Money can’t buy you happiness
Danny Boyle’s journey into the slums of India is both tragic and triumphant a the same time. Slumdog Millionaire churns out a harsher side of reality that people in the western world generally don’t get to experience. If you think about it, a country that contains over 1.1 billion people has to have some sort of horrible side story that a large portion of the world tends to ignore. I know that I certainly didn’t give one thought about it until I experienced this film. Let me catch you up on the story first.
Jamal is a poverty stricken boy. His mother left him alone at a very young age (due to her tragic death) and he doesn’t know the taste of money or success. Constantly shunned by society, with virtually no way out of their situation, him and his friend Salim find a way out through traveling across India, getting various jobs and experiencing life. Along the way, during one of the more tragic truths of the situation, Jamal meets the girl of his dreams and completely focuses his life on finding her again. Of course, along the way, he becomes a millionaire, but the money isn’t comfort unless he’s with his one true love.
The main love affair between Jamal and his true love is what drives this film through the horrible much these kids live in. Jamal values his time with Latika, the love of his life. Above all the dirtiness of his poverty stricken life, Latika seems to represent everything that he’s ever wanted in his life. He has been missing love from his parents (who are gone), from society (which ignores him), but seems to find his peaceful place within the heart of this one girl. It’s amazing and it’s tough to understand unless you’ve truly lost everything in life and have to depend on one person to see you through it all. Most critics won’t see this clearly, most fans may not catch it, but you truly have to be the lowest, most poverty stricken person to truly understand what is important in life. The fork in the road that decides this for Jamal is his success on the Millionaire show. The show itself is a device that tells his story and leads viewers (hopefully) to understand that he’s been through a lot, seen a lot, experienced tragedy on so many levels that at the end of the day if he has to choose money or love, he chooses the one thing that is permanent for him… love.
So, with that overwhelmingly powerful message how in the world could this movie ever go wrong? It doesn’t, it just might be a bit much for some people to sit and watch (due to the harsh content — it’s brutal most of the time), but then again the message is only backed up through this imagery. If you can sit through it, and don’t eat chocolate during the film — just a warning, you’ll find a very nice payoff at the end (even if it’s a bit sad). There is nothing wrong with this film, other than this is a horrible way to live.
I wasn’t looking forward to reviewing this, but I’m glad I did. Sometimes in life you need some perspective on how things should be and what things should be most important to you. Slumdog Millionaire provides us with that perspective.
Don’t be too Blu
This is one of those titles where you literally wished it wasn’t in HD. The Blu-ray experience brings you even closer to the tragedy of this poor man’s life. It shows you in great detail the hell that he lived and survived through, and what the word ‘slum’ really does look like. This is one of those moments where it was too real, too harsh and too powerful for the human eye to take. With that said, it was perfect for the message of this film. We the viewer need to know that this type of life exists and it is breathing right now in parts of the world. The only way to truly take the world to the audience is to give it the best possible view of this life. Blu-ray does that.
The music/audio helps to take the edge off, and for that I’m very grateful to the studio.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Making of Slumdog Millionaire
– 12 Deleted Scenes
– Behind the scenes of the ‘Toilet Scene’
– Short film (Manjha)
– Bombay Liquid Dance (Music Video)
– Commentary from Danny Boyle and Dev Patel
– Commentary by Producer Christian Colson and writer Simon Beaufoy
– Slumdog Cutdown
The features only reinforce the need for this world to help this forgotten place that most of us don’t know about. Just as powerful and compelling as the film itself, there’s little to complain about.