"I want to make movies that pierce people's hearts and touch them in some way, even it it's just for the night while they're in the cinema; in that moment, I want to bring actual tears to their eyes and goosebumps to their skin. That's what motivates me, and it may sound strange but if you're not focused on the audience, why are you bothering to make a movie?" Actor/Director Russell Crowe


Russell Crowe is drawn to storytelling in the same way as his character, Joshua Connor, in "The Water Diviner". Connor read tales from "The Arabian Nights" to his three sons throughout their childhood. He carries the book with him to the battlefield of Gallipoli, while searching for answers as to his sons' fate.

Crowe's film is quite different from Peter Weir's 1981 film "Gallipoli", which starred a young Mel Gibson. Crowe's film shows the battle scenes in flashbacks, and also features a number of Turkish characters. That way, both sides of the conflict are presented.

It's interesting that in the quote above, Russell Crowe mentions audiences at the movie theater. I would have liked to seen "The Water Diviner", as well as "Jauja" (which I reviewed last week), in a theater. I live in the Midwest and neither film came to a cinema within 30 miles. So I had no choice but to watch both films on DVD. I'm afraid the same will happen with Nicholas Cage's new film "The Runner". It opened on August 7th and has yet to reach a theater near me. Cage plays a Louisiana politician whose career is threatened by a sex scandal, in the aftermath of the BP oil spill.

I'll be writing more on the reasons why our choices at the cinema are limited in the weeks to come.


Here's the latest article from the Drama Movies site at BellaOnline.com.

The Water Diviner Film Review
Russell Crowe makes his directorial debut in this period drama that takes place in 1919, following World War I. Crowe plays Joshua Connor, an Australian farmer who suffers the terrible loss of his three sons in the Battle of Gallipoli, then travels to the battlefield to recover their bodies.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art47830.asp

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