Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

A Time to Kill

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A Time to Kill

-1996 film adaptation of John Grisham's 1989 legal thriller novel of the same name.
-Directed by Joel Schumacher
-Stars Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashley Judd, Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Spacey.
-Set in Canton, Mississippi, the film revolves around the rape of a young girl and the arrest of the rapists and their murder by the girl's father, Carl Lee Hailey. The rest of the movie focuses on his trial.
Did You Know?








Plot
-2 white racists, Billy Ray Cobb(Nicky Katt) and Pete Willard(Doug Hutchinson) come across a 10 year old black girl named Tonya Hailey(Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly) in rural Mississippi. They violently rape and beat her, and dump her in a nearby river after a failed hanging. She survives, and her attackers are arrested


-Tonya's father, Carl Lee Hailey(Samuel L. Jackson) seeks out the help of a white lawyer named Jake Brigance(Matthew McConaughey), who is an easy going guy. Carl Lee is worried that the men may be acquitted, due to deep rooted racism in the Mississippi Delta region. Brigance admits that possibility. Carl Lee manages to get his hands on a military issue M16 rifle, goes to the county court building where their trial is, and opens fire. He kills both the rapists and also unintentionally injures Deputy Looney(Chris Cooper). Carl Lee is arrested and put in jail. Brigance then provides legal counsel for Hailey and enters a plea of not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.






-The rape and murder revenge killing gain national attention. The Ku Klux Klan begin to organize in the area, along with Dan Scott. Freddie Lee Cobb(Kiefer Sutherland), the brother of Billy Ray, calls Brigance and his family with death threats and organizes the formation of a Klan chapter in the county. The DA, Rufus Buckley(Kevin Spacey), decides to seek the death penalty and the presiding judge Omar Noose(Patrick McGoohan) denies Brigance a change of venue. Brigance seeks help from a sleazy divorce lawyer named Harry Rex Vonner(Oliver Platt). He seeks help from a liberal activist named Lucien Wilbanks(Donald Sutherland), who was a lawyer but disbarred for violence on a picket line.








-Brigance is approached by Ellen Roark(Sandra Bullock), a law student from Massachusetts. He is hesitant to accept her help, but later accepts. The trial begins. The Klan burns a cross on Brigance's lawn because one of their members is in the courthouse. This causes some tension between Brigance and his wife to the point that if Jake had heeded Hailey's warning, this would not have happened. The police evacuate Jake and his family out and they capture one of the Klan members and find a bomb under his house.








-As the trial begins, the KKK march down the streets of Canton and meet a large group of black protesters at the court. Chaos erupts when the police lose control. A black teen kills the KKK Grand Dragon(Kurtwood Smith) with a Molotov Cocktail, burning him to death. Brigance's attraction to Roark grows and they nearly have an affair before he gets his wits. He goes home to find his home burned to the ground. The next morning, the Mississippi National Guard have been called in to take care of the riots. Brigance sits on the smoking steps of his home to see Rex Vonner walking up and tell him to quit the case. Brigance says that to quit his work would be useless.






-Freddie Lee Cobb shoots at Brigance as he exits the courthouse. He misses, and the bullet hits a national guardsman, paralyzing him. Meanwhile, Roark is kidnapped by Klansmen, tied to a tree in the wilderness in nothing but her bra and underwear and left to die. She is saved by an informant with a Mickey Mouse tattoo who goes by the code name "Mickey" whose name is Tim Nunley(John Diehl). Brigance sees Carl Lee in his cell and advises him to accept a lower plea.







-The courthouse is packed to see the trial. Brigance tells the people to close their eyes and listen to a story. He paints a picture for them, describing in slow, and painfully clear detail, of how 10 year old Tonya Hailey was raped, beaten. He asks them to imagine she's white. This raises the very real spectre in the community- within the racist community where the crime took place the actions of Hailey would not have been called into question had he been white. The argument Brigance makes is that if the jury can be compelled to spare the life of a white man for a vengeful murder, they must do the same for a black man. Later, a black child runs out of the court shouting "He's innocent!" Cheering ensues, and the KKK become enraged. Sheriff Ozzie Walls(Charles S. Dutton) arrests Freddie Lee, along with his own racist deputy. The movie ends with Brigance bringing his wife and daughter to a family cookout at Carl Lee's house. He is surprised and Jake explains "Just thought our kids could play together". And this gets a smile out of Carl.

Cast




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The Green Mile

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The Green Mile
One of my favorite movies ever!

I'm currently reading the book for this.

-1999 American drama directed by Frank Darabont
-Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King
-Told in a flashback format and stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecombe, Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.
-Tells the story of Paul Edgecombe and his life as a supervisor on the death row during the Great Depression and the supernatural events that he was able to witness

Did You Know?
-The music old Paul Edgecombe hears in the nursing home is the same music the nurses played at medication time in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
-When Melinda Moores is visited by Coffey, she gives him a St. Christopher medal. According to Catholicism, St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and like Coffey, died a martyr.
-Doug Hutchinson, who played Percy Wetmore, was actually 39 years old, instead of being 21 like the character in the book.
-When Paul and John go outside, John looks up and says "Look Boss, it's Cassie, the lady in the rocking chair". This is a reference to the constellation Cassiopeia






Plot
-In a Louisiana nursing home in 1999, Paul Edgecombe(Dabbs Greer) begins to cry while watching Top Hat. His elderly friend, Elaine Connolly, shows concern for him and Paul tells her that the film reminded him of when he was a corrections officer in charge of Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary during the summer of 1935. The cell block Paul(Tom Hanks) worked in was called "The Green Mile" because of the color of the floor's linoleum. Condemned prisoners would walk this floor, nicknamed "The Last Mile" by the guards because it was their last mile before their execution.






-One day, John Coffey(Michael Clarke Duncan), a giant of a black man, 6'8'', is convicted of raping and murdering 2 small white girls named Kathe and Cora Detterick. He shows all the signs of being a gentle giant; keeping to himself, soft spoken, fearing darkness, and crying often. Soon enough, John reveals unusual powers by healing Paul's urinary tract infection and bringing a mouse back to life. Later on, he would reveal that he would heal the terminally ill wife of the prison warden, Hal Moore(James Cromwell).





-At the same time, Percy  Wetmore(Doug Hutchinson), is a sadistic guard who enjoys bothering the prisoners. The only thing that is keeping him there is he "knows people, big people". He is the nephew of the governor's wife. Percy recognizes that the other officers greatly hate him and uses that to demand to be "put out", meaning front line position, on the next execution. After that, he promises that he will have himself transferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. A deal is made. But then when it comes time for the execution of Eduard Delacroix(Michael Jeter), Percy sabotages it. He is supposed to soak the sponge that goes inside the electrode cap for a quick death in brine to conduct it better. But he does not soak the sponge, and this causes Del to catch fire and die in great, slow pain







-Before Del's execution, a violent prisoner named William "Wild Bill" Wharton(Sam Rockwell) arrives, due to be executed for multiple murders committed during a robbery. At one point, he grabs John's arm and John physically senses that Wharton was the one who raped and killed the 2 girls, the crime John was accused of. John "takes back" the sickness in Hal Moore's wife Melinda and puts it into Percy, who goes mad and shoots Wild Bill to death in his cell, after which, Percy falls into a coma like state. He is tranferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. In the aftermath of these events, Paul talks to John, who says he "punished them bad men" and offers to show Paul what he saw. John takes Paul's hand stating he has to give Paul "a part of himself" in order to see what really happened




-Paul asks John what he should do, if he should open the door and let John walk. John tells him that he is ready to die because the world has too much pain in it and he is "rightly tired of the pain." As the last request he makes, John watches Top Hat. When John is put into the electric chair, he asks Paul not to put the traditional black hood on, as he is afraid of the dark. Paul agrees, shakes his hand, and John dies.








-As Paul finishes his story, he notes that he requested a transfer to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. Elaine questions his statement that he had a fully grown son at the time and Paul explains that he was 44 years old at the time of John's death and that he is now 108 years old and still in excellent health. This apparently had a side effect of John giving a "part of himself"  to Paul. Mr. Jingles, Del's mouse brought back by John is also still alive. Paul believes his outliving all of his friends and relatives is to be a punishment from God for having John electrocuted. Paul explains he has deep thoughts about how "we each owe a death; there are no exceptions; but, Oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long." Paul is left wondering if Mr. Jingles has remained living, and wonders how long it would be until Mr. Jingles death.






Cast
-Tom Hanks: Paul Edgecombe
-Michael Clarke Duncan: John Coffey
-Bonnie Hunt: Janice Edgecombe
-David Morse: Brutus "Brutal" Howell
-Doug Hutchinson: Percy Wetmore
-Sam Rockwell: William "Wild Bill" Wharton
-Michael Jeter: Eduard "Del" Delacroix
-James Cromwell: Warden Hal Moores
-Patricia Clarkson: Melinda Moores
-Barry Pepper: Dean Stanton
-Jeffrey DeMunn: Harry Terwilliger
-Harry Dean Stanton: Toot-Toot
-Dabbs Greer: Old Paul Edgecombe
-Gary Sinise: Burt Hammersmith
-Graham Greene: Arlen Bitterbuck
-William Sadler: Klaus Detterick
-Bill McKinney: Jack Van Hay

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The Green Mile (book)

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The Green Mile (book)

One of my favorite books ever, I'm currently reading it... again. I love the book that much!! Plus, it was also my dad's favorite book too, :D

-The Green Mile is a 1996 serial novel written by Stephen King. It tells the story of death row supervisor Paul Edgecombe and his encounter with a mysterious inmate named John Coffey, who seems to be too good to be true, he is sympathetic, and displays a mysterious power of healing. This book is an example of miracles coming true in the weirdest places and at the weirdest times.

Plot
-The story is told from the first person perspective of Paul Edgecombe, who is now an old man in the Georgia Pines Nursing Home. It switches back and forth between his time in the Cold Mountain Prison in 1932 and his time as an old man in a nursing home with his fellow resident Elanie Connolly in 1996. The name of the story, "The Green Mile" comes from the fact that the floor of the death row in which he worked at was the color of the floor's linoleum. The year 1932 marks the year of John Coffey, a 6'8'' black man who has been convicted of raping and murdering 2 small white girls named Kathe and Cora Detterick. During his time on the Mile, John interacts with the various other prisoners, such as Eduard Delacroix, a Cajun arsonist who raped and murdered a little girl of 12 years. To get rid of her body, he burned it and ended up burning down the building where she lived and ended up killing 3 other people, William "Billy the Kid" Wharton, a wild acting, dangerous multiple murderer who is bound and determined to make as much trouble as humanly possible. Other prisoners include Arlen Bitterbuck, a Native American convicted of killing a man in a fight over a pair of boots, who is the first to die in the electric chair (or Old Sparky as the guards call it). Arthur Flanders, a real estate executive who killed his half senile father by pushing him out a 3rd story window to collect on his insurance, who eventually gets life instead of death, and Mr. Jingles, a small mouse who Del teaches various tricks.

-Paul and the other guards are constantly bothered by Percy Wetmore, a sadistic guard who gets a rise out of bugging the other prisoners. The other guards have to be civil because Percy is related to the governor by marriage, he is the nephew of the governor's wife. When Percy is offered a position at the nearby Briar Ridge psychiatric hospital as a secretary, Paul thinks it would be a good idea; they would finally be rid of him. Percy refuses to leave until he is allowed to sit in on an actual execution. Paul reluctantly allows him to sit in on the execution of Del. Percy deliberately sabotages Del's execution by not soaking the sponge in brine that sits inside the electrode cap for quick death. When the executioner, Van Hay, is told to throw the switch, the electric causes Del to catch fire and suffer a long, slow, agonizing death.

-Over time, Paul realizes John possesses an unexplainable healing power, which he uses to cure Paul's urinary tract infection. He also revives Del's mouse Mr. Jingles after Percy crushes him. John is empathetic and sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others around him. One night, the guards drug Wild Bill, then put a straightjacket on Perct and lock him in the padded Restraint Room so they can smuggle John out to take him to the home of the prison warden Hal Moore's house. The reason is Hal's wife, Melinda, is suffering from a deadly brain tumor the size of a lemon. The guards think that John may be able to cure her. John cures her and she is restored back to health, and this has Hal crying in happiness that she won't die by Christmas. When they return, John passes the "disease" onto Percy and this causes him to go mad and shoot Wild Bill to death before falling into a coma-like state from which there is no return. He is committed to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital in a way he didn't want.

-Meanwhile, all this time, Paul has become more and more convinced that John did not rape and murder the Detterick twins. He finds out that it was Wild Bill Wharton who raped and murdered the 2 girls, that John was actually trying to bring them back, but he couldn't. Later, John tells Paul that what he saw when Wharton grabbed his arm one time, how Wharton convinced the girls to be silent using their relationship as sisters. Paul is unsure how to help John, but he tells him not to worry, as he is ready to die anyway, wanting to escape the foul cruelty of the world. John's execution is the last one Paul participates in. Years later, he introduces Mr. Jingles to Elaine just before the mouse dies, having lived 64 long, wonderful years past the events and explains that those healed by John gaines an unusually long lifespan. Elaine dies shortly after, never learning how Paul's wife died in his arms immediately after a bus accident, and that he saw John Coffey's ghost watching him from an overpass. Paul seems to be all alone, now 104 years old, and wondering how much longer he has.

Characters
  • Paul Edgecombe — The protagonist and narrator of the book and the death-row supervisor at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. He is 40 years old when the main bulk of the story takes place, in 1932. He is a caring man and takes excellent care of the men on his block, avoiding conflict and keeping the peace whenever possible. He is the first character to discover John Coffey's amazing abilities, when the prisoner cures his urinary tract infection. It is also his idea to take Coffey to try to cure Melinda, Warden Hal Moores' wife, of her brain tumor.
  • Brutus "Brutal" Howell — He is second in command on the Green Mile. He is a tall, imposing man but not violent at all unless necessary. His nickname of "Brutal" is intended as irony.
  • John Coffey — He is a massive black man (6'-8" tall), on death row for the alleged rape and murder of two young girls. He is very quiet and prefers to keep to himself, weeps almost constantly, and is afraid of the dark. Even at the end, during his execution, he asks Paul Edgecombe not to put on the traditional black silk mask used to block the view of the prisoner's face because he fears the dark. Coffey is described as "knowing his own name and not much else" and lacks the capability to so much as tie a simple knot. However, he is convicted of luring the girls away from their home, disposing of the watchdog, carefully planning and using abilities he would otherwise not be expected to have. He is the calmest and mildest prisoner the guards have ever seen, despite his hulking form. He turns out to be innocent of what he is accused of, but chooses to die anyway.
  • Percy Wetmore — He is an antagonist of the story, a young and sadistic guard who is only allowed to stay because he is the governor's nephew. He is very homophobic and attacks Eduard Delacroix for allegedly touching him, although it was an accident caused by Del stumbling out of the prison truck. He is later attacked by "Wild Bill" Wharton, consequently wets himself, and is teased by Delacroix for it. In retaliation, Percy deliberately sabotages Delacroix's execution. At the end of the story he is sent to the Briar Ridge mental institution, originally considered for a job but now as a patient, after Coffey transferred Melinda's disease to him which caused him to kill William Wharton. He eventually lives through a hospital fire and dies in 1965.
  • Eduard "Del" Delacroix — He is a Cajun prisoner with a fairly slow grasp of the English language. He is incarcerated for multiple deaths due to a fire he started while trying to cover up his rape and murder of a young girl. While on the Mile, Del befriends a mouse named Mr. Jingles, who becomes his best friend in his last days on death row. Percy, his enemy, sabotages his execution, forcing Del to die in a slow, gruesome death in the electric chair.
  • William "Wild Bill" Wharton — He is on death row for various crimes. He does not like the nickname "Wild Bill" but prefers to be called "Billy the Kid", a name which he has tattooed on his forearm. When he first arrives he manages to convince the guards that he is in a drugged stupor, only to attack and attempt to strangle to death Dean Stanton when they reach E Block. He continues to wreak havoc on the Mile and plays tricks such as urinating on the guards, amongst other things. He is punished by being placed in solitary confinement, but never seems to learn his lesson. As John Coffey is being smuggled to Hal Moores's house, Wild Bill grabs his arm and Coffey sees that he actually committed the murders Coffey was accused of. Therefore, Coffey gives Percy the "sickness" he took from the warden's wife, causing him to kill Wharton.
  • Mr. Jingles — An unusually intelligent mouse who enjoys eating peppermint sweets. He becomes a friend to Eduard Delacroix in the few days before the man is executed. He is resurrected by John Coffey after being stomped on by Percy Wetmore. This gives him increased longevity and he finally dies 64 years later.

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The Lovely Bones(Book)

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The Lovely Bones

-2002 novel by Alice Sebold
-Tells the story of a teenage girl named Susie Salmon, who, while being raped and murdered, watches over her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her death.

Title
-The title comes from a quote at the end of the movie: "These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections- sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent- that happened after I was gone. and began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events my death brought were merely the bones that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous lifeless body had been my life."

Plot
-On Dec. 6, 1973, in a Philadelphia suburb, 14 year old Susie Salmon takes her normal route through a cornfield. George Harvey, a 36 year old child killer who is known around the neighborhood as a quiet, yet kind man who builds dollhouses for a living, convinces her to take a look at an underground den he built. Once she enters, he rapes and murders her and dismembers her body, putting it into a burlap sack along with the knife he used and puts it into a safe and dumps it into a sinkhole. Susie's spirit flees toward her personal heaven

-The Salmon family at first refuses to believe Susie is dead, until her elbow is found by a neighbor's dog. The police talk to Harvey, finding him weird, but seeing no reason to suspect him. Susie's dad Jack, goes on extended leave from work, and he begins to suspect Harvey.

-One day, police detective Len Fenerman tells the Salmons that the police have exhausted all leads on her murder and are dropping the investigation. That night, in his study, Jack looks out the window and sees a flashlight in the cornfield. Thinking it's Harvey to destroy evidence, he takes a baseball bat belonging to Lindsay, Susie's younger sister, and goes out to confront him, only to find Susie's best friend Clarissa. As Susie watches from up above as Brian, Clarissa's boyfriend, brutally beats Jack. While he is recovering in the hospital, Susie's mother Abigail begins an affair with the widowed Fenerman

-Trying to help her father prove his suspicions, Lindsay sneaks into Harvey's house and finds a diagram of teh den, but is forced to leave when he gets home. The police, satisfied with Harvey, do not arrest him. This causes him to flee to Norristown. Later, evidence is found linking Harvey to Susie's murder, along with several other murders of young girls. Susie meets his other victims in heaven, sees into Harvey's traumatic childhood and realizes he's made several attempts to stop killing

-Abigail, fed up with Jack's obsessive search for Susie's killer, leaves and takes a job at Krusoe Winery in California. Her mother, Grandma Lynn moves in, and helps to care for Lindsay and Buckley. 8 years later, Lindsay and her boyfriend, Samuel Heckler, get engaged after finishing college, find an old house in the woods owned by a classmate's dad and decide to fix it up and leave. Some time later, Jack suffers a massive heart attack. The emergency prompts Abigail to return, but the reunion is tested by Buckley's resentment towards her for leaving the family for most of his childhood

-Meanwhile, Harvey returns to Norristown, which has become more developed. He explores his old neighborhood and sees the school is being expanded into the cornfield where he killed Susie. He drives by the sinkhole where he dumped Susie and where Ruth Connors and Ray Singh are standing. Ruth, Susie's former classmate, who felt Susie's spirit rush past her, senses the women Harvey killed and os overcome. Susie, watching from heaven, is also overwhelmed with emotion and feels how she and Ruth transcend their presence while the 2 girls exchange positions; Susie's spirit is now in Ruth's body, she connects with Ray, who was to ask her out on a date a few days before she died. Ray senses Susie's presence and is stunned by the fact that Susie is briefly back with him. In the bike shop of Sam Heckler's brother Hal, they find a room with a bathroom, where, in Ruth's body, she takes her clothes off and asks Ray to strip. He tells her he's not like that, and eventually both are naked where they have sex, as Susie wished she could do after seeing Lindsay and Samuel. Afterwards, Susie must return to heaven.

-Susie moves on into another larger part of heaven, occasionally watching her family. Her sister gives birth to a girl, Abigail Suzanne. When stalking another girl in New Hampshire, Harvey is hit on the shoulder with an icicle, which causes him to lose balance and fall over the edge of a cliff, dying from the impact. At the end of the novel, Susie wishes the reader a long and happy life

Characters
  • Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl with mousy brown hair and pale white skin, who is murdered in the first chapter. She narrates the novel from Heaven, wittnessing the events on earth and experiencing hopes and longings for the things she no longer can do.
  • Jack Salmon, her father, who works for an insurance agency in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. After Susie's death, he is consumed with guilt at having failed to save her.
  • Abigail Salmon, her mother, whose growing family responsibilities frustrate her youthful dreams. After her daughter's death, she drifts away from her husband and has an affair with Detective Len Fenerman.
  • Lindsey Salmon, Susie's younger sister, who tries to help her father investigate Harvey.
  • Buckley Salmon, Susie's brother, is ten years younger than she is. His unplanned birth forced Abigail to cancel her plans for a teaching career. He sometimes sees Susie while she watches him in her heaven.
  • Grandma Lynn, Abigail's mother, an eccentric alcoholic who comes to live with the Salmons when her son-in-law asks her to help her daughter cope with the death, after Abigail leaves she helps with her grandchildren.
  • George Harvey, the Salmons' neighbor, who murders Susie and goes unpunished, even though the Salmons come to suspect him. He eventually leaves Norristown to kill other young girls. Instead he dies in an accident. Throughout the novel Susie refers to him as Mr. Harvey, the name she had addressed him by in life.
  • Ruth Connors, a girl Susie went to school with, whom Susie's spirit touches as she leaves the earth. She becomes fascinated with Susie, despite having barely known her while she was alive, and begins writing about seeing visions of the dead.
  • Ray Singh, a boy from India, (via England), the first and only boy to kiss Susie, who later becomes Ruth's friend. He is first suspected by the police of murdering Susie, but he later proves his alibi. He is the one Susie spends her short time on earth with that she is granted years after her death.
  • Ruana Singh, Ray's mother, with whom Abigail Salmon sometimes smokes cigarettes.
  • Samuel Heckler, Lindsey's boyfriend and later her husband.
  • Hal Heckler, Sam's older brother who runs a motorcycle repair shop.
  • Len Fenerman, the police detective in charge of investigating Susie's death. His wife commits suicide some time before the events of the novel take place and he later has an affair with Abigail.
  • Clarissa, Susie's best friend. explains that she admired Clarissa because she was always allowed to do things Susie was not, like wear platform shoes and smoke. She has a boyfriend named Brian.
  • Holly, Susie's best friend in heaven. While the text does not say so explicitly, it is implied she is Vietnamese American. She has no accent, and took her name from Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
  • Franny, a middle aged woman who worked as a social worker before being shot. She becomes Susie and Holly's mentor in their Heaven.
  • Mr. Dewitt, the boy's soccer coach at school. Mr. Dewitt encourages Lindsey, a successful athlete, to try out for his team.
  • Mrs. Dewitt, Mr. Dewitt's wife, an English teacher at Susie's school. She teaches both Lindsey and Susie.
  • Holiday, Susie's dog.

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The Lovely Bones(film)

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The Lovely Bones

-2009 American supernatural drama directed by Peter Jackson
-Film adaptation of the 2002 novel by Alice Sebold
-Stars Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, alongside Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon, and Rachel Weisz as Abigail Salmon. Also stars Susan Sarandon as Grandma Lynn, Amanda Michalka as Clarissa and Stanley Tucci as George Harvey
Did You Know?
-The poster on the wall in Susie's room is of David Cassidy
-For the role of George Harvey, Stanley Tucci had his entire appearance altered, such as the hair on his chest and arm dyed to match the blondish brown comb over wig he was to wear, false teeth to alter his jaw line, a lentil-filled fat suit, blue contact lenses since his eye color in real life is brown, square frame glasses, a mustache and sideburns.
-The record Ray Singh holds in his hands when Ruth shouts at him and sees George Harvey is Black Sabbath's self titled debut album
-In the novel, Susie is raped before she is killed, and it goes into great detail, which is what happened to Alice Sebold. This scene was withheld from the movie as the director felt it would be too traumatic for the then 13 year Saoirse Ronan to endure.






Plot
-In 1973, Susie Salmon(Saoirse Ronan) is a 14 year old girl living in Pennsylvania with her parents, Jack(Mark Wahlberg) and Abigail(Rachel Weisz), sister Lindsay, and brother Buckley. She dreams about becoming a photographer some day. One day, a boy she likes, Ray Singh(Reece Ritchie), an Indian man from England, approaches her at her locker and slips a note into her textbook. He asks her out the following day. As Susie walks home through a cornfield known locally as the Stolfuz cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey(Stanley Tucci). He convinces her to go into an underground den he says he built for the neighborhood kids to hang out in. Inside, Susie becomes extremely uneasy in his presence and attempts to leave, but he grabs her, and she kicks him in the face. She runs into the field on to the street, rushing past Ruth Connors(Carolyn Dando), a fellow classmate.




-Meanwhile, the Salmon family becomes worried when Susie does not come home. Her father Jack(Mark Wahlberg), goes out to search for her while her mother Abigail(Rachel Weisz) waits for the police. In town, Susie sees her father, but he does not hear her. Susie then runs home to find Harvey soaking in a tub to get the mud and blood off of him. When she sees her charm bracelet on the sink along with a bloody shaving razor, only then does she realize that she never escape and that she was actually murdered by Mr. Harvey. Screaming, she is pulled into the "In-Between", which is not heaven or Earth. From there, Susie watches over her family, unable to let go despite her new friend, Holly(Nikkie SooHoo), begging her to move on.



-Investigating the disappearance is Det. Len Fenerman(Michael Imperioli), who thinks that Susie was murdered by someone she knew. Jack begins to obsessively research neighbors, including Harvey, who he soon comes to suspect is the killer. Fenerman interviews Harvey but is unable to link him to the murder. Susie's sister Lindsay(Rose McIver), comes to agree with her father about the suspicions, but their work takes an emotional toll on Abigail, and that's when he invites her alcoholic mother Lynn(Susan Sarandon) to live with them for a little while. Feeling alienated from her husband, Abigail leaves the family in the lurch for a while, going to California to work at Krusoe Winery. Susie inspects a lighthouse and learns that Harvey, who is now planning to go after Lindsay, has murdered 6 other people, including Holly and that he stuffed Susie's body into a safe in his basement.




-One night, Jack, carrying a bat belonging to Lindsay, trails Harvey into the cornfield. But he accidentally stumbles across Susie's friend Clarissa(Amanda Michalka), and her boyfriend Brian Nelson(Jake Abel), who mistakenly thinks his girlfriend is being assaulted. Susie watches as her father is nearly beaten to death. As Jack is recovering, Lindsay breaks into Mr. Harvey's house and steals a notebook containing a sketch of the cornfield, the den and a lock of Susie's hair. Harvey returns home and hears Lindsay, who barely makes an escape and runs home to find her mother has returned. Not wishing to spoil the good moment, she hides the book from her mother and instead gives it to her grandmother. Scared of being caught, Harvey then begins to pack up and flee


-The realm Susie is is begins expanding into a larger heaven, and she is greeted by Harvey's other victims. She resists Holly's pleas to enter heaven, claiming she has one other thing to do. Meanwhile, Ruth and Ray are present when Harvey drives to dump the safe at a sinkhole dump on the Connor's property. Susie returns to Earth and enters Ruth's body. This causes Ruth to faint. Ray rushes to help her and instead sees Susie. They share a kiss, completing her last earthly wish and she returns to heaven, as Harvey drives away. Meanwhile, the safe is tumbling down into the sinkhole to never be found.



-Later on, an older George Harvey meets a young woman outside a diner and offers her a ride, but she declines and leaves. A large icicle overhead then falls, causing him to stumble on the ice, making him fall backward over a cliff to his death. Time passes and Susie sees her family changing, and healing, which she refers to as "the lovely bones" that grew around her absence. As the film ends, she enters Heaven, telling the audience "My name is Salmon, like the fish, first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on Dec. 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life."





Cast

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

-Made in 1975
-Directed by Milos Forman
-Based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey
-Ranked #20 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies list.
-Shot at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon.
-This is, by far, one of my most favorite movies. And in fact, at home, I'm reading the book. I've already read it a few times, but it never gets old.




Did You Know?
-Christopher Lloyd's film debut
-Many of the extras were actual mental patients
-Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury were all considered for the role of Nurse Ratched
-Louise Fletcher was so angry that all the other actors cold laugh and be happy while she had to be a cold, heartless woman that near the end of production she stood in only her underwear to prove she was not a cold hearted woman







Plot
-In 1963 Oregon, Randle Patrick McMurphy(Jack Nicholson), is an anti-authority criminal serving a small prison sentence for the rape of a 15 year old girl. He is sent to a mental institution for evaluation. Although he initially does not show any signs of mental defect, he hopes to avoid labor and serve his sentence in a relaxed environment.
-The ward he is staying on is run by strict head nurse Mildred Ratched(Louise Fletcher), who everyone calls the Big Nurse. She is not fooled by McMurphy's act, and she employs humiliation, unpleasant medical treatments and mind-numbingly boring routines to suppress the patients. McMurphy finds that all the patients are deathly afraid of Ratched. He immediately takes over as leader; including fellow patients, such as Billy Bibbit(Brad Dourif), a nervous, stuttering young man whose mother thinks he is still a child, Charlie Cheswick(Sydney Lassick), a man capable of childish fits of temper, Martini)Danny DeVito), a delusional, Dale Harding(William Redfield), a high strung, well-educated man who suffers from paranoia, Max Taber(Christopher Lloyd), who is stubborn and profane, "Chief" Bromden(Will Sampson), a silent Native American who is believed to be deaf and mute, but hears everything and knows all


-McMurphy and Ratched battle wills against each other, this fight escalates very fast. When McMurphy starts playing card games and win's everyone's cigarettes away, Ratched takes them away and doles them out to people. McMurphy calls for votes when it comes to change ward policy and it comes as a personal challenge to the Big Nurse. He also makes a show of making a bet with the other patients: that he can lift the old hydrotherapy fountain- a massive marble plumbing piece- off the floor and chucking it through the steel mesh wired window.





-McMurphy then steals a hospital bus to take his fellow patients on a fishing trip. He picks up Candy(Marya Small), who has a party girl reputation and takes the group deep sea fishing. After this trip, the patients begin to feel human again
-Soon, McMurphy learns that Ratched and the doctors hold the power to keep him confined in the hospital for as long as they think is necessary. Ratched tightens her grip on the group when she senses they are becoming powerful. During one of the usual meetings, Cheswick's agitation comes to a head and he, McMurphy and the Chief end up fighting with the orderlies. The 3 are sent up to what the patients call the "Shock Shop" for ECT or electroconvulsive therapy. While McMurphy and the Chief wait for their turn to get juiced, McMurphy offers the Chief a piece of gum and he responds back "Juicy Fruit." It surprises McMurphy that the Chief can talk. That he is not deaf or dumb like people thought. He stays silent to deflect attention away from him. After the ECT, McMurphy comes on to the ward faking illness, before humourously greeting his patients, assuring everyone that the ECT only charged him up more and that the next woman to take him on "will light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars."



-But the battle between the 2 is taking effect on Ratched and his release date slips farther away. McMurphy plans an escape. He phones his friend Candy to bring her friend Rose(Louisa Moritz) and some alcohol to the hospital late one night. They enter through a window after McMurphy bribes the night orderly, Mr. Turkle(Scatman Crothers). McMurphy and Candy invite the patients into the day room for a Christmas party; the group breaks into the drug cabinet, put on music, and enjoys a drunken rampage from alcohol and cough syrup. At the end of the night, McMurphy and Bromden prepare to climb out the window with the girls. McMurphy says goodbye to everyone, and invites an emotional Billy to escape with them; he refuses, saying he is not ready to go. This gives McMurphy the idea to let Billy and Candy have sex in one of the Seclusion rooms. The alcohol takes it's effect on everyone, including McMurphy and Chief, whose eyes close slowly.


-When Nurse Ratched arrives in the morning, she discovers the scene: the ward is in complete disarray, the patients are passed out, and she orders the attendants to lock the windows, clean up and conduct a roll call. When she finds Billy and Candy together, Billy does not stutter when he talks, so that's when people figure out that it was a fear of women he had that made him stutter. Nurse Ratched then threatens to tell Billy's mother what he did and he panics, stuttering again. While locked in the doctor's office, he takes a razor and slits his wrists. Angered, McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched, nearly strangling her to death until an orderly named Washington knocks him out.





-Later on, when the patients are playing cards and games, all seems to be getting back to normal. This time, Harding is taking the place of McMurphy. That's when Nurse Ratched walks in with a neck brace on and speaks in a thin, scared voice. Then a rumor starts that McMurphy escaped instead of being taken "upstairs" for brain work
-Later that night, Chief Bromden sees McMurphy being escorted back to bed, and initially believes that he has returned so they can all escape- which he is now ready to do with the help of McMurphy, who made him "as big as a mountain." But a close look reveals that McMurphy is unresponsive, that's when he sees lobotomy scars on his forehead. Unwilling to let McMurphy to live, or be seen like this in front of the other patients, the Chief smothers McMurphy to death with his pillow. He then carries out McMurphy's plan to escape by lifting the hydrotherapy fountain and hurling it through the window, climbing through it and running off into the distance.
Cast




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