Thursday, February 26, 2009

Greatest Movie Moments - Slumdog Millionaire


I've wanted to gradually add my favorite movie moments to my blog. I will forgo including such scenes as the opening & closing moments of Citizen Kane, the chariot race from Ben Hur, the closing of Casablanca. Not because I do not consider those scenes among the best ever, I do. They are scenes that everyone knows and are automatically on that list of the greatest scenes ever put on film.
I figured I would start with a scene from this years winner for best picture, Slumdog Millionaire. I was very happy this won. Unfortunately this year I only saw 3 of the best picture nominees:Slumdog, The Reader & The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Whereas I loved all 3, Slumdog was the one that felt new, and was unlike anything I'd seen prior.
The scene which I would include among my favorite movie moments is this.

*************Spoiler Alert****************

By now everyone knows the basic plot of Slumdog Millionaire. Jamal, a young man from the slums of Mumbai India is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? How he came to know the answers for each question are told in flashbacks of his life in the slums. As a young child, his Mother is killed in a riot between Hindu's & Muslim"s. Both he and his brother Salim are taken in my a group of modern day Fagin's led by , Arvind and are forced to beg for money. They befriend Latika, a young girl who becomes the "third Musketeer". There is nothing pleasant about what they go through, and the film includes some very harrowing scenes of how the young children are treated. One brutal scene shows one of the young boys blinded in order to bring in more money as a beggar.
Jamal and his brother escape from their captors and travel through India trying to survive. Later, Jamal returns to Mumbai/Bombay to look for the "third Musketeer", Latika. Jamal runs into the young boy who was blinded, begging for money. He gives the young boy an American $100 bill. He provides Jamal with the identity of the person on the American $100 bill. As Jamal is leaving, the young boy lets him know he recognizes who he is, and that he was always a good friend.
The scene was very powerful because, unlike a Hollywood film, there was no swelling music, no overdone close-ups, and no feel of "Isn't this the most touching thing you've ever seen. You should cry now".
The movie stayed with me, and that scene was one of many in that film which was touching for not overdoing it.

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