William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1966)

Author: Sadeer Nasser

Author: Sadeer Nasser

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1966)
Reviewed by: Sadeer Nasser
Rating:
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, and Paul Sorvino.
Director: Baz Lurhmann
Running Time: 115 minutes

And here is yet another re-make of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet by director Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom). But this time the film encompasses ‘sword 9mm' guns and helicopters as well as castles and the all-important catholic churches.
The film has an excellent start with a newsreader reading the prologue, which immediately switches with chaotic images that one would not normally associate with William Shakespeare. The prologue with its serious toned voiceover commands our attention almost suddenly with a statement of a problem. The newsreader tells the audience a great deal in people's attitudes towards one another. It is seen that citizens of a town ought to be civil; that is they ought to show respect for one another and get along. But too often they aren't hence ‘3rd CIVIL BRAWL' headline. This sets the scene for the audience telling us that instead they choose to engage in civil wars and shed ‘civil blood'.
The paradoxical situation exists in ‘Fair Verona'. To Shakespearean and Elizabethan audiences, Verona was thought as a hot, sexy, violent Catholic country. There this unusual adaptation was filmed in Mexico, bringing in the violence and the importance of religion to full effect.
The prologue also tells us of how the problem is solved, the plot of the play, and what kind of play it is e.g. ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…' the star-crossed lovers being Leonardo DiCaprio (Growing Pains) as Romeo and Claire Danes (My so called life) as Juliet.
There are many ways Luhrmann uses text, shot types, images and music in order to set the scene for the viewer. The newspaper articles with their bold headlines almost tell the story themselves, e.g. ‘3rd Civil Brawl' and ‘Montague vs. Capulet'.
The voiceover for the prologue is emotionally powerful. The newsreader is a real anchorperson which has a great effect of realism for the audience, this adds to the effects given by the images displayed whilst the prologue is being read.
The ‘strife' between both families is automatically shown in the images introducing the most important characters. This is shown by the looks upon each of the families' faces. One of the main images brought across is to do with the importance of religion, this is captured by some of the fast chaotic shots is also seen whilst the prologue is being ‘broadcast'. Most of the shots are of the statue of the Virgin Mary and large catholic churches.
You would think this all very traditional for the likes of Shakespeare, but then you see how different the approach is to filming a traditional Shakespearean tragedy. The true rivalry and the difference between this adaptation and any other is definitely shown when you see both sides with Tybalt (a Capulet) and Benvolio (a Montague) battling it out, surrounded by armed troops and hovering helicopters!
The film is unlike any other in its category and definitely beats any other filmed attempt of Romeo + Juliet at originality, but what makes watching this unusual adaptation incredibly worth while? The modern theme is carried out throughout the film, although the characters do speak the actual dialogue written by Shakespeare. The modern theme allows the two families to be portrayed very well. The Montagues are portrayed as more laid back than the grandness of the Capulets. The Montagues (Romeo, his cousins and friends) still ‘hang out' on street corners, wear Hawaiian shirts and smoke their cigarettes. Where as the Capulets have their large mansion complete with swimming pools and gardens as well as their overly expensive cars and accessories.
Also the film consists of some of Hollywood's finest actors and actresses. A few are the likes of John Leguizamo as Juliet's cousin Tybalt, Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as I have already mentioned.
The film is a must see blockbuster as it is definitely among the best starring well-known award winning actors and successfully scores high on points for originality!

Author: Sadeer Nasser

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/william-shakespeares-romeo-and-juliet-1966-341874.html

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Sadeer Nasser (C) 2008.

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The Hunger Games Book Review

Author: Roberto Sedycias

In what was to be a war to the finish, 12 unnamed entities attack and try to destroy the United States, only to find themselves the losers in a world where Panem -- the former Washington, DC -- emerges the victor. It's a world where the victor has keep its territories subdued. To do so, it invents the "Hunger Games," by Susan Collins, where two of its finest are sent off to a fight-to-the-death contest. It's the ultimate "Fantasy Island" meets the Roman gladiatorial games where the fight is to the death with no quarter.

Into this world arrives Katness Everdeen, 16, from the Appalachian territory, who is making the ultimate sacrifice to save her sister and is partnered with Peeta. Let's look back a little before we move forward.

The key to the world in Susan Collins' "Hunger Games," used to be called "man's inhumanity to man." In this case, though, it's more like man's insanity to man. It is the ultimate reality show except that in this one there is no escape for 23 of the 24 participant.

It's a world where, unlike "Spartacus," who finds his humanity and humanity in the courage of his "brothers of the games," the competitors in the "Hunger Games" slowly lose their humanity and their inhibitions and devolve into mere participants in a TV show where no one is "voted off the island -- you're killed."

How Katness and Peeta, who retains her humanity and convinces Katness to do the same, while, also keeping from becoming victims is the hidden story around which the "Hunger Games" revolves.

The "Hunger Games" is a novel that works because it resonates with its audience very well. Notice that it is meant for readers 12 and older. This puts it about the time the Playstation really became the hot property of the Internet gaming world.

Players were ready to annihilate - no one ever liked being annihilated himself so they developed workarounds (spoilers) where players could gain unlimited supplies of ammunition or oxygen. Spoilers were also developed that gave players more weapons and more powerful weapons and that could also bring them back to life if they had the misfortune to caught in an ambush.

In a larger sense, the "Hunger Games" is a direct outgrowth of this thinking. It reflects an understanding of how to "settle" wars and scores by using weapons. In the "Hunger Games," the players become finely tuned hunting and killing machines who can track and find their enemies and who can split them with one arrow shot.

Unfortunately, since this is a novel when you've used up your quota of arrows, knives, blades and anything else with which you can hack and maim, you are usually the next to fall.

Katness becomes that type of killing machine but her partner Peeta helps her hold onto her humanity. That's what is lacking from the other players in this game. The territories and Panem reflect their times. They are short of food and other basic necessities so they need a gladiator-like distraction and the "Hunger Games" gives them that distraction. That they have forgotten why they are fighting them in the first place is place far down the list.

Like Collins' other work, this one has been well received. It will likely have several more aimed at us before the series peters out. We suspect Katness will have something to do with the final stand and the final "Hunger Game" because she is, after all, the ultimate warrior.

And, while we don't pretend to know what is on the publisher's mind or the author's mind, we can only think that somehow the "Hunger Games" will pass into history, just as Rome's gladiatorial contests did two millennia ago.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/book-reviews-articles/the-hunger-games-book-review-5908128.html

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Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for Polo

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The Protagonist in the Great Gatsby

Author: Ashmita Saha

The central character of the classic novel The Great Gatsby is James Gatz. Early in his career he converts his name to Jay Gatsby in order to live out his 'Platonic conception of himself.' Jay Gatsby is a romantic who dreams of making it big in the real world by earning a lot of money. To live this achieve this ambition he struggles variously as a salesman, a sailor and an army man, among other things. Finally he does succeed in earning a good amount of money. With this money he sets out to win back his long lost love-Daisy from her husband and child.

Character Traits

• Gatsby hides his real self behind a facade of lies. He lies about his history to all his acquaintances. Even his close friend Nick and his girlfriend Daisy are kept guessing at his background.
  

• He invites a lot of unknown people to his grand parties, is a perfect host to all of them. But he befriends nobody. Even his tenant, Klipspringer is no friend of his and chooses to miss Gatsby's funeral.

• Gatsby loves showing off his money. He throws lavish parties, lives in a gigantic mansion and orders a fresh exclusive wardrobe each season.

• Gatsby is quite noble in certain aspects. He decides to stand up for Daisy and say that he hit Myrtle in the fatal car accident, when it was actually Daisy who was driving. In another incident, Gatsby gifts a brand new gown to one of his guests when she accidentally tears her own gown during one of his parties. These small incidents say a lot about Gatsby's nature. He is essentially kind and cannot do any willful harm to people.

• Gatsby uses the facade of a fictitious past as a shield against his vulnerability. When this facade is expose by Tom, Gatsby breaks down 'like glass'.

Love and Ideology

Gatsby loves Daisy because she symbolizes for him a fulfillment of all that Gatsby had set out to achieve. About Daisy, Gatsby was 'overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves.' Acquiring Daisy was Gatsby's last desire. And with this achievement, Gatsby would have lost his purpose to go on living.

Daisy on the other hand represents the superficiality of Gatsby's desires. Daisy is as superficial as the opulence that Gatsby aspires for. For example, Daisy says this on looking at Gatsby's clothes: “They're such beautiful shirts. It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.”

Bleak End

When Gatsby is unable to get Daisy, he seems to have failed in his purpose of life. He seems to have 'paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.' He dies a lonely man, minus the dignity he deserved.

To read a complete review of the book http://www.book-review-circle.com/The-Great-Gatsby-F-Scott-Fitzgerald.html ">click here.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/book-reviews-articles/the-protagonist-in-the-great-gatsby-746108.html

About the Author

Ashmita Saha is a regular reviewer of popular literary books. Her reviews feature on www.book-review-circle.com

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Book Review - Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

By Henry Reed

One of the more extraordinary stories about Edgar Cayce's psychic ability is the time he was preparing to do a reading for a client in a distant location. As he began, he noted that the client was not present at the location mentioned in the client's letter requesting the reading. In a moment, Cayce announced, "Oh, here he comes now," and began the reading. The client had just returned home.

A few years back, on a television program called "Put it to the Test," they showed a demonstration of Joseph McMoneagle, who had worked as a "psychic spy" for the CIA. In the session, McMoneagle was asked to psychically spy a location far away known only to a couple of individuals. It was the Los Angeles harbor.

McMoneagle does a pretty good sketch of the major visual elements of the scene. As he does so, a large freighter passes through that point in the harbor. McMoneagle notes that something has come onto the scene that is blocking the view.

The television reporter was flabbergasted at the immediacy and accuracy of McMoneagle's demonstrable psychic abilities.

That particular television program was in response to the startling revelation that the CIA had been using psychic spies. In an unusual break with secrecy, the existence of "Stargate," the code name for the government project to use the clairvoyant skill of remote viewing as an intelligence gathering method, was headline news. The fallout of this revelation was gradual "coming out" of persons who had participated as psychic spies. Another fallout was that remote viewing catapulted from an arcane laboratory methodology to the subject of many new consulting firms serving corporations and investment firms who wanted to gain the latest advantage.

The impression created about remote viewing from the publicity surrounding its birth into public awareness was that it was a "psychic power" with all the ambivalence that the word power evokes. It could be used for competitive advantage and personal profit. It was lacking in spiritual value. The term remote viewing, with its technological tone, adds to that impression of sterility. What would be a spiritual use of remote viewing? Edgar Cayce once surmised that the highest use of psychic ability would be to hear the voice of God. As remote viewing is coming of age, it is beginning to approach the idealism of Cayce's vision. It would seem that intuition, or psychic ability, first had to be put into the most sterile, technological, and practical terms to gain recognition, and now can be rejoined with its spiritual roots.

A supreme example of this evolution has its seeds in the military's Stargate program itself. It is the book by F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater, Captain of My Ship: Master of My Soul (Hampton Roads). Atwater was in Army Intelligence when he "happened" to be Johnny-on-the-spot with his knowledge of remote viewing to create the military's psychic spying operation. He was, in fact, McMoneagle's trainer. I used the word happened deliberately, as the subtitle of Atwater's book is "Living with Guidance." Atwater reports that he had many psychic experiences as a child. His parents, members of the Unity Church, normalized his experiences with responses that made him feel that "everyone knew that." His parents also taught him about spiritual guidance. As a teenager, he used his abilities to see into his hot rod's engine to facilitate repairs. He was guided to join the army, to apply for the intelligence division, and to then start the remote viewing operation.

After retiring from the Army, Atwater joined the psychic training organization, the Monroe Institute, near Charlottesville, Virginia. In this atmosphere, Atwater expanded the remote viewing methodology to embrace spiritual guidance. He proposes a variation of Cayce's vision of "oneness" with the idea of "All That Is." Psychic ability is a natural byproduct of our being one with "All That Is." He explains that remote viewing is not really "traveling" or "seeing," but merely an expression of our being "All That Is."

Atwater's tone is down to earth, personable, and reassuring. Reading the book makes you feel that you, too, can realize your connection with "All That Is," to know your spiritual identity, to realize your purpose for this lifetime, and to gain the necessary guidance for the next step of your mission. The book certainly turned around my feelings about remote viewing.

In his final words, echoing Cayce's ideal of "individuality in oneness" Atwater writes, "Open your heart. And with an open heart, speak the truth. Say to yourself from your heart, 'I reveal the truth and realize that I Am.' Put a smile on your face and carry love in your heart. Show the world you know that you are a divine expression of God I Am. See you around the campfire."

Henry Reed, Ph.D., is on staff at Atlantic University [http://www.atlanticuniv.edu]. He has been the prime designer of A.R.E.'s psychic development program, in its various aspects, for the past twenty some years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henry_Reed
http://EzineArticles.com/?Book-Review---Captain-of-My-Ship,-Master-of-My-Soul&id=1082523

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

By Judith Allison

World War Z is told through UN Postwar Commission agent Brooks during a series of interviews. Patient Zero in the zombie pandemic is a young boy in China who is bitten - the ultimate origin of the outbreak remains unknown. The Chinese attempt to cover up the zombie pandemic at first, coming up with a cover story of a crisis in Taiwan. The black market trade in organ transplants slowly spreads the infection worldwide until a major outbreak in South Africa reveals the ongoing catastrophe to the public.

Israel is the only nation which takes the zombie outbreak seriously at first, sealing its borders to everyone other than uninfected Jews and Palestinians. Iran and Pakistan annihilate one another with nuclear weapons following Iran's attempt to keep Pakistani refugees from crossing the border. The US is caught largely unprepared. Special Forces are deployed to help keep local outbreaks under control, but the country never engages in a nationwide strategy as the military is tied up keeping a lid on smaller outbreaks. Worse still, a fraudulent vaccine is making the rounds, giving citizens an unwarranted sense of safety. Once the world wakes up to just how serious things have gotten, a global panic (called the "Great Panic") immediately gets underway.

After New York City falls, the Army creates a highly visible base and defense system in Yonkers to contain the fallout of the zombie war in the area as well as to improve morale. Unfortunately, the military fights this war as if they were facing human opponents, failing with tactics like wounding to demoralize the enemy; and as everyone knows, whether or not they've read World War Z, there's no such thing as demoralizing a zombie. The US military is forced to retreat, on live TV no less - and much the same story unfolds around the world as humanity faces a very real threat of extinction.

Led by government official Paul Redeker, South Africa decides to clear easily defensible areas of zombies and establish safe zones; in the process, the government leaves many of their own citizens to fend for themselves against the zombie hordes. Variations of this plan are adopted by many other nations - and other countries opt to evacuate entirely, including Japan. In North America, many people decide to make for the Arctic wilderness, since zombies are unable to function in cold temperatures. Unfortunately, they're almost entirely unprepared to survive in the harsh environment of the Canadian Arctic and about 11 million succumb to exposure and starvation when winter comes.

Seven years into World War Z, world leaders meet aboard the USS Saratoga near Hawaii to discuss how to proceed. Most nations express their wish to simply wait out the zombie war, but the President of the United States makes a case for fighting back as the only way to survive and sways the assembled world leaders.

The U.S. decides to be an example for the rest of the world and the American military adjusts to fighting an entirely different kind of war. Speed is out, as are fully automatic weapons; instead, soldiers are trained to use semi-automatic rifles and to use a slow and steady approach, going for the head shots which stop zombies in their tracks. A new weapon, the "Lobotomizer" (or Lobo, as it is called by the troops) is created to allow soldiers to kill zombies in close quarters. With this new strategy, the military works outwards from the safe zone it has established in the west, beginning a three year campaign to destroy all zombies, dividing the country into north, central and south zones.

Even after the zombie war has officially ended, millions of zombies remain around the world, which has been changed forever by World War Z, as it is known by survivors. Cuba, now a democracy, has become the world's financial capital. After civil unrest precipitated by the destruction of the Three Gorges Dam and the assassination of the Chinese Communist Party's leadership by ballistic missiles launched from a Chinese submarine, China has also become a democracy.

Now free of Chinese domination, Tibet has become home to the world's largest city. Russia has become a theocracy bent on expansion - and the entire population of North Korea seems to have vanished, either into underground bunkers or turned undead. The people of Iceland have all fled or become zombies and the country is now the world's most zombie-infested.

The UN organizes a military force to hunt down zombies in areas which are still overrun and to take out frozen zombies as well as those which emerge from the oceans. The human race has been brought close to extinction and the world's population at the time that Brooks gives his history has been greatly reduced. During the war, many species of animals have suffered a similar fate, as have many of the world's ecosystems, due both to the actions of the zombie hordes as well as those of humans driven to desperate measures in order to survive.

Keep up with all of the latest SF / Fantasy / Horror news and reviews at: News.ScienceFictionBuzz.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judith_Allison
http://EzineArticles.com/?World-War-Z:-An-Oral-History-of-the-Zombie-War&id=7452973

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