Citizen Kane and The Wrestler

After seeing The Wrestler on a remarkably good bootleg copy (which I am almost positive was not obtained through sound legal methods) I cannot help but draw parallels to the films styles. Although decades apart these films have similar themes of isolation. Scenes of Kane being estranged from his wife and scenes of the Ram and his daughter bear a certain resemblance. In addition scenes showing both characters alone are shot in a similar way making the character appear small on screen. The Wrestler in my opinion was excellent. I feel that i must now see MILK because I feel Rourke gave an excellent performance. Although I have not seen Penn's performance, I feel odd in saying that Rourke should have gotten the Oscar. At least the Oscar went to a talented actor like Penn, like it has in the past. Although part of the film required Penn to kiss another man. In my book a straight man kissing another man is ground for an award any day. This is why I am glad I will not be going into the profession of acting; I certainly would not do anything to win an Oscar!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Although old and clearly dated, I found All Quiet on the Western Front very enjoyable. I am an enormous fan of war films, and this only helped add to my interest. AS a fan of war films, one of my favorites is the classic Full Metal Jacket. This movie demonstrates the cruelty in the war. The training sequences in the beginning are forever burned into my memory. To my surprise the training sequences in All Quiet on the Western Front bared a striking resemblance to those in Full Metal Jacket (minus the vulgar language, murder and suicide). It is quite possible Kubrick used this film as inspiration for Full metal. As for All quiet on the Western Front it to was a very good film. Although it was overacted and ridiculously unrealistic dialogue wise and gore wise it proved to be a very accurate portrait of WW 1.