I wrote about this film, Slumdog Millionaire, earlier before I ever got a chance to go and actually see it. It looked like it could be enjoyable, and since it is now nominated for the Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Drama, I thought that’d it’d be a good time to take a break and actually go see what all of the rage is about.
Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old boy who grew up in the slums of Dubai, India, and his experience on India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” Jamal is being questioned by the police because they feel that he, a poor boy with no education at all, must be cheating to be one question away from winning 20 million rupees (about a million dollars). We find out through many flashbacks how he actually ended up on the gameshow, and how he came upon the answers in the end. Was he cheating or did he really know the answers? I’ll never tell. I say you go and see.
Is that you’re final answer?
The film portrays a lifestyle that no one in America could fully understand unless they’ve actually been to the slums of India. We are shown people living in filfth, cramped spaces, and some of the worst poverty imaginable. It is in these slums that an attack actually occurs between the Muslims and Malik and his family’s slum. People are killed and children are orphaned and left to fend for themselves.
Though I was astonished by the story of the main character and the life that he lived, I was slightly disappointed with the film as a whole. It may be that I had too high of expectations after having been a nominee for best picture, but I don’t think that’s the whole reason. What I didn’t like about the movie was the constant use of flashbacks. I feel like it was too structured in that it went interrogation scene to a flashback to the gameshow to another flashback of how he found the answer. After awhile it became a bit repetitive despite the interesting story. But that’s just me. I do respect that it was a brilliant cultural narrative that opens our eyes to a world we’ve never seen before, and that it actually ends in a Bollywood-style dance scene. That’s right….they dance…they dance their pants off. So I say see it, but go in with no expectations other than you will see things you’ve never seen before.
Landon Cassman: Through boredom and pure enjoyment I find myself always involved in either film or music related endeavors. This is one of them.
Comments
Maggie (Maggie) says:
(Posted December 20th, 2008 at 12:09 am)
I saw this movie a few weeks ago too and definitely left a little disappointed as well. I would still recommend this movie to anyone because it truly was an eye opening and pretty emotional movie; it was amazing. Yet there was something off about it- something I couldn’t really put my finger on. I blamed the feeling on too high of expectations as well.
Landon Cassman (Landon Cassman) says:
(Posted December 20th, 2008 at 6:07 pm)
Hey Allison. I actually had to go to Chicago to see it. It’s pretty annoying that there aren’t more independent movies playing around Champaign. But I think that it’s playing at Boardman’s this week, and other theaters should probably be screening it soon also.
Jeff Brandt (Jeff Brandt) says:
(Posted December 21st, 2008 at 11:29 pm)
It’s actually playing at an ordinary multiplex in the Metro East area (Illinois suburbs of St. Louis). Not too many people were there even though it was the primetime Friday at 7 slot, but I still applaud the theater’s effort to mix some indie movies into its lineup.
Also . . . I was not disappointed at all. I loved it! I think the narrative method is a little more complicated than simply flashback because you’ve got a kind of three-layered frame story: the childhood, the first night of the game show, and the interrogation scene. Then when everything catches up, you move forward in the story to an aesthetically diverse fourth layer that incorporates the sort of Third Cinema element of grainy footage of people huddled around TVs, another game show segment, and a love scene.
Though it was a love story typical in its act of reuniting two lovers against the odds, I think the rest of the movie earned it.
Add your comment
the217
Sections
Buzz Magazine
Landon Cassman
Through boredom and pure enjoyment I find myself always involved in either film or music related endeavors. This is one of them.
Allison Smith (Allison Smith) says:
(Posted December 17th, 2008 at 3:54 pm)
Where did you see it???