Must Watch English Movies - Part 4
This is the fourth part of the series of article about the best and must watch English movies. To view the previous part
click here.
#) Flash of Genius
Yet to watch?: Just watch this movie, because this has got the prestige and also explains that the credit must go those who invent. Ya this is a true story of Robert Kearns, who fights for his legal battle against the famous Ford Motor company, claiming that he was the actual inventor of intermittent windshield wiper.
Theme: “Never give up, if it is your own invention…..It’s not money which matters….because our prestige lies in this….as, we are the inventor for our creation and we must be given right credit for that”
Actors: Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney
Behind the screen: Marc Abraham(Director), Aaron Zigman(Music Director), Dante Spinotti(Cinematography)
Year of release: 2008(October 3)
Gross Revenue: 217 crores
About the movie:
This is not an ordinary movie this is based on the true story of a person who fights for his rights, for the invention that
he made.ya, he is Robert Kearns, who has invented the intermittent windshield wiper, that we use at present in each and every car ,i.e., the wiper we use us based on his technology.The image below shows the real Robert Kearns.
Actually this movie is based on New Yorker article by John Seabrook, which was published in 1993 and it explains how Robert Kearns was determined enough to fight the legal battle against one of the most powerful company in the world, Ford, for his rights.
Robert Kearns was born as Robert William Kearns on March 10, 1927 in Indiana, USA.In this film it starts how he happily live with his family and as a matter of fact he is the father of six children. He is also very much in interested in invention and so whatever he saw in his practical life he always had the invention mind and as a matter of fact this kind of curiosity led way to one of the best automobile technology in the world.
One day when he was driving his car and it has started to rain. So at that he was very much irritated with the wiper that was used in his Ford car because of its constant movement, which made him difficult to see what was coming in front of him.
So as he was a very keen observer he made his eye as motivation factor….Confused! Well, he was actually admired by the
functioning of eyes, which blinks after a constant interval and this made him think of a new method of wiper which moves only after a constant time interval.
He started his experiment with the help of his fish tank and after it was a success, he called his wife and son and asked him to count a number so that after counting form 1 till a particular number it starts to move and wipe, and this explains the constant of using time interval or delay in this technology.
The very much satisfied with his work, and he also patents his paper. At the similar time Ford Company was also working for this type of model, which resulted in failure. Knowing this he approached the Ford researchers and they were also very much pleased, but Robert kept it as a secret till a deal was made.
So the Ford asks him for a business plan regarding the cost, but Roberts was not interested as he was willing to manufacture by itself. But Ford didn’t reply him when he gave the price amount, which also resulted in the closing his manufacturing company, which was at its initial stage. This also results din loss of money for Roberts, because he has invested lots of money in setting up his own manufacturing company.
After some time he was shocked to see that his technology was used by all the cars and he was very much frustrated.So he filed a case against Ford claiming that it has stolen his technology and spent years for this case, which made him not to concentrate on his family and children.
When the case started it looks Roberts was going to lose it and even his lawyer adviced him to withdraw from the case. But later he decide to take the case on his own and every scene from this moment was excellent .Once the Ford Lawyer explained the Judge that (The below explanation from my point of view and these are not the actual statements)
“The so called technology which Roberts claim to be his invention is not is own invention, because the transistor, resistor, capacitor used in his technology was not invented by him and so he is not the owner of the technology that Ford is currently using”
Well this was a tough situation, but Roberts asks his son to get a novel and after that he asked the opposition lawyer to
read a sentence from that Shakespeare book, then here he goes,
“The sentence which the opposition lawyer just now read contains different words, with different alphabets. Shakespeare didn’t invent the word ‘is,, ‘was’ nor the alphabets, ‘a’, ‘b’, etc. The only thing he has done is that he has combined all the words to form a sentence. So if my invention was wrong, then there is no meaning in saying that this is Shakespeare’s novel”……Interesting right…
So the case begin to move in favor of Roberts and at one instant he was approached from the for company with a settlement of 14 crores, to withdraw from the case. But he refused it. Later he managed to win the case with the compensation of 5 crores and later he also won the case against Chrysler Corporation with a compensation of 8.78 crores. Finally the wiper technology which we use in the four wheelers, is nothing but the intermittent windshield wiper, which was invented by Roberts
#) Cast Away:
Yet to watch?: For those who are going to watch the film for the first time, this is one of Tom Hank's best movie. I guess most of us would have watched the TV program called "Man vs Wild" in Discovery channel and this film have the same concept, but here a man was washed away to an unknown island and the story revolves around how he managed to survive and how he was saved.
Theme: “Always never give up…. Fight till the last moment” and “World is full of uncertainty….. But somehow have to face it…. And let’s succeed”
Actors: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt
Behind the screen: Robert Zemeckis (Director), Don Burgess(Cinematography),Alan Silvestri (Music Director)
Year of Release: 2000(December 7)
Budget: 422 crores
Gross Revenue: 2000 crores
About the movie:
Tom Hanks is one of the System Analyst at the FedEx and his job is to solve all the productivity problems and naturally he spend most of his time in travel. He was in love with Kelly and they are about to get marriage and it was the Christmas time, when Tom was to board a flight (FedEx flight) and he also meets Kelly at the airport and they exchanged their Christmas gifts and Tom also promised her that he will marry after he returns home.
So while he was travelling in the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flight, heavy thunderstorm in the Pacific Ocean made the plane crash into the ocean. After that Tom managed to escape from the sinking airline with the help of a life raft and finally finds a shore. But the pilots of the airline were killed in the crash.
Soon after that Tom managed to find that the island was uninhabited and later he also finds that the FedEx packages that came in the plane washed up to the shore. He also opened all the packages in the hope of finding any goods that will be used for his survival.
But he also leaves one of the packages unopened and this is a symbolic way of representing, that he had the hope that he will return to his home one day and he will deliver this package and more importantly this package was also a motivation factor fro which always made him not to give up, whenever he sees that package.
He was alone in the island for more than 4 years and these 4 years made his mind and courage strong and now he lives as he is the Tarzan of the island as he becomes an expert in fishing and knew very good about the island. Another important thing that happened was that he gave a name for a football, which he obtained in one of the package 4 years back, and the name of this psychological character is “Wilson”, which is just a football. For all these 4 years Wilson was the only company for him and he used to speak to him as if it was a human being.The image below shows the football... sorry, it is Wilson.
But one day he deiced to leave the island after implementing the plan of converting the available plastics into a boat and he also managed to sail in the ocean after giving a farewell to the island. But the cyclone and heat tortured him and at one point of time he gave after he lost “Wilson”.
But fortunately for him he was rescued by a cargo ship and he also reached home. But he was shocked to know the news that he was considered as dead four years ago and moreover Kelly was married to another person and they have child now. He was frustrated.
Then he carries the package that he didn’t open when he was on the island and delivers them to the address mentioned. There he found the door was closed and hence he kept the parcel near the door and leaves a note telling that that package has saved his life and the film finishes in a touching way …. Which everybody must watch.
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