The movie “1917”, directed by Sam Mendes, is inspired by true stories that his grandfather told him about World War 1. During World War 1, Lance Corporal Alfred H. Mendes was a message runner and my first thought at the beginning of this film was; if 1600 lives were at stake to prevent an attack on a German position, then why did a General only send two men? Considering 1600 lives, I would expect that a General would send an entire platoon to prevent an attack that would have been a trap for 1600 British soldiers.

1917 is unlike most other war movies that have been made, because there is very little actual war action and much more about the trek of two solders trying to deliver an important message to a Major to prevent a German Trap. This trap was a German plan that was months in the making and only due to a lucky aerial photo, the greatly reinforced German position was uncovered. As these two young men walk through horrendous war zones, it reminds the viewer that war is about much more than two armies trying to kill the other side. War is about hundreds and thousands of dead bodies, and in the case of World War 1, huge trenches surrounded by sand bags, mud, trench foot, dead horses, land minds, bombs exploding, bullets flying and the realization that your life could end at any time,  just by walking around a war zone. I though that the most impressive thing about this movie, were the huge and lengthy trenches that were dug, and the thousands of sand bags that lined all of the walls.

I did expect more here, and in a way something more substantial in terms of a war movie that would include more war action.  However, I mostly agree with the 85%

What will make many people want to miss “Parasite” is the fact that it was produced in South Korea and it has subtitles. This is the reason why I waited so long to see this movie after it was released over a month ago. Mainly due to the critics ratings, as high as 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, have eventually made seeing this foreign film mandatory.

The dominant idea behind Parasite is about being rich and being poor. Does being extremely rich make you evil, or does being extremely poor make you evil, because of your desperation to no longer be poor? The story of Parasite is about a family who is so poor, the only way they can make any income is by assembling of all things, pizza boxes for a local delivery service. The four of them live in a hellish ground floor apartment in one of the poorest sections of South Korea, within a grim reality that is at times, hard to watch. Through a series of strange events, the teenage son in this family gets a job with a rich family tutoring their teenage daughter. Following a series of manipulations, lies and evil actions that drive out the the maid and driver the rich family employ; this grifter family slowly infiltrates their way into this rich family taking over all the jobs by driving out their other employees.

The theme of this entire story is the contrast between rich people and poor people and the way rich people look down upon people who have nothing; and the way poor people are so envious of the privileged lives of the rich. There are at least 4 incidents in this story, where the rich family complain about the smell of the people they have hired, and we find out later during a flood about the poor sewage in the poor section where they live. The resentment of the poor family, despite their criminal actions of lying their way into four jobs, eventually becomes unbearable and contributes to the dramatic ending.

The quality of the acting and the story of this film was strong enough to get used to the subtitles within the first 30 minutes and I though the ending was about as unexpected and insane as any ending I have seen in a long time.

I agree with the 99% rating for Parasite and I do recommend this movie.