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DVD The Sea Inside
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2004, The Sea Inside is a life-affirming film about a man who wishes to die. That may seem like a massive contradiction, but in the hands of director Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes, The Others) and actor Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), this fact-based Spanish drama concerns the final days of Ramón Sampedro, the quadriplegic poet who waged a controversial campaign for his right to die. He was denied this right for 30 years, and ultimately arranged for his own assisted suicide, but this remarkable film--and Bardem's keenly intelligent performance--examines the hotly-debated issue of assisted suicide with admirable depth and humanity, just as Sampedro did until his death in 1998. For Sampedro, death was preferable to severe paralysis (he even refused to use a wheelchair), but the film does not suggest a "disposable" attitude toward disability. Instead, it's a thoughtful meditation on life and love as gifts to be cherished, and a challenging drama that begs each viewer to examine their own personal beliefs about what makes life worth living. You may not agree with Sampedro and his ultimate denial of life, but The Sea Inside will urge you to ponder how you would react under similar circumstances, and that makes it a profoundly meaningful film. --Jeff Shannon
Alejandro Amenábar's "The Sea Inside" is a film that asks the tough questions. It is not a good-intentioned Hollywood production that frustratingly loses sight of its important message because of creative compromise. It is instead a film that forces one to ponder the conflicting views on a difficult issue.
Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem) has been trapped inside his body for twenty-eight years. He has asked for the right to die because he believes that life as a quadriplegic is not a dignified way to live. Ramon's brother, José (Celso Bugallo) is adamantly against his decision but support is found in the form of Julia (Belén Rueda), Ramon's lawyer, and Rosa (Lola Dueñas), a local radio personality. The crusade faces an uphill battle as opposition is encountered at every turn but Ramon stubbornly sticks to his guns despite the overwhelming public pressure and criticism.
Bardem turns in the performance of his career as the broken but spirited Ramon. He puts a flesh-and-blood face on the issue at-hand and effectively conveys the frustration and limitations of the quadriplegic. The directing is equally inspired as Amenábar is careful not to make "The Sea Inside" a one-sided affair. He wisely incorporates the rational arguments against assisted suicide which greatly helps the film from becoming manipulative. Do not get the impression that "The Sea Inside" is two hours of depressing storytelling though. It is ultimately uplifting even in light of its somber subject matter. For a film that deals with the right to die, "The Sea Inside" is ironically full of life.
"The Sea Inside": a serious story, with humor...
For those who like strong emotions and controversial issues, this movie is for you. It makes you wonder what you would do, if someone you love & care for, like a warm and funny uncle, is also totally immobilized and asks you to end his life. He can't. He cajoles you into it, and you try almost everything to let him retain hope. It's a soulful, graceful drama. You'll think about it long after. See it!
Observe his journey without the argument!
If you can get past the argument about euthanasia, you can enjoy a touching movie about one man's battle for years to die with dignity. Based on a true story, Ramon Sampedro had a life-altering terrible accident as a young man when he took a dive into the ocean, just as the undertow took the water away. Frightening, the consequences led to his pariplegic state and confinement to a bed for the next few decades.
Winner of numerous awards, including Best Foreign Film at the 2005 Oscars, Goya Awards, and Global Awards, you might recognize Javier Bardem from "Mondays in the Sun", and "Before Night Falls." The leading lady, Belen Rueda, is one of Spain's popular TV personalities. Bardem, at the time of filming was only 35 and with excellent makeup, he was made to appear 55, the age of Ramon Sampedro.
A story of love, death, life, dignity and freedom. There are those who love him enough to help him and those who stubbornly challenge his right to die. Embarking on a journey, fraught with legal hurdles, in between, he embraces his dreams of flying beyond his window to the beautiful see he loved. Flying over the sea is symbolic of freedom of life without constraints.
If you are new to foreign film, you will see that this has clearly labeled subtitles, a great benefit to your movie pleasure. Another important feature is the commentary by the director! Always give time to observe with great attention, the commentaries! ...MzRizz
The beauty of the South American landscape and of Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Bad Education) gives The Motorcycle Diaries a charisma that is decidedly apolitical. But this portrait of the young Che Guevara (later to become a militant revolutionary) is half buddy-movie, half social commentary--and while that may seem an unholy hybrid, under the guidance of Brazillian director Walter Salles (Central Station) the movie is quietly passionate. Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna, a lusty and engaging actor) set off from Buenos Aires, hoping to circumnavigate the continent on a leaky motorcycle. They end up travelling more by foot, hitchhiking, and raft, but their experience of the land and the people affects them profoundly. No... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Walter Salles DVD Release Date: Released the 15 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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When a movie can blend passionate social concern with good old-fashioned suspense, it must be doing something right. Maria Full of Grace scores high on both counts. Maria is a Colombian teenager who, for a large paycheck, agrees to be a mule for drug-runners: she has to swallow dozens of thumb-sized capsules of heroin and smuggle them into New York. This debilitating process is painstakingly described, and of course not everything goes as planned when Maria and her fellow mules land in America. Director Joshua Marston is working on a low budget, which explains the film's narrow, single-minded focus--but this may be a strength, not a weakness. The trump card is the lead performance of Catalina Sandrino Moreno, who won awards at the Seattle and Newport Film Festivals. Her empathetic... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Catalina Sandino Moreno - Guilied Lopez - Orlando Tobon Director(s): Joshua Marston DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan "guests" from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died. Giving his best performance since his breakthrough role in Devil in a Blue Dress, Cheadle plays Rusesabagina as he really was during the ensuing chaos: "an expert in situational ethics" (as described by critic Roger Ebert), doing what he morally had to do, at... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Don Cheadle - Sophie Okonedo Director(s): Terry George DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gael García Bernal - Fele Martínez - Javier Cámara Director(s): Pedro Almodóvar DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The brilliant writer-director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked) has crafted an utterly compelling movie about one of the most controversial of topics. An irrepressibly hopeful housecleaner in 1950s London named Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, Antonia and Jane, Shakespeare in Love) mothers everyone around her, from her own family to helpless shut-ins and lonely men living in tiny, isolated apartments. None of these people know that Vera also helps young women get rid of unwanted pregnancies, until the police appear and tear her world apart. Vera Drake isn't just an inspired character portrait; through simple and straightforward scenes, the movie weaves a quiet but mesmerizing portrait of how people--both wealthy and poor--cope with... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Imelda Staunton - Heather Craney Director(s): Mike Leigh DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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