The Terminal, 2004

The Terminal, 2004
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Catherina Zeta Jones, Tom Hanks, Chi Mcbride


Stage: Home TV selection. Finally a piece worth seeing again on TV.


The Terminal in short: Viktor Navorski, a man from an Eastern European country arrives in New York. However after he left his country war broke out. Suddenly Navorski is a man without a country - or one that the U.S. cannot recognize, thus he is denied entrance to the U.S. However, he also can't be deported so he is told by the Security Manager that he has to remain in the airport until his status can be fixed. And also Navorski doesn't speak English very well, so he cannot talk to or understand anyone. But he somehow adapts and sets up residence in the airport, which makes the man who placed him there unhappy, as it seems he is in line for a promotion but Navroski's presence might complicate that. So he tries to get Navorski to leave but Navorski remains where he is. Navorski makes friends with some of the people who work in the airport and is attracted to a flight attendant he runs into whenever she comes in.



Preps: Wow, a Spielberg classic. Am in need of something sentimental and touching. Definitely worth seeing, I know this by now, have seen this piece several times. A great story with the great interpretation. Just like Steven does almost every time.


Reality: Imagine a definite administrative fuckup. I don't mean a mess. A fuckup, truly. When you are being held because of some weird clerks that follow national guidelines, that just changed. The storyline is quite simple, but the truth behind it lies deeply in soul of many so called upgraded "normal" countries. Victor is being stuck at the airport, because his country is denied by great US. Wow, a surprise. Any given day, great US decides, who to praise and who to neglect. In this sense, Victor's country, being at war, is suddenly not in US interest, therefore they are keeping him. Unimaginable long time. It is in my deep subconscience where I still can feel mocking towards US administration and politics. Others may seem to find more visible stuff in this piece - longing towards the promised land; trying to survive, mocking out of nations that aren't US, in perticular the ones that come from Eastern Europe. Falling in love and flirting with a taken woman is one of the objectives you can find in this piece. Spielberg took care of our minds. There are simply too many stories to follow, so you choose the ones you love the most.

The prediction of the situation like this is filled with black humour. On the other side, Victor takes the best out of the situation and spends months virtually living there. He takes us through every shop, making money, looking after yourself in cosmetic sense, spending time and money in shops, trading service for lunch and above all, flirting with the cutest stewardess ever.
The side stories are short, yet amazing. All the clerks, employees in the airport, we are handed their story to follow and being depressive with them, having fun with them, thinking our best wishes and crossing our fingers for them. A range of "coincidences" make everyone believe Victor is really waiting for another flight, all but some rare individuals, who are either feeling with him, or mocking him in every humiliating way possible. Stanley Tucci as mr. Dixon plays the bad guy. You need to hate him. The same way you hated Billy Zane in Titanic. Although he represents supposingly "the right side", the law. Brilliantly played role. I hate him from the bottom of my heart, as he represents all the clerks that denied me something at some point of time, even though they legally had the right. So in my head, I am hitting him with evil for all the wrong deeds I see clerks and administrative people like him, have done to me.

For nine months Victor is constantly meeting a cute stewardess, who firstly admits her life made mistakes and hopes, and finally, they come to an interesting interaction. He makes her 1000 fountains /(builds per se the fountains in a mosaic inside building, in a department that isn't active as a part of the airport). He develops a wonderful dinner for her. She takes him for a criminal, for a psychiatric person. She represents common mind, common visitor and the eyes someone would see Victor if one saw him at a glance here at airport. However, the spectator, that takes all the terror Victor has to live through, just keeps the fingers crossed for a lucky happy ending.

Now, Amelia and her story.. is almost as powerful as Victor's. She hides behind words, and yet you can feel her being insecure about herself and her desires. Like a woman's aknowledgement she feels about herself, knowing she's doing something wrong, not being able to cut it loose or to choose a second path.
"I am like Napoleon. I eat poisonous men until I get sick."

In many aspects, a piece worth seeing and worth the philosophy put behind it. I admire Hanks with his russian accent (or let me say eastern Europe accent, for he knows no russian, obviously. I have several friends that have said really weird stuff about his interpretations. Still, in my eyes, he represents someone without rights, deriving from a poor background,that gets the american fairytale, a kiss and a woman to kill for :)


My personal rating: 8,0 (mmmm, every time a pleasure to see. A Spielberg must have in your sight kind of movie):



The Terminal on IMDB