Arthur C Clarke was a visionary story teller and science fiction writer. He will forever be remembered for his visionary writings, such as the conceptualization of the geo-stationary communications satellite; and for his great works of fiction such as the ‘Space Odyssey 2001′ (made into a excellent movie). In Space Odyssey 2010, he continues his work, moving ahead the story of the monolith around Jupiter (in a slight adjustment, while 2001 the book was about Saturn, while 2001 the movie was about Jupiter, and hence 2010 the book refers to Jupiter - so readers should not get confused that the first book talks about Saturn while the second book talks about Jupiter).
2001 was in the decade when the quest for the moon was at its peak, and the book was right before the Moon landings were planned, so there was a great more public enthusiasm for the book (more suspense). This book (Odyssey 2) was released in 1982, so it was not directly linked to anything happening in real life, and the space program was ongoing, but that initial romanticism was missing.

This book was set in a period 9 years after the events of 2001, and a joint Soviet-American expedition on Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov is planned to visit the abandoned Discovery spacecraft so that they can find out what really happened (after all, David Bowman vanished from the viewpoint of Earth (he turned into a starchild)), as well as to determine what happened with regard to the monolith. However, there is a surprise since a spacecraft leaps out of Earth orbit, and is revealed to be a Chinese inter-planetary spacecraft called Tsien, setting a course for Jupiter and expected to reach before the Leonov.
The Tsien lands on Europa to collect water for its propulsion, but runs into an accident when native life forms overwhelm the ship (attracted by the light from the ship) and given the loss of the ship, the crew are destined to die there (the final survivor radioing this information to the arriving Leonov). The Loenov eventually reaches the Discovery and Dr. Chandra manages to reactivate HAL. At the same time, we learn that the ethereal form of David Bowman visits his mother and girlfriend on Earth; he also does investigation of the life forms on Europa and in the cloud region of Jupiter. In the balance between these 2, the life forms on Europa are deemed to have a far greater potential for growth and evolution.
Bowman then appears before Floyd and warns that they must leave Jupiter within 15 days. Naturally, the crew hesitate to believe Floyd until they see the monoliths growing all over Jupiter, at which point an emergency mission is setup, using the Discovery as a booster for increasing speed. And in a scene designed to remind humans about the awesome capabilities of the intelligence behind the monoliths, the monoliths actually increase the density of Jupiter until the planet becomes a star (having achieved nuclear fusion). And there is a final warning that Bowman delivers via HAL, “ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.” HAL in turn is absorbed in the monolith just like David Bowman was.

In today’s world, we take underground tunnels, trains, space travel, satellites, etc, as standard everyday things. However, there was a time when there was no concept of having long tunnels under the seabed, or massive bridges many kilometers long; and travel to space was difficult to visualize (astronomy existed, but to visualize precise details was difficult). It is to the credit of the science fiction writers of that time that they were able to visualize underwater, underground, and space travel adventures. One of the most famous science fiction writers of that time was Jules Verne, who wrote about locations and adventures that were unheard of in the 19th century, and many of which bear a good resemblance to what came into reality many many decades later. One of Jules Verne’s novels that makes interesting reading is the tale of a journey underground - A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

However, this novel should be looked upon as fiction. In this particular case, the novel is not very accurate. However, it is still a good work of fiction, and should be read for that reason alone.
The story is that of an eccentric professor, who is attempting to follow in the footsteps of an Icelandic adventurer who had made an epic journey to the center of the earth a long time back, and of which there are not many records. The professor gets his nephew to follow him (well, actually the nephew volunteers for this expedition), and along with a strong, silent, guide, they head off this to this incredible journey.
The professor finds a coded text in a book written by Snorri Sturluson, and is desperate to decode the parchment, going without food if necessary. It is the nephew, Axel who managed to decode the code, finding that it was just written backwards. He is concerned about what his uncle will do if he finds that the text has been decoded, but after 2 more days without food, gives up and tells his uncle about the decoding. The code is very simple: “Descend, bold traveler, into the crater of the jokul of Sneffels, which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the calendas of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth; I have done this, Arne Saknussemm” (the translation in English).
Inspite of the protestations of his nephew, the professor is eager to take this trip, and after arriving in Reykjavík, they hire an Icelandic hunter, Hans Bjelke, as their guide. After some delay due to clouds, they are able to find the starting point, and start a descent into a crater. And then start their adventures, with very sharp descents, almost running out of water once, another time when Axel separates from the others and is only able to find the others due to a strange acoustic phenomenon. They find strange creatures, and a massive underwater cavern with a huge water body; the water body contains many prehistoric creatures.
At a point however, they find that the path is blocked; they decide to blast their way through; however, the resultant upheaval pulls them through the blasted path at a high speed, and soon they find themselves in a close proximity to hot water and magma. Just when they are sure that they will soon boil, they find themselves rising fast, and soon get ejected from a volcano (in Stromboli, in Italy - very far away from their descent point in Iceland). They are all termed as heroes when their journey comes to public knowledge.

Kramer vs. Kramer was an incredible movie. Based on an adaptation of a novel by Avery Corman, the movie was directed by Robert Benton and released in 1979. The movie became a major landmark in the depiction of the trauma of the divorce of a couple, and the effect that it has on everybody involved, most notably on the young children who are torn apart by the divorce. The depiction of the tensions in a marriage related to ambition, feelings of neglect, and the shift in the earlier traditional roles of a marriage made this movie one that seems relevant even today. The movie came at a time when there was a shift in the traditional dynamics of a marriage, with a greater number of women seeking to find themselves by building a career for themselves. Combine this with a great script, some careful (and non-biased handling), and excellent performances, and you get to see why Kramer vs. Kramer became successful then, and remains a wonderful movie.

The movie starts Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as Ted and Joanna Kramer. Ted is a rising advertising executive, and needs to put in a large amount of time in his job. Something has got to give when such large amounts of time are spent on the job, and ted is unable to spend much time with his wife and child, eight-year old Billy (Justin Henry). He hardly knows what is going on at home, and greatly neglects his wife Joanna. And then it happens; Joanna feels a total sense of despair, of not doing anything, and informs Ted that she needs to leave in order to try and find herself.
This shocks Ted to an incredible degree. He struggles to understand as to why Joanna left him and also has to adjust to running the house, with a young son, and also keep to his demanding job. He slowly starts to adjust to the reason as to why Joanna left him, and starts to form a bond with his son. His job starts suffering, but he is more interested in being a good parent, and eventually he loses his job. And then, after an year and a half, Joanna comes back to claim Billy. Ted is not willing, and a custody battle happens which Ted loses and custody is granted to Joanna. However, in the end, Joanna tells Ted that she understands that Billy has a great relationship with Ted, and that Billy can continue to stay with Ted.

Oscar Wins

* Best Picture
* Best Director
* Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
* Best Actor in a Leading Role - Dustin Hoffman
* Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Meryl Streep

Nominations

* Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Jane Alexander
* Best Cinematography
* Best Film Editing
* Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Justin Henry. Henry was and is to date the youngest acting Academy Award nominee.

There are 2 types of war movies; the ones that take a slightly more romantic view of war, and then there are the ones that seek to portray war more realistically. They depict war as something that dehumanizes human beings, with no nobility being there. People suffer huge emotional and physical trauma, including both the people who take part in it, and the collateral damage to civilians (people in the territories where the war is taking place and the relatives and friends of the war participants). There are a number of movies that came out during and after the Vietnam War that portray the horrors of the war, such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, etc. The Deer Hunter is another movie of the same type, that takes 3 people who enter the war as soldiers, suffer the horrors of the war including capture and torture in a VietCong Prisoner of War camp, and then takes their experiences just after the war (not their life, but their experiences still related to Vietnam).

The film was loosely based on a screenplay called “The Man Who Came To Play” (by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker) depicting people who come to Las Vegas to play Russian Roulette (the game is a dangerous game of taking a chance with a bullet in a gun, just not knowing which chamber the bullet is in); this screenplay idea was then combined with an idea about a group of steel workers who go to Vietnam for military service, with their life now revolving around the effects of the war and its aftermath. The movie showed several serious and challenging subjects such as suicide, mental illness, the effects of war, etc.
The movie centers around these 3 Rust belt workers, Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken). In their service in Vietnam, they are captured and help in a POW camp; the guards, to relieve their boredom, force the prisoners to play the game of Russian Roulette. Steven shoots the bullet above his head, and is punished by the guards for not following the rules of the game. Nick and Michael manage to overcome the guards, kill them, and escape along with Steve.
Escape in Vietnam means floating down the river, and that is what the 3 friends do. Only of them (Nick) manages to escape in a rescue helicopter, while Michael jumps in after Steve who has fallen into the river, since Steve’s legs were damaged in the fall. Steve and Michael eventually manage to make it friendly lines, and lose contact with Nick, who eventually finds himself in a Saigon bar playing Russian Roulette all the time.
By the time much later that Steve and Michael reunite, Nick has become totally lost to everybody else, his only place being the Saigon bar. By the time Mike manages to locate him, Nick no longer can remember anything and refuses to go back to the US, and then it happens. He finally shoots himself in the head.
The Deer Hunter won
Best Picture,
Best Director (Michael Cimino),
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken),
Best Film Editing, and
Best Sound.

Nominated for
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro),
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep),
Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

The Metropolis was a movie that was seemingly way ahead of its time. It’s a movie about the conflict between the rulers (the technologically advanced class) and the the workers who toiled to provide for it all (and who were seen as the subjugated sections of the population). Metropolis depicted this scenario, set in the year 2026, with hugely futuristic settings. The movie was not something that is easily viewable in its original creation - it was deemed too long (at 210 minutes), ruthlessly chopped and modified for multiple reasons (whether to it into the 90 minutes allowed by theatre owners, or because parts of the subject were deemed too controversial in the United States, or because the sound era started soon after and the movie was adjusted in terms of frames per second to fit into the sound compatible format). In addition, parts of the original movie were found in Argentina, and parts of the original movie were never recovered.

The movie was made in Germany, as probably one of the earliest great science fiction movies, made by Austrian-German director Fritz Lang and one of the most expensive movies of that era, costing around 7 million Reichsmarks at that time (approx $200 million as of now). The movie was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou (in a twist, the movie was praised by the Nazis, and Thea soon became an ardent Nazis; she and Lang finally divorced in 1934).
The society of 2026 was divided into 2 rigid groups with the planners living in luxury, and the workers toiling underground in pretty bad conditions. The skyline has plenty of Gothic style skyscrapers (probably inspiring the Tyrell towers in the classy Bladerunner made much later). The city is run by Johann ‘Joh’ Fredersen (Alfred Abel), who looks for ways to ensure that the workers remain in their conditions. However, there is a charismatic and beautiful lady, Maria (Brigitte Helm), who advises the workers against trying for a revolt, and instead wait for the arrival of a figure known as the ‘Mediator’. It is the Mediator who will bring together these 2 separate sections of society and improve the conditions of the workers. She has an admirer, Frederson’s own son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), who is disgusted at the conditions in which the workers toil and live, and joins Maria’s cause.
And then starts the true future. The scientist and old rival of Fredersen, Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), builds a robot in the shape of Maria. He uses this robot to first preach discord in the young rich men of Metropolis and then descends to the underground sections where the robot inspires rebellion in the workers. In this rebellion, they destroy the important ‘Heart Machine’ and then realize that the destruction in turn causes the flooding of their own quarters. They chase Maria, and burn her, and then realize that she is a robot. The real Maria is chased by Rotwang, and followed by Freder, and in the climatic end, Rotwang falls to his death; and Freder carries out his destiny of being the Mediator by uniting Frederson with the workers.

The movie was made after Samuel Goldwyn’s wife Frances read a Time article (7 August 1944) about how military servicemen were having a hard time settling back into civilian life after their military life, and after the hard experiences of the Second World War. The movie was based on a story written by a former war correspondent, MacKinlay Kantor (being published as a book named ‘Glory for Me’); this was then converted into a screenplay by Robert Sherwood; the movie was directed by William Wyler.
The cast included Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Hoagy Carmichael, and Harold Russell (a disabled US Army instructor). Harold had lost both his hands in a training accident. The movie got a lot of praise from critics, with its portrayal of the human emotions of people struggling to settle back into their lives and adjust to the new conditions. It tries to depict the pain, the problems, and the sheer struggle of trying to adjust to a normal life where you have to get a job, deal with family and beloved after many years; none of this is simple. This can be seen even now, when there are numerous stories of veterans from the the First Gulf war, and from the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan having to struggle to fit back into normal life.

The movie takes these 3 former soldiers - Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Frederic March); they meet while coming back in a bomber and become friends. Fred was in the Air Force, Homer was in the Navy and had lost both his arms in a sinking, and Al was in the Army. Now back, they have to get back right back to where they started, with varying living conditions. Al fits back into the bank and becomes a Vice President since the bank looks upto Al to service the loan needs of returning servicemen. Homer was a football quarterback, with a girlfriend. However, now that he is disabled, his pride does not let him return to his girlfriend Wilma since he does not want to burden her with a crippled husband (even though she seems to have adjusted). Fred used to work as a drugstore soda operator, and coming back to this job does not excite his wife Marie (who he had met when in training and who is dismayed that her husband will work as a soda fountain jerk). They move apart, and Al’s daughter Peggy falls for Fred. Al does not really appreciate this, and this causes the friendship between Fred and Al to falter.
Eventually, things start to settle. Homer marries Wilma, and Fred and Marie have a divorce after Fred catches Marie with another man (and Fred can now get married to Peggy).
Academy Awards

The film received seven Academy Awards. Harold Russell was ex-military and not a professional actor and considered unlikely to win an Oscar; hence he was given an honorary award “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance”. However, he was named Best Supporting Actor to a tumultuous reception, making him the only actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance.

* Won: Best Picture - Samuel Goldwyn Productions (Samuel Goldwyn, producer)
* Won: Best Leading Actor - Fredric March
* Won: Best Supporting Actor - Harold Russell
* Won: Best Director - William Wyler
* Won: Best Editing - Daniel Mandell
* Won: Best Original Music Score - Hugo Friedhofer
* Won: Best Adapted Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood
* Won: Academy Honorary Award - Harold Russell
* Nomination: Best Sound Mixing - Gordon Sawyer

‘It’s a wonderful life’ is a movie that is a staple of Christmas runs, and regarded as a classic. Produced and directed by Frank Capra, it was released in 1947, and was initially regarded as a failure since it did not make the amount of money that was expected from a movie by Frank Capra. This led movie bosses to assume that the magic of Frank Capra’s story-telling was over, and he was no longer capable of spinning the crowd puller magic.
The movie was also nominated for 5 Oscars, but did not win any (further reducing its chances of being hailed as a success). It was only repeated telecasts in the 1970’s and 1980’s that led to it being a favorite, especially for the holiday season. The movie is now seen as one of the greatest American movies made, and normally forms part of the top 100 lists of movies. The movie has also a role to play in copyright drama, with the movie having gone out of copyright protection in 1974 due to a clerical error; but was deemed to be still protected as the story of the film was deemed protected due to it being based on the published story “The Greatest Gift,” and the copyright of this work was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. So television studios were still required to pay royalty.

The various Oscars for which the movie was nominated were:
* Best Actor for James Stewart
* Best Editing for William Hornbeck
* Best Director for Frank Capra
* Best Sound Recording for John Aalberg
* Best Picture for Frank Capra

An incredible number of television viewers must have seen the movie, given the number of times the movie has been shown on television (although the newer enforcing of copyright by Paramount has reduced the number of television reruns); the movie takes the life of James Stewart (George Bailey), a resident of Bedford Falls. He feels that he is a failure, and is about to commit suicide when his guardian angel Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) is sent to rescue him. Clarence takes him through his life, where James has done many good deeds; he saved the life of his brother Harry, he saved another young boy from poisoning, he sacrificed his ambition to meed the needs of his family, he worked to provide needed home loans and protection to weaker members of his community, and shows him what would have happened had he not been there. And you can see the difference that James made with his actions and deeds. Seeing all this is enough to convince James that he has made a positive contribution to his life. When he gets back home, he realizes that his good life and reputation has solved things for him.

‘How Green Was My Valley’ was a movie directed by John Ford and released in 1941. The movie was based on a novel of the same name (written by Richard Llewellyn), and was written by Philip Dunne (the movie was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck). The movie is a moving portrayal of the disintegration of a close knit family when faced with the pressures of a changing socio-economic way of life, the changes these bring upon both the family unit and on the youngest boy of the family, all the while as he is maturing into adulthood. The movie was released in the same year that Citizen Kane was released, and ‘How Green Was my Valley’ managed to get a number of the higher profile Academy Awards. The movie was set in the location of South Wales coalfield at the heart of the South Wales Valleys, but due to the Second World War ongoing at the time, the movie had to be shot in the United States rather than in Wales as the Director had desired.

The movie starred Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall in the main roles. The movie takes the story of the Morgans, a family of miners in the late nineteenth century; they are based in the South Wales coalfield. The movie is told from the perspective of the youngest of the clan, Huw Morgan, when he is reminiscing about the story of his life (he is now 60 years old, the movie is is a flashback). Tension the family begins to increase dramatically when his father refuses to join the miners strike, and his elder brothers disagree; in this rift, 3 of his elder brothers move out of the house.
The family has to ensure hardship, alongside, their entire town and the culture of the whole place is now in slow decline; the movie is also a depiction of how earlier movies would take the impact of technology on human life, especially as modern technology replaces human labor. The movie also focuses on the struggle of human life, and the never give up spirit of humans even in the face of struggles and adversity (especially in how the movie shows the strength of a family).

The movie was nominated for 10 Oscars, and managed to win 5 Oscars out of them:

Academy Award wins

* Best Picture - Darryl F. Zanuck.
* Best Director - John Ford
* Best Supporting Actor - Donald Crisp
* Best Black-and-White Cinematography - Arthur C. Miller
* Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Richard Day, Nathan H. Juran and Thomas Little

Academy Award nominations

* Best Adapted Screenplay - Philip Dunne
* Best Supporting Actress - Sara Allgood
* Best Film Editing - James B. Clark
* Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture - Alfred Newman
* Best Recording Sound - Edmund H. Hansen

David Copperfield is probably the book that is the most autobiographical of Charles Dickens novels, borrowing many sections from his life. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) lived in poverty during his childhood, being one of 8 children. He had little formal education, and yet grew out of his circumstances to become one of the most famous writers of all times. Many of his novels are prescribed reading in English literature courses in schools and colleges. Most of his books are based on human emotions, and contain a fair amount of poverty, human emotions, and so on. They present a vivid picture of human society.

The novel was published in 1850, and like his other novels, appeared in serial form in monthly installments. Dickens also reckoned this book to be his favorite novel. The novel was written in the first person, with David Copperfield being the narrator of the novel. The book has one clear message: The disciplining of the life (emotional and moral) of the hero, presenting a number of characters who are either disciplined, and others who are not disciplined. The book portrays the various characters in terms of the discipline in their life, including Agnes Wickfield, Mr. Peggotty, Uriah Heep, James Steerforth, Betsy Trotwood, Dora Spenlow, etc. Many of these characters have become very famous.
The book is about the life of David Copperfield, who loses his father six months before he his born, and he gets a new stepfather (Mr Edward Murdstone) when David is around 7 years. David cannot stand him or his sister, Jane and gets sent to a boarding school soon after biting his stepfather. When David returns home in a break, he finds that his mother is going to have a baby. However, when his mother and her baby die, David has to return to the home, and gets sent to a factory in London, where David has a doleful and poor experience. Soon, the factory owner goes bankrupt, and David manages to make his way to Dover to be with his aunt, and finally free of his stepfather.
He comes across many more character as he moves to adulthood, some of them good, kind and caring; others were selfish. Eventually, they get some sort of desserts for their acts. David himself finally finds happiness with his second wife, Agnes.

Most people have seen Clint Eastwood in his movies as a classic western fighter or the famous Dirty Harry character, then you would be surprised to see this movie. The Bridges of Madison County is a sentimental movie, released in 1995 (and produced and directed by Clint Eastwood as well) - essentially being a movie all about emotions, yearning, and sacrifice. It presented a new side of Clint Eastwood, and when combined with the Oscar Nominated performance by Meryl Streep (her 10th Oscar Nomination), became a phenomenal success. The movie cost approximately $22 million dollars to make, and cleaned up more than $180 million worldwide.

Given that the movie is sentimental (some would say mushy), there are wide ranging reactions to the movie - some people can’t stand the movie (and by association, the novel on which it is based), while for others, it is a good movie that shows a wide range of human emotions; especially how life changes for 2 people who meet and click together even in unfavorable circumstances. The movie was based on the (best-selling) novel of the same name by Robert James Waller.
The movie starts out with the children of Francesca (Meryl Streep), looking through their deceased mother’s things when they discover a diary. Lo and behold, it reveals a secret that the family did not know till then; in the summer of 1965, their mother had a secret 4 day affair with a photographer for National Geographic (Robert Kincaid played by Clint Eastwood). Her family has gone to a fair along with their steer and will be there for a few days, leaving her alone at home.
Francesca is an Italian-American lady who came to the US in 1945 along with her American soldier husband; she is reconciled with her status, but there is a yearning that has not yet died down even after 20 years of marriage (she feels stifled in her marriage). So, when a photographer turns up lost at her door and they are not able to easily find the place (wandering around), they quickly fall for each in a very deep relationship. However, when it is time for her family to come back, she has to take a decision - go with her heart or with her responsibilities ?