What I Watched – June 2025

Sound of Music: I realized that visiting Salzburg without watching the ‘Sound of Music’ would be unthinkable. So here I was, in my 41st year, watching something that should have been done in the first decade of my life. The shocking realization was that most of the songs in the movie were the ones that Sruthi had been humming all these years. Also, Illayaraja’s ‘Thannannam Thaanannam’ composed in 1985 was lifted from ‘My Favourite Things’…

Cry Macho : Clint Eastwood’s 2021 Western centered around saving a kid from a scheming mother. To imagine a 91 year old star pulling off all of these feats….

Let him Go : This was gritty, intense, and supported by a great cast of characters. Both Costner and Diane Lane essay their roles to perfection. It took me a while to realize this is the same Lane who featured in Unfaithful. What age does to a person. She still is so refreshingly seductive.

Bodyguard: Had never seen this 1992 movie earlier. Apparently Costner and Houston also had a real-life affair. The plot is not too hard to predict – Bodyguard recruited to protect a lady, and then they fall in love (yawn).

American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden: Though the story has been told earlier, the uniqueness of this three-part documentary was a lot of unseen real-life footage including those from the Obama War Room, the SEALS prepping for the mission etc .

Accountant 2 : Watched without registering much of it. Happens to me when I watch and read at the same time

Captain America: Brave New World: Harrison Ford at the age of 82 decides to play the role of the US president who also later transforms into a Red Hulk. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a bit too much for me to track.

King Lear (2018): Soon after finishing King Lear, I followed it up with Hopkins’ portrayal of Lear. The movie is faithful to the play and the setting (modern day Britain) was also unique. But I was overall not very impressed by King Lear in general and will write on this soon.

Ran : Kurosawa adapted King Lear in 1985. The war scenes that he pulled off forty years ago should be proof enough of his genius.

Anthropoid: The highest ranking Nazi official to ever be murdered by any Resistance Force in Europe was the Reinhard Heydrich. He was the Number 3 in the Nazi hierarchy and was taken out by the Czech resistance. Anthropoid tells this story. It was intense and moving. The Nazi reprisals were also brutal.

Man with the Iron Heart: Another adaptation of the Reinhard assassination. I felt this to be better than Anthropoid. The first half of the movie is devoted to Reinhard’s ascent in the Nazi party.

Indian 2: One trash-movie a month is permitted.

Greyhound: Re-watched this when I had nothing to do one night. It’s a nice feeling to mindlessly watch torpedoes being launched and ships being blasted out of water on the big screen. The Battle of Atlantic is a reminder that it’s logistics that win wars.

Escape from Alcatraz: Re-watched this 1979 classic. PBS had recently aired this in their network, and apparently, the very next day, Trump tweeted about reopening Alcatraz. I can’t help but imagine the most powerful person on earth, slumped on his couch, remote in hand, surfing channels, stopping by to watch this flick, and thinking: ‘Gee…let me reopen this place since I have the power to do so’ and then tweeting. Possible, right?

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