Slumdog Millionaire - a Review
Jan. 25th, 2009 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAs mentioned in an earlier post, Wales and I saw Slumdog Millionaire yesterday. I clearly enjoyed it, because I was able to forget the fact that I crunched into a seat like a twisted sardine. Contorting my legs so they could fit. Cobble Hill cinema's leg room is similar to the leg room you find in the coach section of domestic flights - which is about two inches maybe less. This in a nutshell is why I don't go to the movie theater very often.
But it is also a good litnus test to how much I'm enjoying the film, that and how often I've checked my watch. I didn't check it at all. I forgot I was uncomfortable. And I stayed until after the credits rolled, I usually leave during them. We all - the entire audience - stayed until they rolled - because of the cool bollywood number.
Wales has become a bit obsessed with Slumdog. She sent me three emails regarding it last night, after we discussed it at the bar over magrittas. She's not into writing, her emails consist of two links and a two sentences regarding the character of Salim who she can't get out of her head and really became fascinated by, more so, than Jamal. I'll include the links below. The first one gives a complete synopsis on the film. By the way - the casting director of the movie - was promoted to co-director. She's an Indian woman by the name of Laveen Tandan. The movie was directed and produced by the British - which is sort of ironic, if you know anything about the history of India.
Slumdog Millionaire, a film directed by Danny Boyle - who is the same guy who directed the cult hit Trainspotting , is about an uneducated poor young man who goes on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" and astonishs everyone by winning and answering all of the questions.
I was surprised by the movie, even though I had read a smattering of reviews concerning it.
What surprised me was the narrative structure and the depth of the content. I'd gone in expecting a fairly run-of-the-mill poor boy does amazing thing story - the sort of tale that is told repeatedly on Hallmark or in American cinema. I was not expecting the layers of irony this one contained. The film begs to be analyzed on a sociological-political level, but I'm wary of that type of analysis. It can, if you are not careful, lead to emotionally charged and unconsciously self-righteous exchanges. Also if you are wrong about something, you can without knowing it - offend. So I will leave that analysis to those who are more familar with the sociological and political history of India as well as the UK, than I. I'm only peripherally familar - in that I know about the British Colonization of India and it's rather divisive effects on the culture, as well as, the religious and ethnic turmoil that exists in a country of extremes today. But, I've never been to India, even though I've known quite a few people native to the country, read books written by Indian writers, and watched a few Indian films. Most of my knowledge, unfortunately, comes from British and American films as well as books on the country, which have a definite slant. So my knowledge is cursory at best.
"Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" is a quiz show that has always reminded me of "Twenty-One" and this film, in a way, brought back memories of the film Quiz Show - in which an educated, aristocratic, white, photo-genic man is hired to cheat on a show in order to beat an unpopular, Brooklyn, Jew - who has been winning the show every week. Another film begging for sociological and political analysis.
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire is not anything like Twenty-One. The questions, for one thing, are much easier. If you want to watch a difficult Quiz Show - try Jeopardy. This film makes a point of that.
In the film, Slum-dog, the contestant, Jamal, is taken by the police, tortured, and then questioned on the veracity of his answers. They believe that because he is an uneducated "slumdog" that he could not possibly know the answers. It is the opposite of Quiz Show - in which no one could quite believe the beautiful, charming, perfect, upper crust, educated star cheated. They were shocked and dismayed. Here - the question at the beginning of the film is how did Jamal get further than anyone else ever has on the show? Is he a genuis? Did he cheat? Is it luck? Or was it "written" ? To determine that - Jamal is first tortured, then interogated by the cops. The interogation is how we see the story. Each question - serves as the focus point of a flashback into Jamal's past and the mystery at the core of each flashback is how it relates to that question. We learn during the flashbacks that the show asked questions that in an odd way relate to key turning points in Jamal's story - they sum up the conflict or event. This makes the film far more interesting and complex than Quiz Show - which at the time, I felt, told me more than showed. Quiz Show felt more literal and obvious - it was by the way also nominated for an Oscar. It may not be fair of me to compare the two - they had different objectives.
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.
I think everyone has seen this by now - the game show, not Slumdog Millionaire. A few people may have even been contestants on it or won. I don't like the show. Game Shows in general bug me. It goes back to my childhood and my relationship with my next door neighbors who were game show fanatics, and very competitive. Everything was about winning, competition, who was best, who was smartest. It got to be exhausting after a while. In this film, the game show is a metaphor of sorts for Jamal's survival story. He is in the hot seat. And facing an older, richer, powerful man - who came up from the slums, became a star, and resents him. Does not want him to win. The actor - eerily resembles Regis Philibin - the American host of the prime-time version. He also resembles each of the antagonists that Jamal has encountered. Smugly delivering questions that he believes Jamal can't possibly know the answer to. It becomes after a while a game of wits between the two.
The questions, Jamal states, aren't that hard, and they are random. You do not have to be a lawyer, a doctor, or a scholar to know them. And his purpose for being on the show is not the same as the hosts or everyone else in the audience and viewership. He is there because he is trying to connect with someone that he knows loves and watches the show. She watchs it as an escape. That's why, she tells Jamal, people watch - to escape to a better world.
Slum-dog Millionaire is at it's heart - a romance. It's a boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy searches for girl, and finally finds girl - story. But, what makes it interesting is everything in between - the relationship between Jamal and his older brother, Salim - a complicated character - who clearly cares about Jamal, even if he doesn't quite understand him. Salim is a tragic character who it appears is doomed from the beginning. Yet at the same time, an endearing one, you see what motivates him and why. He is willing to do just about anything for his brother, but does not and perhaps is a tad jealous of - his brother's relationship with the girl, Latika. The third musketeer.
The Three Musketeers. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Everyone forgets the third one. Except me, possibly because one of my flist friends uses Aramis' real last name as his lj and fanboard name and explained it to me more than once. I've never read Dumas. But I have watched the movies. I blame my mother - who is a movie fan, and into swashbuckling films amongst others. I was introduced early on. I've seen two versions of the movie - the one with Keither Sutherland and the one with Michael York. So I know characters fairly well.
The book is Jamal's favorite from school. So much so, that he calls his brother Athos, and he's Porthos. And he thinks they need a third musketeer - Aramis, which becomes Latika, much to his brother's annoyance. The brother being the bread-winner in the family at this point, doesn't want another person to deal with. Also threesomes can be difficult, one person is always excluded. If you know the novel - or if you don't - go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers#The_others
Porthos - is the honest and almost too guillible musketeer
Athos - is the oldest and father figure, he has a mysterious past, and is mixed up with the villianous Milady De Winter and Cardinal Richilieu. By the end of the novel it is revealed that he was Milady's first husband. And he kills the villain.
Aramis - is the most charming, beautiful, and a ladies man.
My favorite was always Athos.
In the Three Musketeers - there are other characters - D'Artagne - the fourth musketeer, who joins them, and is the protagonist of the novel. D'Artagne also gets them into trouble, while at the same time saves them. Cardinal Richelieu - an elder, wealthy man, who is a bit of a sadist, and manipulative - who attempts to destroy them. And Milady De Winter - who is in league with Richelieu.
There's so much going in Slum-dog - to say more would, I believe would spoil you. Although what I've said already probably does that. So what I may just do is lj-cut the whole thing.
It's a film about caste or class more than race. Although it may also be about that, I don't know enough about India to know for sure. And as I previously noted, I'm wary of doing a sociological analysis on this. I never much liked sociology anyhow. But it's definitely discussing these issues - as well as a sense of fairness and futility. It appears at times that the only way to rise up is by hurting others, by becoming a bad-ass or cruel like Salim does, and the two gangsters he ends up working for and ultimately killing - for his brother and Latika. Yet, Jamal disproves that, showing an honest man can succeed.
Money is seen in a bad light, at the beggining, we see flashes of the older Salim laying money in a tub. Also one of the questions on Millionaire is what is the face on an American hundred dollar bill. The cop asks Jamal what the face is on a Rubie - of the same value, but Jamal doesn't know. It is ironically Ghandi, the advocate of non-violence. But the face on the 100 dollar bill is Ben Franklin. How can Jamal know this? Because of a friend who was blinded and knows the face and it sticks in Jamal's memory. Blind beggars who sing make more, Jamal tells the cops.
There's shades of Oliver Twist in this film - which Wales believes may be due to its British roots, but since it is based on a book by an Indian writer, I don't know how true that is. The Brits seem to still be wrapped up in the countries they colonized in the imperialistic expansion across the globe, whether they like it or not. Goes to show you that we do now can come back and haunt our descendants hundreds even thousands of years later. I particularly saw the Oliver Twist bits in the part of the film in which the boys fall in with the Gangster Maman - a Fagin like character, with Salim in the role of the famous Artful Dodger and Jamal as Oliver. Except the ending isn't quite as happy or as quick. This is not a child's story of rescue, so much as one of pure survival.
The abject poverty of Mumbai, India is shocking to those who have not witnessed it. Having seen abject poverty in Juarez, Mexico - I'd say it is in some ways more shocking in person.
I also saw it in Turkey. Americans really don't know what it is. Sure we have homeless - but our homeless shelters are luxurious inns in comparison to what people in other countries endure. I've seen poverty, abject poverty in the US, but it is nowhere near as bad as what I've seen elsewhere. This film sort of opens your eyes to that.
It also, depicts, the religious prejudices and conflicts on-going in India. The tribal disputes between Hindi and Muslim. These are disturbing, more so, because I've seen the same violence and disputes here, on American soil, between Christians and Muslims, Jews and Muslims, Jews and Christians, Atheists and all of the above, etc. There is a rather violent sequence depicting this that made me squirm in my seat. I wonder sometimes if we will ever stop attempting to cram our ideology down someone else's throat with the absurd and somewhat self-righteous notion that we are right.
Like I said, previously, this film is begging for a sociological/political analysis.
And it has some wicked themes regarding those issues.
I highly recommend this film. It makes you think. The only quibbles I've read regarding it are subjective complaints that seem to be isolated to that critic or reviewer. I have not read any objective ones.
But it is also a good litnus test to how much I'm enjoying the film, that and how often I've checked my watch. I didn't check it at all. I forgot I was uncomfortable. And I stayed until after the credits rolled, I usually leave during them. We all - the entire audience - stayed until they rolled - because of the cool bollywood number.
Wales has become a bit obsessed with Slumdog. She sent me three emails regarding it last night, after we discussed it at the bar over magrittas. She's not into writing, her emails consist of two links and a two sentences regarding the character of Salim who she can't get out of her head and really became fascinated by, more so, than Jamal. I'll include the links below. The first one gives a complete synopsis on the film. By the way - the casting director of the movie - was promoted to co-director. She's an Indian woman by the name of Laveen Tandan. The movie was directed and produced by the British - which is sort of ironic, if you know anything about the history of India.
Slumdog Millionaire, a film directed by Danny Boyle - who is the same guy who directed the cult hit Trainspotting , is about an uneducated poor young man who goes on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" and astonishs everyone by winning and answering all of the questions.
I was surprised by the movie, even though I had read a smattering of reviews concerning it.
What surprised me was the narrative structure and the depth of the content. I'd gone in expecting a fairly run-of-the-mill poor boy does amazing thing story - the sort of tale that is told repeatedly on Hallmark or in American cinema. I was not expecting the layers of irony this one contained. The film begs to be analyzed on a sociological-political level, but I'm wary of that type of analysis. It can, if you are not careful, lead to emotionally charged and unconsciously self-righteous exchanges. Also if you are wrong about something, you can without knowing it - offend. So I will leave that analysis to those who are more familar with the sociological and political history of India as well as the UK, than I. I'm only peripherally familar - in that I know about the British Colonization of India and it's rather divisive effects on the culture, as well as, the religious and ethnic turmoil that exists in a country of extremes today. But, I've never been to India, even though I've known quite a few people native to the country, read books written by Indian writers, and watched a few Indian films. Most of my knowledge, unfortunately, comes from British and American films as well as books on the country, which have a definite slant. So my knowledge is cursory at best.
"Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" is a quiz show that has always reminded me of "Twenty-One" and this film, in a way, brought back memories of the film Quiz Show - in which an educated, aristocratic, white, photo-genic man is hired to cheat on a show in order to beat an unpopular, Brooklyn, Jew - who has been winning the show every week. Another film begging for sociological and political analysis.
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire is not anything like Twenty-One. The questions, for one thing, are much easier. If you want to watch a difficult Quiz Show - try Jeopardy. This film makes a point of that.
In the film, Slum-dog, the contestant, Jamal, is taken by the police, tortured, and then questioned on the veracity of his answers. They believe that because he is an uneducated "slumdog" that he could not possibly know the answers. It is the opposite of Quiz Show - in which no one could quite believe the beautiful, charming, perfect, upper crust, educated star cheated. They were shocked and dismayed. Here - the question at the beginning of the film is how did Jamal get further than anyone else ever has on the show? Is he a genuis? Did he cheat? Is it luck? Or was it "written" ? To determine that - Jamal is first tortured, then interogated by the cops. The interogation is how we see the story. Each question - serves as the focus point of a flashback into Jamal's past and the mystery at the core of each flashback is how it relates to that question. We learn during the flashbacks that the show asked questions that in an odd way relate to key turning points in Jamal's story - they sum up the conflict or event. This makes the film far more interesting and complex than Quiz Show - which at the time, I felt, told me more than showed. Quiz Show felt more literal and obvious - it was by the way also nominated for an Oscar. It may not be fair of me to compare the two - they had different objectives.
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.
I think everyone has seen this by now - the game show, not Slumdog Millionaire. A few people may have even been contestants on it or won. I don't like the show. Game Shows in general bug me. It goes back to my childhood and my relationship with my next door neighbors who were game show fanatics, and very competitive. Everything was about winning, competition, who was best, who was smartest. It got to be exhausting after a while. In this film, the game show is a metaphor of sorts for Jamal's survival story. He is in the hot seat. And facing an older, richer, powerful man - who came up from the slums, became a star, and resents him. Does not want him to win. The actor - eerily resembles Regis Philibin - the American host of the prime-time version. He also resembles each of the antagonists that Jamal has encountered. Smugly delivering questions that he believes Jamal can't possibly know the answer to. It becomes after a while a game of wits between the two.
The questions, Jamal states, aren't that hard, and they are random. You do not have to be a lawyer, a doctor, or a scholar to know them. And his purpose for being on the show is not the same as the hosts or everyone else in the audience and viewership. He is there because he is trying to connect with someone that he knows loves and watches the show. She watchs it as an escape. That's why, she tells Jamal, people watch - to escape to a better world.
Slum-dog Millionaire is at it's heart - a romance. It's a boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy searches for girl, and finally finds girl - story. But, what makes it interesting is everything in between - the relationship between Jamal and his older brother, Salim - a complicated character - who clearly cares about Jamal, even if he doesn't quite understand him. Salim is a tragic character who it appears is doomed from the beginning. Yet at the same time, an endearing one, you see what motivates him and why. He is willing to do just about anything for his brother, but does not and perhaps is a tad jealous of - his brother's relationship with the girl, Latika. The third musketeer.
The Three Musketeers. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Everyone forgets the third one. Except me, possibly because one of my flist friends uses Aramis' real last name as his lj and fanboard name and explained it to me more than once. I've never read Dumas. But I have watched the movies. I blame my mother - who is a movie fan, and into swashbuckling films amongst others. I was introduced early on. I've seen two versions of the movie - the one with Keither Sutherland and the one with Michael York. So I know characters fairly well.
The book is Jamal's favorite from school. So much so, that he calls his brother Athos, and he's Porthos. And he thinks they need a third musketeer - Aramis, which becomes Latika, much to his brother's annoyance. The brother being the bread-winner in the family at this point, doesn't want another person to deal with. Also threesomes can be difficult, one person is always excluded. If you know the novel - or if you don't - go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers#The_others
Porthos - is the honest and almost too guillible musketeer
Athos - is the oldest and father figure, he has a mysterious past, and is mixed up with the villianous Milady De Winter and Cardinal Richilieu. By the end of the novel it is revealed that he was Milady's first husband. And he kills the villain.
Aramis - is the most charming, beautiful, and a ladies man.
My favorite was always Athos.
In the Three Musketeers - there are other characters - D'Artagne - the fourth musketeer, who joins them, and is the protagonist of the novel. D'Artagne also gets them into trouble, while at the same time saves them. Cardinal Richelieu - an elder, wealthy man, who is a bit of a sadist, and manipulative - who attempts to destroy them. And Milady De Winter - who is in league with Richelieu.
There's so much going in Slum-dog - to say more would, I believe would spoil you. Although what I've said already probably does that. So what I may just do is lj-cut the whole thing.
It's a film about caste or class more than race. Although it may also be about that, I don't know enough about India to know for sure. And as I previously noted, I'm wary of doing a sociological analysis on this. I never much liked sociology anyhow. But it's definitely discussing these issues - as well as a sense of fairness and futility. It appears at times that the only way to rise up is by hurting others, by becoming a bad-ass or cruel like Salim does, and the two gangsters he ends up working for and ultimately killing - for his brother and Latika. Yet, Jamal disproves that, showing an honest man can succeed.
Money is seen in a bad light, at the beggining, we see flashes of the older Salim laying money in a tub. Also one of the questions on Millionaire is what is the face on an American hundred dollar bill. The cop asks Jamal what the face is on a Rubie - of the same value, but Jamal doesn't know. It is ironically Ghandi, the advocate of non-violence. But the face on the 100 dollar bill is Ben Franklin. How can Jamal know this? Because of a friend who was blinded and knows the face and it sticks in Jamal's memory. Blind beggars who sing make more, Jamal tells the cops.
There's shades of Oliver Twist in this film - which Wales believes may be due to its British roots, but since it is based on a book by an Indian writer, I don't know how true that is. The Brits seem to still be wrapped up in the countries they colonized in the imperialistic expansion across the globe, whether they like it or not. Goes to show you that we do now can come back and haunt our descendants hundreds even thousands of years later. I particularly saw the Oliver Twist bits in the part of the film in which the boys fall in with the Gangster Maman - a Fagin like character, with Salim in the role of the famous Artful Dodger and Jamal as Oliver. Except the ending isn't quite as happy or as quick. This is not a child's story of rescue, so much as one of pure survival.
The abject poverty of Mumbai, India is shocking to those who have not witnessed it. Having seen abject poverty in Juarez, Mexico - I'd say it is in some ways more shocking in person.
I also saw it in Turkey. Americans really don't know what it is. Sure we have homeless - but our homeless shelters are luxurious inns in comparison to what people in other countries endure. I've seen poverty, abject poverty in the US, but it is nowhere near as bad as what I've seen elsewhere. This film sort of opens your eyes to that.
It also, depicts, the religious prejudices and conflicts on-going in India. The tribal disputes between Hindi and Muslim. These are disturbing, more so, because I've seen the same violence and disputes here, on American soil, between Christians and Muslims, Jews and Muslims, Jews and Christians, Atheists and all of the above, etc. There is a rather violent sequence depicting this that made me squirm in my seat. I wonder sometimes if we will ever stop attempting to cram our ideology down someone else's throat with the absurd and somewhat self-righteous notion that we are right.
Like I said, previously, this film is begging for a sociological/political analysis.
And it has some wicked themes regarding those issues.
I highly recommend this film. It makes you think. The only quibbles I've read regarding it are subjective complaints that seem to be isolated to that critic or reviewer. I have not read any objective ones.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 04:16 am (UTC)I'm guessing like myself, you were probably able to figure out who the third musketeer was. LOL!
My friend is rather obsessed with Salim. He is by far the most complex but then so was Athos, my favorite musketeer. Some day, I must read the book. Salim sort of worships money in the film, outside of his brother it is all he cares about. And that may explain why he buries himself in it - because he realizes in the end, after he has lost his brother forever, that the money is cold comfort. He reminds me a lot of the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist.
Amazing film, not at all what I expected either. I was expecting a feel good movie in line with Little Miss Sunshine. It's not that.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 05:14 pm (UTC)