Frontline: Country Boys (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)I first saw "Country Boys" one evening after groggily scrolling through the channels until I got to PBS. There, I found an "docudrama" about two appalachian boys called Cody and Chris, following their trials and tribulations while attending a private high school. So engrossed was I, I watched the next two "installments," staying up past my "bedtime" to do so. Now, of course, I won't have to stay up beause I just ordered this beautiful film on DVD.
"Country Boys" had all the fixin's for being a "pitying" film. That is, it is a film about two poor boys attending a school for the academically struggling in Eastern Kentucky. Cody does not have parents (his father murdered his mother when he was very young.) Chris had an alcoholic father and a mother trying to make it any way she can. But far from pitying its subjects, we get to see not only the dark side, but the bright side, of each boy's life. We get to see not only failures (there are some of those), but successes. You will think about these boys and this town long after the 6 hours of film is over.
What really affected me about the film was that you get a real sense not only of who these boys are, but what the community is like. From the close-knit family that is the David School (the private high school for the acedemically challenged) to Cody and Chris's respective support "networks," you see both the ugliness and beauty that is Appalachia.
This is one of the few films that I have had trouble not thinking too much about after it was over. Now, all I have to do is wait for the DVD to come.


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Filmmaker David Sutherland ("The Farmer's Wife") returns to PBS with a moving portrait of the trials and triumphs of Chris Johnson and Cody Perkins, two teenaged boys coming of age in eastern Kentucky's Appalachian hills. Filmed over three years (1999-2002), the six-hour documentary tracks the dramatic stories of Chris and Cody from ages 15 to 18.

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On the Beach (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have watched On The Beach 6 times and have ended up tearing up at the end each time. The movie which was initially created as a 3.5 TV Mini-Series and was nominated for Golden Globe - which would have been well deserved - is a joint Australian and American production that has all the good and bad parts of what makes us human in the movie. This movie is the best movie I have watched to date. I first watched 'On The Beach' on Australian television with my mum and step-dad and this movie touched me in a way no other movie has ever. Everything about this movie is brilliant. It's a movie that doesn't have a happy ending and a movie that makes the viewer think. The integral message and the theme of the movie is anti nuclear and poses many interesting self requesting questions like "How would I react to this situation or "What would I do if I knew I had a short period of life left?"
Bryan Brown who plays Julian Osborne a scientist is a great Australian actor who is well established and has great acting skill and polishes off this performance with pure excellence. His acting is superb.
Rachel Ward another great Australian actress plays Moira Davidson and is a show stealer...she has such a aplomb on the screen and her character goes through so many changes and emotions through the movie.
But my favourite character is Commander Dwight Towers who is played by Armand Assante who is such an accomplished actor and plays the role of the head actor with so much emotion. Two other Australian actors also have big roles in the movie and are secondary characters to the three mentioned. All up through and through, the acting is excellent and the casting has been well picked.
The movie is long and to completely and fully tell the story of a world winding down and a civilization falling apart as well as tell the stories of each character and their interactions together and to the situation on hand the length of the movie was warranted.
'On The Beach' is adapted from Neville Shute's novel and is directed to the screen by Russel Mulcahy. My word of advice for any reader who will watch this movie is to have a box of tissues for the ending is a tear jerker.
This movie portrays the ending of humanity after China and the USA go to war and the war turns into a full nuclear exchange. There is alot of course language. The soundtrack within this movie is has great as the actual movie.
If I could I would give the movie 10/10.

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