war film

Survival of the Youngest

Gary Lucas — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 21:57:09 +0000

Survival of the Youngest Gary Lucas October 19, 2024 - 17:57

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This fantastic film, to be released Nov. 1st, is written and directed by Steve McQueen, whose previous film Occupied City about wartime Amsterdam was so affecting.

This film, set in wartime London during the Blitz, is truly Epic in scale and execution--and both Caroline and I and our friend Jon Surgal left the Directors Guild of America screening room on West 57th Street in awe last night at its immense power (Caroline and I with tears in our eyes...as you may know, Caroline is British...but did you know that her soon-to-be 99-year-old mum actually removed phosphor bombs from Golders Green rooftops as a small girl during the Blitz? I thought not).

Saoirse Ronan (Belfast) is just phenomenal as a working-class mother with a young mixed-race son, the product of a short-term liaison with a Black expat before the war. Her 9-year-old son George, winningly played by impressive first-timer Elliot Heffernan, is told by his mother, who he loves dearly, that, unfortunately, he needs to evacuate to the country along with many other British children to escape the nightly deadly assault on London by Hitler's Luftwaffe. (And here I have to say that never has the Blitz been portrayed in such a staggeringly immersive way before on screen, in my experience. Kudos to Hans Zimmer's discordant, furious, frightening score and the film's sound designer).

Young George, in a spasm of home-sickness en route to the country, bravely jumps off the transport train he's been assigned to, survives, and is forced to live by his wits in the wild, enduring all sorts of daunting adventures in his quest to wend his way back to London and reunite with his grieving mother.

UK pop legend Paul Weller (The Jam) is compelling as the son's piano-playing granddad, with a noble visage that bears more than a passing resemblance to David Warner (Morgan).

The entire cast is superb, a panoply of staunch British faces and voices that occasionally break into rousing music hall and jazz songs (there is more than an affinity here with the current Broadway UK import The Hills of California, which we also adored: http://culturecatch.com/node/4366 ).

Steve McQueen has proven since his spectacular debut with 12 Years a Slave that he is a film director of the very first rank. His technique is assured, here mixing the aerial vistas of the German bombardiers over wartime London unleashing their deadly cargo with up close and personal views of the denizens of London forced into the Underground during the air raids--and his story-telling prowess is second to none. Along the way, his heart-stopping two-hour film boldly touches on themes of racism, class warfare, and the grim Malthusian Survival of the Fittest ("Nature is red in tooth and claw"—Alfred, Lord Tennyson).

Actual photo taken in London of the Blitz 1940

Very dark, very grim, very watchable, and very light in parts (especially in the super ballroom dancing sequences)--this film is, as they say, a FUCKING MOVIE!!

You have to see this.

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War Is Heck

Chet Kozlowski — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:38:17 +0000

War Is Heck Chet Kozlowski July 31, 2023 - 11:38

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In 1943, American GIs patrolling the woods in central Italy encounter a squad of German soldiers, fires upon them, and captures those injured. They retreat to a cave to wait out the shelling around them. There the Americans argue and pontificate, and confront moral questions of war: What do we owe prisoners of war? What humanity should be afforded those who we've demonized, seen as "savages," the better to fight them without conscience? To whom do we owe our allegiance: our bloodline or our country?

One might wonder why anyone would make this film at this time. World War II movies don't get made much anymore. The world is different place. The press kit works hard to characterize this as prestige cinema, a film we didn't know we were waiting for. It purports to portray what other WWII films don't, "the depth of the human experience in combat." Hmmm. Ever hear of The Bridge on the River Kwai? Stalag 17? Das Boot?

What Reveille ultimately is is a watchable, modest movie that really doesn't need to try so hard to be authentic. It's an honest effort, made with care, but not a major one. Written and directed by Michael Akkerman (his first film), it resembles a class project, a notion borne out by the number of "Dr."s and PhDs on the credits, plus the involvement of community colleges in Iowa. Several of the actors serve behind-the-camera functions as well.

Reveille also claims to be an "historical fiction based on archival documents and research," but it's more an act of opportunity than record-settling. They got their woods, they got their cave, they got their actors. And they got their military surplus supplier, Mike's Militaria (also listed as a producer).

What they don't have is much of a budget. So the camera stays in close, not showing much of the surroundings, using the woods of Missouri to pass as those of Italy. Lighting setups are simple, and mostly in natural light; for the production's access to a place called Honey Branch Cave, most of the action is shot against one wall, which could be anywhere.

Reveille's cast is large and the actors, for their part, are comfortable in front of the camera and with each other. Kevin Sinic and Bernd Wittneben, who play simpatico German soldiers, stand out, as well as Jared Becker and Maxwell David Marcus on the GI side. Much of the dialogue is in German with subtitles and sounds genuine to this untrained ear. But too many characters here are predictable types -- the softhearted private, the roughneck, the newbie sergeant -- rather than fleshed out characters.

Mr. Akkerman's direction is secondary to his script, which is well written but light on narrative shape. To say it lacks conflict, given the subject matter, is a technical matter: in this individual case, no quest, no conflict. Just guys in a cave. In the end, little distinguishes this historical episode from other skirmishes. The scenario is rich in details, however: an apple sliced and shared during a strategy huddle, a GI thoughtfully washing blood off his hands, or the realistic-sounding groans and wheezing of dying men, underlying terse dialogue. Intriguing subplots, such as two soldiers in opposing armies but of the same ancestry, go undeveloped.

The word "reveille" has military implications, but not ones that serve this story. In its loosest definition, "reveille" means a "wake up call." Which is what I wish for the producers: relax and take pride in knowing that you made a small but respectable movie.

__________________________________________________

Reveille. Written and directed by Michael Akkerman. Released by Buffalo 8 Productions, 2022. 107 minutes.

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Rally Round The War Film, Lads

Mark Weston — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 15:22:28 +0000

Rally Round The War Film, Lads Mark Weston August 20, 2017 - 11:22

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Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan's first act -- at 20 minutes -- depicts some of the most realistic and harrowing war footage in all of movie making. Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk takes that feat and turns it into two hours of equally harrowing, white-knuckle horror.

I assume the story of Saving Private Ryan is a fiction, and it strains credulity to the point of silliness. The story of Dunkirk is historical, and it is even more absurd. Both strive to depict the bleak, random, entropic lunacy of fighting wars.

And yet, while I enjoy re-watching Saving Private Ryan, I have no interest in seeing Dunkirk again. The reason? The sensibility of the two filmmakers. Spielberg is a filmmaker who is mostly interested in character and formula and, once we are on the beach at D Day, he turns Saving Private Ryan into a fairly formulaic buddy movie led by the consistently likable Tom Hanks. And I don't say this as a criticism. Watching this motley group of GIs snipe and kvetch and ultimately bond over their mission is satisfying on a human level. The theme is "War is Hell but Our Guys Ennoble It." Nolan, however, eschews character and eschews formula. The closest we get is Mark Rylance's understated boatsman. But it's not close enough. We watch a nameless young recruit narrowly escape certain death a half dozen times, but never get to know him. We watch an RAF pilot perform in some of the most thrilling aerial footage I've ever seen on film, but never get to see his face. And, ultimately, the great escape from the Dunkirk beach, as small boats and pleasure craft rescue hundreds of thousands of British soldiers, underwhelms, despite an annoyingly loud and insistently percussive score by Hans Zimmer.

At the end of it all, I was exhausted and drained, but not moved or inspired. And, while Nolan's achievement as a filmmaker is technically spectacular and jaw-dropping in its nihilistic artistry, I left feeling more stressed than entertained.

Something's Rotten in Denmark

Brandon Judell — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:57:19 +0000

Something's Rotten in Denmark Brandon Judell July 24, 2009 - 11:57

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Yes, now that you have asked, the inhabitants of Denmark do change their facial expressions. There's even a site to prove it.

However, in this lushly beautiful (thanks to cinematographer Jorgen Johansson) film, director Ole Christian Madsen seems to have ordered each of his cast members to embody Hamlet, a rather dour Hamlet. This is not totally absurd, considering the screenplay, but it can be a bit ponderous at times. The plot, based on a true story, takes place during World War II -- 1944 to be exact -- in Copenhagen.

Two freedom fighters nicknamed Flame (Thure Lindhardt) and Citron (Mads Mikkelsen) are killing Nazis and Nazi sympathizers at point-blank range. Apparently the two are even becoming folk heroes, which rather upsets the German invaders, who do not like being offed, especially by members of an inferior race.

But wait! There's more to the tale, and it has nothing to do with Jews. In fact, this is a Jew-less Nazi-atrocity film that will enhearten all of you who feel Jews have been getting too much screen time in this sort of genre flick.

No! The problem here is that the underground has been infiltrated, and someone is revealing the identities of the anti-fascist buddies of our two heroes to the Gestapo. What's even worse is that the culprits Citron and Flame are shooting down might not even be the enemies of their country. The slaughtered might be innocents.

Sort of like the characters in Broadway's superb production of Mary Stuart, in the current Harry Potter, and on Big Brother 11, no one can be trusted. Everyone is possibly betting on both sides of the coin. Note the title of Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman's new book: Paranoia: The 21st Century Fear. Is this the sign of the times? Though, as Kurt Cobain (and others before him) noted, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."

Angst aside, Mads Mikkelsen is one of the most charismatic actors working on the international scene today. Just indulge yourself in the Pusher trilogy and After the Wedding and you'll rejoice. You might also recall him as a Bond villain in Casino Royale. Here, however, all he is called upon to do is walk about with three days' growth on his chin while wearing a pair of the aforementioned Potter's eyeglasses, and look like he's going to burst into tears at any moment.

The redheaded Thure Lindhardt, who was one of the highlights of the recent Angels & Demons, another film promoting the ampersand, is quite solid here, yet Madsen's direction and the screenplay by both Madsen and Lars K. Andersen eventually undermine his unblighted efforts.

Several of the Nazi shootouts seem straight out of a B movie, and in a pivotal scene with a Gestapo leader on one side of the wall and Flame on the other, fact metamorphoses into inanity.

However, please check out other reviews. My date for the screening, a retired British schoolteacher, who insisted on staying in my apartment for ten whole days, thought Flame & Citron was "powerful." Additionally, both leads were nominated for Best Actor at the European Film Awards. I, however, could have used a Jew or two.