First of all there is the quest in Quantum of Solace: the quest for the truth about the stunning Vesper Lynd who was killed (or allowed herself to be killed, perhaps to hide her past) in Casino Royale, in which Mr. Craig made his debut performance as Mr. Bond. Mr. Craig knows few limits in this quest, although he does observe some; he is not an out-of-control killing machine getting to the truth at any cost, despite the antagonists who are able to make his activities look that way back at MI6 headquarters. Mr. Bond is still British Secret Service, and cannot be off on a personal quest on company time...and expense, but he is!

Moreover, Mr. Bond is pursuing his quest in a manner that can only make ordinary men jealous - single-mindedly, without constraints imposed by “headquarters”, without paperwork and incident reports, but as an “army of one.” The singular hero is searching for the truth, and for those to punish for stealing Mr. Bond's Vesper Lynd. How many men have not felt the urge to throw off the constraining fetters of custom, rules, regulations, orders, box-checking, mind-numbing “compliance”, and engage in physical tests of wills with evil men? Well, the closest one may come besides joining the Army Rangers is Quantum of Solace. Quantum of Solace is in this way about a rugged individual making the rules as he goes along. That spirit of freedom pervades the movie, and Mr. Craig plays perfectly the wounded hero, the modern day frontiersman in nicely tailored clothes, looking to get even.

The quest has its romance, and this is an autumn-spring, or maybe more precisely, late-summer-spring romance. Mr. Craig, the older but powerful man, captivates the young beautiful women with his driven single-mindedness; they want to help him or at least they won't stand in his way for long. Mr. Bond captivates the women with his command presence, his powerful control in any situation, and his man-in-his-prime dominance. He conveys an overpowering animalism that attracts the early twenties beauties and promotes the ideal that a driven man with physical presence and zeal notwithstanding a decade or more difference in age can still be a romantic figure among young, beautiful, women. Bond awes them with not just his adroitness, but his drive, his passion. He is not a spent, pale office worker, but the rugged man who has not given up the fight of his life, and the young women want to be part of this man's quest. Action hero fantasies for men? Absolutely, but carried off with Mr. Craig wearing his role like a second skin. Good acting, great masculine themes - a top-notch James Bond movie.

The action is played out on a harsh, out of the way stretch of the coast of Uruguay, a landscape which reflects the lives of the family concerned. They have retreated there from the interfering interest of family, friends and other well-meaning people in their native Buenos Aires. Separated now from their former life by the Rio de la Plata, they involve themselves in marine conservation / research as 15 year old Alex, now sexually on the boil, heads towards adulthood, with serious decisions looming on the horizon, but who should make them?

Alex's situation becomes public knowledge, leading to inevitable cruelty and suffering. She (for that's how she has been allowed to develop to this point) is sexually at odds with herself and stops the medication that suppresses the masculinity within her make-up, and there is growing pressure to consider surgical intervention in spite of the laissez-faire attitude her parents have adopted until now, particularly her father.

The main issue revolves around the decision whether to intervene. Should the parents, medical expertise or society in general make a decision in the early days, weeks, months of a hermaphrodite's life regarding their gender, or should that decision be deferred until the person is old enough to make up their own mind? Should any action ever be taken, medical, surgical or psychological, or should the person be allowed to go into free-fall and find their place as a double-gendered person in a world of two strong camps into which they do not fit? Why should a hermaphrodite be forced to chose? By extension, why should anyone, no matter what their “disability”, have to be forced into the mould of their neighbours to gain acceptance?

The film, although harsh, is sensitive, though none of the characters is particular attractive. Each of the options available to the parents is distasteful, but there is the hint of the possibility of true acceptance and love, but only a hint. After all, what parent would be happy with their son falling for a girl with a penis?

The movie is based on real events, and it shows some of the things soldiers go through while at war, and how hard things are when they return home.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this movie, since I usually don't like war movies. In The Valley Of Elah isn't really a war movie. I really hit home on telling the story of a single family dealing with the loss of life during a war. It shows us how messed up war can be; not only during combat, but having to deal with life once they return to the United States.

It made me realize how much our soldiers are sacrificing for our country, on a war that should not even be going on.

I'm not going to get into the politics of the war in Iraq, all I am going to say is I disagree with why our men and women are over there. Watching this movie just brings it all into prospective. All I can say is, if you have not seen this movie, take the time and watch it.

Rushing one by one up through the small hatch on the deck the slaves hide in the dark shadows of the night. Sinque slips silently forward coming closer and closer to the crew, then he strikes. With that the slaves went wild attacking their captors viciously and saving only two of the crew, providing they sailed them to Africa. The two crewmembers agreed to bring the slaves to Africa. The slaves keep a close eye but the crewmembers cunningly tricked the slaves and sailed them all the way to America.

Once they arrived at America the slaves were angry, some even thought they might be able to swim from the boat all the way to Africa. They were all rounded up and marched down the street, the pompous and the more caring people watch as the rag-tag and energetic people walk to the jail and are placed in a large cell.

That is when the issue came up, Are these free people? The law at the time was that a free man in America couldn’t be made a slave, only a person that was already a slave could be kept a slave, so were these all free people? The question’s solution resided in whether or not these slaves came from Africa, which would make them free, or if they came from the Caribbean as slaves already, making them slaves that belonged to the two Cubans who claimed they bought them there.

The abolitionists who were trying to help the slaves were worried they wouldn’t be able to help them, that is until they met Roger S. Baldwin who helped them massively through the whole trials. John Quincy Adams also played a major part in all of the trials especially the last.

There were obviously some major constitutional issues with this trial such as “all men are created equal.” What, if slavery is right, does this really mean? Aren’t the Africans people too? Obviously the south doesn’t think so. Senator John C. Calhoun looks at them as an item of the South’s economy, like cotton or grain. He feels if slaves are taken away it will ruin their economy, he pays no attention to the fact that these are actually living people with families and children just like him.

The Africans had a hard time, do to their highly territorial culture and background, when the desk for questioning was brought in to the cell. The table was placed in all different spots as the groups of tribes or little communities yelled out random words such as, MENDI! or such, trying to tell them to get the table out of their specific territory. The table was finally placed over in a corner, which is when the questioning began.

They tried all sorts of methods and languages but just couldn’t speak to them. They then figured they needed to find someone who could speak the language. They took some notes and started speaking the language on the streets until they came across James Covey, who basically was the key to solving the case, as he was a freed slave who could speak English and the tribe’s language.

They conferred with Sinque and the others through James Covey and eventually led them to all sorts of decisions. In the final trial John Quincy Adams makes a long and amazingly decision changing speech and the verdict is decided, the men and women are all let free and are to be brought back to Africa if they wish.

That is the story of the Amistad. The wild and energetically portrayed Africans that yelled and gave more of a hug then a hand shake were all let free. The Africans although in the beginning were portrayed more as wild savages turned out to be able to lean and think on their own, such as Sinque’s message “Let us free” showed that he had learned some English on his own. Eventually at the end Baldwin used Sinque’s culture and gave him the handshake that was more like a hug.

Obviously some of the southern and formal, or aristocratic if you will, white men were upset by all and possibly led their thoughts of civil war into more of an escalation. Of course there was also the kind, quiet and religious “entertainers” as the Africans called them who were utterly happy and went with al the slaves to Africa and started a small mission over in Africa, but over all the whites in the movie were portrayed a very diversified people, there were the pompous and snooty Southerners and you had the religious kind hearted choir members, there were even people such as Baldwin who changed throughout the movie, going from the beginning thinking the slaves as property and at the end realizing them as the people who were, deep inside, no different from him.