When I was a kid, going to the movies were always a special event. Sometimes it was at a theater, and sometimes it was at a drive-in, but it was always a treat. When I was in high school and learned to drive and to go on dates, I waited patiently for the Thursday newspaper, so I could read the movie reviews and pick out the film I could take my girlfriend to.
Even when we immigrated to Canada, and I taught elementary school in a very remote lumber camp without radio or TV reception, whenever we got a magazine, I would always read the movie reviews, even though there was not chance of seeing them anytime soon. My memory was pretty good at remembering the ones that sounded good and that I wanted to see.
A few years ago, movie reviews changed. Before, there was a chance of sometimes down the line of being able to see that movie, maybe on video tape, DVD, or on TV, but then came all of those movie streaming channels that you had to subscribe to. I would listen to, or read a movie review which made me want to see the film, then when I got to the end of the review, it said it was playing on Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV+ or some other streaming channel that I didn’t subscribe to. It bummed me out that I would probably never be able to see that movie.
On Saturday, I read that AppleTV+ was opening their streaming to everyone for free, over the weekend. Wow, I thought, this was my chance to see those three AppleTV+ movies I had read reviews of and really wanted to watch. Yesterday was the last day left to watch those movies, so I pretty much sacrificed the whole day to watch them. It took more than seven hours to do so, but I was able to see all three.
The three I watched were: “Blitz”, “Coda”, and “Killers of the Flower Moon”. “Blitz” is a very recent film about the London Blitz. Like many London parents, a mother put her young son on a train headed for the safety of the countryside, to protect him from the Nazi bombs that were destroying London. The boy didn’t want to leave his mother, and mid-trip, jumped off of the train, then had to find his way back to London and his mother. His struggle back was full of danger. It was a very exciting film, and I felt the description of the blitz was well researched and accurate.
“Killers of the Flower Moon”, is a drama that depicts one of the most shameful and ugly periods of American history. The Osage Indian tribe had been forced from their home in the midwest and made to live in the bleak lands of a reservation in Oklahoma. Suddenly their fortunes reversed because oil was discovered on their reservation land. The Osage Indians became extremely wealthy. They were of course, tricked, robbed, and murdered by the whites, to steal their wealth.
“Flower Moon” followed one such scheme to accumulate the wealth of a young woman, due to inherit oil rich land. The film was a long one, three and a half hours long. While showing a lot of disgusting and unconscionable behavior, I’m sure it opened the eyes of viewers to this little known part of American history.
I have been wanting to see “Coda” for years, ever since I read a review of it. It tells the story of a hearing teenage girl, with a beautiful singing voice, whose family members are all deaf. They make their living on a fishing boat, and because the girl is the only family member who can hear, the family depends entirely on her to communicate with the public. When she discovers that she is a talented singer, tensions in the family build, because they depend on her so much, and she wants to pursue her vocal talent.
“Coda” was a wonderful and emotional film, that was my favorite of the three. I was so happy to be able to finally see it.
Now you have read my short reviews, and if they sounded like films you might want to see, I guess if you don’t subscribe to AppleTV+, you are miffed just like I was, when long ago I read the reviews, and discovered that I would probably never be able to see them, because I didn’t subscribe to the streaming service.
You can view my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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