Movie Review "Invictus"

Invictus (2009)
MPAA Rating: PG 13
Reviewed by Gonzalo Vidal Pérez on October 30th, 2014
Genre: Sports, Drama
With: Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures

If you are a sportsman or you really like sports, this movie is what you are looking for. Invictus is about how Nelson Mandela wants to grow South Africa as a recognised country in the world, from different aspects such as economical, social, among others. In this movie the main aspect is sports, specifically rugby.

Invictus is placed in the time when Mandela was released from jail after 27 years locked up. Then, when Mandela became the president, he demanded the same rights for white and black people. Also, Mandela wanted to improve South Africa; and taking advantage of the rugby world cup, which it was going to be in the same country, Mandela talks privately with the captain of the "Springbooks", Francois Pienaar, and asks him to do their best effort on the championship, because it will be transmited on T.V all around the world, so the people can appreciate their work.

Once Mandela came out of jail, he took charge of South Africa as the president. On the other hand, the South Africa's rugby team "Springooks" suffers a menace because of their bad campaign, and that's why a group of people votes to change their name to "Petreas" and do some changes on the team if they don't want to live a wrapped moment. But right before the decision is taken, Mandela arrives to defend the team's rights, and to keep their name to "Springbooks". Then, with Mandela's new campaign "One team, one country", the "Springbooks" visits a poor village in the outsides of the city and they play with the black kids and they teach some rules of rugby, showing that black people are the same as white. And then, when the world cup starts, with their heads up and the support of the entire country, they play with all they have.

In conclusion, and in my opinion, it is a beautiful movie, because we can appreciate all the things Mandela lived in his 27 years in prison and all the things that happened inside South Africa related with racism. The director must had payed a huge paychek because of the costumes used in the movie, the sounds effects are really good, the perfect performance of Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, etc. On the other hand, we must not see black people as skunks, as pangas for our society, or ulcers just because they're black. We must see them as people who are equal to us, because we both have the same human rights.

Letter related to sports

October 23th, 2014,

Dear Steven,

The reason I'm writing to you is because 3 days ago, playing football, I suffered a fracture in my ankle when in a corner I jumped to hit the ball. I scored the goal, but when I fell to the ground unfortunately It happened what I recently told you.

Now I'm in a treatment in the hospital. the doctor said that I have to take a special treatment because we're not kids any more, we're close to the 30's, and because of that my bones are weaker and the don't regenerate as fast as a little boy. About my treatment I must go every day for 3 or 4 weeks to the chiropractor to do lots of exercises as putting my foot on hot water, apply magnetic resonance, etc. and to finish, I will be 3 months out!

I hope we can see each other soon so I can tell you more details.

Regards,
Bruce.

(Number of words: 155)

Opinion Essay Draft

In this essay I'll be presenting and answering a very particularly question of contamination: Is global warming the most significant environmental problem facing us today? And my answer is no.

For so long, we humans have caused so many disasters that finished by destroying the Ozone layer. In these disasters we can find fires, oil spills, cutting down forests of trees, etc. In addition, according to nrdc, in the United States , electric power emits  more than two billion of tons of carbon dioxide each year. Global warming directly affects us on everything we do and unfortunately every single actions we do produce contamination, that's why we have to learn to deal with it but what we can do is to produce much less contamination by using green and renewable energy.

Moreover, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, "not only are global warming-induced changes currently underway , and the climate hot map arranges current and future climate impacts into   5 main groups: People, Freshwater, Oceans,Ecosystems and Temperature. Inside this groups we can find very important elements such as temperature and ourselves, people".

And yet , people still think the opposite, such as Bernard L. Weinstein at national journey.com. "One can think of at least a dozen more dangerous phenomena that could destroy us long before growing greenhouse emissions cause the oceans to rise and species to die off" (2013)

In conclusion, I seriously think that we have to take care of our environment, because in the future we could possibly face and increase of temperatures from the coldest places to the tropical and desertical   zones of our planet Earth. Years before, we were afraid of global warming and its consequences, and now it became true, such as the melting glaciers in the north and south pole, as I mentioned before, the ozone layer, etc. Not forgetting our health, as we know, the sun rays causes skin cancer, that's why we have to protect our skin with sun screen and with sun glasses for our eyes. So I will end ny saying that we really have to consider the global warming and finish with air pollution, heavy sun rays, melting glaciers and the most important, the danger of our planet. 

Bibliography:

Cleaner and Cheaper: Using the Clean Air Act to Sharply Reduce Carbon Pollution from Existing Power Plants (n.d.) Retrieved September 3rd, 2014 from http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution-standards/.

Impacts of Global Warming (2011). Retrieved September 3rd, 2014 from http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/.

Is Global Warming the planet's biggest problem? ( 2013 ). Retrieved September 4th, 2014 from http://www.nationaljournal.com/policy/insiders/energy/is-global-warming-the-planet-s-biggest-problem-20130930.

Opinion Essay Sources

In the United States, electric power plants emit more than two billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, or roughly 40 percent of total emissions. The nation's landmark air pollution law could cut that number significantly. 

Author: nrdc
Website: http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution-standards/
Date: Available on September 3rd, 2014.


Not only are global warming-induced changes currently underway, but scientists also expect additional effects on human society and natural environments around the world. Some further warming is already unavoidable due to past heat-trapping emissions; unless we aggressively reduce today's emissions, scientists project extra warming and thus additional impacts.

The Climate Hot Map arranges current and future climate impacts into five main groupings:

• People
• Freshwater
• Oceans
• Ecosystems
• Temperature

Each of these major groupings, in turn, is divided into specific categories that describe more fully some of the consequences we may face. Click on any of the categories listed on the left for more information.

Author: Union of Concerned Scientists

Website: http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/

Date: 2011

America Can Lead by Example

Global warming from the burning of fossil fuels is not the planet’s biggest problem. One can think of at least a dozen more dangerous phenomena that could destroy us long before growing greenhouse gas emissions cause the oceans to rise and species to die off. But that’s not to say we shouldn’t be
concerned about climate change.

The best way for the United States to “lead the way on a comprehensive, international approach to addressing global warming” is by example. GHGs in America are lower today than 20 years ago, even with an economy that’s 50 percent larger, mainly because we use energy more efficiently. Today, we can produce a dollar of GDP with half the energy input required a few decades ago. At the same time, we’re substituting clean-burning natural gas for coal in power generation and industrial boilers. We could further reduce GHGs by developing the infrastructure to fuel more of the country’s 300 million motor vehicles with compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Author: Bernard L. Weinstein 

Date: September 2013

Website: http://www.nationaljournal.com/policy/insiders/energy/is-global-warming-the-planet-s-biggest-problem-20130930

Visualization of a Poem "668"

1st shot: The camera facing the trees of a small town, cars driving passively on the street. 

2nd shot: The camera facing to the full moon, some leaves are falling down through all the way.

3rd shot: The camera facing to the sea, with the sound of wind. It shows some people are taking a bath in the sea happily. 

4th shot: The camera facing the blue sky with lots of little birds singing all along, while some children are mouth open towards the sky.

News Project "Draft"

Hello, my name is Gonzalo Vidal and I going to present a movie review about "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes". Planet of the Apes is an american media franchise that consists in movies, series, novels and some books that tells about humans and apes that clashes for control.

 "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" has lots of expectations from the people. The reason is that the previous movie, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was a really good movie, the use of super intelligent apes was the main thing. This movie is new, it came out at the cinemas at no more than a month, so you can find it in the websites or in the own cinemas.

 This movie is about a virus that clashes human civilization. 10 years later, Caesar-leader of the Apes- stay in some place in the forest of California, while the human survivors stays on a building in  San Francisco. The Apes are pacifically, they don't want to fight, but later in the movie it happens something surprising that ends in a war between Apes and humans. In the movie we can find famous actors like Andy Serkis as Caesar, king of the Apes; Gary Oldman as Dreyfus, leader of the remaining people; Keri Rusell as a Nurse and Malcom's wife, and some other actors and actresses.

The movie is the last one that came out at now of the franchise. This franchise started at 1968 with they first movie, "Planet of the Apes" that had some goods critics. Talking about critics,  Tim Tobey from the "Daily Telegraph" told that there's evidence patience and intelligence dedicated to the filmmaking, whereas Richard Roeper mentioned that this could be the most intelligent, dare and braved Apes ever put on a film.

Preparing My News Proyect

1.- What is your piece of news about?

My piece of news is about a movie review of "Dawn of the planet of the Apes", in which I will record myself making a report about the movie and I will add some comments and critics.

2.- Select three sources of information and copy the links below.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dawn_of_the_planet_of_the_apes/

3.- Take note of 2 or 3 comments made by one of the people involved in the the sources you chose. Write the name of the person who said that. 

Tim Tobey of "The Daily Telegraph": "There’s evident patience and intelligence to the filmmaking all over, as well as an engagement with genuine ideas about diplomacy, deterrence, law and leadership. However often it risks monkey-mad silliness, it’s impressively un-stupid.” 

Richard Roeper on "The Chicago Sun-Times": This just might be the most braves, smartest and daring Apes ever put on a film".

Matt Reves, director of the movie: "There are a number of films and stories” to be told between the events of "Dawn" and the far-future world of the first "Planet of the Apes" film.

4.- Put together 3 ideas that you would like to include in your own news report.
a) Well, this movie has lots of expectations from the people. The reason is that the previous movie, "Rise of the planet of the Apes", was a good movie, it was revolutionary the using of super intelligent APes was the main thing.
b) This  movie  is part of a series that started at at 1968, with their first movie created, "Planet of the Apes". Well, the franchise consists of 8 movies, some series, books and novels which have very good rating and good critics.
c) The movie, directed by Matt Reves, talks the collapse of human civilization caused by a virus, and of course it talks about the Apes. During the movie, human survivors stays on a tower while the apes stays in their place. Apes don't want war, but later it happens something surprising that causes war between Apes and Humans.