City of Joy

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Uplifting Film
Review: I've always been a fan of Patrick Swayze, and this is his best role to date. Om Puri, another brilliant actor, went from Indian movie star to International Superstar beautifully acting out the part of a humble yet dignified Rickshaw driver. And any movie that has Om Puri starring in it is sure to be a classic.

This is a wonderful tale about two separate lives who cross paths in the Calcutta slums. One is about Hasari Pal who moves his family from his village in search of work in the city to pay off the money-lenders and to make enough money for his daughter's marriage dowry. The other is about a disillusioned American surgeon, Max Lowe, who quits his practice after a patient dies on his operating table. He runs away to India for some soul searching.

The trip is no so easy affair when Max gets mugged and Hasari brings him to a free clinic being run by an Irish Nurse in the slums. While still trying to come to grips with his own demons, Max begins to involve himself with the clinic and its neighbors, soon coming face to face with the oppressive "godfather" of the community. Max encourages the neighbors to stand up for themeselves. Hasari, whose livlihood depends on the godfather, is reluctant to protest until events begin to spin out of control. Before long, a humble quiet rickshaw driver becomes the town hero.

What I like most about this movie is that Om Puri is the central character, not Patrick Swayze. It is almost too easy make the western foreigner save the day. Patrick Swayze does a brilliant job depicting this balance by allowing his character's hot-blooded, American nature to boil to the surface. In instances where Max is directly involved, the situation only becomes worse, and Max realizes his rough and tumble ways are only short-lived producing little effect. So Max inspires the townspeople to unite against the godfather, and they learn on their own that they can make a difference.

City of Joy has always been at the top of my list as one of my favorite films. A true treasure to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Total abomination.
Review: If you are not illiterate, please, please, please read the book instead, it is great. This is one of the most ludicrous and offensive films ever made. From the moronic main character (atrociously played by Patrick Swayze) to the condescending portraits of Indians to the trivialization of Calcutta's suffering to the utter, incomprehensible cop-out of an finale, this mush will depress and sicken you.

There should be a special fine imposed on companies and individuals who turn human suffering and adversity into a vapid Hollywood joke. It was nice to catch (briefly) a few glimpses of Calcutta again, but the film makers seem to have missed the whole point of the book, and exploited its subject matter for cheap, predictable box-office slop. India's poor need respect and empowerment, not a grimace and a pat on the head. Please spend your money on the book, because a percentage of the proceeds will go to benefit the real Citizens of Joy.

Rating:
Summary: Apt title,"City of Joy"
Review: Lately I've been watching so many of Patrick Swayze's movies. He is really a great artist with many distinguished talents. I am amazed. He seems to always do movies that have heart. I'm not sure what the well known think we want to see in a movie, but I'm so glad I cannot take their reviews to heart to the point that it keeps me away from movies that are good. Patrick was living in a city that had a lot to offer, the best medical equipment, but losing a child along with other pressures, he felt he needed to escape; yet life's problems seems to be every where. He ends up in a place called the "City of Joy",that looks hopeless. Among destitution and crime he finds meaning again and peace worth staying and fighting for. A great job, can't wait for movies made for the year "2000".

Rating:
Summary: Real India
Review: Most movies, even the ones from Bollywood gloss over the reality of the poverty, dirtiness etc. This movie is true to the life and culture of the people. The characters are well fleshed out; they seem real and you care about them. Unless you've been to India you might not believe that people can be so poor and not be miserable. This movie shows how everyone can find joy in life, where they are, with what they have. Excellent movie.

Rating:
Summary: I Discovered the Meaning of Life with this VHS Cassette.
Review: Never before has a film touched me so profoundly. As a laid-off, job-hunting new bride thrust into becoming a housewife, when I planned to remain a type-A career woman, I was fuzzy about what life was supposed to be. On our new one-income budget, my new husband and I don't have extra funds for entertainment. So he popped in the movie, "City of Joy" for our Saturday night theatre. When I saw the horrible conditions these Indians live in, suddenly our one-bedroom apartment seemed like a palace. The job that a main character treasured so much was a task I thought only mules performed. But he took so much pride in this dirty, exhausting job, and was so grateful to serve daily to support his family. Suddenly, the standards I'd set for myself seemed completely unnecessary. Of course I want more, but during this film viewing, I realized I don't need it. As minimalist as I thought I was, what I call suffering is paradise to these people. Americans take our fortune for granted. Seeing people live without things we throw away taught me that you don't have to waste tears and heartache crying over what you don't own. There is much joy to found in things like friendship, caring for others, and family. After the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are met, the rest is gravy. I have even less money in the bank today than Saturday night. But I feel ten times richer, having watched "City of Joy". I feel some of my neurotic worrying over money melting away, and I am cherishing everything I do have. Things will get better. But until they do, I learned from this movie that they're already good. You can't put a price on peace of mind.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic That Is Not Widely Known
Review: No 9 Oscar nominations; no recording-breaking box figure; just a deep touching movie.

Had I not strolled around Blockbuster some late night looking for movies, I would never know that Patrick Swayze starred in a movie that portrays poverty in India.

Situated in Calcutta, Patrick Swayze lent hand in helping the locals battle scarcity of resources, health problems, and daily life challenges. Scenes are constructed convincingly authentic, since there will be considerable difficulty to portrait third-world living conditions through the perspectives of westerners.

What impresses me the most about "City of Joy" is the humane qualities of people. When you watch the movie, the quality and personality of people will permeate through your heart. These people are really joyful and content with the kind of lives they are leading. Somewhat austere, yet joyful. Sometimes I think increasing the standard and industrializing society might rob these people of thier peace. They might be more happier this way.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Film
Review: Of course no Patrick Swayze film could ever compare with a wonderful book, still City of Joy has much to offer. I grew up in a city just out of Calcutta and found the movie to be very true to the culture and everyday life I experienced there. Poverty is difficult to portray from a developed country's point of view without becoming self-righteous, but nowhere in the movie do the foreigners propose to change the state of the city. The two characters(Patrick Swayze and Pauline Collins) are there because they want to be and to lend a hand when needed. The cast of Indian characters(Um Puri in particular)is especially good. All of the actors possess great human qualities that makes them easy to connect with and likable. Although these people live in squalor, they have a joie de vivre that keeps the tone from being one of despair. This film is simply a slice of life that doesn't try to prove anything. I highly recommend seeing the film AS WELL AS reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: Educational
Review: The beginning was kind of slow, and the movie didn't really seem to have anywhere to go, but if you stuck to it, and watched, it developed into this intricate plot. The western and eastern clash of paradigms was very incredible, and when they finally merged and succeeded and overcoming the obstacles it was intense. This movie adressed real issues in India today, and discussed the different views that we have from theirs. And Patrick Swayze is always good eye-candy :)

Rating:
Summary: simply a beautiful film
Review: The nature of ''the greatest democracy in the world'' exposed(By the way, did you know that India has its fair share in the remaining 27 million men,women and children that still, 150 years after the first publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', live in slavery?).Every two seconds a child dies from hunger, that's about 35000 kids a day(!), and the death toll during one year is several times greater than the number of Auschwitz victims during the whole of World War II!6000 people die every day from thirst or diseases connected to inadequate drinking water supplies.Even for those who aren't familiar with that, this film is a ''call to action''.To those petty little people who might mock its humaneness, I can say that only at sick times like these are must we feel embarrased for being ''over-sentimental''.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,who actualy considered himself an authentic(i.e. anti-authoritarian and truly revolutionary in his approach to power and material wealth,unlike so many others)socialist(as well as were also,even though this is always conceiled, M.L.King,Jean Paul Sartre,Federico Garcia Lorca,Albert Camus, and a ''foreign-born agitator'',as one congressman depicted him in a call for his expulsion from the US - Albert Einstein, along with countless others), had another vision for India.The film pays a tribute to this humanistic vision of direct,consistent democracy and human solidarity.It is precisely the continuous dealienation and ''Revolution of Hope''(as goes the title of a wonderful book written by Erich Fromm)that takes place among the lowly of Calcutta.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: There are parts in this movie that are kind of cheesy, but for the most part, it is a very nice story about the life of a poor family in a Kolkata slum and of an American doctor's attempts to "find himself" by giving something back to the world instead of always being wrapped up in himself. Swayze's character is kind of annoying, especially at the start of the film, and certain lines seem kind of trite and silly . . . saying that he came to India for "enlightenment" was kind of daft and predictable, and of course, the meolodrama with regards to Swayze's character I think was a bit much . . . I don't think you need to have a special reason or event that occurs in your life to make you question things or look for answers to some of life's problems . . . still, the movie did a good job of presenting the inhabitants of Kolkata with dignity and sympathy . . . they were fully human and not caricatures, which was good. Om Puri does an outstanding job here. I wish that Shabana Azmi, an excellent actress herself, would have been given a bigegr role instead of playing the typically quiet and meek India wife, though. The brutality anmd dehumanisation of living in a slum in an overpopulated city was not sugar-coated either, but at the same time many of the people in the slums were portrayed with respect, and their attitude does give a substantial glimemr of hope instead of implying that all humans are "out for themselves" as the main character seems to think. Not a masterpiece, but a nice film all the same.