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Ardiente paciencia (1983)
Interesting, if a tad cliched.
(WARNING: spoilers) I appreciated this movie foremost because it introduced me to the work of Pablo Neruda. The sequences where Neruda and Mario discuss poetry, and where Neruda explains the meaning of his work, are wonderful. "'Sometimes I feel I am not a man...' I have felt this way, too. When I read these words, I liked it." For me, this is the essence of what poetry is all about; an abstraction of words to communicate common human sentiment that is too difficult to explain normally. This was also a touching story of a small-town Italian man's struggle to enlighten and better himself, to be something comparable to the celebrity poet who is staying in his town. However, I found the movie overly simplistic, and certain plot lines seemed obvious and boring. Mario meets a mysterious, exotic, and tempting woman in his bar. They talk oddly. Skip to the next scene, and they're going out. Skip again and they're getting married. Skip again and they have a kid. It's all treated as obvious and any dynamic between these two people is ignored, background, save for a brief conversation between the woman and her mother concerning Mario. The same occurred with the ending to the movie. Neruda returns and finds that Mario has been killed in a protest rally, struggling to be more like Neruda. This, again, was treated as an obvious plot development. No discussion or conflict ever arose as to the fact that Neruda ignored his friend. He merely returns, finds his friend dead, gets the obligatory speech from the wife, and the movie ends. Overall the problem with the movie was too much hinting and not enough of the important aspects of the movie being displayed. It's quite possible this is a common dynamic of Chilean films. Definitely worth seeing, but don't expect to be too deeply moved, only a little.
The Abyss (1989)
An incredible, unique Sci-Fi Thriller
This is an incredible sci-fi classic. It is realistic and thought-provoking, yet comedic, too. The opening scene of a nuclear submarine crashing and sinking to over 2,000 feet underwater was stunning. An underwater oil rig is assigned to look for survivors and dangerous radiation in the sub. The scene where part of the crew of the rig, along with two navy SEALs is chilling, and realistic of what a recently sunk sub must be like. More stunning is the scene where a crane sinking an abyss barely avoids pulling down the entire rig to the bottom of the abyss, over four miles down. But the plot thickens... entities begin to show up. They are beautiful and graceful, like living machines, but not of steel... f flesh. One takes on the form of a "water tentacle" that moves gracefully through the rig. When it encounters some of the crew, it perfectly imitates their faces. The scene is, to say the least, breathtaking. Eventually, a nuclear missile from the crashed sub is stolen and dropped into the abyss. It's on a timer, and when it goes off, the explosion, even though miles underwater, will destroy everything for miles. One of the crew (Ed Harris) has to go into the abyss to defuse the bomb. At the bottom, he discovers an incredible underwater city. Running low on oxygen, he defuses the bomb and passes out, but is led to safety by the creatures of the underwater city. In the last scene, the underwater city rises up to the surface, with the rig and an oil tanker that had been floating above on top. The massive oil tanker is dwarfed in comparison to the breathtaking city. Despite the occasional overly-cutesy comments, and the predictable love sequence, this is probably the best aquatic sci-fi movie ever.