April 9th

Having mostly learned the history of WW II from the American perspective of the expected final victory, movies like April 9th, about Danish soldiers tasked with delaying the German invasion in 1940, or Uprising, about the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, give me the very different perspective of the good guys losing.

In April 9th, a Danish platoon of bicycle infantry is tasked with holding off an invading column of German motorized infantry until reinforcements can arrive. 

It does not work out that way, of course. The bicycle versus the armored car is a fitting metaphor for the fighting that ensues, but the actions and character of 2LT Sand drive the story. He is repeatedly given questionable orders, faced with setbacks and shortages, and forced to fall back, and fall back, and fall back. Sand is an honorable man who must balance his duty to follow orders with doing what he believes is the best thing, and he must handle the tension of men vs mission when the mission seems increasingly impossible.

I found the movie compelling, but I'm interested in this kind of story. It only has a rating of 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb, so apparently it's not to everyone's taste.

It is free on Amazon Prime right now, if you are interested.

Addition, 4/2/23: I guess to make the review complete I should address some other film aspects. I'll put these below the fold, and there are some slight spoilers.

Mirror Images -- Two CIA Action Flicks

Recently I watched the movies Erased and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. The movies themselves are good, secret agent / underworld action flicks in the tradition of the Bourne series or Taken, though not quite as suspenseful or compelling.

What I found interesting was the sociopolitical viewpoints of the two movies, which mirror each other. First I have to say that the social and political aspects in these films are minimal. Regardless of what one thinks about the US or its intelligence agencies, they are enjoyable because they are mostly fighting, chasing, and solving mysteries. However, in those few places where background is given, Erased assumes the US is part of the problem, while Jack Ryan assumes the US is one of the good guys.

I think one example from each movie is enough here. In Erased, the hero is a highly trained warrior whose motivation for leaving a US intelligence agency is that he "grew a conscience." In Jack Ryan, the hero is a former USMC officer who was severely wounded in Afghanistan and given a medical discharge. He gets a Ph.D. and joins an American intelligence agency as an analyst because he still wants to serve his country.

These little differences interest me. The stories a culture tells about itself are important. I don't think one movie is very important. But I think the themes that are repeated in movie after movie do have an impact on how that culture sees itself.

Heh. "There are monsters that need pummeling"

I had heard that the movie "Red Dawn" was being remade, this time with the Chinese as the bad guys instead of the Russians and Cubans--I'm sure people will remember that the Chinese were actually allies in the original movie--but apparently no longer:

Without Beijing even uttering a critical word, MGM is changing the villains in its 'Red Dawn' remake from Chinese to North Korean. It's all about maintaining access to the Asian superpower's lucrative box office.

You'd have thought that somebody would have realized that out in the pre-development meetings, rather than having to digitally airbrush Chinese flags and dialog and such.

North Koreans?

The remake will suck like a vacuum.

Cowboys are universal.



Ninjas. Damn.

And I do not ever remember seeing this combination before:



I guess that's literally universal with that last one.

Cowboys are universal.


These sorts of mash-ups amuse me to no end.

Like this sort of remake of Leone's magnum opus:


Heh.

Normblog had 3 interesting posts today:

1. He notes the passing of the actress Jean Simmons. As Grim has a habit of noting the cultural ideals and what not of classic Hollywood films, it seems appropriate to note some of Simmons' movies:
Guys and Dolls

I have a soft spot for this movie, having been in the play in high school. Marlon Brando, unfortunately, cannot carry a tune to save his life.

The Robe

Nice smile as there as they're being led off to get martyred. This is the sort of movie that nobody would get caught dead making anymore, but seemed to be a staple of 1950's Hollywood.

Elmer Gantry

This is a interesting film that can be looked at a number of ways. I'll leave it each to get what they want from it.

But it shows I think, how Simmons was one of those 'visions of beauty' that Grim was on about.

RIP

2. Norm also notes Martin Amis behaving badly. Pleading it was 'just satire' is both weak and craven.

3. Norm also notes the British government behaving badly. Which I suppose, is nothing particularly new, but as he notes, the cynicism is rich. Neat trick if you can pull it off.

Take a ride.

I hate blood sucking nazi zombies.

President Batman?

As Grim likes to use movies to instruct and inform on morality, this item caught my eye.

Andrew Klavan, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has a curious interpretation of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight".

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.

I have not seen the movie, so I can't really comment on Klavan's idea, but any who have, feel free to discuss.

One thing I do note about Batman, as opposed to the other superheroes movies are being made about recently--Superman, Spiderman, the Hulk, the X-men, even Hellboy--is that Batman is still, underneath the costume, just a guy. He has no actual super powers, just some neat toys that help him get things done. I wonder if that makes stories about him more accessible than the others on some level.

Thanks, Chuck.

Requiescat in pace.

Reality intrudes.

I encounter an enormous and growing number of people who have no frame of reference to the whole world, and everybody and everything in it, except that which they learned from watching, listening to, or reading entertainment. But unlike the elderly I mentioned, they are not using the TV to remind them of a world they have already participated in. They are deriving their reality from the flickering screen. Every single thing they say or do is filtered almost entirely through the lens of movies, teleplays, and magazines --paper or virtual-- things that use reality only as a veneer, if that, and simply to lend verisimilitude to wholly fictitious inventions.

(via American Digest)

Movies. Everybody loves movies. We here at the hall have our on going film fest, we talk about them alot and well, when I saw this meme over at Villianous Company, I liked it so much that I'm taking it on, because, well, I like it so much. So there. And my response would get lost in the comments over there.

1. Name a movie you've seen more than 10 times.
Zulu. Conan the Barbarian. Starwars. Yojimbo. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

2. Name a movie you've seen multiple times in the theater.
The original Star Wars.

3. Name an actor who would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, Peter O'Toole, Charles Laughton, Rutger Hauer. Funny, I can't think of an actress that I'd go out of my way to see.

4. Name an actor who would make you less likely to see a movie.
Sean Penn, Alec Baldwinn, John Travolta, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins (These are Cassandra's picks, but you know what? I wouldn't go see a movie with these people either.)

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
The Duellists. Zulu. Conan the Barbarian. Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

6. Name a movie musical, to which you know all the lyrics to all of the songs.
Guys and Dolls. "I got the horse right here..."

7. Name a movie with which you've been known to sing along.
Guys and Dolls.

8. Name a movie you would recommend everyone see.
Samurai Fiction. Spaghetti Western Samurai film? I dunno. Go see it anyway. You won't regret it.

9. Name a movie you own.
Pirates of the Carribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Yo ho me hearties.

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Mark Wahlberg. Who knew he could act?

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke". Boy, that dates me.

12. Ever made out in a movie?
See last question. :) (Yeah, that was Cassandra's response too.)

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it..
Pork Chop Hill.

14. Ever walked out of a movie?
I wanted to walk out of the Prestige but my wife wouldn't let me.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Tout les Matins du Monde. Yes, I admit it. When Monsieur de Sainte Colombe plays his music for his dead wife.

16. Popcorn?
I'm not paying those prices.

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
When there is something worth while seeing on the big screen.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
Stardust.

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Anything that tells a good tale.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
The Swiss Family Robinson.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
The Prestige.

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Hmmm...in a way all movies are weird. The Big Lebowski, maybe. The life Aquatic (another of Cassandra's answers) is also weird but enjoyable. So is Lost in Translation.

23. What is the scariest movie you've seen?
The Ring. (the original Japanese one, which I saw not knowing what I was in for).

24. What is the funniest movie you've seen?
The Blues Brothers. Literally fell out of my seat laughing in the theater.

Cassandra's questions:

What was the last movie you saw at home?
Voices of a Distant Star. A very short, but poignant Anime about love across (literally) time and Space. And it has giant robots too.

If you had to name your top ten favorite movies of all time, what would they be? And why are they your favorites?

Geez, its film class again. Well, these are movies I'll stop and watch if they happen to be on TV, and I own them all too.

In no particular order:

Zulu. This just all comes together perfectly.
Conan the Barbarian. More fun than it has any right to be. Has the best line ever spoken in a movie.
The Seven Samurai. This movie is tool cool for words. The Magnificent Seven pales in comparison.
Henry V (Kenneth Branaugh's version). What's not to like about this? Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare.
Ran. Kurosawa's take on King Lear. A visual feast, and the tragedy smacks you upside the head at the end.
The Duellists. Harvey Keitel, Keith Carradine, directed by Ridley Scott, based on a Joseph Conrad novella. Has to be seen.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Still holds up. Come back and you will laugh a second time!
Spirited Away. Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece. If you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen do so.
Pirates of the Carribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Pirates. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush are just spot on. What we wish Pirates had been.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's not history, it's not the West, but its majestic all the same. Morricone's score makes the movie.