Movie and Book updates

Recent Book Read- To have and Have not by Ernest Hemingway :

To Have and Have Not is a 1937 novel by Ernest Hemingway about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain who runs contraband between Cuba and Florida. The novel depicts Harry as an essentially good man who is forced into blackmarket activity by economic forces beyond his control. Initially, his fishing charter Johnson skips out on the bill, forcing Harry to attempt smuggling Chinese immigrants into Florida in order to feed his family. (He double-crosses the immigrants and returns them to Cuba.) The Great Depression features prominently in the novel, forcing depravity and starvation on the residents of Key West, referred to as "Conchs."

About Ernest Hemingway :

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation." He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
Hemingway's distinctive writing style is characterized by economy and understatement, and had a significant influence on the development of twentieth-century fiction writing. His protagonists are typically stoic men who exhibit an ideal described as "grace under pressure." Many of his works are now considered classics of American literature.


Movie:

1. A Mighty Heart :
A Mighty Heart is a 2007 film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart. Mighty Heart is a detailed account of the search for kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.Pearl ( Dan Futterman)was kidnapped in Karachi by supporters of Omar Sheikh, who claimed responsibility (and was later captured and convicted but is appealing the ruling) for kidnapping and beheading Pearl in 2002. The movie also covers efforts by Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to track the kidnappers and bring them to justice. Brilliant performance by Angelina Jolie as Marriane Pearl .

2. Cruising:
Cruising is a 1980 film directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino as Steve Burns , the detective. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, about a New York City serial killer targeting gay men in the 1970s.

3. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is a 2006 mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was written, produced by, and stars the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in the title role of a fictitious Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev (played by Sacha Baron Cohen), travelling through the United States, recording real-life interactions with Americans. It is the second film built around one of Cohen's characters from Da Ali G Show, following Ali G Indahouse, which also featured a cameo by Borat.
Despite a limited initial release in the United States, the satire was a critical and commercial success. Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor: Musical or Comedy, as Borat, while the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture in the same category. Borat was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 79th Academy Awards.
Controversy surrounded the film even before its release. It was denounced for having a protagonist who is sexist, homophobic and antisemitic (although the director, and both producers—including Cohen—are in real life Jewish), and, after the film's release, some cast members spoke against, and even sued, its creators. All Arab countries, except for Lebanon, banned it, and the Russian government discouraged cinemas there from showing it.