I will say this: do not watch this movie if you have weak nerves, do not watch this movie, if you cry from any lyrical note, do not watch this movie, if you are a spectator sensitive to the brain of bones. But if you have all the above at once, then you need to look at it.
A small, but very proud boy opened this piece of touch to me, thereby shaking my whole mind.
The film tells us about a boy who, with his faith conceivable and unthinkable, is trying ... to bring his father back from World War II.
There is a fairy tale here, undoubtedly, but you need to look a little deeper.
He shows by his example the whole essence and value of faith - unselfish and pure.
A little bit of it, the size of a mustard seed, is enough to... Well, then you know.
Mexican creators worked hard for fame: colorful, planned, sincere.
I’ll tell you one thing: if you start watching, then look to the end. You won't regret it.
If you are not like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Small, but remote. This is how we can describe this Christian film. Because even though the movie's slogan is "Believe," it's not just about the power of faith -- it's a whole school that teaches not just non-believers, but many Christians. What can you do for yourself?
The main character of the film is not chosen by chance - this is a little boy with untamed brains. Unlike many adults, he perceives everything with an open heart. And when he hears in church about faith that can move mountains, he has a sincere desire to have it. He doesn't think it's a figurative expression, that it only worked in the Bible, that he can't do it, blah blah blah blah. He takes everything as it is written. These are the people God is looking for to move through. Jesus said, “Unless you are like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” He spoke of the kingdom here on earth. And when the kingdom appears on earth, we see miracles, signs, and altered lives. And the little boy moved the mountain, met his father from the war and turned the hearts of many people to God (many will believe after that, although this is not shown in the film). So, the first lesson - if you want the Kingdom right on earth - be like children.
The second lesson is that God gives man trials in life, but only to make us champions. After the baby, his ordeal ran through the streets and humiliated at every opportunity. It was impossible to leave him, and in the end he turned against him and did like David Goliath (the proportions of opponents were selected accordingly). And what did the trial do to the baby? The kid became a champion. When God gives people trials in life, many people think that He is mocking them or running away from him whenever possible. And the test is not just in the way, it also throws tomatoes at you. And you won't pass or pass... Until you get up and defeat him. And there is no bullying here, just a champion from you can only make a challenge to you.
The third lesson is that the Lord is revealed to those who seek Him. For everyone who asks receives, and the seeker finds, and the knocker will be opened. The child wanted to get faith and went to the priest to find out how. He didn’t just go and do what he said. Although the priest really knew little about faith, it was through him that the Lord revealed His will to the child – make peace with someone you hate. This is an important addition - the Lord can be revealed through any person (even if he does not know Him).
And one more lesson: faith can move mountains. Literally, no exaggeration. And you can walk on water, feed a thousand people with one bread, raise the dead, instantly transfer to another place. Do you think the days of miracles are over? That they were only with the apostles? On the contrary, the earth will soon see miracles that have never happened before. Because God is the same as then, and He wants to show His glory on earth. He can only do this through those who have faith in Him. We can't do what we want, the priest was right. But if we do what is in God’s will, like a child with a mountain and with such faith, the impossible will happen.
Deep and versatile spiritual content, wrapped in a high-quality plot and shooting, deserved the highest appreciation.
10 out of 10
This movie doesn’t have bad ratings, so we decided to watch it.
What was waiting for us inside?
Mid-40s America. A tiny town on the West Coast. America is sending soldiers to war with Japan. Pepper, our protagonist, loses his best (and, alas, the only) friend in the world, his partner and comrade - his father. How do I get him home now? And how to live in a world where everything is against you, and you are small and invisible?
Interesting story, beautiful picture, eternal themes. And all this powdered comedy and some fabulous sugar.
This film is more like a children's fairy tale than an adult and very serious. But it is full of adult and very serious topics.
Moral. What to do with a woman whose husband may never return, and a rich and prominent man offers his heart?
What is the right thing to do when your enemy is behind your door?
How do you know who the enemy is and who the friend is?
Do you have the right to give a person false hopes, so that now he will feel better, to distract him from sadness?
Love. There's a lot of it here. What is the love of a mother for a child? Love of God? Love for a friend? Love for parents and family.
Xenophobia. Why not be like everyone else? How to overcome the fear of those who are stronger and greater? How do you deal with them?
Our main character is an 8-year-old boy who does not grow up. And because of this, evil children tease him, like, not evil, but a very sharp nickname "little boy" - Baby. How can such a child learn to put himself against abusers? But the xenophobic section is more about his Japanese friend than the baby himself.
Vera. Is there a God? What is a miracle? What is the power of faith? What is faith? Coincidence or accident? This question is also very interesting.
It's nice to see the picture. It's not stressful, it's not annoying. You're just going with the flow. Faces of actors, scenery, dialogue. Everything is almost perfect. This is a real Pleasantville. Often the film makes you smile or even laugh. But in the background, you realize something terrible is going on. And the boy's strength makes him proud. After watching, there is a pleasant aftertaste with notes of sadness.
In the village, this film shows what was one of the darkest times in American history during World War II. Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps because of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 42. The film has a bit of everything, comedy and drama, but very deep meaning.
The film reveals the brutal truth about how some Americans treated their Japanese neighbors back then. This is unfortunately no different than how some Americans treat Muslims today.
The boy committed the crime because of discrimination that occurred after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He's seen an old Japanese man shopping in a store and automatically assumes he's an enemy. So he told his older brother, who later consulted the man about what to do with the Japanese.
They decide to attack the old man, trying to break into his house. The older brother is arrested for a crime, and the younger brother goes to a Catholic priest to cleanse his sin. The little boy was already saddened that his father had been sent to fight in the war, and really wanted him back.
The priest gives him a list of duties he must fulfill. Here we see the test of this little boy's faith. The Bible teaches that faith can move mountains. First on this list of duties, the boy must perform in order to reconcile with his enemy.
The part that really hit me was the scene where the boy was supposed to bury his father. When I first saw the film, it was only a few months after I buried my father, who died of pancreatic cancer. So it's a scene that made me cry, and I'm not usually heartwarming when watching movies.
Okay, I don't want to give out too much here, but I recommend everyone watch this movie.
9 out of 10
The story of a child named Pepper, who very much wants his father to return from World War II.
Opinion:
Immediately at the beginning of the film, we are introduced to a boy who we now have to empathize with. He is played by very young Jacob Salvati, who for his young age managed to star in several series and, apparently, is going to become the new Hayley Joel Osment. His performance in this film looks quite bright, albeit somewhat “sucky”. In fact, he "takes" the viewer no longer play, but his cuteness and blonde cuteness. But, given that the film is shot in a grotesque and somewhat fabulous style, all this looks quite appropriate and does not cut the eye.
The movie was very beautiful and memorable. And if we take into account the fact that this is only the second full-length film for director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde (the first, by the way, was shot back in 2006), the final result turned out to be very tolerable and may well stand on the same shelf with other films that have already earned positive reviews from film critics, where the viewer looks at the world with the sincere eyes of a child.
The global theme of World War II envelops the entire film, influencing each of its characters. American society here is not presented by the filmmakers as positive and heroic. This is illustrated by the xenophobic attitudes of ordinary Americans towards the Japanese who live in the United States, each of whom is subjected to acts of aggression.
The plot is quite unconventional, albeit simple. It is not always possible to guess what will happen in the next scene, which is certainly a plus.
There is a huge amount of stuff in the movie that you can complain about. For example, many may denounce it for overly clearly squeezing a tear by playing standard tear-pressing semantic constructs. After all, how can you not sympathize with a little defenseless boy with a cute face, whose father went to the front? “May you return your father to him, you soulless bastards!” your feeling neighbor may well shout in a loud voice heard across the wall while watching this film.
Editing is not always pleasing: some scenes, which, as it seems, would be good to continue, suddenly end, while others, not very important, on the contrary, for some reason continue.
The film often turns into a fairy tale or even a cartoon, and the characters at such moments begin to behave accordingly. It catches the eye and some of the viewers may be confused. It is clear that the creators tried to make something like a philosophical parable, but the parable turned out to be too grotesque.
Unfortunately, this is not all the disadvantages of the “Baby”. An attentive viewer can find many more, if, of course, he wants.
In addition, I would like to note that if sensitivity and sentimentality are some unfamiliar words for you, then you do not need to watch this film at all.
Verdict:
With all its disadvantages, which are the place to be, the film turned out bright and watchable. The disadvantages can be ignored, and the pleasure of viewing is quite achievable. Sentimental people will probably like it. I look forward to many reviews in which the film will be called bright, sincere, wonderful, heartfelt, syrup and sugar. In principle, this is the case.
I am not going to write a review of the film. I would like to share my thoughts, which prompted this film.
If you disassemble the film without relying on the Gospel, then you will not be able to reveal the director’s plan. The film, in my opinion, just serves as an artistic adaptation of the parable of Christ about the mustard seed.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man has taken and sown in his field, which, though smaller than all seeds, is greater than all cereals when it grows, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and take shelter in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32).
The plot of the film is simple and at the same time complex. How can you describe and describe faith?
A man cannot live without faith. A sower without faith will not sow seed. A fisherman without faith will not cast a rod. Anyone who flies by plane believes that it will not fall.
And Jesus said to them, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, and say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will pass; and nothing will be impossible for you.’ 34:20
“Faith is the fulfillment of the expected and the assurance of the invisible” (Hebrews 11:1).
For a fruit to appear, the grain must rot. In order to have true faith, one must lose faith in oneself. And one can lose faith in oneself only by being a servant and slave to others, that is, by becoming like Christ: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life for the redemption of many” (Matthew 20:28).
John the Baptist said to the people who came to be baptized from him, “Brothers of Echidnina, who inspired you to flee from the wrath of the future?” So create worthy fruits of repentance. At the root of the trees, the axe is already laid: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the people asked him, What shall we do? He said to them, Whoever has two garments, give to the poor, and whoever has food, do the same (Luke 3:7-11).
The ancient list that the priest gave to the baby is a description of how to bring good fruit. The list is really ancient, it is two thousand years old. As much as Christianity.
A person truly enjoys doing good deeds. This cannot be denied by unbelievers. That is why Tertullian once said, “The soul is by nature a Christian.”
Baby Pepper’s amazing childhood faith not only moved the mountain, but also changed people. Brother London suppressed his hatred of the Japanese Hashimoto. Mother, father Oliver, and all the inhabitants of the town of O’Hare talked about the extraordinary power of the child’s faith.
“Acquire a spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved,” said St. Seraphim of Sarov. The chronicle of the Diveyevo Monastery describes many miracles performed by Saint Seraphim, who had an unusually strong faith.
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me and do not prevent them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14).
Pepper is small, but his faith is great. Jesus summoned the child and set him in the midst of them, and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven; therefore, whoever is humbled like this child is more in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:2-4).
We do not see the miracles in our lives that God has created. We are used to the fact that children are born as a result of conception. Naked bushes and trees swell with buds and are covered with spring foliage.
Traditional humanistic science will never answer the question of who started this mechanism of life. No scientist can explain why this happens.
And these are also images. The central tenet of Christianity is the resurrection of the dead. The fruit dies for the womb, but is born into another life. Also, dead trees are born for a new life: from the winter vegetation of the earth to the blooming spring of eternal life. “If you do not believe me, believe my works,” says the Lord (John 10:27).
And God still works miracles. Only faith in us is not enough. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you” (John 16:23).
This film shows only the beginning. Then the King will say to those on his right side, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you received me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.
It is impossible to bring good fruit without God’s help. You can do good in order to be proud of it and selfishly proud of yourself. But such good, not for Christ’s sake, but for one’s own sake, will not be considered good.
The artistic techniques in the film are particularly exquisite. The lonely pier and the figure of the boy on the cover of the poster, after viewing, even more into the memory. There is no need to talk about the inner emotional experiences, the sincere and genuine play of all the actors, it is necessary to see.
I consider the film a highly artistic work that helps to look at life from a different angle. And maybe some people can help find themselves by losing themselves... through faith in God.
Everyone has to watch. Especially in the family circle.
The plot is quite concise, but quite specifically set out in the synopsis of this picture, which absorbed all the possible and impossible conventions of wartime, when the father, responsible for his son, goes to perform male military duty, and there, missing, leaves the unknown the last hope of returning to the house, where the eldest son doubts, the wife tries not to give up, and the little one does not know what to do to help back the owner of a quiet house.
Naturally, it is a pity that there was a disaster, from which only a few steps to grief, how not to sympathize? Especially since the main grief is declared to be a baby son, a small undergrown boy, naturally rhyming with a fabulous “finger”, but here connected with a play of words with the nickname of the first atomic bomb – a weapon of revenge for the enemy for the losses caused and “the tears of our mothers”, so that instantly you begin to equate this movie with a win-win advertising, based on the unkillable defenselessness of a child who resists sudden loss, which he somehow helps to overcome the mother struggling with doubts and the parish priest, who not jokingly invented an open form for her salvation.
It may be good to start games with boys, but the holy father went further, he put the life, the life of the father at stake, obliging the child to follow trials, quite useful, at first glance, which is not proof of their impeccability: embroiled in the game, the kid in excitement pounces on solving tasks, but it is this excitement that suppresses conscious impulses, subordinating the will of a trusting creature to the desire of a miracle, an absolutely good goal, but appealing to ordinary reflexes, in which I see the main catch.
The boy feels sorry. It can never be otherwise. But it's not fair. Like merchants in brisk advertising, where for a cute face and beautiful eyes sells common goods, so here sold love and happiness in the touching shell of a sweet pill for headache, which together with his son swallows his mother. The slogan is “Wait for me and I’ll come back!” The rest - out of fear of offending the child, believing that it is better to let the state authorized messenger from the US army.
It would seem that the boy improves, develops and even becomes wise, that with either of the two results of the waiting is useful, formally speaking, for his future, because, expanding his views and deepening his thoughts, the tests instill in him some virtues not too close to his brother and many of his embittered citizens for war, which in no way is justified by the amazingly naively broken in two long-awaited finale with his sentimentally quirky rightness, in which the spirit-lifting amplitude prescribed by the script, breaking through to the lament, as a lamented man, was said.
But I'm trying to figure out: without that bitter reason, where could this boy's unconquered life and fate have led? And at the same moment, the pastoral trick with the list turns into a primitive game with candy, which is promised to be given for diligence and good behavior - a simple training that nurtures the right character, regardless of the presence or absence (universal property) of the expected father. Let it be so, as long as the rest of the guys do not have faith that the acquisition of even the best of human qualities will become a condition for the fulfillment of their innermost desires, for realism consists of the probability of the result indicated by the director himself, in an unshakable ratio of fifty to fifty.
The father is the wall of the family fortress he guards. A father is a role model for the children he raises. A father is a best friend and partner who will not give up in trouble and will be with you to the last. But overnight, everything changes when the War takes the head of the family to the front, and little Pepper remains with a grieving mother and painfully perceived unfitness for service older brother, that is, by and large alone with his fears and an unusually strong desire to somehow help his father return home. Brother London, living his father’s business and harboring a huge hatred for those with whom he was supposed to fight, incites Pepper to an insidious adventure, as a result of which London himself is in a prison cell, and his little brother meets with a church employee, whom he assures a naive child that his faith will help him bring his father back from the front, and the power of faith lies in an ancient list of important deeds, the fulfillment of which will be the key to the successful fulfillment of the cherished desire of a loving son.
“Stop leveling yourself with the earth, level yourself with the sky.”
But where can this kid, who after his father left for the front, became a laughingstock for his peers, who consider him a short man, who is afraid to look at the tears of his mother, who is diligently trying not to show her disorder, who wants to find support in his older brother, for whom unfitness for service has become a huge blow, after which he cannot find himself, let alone care for his younger brother. Then Peper finds a partner and friend in this difficult case to save his father in a Japanese refugee, to whom the attitude in the city is the most prejudiced because of his origin and eye cut, and all the injustice and bitterness of the War, because they are fighting just the Japanese, only is it Mr. Hashimoto’s fault that he was born in the land of the rising sun? Needless to say, no, but who in those years will understand that he has not lived there for a long time and has nothing to do with the conflicts and massacres unfolding at the front? Who will try to find in him an incredibly kind person who is able to support the baby and become a real talisman for him, the key to revealing his secret abilities, to reveal his forces capable of fighting fears inside and outside, to uncover the mystery for the real miracle?! And he, despite the oblique views on all sides, is exactly what Pepper becomes!
Tell the guy to stop. If he does not stop, he will lose faith in himself.
In the end, what can be called a miracle? Moving a bottle with the power of thought or a huge mountain by faith? Of course, there is something incredible about this, but this improbability is akin to fiction and mysticism, which is difficult to believe, given the share of skepticism in each of us, so one earthquake during Pepper’s attempts to move a mountain, and then a bomb on Hiroshima during Pepper’s attempts to attract his father from the land of the rising sun will be associated with chance, others with the ability of the baby. And a miracle will remain a belief in the best and impossible, which cannot be shaken by any harsh reality, and even if reality decides to crush this faith, it is important to accept its decision with honor and dignity.
Alejandro Gomez Monteverde turned out incredibly touching, soulful and memorable cinema, the stunning atmosphere of which, sensual heroes and wonderful music touch to the deepest that is in us. I recommend it!