Life at War

 I had a great war week! We spend the whole week in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, my dear boyfriend's hometown. For seven days, we did a movie marathon of the "The Godfather", "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific". The Godfather is an American gangster-drama three series film based on a novel of Mario Puzo. It is a must see classic movie starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, etc. It is more of a family war and war for power type movie. All the actors portrayed their characters really good. They almost maintained the same actors from the first movie down to the third, so you won't get confused with the characters as they grow old. This is definitely one of my best classic movie I watched so far. 

"Band of Brothers", a HBO TV mini-series in 2001. A story of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division and their mission in World War II against the Germans. And lastly, "The Pacific", a HBO TV mini-series also, released only this March. A intertwined stories of 3 marines during American's battle with the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II. Both produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. But between the two mini-series, I like the "Band of Brothers" most. The story is written more like a movie that each series are really related to each other since they are focusing to one group of company who somehow, some of them survived all throughout the war. The story is more inspiring  and touching because of their solid brotherhood and you can really got a chance to know each member of the company who has it's own different personality too. Unlike in "The Pacific", the whole mini-series focuses on the Pacific war and to three marines in separate combat actions only. But both experienced totally different kind of  enemy, war, and location. Where the "Band of Brothers" experience war in winter cold area in Europe while "The Pacific" in a rainy, muddy hot area in the Pacific. They also got different kind of leadership, strategies , weapons and training that make them a war heroes. 

But in between movie breaks I also got a chance to read Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy's first book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". A must read crime/mystery novel that you will surely read non-stop. Although the first part of the book is a bit boring because of  the detailed information but somehow related to the story. But I promise you, after the first chapter, you won't put down the book until you finished it. Stieg Larsson was a Swedish journalist and writer which is best known from this Millennium Trilogy of crime novels. He was the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind Khaled Hosseini. By March 2010, his Millennium Trilogy had sold 27 million copies in more than 40 countries according to Wikipedia. But unfortunately, he died too soon, he didn't get the chance to witness the success of his novels. If you're into crime/mysteries novels, you better grab a copy of this one. Swedish film production company Yellow Bird actually made this trilogy into a movie already in 2009 and also been shown in Swedish television as a six-part miniseries. But because of the success of the film and the novels, Yellow Bird has partnered with Sony Pictures to produce an American adaptation of the trilogy, with Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. The first film of the trilogy will be released in December 2011. I am reading the second book already, "The Girl Who Played with Fire", let's see if he can still maintain the mystery and the excitement  I am expecting.

It is been a war zone week, even typhoon "Juan" visited Solano and make our weekdays rainy, windy and cold. Each and everyone of us actually is like living a life at war. Some literally but some are something like it. Whether you're in Europe or in the Pacific, airborne or marines, the enemy or not, each of us struggle with our life and try to survive as much as we can. It is a big battlefield out there that we actually do not know if the enemies are hiding or just in front of you as you landed, if you got a reliable company that can watch your back or just on your own, or if you can make it or got hit just after you landed. Some may be lucky to have a great Captain, Major or leaders that can teach and guide us in life where in real life, they can be our parents or mentors. Or luckier to have our own Easy Company that we can call true friends, that can back us up and even kill enemies for us. Friends that we share almost the same war zone and almost same enemies. I can say, I am lucky I didn't get the chance to experience the actual war. But life at war, well, I am still on the battlefield, somehow strong and fighting. I got myself wounded too, a lot of times already, but wounds do heal and you can always learn from it and try not to get hit again. So when you  get old and be a veteran, you can tell to the world proudly,  "I AM A WAR SURVIVOR!"