Songs To The Human Spirit

Three films this year have stood out to me as songs to the human spirit, each very different.

The first is my friend Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which is a remarkably tense and ultimately uplifting love-story set amid the striking poverty and the glitz of contemporary Mumbai, as astonishing in its kinetic energy - and wonderful soundtrack - as in the humanity of both its themes and its outstanding performances.

Slumdog and Danny, I truly hope, will walk away with a huge clutch of this year's Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The second film that moved me hugely and that stands, as much as Slumdog, as a testament to the human spirit and to the universal cry for human dignity and civil rights, is Gus Van Sant's wonderful Milk, which I reviewed more fully earlier on this blog.

The third of my chosen trio is perhaps a little less likely: Pixar's astonishing Wall-E, which thanks to our four year old, Hudson's passion for it, we have viewed perhaps 50 times or more (as well as seeing it originally in the movie theater), each time finding additional details that just make us love it more.

To create an animated film that communicates the immensity and wonder of space - and more remarkably turns a love story between two robots into the most human and emotionally moving tale imaginable - is a very great achievement, and I think that on every level, including its uncompromising mix of dystopia and hope, Wall-E is a remarkable achievement and Pixar's most satisfying and greatest film to date.

May we all - like the children running through the slums of Mumbai in Slumdog, or like Harvey Milk graciously fighting for the right to live his life as he wishes, or like Wall-E and Eve harmoniously circling the Axiom spaceship in an inspirational space-waltz worthy of 2001 (to which Wall-E pays great homage) - dance through both the triumphs and great challenges of our lives, in the faith that love and courage always win out.