The Rapture

The Rapture(1991)

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by Bothan

85% of the time I have my mind made up about the movie that I am watching about 90 minutes into the film.

I saw Michael Tolken's `The Rapture' the day it opened in 1991 and I've seen it ten times since and I (like a lot of people) am nowhere near a concluding opinion.

I can't recall any movie that has brought me more discussion, debate or enraged argument. After all it is a movie about religion. Note that I said, this is `about religion', this is not a pious `religious film' that is set about by one fundamentalist idea and then closes the door.

The movie features one of the best, bravest performances I've ever seen. It is provided by Mimi Rogers as Sharon, a telephone operator who works in the new world of global communication – infinite communication with the minimum of personal interaction. Her nights are just as impersonal, she cruises cocktail lounges with her lover looking for partygoers to swing with. They have wild sex parties with very little personal interaction.

One day around the office water cooler she overhears coworkers discussing a strange dream about a floating white pearl. She also learns that those who have had the dream have huddled around a young black boy who is speaking about the end of the world.

Sharon throws off her swinger lifestyle (done in a scene where she gets out of bed and changes the sheets) and is born again. Years pass and she marries a former lover who also finds God and they have a child together. Now, for any other film this would be enough but Tolken is just getting started.

After a devastating event, Sharon thinks that she has received a sign from God telling her to go the desert and wait there. And she waits and she waits and she waits. Scorching under the hot sun Sharon and her daughter grow impatient. After several weeks, Sharon eventually tests God in an act so shocking that I wondered even up the last second, if Tolken would go through with it.

I won't say anymore but I will say that the movie goes all the way in its literal depiction of the rapture (Tolken is at the mercy of low budget special effects but we get the point). The ending of the movie is confounding. Not in a bad way but in a way that leaves people in a heated discussion. Many directors would have taken the easy way out and compromised with over-sentimentality.

After seeing the movie that first time in late 1991, I sat outside the theater and tried to figure out what I had just seen. I eventually chose `The Rapture' as the best film of 1991 because what I had realized was that I had seen a movie that didn't enrage, frustrate or challenge me like any other movie. Mission accomplished, Mr. Tolken.


IMDB RATING 6.6/10

Sourav Bhattacharya

Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing(1990)

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by PClark from Cincinnati, OH


One of the great undiscovered gems of recent movie history. In my opinion, Miller's crossing is easily the best of the Coen brothers' films, and one of the true classics of American cinema.

On the surface, the story of warring gangsters in 1920's America is one that has been told many times before. But never before has it been handled with such artistry and precision. The (rather violent) action scenes keep the movie going along at a brisk pace, and the camera work is every bit the equal of "Fargo".

I became a lifelong Gabriel Byrne fan as a result of this movie, despite his best efforts to disappoint me since. Byrne's Tom Reagan is a compellingly amoral character, who takes more unchallenged beatings than perhaps anyone in film history. Men beat him up. Women beat him up. Collection men, bookies, gangsters, and even his boss gives him a terrible thrashing, and he hardly lifts a finger in opposition (with one notably humorous exception).

Albert Finney is tremendous as Leo, the local crime boss. His "Danny Boy" scene should go down in film history as one of the greatest pieces ever filmed. Jon Polito is at once absurdly funny and threateningly psychotic as Johnny Caspar, Leo's rival in the turf war. J.E. Freeman, John Turturro, and Marcia Gay Harden all lend strong support in a cast that was assembled and performs to near perfection.

I will never understand why this film has not received more recognition and acclaim. As an example of the modern style of Film Noir, it has no equals ("The Usual Suspects" would rate a close second). Among gangster films, only "The Godfather" can compete, and "Miller's Crossing" features superior pacing and dialog, although it lacks "The Godfather's" epic proportions. Perhaps someday this film will receive, like "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Touch of Evil", the belated accolades it so richly deserves.


IMDB RATING 8.0/10

Sourav Bhattacharya

Harsh Times(2005)

Harsh Times(2005)

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Joe from UK

Christian Bale is an actor who is never orthodox. His string of films have in general been breaking moulds and testing his own ability, and more often than not you leave the cinema thinking that you had seen something special.

Having revived the Batman series and out-Lynched David Lynch in "The Machinist", he has now tackled the troubled life of a war veteran who is trying to find a job in order to be able to settle down so he can marry and bring over his wife from Mexico. Alongside him is his best friend who is also in the same situation of finding a job but this time in order to satisfy his frustrated working wife. As always nothing goes as easily to plan.

The two lead actors end up struggling through job rejections, life, gangs, drugs and drinks, and also the struggle to move on from their carefree lifestyle when they were young. Responsibility is a difficult option for the pair of them. The problem is exacerbated by Christian Bale's character's flashbacks and hauntings to the war, which add a frightening and unstable edge to his character.

The film overall takes us on an unpredictable journey following the two men questioning ourselves what we would do if we were in their shoes, and watching the pair of them acting and opting for what they do can be unsettling. Acting is great, direction is interesting and you will not be disappointed. If you like Crash, then in some ways this is in the same vein but not alike to the movie. I thoroughly was interested and enjoyed this movie, and if you want a thought-provoking film then this is definitely for you.


IMDB RATING 7.0/10

Sourav Bhattacharya