The 90s introduced a different kind of cinematic entertainment to the big screen. It was the year of the Titanic, and a year of Spell-bounding, unforgettable war movies. We were awed, amazed, and mentally challenged with the reality of hatred. My choices among the most awe-inspiring movies to hit the big screen include:
- ROSEWOOD (1997) This is a powerful dramatization of actual events which took place in Rosewood, Florida. It deals with the ugly truth of racism. We will never understand one man’s plight to destroy another because of the color of his skin.
The story takes place in the year 1923, in Rosewood, Florida, with no more than 120 residents, mostly black. John Wright (Jon Voight), is a white store owner, distrusted by Rosewood’s blacks, and labeled a “race-trader” by the whites. Mann, (Vhing Rhames), is a wandering World War I veteran entering the town of Rosewood seeking peace. Unfortunately, peace is not what he finds.
All seems well in the little town of Rosewood, until a white woman (Fanny Taylor), cries rape, claiming that she was assaulted by a black man. Enters an angry lynch mob headed for the town of Rosewood to burn it to the ground and kill anything “black” that moves. By the end of the week, all that is left of Rosewood are ashes and horrible reminders of bloodshed. It is horrible to comprehend the ugly side of racism, and as equally horrible to know that it still, in some form or fashion, exist.
- TITANIC (1997) A spell-bounding movie which invite viewers to live through each scene. Director James Cameron gives us what we are looking for, from the moment the ship sets sail, to the tip of the ship as it sinks.
Brett Lovett (Bill Paxton) is filming a documentary while on an expedition to recover some of the ship’s buried treasure. His main interest is a 56-karat diamond necklace worn by Rose DeWitt, (Kate Winslet), one of the passengers of the ship. He faithfully believes that the necklace went down with the ship when it sank. A woman, who identifies herself as Rose DeWitt Bukater, sees the documentary on TV and calls Lovett. She soon confesses to Lovett and his crew, that she is Rose, and begins to tell her version of what actually occurred that fateful night when the Titanic went under.
Enters the day the ship is leaving Southampton. A penniless hustler and his best friend have just won a third-class ticket in a poker game, to board the Titanic. Already aboard is Rose (Winslet), a beautiful American woman engaged to the cruel, cold-hearted Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). Once aboard, Jack catches a glimpse of Rose, and from that point on pursues her. By chance, they meet again. Soon the two become friends, followed by intimacy.
Despite threats from her egotistical fiancé Cal, and her money-grubbing mother (played by Frances Fisher), Rose wants out of the engagement. Enters Molly Brown, (a captivating performance by Kathy Bates). Molly knows all to well of Jack’s kind, and gives full support in his pursuit of Rose. Just as the triangular relationship between Jack, Rose, and Cal, is about to explode, the Titanic hits an iceberg, and the rest is Titanic history in the world of movie making.
From that point on, viewers become hypnotically enthralled in every second of the movie’s final chilling hour. As the Titanic and its victims fade into darkness, viewers see the unbearable, hypnotic scene where Jack’s frozen body slowly sinks to its final destination.
- SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) The movie begins quietly in France. A man stands at a gravesite amid thousands of white crosses, paying his respect. Enters June 6, 1944, a chilling recount of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, followed by violent, gory scenes of the reality of war. Spielberg holds nothing back in this war epic movie. Everything from bloody bodies, severed body parts, and blood-colored beach water is visible to the naked eye of the viewer. It is truly not for the faint of heart, and this is just the beginning!
The movie focuses on the four Ryan brothers. Two of the brothers died in the invasion and one perished. As the mother receives telegrams of the deaths of three of her sons, General Marshall (Harve Presnell), decides to send men into the French countryside to try to rescue the fourth Ryan brother, paratrooper Private James Ryan (Matt Damon).
Enters Captain John Miller, (Tom Hanks), a survivor of the D-Day invasion. Miller is chosen to lead the men in this search. The team consists of Miller, six of his most trusted comrades, and Upham, a newcomer and translator. There are fights, and then there are FIGHTS. Viewers watch in awe as American soldiers visit bombed out towns and their remains. As the movie draws to an ending, we see the beach, anchored offshore ships, and a blimp-filled sky.
For me, a good cry occurred the moment the mother received the three telegrams all at once. There were moments when I just had to get up, open the front door, and take a deep breath in order to feel alive. This Spielberg movie cheats no one. Every moment, every detail, every death becomes an unforgettable, mind-consuming experience.
- THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) What is it about this movie that makes it so scary?” For me, it is the “dark side of Hannibal Lecter.” As the movie begins, viewers are introduced to FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster). Starling has been selected by the head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), to help in the search for Buffalo Bill, a transvestite serial killer, who is obviously obsessed with the skin of his female victims. He murders them and removes their skin. Starling is used as bait to get Hannibal to talk and provide a profile of Buffalo Bill. The intelligent, Einstein-like Lecter agrees to cooperate with Starling, but only if she is willing to reveal secrets of her past to him. It is obvious that he already knows enough to intimidate her by playing the mind-game.
Hopkins becomes Hannibal Lecter in every sense of the viewer’s mentality. Jodie Foster, as Clarice Starling, is the piece of puzzle that completes the whole cat and mouse chase between the two characters. She invites us to venture into the psychotic world of the distorted. The relationship between Lecter and Starling is of wonder. You know something is there, but you cannot comprehend or grasp the depth or the intensity of the relationship. The movie searches the mind of the viewer. It is captivating, disturbing, and chilling.
- SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993) Directed by Steven Spielberg. Krakow, Poland, September 1939, Jews vs. Nazis. Enters Oskar Schindler (Neeson) a Nazi businessman seeking to obtain Jewish backing for a factory he is about to build. He discusses financial matters with an accountant, Itzhak Stern. By March 1941, Jewish communities are being forced to move into an area called the “Ghetto.” People are now interested in investing in Schindler’s factory, which manufactures pots. Jews are hired to work in the factory.
March 1943, Germans liquidate the Ghetto, and survivors are sent to the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp. Many are executed, and others are shipped away by train. Enters Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), a Nazi who takes full pleasure in killing Jews. Schindler, now considered somewhat of a friend to Goeth, secretly campaigns to help Jews escape death.
Spielberg gives us a ghastly jolt of the horrible realities of the Holocaust. So much hatred, as with slavery, I ponder the question, Why? What was the purpose of both the Holocaust and slavery? Innocent men, women, children died because of their ethnic heritage, because they were Jewish, because they were black.
