A Second Course of “Slumdog”
I went back to see the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” this week, in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. I wanted a refresher course in the city — something more hopeful than all the pictures of tragic hotels-with-hostages that we have been witnessing on the news. Upon this viewing, I was struck even more forcefully with the brilliance of director Danny Boyle’s montage: the way the color-saturated images of street children contrast with the pulsing life of the city’s vendors. The movie’s set-up — the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” — still strikes me as overly schematic. But, like the framing device in “Milk” (Sean Penn speaking his memories into a tape recorder), it does the job. “Slumdog”: highly recommended by LemonWade.
