Strongly Recommend movie "I Am David" available on DVD
When the movie "I am David" became available on DVD in the fall
of 2005, I did not rent it, because the movie reviewers gave it
a rating of 2.5 stars or approximately a B-. They could not have
been more wrong. "I am David" is one of the best films I have
seen in the past five years. When I rented it recently, I ended
up watching it a total of three times from start to finish. The
movie is very powerful without having graphic violence or
graphic language or anything graphic. Instead, "I am David" has
a powerful religious message about sacrifice without any
religious references per se. It is an inspiring and
life-affirming film that I would recommend as five stars out of
five stars, or even a 10 out of 10 points. The movie contains no
extra, wasted footage that is unnecessary. I will remember
seeing this movie for the rest of my life. How many movies have
you seen in the past couple years that you will remember for the
rest of your life? Most Hollywood output is almost mindless
entertainment with very little of lasting value. Against this
backdrop comes an astounding movie that seems to have hit the
theaters and video stores under the radar screen.
"I am David" tells a fictional story of a family in Bulgaria who
are perceived to be anti-Communist, and the father, mother, and
little boy age 5 are all sent to separate hard labor camps. The
mother escapes through the help of a guard. The father is
killed, and the boy spends years doing hard labor and is treated
like a prison inmate by the guards at the work camp. The young
boy is practically ready to give up on life and willing to try
to escape, even if it means he will be shot in the process.
Fortunately, he receives assistance from another labor camp
inmate in his mid 30s and is able to escape. The labor camp
inmate is played by none other than Jim Caviezel, fresh from his
portrayal of Christ in the movie "Passion of the Christ."
Nearly every character in "I am David" is perfectly typecast and
memorable. Joan Plowright, the widow of Laurence Olivier, is
cast as a Swiss amateur painter that David meets along his
journey. Her character is so warm and appealing and comforting
that it boosts the morale of the viewer just to know David has
come in contact with her. The actor paying the villainous labor
camp commandant is cruelly perfect for the role, the young actor
who plays David is excellent and appealing to watch on screen,
the actor who plays the prison guard does a wonderful job of
showing us the complexity of that character. But no one stands
out as more perfectly type cast than Jim Caviezel in his support
actor role. For a variety of reasons, anyone who sees this movie
will never forget Jim Caviezel's character.
The movie has some similarities to "Finding Neverland." In both
movies, there is a charming boy around age 10 in a leading actor
role. Both movies have a religious message, although the one in
"Finding Neverland" is slightly more obscure. The religious
message in "Finding Neverland" is to give Kate Winslett's dieing
character a chance to glimpse Heaven before her death. In "I am
David," the religious message comes out in a scene at the end of
the film that is called "The Truth" in the DVD scene selection
guide. In that scene, David comes to realize how much people
have sacrificed so that he might live, escape from the labor
camp, and find a new life with freedom. I can't tell you the
content of that "The Truth" scene without giving away the ending
of the story. But suffice it to say with Mozart's Ave Verum
Corpus being sung in the background, no viewer will ever hear
that melody again (it is the same tune played by many of the
network television news programs to begin and end their coverage
of Pope John Paul II's funeral each day) without thinking of "I
am David" and the everlasting beauty of the greatest sacrifice
known to man.
http://michaelguth.com/lawnews.htm
Dr. Michael A. S. Guth, Ph.D., J.D. is a Professor of Financial
Economics and Law for several universities with on-line degree
programs and an attorney at law in Tennessee. He writes legal
briefs and appellate briefs for law firms as well as his own
clients. On the retail side, his law practice seeks to empower
individuals to represent themselves in court without a lawyer.
He assists these pro se parties by drafting court documents
(pleadings) and performing legal research. His contact
information is shown on each of the business web pages above.
In addition, Dr. Guth is a financial quant and former investment
banker, having worked for Credit Suisse First Boston and
Deutsche Bank in London and Frankfurt. He specializes in
developing investment strategies and hedging techniques using
derivatives. For five years, he consulted to the electric power
and gas industry in the USA, even managing the Middle Office
(financial risk control) function for two trading floors.
Dr. Guth has taught over 30 undergraduate and gradute courses
on-line. See http://michaelguth.com/courses.htm