Ice Cold In Alex based on the book by Christopher Landon https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2022/10/about-classic-ice-cold-in-alex.html - 10 out of 10

 

Ice Cold In Alex based on the book by Christopher Landon https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2022/10/about-classic-ice-cold-in-alex.html

10 out of 10

 

 

This is a note about the mesmerizing motion picture, trying to connect it with the script of the movie is impossible for this cinephile, on goodreads one needs to be a librarian, in order to add a new book, or script, if you do not have the item listed already, as is the case for instance with what I see as the best film of 2022 by a long shot, and one of the best ten, so far into this century, The Banshees of Inisherin http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-banshees-of-inisherin.html blessed with a marvelous cast and director

 

There are a few motion pictures to watch, one of the most important is Close, which I understand to be one of the wonders of last year, but as we stand, the story of two friends (well, mates at least) who become estranged, because one of them starts thinking like Seneca http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-tao-of-seneca-happiness-and.html and realizes that life is too short if we waste it

Seneca in fact said something like ‘we have enough time, only look at the way we squander it, there are even humans who talk of killing time, when in fact we need to treat as the most important asset we possess, we are very wasteful with it…’ words to that effect at least I hope, this is what Colm seems to conclude

 

In Inisherin (or should we say on, seeing as this is an island) he had spent a lot of time with his buddy, but as the end approaches, Colm wants to create, compose music, refers to the immortality of Mozart – everyone has heard of Mozart he tells Padraic, the latter protests, for he does not know the composer, and thus ‘there goes your theory’…indeed, when you say ‘everyone’, this is either a figure of speech, or meant literally, in which case, that is wrong when you have just one ignorant fellow – and wants to stay away…

Ice Cold in Alex could be described as a classic war movie (indeed, classic motion picture in general) but it is much more complex than that, since we have the action taking place in World War II, in North Africa (the Alex in the title is actually short for Alexandria, where the hero wants to drink an Ice Cold Beer) only we have many more themes than the death and destruction that armed conflict brings to the world.

 

Seeing this film, one cannot help but think of the present war in Europe…it seemed that this calamity will be gone, becoming a relic of the past, as the luminary Yuval Harari argues in his marvelous books – one of them is the fabulous Homo Sapiens A Brief History of Tomorrow http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/homo-deus-brief-history-of-tomorrow-by.html humankind has reached a stage where prosperity, harmony more or less appeared to dominate the prognosis, until Putin has started his vicious ‘special operation’

 

Captain Anson, played by magnificent John Mills in the motion picture, has so many of the traits of the role model, without being Superman or Batman, he is courageous, resilient, kind, determined, able to cope with adversity and trauma, devoted, and the list can go on, there will probably be more admiring words to associate with him, however much he can sink into despair and show his vulnerability.

Given the immense stress, the trauma of the war, the captain has taken to drinking, to the point where he has become addicted, an alcoholic maybe we would say, but since he is given the task of taking this army truck and people to Alexandria, he has to find a way to cope with his weakness, and now there is another thinker I need to quote, Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar, who kept saying in his positive psychology lectures http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/positive-psychology-on-youtube-by.html ‘learn to fail, or fail to learn’, as one of the load stars, the most important rules we need to remember

 

The Harvard Professor mentions Edison and the ten thousand failed attempts to find the solution for artificial lighting, it took 10,000 failures for Edison to give the world the light bulb, albeit when asked, the inventor replied that ‘he did not fail, but just proved ten thousand ways that do not work’ something along these lines, but clearly this is not a quote…there is the example of a man who has reached the zenith in his career and life, committing suicide when faced with a serious crisis, because he had never had the chance to…fail

The small group of British subjects encounter the Germans, and a Captain vand der Poel (brilliantly brought to the screen by Anthony Quayle) the latter claiming to be a South African who knows German, thus being able to mediate, to influence the Germans and stop them from harming the travelling British.

 

However, early on, one of the nurses is wounded and then dies of the injuries inflicted when they had come under fire, the others pretend she is still alive, so that they could appeal to the humanity of the Nazis and make them allow for their progress towards a hospital, so that she can be saved, when this happens, we think maybe it would be all right, if not smooth sailing, at least we do not anticipate the obstacles to come

The South African (spoiler alert) is not what he claims, and somehow, the captain, sister Diana and Pugh realize that they have an enemy within their small group, they expose the -should we call him traitor, I guess it is the right label for someone who claims to share your values, and then you find he is actually in the other camp…incidentally, Aristotle spoke of the two crucial elements of tragedy, discovery and reversal, as in Oedipus http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/oedipus-rex-by-sophocles-and-adapted-by.html when the messenger comes and we have discovery and the upturn that makes the king take out his eyes, for he had killed his father and married his mother, in ignorance, and now he finds about it

 

Ice Cold in Alex is a splendid, magical film, something we should give young people in school to watch, so that they can learn how to be brave, munificent, loyal, resilient, see about Delayed Gratification, gratitude and so much more http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world and I took part in my own little war, as it is described here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html