In online years, 6 are fucken many. Hazy memories is all that I’m left with from my CAE exam – took it in a rather heated July of 2006, more than 5 years ago. When was I at that level, again?
With that in mind, turns out a good challenge is not necessarily going forward, striving to attain higher ground. Sometimes it is challenging to simply hold your ground, fighting your laziness, going against your natural tendency of forgetting things. So, without further ado, I’ll try to do an exam task, just like I used to in the good old days. Corrections are welcome.
~~~
Task:
You see the following announcement on a website that sells books and film videos:
Submit a review of one of our books or film videos that you have enjoyed recently, and get 10% off your next purchase!
Tell our website users what it’s about and what type of person it would most appeal to.Write your review for the website users (Around 220-260 words).
(not even sure anymore if the review title counts towards the word limit; do I even need a title?)
Fight Club [1999]
A title that needs no presentation. For the recent moviegoer’s sake, a kick-start: an unnamed narator (Edward Norton), dissatisfied with his excrutiatingly boring life, simply snaps. He creates the fictional alter-ego of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) to represent his “true self”, and embarks on a project to restore manliness to its real glory.
Fight Club is the prelude to a brilliant idea of Mr. Durden. A series of underground boxing clubs, men-only. Clubs where they rediscover their identity through barehanded fighting, in an escape from dreary lives. Tyler simply fulfills the role of an Alpha Male – setting tasks, denouncing modern advertising, crafting in secret the downfall of civilisation. For Fight Club soon evolves, leaving the basement – in the open it becomes Project Mayhem, an intricate ploy to crash the banking history of America and (down the road) return people to a natural lifestyle. All done with real warriors, weeded out with the Club. An army ready to follow its leader without question.
One could watch this simply for the face entertainment value; there’s action, and plenty of it. One might also keep an eye open for small ideology and philosophy gems, for instance the belief and explanation that no-one is special. There is romance too, though on a rather twisted, carnal level; Helena Bonham Carter does a convincing role in portraying Marla Singer, the derailed, off-the-matrix woman our narattor falls in love with. Of course, given the sex and a couple intense action episodes, a more matura audience is targeted.
Although I personally found the ending a bit bland, the movie delivers.
~~~
Just a few technical details:
- took me roughly 30 minutes to write the initial draft ; just like it did back then, in 2006 ; not sure if I should be happy or sad about it ..
- took 10 more minutes of cutting and rewording, for I went close to 300 in the first version ; even now it’s a bit over the limit, with 266
- I’m quite sure the tone and chosen phrasing are not even close to what a real review should be like ; really wondering how much this would get in an actual exam
Well, that’s quite it. A checklist for what should actually be included in a review can be found here, though I’m at a loss whether or not anyone could fit everything listed there in 250 words.
Fire at will.