Best Film Ever

I don't like to believe anything is definite. I have not seen every film created and I am unknowing of what film's will be made in the future. But as far as I know, at this point in time, I would say that the best film ever would be The Shawshank Redemption.
I first watched the film when I was twelve. I remember we took out the old VHS player and where watching a few old movies and one of them was Shawshank Redemption. With all the patience a twelve year old during the summer could muster, I watched the whole movie and loved it.

What makes the film great, to me, is that it is in the physiological perspective of a prisoner. Usually when someone thinks of a prisoner they think of vicious thug who deserves to be there, but in the film most of the prisoners are normal men trying to stay sane. Many of the prisoner's are old to middle-aged men, slowly losing any idea of what it's like to live outside of prison. One of the more memorable quotes in the film, to me, is "Everyone here is innocent", that even though they are all criminals most of the prisoners could pass for normal, innocent men.(Except for one guy but I don't want to spoil much)

Another great aspect of the film is the main character himself. Andy Dufresne is one of the most interesting characters I have ever seen in a film. He seems absolutely unremarkable, unnoticeable, but he uses that to his benefits. His mundanely only veils his genius, which throughout the movie he is able to accomplish so much with all he knows and who he knows. Resembling Kevin Spacey's character in The Usual Suspects (another great movie) he is able to manipulate the guards and especially the Warden so nonchalantly that is goes unnoticed until the end of the film.

The way the plot is set up, the performance by all the actors, and the fantastic imagery of the film makes it one of my favorites, and so far, to me, the best film ever.

Reading a Film: Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. It's one of the first films to incorporate visual of an open landscape and do it well, so well that the landscape is one of the most powerful aspects of the movie. The film tells the true story of T.E. Lawrence(played by Peter O'Toole) who was an archeologist turned Lieutenant Colonel in the middle east during WWI, who fights alongside Arabic tribes to gain control of lands taken by the Ottoman Empire and is accepted more by the Arabic people than his British counterparts.

The film begins with T.E. Lawrence's death and funeral, as many who attend realize they do not really know who he was. The rest of the film follows his life during the war, his victories his losses but mainly the change in his character. He begins as a peculiar British solider very open and mindful, almost childlike. As he fights alongside the Arabic tribesmen he is enveloped into their way of life, becoming a powerful leader fighting for them instead of the British. There is a famous seen where after his British uniform is worn and tattered he is given white robes to wear, the ones that are given to great leaders by the Arabic people. He gladly puts them on and, like a child, swoops around in his new robes following his shadow, more lively in his new robes than when he was in his British uniform.

Later in the movie, the horror of war has an obvious effect on Lawrence, causing him to become colder and more vicious in the war-torn desert. Peter O'Toole's performance is extraordinary, he conveys Lawrences emotions during disastrous events like the Tafas Massacre not only powerfully but realistically as Lawrence watches a stray solider run off to fight the Turkish army responsible for the attack screaming "no prisoners!" and killed, Lawrence, overwhelmed with grief and anger charges repeating the soldiers cry as him and his men completely destroy the Turkish soldiers in one of the most gruesome battles of the film.

There are historical inaccuracies in the film but no where near the kind seen in modern films. The script was adapted from books written by T.E Laurence himself and were done to make some characters and events more noticeable. The film is beautiful, adventurous, and has a fantastic story with amazing characters which all paint the plot with great performance and feeling leaving a work of art.

How My Literacy Began

I remember being five years old, looking at the pictures of the first book my sister had read, the
children's adaptation of Swan Lake. I thought all the pictures were so pretty but did not know what they meant. I did not learn to read as quick as she did, I actually did not learn to read until fifth grade.

I was put into special needs because I was illiterate and I remember how much I hated it. I moved to three different towns and went to three different schools when I was little, all of them put me into special needs classes for reading and writing the first month into school. I don't remember them helping much, I just remember not going to art or music because of it so I hated special needs classes.

My grandmother was more help than school. She would keep me up in the living room teaching me proper grammar and spelling, making me read aloud. It was so hard for me and I would cry a lot but my grandmother kept trying to make me read.

It was not until fifth grade did I start to really understand words on paper. My special class was not like the other ones, it was smaller and had people who were like me, could understand the concept of reading just not do it. The teacher was nice and would let me pick what I wanted to do, I would choose story writing. She gave me a notebook and would give me ten words that I would need to put into the story. I loved writing stories.

I took a test that year, a placement test. I did not take it with the other students, I took it privately in a small room with a teachers aid reading it aloud to me. Before school ended my teacher told me I would not need to take special needs classes anymore because of how well I did on the placement test. I was nervous about what would happen next year.

I ended up nearly failing every class in sixth grade and being put into a "help" class. I don't remember much of seventh grade, mainly because I didn't go to school, I ended up going to another school that was kinda like a daycare center. I only went to that school for about half a year, then I moved to New Paltz and decided to try my best to pass everything I could and not end up in another special class again.

I read a lot in eighth grade. After I had learned how to read from fifth to seventh grade I could not stop reading from eighth grade to today. I love to read now, as well as write and I guess I was so good at it I was able to take AP Literature. From that point on, I don't know yet.