea of killing Heydrich because the nazis would take terrible revenge by killing scores of innocent Czechs . But for the three sent from Britain , orders are orders . However the first chance to kill Heydrich is lost as another oncoming train blocks their sight just when they are going to shoot him from afar while he is travelling in a train to Berlin .

But they use the resistance members to track Heydrich's movements and find out that he regularly uses a route for reconnoitering the countryside and slows down at a particular turning point . Two members of the group plan to kill him there . They are Sergeant Jan Kubiš ( played by Timothy Bottoms ) and Sergeant Jozef Gabčík ( played by Anthony Andrews ) . The third ( Sergeant Karel Curda---played by Martin Shaw ) goes to meet his wife and child and stays there .

As Heydrich's car slows down one of the two tries to kill him upfront by sten gun but his gun jams . As he flees , Heydrich's bodyguard chases him and leaves his master unprotected . The other lobs a grenade from the other direction fatally wounding Heydrich . The two then meet in the church and members of the resistance then ask them to flee as the avenging germans are after their blood . The two decide to wait for the third member ( Curda ) to come back .

But Curda who is living with his wife gets terrified after he hears about the german massacre and destruction of the village of Lidice as revenge for Heydrich's murder . He fears for his wife and child and thinks that they would get killed too in the german orgy of revenge . He actually goes to the germans and rats out on his comrades in return for safety of his family !!

As the germans surround the church and begin to kill , the extended climax is full of pathos . Of the twosome realising to their chagrin that the comrade they waited for has actually betrayed them . Of the resistance group putting a fierce fight to the death killing many germans . At last gas is pumped into the hiding room of the two and still they hold out . Finally they are attempted to be drowned by pumping water until they are forced to shoot themselves .

The movie has decent photography , but it is the musical score that excels . The background music truly is scintillating and is rich with emotion . The nazi era is properly recreated complete with nazi salutes and uniforms and brutality . Acting and action is good but it is in emotion that the film really scores . The men find time to form dalliances with women and the grief of the women on their death is hard to watch , especially because it is a true story . Yes the movie is based on real events and what happened to each character during or after the war is told at the end . As expected , the war takes the lives of most . But the destroyed village of Lidice was rebuilt after the war , a testament to the triumph of justice .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

Saw this movie on netflix . It is in the Czech language and has english subtitles .


Joseph Goebbels , who was Hitler's propaganda minister during the nazi regime had an unusual choice of woman as mistress . She was a Czech and therefore from the slav race , a race that was decried by nazi propaganda as subhuman . But she was beautiful enough for Goebbels to make an exception in her case for falling in love . The movie is based on her account of the affair , and at the end of the movie she frankly admits to having edited her version of the story to present herself in a favourable light as she tells about it to a journalist in her old age . The journalist herself is a daughter of a person who perished in the holocaust .

The name of the mistress was Lída Baarova , and she was an actress . Her mother was the one whose ambition was to make her daughter an actress . Before the nazis showed their true colours , Lida was attracted to the much bigger German film industry and went to act there . She is played by Slovak actress Tatiana Pauhofova . Here her beauty attracted the biggest star of the german film industry---Gustav Frohlich ( played by german actor Gedeon Burkhard ) , and soon they were in a live in relationship . His wife was a hungarian jew and she had already left him to go back to Hungary due to fear of the nazis . And nazi storm troopers could already be seen attacking jewish establishments in Germany . The second world war was yet to be started .

But as fate would have it , their neighbour was Goebbels ( played by Austrian actor Karl Markovics ) . And soon he was inviting her to parties and propositioning her . And fights broke out between Lida and Gustav over his ignoring her due to his acting commitments and his refusal to divorce his wife for Lida . After such a fight Lida went over to Goebbels .

In the movie as she recounts the story to the reporter , Lida claims that even Hitler was attracted to her and invited her to accept german citizenship and said that she reminded him of someone he was in love with once . And like true patriot , she refused his offer of citizenship .

But Goebbels had tremendous power over the german film industry , and Lida agreed to become his mistress to obviously boost her career . Her paycheck and the budget of her films miraculously went up after this . Soon she was in bed with Goebbels , the only love making scene in the movie .

The americans came to know of her fame , and invited her to Hollywood . The american producer clearly warned her that she was playing with fire by being in a relationship with a nazi , and she was forced to choose between the two film industries . But Goebbels warned her that if she chose hollywood then her fate would be like the german actress Marlene Dietrich and she would have to forever forget a place in the german film industry just like Marlene had after going to Hollywood . So she chose the more controversial and dangerous path of remaining his mistress .

At this point in recounting , the reporter has an argument with the old Lida as to how could she date such a monster . The obvious answer is that like countless women have been , she was attracted to the man's power . This inspite of he being a short man with a limp due his injured leg .

His wife is jealous but at first proposes that they have an adjustment where Goebbels would remain her husband while he could enjoy Lida in bed , but soon complains to Hitler . She is abandoned by Goebbels under Hitler's pressure and events have overtaken everything . The germans have invaded Czechoslovakia . She is helped in her escape back to Czech capital Prague by a german admirer who asks only to stroke her breasts as prize , and she is soon back to the beautiful house she has built for her parents .

But she and her sister ( who is a regional actress ) are hated by their countrymen for colluding with the enemy , and at the end of the war there is a terrible price to pay . Lida is put on trial by the newly installed communist government and is almost sent to the gallows . Her sister commits suicide due to humiliation , and her mother dies of heart attack induced by harassment by the authorities . Her father loses a leg in trying to save her but succeeds .

Afterwards she played a part in many movies , but the stigma of having been a nazi's mistress remained . But she lived a long life inspite of having a habit of smoking nonstop ; she is shown forever smoking in the movie .

It is only while escaping from Germany that she is shown confronting the full horrors of nazi rule and she lives in her own blissful world before that . Can this be true ? Obviously not . Probably she was too addicted to money and power and fame to care about right or wrong , and remained Goebbel's mistress even though she knew what was happening . Such hypocrites abound in the film industry and my country's film industry ( Bollywood ) has many such people . But she was not involved in the regime's horrors and we will have to give her benefit of doubt .

Acting is decent by everyone and photography colours and music is decent too . The film is watchable if you like films showcasing earlier eras .

Verdict---Okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .

Vivien Leigh plays Scarlet O'Hara , the daughter of a cotton plantation owner in southern United states . They have black slaves on the plantation , but the movie shows them to be treated more like servants than slaves and they fuss over Scarlet . But at the time of the beginning of the movie itself , their whole world is on the verge of collapse . The northerners have declared war on the south to free the slaves and history tells us that the south was defeated .

But the southerners are full of martial spirit and scoff on anyone who tells them about the superiority of the northerners ( yankees they are called ) over the south in terms of resources . One such person is Rhett Butler ( played by Clark Gable ) , some kind of freelance warrior and philanderer who visits prostitutes .

In typically filmy fashion , Rhett falls in love with Scarlet at first sight . But Scarlet loves another man who rejects her and she marries a boy to spite the person she loves . Soon she is a widow as her husband is killed in action . Similar is the fate of the whole southern armies as the yankees invade Atlanta in Georgia and bring fire and destruction with them . Scarlet who is in Atlanta is helped to escape from Atlanta by Rhett , but arrives on her plantation to find her mother dead and her father gone crazy due to the destruction of everything near and dear to him ; yes the plantation has been destroyed .

But Scarlet is determined to survive and stands like a rock commanding everyone to help rebuild everything . She grows up from a young girl being fussed over by everyone to be a strong lady...and Rhett Butler does occasionally drop by because he still loves her . But he refuses to financially help her and Scarlet marries second time to an older person to get his money . But he is killed too and Scarlet finally accepts Rhett's proposal .

They have a daughter and but she dies too . And Scarlett continues to love the man she loved from the start . His wife is kind and understands , but later she is dead too , asking Scarlet to look after her husband . Rhett realises that it is time for a reunion of Scarlet with her man and decides to move out .

But the man says he loved only his wife and too late Scarlett realises that she was so mistaken in rejecting the love of Rhett , but he is gone . She decides to go back to her place of strength---her plantation , from where she will again make a move to regain her lost husband . Not a loser or sissy is our heroine....

And I found myself sympathising with Scarlet O'Hara , the woman who knew no fear and fought like tigress among all the vicissitudes of fortune . And among all these vicissitudes , these southerners yearn for their past . The past where there were huge plantations of which they were their owners and had black slaves and grew cotton . Of grand parties on those plantations . All of which has been swept away by the tidal wave of history....gone with the wind !!

The movie shows the black slaves loyally co operating with the southern ( confederate ) forces and talking of licking the yankees , a fact that I found incredible . The yankees were coming to liberate them weren't they ? And no scene of blacks being ill treated or being unhappy at their position . In the world of Margaret Mitchell ( the novelist who wrote the novel on which the movie is based ) the blacks are satisfied with their position in the existing order and indeed co operate with preserving it . No hint of revolt . A conversation says that the whites treated their black slaves well . Sounds unreal and full of blissful ignorance at best and neglect of the situation on the ground at worst .

I would have been more happy to see Scarlet and Rhett reunited at the end , and was disappointed to see him go . Yet I liked the movie . Colours photography and music is good and Vivien Leigh has put her heart and soul in her acting . Much appreciated by me and of course much loved by the public which made the movie such a huge hit .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

Sunset Boulevard



The movie is from the black and white era .

William Holden plays an out of luck movie script writer named Joe Gillis whose scripts are not accepted by most directors . While running away from men trying to take his car because he has not paid it's dues , he accidentally stumbles into the mansion of a forgotten movie star of the era of silent films named Norma Desmond ( Gloria Swanson ) . She lives in her own world where she is still supposed to be a great star with a huge fan following , though it is actually her own butler ( played by Erich von Stroheim ) who writes the fan letters . And he too was a former movie director who had discovered Norma but whom she married and later divorced , but became her butler because he could not live apart from her . Can things get quirkier than that ?

Yes , they can get quirkier . Because Norma takes a fancy to Joe and decides to make the much younger Joe her keep , and Joe accepts because he has run out of funds . Norma wants to make grand comeback to films even though she is 53 , and Joe becomes the scriptwriter of her bizarre comeback movie . But actually he is interested in another girl called Betty ( Nancy Olsen ) and soon Betty spurns her fiance for him .

But Joe has got too much entangled in the situation created by Norma to ever get out . She wants the great director Cecil B. DeMille to direct her film , and her faded but still remembered star power is on display as she enters his shoot to be warmly greeted by him and recognised by people . But he is not really interested in directing her .

The crisis occurs when Norma discovers that Joe and Betty are in love . And when Joe tries to walk out with some harsh words of truth , she fires a gun on him....his fate is like the male spider who mates with the female spider only to find that there is no release as she devours him . As the police come to arrest Norma with reporters for shooting the arrest , she has gone sufficiently mad to think that the scene is of the shooting of a film being enacted .

The film actually is in touch with the truth , for in the film industry there are several former stars who live in the memory of the former halcyon days . The Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna was one such person , who was constantly reliving his former superstardom long after it had perished . The dialogue by Norma in the movie saying 'I am big . It is the pictures that got small.' aptly sums up this attitude . Not surprisingly , the film is regarded as a classic . Acting is good , if you are willing to tolerate Gloria Swanson's overdramatic acting as Norma Desmond . Photography is good if you are willing to tolerate black and white colours and small screen format .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

Fedora ( 1978 )



William Holden plays Barry Detweiler , who wants to make a film starring an old reclusive actress called Fedora ( Marthe Keller ) because he has a crush on her since his boyhood days when he was spotboy for her film shoot and had the good fortune to see the full glory of her nude breasts from up close while tasked with placing flowers over them as she was shooting in a pool . And she had taken a liking for him and called him to her room and asked him if he found her nude body hot , and had said that he must be a pansy if he did not like her body----meaning she would feel insulted if he did not admire her flesh ; a true narcissist our Fedora , just like a true film star....

Having briefly dated this famous movie star a long time ago and been on long drives in her car with her , Barry just can't get her out of his mind . And here he now , trying to meet her decades later on an island where she has mysteriously disappeared after leaving films and joining them again . And he closes onto the villa where Fedora lives , only to find out that it is heavily guarded by tough looking humans and even tougher dogs .

But Barry is nothing if not persistent , and he soon makes contact with her . But she tells him that she is being held captive by a countess and her men . When Barry tries to renew the contact he is beaten and left unconscious by one of Fedora's overseers . When he wakes up , he finds out that she is dead having committed suicide .

As he comes to pay his last respects to her body , Barry accuses the countess and her husband of having conspired to kill Fedora . And the countess is then forced to blurt out the jaw dropping truth . That Fedora was actually she herself and she was even more narcissistic than Barry thought . That in order to satisfy her narcissism she used to take regular treatments from her doctor that one day had the opposite effect of disfiguring her . And she had gone into hiding . But when she got news that the academy award had been awarded to her , she had prepared her daughter to receive the award impersonating her . And the impersonation was so good that the daughter soon was working in films as Fedora , impersonating her of course .

But when the daughter fell in love like all young women do , she wanted to reveal the secret to the young man she loved . That she was not older than him as he thought and that they could be together without any age gap between them . But the idea of the revelation of this secret exploded the vanity of the older real Fedora like a poisonous snake being disturbed , and she did the most cruel and vile thing that a woman could do---held her own child drugged and captive .

Seeing the film I was disgusted with these filmy people and their horrible ego and their self absorption . More so because such people actually exist in the film industry and are not fiction . The film evokes Hollywood of the forties---extravagant sets and movies and even more extravagant egos .

And yet people are willing to pamper and pander to these extravagant egos . For Barry agrees to keep the secret of the countess , as Fedora is called in her new avtar . And why ? For old times sake of course....to remember with happiness the time he had briefly dated this great star .

The film is suspenseful in the beginning and the explanation of the suspense is even more shocking than we thought . In that sense the film exceeds our expectations . Acting and photography is okay but colours are not great . Background music is okay too .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .