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Star Trek: The Next Generation: All Good Things... (1994)
Finest TNG Episode Ever Filmed
The finest TNG episode ever filmed.
A time travel story in the hands of lesser writers can be a hackneyed plot device to cover up weaknesses with a bad script or weak acting.
Not here. The story expands character development and is a sustained study on how we deal with life choices, what we learn from them and how we grow as persons.
This is a far more important message than the anomaly, Q's power or everything else going on that Captain Picard doesn't understand happening around him. This is NOT a spoiler - people can read other reviews for that. My intention is to draw out certain lessons we can discover in this episode and people can surely find others for themselves as well.
We are made to care because he and people he is close to don't always appreciate why he does what he does and there is a certain truth to the old adage that with age comes wisdom and youth is wasted on the young.
We all look back on our lives and wonder if we lived as well as we could have and if we could really change who we are, we would be happier. I keep thinking of the famous scene in Proust that every one remembers by heart - where a little lump of sugar dissolved in a cup of tea compel the narrator to recall his life and an incident Picard initially gives no real thought to suddenly has profound meaning for his entire life.
The episode forces us to think big and it also in a poignant way affirms for us the importance of family and friends and in the closing scene, Captain Picard resolves never again to take for granted the Enterprise family when he joins them for the first time in their card game on board the ship.
In a word, the acting, storyline and feel here is top notch and is what fans expect of the Star Trek canon and it also serves as a bookend as it were, to the opening episode, "Encounter At Farpoint" - that launched TNG (though people who have never watched the show don't have to watch everything else that went on before to enjoy a piece of great story-telling) and returns the show as it were back to its roots - showing that it remembers and honors them. Its a magnificent curtain call to arguably the greatest science fiction show of all time.
Alye parusa (1961)
A Romantic Fairy Tale
"Alye Parusa" can best be described as a romantic fairy tale.
Its about the pursuit and attainment of true love whatever the obstacles. Alexander Grin created a world that is magical, beautiful, sentimental and captivating.
Its a shame he's unheard of outside of Russia and generations there have loved his classic novel for its adventure spirit, its belief in will overcoming the trials of the sea, time, human skepticism and the fulfillment of human happiness in the most idyllic of settings.
Vasily Lanovoy is well cast as Grey and the incomparable Anastasiya Vertinskaya shines as Assol and they stand out on the silver screen as the star-crossed lovers. Alexandr Ptushko brought the novel to life and one is drawn into a world that's timeless like a fairy tale but which never loses sight of the human element and the yearnings of the principal leads.
I won't give away the beautiful ending except to note its worth the price of admission to this movie. Its so popular that an entire festival is devoted to it in Saint Petersburg.
Its family-friendly entertainment of the highest caliber and is highly recommended!