Movie Review: War Horse

War Horse is an emotional film directed by Steven Spielberg that was set in 1914, during the First World War. The movie was told from a horse’s perspective, called Joey. It is an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s children’s novel of the same title. The cast includes Jeremy Irvine who has an interest in movies that were set during the World Wars. He played Albert Narracott, the owner of Joey. Albert had a strained relationship with his father, Ted Narracott – who was played by Peter Mullan – where he doesn’t understand why he is the way he is.

The story begun when Ted Narracott buys a horse at an auction, and Albert starts taking care of him. Soon Ted sold the horse because the Narracotts needed the money, and Joey’s journey begun. Find out how Joey survived the war and reunite with Albie – even if he survived.

People can tell that the movie is an impressive adaptation of the novel itself, where Morpurgo succeeded in retelling the story of the people that were involved in the First World War from a horse’s perspective. It is also amazing how Steven Spielberg managed to transform the plains of Dartmoor, Devon into something that resembles the scenes in the book, along with the ruins of a house that was rebuilt to shoot the movie. Personally, I think Jeremy Irvine is the best actor to play Albert for the movie, as he’s interested in war movies, especially those that are set during the World Wars.

I really recommend this movie to families and fans of historical fiction, as it has the perfect plot and cast for both educational and entertainment purposes. Although there are some words that are kind of inappropriate, it is still remarkably worth seeing!

War Horse Synopsis

So...

For the past few english lessons we've been watching this movie about horses that died in World War I, War Horse. The story started when Ted Narracott bought a horse in an auction, and his son Albert (usually called Albie in the movie) started taking care of him and named him Joey. Then Lyons the landlord came and asked for the rent money. Obviously the Narracotts wouldn't have anymore money because they basically wasted all of them for the horse. Ted asked for more time, and Lyons decided he would give them time until it's harvesting season. Unfortunately, they couldn't plant anything until the land is plowed. Albie taught Joey how to plough even though he's not a plough horse. Albie and Joey had an unbreakable bond, until a big storm attacked and ruined the crops. Ted was forced to sell the horse in order to be able to pay Lyons. Albie was too late to realize, and when he found Joey, he has been sold to Captain Nicholls, a member of the military. Albie tried volunteering to go with them to be able to be with Joey, but unfortunately Captain Nicholls knew he's underage and didn't allow him.

In the first battle against the German troops, Captain Nicholls went down but Joey survived. He was taken by the German troops and was taken care of, but not as good. Two German soldiers, Gunther and Michael, was going into war. Michael was only 14, but no one in the military knew his real age. Gunther promised their mother that he would keep the both of them safe, but Michael wanted to join the battle. At night, Gunther took Joey and Topthorn, a horse whose pen was next to Joey's, and snatched - literally snatched - Michael from the line of soldiers and took him to a windmill of a French farmer.

Soon enough, the Germans found Gunther and Michael and killed them on the spot for retreating before the war had even started. [I forgot the word for the action, oops.] They didn't take the horses with them, and the next morning the owner's grandchild, Emilie, found them renamed Joey François and Topthorn Claude (she named them after the boys who broke her heart the previous summer, I have no idea why…) and took good care of them. At first, her Grand-pére (meaning grandfather in French) didn't agree with the idea of Emilie taking care of them and riding them because of some kind of illness that she has, but he eventually gave in because she was all he had after her parents died in the previous war, and he had to make her happy. The first time Emilie rode François to the top of the hill, she didn't come back and Claude went to look for him. Grand-pére followed on foot, and when he reached the top of the hill, he saw that François was caught by the German troops that was scouting nearby, with Emilie still on his back. Claude was also there, confused but trying to stay with François. The German took François and Claude and let Emilie and Grand-pére go.

Argumentative Essay Reflection - Definitely not good.

Ah, been a long time since I've posted my last post. When was it? Um, probably a little over a month ago. Between those dates, I mostly just sat around in the house doing homework, reading, watching some movies, and maybe a little bit of crazy dancing in my room to whatever music I'm playing... But that's not what I'm trying to talk about now.

At some point in between my absence from this blog, Ms. H asked us to make argumentative essays, much like the previous post on the AQJ and Dhani argument. We also did a debate on whether globalization provides us a better future or otherwise. Like I said, there were a couple of argumentative essays, and the last one I made was about the national exams provided by the Indonesian government.

The result wasn't what I expected, in fact it was better. I was already preparing myself for the worst when Ms. H told me I got a good score (not gonna mention it here). I could say I was pretty surprised, but I know perfectly why I hadn't gotten a full score.

I gotta admit it myself, my format was pretty unclear. When I write, I tend to forget about the things I must pay attention to in order to make it a good piece, which is a habit I need to change. My thesis statement was unclear too, and my introduction was too long. There were other problems I had to fix, such as my grammar and spelling. I also need to practice referencing quotes inside the essay so it wouldn't look like I was copy-pasting them without regarding the author.


Anyways, since music always helped me in writing most of the posts I've posted here (including those essays I mentioned), I just thought maybe I could share my playlist to you guys, and see if we share the same taste in music. Here it is!

1. Better Be Mine - Cody Simspon [Bonus track from Surfer's Paradise Deluxe Edition]
2. Fall Into The Sky - Zedd & Lucky Date feat. Ellie Goulding
3. Awake All Night - Cody Simpson [Bonus track from Surfer's Paradise Deluxe Edition]
4. Wake Me Up - Avicii
5. Banga! Banga! - Austin Mahone
6. Summertrain - Greyson Chance
7. Summer Paradise - Simple Plan feat. Sean Paul
8. Someone To Save You - OneRepublic
9. One of Us - Glee Cast
10. Acapella - Karmin

PS. Most of the songs there aren't really on my playlist, my computer just decided it would be awesome to play.

Who's responsible: AQJ or Dhani?

To say someone had an accident in the highway because of speeding could’ve been what we hear everyday, regarding the large number of minor law-breakers in Indonesia. Most of these accidents we hear occasionally from the news don’t result in so many deaths. But on the 8^th of September this year, an accident caused by a 13-year old driver made it to the news and went booming through the multiple layers of the Indonesian population.

News about the accident spread out like wildfire, starting from the reports reported by Polda Metro Jaya on their Twitter account about the accident at 00.56 in the Jagorawi highway, but not indicating who were involved in the accident and the victims. It was later that the police stated that the youngest son of Ahmad Dhani and Maia Estianty, both famous Indonesians that work in the music industry who separated a few years ago, Ahmad Abdul Qodir Jaelani (usually called Dul), was the prime suspect of the accident. He was driving his girlfriend home in a Mitsubishi Lancer, a car his father bought his older brother, Ahmad Al Gazali (often called Al) for his 13^th birthday.

Lets pop the big question now; should Ahmad Dhani be held responsible for this?

Judging from Dhani’s decisions on buying Al a fancy car at the age of 13, it is obvious that Dhani should be responsible. He started buying his sons cars at an inappropriate age, especially when it’s clear that the appropriate driving age in Indonesia is 17, the same time they get their ID cards (KTP), as stated by the law. If the only parent figure for Al, El – Dhani’s second son, who is under Dhani’s custody along with Al, and Dul, the last son who is currently laying down weak in the Pondok Indah hospital, also under Dhani’s custody. This could be a bad example for the adult figures of Indonesia, as he used to be a very famous rock-star and has quite the influence on the people of Indonesia.

The Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore - NOT A REVIEW

Like the title said, this is not a review. It's just some stuff I'd like to let out.

WARNING: Might contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

(That made me sound like a guard dog. I don't know, it popped from somewhere into my mind. Yes, I might be crazy.)

I found out about the book when I saw the movie of the first book of the series (which was terribly terrible because they got stuff mixed up), I Am Number Four. A specific someone from my class said the movie was overrated, but I didn't care. You know who you are (I was about to wink when I realised that might be a bit creepy, so nah).

Just before my dad called, I was reading the fourth book, The Fall of Five. Turns out that Number Five is actually Number Five, not Setrákus Ra in disguise, and he's a traitor. A freaking traitor.

LIKE, WHO THE HELL DOES THAT?

I wasn't disappointed, really. But I was mad. Why would he do that? Why turn your back to the people you know wouldn't use you, the people you can actually trust? He knocked Number Six out of consciousness and tried drowning Number Nine by keeping his head underwater. Now he's having a talk with Number Seven and Eight, trying to persuade them into joining him and the Mogadorians into conquering (or actually, destroying) the Earth.

…And I haven't seen the rest because I'm too frustrated at Five to read anymore of his stuff. (I was going to say a bad word. I decided against that. This should be celebrated.)

I know I'm not making sense, as if the characters in this book were real. But this is me when I read a book, cope with it. -rolls eyes-

PS. If I used any sort of profanity in this post or any others, I'm sorry. Sometimes I think too quick (I don't think I even think) to process any of the word I said. It's a bad habit of mine, and I know Ms. H is probably sitting hunched at her desk with her mouth agape, thinking "She uses profanities? Wow." or something along that line. May I remind you that I use a lot of profanities when talking to my friends in daily life. I've even convinced myself that I am an amnesiac pirate trapped in the body of a 14-year-old girl. Still, sorry. Maybe I'll try to get rid of it. I said, maybe.

PSS. You probably won't understand since you haven't read the book. If you don't read books, at least watch the movie. At least you'll know who the bad and good guys are.

Today's Playlist

I don't know why I made 2 posts in a day, but I did.

Here's today's playlist!

1. Pictures - Conor Maynard
2. DNA - Little Mix
3. Truly, Madly, Deeply - One Direction
4. Beauty And A Beat (ft. Nicki Minaj) - Justin Bieber
5. If You Left Him For Me - Cody Simpson
6. We Are Who We Are - Little Mix
7. Music Feels Better - Selena Gomez
8. A Little More You - Before You Exit
9. The Way (ft. Mac Miller) - Ariana Grande
10. I Love It (ft. Charlie XCX) - Icona Pop
11. No Ceiling - Cody Simpson
12. Animal - Conor Maynard
13. Almost Is Never Enough - Ariana Grande & Nathan Sykes
14. Mary Go Round - Conor Maynard
15. Slow Down - Selena Gomez

*Songs in bold means recommended.

Blogging: Templates, Themes, and... Blogs.

A few minutes ago I opened my own blog and noticed that some stuff I'm supposed to have on the blog aren't there. Fortunately, it appeared like 5 seconds later (yay!) due to the super slow internet I have at school (just so you know, Indonesian wifi-s suck at being wifi-s.).

After stuff are fully loaded (not fully, like 98% but I'm too impatient to even bother), I can't help but compare my blog to the others', which are way more fancier, some cuter (I don't know if that's a word, whatever.) than mine. You'd also find mine much simpler than the other blogs, but I like simple stuff. I don't like overly-decorated blogs (or anything, for that matter). I'm not saying that my friends' blogs are over-decorated, I just don't like decorations so much. If I could just use one of the themes and/or templates provided by Blogger itself, I would. But my teacher said I should try to be more creative and put some more stuff on my blog (she didn't specifically say it to me, but she showed us a rubric, and that pretty much explains all.) so it won't be so boring. After looking at my boring, black-and-white blog, I decided to just snatch off some HTML code off the internet and put it on my blog (and made sure it looked fancy and appropriate for school, but still to my liking.) so I can at least have a score for that.

I was lucky the template of the theme matched the stuff on my blog which contains mostly rambles and random playlists.

No, wait. There's only one playlist.
Or not.
I think I'm gonna post some more playlists sometime in the future (and probably when I have the internet connection back at home.)

Enough of that blog theme ramble, what I'm trying to say here is, try to make your blog a reflection of yourself. Assessed or not, your blog is a reflection of your personality. If you're not yourself, don't expect others to be themselves around you too. If you're assessed, you should try to reach the highest score possible, but don't push yourself so hard. Make sure you are yourself in every way.

Good luck, bloggers!

PS. Did that make sense?