Slumdog Millionaire

Strait up, this movie surprised me. I don't mean to come down on the Oscars and the decisions that they have made before, but this was much different than I expected it to be, when looking at previous "Best Film" nominations. There were some movies in this list that I just didn't agree with. Films like "There Will Be Blood" just did not deserve the recognition it received. It was more or less the longest drawn out drama ever made, with a brutal scene at the end of the film.

Slumdog was great for many many reasons. It grabbed the audience right away. In the first 5 minutes of the film, Jamal is getting the crap kicked out of him, being questioned about who knows what. That was something I appreciated. You could tell they were trying to get an answer out of him by the things that they were saying to him, but at the same time, the viewer does not know exactly what they are asking of him, and why they are doing so. This immediately creates a bond between Jamal and the audience. We knew, one way or another, that he was innocent, and that these people were being inhumane.

So we start to dig a little deeper into the film and Jamal's character, as well as the character of Salim. The first time we see Salim, he is giving Jamal a hard time because he lost a customer to the outhouse due to Jamal occupying it. This causes Salim to let his brother down for the first time of the movie--with many of the occasions to follow--by locking him in the outhouse when the celebrity came. Salim let him down saying no to letting Latika in the cover with them when it was raining. Jamal obviously ignored this, and invited her in. Salim let Jamal down by putting the gun on him and kicking him out of the apartment, so that he could more than likely enforce his will on Latika. Next, he let him down by leaving for a number of years. Jamal finds him by searching for him, then they meet up again. Salim lets Jamal down again by capturing Latika with his gang at the train station, right as Jamal thinks he has her. In a weird way, all of these things that Salim does indirectly makes him the hero, or protagonist of the film. In the end, he becomes the hero by doing the opposite of what he's done his entire life: he selflessly lets Latika go to Jamal at the game show. In doing so, he knew he would die. His death was almost poetic. He had been betraying his brother his entire life, then when he finally does the right thing, he ends up dying. And what does he die in, but a tub full of money. Salim had betrayed his brother time and again for this money, and now it was surrounding him in death.

I'm usually not a terribly big fan of the flashbacks, but this film did an amazing job with them. I never got confused at all. There was never really a point that a viewer needed to ask a question, because the film spelled out the present time situations so well with the flashbacks. There would be points that the viewer would think to themselves, "Well how did he know that?" With each question that the host would ask Jamal, then Jamal would in turn get the question right, there would be a flashback. The fact that all of these flashbacks happened in chronological order right along with the questions, that was a little convenient, but lets face it, the entire plot was a little out there. Thats what makes this such a great film, though. It's one of those rare films that could happen, probably couldn't, but it could. These are the types of films, i reiterate rare films, that make us believe a little more in ourselves. These are the types of movies that people like Terrell Owens should not be allowed to see, because they are confidence boosters. They take your doubts and show them the heel of a shoe. Anyway, I thought that this movie did really good with keeping all of the different scenes and life stories in line.

The cameras did a good job at making the intense, violent scenes more real for the viewer. They made us feel as if we were sitting right there in the action, both with the the subjective viewpoint, and the intense sound effects. The same is done when the host is asking Jamal the questions. It appears as if Jamal does not know the answer at times. What makes this happen? The camera zooming in on him, showing his eyes darting back and forth, as if he is searching for an answer on the floor. The music is getting louder and faster, the host is making smartass remarks, and Jamal is saying nothing. Then, like a snap of the fingers, Jamal says the correct answer to the question, and the sound effects are gone, the camera angle as back to normal, and the stupid host has shut his pie-hole.

This movie was great and it deserves all the hype is has received. To think that it almost did not make the box office is ridiculous. Thank God Fox Searchlight has more sack than Time Warner, or I wouldn't be writing about this great film. The funny thing, to me anyway, is that as I would almost say this is one of the best films I've ever seen, it is one that I probably won't watch more than twice in my life.