Tag: HAR: Interest/Observation
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The Ugly Dachshund. Dir. Norman Toker . Walt Disney. 1966.
The Ugly Dachshund (1966), adapted from the 1938 novel by Gladys Bonwyn Stern, begins as Mark Garrison (Dean Jones) frantically prepares to drive to the hospital. This tricks us in to thinking that his wife, Fran Garrison (Suzanne Pleshette), is going to give birth when in fact they are taking their Dachshund Danke to the animal…
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Creature Comforts (Series 1, Episode 1). Dir. Richard Goleszowski. ITV. 2003.
Creature Comforts, the ITV series which started life as an Oscar-winning short film in 1989, might, at first glance, best be described as a documentary; its vox pop format providing a platform for the genuine, unscripted opinions of the British public. However, what appears on screen is anything but reality, as these voices are given…
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Into The Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Paramount Vantage. 2007.
It’s 1992, and Christopher McCandless, reborn as Alexander Supertramp, embarks on a ‘rite of passage for a young man in search of meaning,’[1] escaping from the human world and into the Alaskan wilderness. A ‘vagabond loner’[2] who donates his college fund to Oxfam and abandons his worldly goods by the side of the road, Alex forges relationships with the…
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Never Cry Wolf. Dir. Carrol Ballard. Buena Vista Distribution. 1983.
Carroll Ballard’s 1983 adaptation of Farley Mowat’s 1963 dramatised autobiography Never Cry Wolf is as intricate and astonishingly baffling as it is brilliant. The film tells the story of biologist Tyler and his time in the Canadian arctic where he has volunteered to take part in a scientific study of wolves, largely considered by the…
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Touching Wild Horses. Dir. Eleanore Lindo. Chesler/Perlmutter Productions. 2002.
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Polar Bears: A Summer Odyssey. Dir. Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson. Universal Pictures. 2012.
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State Fair. Dir. Walter Lang. Twentieth Century Fox. 1945.
“State Fair” is a 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, directed by Walter Lang. The film follows the Frake family, comprised of the farmer Abel (Charles Winninger), his wife Melissa (Fay Bainter), their daughter Margy (Jeanne Crain) and son Wayne (Dick Haymes), on their adventures at the Iowa State Fair. After making a bet with a…
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Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal. 1993.
Revisiting ‘Jurassic Park’ in light of ‘Blackfish’. With next summer’s release of ‘Jurassic World,’ recently teased with a trailer starring Chris Pratt, I think it’s worthwhile to revisit the original film in the paleontological franchise in light of the 2013 SeaWorld-documentary ‘Blackfish,’ with a focus on the inherent abuse captivity represents for wild animals and…
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The Unloved. Dir. Samantha Morton. ICA Films. 2009.
The Unloved, Samantha Morton’s semi-autobiographical debut film focuses on Lucy (Molly Windsor), an eleven-year-old girl from a broken home who is violently abused by her father at the beginning of the film. Following this heart wrenching sequence, Lucy is taken into care where she is alienated, despite becoming attached to Lauren; a teenage girl also…
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March of the Penguins. Dir. Luc Jacquet. Warner Independent Pictures, Buena Vista International. 2005.
March of the Penguins is a 2005 Oscar winning documentary directed by Luc Jacquet depicting the annual journey undertaken by Emperor Penguins in the Antarctica, from the sea where they spent their summer months, to their breeding ground, miles away, to which they must waddle through harsh conditions to find a partner with whom to…