@haim I didn’t like it either. While hugely impressive technically and occasionally (the landing scenes) moving and visceral, the epilogue (and prologue for that matter) was just sappy, maudlin and schmaltzy. Absolutely bloody awful.
Apart from the jaw-dropping ampibious landing, which demonstrates the film-maker’s virtuosity and ability to re-create what seems to be a realistic simulacrum of the sensory hell of warfare, what is this movie actually for? If it is supposed to be anti-war, then I think it fails, especially when put up against earlier masterpieces such as All Quiet on the Western Front, Paths Of Glory or La Grande Illusion. I’m not saying it’s exploitative, but something about it sits really uneasily with me.
Yes, I’ve always loved this film, and in 4K on disk, its sound and picture quality are staggeringly good. Same with Braveheart. SWMBO, being of the Scottish persuasion, Watched the latter in a cinema North of the Border, and every time the English got killed or beaten in battle, the audience clapped and cheered!
Thought it was too long since I enjoyed some Pink Panther so last night I started to work my way through the box set, starting with the first film, The Pink Panther. It will be A shot in the Dark this evening.
No matter how many times I watch these, and even though I know what’s coming, I still find myself laughing out loud. Sellers was a comic genius.
In 1215, having been forced to sign Magna Carta, King John imports Danish mercenaries to punish the barons who humiliated him. William de Albany recruits Templar Thomas Marshall and a band of rebels to defend the strategically important Rochester Castle against the King.
Well, I just have watched the original 1968 trailer. I can’t comment the whole movie but both, the original and the remake, share Faye Dunaway. And even though the main story is similar or the same I can see that the movies are different. Quite possible is that if you see the one of them first this could affect the evaluation of the second movie. I will try to find the original and judge for myself. I have to check another movie - A Star Is Born. So far I have watched only the Gaga version and I like it a lot. But there are three more from 1937, 1954 and 1976.
Mike Hodges’ 1971 gangster film - gripping, amoral and bleak, a portrait of a grubby Britain descending into 70s poverty as much as it is of gangsterism. Fabulous cast – Caine, Ian Hendry, Bryan Moseley, John Osborn, Alun Owen – great use of location, superb script and appropriately grimy cinematography. Best Brit gangster flick ever, and a movie masterclass that Guy Richie would do well to heed.
From 1955, a fine Technicolor Powell & Pressberger starring Peter finch, John Gregson, Lionel Murton, Anthony Quayle, Bernard Lee, Christopher Lee, and based around the real-life BOTRP in December 1939, the first big naval engagement of the war, and a rare early victory for Britain. All the cast are outstanding, none more so than Peter Finch as the captain of the Graf Spee, who to chose to scuttle his vessel in the neutral port of Montevideo rather than be captured by the British.
Intriguingly, for a film praised for its accuracy (P&P used some of the ships that had taken part in the actual battle, which was only 16 years earlier) and realism, TBOTRP retains that unique dream-like quality and odd sense of place that Powell brought to all his pictures. The diplomatic manoeuvring needed by both sides when trying to deal with a neutral country like Uruguay is rendered well, as is the chaotic, slightly louche atmosphere of the capital Montevideo. Recommended for history/naval buffs.
On Saturday night I watched a very enjoyable film from Norway, Max Manus, on Blu-ray.
I knew little about the man prior to watching the film, so I found this story of his time as a resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Norway quite fascinating. I recommend it highly if the subject appeals.
OK, the acting is wooden and the dialogue is incredibly stilted, but Walter Hill’s 1979 ‘gangs of New York’ epic is a masterful piece of movie-making. Based on Xenophon’s Anabasis, it’s the story of a group of gang members from Coney Island who are stranded in the Bronx after being (falsely) blamed for a shooting. Pursued by cops and rival gangs, they have to travel across hostile territory to get home. Hill is a superb cinematic storyteller, there’s an excellent soundtrack and great use of locations in a decaying 1970s New York.
