| (07.26) | Lady in the Water  |
| (05.21) | Da Vinci Code, The  |
| (05.06) | United 93  |
| (02.05) | King Kong  |
| (01.29) | Syriana |
| (01.24) | Walk the Line |
| (01.05) | Chronicles of Narnia, The: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  |
| (01.02) | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
| (12.30) | Jarhead |
| (12.27) | Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit |
| (12.05) | randy: Polar Express, The |
| (12.02) | Geoff: Polar Express, The |
| (07.27) | Jen: Lady in the Water |
| (07.27) | Justin: Lady in the Water |
| (07.12) | Sarah: Da Vinci Code, The |
| (05.25) | Chris: Da Vinci Code, The |
| (05.25) | Acceler8: Da Vinci Code, The |
| (05.21) | Mr Plow: Da Vinci Code, The |
| (05.11) | Sarah: United 93 |
| (05.11) | Bread: United 93 |
Whale Rider tells the story of a young Maori girl, who by birth-right should be heir to the chiefdom of her tribe, but whose grandfather sternly resists the notion that a girl should become chief (the Maori are a group of indiginous tribal people in New Zealand, who speak English and have adopted into modern society, but still hold strong to their tribal roots). In a lot of ways, this is a fable of sorts, despite being filmed in a realistic way. There are no amazing special effects or overly-exagerated characters, but I got the sense that slightly supernatural forces were at work in steering the story, and that's kind've a cool thing.
While the focus of the story is on the young girl (named Paikea) and her struggle to be accepted in her male-dominated tribe, there are also themes that touch on the difficulty involved with ancient beliefs fitting into the modern world. This is illustrated most concretely with Paikea's father, who left the tribe (and his daughter) and moved to Europe, after being shamed for not delivering a male into the tribe's bloodline of chiefs. When the father comes back for a visit, it becomes clear that in a lot of ways he's forgotten or given up on his heritage.
Whale Rider is a simple story, but it's about an unusual group of people and an unfamiliar (to me, anyway) culture. It's always great to see new stuff like that, and combined with great acting and amazing scenery, I'm really glad I saw the film.
Pin my tail and call me a donkey, that really hpeeld.
I was with you up until the last line. Concision is worse than hrleybope. Human beings are slooooooooow at comprehension both when reading and listening. They need a high degree of redundancy for something to really sink in. My aunt who’s a professor of rhetoric at UC Riverside says: If you want someone to remember something, tell them three times. Three is a good number of times to tell someone something if it’s important that they remember it. Most people will forget anything you don’t tell them at least three times.That’s why we have the classical rhetorical strategy of: tell them what you’re going to to tell them. Tell them the thing. Tell them what you just told them.I think this kind of strategy actually can solve the hyberbole problem to. Sly subtle irony only works if the social contract governing the communication implies close careful reading. If not, it helps to beat someone over the head with something and concision is the enemy of that.– Greg
I was with you up until the last line. Concision is worse than hrleybope. Human beings are slooooooooow at comprehension both when reading and listening. They need a high degree of redundancy for something to really sink in. My aunt who’s a professor of rhetoric at UC Riverside says: If you want someone to remember something, tell them three times. Three is a good number of times to tell someone something if it’s important that they remember it. Most people will forget anything you don’t tell them at least three times.That’s why we have the classical rhetorical strategy of: tell them what you’re going to to tell them. Tell them the thing. Tell them what you just told them.I think this kind of strategy actually can solve the hyberbole problem to. Sly subtle irony only works if the social contract governing the communication implies close careful reading. If not, it helps to beat someone over the head with something and concision is the enemy of that.– Greg