mdeasy

The brilliance of this movie was its insight into human nature; the pain of this movie was its insight into human nature. The basic concept of stepping out of our lives and into someone else's alone is just wonderful. Women or men get to enjoy the feeling of experiencing an alternate sexuality, feeling thin if you are large, feeling important if you are dull. The portal that takes people there is the key to the movie. The film really also serves as an exploration of what we do as people surfing the web, interacting as whoever we want to be. The fact that the author chose John Malkovich is also interesting. A brilliant actor, but a surly and intense man, JM is not a pretty boy actor, not a vacuous Treat Williams type, but a character actor - one who will play a killer, a psycho or whatever challenging role comes along. The reality is that even for the gristly Malkovich ordering towels over the phone is fun and games for some one looking through his eyes. The sexual chemistry of having sex as someone else with someone else also gets a little weird and interesting. It made the sexual partners straight, gay, there and yet voyeur all at once. The twists and turns are really endless.

This has to be Antonio Banderas's best work. The contrast between the Muslim culture and the Viking culture is wonderful. Banderas is constantly faced with the rowdy Viking attitude. They spit and growl and drink and cuss and fight and kill. Banderas plays an Arab who can't abide much of their behavior, but they grow on him and he becomes `little brother' to them.

Banderas starts to earn his Viking stripes by figuring out their language, then he shows what a brilliant horseman he is, and then ultimately (of course) he is a marvelous swordsman and a brave fighter.

The Eaters of the Dead are even more repugnant to him than his funky brother Vikings, and so he fights them with gusto. It is easy to fall in love with the Viking culture, they laugh constantly, and live fiercely. It would not have been an easy life, but seeing the wolf capes and beautifully carved and crafted boats are just wonderful. This movie is a visual delight. It was just my cup of tea.

From the earth to the Moon tells the whole story of America's space program. If a person combined the first couple episodes of Earth to the Moon with Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, you would have a brilliant beginning. Next replace the Apollo 13 episode of ETTM with the Hank's movie Apollo 13 and then let the rest speak for itself. That would be the perfect mix.

Several of the episodes of ETTM I have watched over and over again. A particular favorite is Spider, which tells the story of the creation of the LEM vehicle by the Grumman Corporation. Matt Craven who was brilliant played the head of that project. This was a magnificent piece of film, showing every aspect of the engineering process, but having made it accessible and even loveable. The team effort and building as a team comes out clearly.

Also the episode called `Is that all there is', about the moon flight of little known astronaut Al Bean was also fantastic. The interplay between Dave Foley (Al Bean), and Paul McCrane (Pete Conrad) is just great on screen magic. There is chemistry between these two teammates that goes beyond normal.

Finally the geology and rock-collecting episode is brilliant. This episode truly captured the final flights of the Apollo program and the direction that the space program might have taken had the funding continued. There is a real magic here with Brett Cullen (Dave Scott) and Tom Amandes (Jack Schmitt) and their taking the lead in truly training the astronauts to also be scientists.

Tom Hanks made the world a masterpiece…it should be required watching in every US History class in America. This is brilliant work from the first episode to the last.