Mubi Monday: Occupied City (2023)

Settle down, people, settle down, and make yourselves comfortable. Because it's time for one of those reviews that can feel more like a bit of a rant mixed with a bit of a lecture. I know, I know, you can barely contain your joy.

I debated whether or not to view and review Occupied City. It's always harder to review a documentary than it is to review a traditional narrative feature, and the subject matter here doesn't seem like one that would make for an enjoyable distraction for those who may read it during this holiday season. But sometimes it's not about making things enjoyable, or more palatable. Sometimes making people uncomfortable is necessary, especially as we look around us at a world that is having fires stoked by ill-advised beliefs in all opinions being equal and every story having two sides.

Directed by Steve McQueen, based on the book by his wife, Bianca Stigter (a Dutch culture critic and author, and also the director of Three Minutes: A Lengthening, which feels very much like a precursor to this), Occupied City is a look around modern-day Amsterdam while a narrator (Melanie Hyams) relates many tales of a community ruined and many lives lost in the city. That's all it is, and that's all it needs to be.

I don't like to single out others, and it's good to remember that all film opinions are subjective, but looking at the negative reviews for Occupied City helps to show why it is important, although I appreciate that some may only benefit from it when the full context is hammered home to them. People just think this is a boring and aimless look at a city while someone tells you what happened decades ago, without any connection between the past and the present. Those are the people that should be forcibly sat down and made to watch this again and again, at least until they see that there's no way to disconnect the past and present. Our present, in a number of small and large ways, is formed by the past, and it's becoming harder and harder to remind people of that, as it is also becoming harder to convince people that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

There's a hefty runtime to deal with here, the standard version is 266 minutes (although I remember hearing about a much longer version that was part of an installation somewhere), and there's no change to the format throughout, but it's once again important to understand that THAT is the point. Viewers quickly become relatively immune to the catalogue of horrors, maybe being startled again by an unexpectedly unpleasant detail here and there, but it goes on and on and on. It seems as if it will never end, as I am sure it seemed that way to the people living through WWII. There's a fine short film by Alan Clarke, Elephant, that uses a similar, but not identical, approach to a different bloodshed-filled chapter of history, and I appreciate this way of presenting evil in a way that also shows how banal and boring it can be for those who can be constantly hearing about it without being directly affected by it. That happens today, it happens to many of us almost every day, and if Occupied City makes just one person remember to speak up in protest against any kind of bigotry, abuse, or dehumanisation then it's worth the four and half hour time investment. Actually, it's worth that investment anyway. 

The present is getting away from us in a way that is scarily quick and scarily regressive. Become more familiar with the past, especially while we have people who are allowed to tell us about it without trying to reframe any of the major villains.

8/10

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Zone Troopers (1985)

Another film from the 1980s that I didn’t get to see back when I was constantly being drawn to the VHS box art (an alien figure replicating the Uncle Sam “we want you” iconography), Zone Troopers is a title I have always had a lot of affection for. But now I have actually seen the film, which means my level of affection for it isn’t what it used to be.

It is WWII and a number of American soldiers in Italy get themselves involved in a skirmish that involves both the Nazis and some alien visitors. The Nazis want to make use of alien technology to help them win the war, but the Americans just want to get out of the area alive.

The first film directed by Danny Bilson, co-written by himself and Paul De Meo (and the duo also wrote the scripts for Trancers and The Eliminators at about this time), Zone Troopers is a fun idea that is hampered by the low budget, and a lack of creativity to compensate for that low budget. 

One or two moments stand out. There’s a nice bit of production design showcasing a crashed spaceship that at least adds a bit of vibrant colour to the film, the third act has a set-piece that makes up for the dodgy special effects with a child-like glee and enthusiasm, and the very end of the film features a “punchline” that feels quite sweet. That is about all I can praise though. The script is pretty weak, there is never a proper feeling of the time and place, and you would get more authenticity if you stumbled across a group of LARPers conducting a war-based campaign on their designated special Sunday.

The cast help a bit. Tim Thomerson has a lead role, playing Sarge, so it has that going for it, and Timothy Van Patten is fine as someone sharing a lot of the screentime with him, playing a soldier imaginatively named Joey. Art LaFleur and Biff Manard make up the rest of the core group, both doing well enough in roles that don’t exactly ask for complexity and nuance. 

Overall, I was really hoping to like this more. Part of that is to do with me having yearned to see it for over three decades. Part of that is to do with the premise having the potential to be so much more fun. I didn’t hate it, and I will definitely rewatch it at some point (when I may end up enjoying it more without the weight of my own expectation working against it), but it’s not one I highly recommend, even to fans of sci-fi b-movies.

4/10

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Mubi Monday: Tigerland (2000)

A Vietnam war movie with a difference, this focuses on a group of soldiers who are being trained at an infamous area named Tigerland. Standing out from the group, Pvt. Bozz (Colin Farrell) is clearly not wanting to be there. He won't get himself out of the forces, however, but does annoy the higher-ups by helping to get some other solders their freedom. This makes him about as popular as a sneeze in a supermarket in 2020, as you can imagine, but he's tough enough to take all of the negativity aimed his way. He's not bulletproof though, which makes it a lot more difficult when one soldier (Wilson, played by Shea Wigham) has a building level of rage that would make it best for him to be kept away from all guns and ammo.

Directed by Joel Schumacher, this is the film that first sold Colin Farrell as a star leading man, basically. He would spend the next decade or so being misused in all kinds of roles that just weren't right for him (Farrell is actually an excellent character actor with the looks and charisma of a blockbuster star), but revisiting Tigerland allows you to see just what Schumacher saw in him. He's confident, charming, smart, witty, and elevates what is already an excellent premise.

A million miles away from his usual slick, over the top, approach, Schumacher relies on a cast of quality actors and a great script by Ross Klavan and Michael McGruther, both newcomers to screenwriting (in terms of credited jobs anyway). Klavan and McGruther know all of the standard war movie moments that we've seen so many times before, and they use the character of Bozz to navigate and subvert most of them, whether it's the angry instructor picking on someone who can't keep up the pace or a butting of heads between soldiers and a leader who seems to often make the wrong decisions while parroting the lines about duty and military ways.

I've already said enough about Farrell, and it's slightly unfair to let his performance completely overshadow everyone else, but the other cast members generally do just as well. Matthew Davis is Paxton, the one who observes Bozz for the majority of the runtime, and the one narrating the full story. Davis is a bit bland, but that's fine for how his character is used. He's the observer. Clifton Collins Jr. has a great character arc, playing Miter, someone who resents Bozz while he's trying to keep the rest of the squad in check, and Whigham is brilliantly loathsome for most of his scenes, moving from a standard nasty asshole to full-on "Private Pile" by the third act.

There are a number of unbelievable moments here and there, including a heart to heart between Bozz and a tough leader who gives him some time to explain his perspective (when you just know that time would have been spent with the latter chewing out the former), but the grounding of the drama, and the setting of the training area itself, makes it all feel a bit less cheesy and cliché-ridden.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: War (2007)

Sometimes you are hunting around for the right thing to watch on a Saturday evening and you remember a Jason Statham movie you have yet to see. Not only that, but this particular Statham movie also features Jet Li in a main role.  

Statham plays an FBI agent named Crawford who is after a deadly assassin named Rogue (Li). Rogue apparently killed Crawford’s partner, Tom, as well as Tom’s wife and child. He now seems to be killing off both Triads and Yakuza, which makes his motivation very puzzling. 

If you haven’t heard of director Philip G. Atwell then the opening scenes of this movie will make clear why. I haven’t seen a director make action quite so headache-inducing since I endured the second Resident Evil movie. I was completely unsurprised to find that Atwell has a background based largely in the music video world, an approach to the film format he isn’t able to shake off here. 

I was equally unsurprised to see that this was the first full script from Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J. Bradley, two men who decided to blend a bunch of action movie clichés with one or two frankly preposterous plot twists. Yet the silliness of everything helps to make it more enjoyable as it all moves towards an action-packed finale. 

Despite the efforts of Atwell, this is a hard film to truly hate. There are some decent set-pieces, the pacing is surprisingly good for a film that runs to approximately 110 minutes, and you at least have your star power. 

They may not interact as often as viewers would like, but Statham and Li are given enough moments to do what fans will want to see them do. The former is left to do the less exciting stuff, he is piecing together a puzzle that can only be fully revealed in the very last scenes, but he still does his usual thing with conviction. Li is his expected mix of quiet and power, and gets some decent fight sequences in the second half of the film. There are also solid supporting turns from John Lone, Devon Aoki, Ryo Ishibashi, Mathew St. Patrick, Sung Kang, Luis Guzmán, and Saul Rubinek. 

Violent, silly, and entertaining. It’s the least you expect from a Statham action thriller. One of his lesser films, but still an okay watch. 

5/10

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Mubi Monday: Rescue Dawn (2006)

Written and directed by the always-interesting Werner Herzog, who turned the subject of his documentary "Little Dieter Needs To Fly" into a narrative feature, Rescue Dawn feels like one of the stranger Herzog movies, which is saying something when you consider his whole filmography.

Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a German-born American citizen who is shot down in his aircraft during the Vietnam War. He ends up in a jungle prison, doing time alongside other individuals who have given up all hope of freedom until the war is won. Dieter is quick to start plans for an escape, despite the protestations of his fellow prisoners. The prison itself may not be that challenging to escape from, it's the jungle environment surrounding them that makes it a life-threatening challenge.

Things start off a bit wobbly here, to put it bluntly. Herzog depicts the downing of Dieter's plane in a way that shows him to be far less confident with a special effect sequence than he is with actors and ordinary people. But it's not long before things settle down after that, with the main character confused and pained by his captors.

Although I have said that this feels like one of the stranger Herzog movies, the reason for that is because it feels like his most mainstream film. It's a prisoner of war drama, and the moments that feel most like a prisoner of war drama are the moments that feel less . . . Herzogian, but there are also a lot of great little moments showing people handling their very extreme amounts of stress in different ways, and forging different connections with one another.

Bale is fantastic in the main role, giving the kind of performance that allows him to once again also change his physicality as he gets put through the wringer, and there are two superb supporting performances from Jeremy Davies and Steve Zahn. Both are very different in the way they handle their prison life, but both are equally good and fitting in their roles. And everyone else onscreen does decent work, whether they're portraying American military personnel or Vietnamese soldiers.

Despite the documentary already being out there (and I still need to see it for myself), it's easy to see why Herzog was drawn to the material for a second feature. Especially with this cast and the way it very much feels like a well-plotted Hollywood drama. I'm not sure how many liberties were taken with the original tale, but it turns into yet another standout film from a director who has given us more than his fair share.

8/10

Mubi Monday: Ran (1985)

Ran is based on Shakespeare's King Lear (something I will have to take on good authority from others, having not yet read the play for myself). It's also a film that some claim is the best to come from legendary director Akira Kurosawa. I have to dispute that. Personally, I prefer both Seven Samurai and Throne Of Blood, but that's not to denigrate Ran in any way. It merely illustrates just how often Kurosawa was working at the peak of his powers.

The main story concerns an elderly warlord named Hidetora and the divide that he causes between his three sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. He starts the movie by trying to teach them the importance of staying strong together, something that one of the sons immediately protests. There will always be the potential for forces to be broken, whether individually or together. The rest of the movie quickly ends up proving Saburo correct, for it was he rejecting the main lesson. There's scheming, treachery, insanity, and armed skirmishes on the way to a suitably grandiose finale.

Co-written by Kurosawa, working with Hideo Oguni and Masato Ide, Ran is an impressive and epic experience that really layers everything over a very simple message at its core (often the case with Shakespeare plays). There's a power struggle between a few different characters, but also an inevitable feeling of the sins of a father being passed on to his sons, despite his best efforts.

Tatsuya Nakadai is excellent as the old man who has been tired out from a life of warmongering and aggression, and the younger cast members all do great work as his three sons, with Daisuke Ryû a bit of a standout as the son rejected by his father while he tries to explain how things are likely to go wrong in the time ahead. The other standout is Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede, a manipulative woman who encourages her husband to go to any lengths to get more and more power, but I should also mention the jester character, Kyoami, played by Pîtâ, someone who loses their sense of silliness in the face of a constant barrage of strange unpleasantness and horrors.

As accomplished as he is at showing things on a grand scale, it's still impressive to see some of the spectacle Kurosawa puts on display here, especially in a final act that culminates with various forces about to face off against one another. And yet it's also these moments that show how this movie doesn't work quite as well as some of the other Kurosawa classics, which tended to, for me, better share out the moments of epic scope with the smaller character beats. Ran still does that, but it doesn't work as well for me here as it did in the other movies mentioned above.

I'm not an idiot though, this is still a near-perfect bit of cinema. And it's essential viewing.

9/10

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1917 (2019)

Directed by Sam Mendes, who also co-wrote the thing with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, 1917 is that WWI film that looks as if it is all made in one shot, with some of the hidden cuts easier to spot than others as you follow the main characters on a quest to the front, to deliver a message that will stop a load of soldiers from falling into a trap laid for them by the enemy.

That's really all there is to it. Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay play Lance Corporal Blake and Lance Corporal Schofeld, respectively, the two soldiers sent through dangerous territory to deliver the message. And the cast also includes small roles for Colin Firth, Andrew Scott, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The more recognisable faces seem to help mark various chapters in the journey, with most of the other people onscreen either unrecognisable or just featured as one part of the military unit they're enlisted in.

There was a time when I considered attempting to write this review in one long ramble, hence that lengthy opening paragraph. But then I decided that would be too painful to read. It's a gimmick that would work worse on this blog than it does onscreen, and it doesn't work that well onscreen. Maybe war isn't the best subject for gimmickry, or maybe this technique (one shot/long scenes without cuts) already feels slightly overused, thanks to some recent great examples.

That's the main thing about 1917. It's quite dull. The acting is just fine from everyone involved, the cinematography from Roger Deakins is pretty glorious, and the music by Thomas Newman is there to ensure that you never forget how important and impressive the film is. That's in line with every other aspect of the film.

Considering the main message of the film is one we have seen many times before (which, in itself, is no reason to NOT make a film), and considering we don't get to learn as much about many of the main characters, 1917 is a film that turns out to be all about itself. It's all about that pretend one shot, it's all about Mendes marshalling everyone to get his vision onscreen, it's all about nothing more than how it all looks.

That wouldn't be so bad if it was also thought-provoking or interesting. It isn't. 1917 is a very dull war movie. And war during wartime is far from dull, I'm sure, which leaves me thinking that Mendes has somewhat let down the many people he had set out to honour. There are a couple of cinematic moments that do make it worth your time, for the scale and skill of the visuals, but that's the best thing I can say.

5/10

Japanuary: Grave Of The Fireflies (1988)

Arguably one of the most emotionally devastating animated movies of all time, Grave Of The Fireflies is the tale of a young boy (Seita) and his little sister (Setsuko) trying to survive during wartime in Japan. Their mother has been killed in a bombing raid, leaving them seeking shelter with a selfish and opportunistic aunt, and then moving on from there as they try to fend for themselves in an environment where everyone is too busy doing the exact same thing to spend more time trying to help vulnerable children.

Based on the short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, and adapted for the screen by director Isao Takahata, there's nothing in this movie that isn't grounded in the harsh realities of life during wartime when your home is the target of major attacks. Watching it is a stark reminder that few films really explore this side of war, with many preferring to throw us into the horrors of being on the field of battle (a double-edged sword that can both damn and inadvertently glorify the visceral experience of being a soldier in the thick of the action). It's understandable, those thrown into the fighting on the frontline are making one hell of a sacrifice, but looking at those left behind, especially those trying to survive as they live in the shadow of bombers, is an equally relevant way to show the repercussions of war, and how it impacts upon so many innocent lives.

Takahata doesn't make one wrong decision here, unless you want to criticise him for making everyone weep copiously as things play out. The animation is gorgeous, the script is grounded in a reality that could have been avoided by allowing the children to indulge in a few flights of fancy, and it's only the fact that it's not a live-action depiction of the events that makes it a bit more bearable (although there have been two different live-action interpretations, one in 2005 and one in 2008 - I haven't brought myself to give them a watch yet). What could have been a sweet and poignant film with all of the sharp edges rounded off is, thankfully, a sweet and poignant film with the conviction to simply show you the real horrors that two young children end up enduring and have faith that you will keep watching because you care about the characters enough.

Tsutomo Tatsumi and Ayano Shiraishi are both excellent as the two main characters, with the latter particularly moving as the weaker and younger child. Akemi Yamaguchi doesn't have many lines of dialogue, but she delivers them well enough, and they effectively illustrate her to be a bad person, either someone who has always been sharp and selfish or someone warped into that form by the war.

If there's one slight mis-step here, it's the decision to effectively start things off at the end. Mind you, that allows viewers to steel themselves against what is about to play out. This is no fairytale, war doesn't often have a happy ending for those directly in the line of fire, and Takahata ensures that you are ready to accept that, even if you don't really want to.

Beautiful, sweet, devastating, it's not one you'll want to revisit, but it's one that demands you eventually DO, whether you're reminding yourself of the power of it or introducing the film to those who have yet to cry their way through it.

10/10

Make yourself weep by buying the movie here.
Americans can be sad with this purchase here.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Important note - it has been many years since I have seen Apocalypse Now, but I could not pass up the chance to see it on the big screen, even if it was "The Final Cut", a version that includes a lot of the footage from the "Redux" version, but not all, and clocks in at around three hours.

Here is my completely unnecessary review for today, because god knows that more than enough has been written and said about this film already. But I'll add my two cents anyway.

I've always had my issues with Apocalypse Now, issues that have simply been exacerbated by most of the material added to it over the years.  The film is an undeniable classic, and should always be considered as a contender for the greatest war movie of all time, but that third act is a real slog, going on for far too long and becoming more and more arduous in a way that was perhaps intended as a metaphor for the Vietnam War itself.

The plot is relatively simple. Martin Sheen plays Captain Benjamin L. Willard, a man sent on a classified mission to catch up to the mysterious Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and terminate his command. Terminate with extreme prejudice. Willard travels on a small boat with four other men, and they all get a chance to be reminded of the absolute insanity of war.

Based on the novel, "Heart Of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad, written by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, and also directed by Coppola, the making of Apocalypse Now is the stuff of legend, with some claiming it felt as if it would go on, and be as tough, as the war itself. It's a sprawling mess, at times, but the more powerful moments are SO powerful that it will remain an essential work of art as long as cinema is around.

It's also funny to watch it as a more fully-formed adult, compared to how I watched it as a teen, eagerly awaiting the iconic moments. The Ride Of The Valkyries sequence still holds up as well as ever, for example, but also plays out as a comment on how those particular Americans view themselves, as powerful and larger than life warriors annihilating an enemy by dealing out death from above, while the people below include a random selection of villagers and schoolchildren, as well as those quick to fight back.

It's hard to think of anyone better than Sheen for the lead role, and I'm glad that heart attack didn't put an end to his involvement. He's the perfect mix of military rigidity and wide-eyed confoundment at the events occurring around him. His "crew" are all portrayed brilliantly by Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Frederic Forrest, and a very young Laurence Fishburne. Dennis Hopper crops up for a few scenes, stretching himself by playing a wild-eyed hippy type (with a camera), and there are very small roles for Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn, and R. Lee Ermey. Robert Duvall doesn't have a lot of screentime, but he certainly grabs a fair share of the best scripted lines, and the film somehow finds another level to go to whenever he's around. And then you have Brando, casting a lengthy shadow over the proceedings, both in character and also in the established weight of his performance that has been spoken about for the past forty years. Although the film really grinds to a halt when Willard and Kurtz finally meet, that is not the fault of Brando, who is riveting for every moment that he's onscreen, a warrior who knows what it truly takes to win any war, and is as willing to accept his own death as he is unwilling to accept the judgment of others.

There are a couple of moments I will never enjoy, a scene involving the slaughter of an animal being one that really turns my stomach, but Apocalypse Now is a film that, considering what it took to get made, wouldn't feel right if it was perfect. I'd also agree with many other people who might want to remove a whole point for the extended "French plantation" sequence that appears in extended editions of the movie (it's so clunky and awful that it's actually embarrassing). The fact that none of the negatives ever put me off recommending it in the strongest possible terms, however, should help to remind you of what a cinematic touchstone this is.

9/10

I caved in and ordered this upcoming release.
Americans can get it here.

Overlord (2018)

If there's one thing we all know by now it's that Nazis would have made an army of zombie soldiers if they could have. The only thing worse than a Nazi is a zombie Nazi, and they have appeared in popular entertainment quite often over the past couple of decades. They appear here, but the plot chooses to focus on the very real horrors of war, first and foremost, with the standard genre thrills mixed in slowly but surely until brought to the surface for the third act.

Starting with a group of soldiers being airdropped into Germany, Overlord is a tense and visceral experience from the opening scenes. The skies are shredded with anti-aircraft gunfire, meaning that many of the young men are killed before they even get a chance to jump out of their craft. The ones that land are immediately in great danger, and it never gets easier. But the mission is a vital one, destroying a radio tower that has been causing all kinds of problems, to put it mildly. The soldiers find someone willing to help hide them, a young French woman named Chloe, they start to figure out how best to complete their mission, but it all becomes even more complicated when they discover bodies being experimented on and a serum that seems capable of creating mutated super-soldiers.

Written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith, it's intriguing to see that this was developed from a story idea from the former, who has a background in more varied dramatic works. Smith seems to be the horror guy, of the two, but both have worked well together in balancing the wartime tension with the pulpy entertainment aspects.

Director Julius Avery, working on what is only his second feature, does a great job with the material. It's often dark, and the action is frantic at times, but you never lose sight of the identity and location of the various characters, and the set-pieces are perfectly paced. Special effects are great throughout, impressively bizarre and bloody, but the focus stays on the main characters, even while horrific oddities start to multiply around them.

The cast are another big plus. Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell are the two main soldiers, with Russell being the one who ends up in charge after so many deaths in the first act, and both of them do excellent work (I'm not familiar with Adepo but have already come to expect excellence every time I see Russell onscreen). Mathilde Ollivier is equally good as Chloe, a determined survivor with loved ones to look after, and the main villain of the piece is played with relish by Pilou Asbæk. Other characters are portrayed by John Magaro, Iain De Caestecker, Jacob Anderson, Gianny Taufer (a standout as the younger brother of Chloe), and Dominic Applewhite.

There may be a little too much familiarity here, which might explain why there were so many mixed/lukewarm reviews when this was released in cinemas, but Overlord takes the elements that we've all seen elsewhere and blends them into a fantastic piece of genre entertainment, with impressive visuals and a score by Jed Kurzel that's also worth mentioning (I know, I know, I always forget to mention scores, and I constantly apologise for it).

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Mubi Monday: A Private War (2018)

I am going to start this review with a slight, unexpected, spoiler. So don't read ahead if you want to go into the film knowing absolutely nothing about it. There's a scene towards the end of this movie, a look at the incredible journalism of the late Marie Colvin, in which the real Marie Colvin talks about her life. It's a testament to the performance from Rosamund Pike, who has the lead role here, that I thought it was still her voice, as opposed to that of the woman she had just spent almost two hours portraying. And I think that one moment underlines just how good her performance is.

Pike plays Colvin with no polished edges, no vanity. She is a tough, determined, woman who will often go further, and therefore get more, than many other journalists who take their chances out in the battlefields. But it takes a toll, and that's quite obvious from the earliest scenes. Not only physically, Colvin lost an eye while reporting on one conflict, but also emotionally. Her boss (Tom Hollander) isn't ever really sure how she manages to do what she does, but he knows that she needs to do it, both for herself and for those around the world who will be unable to deny the truth once it is shown to them.

It's no surprise to find that director Matthew Heineman has a background in documentaries, particularly from the way he presents everything to viewers here while expecting them to be able to piece everything together as we move along with Colvin from one corpse-strewn environment to another (not often shown, but a couple of devastating images are more effective for being used sparingly). Working from a script by Arash Amel, that was based on an article by Marie Brenner, Heineman asks viewers to trust him, a trust rewarded by everyone involved in the way that it feels as if we are getting to really know, and appreciate, the amazingly strong woman at the centre of things.

I started with praise for Pike because, well, she deserves it. It's a performance so strong that I'm surprised it hasn't been talked up more. In fact, I'm surprised that the release wasn't planned to get Pike in the running for some awards (she was nominated for a couple). Hollander is good at portraying her boss, a man who knows he has a star worker but also knows that it's affecting her mental health. Jamie Dornan is excellent, playing a photographer with a military background who likes Colvin, admires her, and tries to save her from her own worst journalistic instincts. Greg Wise ands Stanley Tucci do well with their limited screen time, and Nikki Amuka-Bird has at least one great moment as the one person who comes closest to calling Colvin out for the habits that she develops away from her workday, to cope with the images that haunt her.

A celebration of a life without pretending there weren't any major flaws, A Private War is a timely look at the risks some people take to get the truth out there to a much wider audience. It's also, of course, a worthy introduction to Colvin. Much like the documentaries he has helmed in the past, Heineman does justice to the central subject while also making you keen to do some more research once the film is over.

8/10

You can read about Colvin in this here book.
Americans can already buy the movie here.

Mubi Monday: Erase And Forget (2017)

People often think that I am disrespectful because I don't seem to automatically give respect to those who served in a military force, and often helped major countries defeat major enemies (to put it mildly). I have to remind people reading this that I actually DO respect many who served in the military. I just tend to believe that putting yourself into that life doesn't automatically give you that respect. No matter who you are, respect is still earned, whether by the soldier who follows orders and gets results or even by the soldier who refuses an order because he has more recent information that changes the situation. Many military personnel are great, brave people. Some aren't. As in every walk of life.

I felt the need to clarify this now, at the risk of some disagreement and potential backlash, because Erase And Forget is all about an ex-military man. He's a controversial, interesting, complex, man.  I am not sure that I would like to meet him in any situation in which he might be angry at me. I am not sure that I would ever want him to read this blog. Because I am pretty sure that he would know twenty different ways to kill me before reading to the end of this paragraph. But I am sure that I respect the man, as flawed as he is.

That man is named Bo Gritz. He was the inspiration for Rambo, "Hannibal" Smith, AND Colonel Kurtz, and if you head off now to check the list of honours that he received for his military service then it will take you a good few minutes to read through them all. After his time spent serving his country, Bo has undertaken a variety of ventures. He ran as a Presidential candidate, he has taught numerous classes on security and defence and tactics, he has been involved as a negotiator in between the police and individuals that he thought he could connect with, and he has even tried to create a community that allows people to avoid the worst of the modern world.

Filmed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman over a period of ten years, Erase And Forget uses archival footage and choice soundbites from the subject to create a detailed portrait of a man who cannot be reduced to one moral point. He's also, by turns, a frightening and sad figure. It's easy to believe that wartime was somehow easier for this individual, allowing him to push aside indecision and any chance of failure as he continually works to keep people safe and push back deadly enemies.

Ted Kotcheff appears onscreen to discuss First Blood, and the development of the character of John Rambo, and it's a painful reminder of two things. One, First Blood was based on a very typical experience of soldiers who came back from a war they couldn't say they won to American citizens who resented them for having gone over there in the first place. Two, the character started off as a passive drifter who didn't want to be forced to fight again, before being developed into a one-man army who became the poster-boy for action movie fans and anyone who loved guns. The image, indeed the icon, was hijacked and turned into something that wasn't necessarily intended. You COULD say the same about Gritz. He's a believer in his right to bear arms, he mistrusts the government, and he is constantly reminded of the sacrifice that has been made for his country. That sacrifice has taken pieces of himself, and pieces, and lives, of those who have served. It changes hearts, minds, and bodies. Those beliefs have seen him held up as an idol by those who wish to use his methods and apply them to their own political agenda, and it would be easy to blame Gritz for giving them someone so easily admirable, but he doesn't share all of their opinions (especially when it comes to race, it would seem) and has to be given the doubt.

Which brings us back to the start. This is a man I would disagree with in so many ways, especially when it comes to the gun issue, but he is also a man I have to give no small amount of respect to, whatever may have happened to him after his military years (and this documentary only scrapes the surface, despite the time covered). Considering what he has given over his lifetime, he deserves 90 minutes from you.

8/10

I am going to make the obvious Rambo selection here.
Americans can get some Rambo here.

Mubi Monday: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Arguably best remembered nowadays for the beautiful music from Ryûichi Sakamoto, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a worthy film that looks at the strained relationship between the prisoners and officers of a Japanese POW camp. It's a shame that it never feels like there's still a war raging beyond the confines of the camp but that may be more to do with the source material (it was, after all, based on a true story by Laurens van der Post) than limitations set on the film.

Tom Conti plays Col. John Lawrence, a man who finds himself favoured by the camp officers (a Sergeant played by Takeshi Kitano, billed here simply as Takeshi, and the Captain in charge of the camp, played by Sakamoto, the score composer). Col. Lawrence maintains his position by, for the most part, trying not to rock the boat as he also attempts to keep his fellow prisoners alive and well. It's a delicate balance, one that sees him frowned upon by the likes of Group Capt. Hicksley (Jack Thompson), and it's one that is upset as soon as Maj. Jack Celliers (David Bowie) arrives at the camp.

Directed by Nagisa Oshima, who also worked on the screenplay with Paul Mayersberg, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is a film about war that is most interested in showing viewers how every trait is heightened and warped under those conditions. Courage, cowardice, love, hate, lust, remorse, happiness, and more. The central characters deal with all of these things in a variety of ways, and we're often shown the motivation for their decisions, either in the moment or through flashbacks that explain their stubborn refusal to make life easier for themselves (in the case of Celliers).

This is a superb role for Conti, giving a fantastic performance as the typical Brit soldier who hopes to keep calm and act with a modicum of grace in the face of great brutality. The other standout turn comes from Takeshi Kitano, playing someone who at first seems irredeemable but who may be more than just your cliched sadistic camp worker. Sakamoto has more difficult material to work with, and he isn't quite up to the task (he's a better musician than actor), but Bowie does well, working effectively in some difficult scenes that benefit from the fact that the character is being played by David Bowie (and what viewers know of his established persona). Thompson does well in his small role, and there are a number of cast members who make a good impression in their limited screentime, such as Alistair Browning, James Malcolm, and Johnny Ohkura.

Those expecting something powerful and emotional may be surprised to find a coldness here. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is much more about the psychological changes and damage that can be caused by war. It spends a lot of time, both subtly and more overtly, showing how the central characters affect each other, on purpose and by accident. It's almost a case study, at times, and not all of the directorial and scripting decisions work as well as they could, but there are times when it is magnificent. And a lot of those times are accompanied by that beautiful Sakamoto score.

This wouldn't make it into any kind of top list, if I had the inclination to try and rank the war movies I have seen in my life, but I am glad to have finally seen it. Bowie was the name I remembered most being associated with it, but it's Conti and Kitano who own the film.

7/10

There's a blu ray here.
Americans can get it on Criterion here.

Filmstruck Friday: Three Kings (1999)

Three Kings remains one of the best films from director David O. Russell, helped by a great cast and a fun script that generally updates Kelly's Heroes and adds more relevant politics and modern views on warfare. It's a film infused, at least initially, with cinematic cool that manages to walk a tightrope by sprinkling cool moments here and there without ever making the environment or war itself seem cool in the slightest.

George Clooney is Archie Gates, a soldier in Iraq as the Gulf War starts to wind down. He ends up leading three men (MarkWahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze) on a hunt for gold stolen from Kuwait. They want to steal the gold for themselves, allowing them a very comfortable life when they get back home to America. But as they set out to execute their plan they encounter a number of people who need their help. Trying to ignore them becomes more difficult after they witness what can only be desribed as a ruthless execution.

Based on a story written by John Ridley, Three Kings is almost a perfect look at machismo and how easy it can be to undercut that machismo. The biggest and strongest soldier can be caught and tortured, can be turned into a weak invalid by one bullet, and can be killed at any moment, by a landmine or a gun-wielding enemy, or even an ally making a mistake. The dialogue succinctly captures the essence of the central characters and how the war has sharpened their senses in some ways and yet also dulled them in others. There's no room for complacency, but that's not to say that complacency is something they are never guilty of.

Clooney gives one of his many winning performances, a perfect fit as the guy who comes in and takes over leadership of the three men (who only know where the gold is because they happened to find a map stuck in the posterior of a prisoner). Ice Cube is also very good, and Wahlberg and Jonze both do well, the former playing someone who can posture with the best of them and the latter playing someone wishing he could posture like his buddy. The supporting cast also features Cliff Curtis, Nora Dunn, Jamie Kennedy, Said Taghmaoui, Mykelti Williamson, Holt McCallany, and Judy Greer, and not one of them puts a foot wrong. Not even Jamie Kennedy.

Not quite all things to all people, Three Kings at least gives it a damn good try. It has enough standard soldiering to please those looking for a war movie, it has a nice line in wry humour to please those after a particular style of comedic entertainment, and it has enought thought-provoking moments regarding the politics of war, in general, and the situation in Iraq to please those who want a bit of depth to their slick entertainment.

20 years old next year, this holds up as a fantastic modern war movie, one you could nicely line up alongside Buffalo Soldiers and Jarhead for a smart and amusing triple-bill that reflects on the madness of modern life in wartime without taking anything away from the individuals affected by it.

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Dead By Dawn 2018: Trench 11 (2017)

We know that war is hell, of course, which makes it surprising that we don't have even more horror movies set during wartime. There are some, ranging from the flawed brilliance of The Keep to the entertaining lunacy of Frankenstein's Army, and you can include films as varied as Twilight Zone: The Movie, Jacob's Ladder, and Iron Sky, but they remain a very small percentage of the horror genre (not counting the multitude of SS/war torture exploitation flicks), and the truly effective war horrors are even rarer.

I am saying all this because Trench 11 is a horror movie set during wartime, and it happens to be a very good one.

The plot revolves around a plan to explore and destroy the titular trench. It will take a small team, and they will all be relying on the expertise of a tunneler named Berton (Rossif Sutherland), but nobody is prepared for what they find underground; the dangerous results of experiments into biological weaponry by the Germans.

Directed by Leo Scherman, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Booi, this is a very enjoyable mix of subterranean claustrophobia, classic evil German villains (not Nazis, but close enough), and squirmy, squishy, body horror. It manages to be different from all of the films already mentioned above, while also managing to hit one or two familiar beats for this subgenre.

The cast all do a good job, and they ARE given enough moments to show some personality before everything starts to go to hell in a hand grenade, but it always feels like Sutherland's movie, allowing him the biggest share of the screentime as his nervous hero remains determined to get the job done as quickly as possible and then get the hell out of the trench. Matching our lead hero is Robert Stadlober as the main villain. His character, Reiser, is someone who views the chais and pain and death around him as a success. It shows that the biological weapon works even better than they could have dreamed.

Another big plus for the film is that is refreshingly unpretentious. This is not a film that wants to pile multiple layers on and ask us to delve into the dark psyche of shellshocked soldiers. It throws us into a very terrifying environment with the characters, it adds more and more horror around every dark corner or metal door, and it ultimately provides superior entertainment for genre fans.

7/10

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Americans can buy stuff here.

Dead By Dawn 2016: Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Jacob's Ladder is one of those movies that I missed when it first came out. And I didn't catch it until approximately fifteen years. I appreciate that many other movies came and went in that time that were influenced by this one, but I've still never quite loved it as much as many other horror fans. It's a good film, don't get me wrong, and the cast is a wonderful one. It's just never as horrifying or downright eerie as it could be, especially when you compare most of the movie to a few of the impressively unnerving images that are produced in the first half of the film.

Tim Robbins plays Jacob Singer, a Vietnam veteran who starts to have dark and unsettling visions that affect his health and daily behaviour. It's also making things difficult with his girlfriend (played by Elizabeth Pena). Are the visions the result of some experimentation on his unit during wartime? Are they signs of a mental breakdown? Or are they something more sinister?

Director Adrian Lyne works confidently here, and also makes popular that special effect that we will refer to by the technical term "really fast shakey head and blurry face moves". He doesn't rush things, even when the third act will probably be obvious to many viewers. This is a film more about the journey than the final destination, funnily enough, and that journey is interspersed with some fantastic phantasmagoria.

The script, by Bruce Joel Rubin, is equally confident, taking the time to flesh out a number of the supporting characters while leaving plenty of breathing room for the moments of tension and spookiness. In fact, it could bee argued that the main strength of the film is how it gets you to invest in a number of people who could so easily have been consigned to much smaller roles without any real damage to the central horror strand of the narrative.

That's also helped by the casting. Robbins has always impressed me in the way that he can equally use his full height to his advantage or fold himself up to make himself more vulnerable, depending on the role. This is somewhere in between, with Jacob a man who has clearly left his army days far behind him yet retains the strength to withhold a sustained attack on his mental faculties. Pena is a strong woman opposite him, alternating between sympathy for what Jacob appears to be going through and reminding him that she will only put up with so much shit. Elsewhere, Danny Aiello is a chiropractor who tries his best to guide Jacob through his dark path, Jason Alexander pops up momentarily to portray a lawyer who may or may not end up helping the ex-soldiers find out what was done to them, and Pruitt Taylor Vince, Ving Rhames, Eriq La Salle, and one or two others play the men who fought alongside Jacob in his platoon.

As influential as it is derivative, Jacob's Ladder remains an impressive horror that is relatively interesting and intelligent throughout, and also played completely straight. Which perhaps explains, more than the actual premise, why it went down so well in 1990, when first released.

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7/10

Angels One Five (1952)

I'll admit that when Angels One Five started I was all ready to tolerate the film with a smirk on my face throughout. The first act, showing a newcomer at a RAF fighter station making a bad impression when he has to hop his aircraft over another that is crossing his path, just felt a bit too jolly spiffing and quick to paint every character as a shining example of the stiff upper-lipped Brits who won the war for us. But, despite the 21st century seeming to increase our sense of cynicism on a daily basis, that's sort of, well, based in truth. Showing fantastic mettle in the face of a fearsome enemy, Great Britain really WAS great when it was needed most.

But let me get back to the actual film.

Pilot Officer T. B. 'Septic' Baird (John Gregson) is the poor sod who has to face his fellow airmen after that embarrassing near-miss. He's a rigid follower of the rules, and keen to get back in the cockpit. Unfortunately, he's forced to stay grounded for a while, to allow a minor neck injury to fully heal. While working on the ground, in the operations center, Baird begins to see why the chain of command needs every link to be in strong, working order. But that doesn't stop him from running to the planes when the opportunity arises. While Baird tries to do right by the men alongside him, Group Captain 'Tiger' Small (Jack Hawkins) empathises, Michael Denison, Andrew Osborn and Cyril Raymond portray various Squadron Leaders, and Dulcie Gray and Veronica Hurst ensure that the proceedings aren't completely male-dominated. Hawkins and Gray, in particular, stand out as two determined individuals who somehow manage to lead and motivate others even when admitting to their own failings.

Here's an interesting point that someone has placed on the IMDb Trivia page for this movie: "The film was used as part of the RAF Initial Officer Training at RAF Cranwell (at least until the 1990s), as it deals with the conflict of man-management of others versus having to perform the task as well, whilst put in a setting that would be relevant to future officers." I'm not sure if that's true, but if it is then a) it helps to explain what the movie provides to viewers much better than my jumbled plot precis above and b) many thanks to the user who submitted that information.

With major input from writers Pelham Groom, Derek N. Twist and director George More O'Ferrall, Angels One Five feels steeped in an authenticity that all of the cliched bantering and "by jove, skipper" statements can't destroy.The performances may not be the best, in terms of great acting, but they're absolutely in line with how the characters need to be, and what the storyline demands. As is the script, and the pacing (which starts to ratchet up the tension in the final third).

And that is, ironically, how to best view the movie. Everyone, and every thing, is there to best service a story that celebrates the men and women who helped defeat Germany in a battlefield surrounded by clouds. As the end credits roll, you will remember just how much they all deserve celebrating. Which makes Angels One Five a success.

7/10

Angels One Five has been given a top notch re-release to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The disc itself may not be packed full of extras, but a restoration featurette shows how much work has gone in to sprucing the film up, and "Max Arthur on the Battle Of Britain" allows viewers to receive an interesting, and highly informative, summary of the war up to that point, in approximately 11 minutes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00U8RHBUC?keywords=angels%20one%20five&qid=1439915968&ref_=sr_1_2&s=dvd&sr=1-2

Unbroken (2014)

Jack O'Connell stars in this look at the incredibly tough life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who was shot down during WWII, survived for 47 days in a raft, and then ended up in a Japanese POW camp where he became the target of a particularly vicious authority figure there. It's a story that shows the very best and worst of human nature, and the movie is highly recommended, even to those already familiar with the tale.

Directed by Angelina Jolie, this is a film that ticks all of the boxes. There are many moments here that we've all seen before, but they all add up to an impressive final product. And I guess this is one of those many occasions when truth seems stranger than fiction. It certainly has moments that feel very much like traditional Hollywood moments, but this is almost necessary to outweigh the darker sequences.

Using the book by Laura Hillenbrand as a template, the screenplay has been put together by William Nicholson, Richard LaGravenese, and the Coen brothers. Yes, you read that right. The Coen brothers. While no part of this ever feels like a Coen brothers movie, it's interesting to wonder just how much they contributed, and whether their presence is the reason that the film doesn't gloss over some nastier incidents that will make viewers flinch.

O'Connell is fantastic in the lead role, even if his accent isn't exactly spot on. Going through an incredible transformation between the beginning and end of the movie, he manages to keep showing inner strength and some kind of hope (sometimes for rescue and sometimes, I guess, for death), and keeps you rooting for him even as the odds of him surviving look to grow bigger and bigger. Domnhall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund and Finn Wittrock do well in their supporting roles, and Jai Courtney even manages not to irritate me during his brief time onscreen, but the other major figure in the movie is the nasty Watanabe, played by Takamasa Ishihara. He does superb work, creating a monster who has no real rhyme or reason to his actions. He takes a dislike to Zamperini from the very beginning and that is that.

Jolie does a fine job in the director's chair. As by-the-numbers as it is, there are a number of ways in which she refuses to go for the most obvious approach. The score by Alexandre Desplat is used more sparingly than you'd expect, for example, and the material is supported mainly by those central performances and some reliably fine work from Roger Deakins.

Unbroken doesn't rewrite the rulebook. It's a great story, and it's told well.

7/10

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American Sniper (2014)

American Sniper is a tough movie to review. I'm going to start here by making things easier on myself. I'm NOT going to delve into the politics of the movie. That's an entirely different conversation, and one that will no doubt come up between friends or loved ones who go along together to see the film in cinemas. I'm also not going to try to pin down the REAL character of Chris Kyle, the man portrayed here by Bradley Cooper. The movie plays out in the style of "print the legend" so let's just leave it at that.

Cooper is the man who turns out to be a bloody good shot, leading to him heading off on multiple tours of Iraq. He has a lovely wife (Sienna Miller) waiting for him at home, but civilian life is hard to adjust to when his natural state has seen him poised with a rifle for so many hours. He shoots lots of bad people, of course, and becomes a bit famous, but not in a good way. No, the baddies put a price on his head because he's causing them so many problems. And . . . . . . . well, that's it.

Written by Jason Hall, who was adapting the tale as told in the book written by Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim Defelice, this is surprisingly shallow stuff. It's also riveting at times. That's the nature of this material. One man with his finger on a trigger, waiting to make the right call every time he sees a potential threat. It's just a shame that nothing else is added to the content. We see Kyle as a sniper. We see him as a husband. Each scene, whether he's in the former role or latter, seems to be little more than a repeat of the previous one, with the exception of the opening flashbacks that show how he got to his current position.

Director Clint Eastwood should have been able to lift this up, to look at the central subject from all angles and create a number of more interesting moments, but he doesn't. Whether he was playing it safe to ensure no disrespect to his central subject or whether he just didn't put in enough effort, either reason doesn't make up for this being such a disappointment.

Cooper is great in the lead role, bulked up and happiest while looking down the barrel of his gun. It's a good job too, because only Sienna Miller makes an impression alongside him. Everyone else is either a fellow soldier or an enemy fighter, with scarcely enough detailing to differentiate any individuals on either side of the battle.

So, as it turns out, American Sniper is, when everything else is set aside, not such a tough movie to review. It's just a shame that everything I've set aside here was also set aside by Hall and Eastwood, effectively neutering what could have been a great character study.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Blu-ray-Digital-UltraViolet/dp/B00RGZ915C/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1421342459&sr=1-2&keywords=american+sniper

You know how you can show your appreciation for bloggers? If you share and share then every additional reader helps. Connect through Google or Blogger or any way you can, and rest easy in the knowledge that you've made little ol' me a very happy man.

And/or you could also buy my e-book, that has almost every review I've written over the past 5 years. It's very reasonably priced for the sheer amount of content.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

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As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Soldiers Of Paint (2013)

Dewayne Convirs is a bit of a special kinda guy for paintballers. He goes out of his way, once every year, to recreate D-Day. Dewayne, and numerous volunteers, work hard on recreating the environments encountered by soldiers, and the main battle sites. It's then up to thousands of paintballers, some playing as Allies and some playing as Germans, to battle it out. It's almost a historical re-enactment. With paintball. And the chance that Germany could win this time.

Directors Doug Gritzmacher and Michael DeChant have found something great here, and presented it in the best way possible to viewing audiences. While it's ultimately a disposable piece of entertainment, Soldiers Of Paint is also very hard to dislike.

The usual mix of quirky characters stand alongside Convirs in this fake war, ranging from some men who take great pleasure in their ability to intercept the conference calls of the opposing side, to a father and son who always look forward to their annual bonding experience. In fact, although the battle itself only happens for one day, some people spend a LOT of time preparing for it. It IS war, after all.

Thousands of paintballers gathering once a year to try re-enacting D-Day is, of course, something that could reek of bad taste. By plunging you into the intensity of the battle for the first couple of minutes and then stepping back to meet some of the people involved and show the preparations, Gritzmacher and DeChant ensure that the whole thing is shown for what it is, something that allows people to acknowledge those brave soldiers who endured that hellish day, while also letting them have some fun. If that doesn't sound possible, all I ask is that you watch the documentary to see if you agree or disagree with me.

Yes, there are some early scenes that provide some chuckles, but another surprise is just how viewers don't end up pointing and laughing at the people onscreen. They have a hobby that they're passionate about, and for some people it's quite an all-consuming passion, but when you see how friendly and inclusive the paintball camp is you start to want to be able to join in. Oh, there's an element of machismo and ego, especially with the officers relaying orders from the safety of their control room/tent, but everyone (man, woman, child) is there to enjoy themselves in the peacetime surrounding the big skirmish.

As for the battle itself. It makes up about half of the documentary and really does feel quite intense and physically demanding, due to the heat and sheer numbers of potential enemies. I'm not going to say that it really gets any of the participants close to feeling just like those who were fighting in 1944, but it certainly feels like more than just a game.

Unexpectedly intense, sweet and enjoyable, Soldiers Of Paint isn't necessarily anything that you'll find yourself revisiting, but it's certainly worth a watch.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Paint-Dewayne-Convirs/dp/B00BJ92U90/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1394724112&sr=1-2&keywords=soldiers+of+paint

So I put together a book, yes I did.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

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As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.