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Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.

- Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) -

2005.

I remember it was the year when a series of movies with charismatic leaders and the epic hype were coming to an end - at Kingdom of Heaven. There was nothing about the film that didn’t draw my attention: the title, the theme, the cast, and of course Ridley Scott.

And since when have people stopped feeling compassionate towards each other? An interesting special report entitled Nomads at last from The Economist showed the change of society and economics due to the mobility provided by technology. The strengthening of the interpersonal tiesm provided by the instantaneity in communication is weakening the weak ties, which, according to Mark Granovetter’s paper (The Strength of Weak Ties) published in the 1970s, endangers the society to becoming fragmented and incoherent.

Vantage Point, on the other hand, showed differently.

Coming back to film reviews, which is what I intend to talk about, Vantage Point tells a story of Presendential assassination, narrated in a Rashomon style. Not recommended for greatly impatient people, but then I can’t imagine that many people who are so impatient to be disliking the film.

Forest Whitaker. Simply amazing. Having not seen any of his appearances on the silverscreen, I did remember seeing his face in the trailer for The Last King of Scotland (2006). Portraiting Howard Lewis, an ordinary man with a deep compassionate towards mankind, Forest Whitaker was absolutely brilliant. Maybe it was the slight chubbiness and the speicial eye-lid thing that he does (or has), I greatly admire the Howard Lewis’ character that he presented. On finding The Last King of Scotland, I also watched it. And once again, bravo to Mr. Whitaker.

I am in the uniform of a general, but in my heart, I am a simple man like you. I know who you are, and everything that you are. I am you.

- Ida Amin (Forest Whitaker), The Last King of Scotland -

Ida Amin turned out to be a military dictator, blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the 1970s.

Also, I think a great amount of credit also goes to James McAvoy, who starred in The Last King of Scotland as a medical graduate who wanted to make a difference in the world. Together with Forest, the film became one of the rare films that put me at the edge of my seat. I’m expecting his next film - Wanted(2008) - with Ms Jolie and Morgan Freeman to be just as thrilling.