Category: Language: English
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Doctor Dolittle. Dir. Richard Fleischer. 20th-Century Fox. 1967.
The genesis for Richard Fleischer’s 1967 film Doctor Dolittle came from Hugh Lofting’s successful chain of children’s books first published in 1920, and focuses on the character of a veterinarian named John Dolittle (Rex Harrison), who can talk to animals after being taught by his multilingual pet parrot Polynesia. The film is bursting at the seams with…
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Hidalgo. Dir. Joe Johnston. Disney/Touchstone Pictures. 2004.
Hidalgo (2004), directed by Joe Johnston is a Disney production bringing to life the adventures of America’s most controversial endurance rider; Frank T. Hopkins. His story was discovered and then written for the big screen by John Fusco, a strong advocate for the veritable nature of his incredibly controversial legend. A whole website has been…
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Doctor Dolittle. Dir. Betty Thomas. 20th-Century Fox. 1998.
Representation of animals in Betty Thomas’s Doctor Dolittle The animal presence in Doctor Dolittle (1998) is extremely intriguing, using impressive CGI and a vast spectrum of species to depict a humanistic side to animals that was, until then, uncommon in film. Eddie Murphy’s character, John Dolittle, provides audiences with an identity crisis: family man vs…
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The Horse Whisperer. Dir. Robert Redford. Touchstone Pictures. 1998.
Representation of Animals in the Horse Whisperer Robert Redford directs and stars in the novel adaptation, The Horse Whisperer (1998). Set between the conflicting environments of urban New York and the rural countryside of Montana, we witness a family fall apart following a tragic accident. Whilst out riding, the film’s young protagonist and her friend come into collision…
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Beasts Of The Southern Wild. Dir. Benh Zeitlin. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2012.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is set in Bathtub, a poor and very ethnically-mixed community in the Louisiana Bayou separated from other civilisation by a levee, a backdrop which conjures up the still fresh memory of Hurricane Katrina. The global warming induced flooding of the area and all that ensues are focalised through the imagination of the…
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Godzilla. Dir. Ishirō Honda. Toho. 1954.
Synopsis “If we continue to test nuclear weapons, another Godzilla may arise.” The closing line of Honda’s Godzilla, emphasised by a prolonged close-up of the speaker’s face, is proudly overt in its political overtones. Produced in the wake of the 1945 bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Godzilla’s use of an indestructible, prehistoric creature as a metaphor for nuclear warfare…
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Fish Tank. Dir. Andrea Arnold. BBC Films. 2009.
Fish Tank. Dir. Andrea Arnold. BBC Films. 2009. Jessica Hannington Andrea Arnold’s British drama Fish Tank centres on a fifteen year old tearaway, Mia (Katie Jarvis), whose volatile and distant nature promises to drag her down the same path as her alcoholic, chain-smoking mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing). Growing up on a bleak Essex council estate, the possibility of…
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Upstream Colour. Dir. Shane Carruth. erbp. 2013.
Upstream Colour is a dreamlike vision of the subjectivity and fragility of reality. The film follows Kris (Amy Seimetz) as her life is transformed into an isolating nightmare of confusion and lies, by the mysterious ‘Thief’, a man who uses parasitic worms to hypnotise his victims before extorting money from them. The worms are part…
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Where the Wild Things Are. Dir. Spike Jonze. Warner Bros. 2009.
In Spike Jonze’s 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are, wildness reigns. Max, a ‘wild’ young boy with an active imagination, is able to connect with his dog but has difficulty doing so with other people, including his mother and sister. Upset that his mother is paying more attention to her new boyfriend, Max puts…
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Life of Pi. Dir. Ang Lee. 20th-Century Fox. 2011.
Ang Lees’s Life of Pi is a shipwreck film that depicts the epic journey of the main character Piscine ‘Pi’ Molitor Patel, whilst addressing many issues along the way such as those of personal loss, racism, survival and many more. Lee is able to achieve this level of depth in his novel chiefly by using the potential…