Story Movie
It's Thanksgiving, and retired intelligence colonel Frank Slade decides to celebrate the holiday by treating himself to a trip to New York City. Frank wants to treat his last "crowning exit" to the highest standards: an exquisite hotel, a luxury limousine, expensive booze and women of stunning beauty. There are only two problems. One: Frank is blind in both eyes. And the second: the colonel's worried relatives decide to hire a needy student from a prestigious college named Charlie Simms as a chaperone for a small sum of money. The last thing Colonel Slade needed on his trip was a "green" young man named Charlie. But it happened that the journey of these two stunningly different people changed their lives forever.
Review 4K Movie
The movie “Scent of a Woman” by Martin Brest is a delightful moral parable, if I may say so, based on the story of two people: Frank Slade and Charles Siemens. The characters are brought together by an incident that, as the movie synopsis says, will change their lives.
The plot is not the main feature of the movie, it is only a tool, but still I really want to dwell a little on this detail. Throughout the two and a half hours of the film, the average speed of action development fluctuates at the level of “slightly above average”, but unlike other films with such a dynamic script, Martin Brest gives this leisurely pace a certain subtle charm (he would later confirm this in “Meet Joe Black”). This type of narration allows you to most clearly reveal the characters, the most accurate immersion in the atmosphere of the tape and the most deeply feel the idea of the movie. And all these components here are just at the highest level.
There are not many actors in the movie. Contrary to custom, I will start with minor characters. The corrupt college principal is very scrupulously performed by James Rebhorn, and the main character's comrade, the son-major, is played by the then little known Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Now - let's get to the main ones. Frank Slade (Al Pacino), a retired lieutenant, is inconsolable in relation to the world around him. His companion in an adventurous journey to New York - Charles Siemens (Chris O'Donnell) - a student of a prestigious institution from a poor family, naive and kind-hearted. The characters can be contrasted on several qualities. First - by life experience: the lieutenant has seen and experienced a lot, and Charlie is only at the beginning of his journey. Secondly - by his view of the world and society: Charlie is kind at heart, and he is kind to everything: he cannot respond to rudeness with rudeness, not because he is weak, but because he believes that anger is not the best way to solve problems. He values life as a gift from above, cherishes it. Frank is blind, but he doesn't need eyes to see the rottenness and horror of his surroundings, for him the only worthwhile thing left in the world: a woman.
- Women. What else is there to say... Who created them? The Lord God of unrivaled genius....
Thirdly, the characters differ in material wealth. Charles's father is a simple owner of a run-down store in the province; the main conflict of the movie in college is connected with Charlie's money situation. Frank, on the other hand, has been planning this trip to New York for a long time, saving money from his pension, and throughout the film he appears as a noble aristocrat who stays in luxury hotels, eats in expensive restaurants, drives around the city in a limousine, and drinks whiskey like water.
- ...and fills the bar with John Daniels.
- You mean Jack Daniels?
- I know him too well, he's John to me.
The one thing they have in common, not in difference, is a reverence for honesty and fairness. These universal qualities have always been the center of human conflict, so here, too, the characters stumble into contradictions. Charlie believes that justice and honor are alive and well in the world. One could put this down to the shortness of the young man's life, and therefore to his lack of life experience. But his naivety seems neither foolish, nor ridiculous, nor absurd. His firm hope that honesty can still triumph in modern society is infectious and fresh.
Frank Slade, on the other hand, believes in neither honesty nor justice, or rather, does not believe that these things still exist in the world. Having encountered the antipodes of these concepts many times in his life, the lieutenant despairs of recognizing their presence in this world. It is extremely painful for him to realize this; this resentment, childishly fierce, angry and powerless. Al Pacino brings to the screen with such energy and dedication that I can not imagine such an epithet, such an award that would rightfully reward the labor and work of the actor.
- When were you born, son? In the time of the Knights of the Round Table? Haven't you heard? Conscience is dead!
- No, I haven't heard.
- Then take the cotton out of your ears.
Slade's final speech will not leave anyone indifferent. No matter how different the concepts of honesty, justice, and honor may be to different people, they are called universal for a reason. I think that almost everyone has met with these concepts and their antonyms. I will also assume that there were more encounters with the latter, and it was them that hit the memory harder. And how often it is bitter and disgusting to see human meanness and vileness somewhere very near, somewhere very close.
How terrible it is to contemplate the arbitrary fall of someone's soul, and even more terrible to realize that it is not only the specific souls of people, but the word “soul” itself that is being overthrown. Inhibited by prejudices, imprisonment within the system, lack of high ideals. All these are the main signs and definitions of modern society. And how few are those who are able to break out of the gray crowd with a fierce protest against. But even fewer are those whose protest will be answered not by a hail of rotten tomatoes, but by the enthusiastic applause of pleasantly impressed people....
It remains to wish us all more such people in our lives. I know a man like that. His name is Frank Slade. Thank him for everything.
[/full-link]
[/full-link]
