The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#151 Post by zedz » Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:59 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:The propagandistic aspect of the movie is definitely there, but the way a lot of the scenes are shot, it's less "everyone can do their part" than "everyone will have to play a part, and your part may be more horrible and filthy than you think." The sacrifices in the movie are given so little nobility by the aesthetics that the heroism on display is almost a melancholy fact. I didn't get the usual feeling I do when characters make noble sacrifices for each other. I thought that was commendable of the film not to lie about how bad things can get.
I agree with both of you, really. I don't think the film enacts any kind of tug of war between heroism and pragmatism, I just think Cavalcanti has a much more nuanced and sober conception of heroism than most other filmmakers, and certainly most other filmmakers working at the time on this kind of project.

But that's also a British thing. Powell and Pressburger could be so nuanced and complex that a film like Colonel Blimp could be considered counterproductive to the war effort, and Humphrey Jennings' marvellous Fires Were Started is a portrait of heroism (one of the greatest) without any time for conventional theatrics. Again, like Cavalcanti, the situation Jennings describes is far too urgent for any kind of self-consciousness about heroic action. It's a matter of necessity and gut reactions, and there's no glory in the moment. In fact, viewing what his and Cavalcanti's fundamentally decent and humble characters do as 'glorious' seems almost offensive, as if just doing the right thing because others depend on you weren't enough of a motivation.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#152 Post by zedz » Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:01 pm

(Test)

Hey I'm Back!

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#153 Post by domino harvey » Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:03 pm

Truly today 'tis I who be the hero

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#154 Post by zedz » Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:04 pm

Man, and just as I was about to make a killing on the stock market.

User avatar
Dr Amicus
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:20 am
Location: Guernsey

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#155 Post by Dr Amicus » Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:22 am

The Halfway House (Basil Dearden, 1944) An unusual war film from Ealing. for reasons that are heavily signalled and often mentioned - but just in case I'll spoiler tag a couple of offending comments. The set-up is, initially, fairly unpromising - a disparate group of individuals with various war-related personal issues / problems (a couple are on the verge of divorcing to the horror of their daughter, an Irish national and his British girlfriend argue over his posting to Berlin, a concert pianist needs rest from his busy schedule or risks an early death, an older couple mourn their son who has died in the war, a black market entrepreneur tries to recruit an ex-officer recently released from prison) all end up in a small Welsh pub where (would you credit it) they are going to find some sort of resolution. The main problem with the film is that there are simply too many characters for the running time (just over 90 mins) and some of the storylines feel somewhat arbitrary in their resolution. However, two things make this interesting enough to earn a cautious recommendation. Firstly, a couple of the storylines resolve themselves very nicely, providing a low key but rather moving acceptance of the necessity of sacrifice. Secondly,
spoiler tag if you really know nothing about the filmShow
the inn is effectively haunted as it was destroyed the previous year and the innkeeper and his daughter killed. Actually the film is a bit unsure about how this actually works - there's discussion about it being "out of time" - but the effect is the same. Also, the direction by Dearden is typically strong - he stresses the physicality of the inn making much of the narrowness of the corridors and the low ceilings.

It's not a great film and, unlike Dearden's earlier The Bells Go Down, won't be making my list - but it's worth watching for its atypicality. Now, if only I could find a copy of Dearden's later, Utopian They Came to a City...

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#156 Post by bamwc2 » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:54 pm

Viewing Log:

The Argyle Secrets (Cy Endfield, 1948): This short, strange post-war thriller stars William Gargan as Harry Mitchell a reporter's assistant who, after his boss dies, is tasked with uncovering the Argyle Album, a list of WWII criminals and profiteers hiding out in the states. Mitchell is a very oddly written protagonist who twice goes out of his way to violently attack a pair of innocent women. Seriously, a man's secretary tells him that he can't snoop around so he responds by sucker punching her. Later he has to fake a struggle so he really chokes a woman until she passes out. Both scenes stopped the film dead in its tracks for me since whatever else the film has going for it gets obscured by the star's violent thuggery. Endfield is likely going to have a film finish in my top ten, but this ain't it!

The Battle of the River Plate (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1956): The Battle of the River Plate is a slow moving film about a WWII naval battle from P & P that takes a while to start moving. However, about 40 minutes in we learn that the war ship is on a mission to intercept a German destroyer named the Graf Spee that's sunk every Allied ship she's come up against. The film moves very quickly from there and once the battle begins, it's not possible to take your eyes off the screen. This film is hardly the best of P & P's war films, but it's still good enough for an easy recommendation.

Dark of the Sun (Jack Cardiff, 1968): Legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff directs this tale of a group of violent, but scrupulous (aside from an ex-Nazi!) soldiers of fortune who band together to take on a Congolese militia and steal $25,000,000 in diamonds from them. The film is pure pulp with a cast that includes Rod Taylor, Jim Brown, and Yvette Mimieux all doing exactly what you would expect of them in their roles. Looking at Cardiff's C.V., I'm a bit surprised to see that this is the first of his film's of I've watched with him in the director's chair. It feels like an odd fit for the guy who shot The Red Shoes, but then again according to the IMDB, he's best known for being the director of photography on Rambo: First Blood Part II. Regardless, this one is a pretty fun, but fairly inconsequential piece of fluff.

Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec, 1964): In an absolutely heartbreaking film, Ladislav Jánsky and Antonín Kumbera play a pair of unnamed teenage boys who make a brave, but ultimately doomed escape from a rail car leading them to a concentration camp. The two spend the majority of the film without uttering any dialogue, only blindly trying to carve a path through a forest and survive. Nemec's film does an outstanding job capturing their desperation and showing you the imagined outcomes of the choices that they make. For instance, when one of the finds himself in a cottage face to face with a hausfrau we see him imagine violently killing her before she cuts off a slice of bread for him. What a great film!

Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923): Another film that I watched hoping that it would meet the minimum requirements to be considered a war film. While the French Revolution wages on in here, I don't think that it qualifies. It's a fairly good film, but still doesn't hold a candle to the near perfect George Sidney adaptation.

West Beirut (Ziad Doueiri, 1998): A pair of teenage boys (played by Rami Doueiri and Mohamad Chamas) are bored high schoolers when war breaks out between the Christian and Muslim factions in the city. They initially love their new lives after school is canceled and they spend their days shooting Super 8 footage of the fighting, but meeting a Christian orphan and finding half of the city closed off to them quickly sour them on the conflict. To be sure, this is a film about growing up in a war zone rather than a film about war itself, but it still falls into the project's parameters and does a fairly good job in telling its story. All three kids (including Rola Al Amin as the aforementioned orphan) do a great job in their role, as do the actors who portray the parents.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#157 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:40 pm

the Eagle Has Landed (John Sturges 1976) Loose riff on Went the Day Well? that benefits from the audacity of having all of its above the title cast playing Nazis or Nazi sympathizers, as Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland (with the world's least convincing Irish accent), and Michael Caine conspire to kidnap and/or assassinate Winston Churchill on the eve of the war's end. The film flows freely and makes good use of its leisurely running time to bounce between its characters, though the nature of the narrative means Duvall gets mostly left to the wayside as the film progresses. Though the better-known performers are a treat to watch, it is Larry Hagman who steals the film as a desk-jockey colonel so eager to see battle that he foolishly engages the enemy and shows just how inexperienced he is. It's a performance and a role that straddles the comedic and the tragic in unsure balance, and the same is true of the film. There aren't really any heroes or villains (even the Nazis are "good" Nazis, if you can buy it), and as a result one can't be sure who will or will not make it through to the end. That level of narrative uncertainty coupled with the breezy construction is more than enough to grant this entertaining lark a recommendation.

Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet 1964) I've been saving this one, as the subject matter led me to believe it'd be right up my alley, but unfortunately this mostly just frustrated me (and not in the thought-provoking, liberal message movie manner the film desires). A lot of the film's problems stem from the dramatic vogue of the era towards an unspoken requirement that all overly serious drama must be morbidly dour. And so the entire interminable first act for this film is filled with Important exchanges, eye-rolling character introductions (Walter Matthau slapping a professor groupie [?] to indicate he's a Questionable Character is up there in the Screenplay Hall of Shame) and laughable musings on the moment before the actual plot kicks in. But to the film's credit, the middle section mostly works, with some tense escalations and a few moments that even border on great, such as one commander's violent revolt in the Omaha headquarters against what he perceives to be treasonous acts on the part of the President. Speaking of... My single biggest issue with the film, and one that I cannot reconcile, is that I do not believe any US President, no matter how awful or ill-suited for the job (and there's no indication Henry Fonda is either), would
SpoilerShow
willfully kill at least five million Americans, even to ostensibly even up for the error-driven destruction of Moscow. The way this all plays out has to be one of the most aggravating things I've seen in forever-- After all the hand-wringing over shooting down US pilots, Fonda's matter-of-fact declaration that they'll have to destroy NYC to even things up is accepted almost without comment by everyone involved, as though this were a natural progression, when it is not. Even if, devil's advocate, this Mutually Assured Equivalency were something that needed to be done by the US itself against the US itself, wouldn't you wait for confirmation of destruction beyond the phone emitting a signal? I could see the struggle to deal with this decision and even highlighting its foolhardiness contributing to the discussion this film so desperately wants to provoke, and yet the movie aligns itself with Fonda's decision. The only character involved who handles it in a fashion consistent with their character is Matthau, who gives a talk on why it will be necessary for corporations to reclaim their important papers after the dust settles that is supposed to sound callous but at least exhibits logical sense based on what we've known (and isn't that crazy, really) and is in its fashion less callous than anyone else's response of complicity in letting the President of the United States immediately kill everyone in NYC to teach us the audience a lesson in why we're all to blame if something like this happens. UGH.
Rambo III (Peter MacDonald 1988) I feel like an idiot for complaining that Rambo: First Blood Pt II was over-the-top and ridiculous, because at least it was something. This still-awkwardly-numbered sequel is just dull retreads and without the inherent logical reason for existing of its immediate predecessor. Why is Stallone in Afghanistan, exactly? To rescue Richard Crenna, I know, I get it, but why is he plucked down among the sand and fortresses and utterly anonymous foreign devils? At one point Stallone even breaks out the bullet arrows again, but he hasn't come up with any new tricks for their use in the meantime. No wonder this stopped the franchise for thirty years.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#158 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:10 pm

domino harvey wrote:but why is he plucked down among the sand and fortresses and utterly anonymous foreign devils?
So we can watch him play polo with a dead goat, obviously.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#159 Post by swo17 » Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:30 pm

Fail-SafeShow
Well, I never read the destruction of NYC as a way to simply "even things up" so as to fulfill playground law, or to teach the audience a lesson. It was precisely the kind of crazy, doomed move that had to be made to convince the Soviets that the attack on them had been a grave error. At this point in the film, we've left the real world and entered post-apocalyptic damage control. It was either something like that or they would retaliate by destroying a lot more of the country than just NYC. And I don't see the film as pointing fingers of blame either. On the contrary, everyone here does about as well with the situation as they can. What I think the film is demonstrating is that even when we're at our best, we can't foresee every possibility, and we can't take for granted the potential ramifications of human or mechanical error.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#160 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:38 pm

SpoilerShow
If it's not an evening up move than it's now worse-- surely there's a better way to placate the Russians than killing over five million Americans? And how about the reveal that Fonda's wife is in NYC, as though killing literally millions of people couldn't offer enough dramatic possibilities to the audience for his weighty decision!

The moment near the end where the Russian Premiere keeps telling Fonda that it was an error and no one was to blame and Fonda keeps interrupting him and telling him no, they're both to blame for it getting to this is what I mean when I say the movie is saying the systems of armed warfare and not the mechanical method of their delivery are at fault.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#161 Post by swo17 » Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:09 pm

SpoilerShow
Well, I could have done without his wife happening to be there--I'll grant you that. And yes, the film is questioning the system in place, but I don't feel like it's doing so obnoxiously. It's more of a "food for thought" exercise.

And not to get all warren oates on you, but how exactly would you propose placating the Russians after having decimated their most prestigious city? Bear in mind that every moment counts in a scenario like this, and that the Russians could read the phone apology as a diversion tactic intended to confuse them while the U.S. is moving into position for more attacks. It has to be an action that can be quickly verified by the Russian air fleet. Maybe I would just make a bad president/am biased against New York City, but nothing else is really springing to my mind.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#162 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:19 pm

SpoilerShow
As I would tell our esteemed fellow forum member (though you obviously mean it in jest), I'm not going to get lured into rewriting this or any film, I am just addressing what I perceive to be flaws. And a film doesn't get credit for having a flawed answer to a question it went out of its way to pose. This isn't a documentary (Wait, actually, let me double check...)

Maybe it is pedantic, but actually having the President and therefore America doing the killing ourselves is what really makes it beyond the pale to me-- if you absolutely have to go with the murder all of NYC, why do we have to be the ones who do it? If the Russians have the capabilities they say they do, why not just be like "Okay, fire a missile at NYC and we're even"? There is a fundamental moral/ethical difference between standing aside and the President actively pushing the button against his fellow Americans. And again, if we are doing it, why do we do so immediately without any confirmation? It just strikes me as cheap provocation without consideration for the logic of the situation. And I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a film provoking the viewer in this fashion if it also showed any interest in following through on exploring what this means beyond some visiting schmoe in Omaha going "Well, what else you expect him to do?"

I suspect the film would be far more effective if it just ended a couple minutes earlier with the squeal on the other end of the phone carrying over to the end credits, and the question of whether or not Fonda does give the go ahead to the NYC bomber remaining unanswered. Though then we wouldn't get that truly awful "The matador... IS ME!" moment, would we?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#163 Post by swo17 » Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:45 pm

SpoilerShow
All right, he could have let the Russians do it. Or maybe not making them use one of their own valuable missiles was the polite thing to do after having just delivered them a substantial economic setback?

As for getting confirmation of Moscow's destruction, I don't know how it would have gone down in real life, but it never felt like there was any question of this in the film. Both countries had radar systems in place and jets in the air. I mean, I guess they could've added a few lines of dialogue to make it abundantly clear that Moscow really had been destroyed, but I didn't need convincing.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#164 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:50 pm

SpoilerShow
I do not doubt as a viewer that Moscow's gone, but if I had to make the call to destroy a US city in the wake, I'd want more confirmation than we saw anyone receive in the film! Hell, I check to make sure the front door locks behind me with more tenacity than was exerted towards annihilating millions. But this is getting pretty silly now. I think we see where both of us are coming from. Now let's devote valuable brain time to wrapping our heads around the fact that famous bachelor George Clooney just got engaged. Truly the grim prophecies of an unpredictable world shown in Fail-Safe have some modern-day relevancy

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#165 Post by swo17 » Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:06 am

SpoilerShow
Actually, maybe "We'll get George Clooney to marry" would have been just the thing to smooth things over with the Russians...

"Seriously, you could do that?"
"Just let me make a few calls."
"He would make a good father."
"I know."
"This really puts things in perspective."

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#166 Post by bamwc2 » Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:47 am

SpoilerShow
I haven't seen the film, but I love inviso-text too!

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#167 Post by domino harvey » Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:18 pm

Blood on the Sun (Frank Lloyd 1945) A typical workhorse product from Lloyd about James Cagney's fictional discovery of Japan's nefarious plans for world domination pre-Pearl Harbor. A promising premise, however this rote film is staged without much imagination or wit, and Cagney is on autopilot. Sylvia Sidney as a half-Chinese double agent doesn't find much to contribute either, I'm afraid. One thing I did find interesting is that the film features an early utilization of that still-great retort to racist apologizing. Something like:

Reporter: (After bad-mouthing the Chinese for a few minutes) … But of course I have nothing against the Chinese.
Cagney: Of course, "Some of my best friends are Chinese," right?

I would have pegged this response as a far more modern invention, so it was a nice little moment of interest in an otherwise mediocre wartime propaganda pic. This has fallen into the public domain, but if you want to seek it out, try the Hal Roach edition from Image (yellow cover in a snapper case), which is OOP but still available cheaply on Amazon etc-- it's the only version scanned from the negative and it looks decent.

By Dawn's Early Light (Jack Sholder 1990) And here, fortuitously, is the answer to so many of Fail-Safe's problems. This HBO original movie is clearly indebted to Lumet's notorious film, but the questions it poses and the directions it goes are far more interesting. Fail-Safe was concerned with showing and then discarding the processes of stop-gaps between humanity and nuclear holocaust as a warning against complacency and false security in our warfare systems. A heady goal, but one wholly undone by the far-fetched and unlikely ending (as I see it and have already laid out). Here there are no such lofty goals above entertainment and suspense, and as a result the work is maybe not as artsy as the original, but gone too is the self-importance and in its place is a real nail-biter of escalating tension. In this movie, the premise is somewhat flipped, as Russia is attacked by an unknown party assumed to be Americans and they retaliate against us, and a series of escalations and decisions both good and bad are made as both sides careen towards total annihilation. By Dawn's Early Light doesn't open up the action much more than Fail-Safe, but the scope is larger and the characters within the narrative are able to breathe a little beyond being archetypes and military automatons. Indeed, one of the film's greatest achievements is it concedes that those put in the position of pushing the button may push back when pressed themselves, and the minor quarrels of treason in the Lumet film are replaced with plentiful people countermanding orders and getting into even stickier situations as a result.

Though it's not quite an all-star cast, the primary credited actors are all familiar character actors and do a good job with what is a mostly "Just the facts, ma'am" approach. Special praise goes to Darren McGavin as the lowly Secretary of Interior who (through a series of circumstances that don't necessarily constitute a spoiler) finds himself the unlikely Commander in Chief and proceeds to let his insecurities and inferiority complex color his decisions as acting President, verbally invoking Truman in such a fashion that would make anyone uneasy. He and several other characters make hard decisions with such simplistic flippancy that it really drives home how few people stand in the way between all of us and none of us. While some characters who stick their neck out come out of it pretty well, the film is cruel when it needs to be without ever having to devolve into preachiness as, again, the film has no interest in paying lip-service to the idea of nuclear warfare as good or bad and is instead focused on being superior entertainment. And it is that. Highly recommended, especially as a corrective/supplement to Fail-Safe.

Independence (John Huston 1976) The US Parks Service commissioned Huston to make this educational short and it shows all evidence of being a work for hire. Though there is some fun to be had in the casting of Eli Wallach as Ben Franklin, despite the concept of fourth-wall-breaking and time travel, most of this is rote stuff and even as educational material it doesn't work very well-- if you didn't know the story beforehand, some of the things getting nonetheless over-explained just float on past without any sense of importance or depth.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#168 Post by swo17 » Fri May 02, 2014 11:50 am

domino harvey wrote:By Dawn's Early Light (Jack Sholder 1990) And here, fortuitously, is the answer to so many of Fail-Safe's problems.
I'm not surprised you would say that, given this exchange early in the film:

"Sir, we have a nuclear detonation in the Soviet Union."
"I want absolute verification."

This was a very good recommendation to follow up Fail-Safe though. It almost plays like a feature length alternate ending to that film, which was more concerned with what happens when the potential for an attack is first discovered, whereas this film takes the attack as a starting point and from there goes off in all sorts of interesting directions. I might say it does this at the expense of a singular focus for its intensity (I wasn't quite left on the edge of my seat here as much as I was with Fail-Safe, where the majority of the film takes place in just a couple of rooms, as Lumet is wont to do) but I'd more just say that the two films are doing different things, and doing them very well.

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#169 Post by Lemmy Caution » Fri May 02, 2014 3:25 pm

Really enjoyed the 1945 Edward Dmytryk film Cornered starring Dick Powell.
One of those post-war films, with Powell seeking to avenge the death of his French war bride. Most of the film is set in Argentina, where we have ex-Vichy collaborators, Free French, unrepentant Nazis waiting a chance to reconstitute, and the ghost of war atrocities lingering over it all.

I really liked how this seemed to have elements of many better known films -- Walter Slezak in an unctuous expanded Sydney-Greenstreet-from-Maltese-Falcon role; Third Man uncertainty whether the villain has faked his death and is still alive; The Argentina setting of Gilda and uncertainty what everyone is hiding (plus another fake death). Hell, I was even reminded of the later Alphaville by the manner in which Powell just completely ignores the civility and has complete contempt for everyone, just charging ahead with his monomania. I like films in which the protagonist seems to have entered form a different film, or is figuratively giving the finger to everyone in the film, as he doesn't want to be part of their world.

Throughout the tension is kept high. It's unclear who to trust, but pretty clear none of them isn't a bad guess. There's plenty of snappy, cut-to-the-chase dialogue. I like how things are convoluted and our hero only has hunches and feints to play, on his murderous quest. Only slowly do things begin to resolve themselves and actual identities get flushed out. I thought this was entirely terrific. I'll have to think about how much I consider it a war film, but clearly the entire film is part of one minor ugly aftermath of the WWII.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#170 Post by bamwc2 » Fri May 02, 2014 5:31 pm

Viewing Log:

Avatar (James Cameron, 2009): I might have been the last member of the forum to finally see this film, but now that I have I can honestly say that I was a wise man to have avoided it before. Jesus fuck, this is one awful movie! Wrong on every level, this maudlin piece of shit does everything it can to suck out any good will it may have earned with pretty pictures by constantly undercutting its own narrative with writing even more corny and hackneyed than anything that ever escaped from George Lucas's pen. I'm sorry if this sounds like more a string of invective than an actual review, but it has left me that angry at the world. The only good to come out of watching this was that it allowed me to go back and read all 16 pages of the Avatar thread. There's some comedy gold in there that is far worthier of your time than this nasty piece of garbage.

Hands Up! (Clarence G. Badger, 1926): Raymond Griffith stars as Jack a beloved rogue/spy for the Confederacy who is charged with either intercepting or destroying a shipment of gold on its way to fund the Union army. Jack quickly makes his way to the Army unit transporting the load, but wacky hijinx cause him to alternate several times from being identified as a spy or mistaken as a Union hero. Having never even heard of Griffin before, I count this one as a major discovery, with jokes that are up to the same caliber of any silent era comedy from Chaplin, Keaton, or Llyod. The obvious comparison here is with The General, but Griffith's performance isn't on the same physical level as Keaton's. Instead Griffith excels with jokes that result from lighting fast sleight of hand. It's a different kind of Civil War comedy, but I think that I might actually prefer this one. Both, however, make me feel a bit awkward for liking them. The Confederacy were clearly on the wrong side of history, and the decision to make the protagonist on the side of those fighting for the right to own slaves takes the air out my sails.

The Laughing Man (Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann, 1966): Ex-Nazi and current soldier of fortune "Major" Siegfried Müller gives an hour long interview dealing with his experiences in war. As we find out, the chain smoking Müller never achieved any rank in the German army, but was rather bestowed the title of "Major" by the men who hired him to kill in their wars. Sporting a smile that makes him look like Batman's arch nemesis, Müller recounts some truly sick shit that he did for a paycheck in various conflicts around Africa (e.g. shooting a POW in the head just so a Western journalist could get a picture of a corpse for his assignment). All of these transgressions are, in Müller's mind, justified in his fight against communism and a defense of European values. The film comes off as a particularly interesting interview, but it does make for some strange cinema, feeling more like an hour long segment of 60 Minutes than anything else. Regardless, it's a fascinating look into the mind of a monster that I'm very glad I watched.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt, 2011): Dr. Will Rodman (James Franco) is a biomedical researcher on the verge of curing dementia with a viral infection that promises to restore the cognitive functions in the afflicted. After one of his chimp test subjects goes on a rampage, Rodman's boss orders him to kill them all. He sneaks one day old Caesar out of the lab, who has inherited the genetic modifications from his mother and has an IQ that puts him ahead of most humans. Caesar's life is mostly idyllic until he defends Will's father (John Lithgow) from an attack from a boorish neighbor. Caesar's point of view changes then when he's forced to spend an extended period in a hellish animal rescue where he experiences abuse at the hands of both humans and fellow apes. Caesar then turns into a chimp Fidel Castro and leads an army of hyper intelligent apes (the result of his handiwork) in a lengthy battle against their human oppressors. It's probably the best of the Planet of the Apes movies that I've seen, but that's not saying much. It's a mildly diverting flick, but very far from greatness. I'm also surprised at just how mooted the violence is in the film with Caesar stopping his fellow apes from killing anyone and...
SpoilerShow
The destruction of mankind apparently coming from a virus created in Rodman's lab instead of our simian revolutionaries.
The Tower of Lilies (Tadashi Imai, 1953): An ensemble cast headlines this postwar film chronicling a group of Japanese boarding school girls and their teacher who forgo their studies in a effort to tend to the wounded and starving soldiers in their area. I've watched a few films about the Japanese experience during the war for this project, and this melodrama shares the same desperate sense of inevitable doom that the others have. Since this was made after the war was over, we get to see how the Japanese government lied to their citizens through state propaganda declaring numerous military victories and the effect that it has on the girls who spend their time in the underground hospital singing patriotic songs to inspire each other to stay up one more hour. Of course, things go from bad to worse as the food runs out and the American forces approach, resulting in...
SpoilerShow
pretty much everyone dying.
This is another great tragedy about the Japanese experience in WWII. It along with Under the Flag of the Rising Sun stand a good shot at making my list.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#171 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 10, 2014 10:46 pm

Anzio (Edward Dmytryk 1968) Put three of my favorite actors, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan (though it turned out to be just a cameo-- d'oh!), and Arthur Kennedy, together in the same movie and it's got to be amazing, right? Hell, if they'd thrown in Charles Bickford it might have gone through some kind of chemical change and actually become a good movie. But they didn't and it's not. This is a by-the-numbers Dino De Laurentiis production highlighting the botched Italian invasion, and while competently made, it's instantly forgettable filler, though there is some perverse pleasure to be had in watching Peter Falk do his (annoying) improv actor schtick around a bunch of studio system pros who are already experts at killing time on camera without exerting as much effort.

Blue Sky (Tony Richardson 1994) Tony Richardson joined the elite club of esteemed directors who went out on a high note here, even if he didn't know it-- the film's release was held up for three years after his death thanks to the bankruptcy of the original studio. But as many of you no doubt recall, once it did come out, Jessica Lange flipped a switch and all of the year's major acting awards came rushing towards her person. And it probably goes without saying but Lange deserved it for her truly manic performance of a deeply troubled military wife who confuses her troubles with outward sexual energy and self-conscious aping of Hollywood starlets (the film takes place in the late 50s)-- one of the funniest moments in the movie comes from Lange greeting her new Alabama military home with Bette Davis' infamous line from Beyond the Forrest, and she often slips into a breathy Marilyn Monroe "Daddy." But I found the whole cast uniformly excellent, particularly the two young girls playing Lange and Tommy Lee Jones' children. Amy Locane as the older and more skeptical of the two is especially good at conveying what her character would be going through, and there's a great moment in the film where Locane and Lange get into an emotional fight and you'd swear she was her blood relation daughter! I also liked the scene where she and Chris O'Donnell sneak off to have sex and their impulsive act is preempted by a far more violent symbolic manifestation! The nuclear coverup storyline of the film is properly twisty, the cast provide grand entertainment along the way, and Richardson films it all with great verve. Highly recommended.

In Country (Norman Jewison 1989) The late 80s were filled with efforts to start explaining and exploring the Vietnam war again, and while this had the misfortune to premiere in competition with better known efforts like Born on the Forth of July and China Beach, I was surprised this didn't connect with more viewers, as I found it to be a wonderful little film. Most of the praise for the movie's success goes to Emily Lloyd, an actress I've never encountered but who I am very interested to see again, as her portrayal of a newly high school graduated Kentuckian trying to learn about her father who died in the war is not easily summed up. She's not naive, nor cynical, nor overly daffy or earnest: As written but especially as played, she's a bright and exuberant teenage girl, and the film does a smart job of framing her coming of age via her exploration of her past, often aided by her recovering vet uncle Bruce Willis. The movie captures small town life in the 80s beautifully, and the emotional payoffs are earned due to many of the characters being so lovingly sketched in (The motley crew of characters reminded me of a somewhat more somber Roseanne, to give some sense of blue collar colorfulness) that I could even overlook the occasional cliche or two that wound up spilling out of someone's mouth. After all, wouldn't some of these characters use them? A great discovery that will quite likely make my list.

Jungle Patrol (Joe Newman 1948) No-budget war cheapie with by my estimate two sets (and these could have been two opposite sides of the same set) that would function well as a radio drama. I believe the source material was a play, and as you'd hope, the dialogue is snappy and almost worth recommending for how it predates the Mamet/Sorkin style of patter between the men of an air force company stationed in New Zealand who have had a record of no casualties against the Japanese and are starting to feel the pressure of knowing their luck will run out soon. It's a compelling premise and the movie works around not being able to film any of the aerial dogfights by having everything reported over the radio to the ground below, which works just about as well anyways. It's not list-worthy and not a great film, but I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Run Silent Run Deep (Robert Wise 1958) Competent but familiar-feeling submarine flick with Captain Clark Gable pushing his men into dangerous Japanese waters to atone for the sub he commanded and lost a year prior. Producer/star Burt Lancaster is the second-in-command who was supposed to be Captain himself til Gable pushed him aside, and the dramatics fall about how you'd expect. I was pretty confused when the half-hearted mutiny occurred, though, as I'm not entirely clear if it did? I guess in this movie you can have two submarine Captains. Hollywood, always teaching!

Sea Devils (Raoul Walsh 1953) Tragically weak Walsh effort (and I use the term loosely) about Rock Hudson traveling between two similar looking coasts over and over again, often with Yvonne de Carlo in tow. The Napoleonic era and spy-story plot elements are barely utilized, and the fight choreography and set design and everything else show with great ease how little anyone gave a shit about this while making it. Good news: It translates well to actually watching it! A+ job Hollywood.

the Silent Raiders (Richard Bartlett 1954) Zero budget Lippet war movie that cuts so many corners it apparently forgot to budget for an ending. The movie literally just ends with "But this was just the beginning of… The End" in the middle of a scene. Amazing. The whole film exhibits that level of care, really. Several of the characters look alike, act alike, and have similar ranks, so it gets real confusing when someone dies and then they're still walking around five minutes later and I'm not sure if that's important or not to begin with!

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#172 Post by zedz » Sun May 11, 2014 3:53 pm

domino harvey wrote:Jungle Patrol (Joe Newman 1948) No-budget war cheapie with by my estimate two sets (and these could have been two opposite sides of the same set) that would function well as a radio drama. I believe the source material was a play, and as you'd hope, the dialogue is snappy and almost worth recommending for how it predates the Mamet/Sorkin style of patter between the men of an air force company stationed in New Zealand . . .
The best New Zealand-set WWII film I've seen (which isn't saying much) is Walsh's Battle Cry, and enjoyably rambling and low-key 'lives of soldiers' yarn. It even looks like some of it was shot on location, or else the location scout was way more diligent than was the norm for Hollywood productions of the era. Speaking of Walsh:
Sea Devils (Raoul Walsh 1953) Tragically weak Walsh effort (and I use the term loosely)
I know I have this disc and I know I've watched the film, but I couldn't remember anything about it (not yven Yvonne, let alone that it was a war movie). After your capsule dismissal I remember enough to remember why I don't remember it.

User avatar
Dr Amicus
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:20 am
Location: Guernsey

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#173 Post by Dr Amicus » Thu May 15, 2014 11:55 am

domino harvey wrote:
In Country (Norman Jewison 1989) The late 80s were filled with efforts to start explaining and exploring the Vietnam war again, and while this had the misfortune to premiere in competition with better known efforts like Born on the Forth of July and China Beach, I was surprised this didn't connect with more viewers, as I found it to be a wonderful little film.
Your views pretty much match mine - at least as far as I can remember as I haven't seen the film since its release (which means I can't really offer any detailed defence of my views - but one of these days I'll get round to another viewing). Before the film's release, it was considered to be a likely Oscar frontrunner, in particular Willis was considered a likely Supporting Actor nominee - and then it opened to a gigantic "meh", which I thought was rather unfair, and award talk disappeared. And if you liked Emily Lloyd in this, you should really hunt down Wish You Were Here for the 80s project - it made her a star, at least in the UK.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#174 Post by bamwc2 » Fri May 16, 2014 10:03 pm

Viewing Log:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Timur Bekmambetov, 2012): So, I watched this... Bekmambetov made one of my all time least favorite fantasy/horror/action films: Night Watch. But, I kind of sort of enjoyed his stupid, but fun Wanted. The premise here was too ludicrous to pass up. Vampires colonized North America along with the rest of Europe, finding a fertile food supply in the slave trade. After his mother is murdered by one of these unholy creatures, our future 16th president swore to avenge her death. Unaware of the fiend's supernatural abilities, Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) finds himself saved by a vampire hunter that takes him under his wing. Soon Lincoln moves to Springfield, IL to rid a hotbed of its infestation. Eventually Lincoln becomes a lawyer (his backup plan in life) and even stumbles into the presidency as part of his plan to end their food supply. The film's final third is centered on The Civil War, so I guess it's appropriate to include it here. The film hypothesizes that Southern victories were the result of Vampire legions who couldn't be stopped until The Union forces coated their weapons in silver. There's a lot of silly action sequences in here, and really the only way to enjoy this is by checking your rational brain at the door. God help me, but I had a fun time doing just that.

Black Jesus (Valerio Zurlini, 1968): The great Woody Strode stars as Congolese rebel leader Maurice Lalubi in this fascinating look at a charismatic leader (the black Jesus of the title) reduced to a military prisoner. Lalubi spends most of the film imprisoned with a pair of white Italian convicts: a petty thief and a soldier. The trio spend their days undergoing torture and meditating on the finer aspects of colonialism. The film builds up to a shockingly violent ending that is allegedly loosely based on the life of Patrice Lumumba. The film is great, and Strode's performance stands as its centerpiece. Definitely check it out.

Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981): For some reason I had this one in my collection since the late 90s and sold it off without ever opening it. Despite it's reputation, I think that I was scared off by too many bad Wolfgang Petersen productions. Having now seen the director's cut, I can now say that I was a fool, because this is one great movie! The film follows a group of Nazi soldiers aboard a U-Boat traversing the Atlantic. While far from Nazi ideologues, the crew is nevertheless eager to serve their fatherland. There's a lot going on in the director's cut--perhaps too much. However, the battle scenes are exquisitely staged and the claustrophobic consequences of having two dozen men fighting for their lives in such cramped quarters truly remarkable. The film's final forty minutes or so...
SpoilerShow
where the submarine is trapped on the ocean's floor with little hope of ever being able to surface again ranks among the most suspenseful war scenes ever recorded on film.


Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet, 1964): This one got a lot of attention earlier, so I won't say too much about it. I already knew about the ending going in, so that didn't hit me as hard as Domino. I liked this film a great deal, certainly more than Domino did. Yes, it's a liberal message film, but it's also a very tense thriller that had me on the edge of my seat despite knowing the ultimate outcome. The film also had some great editing, particularly in its final scene.

Return (Liza Johnson, 2011): Writer/director Liza Johnson crafts one damn fine story of the horrors awaiting soldiers at home in this criminally under seen film. National guardsman Kelli (Linda Cardellini) spent her time in Iraq working in the Green Zone. Although she hasn't ever seen combat, she's deeply effected by her tour and finds that she can't return to her life in the Rust Belt, working a dead end factory job, playing wife to her philandering husband Mike (Michael Shannon), and mother to their two daughters. One day she quits her job. Then her husband leaves her and files for divorce. She gets arrested for a DUI and then faces the very real possibility of losing her children in a divorce settlement. Hers is a story of collapse brought about by ennui, triggered by her time in Baghdad. I can't do justice to the humanity that Cardellini brings to her character or to just how marvelous this small tale is. There is no resolution to Kelli's story just downfall and more of the same. During my time teaching at community colleges I've encountered many servicemen taking courses between deployments. Kelli reminded me of some of them.

The Story of a Three-Day Pass (Melvin Van Peebles, 1968): Melvin Van Peebles's feature debut starts rather roughly. We begin with Turner (Harry Baird) a soldier stationed in France, carrying on a conversation with his own reflection in the mirror (and yes the reflection answers). Ugh. Thankfully this is the film's nadir and it turns out to be a fairly thoughtful meditation on race relations in the military and European society in general. Turner is used to being treated as a token by his command, but finds love in the hands of white Parisian Miriam (Nicole Berger). The two begin an intense affair over the course of his pass. Van Peebles's camera work and editing here is exciting and singled the emergence of a major underground talent. Great film!

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The War List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#175 Post by colinr0380 » Sat May 17, 2014 5:58 am

Did you watch the film or the 6-part mini-series of Das Boot? It is really great in either version, but I always gravitate towards the mini-series version, partly because it was the first way that I saw it (every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. on the BBC back in 1995! Those were the days!), and partly because the material feels perfect for leaving you at the edge of your seat with each cliffhanger ending!

Post Reply