The Caretaker - 1963 - Clive Donner

A Harold Pinter screenplay.

A well-dressed man helps a homeless man and goes so far as to invite him to stay at his house. The well-dressed guy seems a bit peculiar, not especially warm or sympathetic even though he engages in a selfless gesture. About half way through the film some of the ambiguity concerning the character of the well-dressed guy is resolved. But there are many other bizarre aspects of the film that may leave you scratching your head.

As a side note, all of the actors in the film participated without pay, as did the director, since funding such an out of the ordinary film became difficult.

See the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6x5j_JKWA

Paths of Glory - 1958 - Stanley Kubrick

French soldiers refuse to leave their trenches to attack the "Ant Hill", a heavily fortified German defensive emplacement. To do so would be suicide, as everybody knows...except the French general who has ordered the attack. When the French soldiers ordered to attack simply refuse to do so, some are chosen to be executed as a message to any French soldiers in the future who might consider disobeying an order. Can these soldiers be saved from execution? You can watch the film and see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ8mNy4pmJg&t=202s

The Magnificent Seven - 1960 - John Sturges

This film was based on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. In this western the premise is that even the most reprobate can be reformed if given the chance to do something good or engage in a beneficent mission. It's as if goodness is lying dormant in everyone, waiting for an invitation to flourish. WE should start inviting each other, as much as possible.

Click the link below to see the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a159xGKsDvg&t=170s

Morituri - 1965 - Bernhard Wicki

This film received luke-warm reviews in 1965 but it works. Yul Brenner plays a German captain who is blackmailed by the Nazis into taking a dangerous mission: he is to transport 7,000 tons of rubber to a secret location. Marlon Brando plays a German pacifist who is blackmailed by the English to use his engineering skills to infiltrate the ship as a fake SS official in order to defuse bombs that could blow up the ship and the rubber if the Allies can isolate and capture the ship (which they intend to do).

The film is about coercion, whether it be from government agents or one's own sense of morality. The sense of moral coercion both characters tend to feel toward the end of the film mirrors, to a great extent, the external coercion they initially faced. Both characters resist their assignments but exercise their own forms of moral agency at different times during this story but are never satisfied with their decisions. Neither wants to be a part of an ugly war, neither wants to do ugly things, but both are compelled to act against their natures due to the horrors of Nazism and the consequences of not taking action against those horrors.

Funny thing - Brando affects a German accent in this film. Why not Yul Brenner? Why not Wally Cox? In fact, Brando is the only person in the film with a German accent but most of the characters represent Germans. Shouldn't the director have said, "Hey, Marlon, look....nice accent but...I mean, seriously...you need to drop it."?

See the film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2BGHatqGTw

Gandhi - 1982 - Richard Attenborough

This film is so good that I can't believe people were allowed to make it.

For me the big learning experience was that Gandhi first considered himself to be a Christian and then later seemed to merge aspects of Christianity with Hinduism.

What I like about the film is that it overtly challenges people to examine their behavior and to continually try to rise to a higher level of compassion and humanity. It sets high standards for our behavior and encourages us to reach those standards.

I guess the only criticism might be that a white guy was chosen to play an Indian guy instead of finding an Indian guy to pay an Indian guy. I am not sure how I feel about that - what do you think?

Please watch the film for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_boPFpPbAgk