In the heart of the sea

I would like to talk to one film that I have recently seen: In the heart of the sea. I really enjoy this film (not only for the main character, Chris Hemsworth) for the story itself. This film is based on the novel Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville (1819 – 1891) and published in 1851. This book is one of the top works of world literature and for write it, the author was inspired in a totally true story: a great albino animal of these characteristic has existed wandering the ocean, sinking boats and being chased by the most daring whalers. So the book tells the story of the whaler Pequod commanded by Capitan Ahab, who had the obsessive and we also can say, self-destructive, hot pursuit of a great white sperm whale.

I think that one of the things that I like most of the story itself is the fact that it really could be a real one. At the beginnings of the 19th century, whaling was probably the most dangerous, unpleasant, and less rewarded of all occupations. Signing for a trip whaling could mean beeing up to five years away from home and a trip to the end of the Earth. The life of a whaler was between blood and blubber, with long periods of boredom and often, with violent deaths, but it was a big business. The whale blubber provisioned to the streets of London, New York, Berlin or París the necessary fuel for to illuminate them and most machines of the industrial revolution used the same fuel.

For this, it’s strange how rarely Moby Dick has been filmed, this story has never been a Hollywood obsession as other popular and good know adventure books as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea or Journey to the center of the Earth, both of Julio Verne, that had been on screen several times. Anyway, this adaptation is a very good one if you didn’t know about Movie Dick story or if you want to know more about it.

The film, directed by Ron Howard, although tell us the same story, it’s narrated in a different way. In 1850, the young Herman Melville (author of the original book),  visits Thomas Nickerson, the last survivor of the whaler Essex, and he’s willing to pay him for know the story of Movie Dick. This sailor put us in the winter of 1820, when the Essex, a British whaler, was assaulted by something that nobody could imagine: an enormous size albino whale with almost, the human sense of revenge, and it comes the second big difference with the book: the novel only tell us the mind of the story, In the heart of the sea reveals us the terrible consequences of the meeting, when the survivals of the crew, among them who narrates the story, were forced to their limits and were compelled to make the impossible to stay alive. They had to face storms, the famine, the desperation and the panic. In that context, all men doubt even about their belief, about the value of their lives and also, about the morality of their office.

The book thief

The Book Thief is a novel written by Markus Zusak, an Australian writer also known for other novels as Cartas Cruzadas. He published this book in 2005 and with it, he won the literary prize Michale L. Printz in 2007 and he achieved a record of 105 weeks on the list of youth novels of the New York Times. 

An interesting fact related to the biography of this author is the interest that he have, since he was little, about the Nazi Germany, the bombing of Munich, the Jewish abuse,… interests that linked with the different experiences lived by their parents, from Australia and Germany, during the Second World War helped and inspired him to write The Book Thief. 

Unlike other works as El niño del pijama de rayas of John Boyne, La bibliotecaria de Auschwitz of Antonio Iturbe or Bajo el mismo cielo of Núria Pradas and in which the authors talk about what was lived during the Second World War from different points of view: the son of a nazi general, Jews and prisoners in a concentration camp,… the The Book Thief does it from a quite different and less common perspective: from the point of view of German citizens who, as far as is possible, try to go on with their lives as the war is progressing. That way, the history of the novel revolves around the host family of Liessel Meissl, a little Germany girl who because of the war, she would live various adventures and misadventures, she would meet different characters that will mark her life as Rudy, a guy obsessed with Jesse Owen and who will became her best friend; Max, a young Jewish that Liessel family will try to hide in his basement and many others as Hans or Rosa, characters that will teach her the love of reading and writing. In fact, as the novel progresses, we will realize the reason of the tittle: Liessel, after get to her new home and after the death of his little brother, she develops a great love for the reading and writing thanks to her new father and her new friend Max and for this, she will try to gather and collect all books she found and even, she will steal some books from the library of the woman of the mayor of the city who will baptize she as “the book thief”.

Another singularity of this book that makes it special and different is the narrator: the death. She (not the typical one wearing a layer and holding a sickle) tells us, at the beginning of the novel, that there are few stories in the world worthwhile tell but that the book thief is one of those.

Personally, books with this kind of thematic, I mean, based on the First or Second World War, about the Nazi concentration camps and other historical facts are of my favourites whereby I have read a lot of them and I have to say that this one in particular, The Book Thief, surprise you for the originality of the narrator and for other things as the topics discusses or rather, the way that the author explains them because he doesn't focus, as the main majority, in the conflict itself or in the refugees or prisoners lives,  but history reveals us the life of the German population during the war: how young people were recruited, families without fathers, how the population reacts in the middle of the night in front of the sirens that announced possibleairstrikes and also, the more depressive and dark episodes of the war are mix with friendship or comic episodes and all narrated by an a compassionate death.

For all of this I think that, independently whether you like this genre or not, you should give a chance to this novel because it has a complete history inside, and if you don't feel like reading, last year was relased the film!!

The Blind Side

The Blind Side is one of my favorites films. I had seen it thousands of times and I think that I will never get tired of it. It's about one big black boy called Michael Oher that have to live in friends’ houses or even, he have to sleep in the street because he have a lot of family problems: he don't know nothing about his father, his mother is a junkie and he was separated from his brothers by the Social services when he was very young. He goes to the school but he gets mark down and the teachers don’t want to help him because he never pay attention in class and he can barely write. He doesn't have any friend except a little and funny boy called Sean JR. 

JR mother, Ane, it's an interior designer with a strong character. One day, she see Michael walking alone down the street, at night and shivering with cold then, she decided to provide him a place to sleep at home. The next morning, Michael leaves the house but Ane, invites him to stay longer. 

Gradually, Michale becomes a member of the family and later, they will end up adopting him. 

Parallel to all of this, Michale start to improve his marks and the school allow him to enter in the football team. At first, this sport not convince him because he don't want to hurt anyone, but later, he also improve because he considerate the team his family and he wants to protect them (and he also has the help of all his family, overcoat, of his new little brother) At the end, he's so good in this sport that all the university teams wants to contracted him for the respective university teams. 

At least, a boy who apparently, will not going to get anything in his life, ends in the university and playing in a professional football team. The best of this film is that it's based in a true story.

Nightmares before Christmas

How this last Friday was Halloween, I have remembered one of my favorites films of when I was little: Nightmares after Christmas. I thought that it was a Halloween film and I haven't remembered that it was also a Christmas movie... it doesn't matter, also Christmas it's above to arrive.

I used to watch this film with my siblings because it was my brother's favorite film too, we will have seen more than thirty times!

The film starts in the cemetery where once a year, the city of Halloween where monsters, ghosts, zombies and all kind of this "dead creatures" lives, is the responsible of the preparing of the day of Halloween for the "real world". Jack Skellington is the king of this city and he's the one that decides what to do, even so, he's tired of having to prepare always the same. One night, while Jack is walking his dog Zero through the forest a little worried, he get lost and then, he find out something that he doesn't expected to find: the city of Christmas. Jack is hold spellbound for the decoration of the streets, all the colors, the lights, the snow,... but the thing that impresses him the most was Santa Claus, a friendly and a loving big man who was the king of this fantastic city. Is then when Jack decide to replace Santa Claus for create his own version of Christmas. For get his objective, he convinces all his friends from the Halloween city that, inmediately starts to work making his own versions of gifts, of sweets,...

At the same time, Jack meets the doll Sally who is in love with him.

I love this film because it isn't like the typical Christmas films: it's a gothic story were "the bad" charcter is a big bag full of worms and his helpers are the three troublemakers from school, a doll full of sewings is the slae of Dr. Frankenstein, who is invalid and he's the most unpleasant character and besides that, she fall in love with a skeleton! In adittion, Santa Claus is battered. Another think that I like about the film is that it's like a scary movie for childrens. I remembered that the fisrt time I watched this film, I was very scared and I had nightmares but the next day, I saw the film again and I continue watching the film and  I continue feeling a little scared.

I really like the music of this film and I still remember the lyrics of the first song that appears in the film that was my favorite song too. Following, you have the video where you can also see all the characters of the city of Halloween!