Collins Country

Movie Reviews

I recently joined Netflix on a friend’s recommendation.  We don’t have cable and I like to choose the movies I watch carefully (Netflix is cheaper than cable, too).  A two-week trial gave me a chance to see if this would work for our family.  So far, so good.

I wanted to recommend a couple movies we’ve seen:

Amazing Grace

It is the story of William Wilberforce who fought against slavery in 18^th century England.  I can’t say how historically accurate it is.  “Based on a true story” is a fairly lenient phrase as far as the truth goes, but it brings familiar names from history:  Equiano, an African slave who published a book on his life before becoming a slave and slave trader John Newton who wrote the familiar hymn Amazing Grace.  There is some doubt about the authenticity of his story in the movie, but at least the time frame is right. 

I wouldn’t watch this movie with the intent of educating my children, but it is a greatly inspiring film that you could use as a spring board to research the true story of the abolition of slavery in England (and America for that matter).

Longitude (part 1 & 2)

Again, I can’t verify how correct the historical details are, but this created a great interest in our family to learn more about John Harrison.  He was a carpenter who devoted his life to solving the longitude/time/navigation solution in the 1700s.  The movie chronicles (I think) fifty years of his life as he works to overcome the obstacles before him (not all the roadblocks are of a scientific nature…there are people who don’t want him to succeed)

There is a parallel story of Rupert Gould, who after a nervous breakdown following World War I, becomes obsessed with restoring the clocks made 200 years early by Harrison.  I didn’t find his story as compelling, but it’s probably in great part due to the real Mr. Gould that we know as much as we do of the clockmaker.

I like historical movies and anything I can watch that makes me feel I didn’t become more stupid in the two hours in front of the television is good enough for me!  The acting in both these movies is good enough that you can forget about the actors and get into the story.

A cool thing about Netflix is they have a lot of documentaries, Christian movies,  and even a section called “Homework Help” which includes math, science, history and English videos (we haven’t tried any of those yet, but I’ll let you all know if we do).  There are a lot of movies to choose from, so if you have a TV and aren’t opposed to watching it, Netflix might be nice for you.

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{ 09:20 , Thursday, January 10, 2008 } { Posted by southernbelle }

I am a Netflix member too and we do really enjoy it. We always wait until the new movies (that we want to watch that is) come out on DVD and then order them through Netflix. It is really affordable and I recommend it too. No late fees!

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{ 12:16 , Thursday, January 10, 2008 } { Posted by Kitty }

I never did join up with Netflix, my dd was an employee at Blockbuster so I watched all the movies I wanted for free. Alas she is no longer there and back to school. But I still get to see free movies, when she or my son rents them, I watch along, on their dime. OH well, I do provide the popcorn. And I do want to see Amazing Grace. ........Kitty