Medical professionals enjoy assisting others when they are hurting. As one CNA training website says, “While caring for their physical needs over a period of weeks, months or years, CNAs also develop relationships with patients. In many cases, these are important relationship, which patients deeply appreciate.”

This emotional connection is not limited to nurse aides, but all medical professionals appreciate it. Likewise, anyone working in medicine will appreciate these top 10 medical movies that tug at the heartstrings.

1. The Doctor
The Doctor, which was released in 1991, stars William Hurt, Christine Lahti, and Elizabeth Perkins. This movie is about a doctor who loses the emotional connection with his patients, but then experiences life as a patient with cancer.

2. Patch Adams
Released in 1998, Patch Adams stars Robin Williams. In his classic comedic style, Robin Williams plays a character who cheers up psychiatric patients through humor.

3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a classic movie from 1976. Starring Jack Nicholas, this story about a convicted criminal who voluntarily enters a mental institution stretches the boundaries of insanity. It also happened to be the first film to win the five major Academy Awards.

4. Philadelphia
Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington are the biggest names in this 1991 film. Philadelphia challenges stereotypes of homosexuals and people with AIDs, by relaying the true story of a prominent, homosexual lawyer with AIDs.

5. My Own Country
My Own Country’s main roles are fulfilled by Naveen Andrews, Glenne Headly and Hal Holbrook. This 2000 feature takes viewers away from the issues at home and transports them to Ethiopia, where it takes place.

6. Awakenings
Awakenings was a major movie in 1990, with big names like Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. This story is about a determined doctor, who is the only one to believe in his new drug.

7. And the Band Played On
And the Band Played On, which came out in 1993, deals with subject matter similar to Philadelphia. It tells the story of a man determined to investigate the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s, no matter who is against him.

8. The Hospital
Few movies can make work suicide into a comedy, but this 1971 film succeeds. The Hospital is about a doctor who wants to commit suicide and frame his death as an accident. However, several unusual deaths thwart his plans.

9. Brittania Hospital
In this 1982 dark British comedy, the creators of Brittania Hospital explore England’s medical system, as well as human nature. Viewers should be warned that this is an intriguing, but dark film.

10. Bringing Out the Dead
Bringing Out the Dead was a major feature in 1999. Its cast includes Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, and Ving Rhames. This film explores, through a man and a daughter the failure that medical personal sometimes experience.

Any of these 10 movies will resonate with the hearts of medical professionals, whether they are doctors, nurses or CNAs. No matter where one is on the medical totem pole, the emotions involved in caring for people are the same. For more medical movies, people can consult IMDB.

Author Bio: Wayne Page writes for http://CNATrainingCenter.net, an outstanding guide for any and all prospective CNAs looking for more information. ]]> http://finemoviesonline.net/mag/top-10-movies-for-the-medical-heart/feed 0 http://finemoviesonline.net/mag/black-book http://finemoviesonline.net/mag/black-book#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 11:20:56 +0000 Moovy http://finemoviesonline.net/mag/?p=1047 Black Book
At the Kibbutz Stein in Israel in 1956, school teacher Rachel (Clarice van Houten) is reunited with Ronnie (Halina Reijn), a friend from The Hague during World War II. After Ronnie leaves, Rachel reflects on her adventures during the final days of the war.

In 1944, Rachel hides from the Nazis in a farm in the Dutch countryside. In exchange for hiding her, they expect her to learn Bible verses. One day, a crippled Allied bomber drops its payload on the farmhouse, killing everyone except Rachel. Rob (Michiel Heisman), a young man from a neighboring farm, hides her in the family’s greenhouse. That night, Van Gein (Peter Blok), a police officer, arrives to tell them that the Nazis know that Rachel is in the area and will hunt her down. He agrees to help Rachel and Rob escape to the Allied controlled southern part of Holland. Rachel visits her father’s lawyer, Smaal (Dolf de Vries). He gives her enough money and jewels to live on for a year but warns her not to trust people so easily. Van Gein leads Rachel and Rob to a dock where other Jews wait to leave. Rachel is reunited with her parents and brother, who is recovering from an emergency appendectomy. Van Gein does not accompany the Jews on the boat trip. That evening, the boat is ambushed by a Nazi patrol boat. The Nazis immediately open fire; only Rachel survives the massacre. Before drifting down the river, she sees the Nazis loot the corpses.

Rachel is found by Resistance fighters who smuggle her into The Hague by disguising her as a typhoid victim and placing her in a coffin that if properly “sealed” has sizable air holes. She is taken to a soup kitchen run by another member of the Resistance, Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint) and given the new name of Ellis de Vries. Eventually she is made a part of the Resistance’s plans to smuggle in British guns and rations. The smugglers are led by Hans Akkermans (Thom Hoffman), an expert marksman. He and Ellis are to pose as husband and wife so the Nazis will not search their luggage on the train; the luggage is actually full of weaponry. But when the Nazi soldiers on the train clearly do intend to search all baggage, a new plan is needed. Ellis takes the bags and enters a private compartment occupied by SD Colonel Müntze (Sebastian Koch). The Nazis don’t search Müntze’s compartment. Ellis and Müntze are clearly attracted to each other and she accepts an offer to visit him at his office. Hans is clearly jealous.

A truck carrying the British guns crashes in front of the soup kitchen. Kuiper’s son, Tim (Ronald Armbrust) was driving and is arrested by the Gestapo. While the others go into hiding, Ellis arranges a meeting with Müntze hoping that she can persuade him to release Tim. Knowing he is an avid stamp collector, she takes some rare Dutch stamps to him. He invites her to a Nazi party. There she sees SS commandant Günter Franken (Waldemar Kobus) and recognizes him as the Nazi who led the ambush against the refugee boat. Although she is sickened at his sight, she manages to sing at the party later. She and Müntze return to his suite to make love. He intuits that she is Jewish from her dyed blond hair but has fallen in love with her. She accepts a job in his office and begins work the following day. There she meets Ronnie, who is Franken’s secretary/sex partner. Franken gives them a report indicating that Tim has confessed everything and is to be executed, however, Müntze refuses to sign the execution order.

Ellis sees Smaal at Nazi headquarters and learns that he and Müntze have negotiated a cease fire — if the Resistance ceases its attacks against the Nazis, the Nazis will cease its violent reprisals against Dutch civilians. However, when a hidden microphone placed by Ellis in Franken’s office reveals that Franken and Van Gein have been working together to kill and rob Jews trying to escape into Allied territory, a controversy amongst the Resistance fighters ensues. Van Gein is heard asking where Franken gets his information as to where the Jews are hiding, which Franken refuses to answer. Ellis wants vengeance for her family but Kuipers refuses to risk breaking the truce because his son will be killed. He betrays a level of anti-semitism when he asks if Jewish lives are any more important than Dutch lives. Behind Kuipers’ back, Hans and several others agree to kidnap Van Gein and make it look like he went underground to protect himself. Hans tries to drug Van Gein with chloroform but it doesn’t work because the medicine has passed its expiration date. When Van Gein nearly escapes, they are forced to kill him and dump his body in the canal. That night, Müntze confronts Ellis about her participation in the Resistance.

Smaal procures the building plans for the Nazi headquarters from a friend at city hall; the building used to be a bank. A plan is devised to sneak into the building during a party in honor of Hitler’s birthday. Using information given to him by Ellis, Müntze accuses Franken of hoarding property and valuables confiscated from Jews, a capital offense. When a search of Franken’s safe comes up empty, Franken accuses Müntze of negotiating with terrorists — the Resistance. Müntze is sentenced to death, and Franken announces that forty hostages will be executed in retaliation for the murder of Van Gein. The rescue effort will now be more complex, and Ellis insists that Müntze be one of those liberated because she is in love with him. That night, she leaves a coal chute door open for Hans and the others to enter, then goes to sing at the party. The Resistance members enter the building and free many of the prisoners. However, they are then ambushed by Nazi soldiers. Only Hans and one other Resistance member survive. Franken takes Ellis to his office and uses the hidden microphone, which he knows about, to make it seem like Ellis has been collaborating with him against the Resistance. Kuipers vows to kill her. But Franken already intends to, along with Müntze. That night, Ronnie uses her body as a diversion while another sympathetic soldier frees Ellis and Müntze from their cells.

A few days later, the Germans surrender and World War II (in Europe) ends. Ellis and Müntze make their way back to The Hague. They go to see Smaal, who they believe to be the one who had betrayed the Resistance fighters and Jews to Franken. He denies it and claims to have proof of the real culprit which he intends to take to the Canadian military government controlling the city. However, before he can do so, an unknown assailant kills Smaal and his wife. Resistance fighters trap Müntze and Ellis, although she takes Smaal’s notebook. Franken attempts to escape by boat with the loot taken from the Jews but Hans kills him.

Muntze, in the custody of the Canadian army, is sentenced to death by his former commanding officer, General Käutner, who argues to his Canadian counterpart that Nazi officers still have the authority to punish their own officers for misconduct. Müntze is executed for his contact with Communists in the Resistance. Ellis is kept in a pen with other Dutch accused of collaborating with the Nazis. She and her fellow prisoners are treated deplorably by other local residents, an incident that is broken up by Hans, who berates his countrymen for acting like their Nazi occupiers during the war. Hans, who is now considered a hero of the Resistance, finds Ellis and takes her to his office. On the way, they distribute some chocolate bars to children. In his office, he shows her the money and valuables he took from Franken and reveals that Müntze was executed. Ellis breaks down in tears. Hans tells her that he is giving her a sedative but actually injects her with a lethal amount of insulin. He was the traitor in the Resistance and feels he must kill Ellis to cover his tracks. But when he goes to his window to accept the cheers of an adoring crowd, Ellis wolfs down a chocolate bar to counteract the insulin and escapes with Smaal’s black book.

She takes the evidence to Kuipers, who is at a nearby mass grave where the body of his son has been uncovered. They leave to find Hans, who is trying to escape the city with the Jewish money and valuables. They find him on a country road, using the same method that was used to smuggle Rachel into the Resistance — the coffin with the hidden vent. Although he offers to give some of the money to them, Kuipers and Ellis seal off his air supply and let him suffocate to death. On the banks of the river, they debate what to do with the money.

In 1956, at the Kibbutz Stein, which was founded with the Jewish money, Rachel and her family disappear behind the fences as armed Israeli soldiers arrive to guard it from an unseen enemy, marking the beginning of the Suez Crisis.

Blood Diamond

The film begins with the capture of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman, by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels when they invade the small Sierra Leonian village of Shenge. Separated from his family, Solomon is enslaved to work in the diamond fields under the command of Captain Poison (David Harewood) while his son Dia is conscripted into the rebel forces, the brainwashing eventually turning him into a hardened killer. The RUF use the diamonds to fund their war effort, often trading them directly for arms. While working in the RUF diamond fields as a forced laborer, Solomon finds a large diamond of rare pink colouring. Moments before government troops launch an attack, Captain Poison sees Solomon hiding the diamond. Captain Poison is injured in the attack before he can get the stone, and both he and Solomon are taken to prison in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an Anglo ex-mercenary from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), trades arms for diamonds with an RUF commander. He is imprisoned after being caught smuggling the diamonds into neighboring Liberia, and the diamonds are confiscated. He had been transporting the diamonds to a South African mercenary named Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), who is in turn employed by South African diamond company executive Van De Kaap (Marius Weyers) and his deputy Simmons (Michael Sheen). Coetzee is Archer’s former commander in 32 Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War, made up of Angolan and Rhodesian soldiers and white South African officers. Archer is desperate for a way to repay Colonel Coetzee for the diamonds taken from him when he was arrested and thrown in jail, in the same prison as the fisherman. While in prison, he overhears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the discovery of the large diamond and decides to hunt down the stone. He arranges for Solomon’s release from prison and offers to help him find his family in exchange for the diamond.

Archer and Solomon find their way to Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist, who helps Solomon track down his family. Bowen soon learns that Archer is using Solomon to find his diamond and will eventually steal it for himself, to leave Africa forever. Bowen, a humanitarian, refuses to help Archer unless he can tell her about the diamond market to stop the flow of blood diamonds out of Africa, cutting off funding for Civil War and ending a mass revolution. Archer gives Bowen the information that she wants and gets access to use the press convoy to travel to Kono to find the diamond.

The convoy is attacked and Archer, Solomon and Bowen escape and find their way to the South African mercenary force under Colonel Coetzee. There they learn of the attack force preparing to retake Sierra Leone — a reference to the actual 1995 hiring of South African security firm Executive Outcomes by the provisional government of Sierra Leone. The two men leave the camp on foot while Bowen boards a plane carrying foreigners out of the conflict zone. After an arduous overnight trek, the men reach the mining camp in a river valley, still under RUF control, where Solomon discovered and buried the large diamond. Here, Solomon is painfully reunited with his son Dia, who refuses to acknowledge him because he has been brainwashed by the rebels. Solomon is also reunited with Captain Poison, who orders him to find the diamond, but the South African mercenary force, also after the diamond, dispatches the RUF rebels in a massive air strike which kills many of the RUF rebels and some of the miners. Amist the choas, Solomon suffers from temporary insanity and kills Poison with a shovel. Through a deal with Archer, Colonel Coetzee forces Solomon to retrieve the stone. In a desperate battle, Archer kills Coetzee and the other two soldiers with him after realizing that they would have killed both Archer and Solomon upon locating the diamond. At this point Dia holds Archer and Solomon at gunpoint with a pistol, but Solomon manages to convince him to side with them.

As Archer overturns a body to take equipment he realizes he has been shot, but keeps this to himself. Having arranged in advance for a plane to pick him up, he radios to the pilot, Benjamin Kapanay (Basil Wallace), who demands that Archer dump Solomon and Dia. Slowly and painfully the group makes its way from the valley towards an airstrip atop a nearby ridge. Archer collapses, unable to climb, and Solomon carries him a little ways before Archer has him put him down. He tells Solomon to take Dia home, knowing that he is dying, and gives them the diamond. Archer holds off the soldiers chasing them while Solomon and Dia flee, and then makes a final phone call to Bowen, asking her to help Solomon as a last favor before looking out over the beautiful landscape of Africa once more and dying peacefully.

With the help of Bowen, Solomon trades the diamond to Simmons for a large sum of money and the reunification of his family, making the exchange as Solomon’s wife and children deplane from a Lear Jet at a London airport. Bowen, who secretly photographs the deal, later publishes a magazine piece exposing the trade in “conflict” or “blood” diamonds. The film ends with Solomon smiling at the photograph Maddy took of Archer earlier, now published in her magazine along with the complete story of their journey, before addressing a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa, describing his experiences. This refers to an actual meeting that took place in Kimberley in 2000 and led to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds.

The Last King of Scotland

In his room, Nicholas spins a globe promising himself “first place you land you go first place you land you go.” Shutting his eyes, he jabs the spinning globe. Opening his eyes he sees that his finger has landed on Canada. Thinking about it for a moment or two, he spins the globe again and this time his finger lands on Uganda.

Credit rolls as we are in Uganda. It is bright, sunny, lush, and full of activities and life. Nicholas is riding the bus and becomes friendly with a young woman . A line of military vehicles and tanks pass the bus on their way to a military coup to overthrow president Obote. Nicholas is completely clueless and the young woman assures Nicholas they are safe and it will be a great time for Uganda now that Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) will be president. Nicholas and the young woman have sex in her home.

Nicholas arrives at his destination and meets Sarah (Gillian Anderson), the pretty wife of Dr. Merrit (Adam Kotz) whom he will be working for in a rural clinic. Merrit is a dedicated doctor, a “good man” who frequently leaves his wife and Nicholas alone in the clinic while he attends emergency cases several miles away. Nicholas offers to accompany Merrit or attend to an emergency case himself but Merrit dismissively tells him to stay at the clinic. Nicholas is disappointed with his latest ‘father figure’. Sarah has a world-weariness about her.

Though 80% of the villagers prefer their witch doctors, Nicholas still has his hands full with treatments and inoculations. While playing soccer with the village children, he hears that Amin will be giving a speech nearby and convince Sarah to attend the rally with him. The two really stands out in the rally as they are the only white people there. Listening to Amin orating to a crowd of Ugandans, Nicholas is deeply impressed and enjoys the high spiritedness around him. Amin promises a reign of peace, prosperity, public health care and other visionary advancements. Nicholas sees Amin as the rest of the world first sees him; a charismatic and entertaining figure who was greeted with enthusiasm by his people and who seemed to have their interests at heart.

Driving back to the clinic Sarah cynically said the Ugandans gave the same party to Obote before throwing him out. Nicholas think Sarah should give the man the chance to do his job before criticizing him. They are interrupted by terrified soldiers begging them to come treat Amin who has been in an accident. The scared soldier is our first clue of Amin’s true character.

The presidential motorcade has collided with a cow and Amin is sure that his hand is broken. Nicholas quickly determines that the injury is just a strain and works to bandage Amin’s hand. Unable to concentrate on his bandaging on account of the dying cow’s incessant bellowing, Nicholas impulsively grabs a pistol sitting on the car and shoots the cow, putting it out of its misery. With 10 machine guns immediately trained on him, Nicholas stammers an apology and returns the gun to a menacing Amin who demands to know if Nicholas is British. Nicholas clarifies that he is Scottish and shows his emblem tee shirt under his first shirt. Amin’s behavior immediately does a 180 degree turn and praises the Scottish culture and people, especially their historical warriors. Nicholas is confused but charmed by this man who seems to take a genuine interest in him. Amin asks for Nicholas’ tee shirt for his son, Campbell and the two men exchange shirts. Amin’s military shirt sits like an oversize coat on Nicholas.

Later that night Nicholas invites Sarah for drinks on the porch. Knowing full well of Nicholas’ intention, Sarah confides that as a wife of a “good man” she is often unnoticed and undervalued. Nicholas is empathetic as his own father is a “good man”. Nicholas kisses her; Sarah quickly comes to her senses and leaves Nicholas alone. The next day the Uganda’s Health Minister, who is Amin’s #1 adviser, arrives to bring Nicholas to Amin in the presidential limousine. Thinking that the hypochondriac Amin just wants him to re-tie the bandages, Nicholas promises Sarah that he will return soon and is whisked away to the bustling capital, an active modern city and a far cry from the dilapidated village Nicholas was working in.

Nicholas meets Amin and is taken back by the offer to be his personal physician. In an example where Amin’s craziness seems benign at first he tells Nichol that he has already dreamed the date of his own death. “I know exactly when I’m going to die so you do not need to worry about making a mistake”. Nicholas turns down the job offer twice and Amin guessed that Nicholas has an infatuation with a married woman back in the village. He promised to take Nicholas back to the village first thing in the morning but first he must attend tonight’s state dinner. Since Nicholas does not have a suit Amin sends him to a tailor.

Measured for a suit by Asian tailors (they are either Indian or Pakistanis), Nicholas worries about the cost and the tailor assures him it is covered by the president’s account. Over hearing this is a British diplomat, Stone. Outside the tailor shop Nicholas hears a commotion and sees a man being chased by Amin’s men, who catches the man and stuff him into the trunk of their car. Amin’s men are hunting down suspected Obote’s supporter. Stone praises Amin’s “firm hand” -after all, he trained among Scottish soldiers with the King’s African Rifles. Stone says Amin is one of their own.

The state dinner is a lavish affair and Nicholas is introduced to Amin’s wives. Wife #1 has given Amin 5 children and wife #2 has given Amin 3 children. The third wife is simply introduced as Kay. Kay tersely thanks Nicholas for the tee shirt for her son Campell, it is her way of saying she has given Amin a child as well. Amin makes a rousing speech starting with stories of Greeks stealing philosophies and Arabs stealing medicine knowledge from Africa and claiming them as their own. He said Uganda will be an independent and great African country and, please enjoy the food as he humorously promise that is contains no human flesh. Nicholas meets Stone again and Stone remarked it is nice to have another Englishman around. Nicholas peevishly clarifies that he is a Scotsman. Amin’s fondness for Nicholas is obvious and the British diplomats tease Nicholas that Amin has “clasped you to his bosom”.

Nicholas is woken in the middle of the night by the frantic servant and summoned to Amin’s bed room. Amin is lying in bed in pain, sure he has been poisoned. Nicholas palpates the stomach and notice glasses of beer and aspirin on the night stand. He finds a baseball bat, press it against Amin’s stomach and large amount of gas is released. Amin immediately feels better and Health Minister, who was watching the entire scene, leaves. Amin is ashamed and upset that Nicholas has seen him in his greatest weakness; fear and paranoia. Nicholas assures confidentiality due to the doctor’s oath. Amin opens up a bit to Nicholas with stories from his childhood while the soundtrack tells us that Nicholas has been unwittingly trapped.

Some time later Nicholas calls Sarah to apologize but he has accepted Amin’s offer. In the background Amin is playing with his numerous children. Nicholas is given a swanky apartment in the immaculate presidential compound and his job is set up in the Presidential Hospital where he meets his predecessor, Dr. Junju. At the hospital he runs into Stone again who wants to use Nicholas as a spy due to his exceptional access to Amin. Nicholas rebuffs Stone’s offer, nonetheless Stone cautions him to “keep in touch.”

Nicholas enjoys the benefits of being in Amin’s inner circle and Amin takes him everywhere except outside of Uganda. Due to their great physical differences, Nicholas looks something like Amin’s pet or trophy. Very soon Nicholas is more than Amin’s personal physician but also his most trusted advisor, something Amin says many times in front of senior officers. One day Amin tells Nicholas to attend a meeting in his place as he has to go to Libya at the last minute. Nicholas arrives to the meeting and introduces himself. The attendees are surprised that Nicholas is a doctor and Nicholas is surprised to learn the attendees are important contractors from the foreign consulates. The meeting is to bid for construction contracts.

Dressed in Islamic garbs, Amin examines the model for the new building and is pleased with the design Nicholas has chosen. Praising Nicholas’ good taste, Amin tells the Health Minister he has no sense of style. The Health Minister simply stares at Amin. Amin’s pleasant mood turns sour and sends the Health Minister away. Amin asked Nicholas if he thought the Health Minister looked at Amin strangely. Nicholas says no.

While examining X-ray pictures, Nicholas and Junji hear a series of explosions. Rushing to the hospital roof they see columns of smoke rising in the distant hills where political prisoners are held in a prison. Series of gun fires can be heard. A messenger comes running looking for Nicholas, saying that the President’s son is sick. Nicholas is taken to a house and finds a distressed Kay hovering over a boy in the midst of a seizure. Nicholas assumes that the boy is Campbell but Kay says he is Mackenzie. It is clear Nicholas never heard or seen Mackenzie before despite being the family’s physician, and it is clearer that Kay and the servants have no idea Mackenzie’s condition is called epilepsy. Nicholas wants to take Mackenzie to the hospital but Kay begs Nicholas not to, as she and her son are banished from the palace. Kay says Amin regards her as a “bad omen” wife because of Mackenzie’s condition and they cannot live in the palace with the other families. Nicholas gives Mackenzie a shot to calm the seizure and then puts him to bed. Nicholas finds it ridiculous that Mackenzie does not have access to medical attention and makes an appointment for McKenzie at the hospital. Kay looks at Nicholas differently this time.

Amin is hosting a state event and he is dressed in a Scottish garb, kilt and all. Scottish folk songs are sung in African arrangements. During the ceremony Kay and Nicholas exchange glances; Amin notices this. The following morning Nicholas is woken early by Amin. To thank Nicholas for helping his epileptic son Amin gives him a brand new silver Mercedes convertible. Nicholas is beyond thrilled and Amin wants Nicholas to drive him to the airport. Nicholas returns to his apartment to change only to see that Amin has followed him into his room. Realizing Amin is not going to leave, Nicholas quickly changes his clothes and asks about the explosions and gun fires heard coming from the hills. Amin said his men held off Obete’s men at the prison and quickly changes the subject.

Driving together to the airport following the presidential limousine, Amin tells Nicholas that his epileptic son has all the material comfort he needs. Nicholas argues that exiling the boy denies him treatment and a father’s attention. Amin counter that Nicholas has never been poor. Their argument is interrupted by trucks of assassins targeting the presidential limousine. Nicholas manages to drive Amin out of harm’s way.

Once secured and surrounded by military men, Amin freaks out and repeats to Nicholas that he cannot die because he seen it in his dream. Amin continues to rant and vent about traitors while Nicholas is silent and shell shocked. Amin begins screaming for his number #1 advisor, the Health Minister, and belittles Nicholas for not knowing where he is. A solider comes to Amin to tell him some of the assassins are caught. Amin brings Nicholas with him to see the captured assassins who are being tortured. While Amin screams and rants at the prisoners, Nicholas looks down and notice there is blood on his hand.

Nicholas is shaken by the recent event and goes to a Holiday Inn lounge to unwind and calm down. There he sees the Health Minister talking to a white man in a secretive manner. Some time later Nicholas is in Amin’s office having him sign papers for supplies for the hospital. As he is leaving, Amin calls Nicholas back and ask him what is on his mind as it is obvious Nicholas is distracted. Nicholas admits he saw the Health Minister at the Holiday Inn lounge talking to a strange white man. It’s probably nothing but perhaps Amin should talk to the Health Minister. Nicolas reiterates it is likely “nothing.”

While lounging in the pool in presidential compound, Nicholas sees Kay and MacKenzie playing the pool with the rest of the family. Kay tells Nicholas that Mackenzie is doing much better now that he is allowed to return to the palace and play with his brothers. Kay seems happy for the first time and looks at Nicholas fondly. While Nicholas is admiring Kay, Stone arrives and tells Nicholas that people are disappearing in the country side. Out of loyalty and ignorance, Nicholas accuses Stone of being a typical Brit with no regard for Africa and that he’s sure there is a perfectly reasonably explanation for those disappearances. Stone then tells Nicholas that the Health Minister is one of the disappeared. Panicked, Nicholas goes to the Ministry of Health building only to find a different person is now the Health Minister. Nicholas knows it is his fault the Health Minister is likely dead even as he delivers the “official statement” that the Heath Minister has fled the country for embezzling funds and is a suspected Obete supporter. Nicholas soon learns that the Health Minister was securing a supply of medicine from the white man in Holiday Inn lounge.

It is raining heavily late at night and Nicholas floating in the pool alone, distressed and upset. Nicholas goes to see Amin to announce he is going home. Amin turns around and it’s actually a body double in Amin’s uniform. The real Amin and his goons jump out of the shadow laughing and teasing Nicholas. Amin kept saying “I caught you I caught you” in a childish manner. There are several body doubles in the room and Amin asks Nicholas if the body doubles are more handsome than him. Nicholas of course says no and Amin taunts one of the body doubles that he is ugly. This is another example of Amin insulting his underlings.

After sending his body doubles and goons out of the room, Amin turns serious and tells Nicholas that he cannot go back to Scotland, Uganda is his home now and he is like to a son to Amin. Nicholas begs that he is way over his head especially after the Health Minister affair. Amin scolds Nicholas for his naivety (“nothing can come from nothing”), arrogance, and his white man’s attitude toward Africa. Amin then embraces him.

Amin throws a party with go-go girls to cheer Nicholas up, even featuring himself as an Uganda cowboy. This doesn’t help as Nicholas still looks very unhappy and drowns down alcohol after alcohol. He runs away from a go-go girl assigned to him and straight into Kay’s arms. They end up having sex in a room while the party is still going outside. Kay warns Nicholas that Amin has always been this way and only now he shows his true character to Nicholas. She tells him needs to find a way to get out of Uganda. Nicholas still tries to rationalize that things aren’t really that bad. Nicholas and Kay return to the party to find it dispirited now that Amin is playing a melancholy tune on the accordion in a trance-like state. This is one of many examples of Amin’s quicksilver mood changes.

Nicholas returns to his apartment after the party only to find it in completely ransacked. He finds an envelope and upon opening it finds a Uganda passport with his picture. His Scottish passport gone, Nicholas goes to see Stone who shows him gruesome pictures of murdered people suspected of being Obete’s supporters, even entire tribes have been wiped out. Stone saves the best for last, a picture of the dead Health Minister. Stricken, Nicholas pleads for help to get out of Uganda but Stone says he has to “earn his passage” by killing Amin now that the British can no longer control him. Nicholas learns that he has been called “Amin’s white monkey” by others.

Trapped without friend or allies, Nicholas and Kay continue to find comfort with one another.

Amin grows increasingly unpredictable and Nicholas’ hospital is filled with refugees and victims of Amin’s regime. His latest crazy scheme is to kick all Asians out of Uganda within 90 days, calling them leaches. This is part of Amin’s plan for an all-black African country. Nicholas arrives at the hospital to find it in total chaos as Amin’s goons are trying to expel Asian patients. Goon#1 is beating up Junju and Nicholas stops him and demands that the goons leave the hospital. The goons leave but not before goon#1 gives Nicholas an especially evil glare.

Nicholas goes to Amin and tells him he cannot expel the Asians as they have lived in Uganda for generations and only they have the ability to run the infrastructure of the country. Uganda’s economy will be severely crippled if Amin carries out this mad plan. Amin doesn’t believe Nicholas and angrily dismisses him as “nothing but a doctor – a nobody”.

Kay calls Nicholas in a panic that Amin is “going to kill us.” She is pregnant. Kay threatens to go to a village witch doctor and Nicholas begs her not do, that he will somehow arrange the abortion in a clinical setting and that they will do it first thing in the morning. The following morning Nicholas tells Junju what has happened and he understandably freaks out and refuses to have the abortion done in the hospital as Amin is sure to find out and kill any doctors performing the abortion. Nicholas decide he will have to do it himself and raids the medical supply room for the necessary operation when goon #1 interrupts him and said Amin wants to see him right away.

Amin is in hysterics, furious over international newspapers labeling him a madman and a cannibal. He screams that “these are all lies!” and threatens to throw out all foreign journalists out of Uganda. He starts in on Nicholas and angrily demands to know why Nicholas did not warn him not to throw the Asians out of Uganda. Nicholas furiously protests that he did precisely this, and Amin throws back, “Ah, but you did not persuade me!”

Cornered, Nicholas advices Amin not to throw the journalists out of Uganda but instead invite them where he can turn on the charm. Amin calms down and happily coos “what will I do without my Nicholas.” But Nicholas only looks frightened and Amin asks if there is anything else. Nicholas says no. Amin stalks and grabs Nicholas by the face and asks again. Nicholas, losing courage, still says no. Amin lets go of him and says he has to stay for the press conference.

By now we realize the two men’s relationship is something of bizarre love affair, an on-then-off again romance with the heart of darkness. The irony is Nicholas left Scotland to escape a controlling father figure only to be captivated by another, and has gone from the frying pan and into the inferno.

At the press conference Amin turn on his charm for the media to distract them and the world from what he’s really doing. It works as nearly all the foolish journalists nod their heads in agreement with Amin’s ridiculous explanations. Not surprising as many of history’s great villains were charismatic enough to get people to go along with their actions. In this conference we find out why Amin calls himself the Last King of Scotland. He sees in Scottish devolutionary ambition a parallel to Africa’s own struggle against the English and announces since he has successfully defeated the British, he will do the same for Scotland and hence he will be their king.

After the press conference Nicholas drives like a bat out of hell to Kay’s house only to find weeping servants telling him Kay has already gone to the witch doctor and now has been taken to the hospital due to complications from the back-alley abortion. Nicholas rushes to the hospital only to hear creepy wailings. Following the noise he finds series of crying people in the hallway, some appear to have gone insane. Going down to the basement he finds hordes of distressed people and goon#1 telling them this is what happens to those who betray Amin. Entering the morgue he finds Kay’s dismembered body. Her legs have been sewn on in place of her arms and her arms sewn on in place of her legs.. Her son is in the same room. Nicholas cries over Kay’s body and vomits.

Nicholas goes to see Amin who is watching porn with his goons. He gloomily tells Nicholas that he did it to make an example out of Kay. Nicholas gives Amin a bottle of pills for his “headache” and rushes out. Outside he is stopped by the guards and brought back inside where Amin is gleeful and jovial and teases Nicholas for “running away from me”. He tells Nicholas that Palestinian terrorists have hijacked an Israel plane and he has allowed them to land in Uganda. Amin feels this is an opportunity to both help his “Palestinian brothers” and show the world what a great leader he is.

While riding to the airport with Amin and the goons, Nicholas nervously eyes the bottle of headache pills still in Amin’s hands, indicating that the pills are actually poison. Amin, Nicholas, and the goons arrive at Entebbe airport where Amin assures the news media that the hostages will be looked after and sends in Nicholas. Nicholas notices that goon #1 now has Amin’s bottle of pills but he can do nothing about it. Nicholas meets Junju and the nurses that are giving malaria pills to the hostages. While treating the hostages for shock, Nicholas sees goon #1 going outside with the pills. Nicholas follows and sees goon #1 force a child solider to take the pill. Before the boy could swallow the pill Nicholas runs out and makes the boy spit out the pill.

The next scene the goons are dragging a badly beaten Nicholas in front of the horrified hostages to a shop out of sight from others. Amin tells Nicholas that he knows about the affair with Kay and tells him a story of a practice done in his village to purge a man of evil by hanging him by his skin. Every time the man screams, a bit of evil is released. Amin tells Nicholas that he has “grossly offended your father.” Nicholas reaches up to touch Amin and whispers, “You’re a child. That’s what makes you so scary.”

The goons bring ropes and 2 hooks. Holding Nicholas up they proceed to pierce his chest with the hooks while Nicholas is looking straight into Amin’s eyes, refusing to scream. Nicholas is strung up and hangs from the ceiling by his skin (a couple of people in the movie theater passed out watching this scene). He never screams and appears to have died. Amin watches, looking genuinely sad and sheds a tear. Amin goes outside and his public persona immediately returns, smiling charmingly for the cameras. He announces that Israel is willing to negotiate and he had made arrangements for the non-Israel citizens to be safety transported away by plane.

The goons take down Nicholas’ body and proceed to the basement to unwind with cards and alcohol, leaving the body on the floor of the shop. Junju sneaks in, gives Nicholas a shot (probably adrenaline) to wake him up, bandage up his body and face, and wipe off as much blood as he could. Junju tells Nicholas that while he may deserve to die, he is useless dead. Junju plans to have Nicholas escape with the non-Israelii hostages to a plane and tell the world the truth about Amin, after all they would believe him since he is a white man. Junju gives Nicholas his blazer to better disguise him and pushes him out the door just as the hostages walking to the plane pass by. The hostages help him walk to the plane and comfort him once they are safely on board.

The goons return and discover the body gone and go tearing through the airport looking for him. They find Junju trying to leave the airport and suspect that he has something do with the missing doctor. They take Junju back to the shop and shoot him in the head. The goons interrupts Amin press interview who has just explained that he has broken off relations with Israel. The plane is safely in the air and Amin watches it fly away.

Knowing that he is finally truly out of Uganda, Nicholas lets himself pass out.

Epilogue reveals that 48 hours later the Israeli military force made a daring raid on the Entebbe airport and rescued all the hostages except one that died.

World opinion permanently turned against Amin.

(Personal note: Ugandans saw the Israeli’s successful rescue of the Entebbe hostages as a sign of Amin’s weakness and this was the turning point on Amin’s hold on his power)

Amin was overthrown for good in 1979. He died in 2003 while living in exile in Saudi Arabia. He is responsible for 300,000 deaths in Uganda.

The movie shows actual documentation reels of Idi Amin, including a scene of an Ugandan marching army dressed entirely in Scottish garb.

Munich

Avner, an Israeli-born Mossad agent of German descent, is chosen to lead the assassination squad because he is not well-known in the field and he knows his way around Europe. To give the Israeli government plausible deniability, Avner officially resigns from Mossad, and the squad operates with no official ties to Mossad or the Government of Israel. Avner is given a team of four men: Steve, a SouthJimmy becomes convinced that he can escape the prison by going over the wall. Billy and Max refuse to join Jimmy, who is caught by Hamidou and beaten so badly he suffers a hernia and loses a testicle. African driver; Hans, a document forger from Frankfurt; Robert, a Belgian toy-maker trained in explosives; and Carl, a former Israeli soldier who “cleans up” after the assassinations. Since the Mossad is “not connected” to the mission, Avner and his team set about tracking down the eleven targets with the help of an informant, Louis, who is introduced to Avner by an old friend.

The group go to Rome to track down and kill their first target, one of the Black September planners, Abdel Wael Zwaiter, who is now broke and living as a poet in Italy where he has translated One Thousand and One Nights into Italian. The group follows him from a speech he gave to a small audience. After confirming the poet is indeed Abdel Wael Zwaiter (by asking him) two members of the nervous squad (Avner & Robert) make their first kill.

Robert pretends to be a journalist interviewing their second target, Mahmoud Hamshari (who lives in Paris), about the Munich attack. He plants a bomb in the phone that is set to be detonated by a remote key. The phone number of Hamshari is to be dialed by Carl from a public telephone booth. However, Hamshari’s daughter, who is supposed to have left for the day, returns to the flat. The men are not able to see her go back into the building because of a truck that blocks their view. When Carl calls the telephone from a phone booth and hears the little girl’s voice, he and Avner race to stop Robert from detonating the bomb. After the little girl leaves the building, Carl calls the number, asks the man who answers if he’s Mahmoud Hamshari and upon affirmation of same, Robert detonates the bomb. Hamshari is hospitalized and later dies from his wounds.

The team travel to Cyprus to kill the next target, Hussein Al Bashir (Hussein Abd Al Chir), by planting a bomb under his bed in his hotel room. Avner gets a room next to Abd Al Chir in the hotel. Avner and Abd Al Chir are both on the balcony and converse for a short while. When Avner has seen him actually on the bed, he shuts off his night-stand lamp (the agreed signal of the group) and Robert detonates the bomb. However, the explosives are too powerful, almost killing Avner in the room next door, and injuring a young couple in the room on the other side of Al Chir’s room. The team now have their doubts about Louis, who provided the explosives.

Louis gives the group information on three Palestinians in Beirut, a calculated risk since Avner & his team were strictly ordered by their handler, Ephraim, not to engage any targets in Arab countries. The three men targeted are among the top most brass of PLO, Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (Abu Youssef), (involved in planning of Black September), Kamal Adwan, a Fatah veteran, and Kamal Nasser, PLO spokesman. Ephraim at first refuses, however, he relents on the condition that the group be accompanied by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos. In Beirut, Steve, Robert and Avner meet up with a group of Sayeret Matkal IDF soldiers (including future Prime Minister Ehud Barak). They penetrate the Palestinian leaders’ guarded compound, killing all three leaders as well with other militia.

The team heads to Athens where Louis has provided a dingy apartment that they will use as a safe house. During the night, four PLO members, who have rented the same apartment as a safe house, enter the dwelling. After a tense confrontation with guns drawn, Robert defuses the situation by claiming that his squad are fellow militant revolutionaries, members of ETA, RAF and ANC.

Avner discusses Middle Eastern politics with the group’s leader, Ali. Ali speaks passionately about his quest for a homeland, while Avner debates him, arguing that violence would only make the world regard Arabs as brutes, and that there are other Arab countries the Palestinians could go to. Ali disagrees, citing the examples of the Irish and the Jews themselves, and concludes that a home is more important than anything else.

Avner’s group carry out their next assassination that of Zaiad Muchasi, the replacement for Hussein Al Bashir in Cyprus. However, the bomb malfunctions and it does not detonate. In desperation, Hans walks into the hotel, forces his way into the target’s room throwing a grenade at the television and setting off the explosive phosphorus grenades hidden there, killing Muchasi. The squad exchanges gunfire with the Palestinians during their escape, and Ali is killed by Carl.

Louis provides the squad with information on Ali Hassan Salameh, the organizer of the Munich Massacre and the squad’s prime target. Avner learns that the CIA may have ties to Salameh. The squad moves to London to track down Salameh, but they are not able to accomplish the assassination due to several unruly men, whom they suspect to be CIA operatives protecting Salameh because he is providing information to the United States goverment.

Avner is propositioned by a woman in a bar but declines. Afterward, Carl goes into the bar and is later killed by the same woman, who turns out to be a professional independent Dutch assassin, who the group later track down and kill in Hoorn in the Netherlands. When they have killed her, Hans refuses to let Avner close the woman’s robe, leaving her body naked.

The movie then proceeds on dark and sombre lines. The squad is feeling the pressure of assassinations. Robert (the explosives expert), questions the morality of the entire mission. Avner listens to him patiently and asks him to take a break while they travel to Hoorn.

The remaining squad track the Dutch assassin to Hoorn in Holland to avenge Carl’s death. Later, the three remaining members, Avner, Steve and Hans discuss about the futility of the entire mission. Sometime later, Hans is found stabbed to death (reasons not explained) while Robert is killed in an explosion in his workshop.

Avner and Steve finally locate Salameh in a gated residence in Spain, however, their assassination attempt is thwarted by Salameh’s guards. Frightened, Avner shoots the guard who turns out to be a teenager. The guards immediately return fire at them, and Avner and Steve manage to escape.

At the end, Avner is dispirited and disillusioned. He flies first to Israel, where he is lauded by a number of military persons, including Ephraim. Ephraim is eager to know more about Louie and any other sources, hoping to learn more about potential targets. However, Avner angers Ephraim when he refuses to divulge this information, saying that he is loyal to Louie. Avner visits his mother for consoling, but finds from her words of praise for what he’s done.

Avner then travels to Brooklyn, New York to reunite with his wife and their child. Avner becomes psychologically tormented with paranoid fears about his family’s safety, horrifying flashbacks of the Munich Massacre, and pangs of conscience about the morality of his killings and the value of his mission.

Avner’s handler, Ephraim, comes to the United States to urge Avner to rejoin Mossad, but Avner rejects the offer. In the movie’s final scene, in a playground in Gantry Plaza State Park across the East River from the United Nations headquarters building, Avner asks Ephraim to join for dinner, in an offer of Jewish hospitality. Ephraim pauses, declines and leaves. Avner turns to go as well, and the camera pans to a shot of the New York City skyline, including the World Trade Center.

A postscript states that nine of the men originally targeted by Mossad were assassinated. It adds that Salameh was eventually killed in 1979.

Blade Runner

Rick Deckard is a blade runner, or a hunter of replicants. A group of replicants make it to Los Angeles to seek out a way to extend their life span. Replicants have a built in 4 year life span, and this group is at the end. Although he hunts them to the end, the replicants end up teaching the detached Deckard what it really means to be human.

A crawl after the opening credits of the film informs the audience that, in the near future, technology that has created synthetic humans has entered a new phase: replicants, sophisticated androids that are virtually identical to humans, are now equal in strength and emotion to their creators. Replicants are designed and built by the Tyrell Corporation, a giant multi-conglomerate headquartered in two pyramid-like towers. The latest version of replicant technology is the Nexus 6 model. Replicants are mostly used as manual laborers in the “off world” colonies out in space. Because of their advanced nature and tendency towards violence, replicants have been outlawed on Earth. Specialized police units, “blade runners” are charged with the difficult task of detecting replicants who come to Earth. If found, replicants are executed or “retired.” An opening title tells us that the setting for the story is Los Angeles, and the date is November, 2019. Los Angeles and the surrounding area have become heavily industrialized, crowded with people and rain falls constantly.

At the Tyrell Corporation, a blade runner, Holden (Morgan Paull) is interviewing a new employee using a special device called a Voight-Kampff (VK) analyzer. The machine is designed to detect any physical changes in the test subject in response to questions that are deliberately meant to affect the subject emotionally. After a few questions, the man being tested, Leon, becomes obviously agitated and eventually hostile, shooting Holden, who ends up in a hospital in critical condition.

Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner, is eating at a Japanese noodle bar when another man, Gaff (Edward James Olmos), tells him he’s under arrest. Deckard tries to ignore the man but eventually agrees to go with him. Gaff flies Deckard to police headquarters and delivers him to his old boss, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Bryant tells Deckard that a small group of Nexus-6 replicants have come to Earth illegally. Two of them were killed trying to scale a high-voltage security fence outside the Tyrell Corporation. Four have survived; Bryant shows Deckard their files. The leader is Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the most advanced of the group. The others are Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Pris (Darryl Hannah) and Leon (Brion James), the replicant who’d shot Holden. Deckard is charged with tracking them down. Bryant also tells Deckard that the Nexus-6s are believed to be advanced enough that they may have developed emotions, that might make them harder to detect via VK testing. Subsequently, the scientists designed the Nexus-6s to have only a four year lifespan. Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell Corp’s headquarters to test the VK machine on a Nexus-6.

Deckard and Gaff fly to Tyrell headquarters. While Deckard awaits Tyrell, he meets Rachel, a beautiful woman who welcomes him and who acts as Tyrell’s personal assistant. Tyrell appears and questions Deckard about the Voight-Kampff test, doubting its processes in detecting replicants among humans. Tyrell offers Rachel as a test subject, saying he wants to see a negative test result on a human before providing a replicant. Deckard asks Rachel over 100 test questions until the VK machine finally alerts Deckard that Rachel is actually a replicant. Rachel leaves and Tyrell explains that Rachel is a Nexus-6 and one of the most advanced replicants ever designed. She has been designed to possess memories, however, the memories given Rachel have been culled from Tyrell’s nieces or other family members.

Deckard’s first lead takes him to Leon’s apartment. Deckard finds a stack of photographs there, as well as an animal scale. Not far away, Roy Batty is waiting on the street for Leon to return from his apartment. Leon appears and tells Roy that there were policemen there and he was unable to retrieve his photographs. Roy is perturbed but takes Leon with him to a shop called Eye World, owned by a Chinese man named Chew, who engineers eyes for replicants for Tyrell. He is confronted in his subzero lab by Roy and Leon, the latter of whom rips open Chew’s thermal coat to make it easier for Roy to interrogate him. Roy asks Chew about “inception dates”, the date marking a replicant’s first activation and beginning of their four year lifespan. Chew, quickly freezing to death, desperately tells them that they need to talk to Tyrell about increasing their lifespans. Roy suggests that meeting with Tyrell will be difficult, however, Chew tells him that a Tyrell employee, JF Sebastian, may be able to gain Roy access.

Deckard takes Leon’s stack of photos home with him. He is surprised by Rachel in the elevator. Deckard, seemingly feeling betrayed, is quite rude to Rachel, who was unable to talk to Tyrell himself after she found out she is a replicant. Though Rachel shows Deckard a picture of herself with her mother, Deckard insensitively quashes Rachel’s insistence that she has memories. Rachel leaves, extremely hurt. Later, while drinking, Deckard examines old photographs on his piano and dreams of a white unicorn. When he awakes, he examines one of Leon’s photos and finds that Zhora was in a back room. Deckard notes that she has a prominent tattoo on her neck of a looped serpent.

In another part of Los Angeles, a woman walks into an alley and covers herself with waste paper to keep warm. She dozes for a bit until a man approaches her and startles her awake. She runs away, breaking the window of his van, but the man kindly returns one of her bags and she becomes friendly. The woman is revealed to be Pris, one of the Nexus-6s Deckard is pursuing. The man is JF Sebastian, a genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation & the person Chew told Roy to find. Pris agrees to stay at Sebastian’s place where he designs toys and dolls.

Deckard visits the crowded streets near Chinatown and has a old Asian woman examine the animal scale. Deckard believes it to be from a fish but it’s from a snake, and, like most animals of the time period, is artificial. The maker’s serial number is also visible, a man named Abdul Ben Hassan, whose shop is right up the street. Deckard confronts Hassan who tells him he’d made a snake for a dancer working at a club owned by Taffy Lewis. Deckard goes to the club and places a quick call to Rachel, apologizing for his insensitivity and asking her if she’d like to join him at the club. Rachel refuses.

Deckard finds that Zhora is an exotic dancer at the club who uses artificial snakes in her performances. Deckard poses as an irritating private eye investigating abuses by club owners who may spy on female performers. Zhora sees through Deckard’s ruse and beats him violently and dashes from the club into the streets. Deckard quickly catches up and chases her until he’s able to shoot her. Zhora crashes through several plate glass windows and falls to the street, dead.

Bryant arrives on the scene and talks to Deckard, congratulating him for finding and retiring Zhora. He tells Deckard that there are four more replicants to retire; Deckard insists that there are only three left. However, Rachel has disappeared and Deckard now has to find her. Deckard spots her a few moments later across the street. As he follows her, he’s suddenly grabbed by Leon, who beats him severely. As Leon appears poised to kill Deckard by stabbing his fingers through Deckard’s eyes, his forehead explodes; he has been shot by Rachel using Deckard’s pistol, which Leon had batted from Deckard’s hand a few moments before. Deckard returns to his apartment and Rachel joins him. Deckard appears to be much more sympathetic toward Rachel since she saved him from Leon. When she asks him if he’d hunt & retire her, he tells her no. He gives her a drink and the two play together on Deckard’s piano. Deckard becomes more amorous and Rachel rejects his advances. Deckard prevents her from leaving his apartment and the two have sex.

Pris wakes up in Sebastian’s apartment. She talks to him about his strange skin condition, “Methuselah Syndrome” which makes him age quickly, even though is only 25. Suddenly, Roy appears (likely summoned there by Pris). He shares the news that Zhora and Leon are both retired. Roy and Pris both reveal to Sebastian that they are Nexus-6s and they need to get “help” for Pris or she’ll die. Pris proves to Sebastian that she’s artificial by grabbing an egg from boiling water and tossing it to Sebastian, who finds it too hot to handle. Roy notices that Sebastian plays chess and asks him about his opponent, who is Tyrell himself. Roy convinces Sebastian to use his connection to Tyrell to arrange a personal meeting. Sebastian reluctantly agrees.

Roy and Sebastian go to Tyrell’s pyramidal home and take an elevator to his penthouse. They are stopped as a security measure but are allowed to proceed when Sebastian voices two moves to Tyrell himself that win the chess match they’d been playing; the move is given to him by Roy. In Tyrell’s bedchamber, Roy confronts his master, saying specifically he wants an extension of his short lifespan and calls Tyrell “father”. (In the 1982 Theatrical and 1992 Director’s editions, Roy says “fucker” in place of father.) Tyrell explains that artificial beings like Roy have been permanently designed not to live longer than their lifespan and that no known biological process has yet been able to change that. Roy becomes more despondent, telling Tyrell he’s done “questionable things”. Tyrell patronizes him, saying he’s also accomplished great things. Roy, still despondent, first kisses Tyrell, then begins to crush his skull, poking his thumbs through his master’s eyes. Tyrell falls dead and a horrified Sebastian, unable to escape, is killed by Roy.

Deckard is seen in his car in the sector where JF Sebastian lives. He receives a report from Bryant who tells him that Tyrell is dead and Sebastian has also been found dead at the same scene. Deckard places a call to Sebastian’s apartment claiming to be a friend. Pris answers the call but hangs up. Deckard enters Sebastian’s apartment and searches for evidence or leads. While doing so, he is surprised by a disguised Pris, who assaults him using acrobatics. As she performs a series of back flips to finish Deckard off, he shoots her through the abdomen. She twitches violently for a few moments before Deckard shoots her twice more and finally kills her.

Deckard is next surprised by Roy, who moves too fast for Deckard to shoot. Roy stalks Deckard after discovering that Pris is dead, seizing Deckard’s hand through a wall and deliberately dislocating and breaking two of his fingers. Deckard escapes to an upper floor in the building but is easily found by Roy, who is already showing signs of his own impending death – he stabs himself through the hand with a large nail to temporarily stabilize his condition. Deckard seizes an opportunity to beat Roy with a large pipe but cannot incapacitate Roy, who’s superhuman strength is too much for Deckard. Deckard eventually escapes to the roof and tries to jump to another roof across the street. He nearly plummets, hanging on by one hand. Roy makes the jump quite easily and peers over the ledge at Deckard, asking him “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.” Deckard slips and Roy catches him, dragging him to safety. Roy sits down near him, holding a dove he’d found on the other roof and tells Deckard that he’s seen more in his short life than most humans would see in a full lifetime. Roy is saddened by the idea that all the memories he’s acquired will lost “like tears in rain.” As he finally dies, the dove in his hand flies off. In the original theatrical version (1982) the rain has stopped and the dove flies toward a sunny sky. In the Final Cut (2007) the rain continues and the dove flies toward an overcast sky.

Gaff meets Deckard on the roof and throws his pistol back to him. He congratulates Deckard on completing his investigation; Deckard tells him he’s officially finished with hunting replicants. As Gaff walks away, he yells back “It’s too bad she won’t live, but then again who does?”, referring to Rachel.

Deckard returns to his apartment and finds Rachel, not knowing immediately if she’s alive or dead. Much to his relief, she wakes up. A few minutes later, she is dressed and Deckard, after checking the lobby outside his apartment, motions for her to join him in the elevator. On the floor of the lobby is a small origami unicorn, left there by Gaff. Deckard studies it for a moment, then crushes it in his hand. In the Final Cut and Director’s (1992) editions, the film ends when the elevator doors close. In the Theatrical edition, Deckard and Rachel are shown driving into a mountainous area and Deckard explains in voiceover that Rachel may have a longer lifespan than any other Nexus-6.

Stevens wakes up again, inside a helicopter cockpit that is unfamiliar to him. Suddenly, on the other side of a screen, Air Force Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) tells him that he is part of an experimental military operation called the “Source Code.” The scientist who created the project, one Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), planned it so that compatible people could experience the last eight minutes of another person’s lifetime. Steven’s mission is to use this technology to discover the location of the bomb on the train and find the bomber who set it off. According to Goodwin, this bomb is only the first in a larger plan that would set off another, bigger bomb in downtown Chicago.

While Stevens’ is attempting to discover the truth about the bomb, he finds out that the train explosion occurred two months after a bomb blew up his helicopter in Afghanistan. His body is apparently hooked up to life support and his mind is connected to a system of computers that have broadcasted his experience so that it looks like a helicopter cockpit in his head so that he can cope with the experience. Stevens is disturbed, angry, and feels misled. He asks Dr. Rutledge to terminate his life once is mission is accomplished.
Eventually, Stevens realizes that the bomber is a man named Derek Frost (Michael Arden) and he is using a white van to bomb the downtown. Stevens conveys this information to the military and they capture Frost before he can detonate the bomb. Everyone praises his bravery. In secret however, Rutledge tells Goodwin that they must wipe Stevens’ memory so that they can use him in the next emergency. Stevens discovers their plan and convinces Goodwin to let him return to the Source Code one more time, before she disconnects his life support even though she will break her promise to Rutledge.

Stevens then goes back aboard the train and disarms the bomb, while subduing Frost. He handcuffs Frost to a railing and calls the authorities aboard to arrest him. He then uses a cell phone to call his father and mend their broken relationship by pretending to be a soldier that was with his son when he died. After he finishes the call, he challenges a bitter ex-comedian (Russell Peters) to tell stand up and lift the spirits of the passengers aboard the train. He then takes Christina aside and asks what she would do if she only had seconds left to live. She kisses him, just as his last seconds run out. At the last second, Goodwin takes him off life-support. Surprisingly, Stevens finds himself finishing the kiss, still aboard the train. He realizes that he will now remain within this alternate timeline.

Stevens later emails Goodwin and tells her that it is now her responsibility to use his mind properly for future missions in the Source Code. He warns her that he will be scared and unsure of himself, but that she must promise to reassure him.

Written by the Marketing Department for Denver car accident attorney, Robert Koenig.

Lolita

Director Adrian Lynn (Fatal Attraction, 9 ½ weeks, Indecent Proposal) is no stranger to stories with perverse sexual content. His presentation of the story does the book justice although certain interpretations may not have been what Nabokov had in mind. Lynn gives us a presentation that is very sympathetic to Humbert. Nabokov’s Humbert was very complex, partly a victim of his fixation on young girls, partly a sexual predator and partly a hopeless romantic. Nabokov’s Lolita was extremely innocent, just approaching the threshold of sexual curiosity and urges, more playful than consciously provocative. While Nabokov hints at a mutual seduction, he leans far more heavily towards Humbert as the cause of the events even though Humbert is clearly helpless in the face of his obsession. Lolita entered into the sexual relationship more as a result of longings burgeoning from her blossoming sexuality than a desire to seduce Humbert in particular, who was not even her first lover.

Lynn’s presentation transforms Humbert from the seducer into the seduced, whose weakness for young girls is manipulated by a sexually precocious siren tempting him to dash himself on the shoals of pedophilia. Lynn portrays Lolita as the aggressor, an adolescent temptress who knows she is desired and simultaneously teases and entices him to do her lustful bidding, knowing he is powerless to resist. Lynn’s Humbert is more of a hapless romantic than a fiend, ennobling him as a victim of love rather than the confounded sociopath he really is. In Lynn’s version, Humbert becomes the fly to Lolita’s spider.

However, after the initial seduction when they take to the road, the film is very true to the book in chronicling the decay of the relationship, Humbert’s further plunge into feelings of romantic desperation and Lolita’s shrewish exploitation of him as she increasingly uses sex as a weapon. The book was very effective at portraying the relationship as a symbiosis of two deficient beings, each selfishly taking from the other what was needed. Lynn does an excellent job of portraying that here. As the relationship degenerates, Lynn is effectual at portraying the ugly side of both characters. The bitterness and rancor that results is compelling. To his credit, he understands that Nabokov’s story was more of a character study than a sex story and Lynn avoids the temptation of becoming too lurid, focusing instead on solid character development of two very flawed beings.

I must take a moment to give Lynn the highest praise for his period renderings. This is one of the finest portrayals of 1940′s Americana I can remember. The costumes, hairstyles, cars, furniture, locations and sets create a 40′s reality that is like being hurtled back in a time machine. The music is not just precise for the period, but it is perfectly integrated with the story. As the two travel, the music changes to reflect the region. Having Lolita dance and sing to period music on the radio is a nice touch because that is exactly what teenage girls of any era are apt to do.

The acting is first rate all around. When the film was made, Dominique Swain was 17, and although she looked young for her age, she could never pass for 12. So for the first part of the film before Charlotte’s demise, she is simply too mature. However, for the road trip she is ideal. Though I don’t agree with Lynn’s early interpretation of Lolita as the teenage temptress, I can’t imagine it being done any better than the performance Swain delivers. She is playful and provocative in a childlike manner, part pixie and part vamp. Once they get on the road, Swain hits stride with a performance that is almost a force of nature. She is powerful and intense, effortlessly moving back and forth between sweet innocence and the emotional torrent typified by the `murder me’ scene. It is an outstanding performance with depth and breadth that is very unusual for an actor so young.

Jeremy Irons is wonderful as Humbert, giving him as amiable a personality as one could possibly imagine for a character with such vile intentions. Irons injects a good deal of wry humor into the part in addition to giving Humbert an almost quixotic romantic quality. Melanie Griffith is just the wrong actress to play Charlotte. She looks nothing like the portly and plain character described in Nabokov’s book. Though her acting is fine and she is appropriately obsequious, she is far too attractive to be the repulsive troll Humbert despised. It takes away from Humbert’s desperation because it hardly seems like a great sacrifice to have married Charlotte to be near Lolita.

Frank Langella (Dracula) is more obnoxious than mysterious as Quilty, making the audience want to exhort Humbert to pull the trigger as he confronts Quilty with the revolver. Again, I think this is probably Lynn’s doing since his vision is clearly that of a Humbert sympathizer.

This is a fine film with great production values, terrific performances and a classic story. I feel that it surpasses Kubrik’s adaptation in its ability to capture many of the finer points of Nabokov’s book, even though Nabokov collaborated on the Kubrik film.

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Lolita

What is a Best Boy?
There are two types of Best Boys. One is the lead assistant to the chief lighting technician and the other is lead assistant to the Grip. The term “Best Boy” is a throwback to the apprentice system where “best” described an apprentice with the most experience. Best Boys are in charge of coordinating the teams they work with. They facilitate hiring extra manpower when necessary and do the paperwork relating to the job. Logistics is a major part of their job. It is the Best Boy’s responsibility to make sure equipment is ordered, delivered and where it is needed. If something breaks down, it is the Best Boy’s responsibility to make sure it is repaired in a timely manner. The job entails expertise not only in lighting or equipment, but also excellent administrative skills. The Best Boy is the liaison between their boss and the production team. Because of the nature of the job, hours are difficult to predict and can be extensive. Best boys can easily work a 12 hour day, six days a week.

What is a Grip?
Grips are in charge of building and maintaining the structures that support the cameras, like dollies or cranes. They are responsible for cameras being able to manoeuvre around a set, giving the viewer different angles to observe. Since it is imperative that cameras are kept completely still, the equipment onto which they are mounted must be very sturdy. The physical demands of the job can be extensive. The equipment is often heavy, but delicate. A Dolly Grip is responsible for a structure called a dolly. A dolly allows the camera to move along a track so that a shot can move in or out as a scene requires. Dolly Grips are responsible for building the track and making sure the camera moves as smoothly as possible for a seamless result. The Key Grip is in charge of all the Grips. The Key Grip has a Best Boy for assistance, but is ultimately responsible for all the equipment and sometimes helps coordinate other construction on set.

What is a Gaffer?
Gaffer is another name for the lighting director. In film industry, lighting is crucial and it is the Gaffer’s job to make sure lights are where they need to be and are operational. Gaffers typically understand the nuances of lighting, such as how to position lights to get the right time of day effects and what types of gels are appropriate to achieved desired effects. The Gaffer often works closely with the Key Grip. The Gaffer is in charge of all the electricians and may have a Best Boy to assist.

What is a Boom Operator?
Boom Operators get their name from the microphone they operate. The boom is a large microphone suspended from a long pole which is held over the set (out of camera view) to pick up the voices of the actors. However, Boom Operators normally work with any microphones required on set helping to make sure dialogue and sound effects are captured.

About the author:
Patrick is blogging for Yellow Cat Recruitment, one of the top entertainment, tv and media recruitment agencies London has to offer.

Morpheus tells Neo that the year is actually 2199, and humans having been struggling in a constant war against machines who have taken control of the planet in the early 21st century. The machines use human beings as an energy source, while keeping them docile within the Matrix. Morpheus explains that it is a simulated reality of what the world looked like in 1999. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar belongs to a group of free humans who have been unplugged from the Matrix and now work to free other people. Morpheus wants to use Neo as the leader of a rebellion against the Machines by teaching him how to manipulate the physical laws of the Matrix, which will give him superhuman abilities. According to Morpheus, fatal injuries in the Matrix will also kill you in the real world and that the Agents are computer programs meant to destroy threats to the system. Morpheus believes that Neo is “the One,” a man prophesied to end the war.

The crew enters the Matrix to meet with the Oracle (Gloria Foster), who predicted the appearance of the One. She implies that Neo has to decide between his life and the life of Morpheus, because he may not actually be the One.

As they leave her house they are ambushed by Agents and police, which leaves one of their crew members dead. Morpheus sacrifices himself and allows himself to be captured. They then discover another crew member betrayed them by giving their position away to the Agents.

The Agents interrogate Morpheus to attempt to learn his access codes for the mainframe computer of Zion, the secret underground human city in the real world. Neo and Trinity return to the Matrix in a vain attempt to try and rescue Morpheus. During this rescue attempt, Neo becomes more confident in his abilities to control the rules of the Matrix, and starts beating the agents.

Trinity finds Morpheus and they escape back to the real world. Unfortunately, Neo is ambushed by Agent Smith and cannot escape. Instead, Neo turns to face the enemy and they start battling. While they are fighting, Neo gets shot. In the real world, Trinity tells Neo that he can’t die because the Oracle foretold that she would fall in love with the One. She kisses Neo and he is revived. He discovers a newfound ability to completely inhabit and control the Matrix mainframe. He destroys Agent Smith and returns to the Nebuchadnezzar just in time for the ship to destroy the attacking machines.

The movie ends with Neo in the Matrix, making a phone call and promising that he will deliver the rest of humanity to safety.

Written by the Marketing Department for Denver car accident lawyer, Robert Koenig