America, America is an epic film made by the Greek-American film dirctor Elia Kazan. Mr. Kazan is arguably among the greatest American filmmakers of all time. He has said that the film he is the most proud of is, America, America, a movie that hardly has a peer. The film portrays the story of a remnant of the ancient and (in the early 20th century) still vibrant Orthodox Christian civilization of Anatolia, and what it was that compelled many of its denizens to emigrate to America, and in so doing ending that civilization forever. The first half of the film has many scenes that portray the wonderful, edifying Christian style of relationship that once existed, or what was expected to exist, between father and son, and husband and wife: obedience, respect, humility, forgiveness, and love. Mr. Kazan was able to show all of these relationships in their proper context. In so doing he makes it easier to understand how through the process of transplanting the Christian civilization of the Old World to the New World of America it becomes fragmented, and often results in the disfunctional diaspora we sometimes experience in our own day. Outside of their living cultural mileu the traditional, revered, and vital aspects of this Christian civilization become deadened, seemingly anachronistic, and alien to the citizens of the New World who at best consider them quaint, but more often backward, and ultimatley dangerous. Though the film has a happy ending, it is in fact a tragedy; one that even the ancient Greeks could not have authored. The film also powerfully portrays the brutal relationship between Romios and Turk. https://youtube/watch?v=Jz-gDwHByFA
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 21:58:33 +0000