Marty - My interpretation

Marty. (1955) .Dir:  Delbert MannFrom the Third Ear at the Jerusalem Cinemateque. Seen. Dec 2015

Leading one’s own life

A man can’t make up his mind because he tries to please all the people who are important in his life, like his mother and his friends. Yet they don’t give him clear directions regarding important decisions in his life, like deciding whether to buy a business or to marry a girl that he likes. 

Each of these people advises him according what it good for them and not what is good for him. Both his friends and his mother like him and look to him for friendship and support. Their advice, not to buy the business and not to marry the girl he loves, is based on their need for him as a solid person who gives their lives support. 

I think that Ernest Borgnine shows himself as a brilliant actor in portraying Marty.  Esther Minciotti gives a wonderful portrayal of a typical Italian mother and Augusta Ciolli gives a very convincing performance at the hysterical aunt.The movie succeeds in keeping us in suspense regarding the outcome of his inner struggle to come to the correct decision. 

The Revenant - My interpretation

The Revenant. (2015) Dir:  Alejandro González Iñárritu. Seen at Ayalon Mall. Sat 30th Jan 2015

Although the movie is called “The Revenant”, which means “The one who returned from the dead”, this movie does not show someone returning from the dead.

When people say that someone has returned from the dead they’re only speaking metaphorically. Anybody who really believes that a person can actually return from the dead is foolish.

But when we meet a living person who has endured suffering which is so terrible that we are sure it has killed him, we tend to say “he has returned from the dead”.

This movie, by vividly and realistically showing a man enduring terrible suffering, helps us to understand how the saying “he has returned from the dead” develops and is repeated so often that some people begin to believe that the person really returned from the dead.

This saying is therefore a myth and no matter how realistic the death appears to be we should understand that it’s a myth to say the man returned from the dead.