Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Elephant Run **1/2

By Roland Smith.
Published 2007 Scholastic Inc. by arrangement with Hyperion Books for Children.
An imprint of Disney Children's Book Group.
318 pages.

It's kind of unfair to use the same rating scale for children's book as for adult books. If this were a book rated on say, a special scale for children's books, it would be at least rated 3 stars or more. Adult books are usually more complex and subtle and more profound. There might be a few children's book that that one could argue might garner a 4 star rating, but they are usually classics, and I would bet that part of their charm is the memory we have of them when we read them as children. Call me out on this, but I bet that after rereading some of these books as adults, we'd have to reassess our opinion of them if we judged them objectively (which is an impossibility).

The book claims to be a book for reluctant male readers. That's because it has action and adventure and all that. I would agree to a certain point. The beginning 20 - 25% might seem a little slow paced for a 'reluctant' reader, though certainly not for me, a patient and voracious reader. The book is set in war time Burma. Before the Japanese enter the book, there is lots of discussion about the Burmese culture and the training of animals. Fascinating for me, but I wonder if a 'reluctant' reader could get through this.

I've already given some plot points. Here is the summary. A young boy moves from London to live with his father during World War II. He moves there to escape the bombing of London, but soon learns that Burma has it's own set of wartime problems. The Japanese have come, some believe as liberators others as conquerors. Of course they proved themselves to worse than the English Imperialists.

The Young boy, Nick, is the son of the owner of a large tree plantation where they use elephants to help them with the harvesting of the trees. This is where the cultural lessons come. When the Japanese come, they take his father as a prisoner of war, and Nick stays at the plantations home as a servant. There is a deal made to help keep the prisoners compliant, but the Japanese re neg on that deal. After that is realized, Nick plans his escape with the help of an ancient, revered monk and the young daughter of one of the killed elephant trainers, who happened to be close to the father. After his escape, they plan to rescue the father which proves to be exceedingly difficult because he's an enemy and they are guarded and treated much worse than their Burmese counterparts. The Burmese are treated slightly better, but they have more freedoms.

One thing I liked about the book is that one of the Japanese soldiers is portrayed as a very humane, sympathetic character. In other words, not all the Japanese were monsters. That's an important concept I believe since the Japanese were known for their ruthlessness and ferocity. It makes them seem more human.

Monday, August 24, 2009

North by Northwest ***

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Written by Ernest Lehman.
Released in 1959.
With Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Martin Landau and Edward Platt.
Seen in theater



This is a film that everyone knows about so what is there to say? It's a fun, well made romp through America. There are lots of famous scenes or set pieces. Remember the attack of the airplane in the middle of no where - Highway 41 about a hour and a half out of Chicago. Then there's the chase scene on Mount Rushmore. There's a scene in the United Nations also. All good fun.

So, an advertising exec gets kidnapped because he is mistaken for a government agent by some foreign spies. No one believes him after narrowly escaping with his life, and he is accused of a murder. So he sets out to vindicate himself on his own. And he runs into trouble as well as the beautiful Eve Kendall, who may or may not be trouble also. Telling any more that this would be spoiling the end of the movie, but there's lots of twists and turns. Too many twists and turns for my 8 year old, but Penelope, my 11 year old said she could follow it.

This film is just too light to consider it as a 4 star movie (a masterpiece), maybe a masterpiece of fun. Even Rear Window tries to have messages or food for thought though it too is a basic thriller also.