American Women's Club of Hamburg Currents Magazine November/December 2013 | Page 23

AR TS & ENTER TAINMENT

At the Movies
compiled by Becky T.

For a complete list of reviews, consult our on-line reports:
www.awchamburg.org
or
www.KinoCritics.com

MOVIE RATING SYSTEM

*****
****
***
**
*

Excellent flick! Don’t miss it!
Good movie, worth going to see
Not a bad way to spend a few hours
OK, but read the review to understand my reservations
Bad, but we’ve got to give them credit for making a movie!

The Notebook *****
Starts November 7

The Notebook is a masterpiece about (in)humanity that is not for
the faint of heart. It made me sick to a point that I almost left
the movie theater several times because of the violence. In World
War II Hungary, twins (András and László Gyémánt) are sent
to live with their grandmother (Piroska Molnár) in the country.
Greeted with cruelty, they create a program designed to make
them hard and immune towards pain. In order to make sense of
it all, they keep record of the good and the bad in a notebook.
(Katia T.) (Note: excellent film, but for adults only due to highly
violent content)

A Blackfish *****

USA 2013
Starts November 7, 2013
Directed by: Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Writing credits: Gabriela Cowperthwaite & Eli B. Despres
Cast: Kim Ashdown, Ken Balcomb, Samantha Berg, Dawn
Brancheau (archive footage), Dave Duffus, Daniel Patrick
Currents November/December 2013

ALL FILM REVIEWS AND
MORE CAN BE FOUND
ON

Dukes (archive footage), Howard Garrett, Dean Gomersall, John
Hargrove, Carol Ray, Tilikum, Jeffrey Ventre
Length: 97 minutes
Gabriela Cowperthwaite has crafted an unforgettable,
breathtaking documentary. Meet Tilikum: the performing bull
orca weighing 12,000 pounds (5,400
kg) has killed three individuals. Meet
past Sea World (SW) whale trainers:
they believed SW’s jargon. Meet
researchers: the marine mammals facts
are outlined. Beginning with Dawn
Brancheau’s—a safety conscience
senior SW trainer—untimely death
February 24, 2010, we shift back 39
years and forward to a 2012 court
decision. Truth begets doubt: which is
the predator?
Traveling approximately 100 miles daily in matriarchal pods
that are equivalent to separate nations, each family speaks their
own unique language. Males stay with mom’s pod—Tilikum
was captured when 2, and their lifespan corresponds to humans.
In the wild, nations never mix—SW captures and imprisons
injudiciously, or seldom assault much less kill a human. With
bigger brains than humans, orcas sense of self, and social bonding
is higher. “Blackfish” feature strongly in indigenous cultures
mythologies.
Painstaking research and compilations of archival footage
spawned this comprehensibly informative, and heart wrenching
film. Graphic visuals include: raking (biting) by whales caged
in small tanks; a performing SW trainer being crushed; orcas
injuring trainers. Public opinion counts: Pixar changed an
upcoming animated film after viewing Blackfish. Suggestions
proffered would be kinder for trainers, and more humane for the
whales: Let’s hope Sea World pays attention. (Marinell H.)
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