The Terminal

Naos

Seen this 2 nites ago. Thought it was brilliant. Well acted by hanks and brilliant direction. You really feel for the guy, and how hard he trys. Especially the scene

where he has to talk to the foreign lad about the drugs for his father, how hard it was for him to say and .. brilliant

Anyway, curious to know if there is a book about it? Not the screen play but an actual book of real events. I've read conflicting things, such as it was purely screenplay, and then others saying it was based on true events..

Any ideas on Book titles?
Mear

smoke.me.a.kipper

Mear wrote:

and then others saying it was based on true events..

from imdb.com

Inspired by the story of Merhan Nasseri, an Iranian refugee. In 1988, he landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris after being denied entry into England because his passport and United Nations refugee certificate had been stolen. French authorities would not let him leave the airport, and there stayed, in Terminal One, a stateless person with nowhere else to go. He has since been granted permission to either enter France or return to his own country. He instead chooses to continue to live in the terminal and tell his story to those who will listen.

daveirl

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Third_Echelon

I seen this at the weekend... It was really good. Hanks was excellent in the lead role. All round a great movie.

I have to say though for a Hollywood movie, its the least 'Hollywood' moive i've seen from Hollywood (If you know what I mean). Zeta Jones was good in it as well for the little time she was actually on screen...

Definitely worth going to see...

daveirl

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Rabies

I saw it a few weeks ago. Only went because it was a Speilberg movie. Taught it was very good, better than expected. Worth watching if you have 2hrs to spare.

Little Goose

Third_Echelon wrote:

its the least 'Hollywood' moive i've seen from Hollywood (If you know what I mean

I completely agree! I wasn't hugely impressed with the film. I'm glad I went to see it but I don't think I'll want to race out and buy the DVD...

byte

Yeah I thought it was pretty good. Definitely worth watching.

MisterAnarchy

Very enjoyable film.
Saw it way back at the start of the summer.
Strange release date as it has a winter feel to it and perhaps should have been released at Christmas.

Bri

Very enjoyable indeed. Hanks would make a great Borat!

george0

for some reason i cant stomic tom hanks after watching toy story films.
that voice just sqeeks into my head.
all though the terminal was great. im just waiting for him to say to infinity and beyond or buzz your a toy......lol

jank

Am I the only person that thought this was ****

Hanks was good but that was the as good as the film got

Spielberg cant do comedy (or as he calls the film himself a "serious comedy")

He should stick to his serious films tbh

The story was allover the place and was there a plot!?
Mrs Douglas was better off just being a mute for all she was was a pretty face and a "slut" who cant help. It would have been much better if we actually saw some action, if ya know what I mean.

Other than that all the other sub characters were very poorly developed and even at the end I felt as if I didnt know who tom hanks was.

I am MAN

Brilliant film.

PH01

Saw this on Saturday, and I thought it was just OK. Nothing special. Tom Hanks was great again.
But the movie wasn't really about anything. OK, a guy stuck in the airport is interesting. And how he survives and triumphs is also good. But, the love story did that have a place in the story? I don't think so. The movie probably needed it alright.
But apart from all that, this is an average movie.

mycroft

I find the film utterly objectionable.

Once again Spielberg takes a story that is in turn funny and tragic, and turned it into the usual interminal (not intented as a pun)feel good crap that he inflicts on us every now and then (wintess the demolition of Empire of the Sun and The Color Purple)

His name was Merhan Karimi Nasseri though he called himself "Sir Alfred". He lived in a lost dimension of absurd bureaucratic entanglement. That is to say, on a bench in Terminal One of the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and he had lived there since 1988.

Then one day, I heard that Alfred had finally been given his papers. He was free to go anywhere in the world he wished. Except now it seemed he didn't want to leave the airport after all. It was the only home - the only past - he had left.

both quotes from this excellent article

In the hands of subtle filmaker like Winterbottom or Leigh you could have had an intelligent tragic story which interweaves the themes of immirgration, bureaucracy, and soullessness of society, perfectly personified by a man trapped in a place with nothing to do but wait and consume, eternity in an airport, until finally he knows no life but this

Instead the story is reduced to a piece of feel good crap, chock full of product placements as Hanks battles in comic mode with US immirgration, I'm sorry anyone who's had the misfortune to travel to the US since 9/11 knows there is nothing remotely funny about US customs the department of immirgration and the dept of homeland security.

Purile nonsense, Spielberg has once again taken something real and tragic and stupid and mulched it in a blender of fancy camerwork and williamson's sickening score, leaving you with a plate of feelgood mush without any substance at all.....

I await all the negative karma with glee.......

Final quote from the article;

Apparently Alfred had received a cheque of several hundred thousand dollars for his life story. It had been deposited in the airport's Post Office bank. But Alfred had never cared much about money. He was now under the impression that DreamWorks was going to get him a passport and take him to California. Spielberg was going to come to his rescue; Tom Hanks was going to visit him at his bench. In fact, publicity material for the film didn't mention Alfred at all; they were distancing themselves from his depressing story. It wasn't exactly a happy Hollywood ending.

Saw it yesterday and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I know that a lot of people go on about how Spielberg's films are all feel good crap. But what these people fail to realise is that films are supposed to be an escape from reality. Sure theyre unbeliveablelly happy but thats what I want from a film on a cold Monday afternoon. I'd much rather watch a film with a happy ending and numerous unbelievable coincidences than watch a depressing film set in some council estate.

Unpossible

I saw it and liked it. I was very impressed with Tom Hanks.

Id like to add more but I dont know much about films, only what i like and dont like

bandit

it was a load of Otters Cock

Agent Orange

The film is only remotely based on a true story:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0621/p11s02-almo.html

The film was a schmaltzy waste of time which was only fitfully amusing. I think I laughed once. Someone as talented as Spielberg shouldn't be wasting their time making trifling movies like this.

baxterfly

I think i had high hopes since it was speilberg, but i found the film to be over sentimental.

Also Hanks and Zeta-Jones are probably the most unbelieveable cinema couple ever.

Raoul Duke

Just to give my 2 cent:

I thought the film was pretty bad. I'm a fan of most Speilberg films and of all that I've seen this is easily the worst. Tom Hanks was good. I enjoyed watching him. Zeta-Jones was woeful. I used to like her as well. Every moment she was on screen was painful. To me it looked like she was doing a Meg Ryan impersonation. As for Tom Hanks friends at the airport - laughable (in the bad way). If there had been even the slightest attempt to ground the film in reality it might have worked. There were too many unreal characters and situations. Overall this was a good opportunity wasted.

Ruu_Old

saw it a few weeks ago, didnt really like Zeta-Jones in it but Hanks more than made up for that. His survival instincts helped alot in that airport