Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle film)

[LiquidEagle]

I watched this trailer yesterday and couldn't stop thinking about how awesome this movie looks, so I wanted to post the trailer on here too since the movie's almost out (might already be out in the UK for all I know).

AIzbwV7on6Q

I love Danny Boyle's films, and I think the music that accompanies his films is also excellent, so I'm really excited for this one now :-D

[seahorse]

god i had that ting tings song in my head practically all summer...

anyway, i love danny boyle's work, i think he's top. looking forward to this.

[Gummy]

Holy shit, sigur ros playing in the background.
Sigur Ros = instant winnar... look at Prince of Persia's trailer = winnar.
Definitely watching this now. =P

[LiquidEagle]

Okay, so I watched this back on Sunday, and this movie was everything I hoped it would be. Truly a beautiful movie, Danny Boyle is such an amazing director it was an absolute joy to watch. Not only that, but his cinematographer and editor helped make it a truly amazing film. Everybody needs to go watch this movie!!

[r33hash]

I will. Hopefully I don't forget.

[Pro A.]

I want to see it. Too bad no one near me is showing it. They give Madagascar and Bolt four screens a piece but they won't give a movie like this the time of day. What a world.

[LiquidEagle]

http://content.foxsearchlight.com/inside/node/2951

that can tell you when it might be opening near you...

[<3frosty]

Its out here in the States, but its a very limited release. I will be seeing this later today because Dallas has alot of artsy theaters.... :)

[<3frosty]

btw, I loved Sunshine soooooo much. Excellent movie. I still need to see Trainspotting.

[LiquidEagle]

btw, I loved Sunshine soooooo much. Excellent movie. I still need to see Trainspotting.

Same here, I haven't seen Trainspotting & I loved Sunshine :-D

I didn't know until I looked it up that Mark Strong (Stardust, Body of Lies, RocknRolla) was Pinbacker in Sunshine. Good for him :-D

[<3frosty]

Awesome movie. Wow. Just a great story and intense.

Very well acted and had some genuinely funny moments. Just a brilliant movie. Cant say enough. Loved every minute. And the girl is HOT.

[LiquidEagle]

Yes, she most certainly is, he was fighting for a noble cause :-p

Glad you liked it as much as I did :)

[Pro A.]

I am shocked. There is a theater by me that is showing it. I'll be seeing the movie Thursday. Can't wait.

[LiquidEagle]

So, Slumdog kicked ass at the BAFTAs last night & the WGA Awards too... I definitely see this as being the Oscar picture, at least for directing. My theatre finally started showing this movie back on Friday, so I've begun my recommendation spree again :laugh:

[Pro A.]

The only way Slumdog won't win Picture now is an act of God. The movie's won the Globes, swept the guilds, and now the BAFTA's. Six-for-six with thirteen days to go. The only movie that's won diddly at this point is Milk, and that seems to have original screenplay locked up. Figure Slumdog to win at least six Oscars.

[LiquidEagle]

Yeah, I'm really happy Danny Boyle got the David Lean award for directing at the BAFTAs, he's such a talented and brilliant director in my opinion.

[curryking1]

This is my favourite movie now. I'm watched it a few times since it's release. I was extremely disappointed to see that barely anyone had said they watched this film in the 'Last Movie Watched' thread. Seriously, that's ***king embarassing E-mpire.

At first I was extremely skeptical when the film opened up with the Indian Who Wants to be a Millionaire...

Because I've seen Indian films... and usually if that happens that means something is going wrong.

As soon as it got to the kids running in the slums of Mumbai though, I just completely flustered and the movie never let up from there.

Hey... with all of Fox's funds, the Trainspotting director, MIA music and remixes, and a great Indian co-director to help discover Indian culture through a fresh film....

How the ***k can you go wrong? This is simply one of the best films ever made.

Indian culture and history is so unexposed on the movie scene (not like Bollywood is doing anything to show the uniqueness of India... seriously... Bollywood is ***ked up ***t these past few years and is only getting worse) that it's no surprise that a great movie that explores India so greatly is so wonderful and catches everyone's eye.

I feel sorry for non-Indians watching this film though because you won't get half of the cultural references. They bring the movie from stellar to something quintessential.

Edit - Btw the girl's name is Freida Pinto.

[Pro A.]

Well, I saw the movie in December, so don't look at me...

Based on the box-office numbers I pull on an almost day-to-day basis, Slumdog should be able to crack the vaunted $100 million ceiling, even with the DVD 12 days away. Right now, according to boxofficemojo, it is 4th during the week, rolling in about half a million a day after about a 7 or 8 million-dollar weekend. The current tally is $78,834,038. That's very impressive, especially when you consider the movie is actually getting stronger on a week-to-week basis. Instead of wilting and losing money with the new flicks coming in, this movie is actually continuing to stay steady. I think the movie will continue to be in theaters even after the DVD because there's still some money to be had. I know this is all dollars and sense, but look at it this way: 99% of movies follow the simple laws of box-office economics these days. You have nowhere to go but down. Slumdog is that rare exception (Oscar contenders, especially commanding favorites like this one usually are) of a movie that continues to break even or better than even week after week, day after day.

The lineup next week looks like it'll bring in some dough, but none of them should go beyond $40 million. Expect Slumdog to, once again, finish somewhere in the bottom half of the top 10 with another six or seven million-dollar take and boost the total to around 85, 86 million dollars.

[curryking1]

^That's very impressive. I can't think of a movie more deserving of that kind of reception than Slumdog. Fit's the bill of the title, no?

The word is obviously being passed around.

[Negativity]

He shoulda' won something for 28 Days Later god dammit!

[<3frosty]

He shoulda' won something for 28 Days Later god dammit!

Won something? Like what?

[Pro A.]

I don't know if he should've won something, but the movie is to be admired, the ending notwithstanding.

And it looks like Slumdog will get more theater time. The DVD was originally scheduled to come out Tuesday, but since Slumdog keeps hitting the top 10 at the B.O. week after week they might as well let the cash registers ring. It is now scheduled for, I believe, a 3/31 release.

[curryking1]

Opinion: Slumdog kid stars poverty issue. Bollywood under fire (http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/267699)

This could be called Bullet for Bollywood. The story that the kids who starred in the movie are still living in poverty, after the movie made so many millions, isn’t exactly thrilling the world. The movie’s producers deny any exploitation, vehemently.

Others might not agree.

Those who know media know better than to believe without question what they read when it’s aimed at the genitals of successful products.

However, there are questions, and plenty of them.

The appearance is that some deal was done to pay the child stars when they grow up, and pay them well, by Indian standards. There are also some local culture issues that probably wouldn’t occur to Westerners.

The stories, however, are all bad.

They're telling a very different story. One of the child stars, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, aged 10, isn’t exactly living like a film star. He’s living under a tarpaulin in a shanty town called Behrampada. His father has TB, and his mother is blind in one eye.

They have an occasional view of an adjacent open sewer, one of the “folksy” elements in India’s impoverished social tapestry. Nothing like a bit of ambience, is there?

This is stardom? Apparently the kid got paid three times an adult’s yearly salary for working on the movie for a month. On average Indian wages, if this kid’s father is any guide, that’s about $3000. Other sources say $16,000. (See Kesavan Unnikrishnan’s DJ piece for the original reports and links)

By the standards of India’s poor, that’s big money, but anybody in the global media wouldn’t sneeze for that kind of money. Half of our worthless, evolution insulting, no talent “celebrities” get paid that hourly, just for breathing and being obnoxious.

Ismail Senior says that most of the money went on dealing with his TB. He works selling firewood.

It’s debatable if any Westerner could possibly comprehend the sheer eternal brutality of poverty in India. But nobody has to like it. Particularly paying audiences. It may have escaped Bollywood's notice, but Third World poverty is a four letter word in many Western countries. For generations, people have been aware of India's miserable millions, and trying to help. Any idea that they're being in any way exploited, particularly children, will infuriate a lot of people.

In fairness, the movie’s producer has stated that apartments have been bought for the families involved, but there are conditions attached, and the reaction seems to have been belated, if intended to be practical. It’s just not clear what the situation is. Information about this case has a habit of contradicting itself.

Azharuddin Ismail and his mother and other child stars will be attending the Oscars, according to the movie producers. No they won’t, according to other reports. Yes they will, say others.

Bit of a contrast, perhaps? From there to Hollywood?

From a breathtaking view of an open sewer to the Oscars... That’d give anyone a pretty severe taste of chalk and cheesecake.

The exact situation from the producers’ side hasn’t been at all well explained. But with a kid living a few steps away from an open sewer as a visual reference, people may not be trying too hard to listen.

This is where Bollywood has to get its act together, quite literally. These kids are entitled, by any known standards, to fair treatment and fair pay. Even Hollywood, which has never had anything resembling a rational thought in its life, knows not to mess around with kids.

Bollywood isn’t famous for fairness. Kids aren’t the only people who get exploited. Women in particular get the wrong end of the business.

(I don’t know if India has an Actors Equity, but it’s about time it did.)

Bollywood may become famous for a very sudden crash and burn, if it doesn’t appreciate the sheer revulsion this situation is likely to cause. All by itself, this situation could turn Western audiences against the Indian movie industry. Slumdog could be the last big Indian blockbuster,as well as the first.

Child stars generally get put through the blender at some point in their careers.

But not like this.

Not with the world watching.

(Unless somebody wants to start a new reality show, of course. Poverty comes in many forms, particularly culturally.)

Azharuddin Ismail and his friends have just generated this kind of business in the middle of the onset of a global mega recession. That’s more business than many US companies will be doing for a long time.

They deserve their cut.

The audience, which is paying for all this, also deserves some clarification.

Anyone who watches or pays for this movie deserves to know this. Hopefully this will lead some people to boycott the film or even make some noise where there needs to be.

[Pro A.]

That's a damn shame and it's actually surprising that Slumdog has managed to evade the harsh criticism that has undercut Oscar-contending favorites in recent years. I'll give the producers a bit of a pass just because they were making the movie on a $15 million budget--in Hollywood terms, that pays for the caterer and little else. Should they be doing more? Absolutely. The movie has, worldwide, gone ten times beyond the budget. Spread some of that green around.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

Curry, just out of curiosity, do you have the link to that article?

[Pro A.]

Should be up top in his post, in bold.

[<3frosty]

This seems a bit late. The kids are going to Hollywood, as yesterday or so they JUST got their Visa's after their parents decided at the last minute to let them go.

[curryking1]

Curry, just out of curiosity, do you have the link to that article?

I hyperlinked the title in bold.

And there are many more articles like it. They are hard to find though. You'll find 100 articles about the kids going to the Oscars than about the kids' salaries and the fact that they are going straight back to the slums after the event.

And finally they reported it on CBC this Friday (or was it Saturday?).

This seems a bit late. The kids are going to Hollywood, as yesterday or so they JUST got their Visa's after their parents decided at the last minute to let them go.

What do you mean late? This has been reported since before the film's release. It's only finally been picked up after by major news agencies after so freaking long.

The reason it's so damn hard to Google now is because the story is barely getting any attention. CBC is literally the only channel I've seen it mention and they spared the situation only a bare single sentence at the end of the Oscar previews.

So what if these kids get to go to the Oscars? They are still going back to the slums after that and will be getting paid the same ***t salary as before. Again, the same salary other actors get paid hourly for poorly acted roles in poor films which perform even poorer.

And let's not even kid ourselves here: those kids made the movie. Freida Pinto and Dev Patel can barely be called attractions as a joke. And Anil Kapoor shows again he can barely be called an actor (like so many of Bollywood's rich and famous).

Don't even try to make an argument in favour of the producers if that is what you are going to try to do. Please don't. That would literally be inhumane as if there hasn't been enough inhumane action going on for the duration of this film. They've literally taken a few kids, flipped their world upside down, then threw them back into a hole when they were done with them so they could get their fat 150 million dollar revenue.

[Negativity]

Won something? Like what?

An Oscar, a film award, some great recognition.

Anyway, I saw Slumdog Millionaire and I thought it was quite bad.

[Pro A.]

Care to explain why?

[<3frosty]

I hyperlinked the title in bold.

And there are many more articles like it. They are hard to find though. You'll find 100 articles about the kids going to the Oscars than about the kids' salaries and the fact that they are going straight back to the slums after the event.

And finally they reported it on CBC this Friday (or was it Saturday?).



What do you mean late? This has been reported since before the film's release. It's only finally been picked up after by major news agencies after so freaking long.

The reason it's so damn hard to Google now is because the story is barely getting any attention. CBC is literally the only channel I've seen it mention and they spared the situation only a bare single sentence at the end of the Oscar previews.

So what if these kids get to go to the Oscars? They are still going back to the slums after that and will be getting paid the same ***t salary as before. Again, the same salary other actors get paid hourly for poorly acted roles in poor films which perform even poorer.

And let's not even kid ourselves here: those kids made the movie. Freida Pinto and Dev Patel can barely be called attractions as a joke. And Anil Kapoor shows again he can barely be called an actor (like so many of Bollywood's rich and famous).

Don't even try to make an argument in favour of the producers if that is what you are going to try to do. Please don't. That would literally be inhumane as if there hasn't been enough inhumane action going on for the duration of this film. They've literally taken a few kids, flipped their world upside down, then threw them back into a hole when they were done with them so they could get their fat 150 million dollar revenue.

I said exactly what i meant. That story was not up to date. I read an AP story through AP Exchange that was talking about how these kids still lived in poverty. But it was up to date. It was a story literally the Friday before the Oscars.

Personally, i dont have an opinion on this matter because i dont know enough of the facts. We are in some really shitty economic times right now, across the country and even the world, and the guys that made this film took a huge risk and won big. I dont know what the kids will be paid, but we will see. However, quit aiming your anger towards the other actors in the movie. That is pretty uncalled for. And to be quite honest, i thought the whole cast made the movie, not just the kids. Patel and Pinto definitely did their fair share and Pinto has become a HUGE draw for the film because of her raw beauty. And dont forget the kids in the middle of the timeline. They did exceptionally well, as well.

[curryking1]

The story I posted was from Feb 21st or something. And it's more or less the complete story.

In any case though, the point of stories like this isn't to focus on only this one movie or what it did or didn't do. The point of this is to highlight the inane degree of hypocrisy in modern day India.

Bollywood and Hollywood stepping into slums and grabbing a few kids, even if some good comes from it, really convolutes and further confuses already disgustingly raw and very complicated social issue which is the extreme poverty that many Indians live in, even in Indias 'greatest'' cities like Mumbai. Why stick your fingers where they're obviously not going to come out? Why search for actors in a slum filled with abused and impoverished children? Why complicate the already very complicated issue instead of just giving it attention like it needs to be fixed?

I hoped initially that Slumdog Millionaire was simply giving outsiders a look at the lower spectrum not often televised of India. I didn't want the movie to also be an example of all the political and social hypocrisy that India's current paradigm is.

Many people outside India really don't understand the poverty in India. Many people outside India don't understand the hypocrisies that India is full of because of yesterday's thinking being too much emphasized when new days and living should already be there in most places.

People don't realise that people die everyday just in train stations jumping on tops of trains because they have to, not being able to afford fares, just to make ends meet. Most people don't realise that the government in India is not doing anything significant to fix this. And that's in the major cities. Where one would expect some degree of safety in a form of travel so often used in the cities. And it's not like a few people die everyday, it's like tens, hundreds.

People don't realise that in many places women, adult women, in postgraduate schools aren't allowed to go out into town after 6:00 pm from their hostels but men in equal or worse standing are allowed to freely enter or exit without question. And it's not even to say that it's not more dangerous for women, but that fact just additionally illustrates the poor level of security in places all over India.

People don't realise that the scene in this film, where the kid's eyes are burned out, still happen today and those sorts of schemes still exist in modern India to exploit children for making a few rupees, even in what are supposed to be India's modern and largest cities.

I could go on and on about injustices and unfair treatment in modern day India but I don't want to waste too much time doing so. I just hope my examples make it a bit more clear that any sorts of further insults to injury that are already present is just more of a personal punch in the face to me and it's something I'm very sensitive to.

[curryking1]

This is a terribly peculiar situation with this movie. It's inspired a lot of joy in general public around the world among South Asians but then at the same time it makes a, even if just slight, miniscule in totality, mockery of what issues the movie should have just brought attention to.

I have CBC on right now and they seem to be happy to report that Slumdog's Oscars wins make a lot of people happy, and of course it's something to be proud of to have India's culture on the front pages... but again... I mean really...

Sadly the documentary for the 'hypocrisy of all of India' isn't coming to fruition yet.

Edit - Yep, what do you know. CBC doesn't even mention there have been questions raised about the salaries for two of the kids. Odd because CBC usually does the best in naming multiple major aspects of larger issues, even if it's just to pop them in quickly in a 5 min rundown of world/Canadian news. It really only required a sentence honestly to at least get that in there somehow...

[Pro A.]

Well, Slumdog, in a lot of ways, is a coming-out party for India. Maybe more people will make movies there. The last big movie to be made in India, near as I can remember, was the Bond film Octopussy in 1983. I'm sure there're others, but in terms of mainstream acceptance and popularity.

In a lot of ways, Slumdog is like The Last Emperor, which won 9 Oscars in 1988 and blew the doors open for filmmaking in China. Bernando Bertolucci finally won his overdue Oscar and people started to look at China, a cloistered curiosity, in a whole new light. I think Slumdog is getting a similar treatment. I've never seen Last Emperor, though I mean to, and it is more of a David Lean type of film. Slumdog isn't quite like that.

[Xer0]

I personally loved this movie-okay, more like extremely enjoyed-because it was such a unique way of telling a story that was also pretty darn interesting.

[curryking1]

^^Ya this film is obviously meant to open the doors to the broader, world community. If it does that I'll be happy, as should many South Asians. What the films need to continue to do however is bring to light the hypocrisies and corruption modern day India is filled with.

All those old racial dilemmas, ethnic cleansing... well not so old in India. That stuff still happens and hate is still there. Police are... not even police half the time, not even kidding. You really need a personal visit of crime in India and a meeting with the actual police officers there to realise this (I'm sure their are honourable people but this is just the norm). There's stories within my own family and stories I've experienced myself during only a single visit concerning police in India.

^What is the way in which you found it unique? Just asking.

If part of it is having a love story interspersed over the whole events of the film with a dramatic ride, loud and upfront climax, and happy ending, you can imagine what all of the best Bollywood cinema is (which is basically all the way from the 50s up until 2000 or 2002 maybe).

[Xer0]

^What is the way in which you found it unique? Just asking.


It somehow manages to take a simple gameshow and evolves it into a medium for explaining the life of one child in a way that doesn’t feel at all contrived or absurd. Beyond that, the film doesn’t see itself as a way to educate western society to the poverty and hardship of the east, its nothing more then a setting to tell the story. It could easily beat us over the head with political commentary but instead it places its characters first and acts primarily as a film and it’s all the better for it.

As for the Bollywood, meh. What I’ve seen I find terribly unappealing – the terrible lip syncing, traditions and costumes that I could care less about, completely over the top song and dance numbers – and not something that I would want to waste my time on.

[curryking1]

I didn't include terrible lip synching, costumes, or dance in my description, but ok lol.

Most people that come outside to watch Bollywood are usually watching the wrong movies, not that it should be expected they know which ones to watch. The great movies have those aspects you named, but usually not in the capacity you are suggesting. Just like in Hollywood, most movies suck of course. Someone from India would have a hard time picking out a good Hollywood film for the same reason, just a complete misunderstanding of what to expect.

If you want to see a good Bollywood film, watch Dil Se (1998). I'm sure you won't have the same sentiments after that film. The irony of this is... it's quite a show for a political commentary. Internationally acclaimed as well.

And secondly, most films don't have bad lip synching when they do it. Especially the better ones. You always know it's lip synching because the singers are famous and the actors obviously can't sing that well though.

This is not even a defense of good Bollywood film, but it's just those sentiments about the better Bollywood films isn't very true.

[<3frosty]

I dont know what you are suggesting Curry. I am tired of Americans in general getting our hands dirty by mucking in someone else's mess. If India comes to us as a country looking for help, im all for it. But i hate hearing how poorly treated some people are in other cultures or how poor they are when their own countries arent doing much about it. Who is to say WE are right when we come in and try to force the issue?

Additionally, we arent stable in an economic sense to worry about things like this right now. This movie is a feel good story and i can view it and see the extreme poverty across India and the slums and everything.


Basically, this movie makes quite a mess if you want to delve into some of those aspects. Or you can just watch it and enjoy a truly great film. Im not saying ignorance is bliss, but i dont know what we can do right now. Boycotting the film doesnt seem like it would do much of anything. Especially with the amount the movie has made already.

We need more than just an opinion with our wallet. That generally expresses opinions on the film itself, and not the context or the situation.

[curryking1]

Ya that's true... asking anyone to not watch the film now is probably a little childish, it's not like that's going to change anything by not doing anything.

[Xer0]

I didn't include terrible lip synching, costumes, or dance in my description, but ok lol.

Most people that come outside to watch Bollywood are usually watching the wrong movies, not that it should be expected they know which ones to watch. The great movies have those aspects you named, but usually not in the capacity you are suggesting. Just like in Hollywood, most movies suck of course. Someone from India would have a hard time picking out a good Hollywood film for the same reason, just a complete misunderstanding of what to expect.

If you want to see a good Bollywood film, watch Dil Se (1998). I'm sure you won't have the same sentiments after that film. The irony of this is... it's quite a show for a political commentary. Internationally acclaimed as well.

And secondly, most films don't have bad lip synching when they do it. Especially the better ones. You always know it's lip synching because the singers are famous and the actors obviously can't sing that well though.

This is not even a defense of good Bollywood film, but it's just those sentiments about the better Bollywood films isn't very true.

Curry you're preaching to the chior. The lip syncing aside - which I find terribly irritated anyway - the whole Bollywood film industry deals with costumes and traditions that I personally could care less about. Don't take this the wrong way but I find Indian culture terribly uninteresting, baring a few of the stories in the Hindu epics, and Bollywood is just an extention of that. The reason why I love Slumdog so much is that it could have easily been a movie that relied on the idea that the west for some reason should just "get" the rest of the world. Instead, it was just focused on being a great movie.

[curryking1]

Ya sorry I didn't mean to sound so preachy, my bad. I don't feel offended at all if you're not interested in Indian culture. I could definitely say I'm not that interested in it either relative to other Indian people.

But I just wanted to clarify a bit of something. Bollywood can be easily generalized as that and it deserves to be. In general Bollywood is not only very limited in terms of diversity but also it is grows increasingly derivative of the latest craze from Europe (and is now probably more heavy on crazes in America).

An example of this lack of diversity... I have only ever been interested in the Bollywood films that have reached some worldwide critical acclaim.

I'm no longer interested in Bollywood on the whole now though because it grows increasingly dependent on the youth culture and interests of people in India, or basically stuff I'm completely out of touch with. Bollywood alone actually seems to shrink it's target audience, or at least not even try to begin exploiting a global one.

Bollywood deserves such a generalization, more so than Hollywood deserves one.

But I just wanted to kind of say it would be difficult for a person who is aversive to the generalization of Bollywood to find a hidden gem from that lot which appeals to them.

It is kind of like my aversiveness for anime. I hate anime in general, I don't like how they advance plot or develop characters, I hate excessive Japanese flavour in voices of characters and choices of music, and probably a lot more. But then there's a series like Cowboy Bebop that totally blows me away and totally fits with my desires in a TV show. Even in American drama, I hate oversexualization and overly dramatic situations or over-the-top and completely non-sensical encounters or unrealistic romance that plagues so many shows... yet within American drama fits a show like Mad Men which is in tune with exactly what I would like to watch.

Ok anyways... writing too much.... Slumdog Millionaire isn't a Bollywood film. I was just trying to illustrate that even myself hating most Bollywood films I have found a number of Bollywood films which I find completely amazing and engrossing and whatnot. And of these I would highly recommend the film 'Dil Se' from 1998 only to see that even though Bollywood makes so much garbage... there is every now and then one of those gems.

The only reason I could see you would not like this film either is because of the Indian culture, which is not a fault of course. If anyone however doesn't find Indian culture a problem to watch I'd definitely recommend this film as a starting point to see that of all the crap Bollywood spews out there are a choice few which are excellent.