The Karate Kid Parts 1-3 (1984-89)

I watched all of the first 3 movies and really enjoyed them! I hadn't seen the first in over 30 years so it was an enjoyable rewatch. The movie holds up pretty decently. I think one of the secrets to not make a film look dated is to avoid showing alot of technology like phones, camera, radios and tvs. There's not much of that in this movie so it appears more timeless. I really liked Part II and their trip to Okinawa. The scenery and music were great and I liked the love stories in the movie and the storm at the end that causes the corrupt landowner to have a change of heart. Part III spotlighted Miyagi's bonsai tree store and the "secret tree' he had hidden at the bottom of a steep cliff. That was a pretty amazing development. He also reveals something that he hadn't said before in the movies, that his heart would be empty without the young Daniel character. It was fate that they met, like many great friendships. 

I got a better sense of how merciless the "kobra kai" students and their teachers are. And now I know why the TV show has been popular using the same characters. I never saw the show but my friend was telling me that it's basically a new generation of students doing the same thing. I'm not sure I'm really that interested in it, and the drama. I guess I don't really care for the characters that much. They're a bunch of racist assholes in the movies and don't really care to spend more time with them. I asked my friend if Ralph Macchio's character Daniel still has the car that Miyagi gave him, and learned that he does, and that the Daniel character is now teaching his son the ways of the master. That's about all I really care about in the saga. 

Under the Sun of Satan (1987) and Silence (2016)

The common thread is that these two movies are about priests. And they both have endings that stuck with me long after seeing them. I'll go into that at the end of each post - spoiler warning.

The first is the 1987 French film Under the Sun of Satan (Sous le soleil de Satan), starring Gerard Depaurdiu; he plays a priest in a small French village. I saw this at a revival screening in Chicago.

Movies about priests can be depressing. This is one of them.

At the very start of the movie, Gerard has a long tedious conversation with his superior (Maurice Pialat - the film's director) who is disappointed in him. Then we see Gerard whipping himself after having sinful thoughts.

Then the director focuses on a different story about a young emotionally tormented woman who may or may not have killed someone.  After a constant struggle with his faith and worthiness, the priest finally meets face-to-face with the woman (which seems to take forever), and we realize that the priest is almost as emotionally tormented to the same degree as the woman.  By the end of the film, the priest is looked upon as a something of a saint by the villagers.

I like the last scene of the movie, when the priest dies in the confessional -- he's laying there dead while Catholic after Catholic pass through and confess their sins, unknowing that a corpse is on the other side of the screen.

There's some deep meaning in that. After all, there are a lot of dead people in churches, even if they are alive.

Another blogger's perspective:

Surrender to the Void

Silence, directed by Martin Scorcese

Silence is also a dark film, but it has a different tone, an epic scale (nearly 3 hours), and set in Japan.

It is 1633 in Japan, and Christians and priests are being murdered and live in fear, as Christianity is outlawed. Liam Neeson plays a priest who survived persecution; he now lives in Japan but has renounced the priesthood. Two of his mentees (Adam Driver and Adam Garfield) travel from Portugal to Japan on a mission to find him, but they risk their lives every day they stay there. They meet a group of secret Christians who befriend them and want them to be their priest. One character they meet continually proves to be untrustworthy. Eventually both of the priests come to a crossroads where they are faced with the decision to renounce their faith.

The focus of the story is on Andrew Garlfied's  priest. We follow him throughout the duration of the film, and hear his narration throughout; frequently commenting on what life is like as a priest, providing a sense of his mind.

Having been raised Catholic and hearing about missionaries of the past who went out to other countries to bring Catholicism, this movie interested me.

The film is based on a book by a Japanese Catholic,  Shūsaku Endō, and directed by Martin Scorsese, also a Catholic who has tackled God and spirituality in some of his other films such as The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, about the life of the Dalai Lama. I read somewhere that Scorsese himself wanted to be a priest before he became a filmmaker. I think this film was his way to explore what life as a priest is like. It certainly gave me some further insight into the devotion of such priests.

Essentially what happens in this movie and in the book is that the priests have to renounce their faith, and end up living the rest of their lives in Japan. I'm guessing the book goes into more detail. But we learn that the priests eventually help officials identify Christian symbolism in the society where it is not allowed. I wish the film focused more on this part of the story.

At the end, Adam Garfield's character dies, and he's buried with a Christian cross in his casket, even though he could not practice his religion most of his adult life. It's an interesting image, and profound. Makes you wonder if a person leaves the faith tradition they were raised in, is it still a part of you until you die?

Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) with Paul Newman

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima during WWII (the first bomb was called Little Boy, the bombing of Nakasaki was Fat Man). I don't think Paul Newman would have participated in a film such as this unless he felt there was a compelling story to be told, so I was very curious to watch this film.

It attempts to dramatize the events leading up to the day of the bombing, focusing on the characters of scientist J. Robert "Oppie" Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz), his wife (Bonnie Bedelia), Army General Groves (Paul Newman) and the rest of the "Manhattan Project" team.

Another scientist is played by John Cusak. His is a compsite character of a number real life men exposed to lethal radiation during testing and died soon after being exposed. I wasn't expecting to see Laura Dern in this, as a nurse who falls in love with him. The late Natasha Richardson plays Oppie's mistress Jean Tatlock, who kills herself at the age of 30.

Newman is solid and does what he needs to do. Director Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) makes films about once every five years. This time he creates a pretty straight-laced docudrama. Once again he joins with composer Ennio Morricone, whose score stirs up the film when it's needed. And there are some great shots by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who won an Oscar for 1977's Close Encounters.

I thought the film was about a half hour too long; a few domestic scenes were just not needed, including a few with Cusak and Dern. There is some tension toward the end, with the final scene taking place at a test site in the New Mexico desert in July 1945. The film ends with the closing title card -