Sunday, 18 November 2012

A tsunami between society

Nobody thought that when in 2004 a tsunami destroyed the coasts of most countries bordering the Indian ocean, including parts of Indonesia,Malaysia,Sri Lanka, India anda Thailand, someone dared to bring this tragedy up to the cinema world, the responsible of this is called J.A.Bayona, who in 2007 he discovered the real story of the Alvarez-Belon family, this story affects him so much that he decided to represent this story on a film.

The plot of "The impossible" is the true story of a family who spends Christmas in Thailand but this holiday will be ruines by the tsunami.The story explains how do they survived to this tragedy and the suffering that the family passes through.

The film was launched in Spain on Thursday,October 11,2012 in 384 cinemas,the first three days of screening they collected 1,2€ million, becoming the highest grossing Spanish film during its first weekend with 7,3€ million, with one million viewers. In its second weekend,the total of money raised to 19,804,715€. Seven days later they achieved a total revenue of 27.456€ million and 3,8 million viewers. This film has the record of the highest collection of money in Spain in all history, beating "other" from Alejandro Amenabar with 27,254,163€.

This succes has been due to the way in which the film is cast, being based on a true story makes the movie much more believable and causes real feelings between the viewers when you see the film because you see what the family went through for surviving. Besides this, the film combines all posible elements as love,friendship,thriller and at the last of the film joy. This cocktail of elements is one of the keys of success.

In my opinion this film is one of the best i've seen during this year, during the movie there was a moment that i really suffered, I felt sorry for them and for all the victima but eventually I left the cinema "happy" for the family because they lastly were all together.

What's your opinion of this film?
Do you think it's morally ethical to make money from a tragedy?

6 comments:

  1. "Lo Imposible" is a film that explains a real story that a family lived in a Christmas holidays.
    My personal opinion about this film is a very positive opinion, because although the plot is a very tragic one, you can see and feel how the family suffer in that circumstances and realize the big effort they all did for finding each other and they never gave up.
    There were some parts of the film in which I suffered a lot and I had bad moments because it is very disgusting and sad watching how a family is having bad experiences, but through that film we can also see how brave they are.

    Answering to the second question, I don't think they wanted to make money from this tragedy, because the family was the one that wanted to make this film. I think that the first reason for doing this film is expanding this magnificent story that happened to a very lucky family and make that the whole world knows this. I also think that what this family did is a very important thing and that everybody should learn about this.

    Although I think it’s not a correct idea having like an objective gaining money I think is good making that all the people know about this fantastic story that happened to this family. Because I am sure that most of the other families that were in that tragedy didn't have the same chance of finding with all the members of the family.

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  2. It is a really tough film to watch indeed as, as you said, the plot is based on a true story and when watching it, you can really understand what happened with detail and nearly feel the pain they felt.

    I actually saw the film with you Elena and our reaction was the same (as the rest of the cinema probably): constant suffer through all the film. I agree with you that though it is a really hard film as all suffer is shown with any restriction, you come out ‘happy’ for the incredible luck this family has had though you also come out appreciating were you are and realizing how things can change in matter of seconds.

    I don’t find it wrong at all to make a film out of a tragedy. You have already given numerical facts about how much money it made in such a short period of time, so by that we can see how good the film was and also appreciate how many spectators had an interest about something that was on the news for a time and then suddenly wasn’t heard any more, as if the problem had disappeared when it obviously didn’t. For example, you probably remember that our school has volunteers collecting money in order to help the unfortunate ones, but once we gave the money and were told how much we had risen, we never knew anything else about how everything was going, so personally, I had a big interest in watching the film to know about things I wasn’t told at the moment.

    Other films have been made out of tragedies such as ‘United 93’ that, as you probably know, is the narration of what passengers, the crew and families on land went through during the hijacked of the fourth plane in September 11, 2001. Many other films have been made out of wars, environmental accidents, conflicts... and they only reflect realty, so I don’t see why they have to be seen differently, not worst, different, as they can be as good as any other films when the effort and great involvement are good enough. Some films are directed to a specific audience and others to another kind of audience, and the films I just listed are tough films and that’s why they aren’t recommended for those with heart problems, but in any case it means it is a bad film, it probably means that it is so realistic and done with such precise detailed that you will suffer watching it.

    Summing up, this film was done with the Alvarez-Belon family consent, so the last thing I would think is that they wanted to make money out of what happened to them. Their only intention was to make people realize what they went through as the film could have been perfectly done focusing on another point of view, but they decided to get everyone to know what really happened those days told by survivors.

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  3. The Impossible is a Spanish drama movie that explains the doleful story of a family in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Even though the film was made from the Alvarez-Belon family´s point of view, other tragic stories about different people are shown throughout the entire production. The film was released in October, and since the moment it got out, I only got positive comments, from which I went to see it immediately.
    The movie is based on a true story which makes it much more devastating and dramatic, treating about a family that goes to Thailand to have an idyllic Christmas vacation, but instead, gets interrupted by an annihilative tsunami in the morning of December 26, killing thousands of people and separating the family through the entire process of salvation. Firstly, the mother meets with one of her kids, while the father has the other two, and the complete family gets to meet in the end of the entire movie. Throughout the process of trying to save themselves from the gigantic waves, the Spanish mother was in critical conditions and almost died because of all the blood loss.
    In my opinion, The Impossible is a very sorrowful and deplorable movie because of the powerful images reflected about the terrible experiences the family went through. The creators of the movie did a great job because the film seemed like the real tsunami itself and it was extremely real. Also, the movie contained numerous deaths, blood and devastating stories about people that lost their families. While watching the movie, it was very hard to stop crying because of the people´s faces that only reflected sadness, and the only think I could think about was, why them? Honestly I am not able to understand how this terrible natural force could happen and kill so many people, making them have such a tragic experience.
    Answering your second question, I can’t find a reason why this true story film could be ethically wrong, if the only thing the creators were doing is showing people the experience this family and Thailand had to go through. From my point of view, it is a great idea to produce movies like this; it doesn’t only give a powerful feeling to the people that see the movie, but also makes the entire world see what really happened in the tsunami and show how brave they can get to be. It was very interesting to see how the families helped each other and cared more about others than themselves, and the movie ended by translating a very strong message: helping others will help you save yourself. Doing this movie could also help giving some money raised to the family and to people in Thailand, helping to fix damages even though nothing will ever let them overcome internally this horrible Christmas experience.

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  4. In my opinion, I can say, “Lo imposible”, is a very good film, and it is highly recommendable by anyone who has seen it. I can say that it has been very well done, by the way the especial effects are used and the people they have chosen to do interpretate this characters. Moreover, what has caught my attention is the fact that it is a Spanish film, and the quantity of money it has been collected and the viewers. I am not saying Spanish films have to be wrong, but they are not normally the best.

    In this case, Alvarez-Belon’s family had got the courage to take out the story, so many other people could see what they had been through. However, I also think that they wouldn’t have explained if anyone of the family would have not survive, making it be a “good” story in the end. This one, is a story to tell, a tragic adventure, where they show us in every detail the sufferings of the people that presence that. In a way it is strong, there are parts where we can see the pain with our proper eyes, we don’t have to imagine it, just see it. And that is what this family wanted to show, as they were borrowing their story they had to do it in the right way, so that people could see that it wasn’t a joke, that it was true what happened.

    In the other hand, it is a good film because it is based in a real story because if it wasn’t people, would get out of the cinema and don’t think about it, or maybe think it is a credible film, as it is extremely difficult that each member of one family survive to this type of disasters. So, that is a good lesson, to know that nearly every detail of the film is real.

    Finally, I would like to say that I don’t think it is morally ethical to use this for a film, but there have been used lots of tragical stories to make films about them. Making this, be a good idea for a film, because they didn’t arrive to Spain wanting to do a film about what had happened to them. In this way they have shown to the world what they suffered.

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    Replies
    1. I believe it is terrible that this family did not share/or it was not included in the film, the role our God in Heaven played in their survival. This would have been a perfect opportunity to show the world how great our God is. Even though so many others were killed, this family was chosen by God to remian on this earth. If, in fact they did pray and trust in the Lord to take care of them and bring them together again, it should be shared with the world. praise God for what he does for us each day!! The bible speaks of natural disaster over and over in the midst of the people's disobedience. Our world today is so out of touch with the greatness of God and we do not trust his power and majesty and will for our lives. Somehow, he chose to save this family.

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