Savannah Perkins
Language Arts
Movie Review
The Impossible
On December 21, 2012, The Impossible
hit the big screen. This movie touched the hearts of so many people as the raw
truths and horrors of the 2004 Indian Ocean and earthquake devastation that
resulted in the horrific
Tsunami that killed over 200,000 people. The cast acted as amazing storytellers
explaining the events that caused so much heart throb. The cast, made up of Ewan McGregor, Naomi
Watts and others really made the movie express the
emotion that Summit Entertainment wanted to portray. Once you realize that many of the extras
are actual survivors of the tsunami the fact that they only earned $18,996,756
in the box office, seems baffling. When movies about actual earth shattering events like this one
are made, I am both intrigued and horrified to learn about the experiences of
those that have gone through those trials. A huge amount of respect and
reverence overwhelms me as a film is made in an honor of those who lost their
lives.
The
characters are full of life and emotion. You can see their reactions and feel
their pain as they struggle and defeat different challenges that come along
their path. The mother Maria, is a big part of the entire storyline, she is a
main character. Knowing
the pain that she went through, and knowing that it happened to a real person
is scary. Shocked
by the massive destruction it is truly amazing that while these characters were in pain and
suffering, that they were able to make some of the decisions that they were
forced to do. And some
consequences are harsh. All of the characters showed their strengths
throughout different hardships and the connections that were made between each
of them were noticeably stronger because of the sacrifices that were made. The setting is also a
big part of the story because it was filmed in the actual place that the
incident took place. This made the story both radiant and powerful.
The
entire plot of The Impossible is based on the 2004 Tsunami and its
effects on Thailand where a young family decided to spend their winter holiday.
They had spent the day after Christmas in the pool playing with a ball, when the
ball bounces out of the pool, Lucas, the eldest son climbed jumped out of the pool to catch it. When he was
outside of the pool, the sound of the pounding ocean waves grew stronger and
louder like a plane
flying overhead but getting closer and closer. In only seconds a huge wave crashes out of the once still sea. Then just
like that everything came crashing down around them. The waves bore into the floor, tearing everything
apart. The only thing that mattered was keeping their head above water and
looking for each other. The
rest of the story is maze of challenging
roads back to each other.
Many
different themes weave in and out of the main plot, like how strong family
bonds are, in the midst of mayhem in the eye of one of the worst natural
catastrophes of our time. Friendship, Helping one another out , support,
kindness, decisions, and even fear are all the themes that grasp the overall
concept of the story and that really capture the intense event that was
experienced. Reluctantly and foolishly although not
selfishly were some decisions made, that altered some of the outcomes in
the end. During this time, everyone is in chaos mode and things are tough for
everyone, but when people started working together compassionately, things began to become better. The power of
even just one boy accepting the challenge to help in a somewhat daunting task
saved many despairing hearts. Though despair was easy to give into, there was
always a tree standing
as a beacon of hope to help them in the end.
There
have been many books that relate stories to traumatic world events, and many
specific to world disaster. From movies as simple as The Wizard of Oz, to
documentaries about Tsunamis, such as this one. A book that comes to mind when I
am thinking about this movie is called Life as we knew it, which is
about a young girl and her family during a time where the get to see and meteorite
hit the moon. They are all excited to see this once in a life time sight, but
little do they know. The meteorite hits the moon with such a great force that
it pushes the moon closer to the earth which then shifts all the dynamics of
the earth off. Natural disasters are happening left and right. People are
unprepared and running out of time fast.
I
feel that because of the story behind this movie it definitely gives a clear
connection to our lives today. 2004 wasn’t that long ago and there have been so
many different natural disasters even within the last few months. We need to be
prepared for anything and everything. It is hard to help others when we to are
also going through hard times but start preparing now so that you can be ready
when the time comes to have a generous and loving heart because it will help
the process of recovery improve greatly. I feel like this was the message that
came across most throughout this movie. So many different powerful moment stuck
out to me and another one that touvhes me and has been engrained in our heads
through Scooby doo is ‘always stick together’ and from lilo and stitch ‘nobody
gets left behind’. These are scary times we are in, so lets prepare now.
I
really loved this movie so much. It had a powerful impact on me and how I look
at my life. I am so grateful for the life that I live and I feel that because
of the resources that we have, that we should help those less fortunate. I
would recommend this movie for sure. Although it does have some intense and
sometimes graphic scenes, I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in
what goes on people during horrible experiences which prepares people for future incidents.
