Jodie Foster | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

When I first heard while watching the movie Nyad, about the all-time greatest long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad that it takes 60 hours to swim 103 hours from Key West Florida to Cuba I thought about how hard it must have been just to stay awake for 60 hours (the record is 19 days). Then add the incredible achievement of swimming in a dangerous shark and jellyfish ocean non-stop for 103 miles. This achievement is probably the most impressive of any long distance athlete in history.

During this very good drama/biography about Diana Nyad, her full story is revealed about the first attempt in 1978 to swim from Cuba to Key West followed by the years 2011 and 2013 and five more attempts, when Diana was over the age of 60. The odds are extremely high that nobody will ever be able to achieve this 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West Florida again, no matter how old they are. There are too many problems with ocean currents, jellyfish, sharks and cold water. Most people would just give up after 1 attempt, especially if they almost died like Diana, who was in grave danger of dying several times.

On August 31, 2013, Nyad finally achieved her life long dream at age 64, of finally swimming to Key West from Cuba on 1:55 PM EDT on September 2, 2013 after 53 hours of swimming. The most impressive thing about this impossible task was that Nyad never gave up trying, even after everybody around her did.

The movie stars Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll, Diana’s lifelong friend and trainer. Both performances are excellent throughout this story which is entirely about Dianna’s nonstop obsession of achieving her impossible dream. This story has many highs and lows and after the 4th attempt that was close but once again failed, it seemed that this impossible dream was finally over until Diana tried one last time when she was 64 years old. One can only imagine the pain of swimming for 60 hours in the ocean while swallowing sea water, with your face constantly swelling and damaged by the harsh conditions.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Nyad are a very high 86% and I recommend this film.

There is always the expectation in this country that we are always the good guys. In the United States we believe in doing the right thing, due process, common sense, justice for all. Unfortunately this has not been true in far too many legal cases in this country for many years. The movie the “The Mauritanian”, starring Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley is the latest example of massive legal injustice and like last years “Just Mercy”, this film shows how horrendous the legal system in this country can sometimes operate. In the case of Just Mercy, the main character was put on death row in Alabama in 1987 before he was even tried in court. In the case of this film, the main character was put in
Guantanamo Bay Cuba without ever being charged with a crime – and he remained there for 15 years. This is the kind of injustice that happens within 3rd world countries and is never acceptable in this country.

The Mauritanian is a true story, based on a book Guantánamo Diary written by the main character Mohamedou Ould Slahi, played extremely well by Tahar Rahim. Unfortunately Mohamedou was arrested 2 months after September 11 along with many others – because of the United States desperation to prevent another 911 attack. Due to 911, many hundreds of innocent people were imprisoned and violently tortured, with the justification that information at all costs to prevent terrorism was worth torture and illegal imprisonment. All of this was started during the Bush Cheney administration, who gave the military full authority to attain information from any prisoner using any method they saw fit. This could include water boarding, freezing cold jail cells, playing loud music day and night, non stop psychological torture and in this case, telling the prisoner they were going to arrest his mother and send her to Guantanamo Bay. My question while watching the torture of Mohamedou in many scenes was that why no person in charge did not know that torturing a human being for weeks and months would mean that the information attained would be meaningless, because anyone would say anything to stop the agony.

Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley play lawyers hired to defend Mohamedou and their many trips to Cuba to visit their client and the legal questions surrounding this extremely complicated case are some of the best parts of this movie. Many of the torture scenes of Mohamddou happen towards the end of this story, and it was hard to understand how any human being could still be alive, much less having any mental ability left, including the acuity to write a book. What this innocent man went through for 15 years, is unbelievable. The standout actor in this film is Tahar Rahim who does an outstanding job playing Mohamedou at a level that might win him an Academy Award nomination.

The Mauritanian is one of the most important movies about massive injustice, ever made. This country is far from perfect, especially our legal system, and has a long way to go to be fair and humane to all people.

I am surprised at the mediocre 70% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. My rating is at least 85% with a strong recommendation.