2018 Blindspot Pick #12: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Tags

Drama, Fantasy, War

The world can be cruel and compromising,
Goodness crumbling, evil rising.
Such a fact isn’t at all surprising;
Simply look around to see.

But harder to view is where the fantastic,
Magic subtle and not bombastic,
Turns the desolate and the drastic
Into beauty’s final fee.

And when the fee is finally paid,
The horrors that happen when humans degrade
Are quickly forgotten, and when they fade,
We welcome sweet reality.
______________________

MPAA rating: R (mainly for violence)

Sorry for the longer-than-expected hiatus lately. I’ve been in the midst of the busiest time of my class project, and just graduated from the program, so now I’m job hunting but also have a little more extra time to post again. I hate that my 2018 Blindspots have run so late into 2019, but I just have this one last review to finish off what I began a year ago! So before I announce the Blindspots for 2019, it’s time to cover Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro’s acclaimed Spanish fantasy.

I didn’t realize when I picked them, but my 2018 Blindspots have introduced me to some directors that I only knew by reputation. I’d never seen a Charlie Kaufman-written movie before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I’d only seen one other Billy Wilder film before Some Like It Hot. Surprisingly, I’d also never seen a Guillermo del Toro-directed movie either, so Pan’s Labyrinth was like a fresh initiation into the Oscar-winning director’s style. And what a style! Pan’s Labyrinth is as skillfully directed a film as I’ve ever seen, and it’s mind-boggling to me that del Toro wasn’t nominated for a directing Oscar that year, though it did win deservingly for Cinematography, Production Design, and Makeup. The movements of the camera, often changing scenes as it passes behind an object, lends the film a lucid fairy tale quality, despite the contrast of its more true-to-life content.

The storyline is also engaging, split between the realistic and the magical. Young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is taken by her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to a military base in the woods in 1944 Francoist Spain. There, Ofelia’s merciless new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi López) is hunting down armed rebels and eagerly waiting like Henry VIII for his wife to bear him a son. Meanwhile, Ofelia discovers a mysterious faun (Doug Jones) in a nearby labyrinth, who gives her three tasks in order to supposedly claim her rightful place as princess of the underworld.

At times, the juxtaposition of truth and myth don’t quite mix. When rebels are fighting and dying on the battlefield, it’s a bit hard to care about Ofelia’s forays into fantasy, which may or may not be real themselves. Yet these fantasy sections remain the most memorable, offering the film’s most lasting creature creations, and even these flights of imagination remain somewhat grounded in life-and-death stakes, harkening back to the grimness of the original fairy tales. You know it’s a fantasy when there are giant toads and transforming fairies; you know it’s a dark fantasy when a monster with eyes on its hands bites the heads off those fairies!

Personally, I thought the film as a whole was much more graphic than it needed to be, whether it be some unflinchingly brutal battlefield violence or a firsthand look at how the Joker got his scars. Even so, Pan’s Labyrinth has craft to spare, particularly in its enchanting score and the ornate production design and makeup work of its fantasy elements, laudably brought to life with a bare minimum of CGI. The ending is especially moving, combining the climax of its real-life and fantasy stories into a bittersweet conclusion that artfully leaves its interpretation up to the viewer. It left me haunted in a way great cinema should, and even if not everything melded perfectly, Pan’s Labyrinth proved to be a very worthwhile Blindspot pick.

Best line:  (Captain Vidal) “You could have obeyed me!”   (Doctor) “But Captain, to obey – just like that – for obedience’s sake… without questioning… That’s something only people like you do.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
601 Followers and Counting

 

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Midway (1976)

Tags

Classics, Drama, History, War

History tells us when battles were fought
And whether they meant more than others or not,
But those who once knew them
And had to live through them
Experienced more than the lessons now taught.

A few passive words on a page about war,
Discussing the facts of who died and what for,
Are hardly precise
To recount sacrifice
Or the bloody-badged heroes on some foreign shore.

It’s hell, they say; so, we imagine the worst
From comfortable couches, no terror, no thirst,
So free to be blind
That we must be reminded
That freedom must be paid in sacrifice first.
________________________

MPAA rating: PG (PG-13 would be better due to frequent profanity)

I couldn’t let July 4th pass without reviewing a patriotic war movie, and since I’d seen it once a long time ago, Midway seemed ripe for a rewatch. One of the last big war films of yesteryear, Midway distinguishes itself less in the story department than in its in-depth overview of the battle and its sprawling cast of famous faces.

If you’re looking for some gritty war story with non-stop explosions, this isn’t the film for you. Midway is far more interested in the build-up and strategy of the battle and spends most of its 132-minute runtime on the set-up. Certainly by the end, there are scout planes being sacrificed and battleships defending themselves with barrages of skyward gunfire, but we also get to see how the Americans deciphered Midway as the coded Japanese target, how unexpected illnesses and bad luck brought certain players to the fore, and how each side endeavored to figure out the others’ movements before it was too late. All the background information isn’t exactly boring, but it can get a bit dry…yeah, that’s the word. Yet what it lacks in dynamic entertainment, it makes up for in the sense of getting a comprehensive reenactment of how events played out at a time when the American forces were still on the defensive and sorely in need of a victory.

Midway’s greatest strength is its multitude of familiar actors. Just reading the cast list is a who’s who of both big-name stars of the time and some stars to be: Charlton Heston as Captain Garth and the de facto main character, Henry Fonda as Admiral Nimitz, Robert Mitchum as Vice Admiral Halsey, Hal Holbrook, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Cliff Robertson, Glenn Corbett, Robert Wagner, Erik Estrada, Tom Selleck, and Dabney Coleman (five years before starring with Henry Fonda again in On Golden Pond). That’s not to say all of them get much time to shine in their cameos; I’m not sure Robert Wagner even spoke at all, but it’s always fun to try and pick out someone you might recognize. Of course, not being as familiar with TV of the ‘60s and ‘70s as my mom or grandfather (who loved this movie), I’m no doubt missing out on the full “look-it’s-so-and-so” experience.

In addition to all the western actors is a collection of pretty much every actor of Japanese descent known to American audiences back then (except Mako; where the heck was Mako?), most notably Toshiro Mifune of Rashomon and Seven Samurai fame as Admiral Yamamoto, whose voice was oddly dubbed by Paul Frees. There’s also James Shigeta of Die Hard, Pat Morita of The Karate Kid, Robert Ito of Quincy, M.E., and quite a few others I’m sure I’ve seen on M*A*S*H before. Unlike modern war movie trends, all the Japanese characters speak convenient English, but there’s no effort to demonize them beyond some references to Pearl Harbor. They are simply the opposing side in this life-and-death game of Battleship. Questions of prejudice are raised with the romance of Edward Albert as Heston’s son who falls in love with a Japanese girl (Christina Kokubo), but that story doesn’t get much closure by the end and is present simply to add some human interest to the film.

It’s interesting to note that, despite being a box office hit, Midway is something of a black sheep among war classics, largely because it borrowed many scenes from other films, perhaps to save money on a budget that likely went to casting its prestigious stars. The graininess of certain shots clearly marks them as actual footage, but many of the actual battle scenes are from films like Tora! Tora! Tora!, Away All Boats, and Battle for Britain (at least according to Wikipedia), which now makes me curious to see all those films and spot what was borrowed. Even if its parts were cobbled together to some extent, Midway thrives on its star power and paints both a broad and detailed picture of a decisive World War II battle.

On this 4^th of July, whether you celebrate it or not, I want to wish all my readers, both foreign and domestic, a Happy Independence Day! Let freedom ring!

Best line: (Admiral Nimitz, after the battle) “It doesn’t make any sense; Admiral Yamamoto had everything going for him: power, experience, confidence. Were we better than the Japanese or just luckier?”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
584 Followers and Counting

 

In This Corner of the World (2016)

Tags

Animation, Anime, Drama, Foreign, History, Romance, War

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a hopeful elegy, so I wrote mine about the mourning of a way of life.)

 

What’s almost as sad as a person’s death
Is the death of the way that they lived.

They once woke up, knowing what their day
Would likely hold,
And they’d watch unfold
A normal we’d say
Was strange and old,
But they took pride
And personified
A life that bloomed till the world went cold.

Disasters sudden or a cancer slow
Or new breakthroughs
Would cause them to lose
What was status quo.
They could not refuse,
For who can tell
A dead bloom, “Get well,”
When its winter’s come and it’s paid its dues?

But people live on, like roots that remain
For new blooms to rise
Once the former dies
And forgets the pain
Of its sad demise.
Our ways of life fade
Daily and are remade.
Remember that grief is short-lived for the wise.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

And the number of award-worthy animated films of 2016 just keeps on growing. When I heard that a crowdfunded project called In This Corner of the World had beaten out Your Name and A Silent Voice for Japan’s Best Animated Feature award, I rolled my eyes that anything could top those two emotional hits. I still would have preferred one of them to win, but I can now at least see why In This Corner of the World would deserve to win. (It’s also further proof that the American Academy can’t seem to recognize an award-worthy animation if it hails from another country.)

Set before, during, and after the Hiroshima bombing of August 6, 1945, this Japanese period drama has a slice-of-life charm and simplicity that endures the ever-looming shadow of death. In many ways, it is reminiscent of Grave of the Fireflies (a painful favorite of mine), yet while that film is essentially grief and desperation from start to finish, In This Corner of the World uses its long runtime to show the daily life of its characters and how the approaching war changed that way of life for the sake of survival.

It begins with the childhood of Suzu Urano, an often absent-minded artist who grows up in an idyllic seaside town close to Hiroshima. After receiving an offer of marriage from a man she doesn’t know, she hesitantly leaves her own family to marry into the Hojo family in Kure, a Navy dockyard about an hour away by train. There is a wealth of humorous vignettes as Suzu adjusts to her new surrounding and family members, including a short-tempered sister-in-law and her daughter, and many aspects of their daily life are steeped in Japanese culture, from the fashioning of kimonos and later pants to the preparation of traditional field-to-table meals, which require resourcefulness once wartime rationing is implemented. From amusing asides and sweet romantic moments, the tone gets more and more serious and even dire as the war gets closer, the bombing raids become more frequent, and we the audience wait for the inevitable bomb to drop, wondering how it will affect Suzu and her loved ones.

The abrupt editing of all those vignettes does contribute to a sometimes unfocused storyline that puts certain details in doubt, and a few forays into Suzu’s imagination left me confused as to whether surrounding scenes were supposed to be real or not. Yet such negatives don’t detract too much from the humane power of the whole. Perceptive details and lovely snapshots abound, notably a post-war scene where the town’s lamps are uncovered (no longer in fear of air raids) and one by one shine into the night. The animation is not your typical anime style, with more of a gentle, hand-drawn impressionism that can be reminiscent of either a comic strip or a museum piece, depending on the tone of the scene. It’s surprisingly effective in its consistency depicting both Suzu’s carefree early life and the grief-stricken toll of war, and the filmmakers put great and laudable care into re-creating the pre-bomb city of Hiroshima accurately.

Once again, I’m torn on how to rank what is clearly a great film, trying to judge my personal opinion of it. It’s absolutely worthy of Japan’s top animation prize, and I can see why they would opt for the more historically significant choice, even over the box-office juggernaut that was Your Name. Despite its winsome animation and gradually developed poignancy, it didn’t bring me close to tears like Your Name or A Silent Voice or Grave of the Fireflies, which matters to me as a way of measuring the emotional impact. Even so, I feel like I’m growing fonder of this film the more I think about it. Perhaps its ultimate ranking is a wait-and-see. It requires some patience, but I highly recommend In This Corner of the World for its touching civilian-level view of World War II.

Best line: (Suzu, comparing her current life to a dream) “I don’t want to wake up because I’m happy to be who I am today.”   (Shusaku, her husband) “I see. The past and the paths we did not choose, they’re like a dream.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up (for now)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
564 Followers and Counting

 

Darkest Hour (2017)

Tags

Drama, History, Triple A, War

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem featuring rebellion, so I took inspiration from Winston Churchill’s tenacity in resisting the German onslaught in World War II.)

 

An animal fights never so hard
As when its den, its nest, its yard,
Its hole or burrow, lair or hollow
Is assaulted, threatened, scarred.
It’s then they most are on their guard.

If they defend their home so well,
Then we as humans must rebel
Against invasion, no persuasion
To assuage our raising hell
To screen and shield our citadel.

The brightest day requires no grit
When we are free to relish it.
The darkest hour tests our power
And our backbone not to quit,
For rebel lairs dare not submit.
____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Were you expecting the 2011 alien invasion movie set in Russia? If so, psych! Get with the times because I already reviewed that two days ago (and it’s The Darkest Hour, by the way). No, this is last year’s Winston Churchill biopic, which is more likely the film people will associate with the words Darkest Hour (no The), not only because it’s more recent but because it’s a fantastic movie.

While Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk depicted the famous rescue of the British army across the English Channel and Their Finest used it as propaganda back on the home front, Darkest Hour looks at the same events from the perspective of the leadership and politicians. An English political drama could very easily have made the proceedings eminently dry and boring, but that’s hardly the case when there’s an actor of Gary Oldman’s caliber in top form. His Oscar-winning performance as Winston Churchill is exceptional, one of those roles of a lifetime that he truly melts into, so that he’s hardly distinguishable from the real-life figure he plays, thanks also to the Oscar-winning makeup. From his droll habits and bearing to his brilliantly delivered speeches, it’s no wonder critics and audiences alike were saying, “Just give him the Oscar he so clearly deserves.”

Even the most acclaimed biopics so often leave me with a lessened opinion of their subjects, but Darkest Hour manages to show Churchill “warts and all,” so to speak, and still leave no doubt as to why he is considered such a great leader. In his very first scene, he’s at his worst, roaring at a fresh-faced, new secretary (Lily James) over minor annoyances, only to be calmed down by his loving and encouraging wife (Kristin Scott Thomas). The rest of the film serves to soften that intimidating figure we first see, as he buckles under the weight of the wartime decisions he faces and stands resolute in the face of overwhelming odds.

It was interesting to see how naively Churchill’s fellow leaders believed they could sue for peace even while war and destruction were upon them, and I was surprised at how unpopular Churchill was among his own Conservative party. Did the way he was described as someone with one hundred ideas a day, four of them good and the rest dangerous, remind anyone else of Donald Trump? Honestly, there were several scenes where it was as if they were describing the sitting U.S. President. “One never knows what’s going to come out of your mouth next. Something that’ll flatter, something that’ll wound,” says King George VI, played by Ben Mendelsohn (since I suppose Colin Firth was busy). Considering Churchill’s dictation habits, I can’t help but wonder if a modern Churchill would be tweeting in the privy as well.

Beyond the outstanding acting, the rest of the production is equally praiseworthy, such as the realistic sets and the way the dates change onscreen to make clear that events are happening within mere days of each other. Joe Wright’s direction is elegant but straightforward, and the script intelligent and witty in equal measure, providing welcome humor to lighten various scenes while also stressing the desperation of Britain’s situation. There’s some disappointment when you realize a great scene or two was fabricated, such as a voice-of-the-people sequence in the London subway, but the high degree of historical accuracy is only part of Darkest Hour’s strength.

It’s a testament to the power of oratory and a portrait of a great man under fire, not covering his whole life but the tension-filled days and weeks that helped define the course of his life and of the world. I’m tempted to rank it as a tie with The Iron Lady, another well-acted film about a great British prime minister that won its lead an Oscar, but I think Darkest Hour is a tad stronger overall and indeed one of the best films of 2017.

Best line (there are so many): (Churchill) “Those who never change their mind never change anything.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
562 Followers and Counting

 

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Tags

Classics, Drama, Romance, War

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem based on the reverse of a well-known phrase or saying, so I picked “home is where the heart is.”)

 

The mind is rarely where the home is,
Always drawn back here, back there,
To sites of sorrows, times of traumas,
Every missed or broken promise,
Every frightened, whispered prayer,
And doubts that dwarf the likes of Thomas.

Although it wishes peace to find,
The night is haunted by the day,
And progress can be undermined
By ghosts we thought we’d left behind.
The battlefields still hold their sway
When hearts go home without the mind.
_________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (should be PG)

This post is by request of MovieRob, who gave the most correct answers to my new banner challenge and so earned the right to have me review a film of his choice. It’s also a chance to review something not from the last couple years, which seems to be all I’ve been reviewing lately. I knew The Best Years of Our Lives was one of his all-time favorites, and it is a film that still packs an emotional wallop even 72 years later, offering an authentic glimpse of how World War II veterans readjusted to civilian life.

Perfectly timed when it came out the year after the war ended, The Best Years of Our Lives follows three ex-servicemen returning to their fictional hometown of Boone City: an older sergeant and banker named Al Stephenson (Fredric March), a newly married captain named Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), and an amputee from the Navy named Homer Parrish (real amputee Harold Russell), who lost both hands and now uses a pair of hook prosthetics. Although all are eager to return home, they quickly experience difficulties in adjusting to their new civilian roles, such as Fred’s lack of experience in anything but the bombing for which he was trained or Homer’s insecurity over how his family and sweetheart will react to his hooks.

The performances are excellent across the board, rarely falling into dated overacting, with Russell especially standing out as Homer, well deserving his Best Supporting Actor Oscar despite not being a professional actor. (He’s also the only actor to win two Oscars for the same role, one an honorary award, and the only one to auction his Oscar years later.) March also won an Oscar, though I personally thought he was better in 1937’s A Star Is Born, and the film received five other Academy Awards too, including Best Picture. Above all, the story feels genuine, as if these were real stories that actually played out in the post-war period, even including how businesses and conspiracists viewed the war and the shaken people it sent back home.

Despite being a significant film and one of the best in its genre, I do feel The Best Years of Our Lives, at 170 minutes, runs about twenty minutes too long, and not all three of its stories carry the same weight. Homer’s is easily the best with a profoundly lump-inducing conclusion, while Fred’s love triangle with his shallow wife (Virginia Mayo) and Al’s daughter Peggy (lovely Teresa Wright) has its moments. So does Al’s homecoming, but his drunkenness drags on a bit with little resolution, even if I’m sure it’s a true depiction of the way many veterans tried to cope.

The Best Years of Our Lives may run long, but it’s a moving portrait of post-war America and the problems that plagued her veterans, which still ring true due to the permanence of war. One image near the end seems to capture the potential hopelessness of their situation, as Fred sits in the nose of a scrapped plane with no engines, grounded and heading nowhere. Yet it subtly says even more that right afterward, he learns the scrapyard will be recycled into new housing, a symbol of the renewal capable for men as well.

Best line: (Fred) “I dreamed I was gonna have my own home. Just a nice little house for my wife and me out in the country… in the suburbs anyway. That’s the cock-eyed kind of dream you have when you’re overseas.”   (Peggy) “You don’t have to be overseas to have dreams like that.”   (Fred) “Yeah. You can get crazy ideas right here at home.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
554 Followers and Counting

 

Girls und Panzer der Film (2015)

Tags

Action, Animation, Anime, Comedy, War

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to combine something big and something small, like maybe tanks and girls for example. Inspired by this silly anime, I wrote a fake account of how tank warfare might become a girls’ sport.)

 

Years past, the tanks rolled into town
And terrorized the folk.
With dread renown,
Each new crackdown
Would paint the sky in smoke.

They came in force to crash and kill
And crush with cannon fire.
Such lethal will
They did fulfill;
The people’s need was dire.

One fateful day, a young girl eyed
An empty tank left bare.
She seized with pride
This chance supplied
By carelessness and prayer.

Against all odds and common sense,
She drove the tank somehow.
Her zeal intense,
In her town’s defense,
She raised every eyebrow.

She shocked the foe, confused their ranks,
And drove them from the land;
And it’s all thanks
To her that tanks
And girls go hand in hand.
_____________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (PG is fine)

Anime has given us a lot of weird and wonderful concepts over the years, the kind you should just enjoy for their silliness and not think about too deeply, but making tank warfare a girl’s sport takes the cake for me. Even though I’ve never been particularly fond of tanks or the cute girl genre, Girls und Panzer was an admittedly fun ride, made even more fun by its big-screen follow-up.

The 2012 TV series featured a ragtag group of girls from Ōarai High School rallying under the leadership of skilled but reluctant transfer student Miho in order to win a series of tank war games and stave off the closing of their school and town, which happen to be on top of a giant aircraft carrier (yes, really). The characters are simple and likable, with most development reserved for Miho and her four closest friends. The rest of the vast cast gets the most basic development possible as members of other clubs that nonetheless contribute to the tank warfare, which seems to use real ammunition and has no regard for property damage, since the government underwrites everything as an official sport. The set-up is enjoyable enough, but the real draw here is the tank battles, explosive clashes between war machines that are depicted with surprising historical accuracy for the most part. At only twelve episodes long, the series is short but doesn’t lack thrills, as the underdog Ōarai team faces off against more accomplished high school teams that each conform to the trappings and tactics of a different nation (Americans, Russians, Italians, Germans, etc.).

If any of this sounds entertaining, go watch it because it’s nice and short, and I’m about to spoil the ending. It’s probably no surprise, but Ōarai wins. Yet the movie doesn’t let that victory stand for long; one exhibition match later, the government is eager to shut the school down again, putting Ōarai in the exact same position of betting their school’s fate on a giant tank battle, this time against a University team. With this battle, however, they’re so hopelessly outmatched that their former rivals beaten during the series come to their aid and take part in one big tank free-for-all.

Like the series, there is some confusion at times over who’s in which tank, and what’s happening is not always as clear as it should be. Yet the battles are still quite well planned, putting different styles of tank to good use and employing some very clever strategy along the way. (One planning session between the allied teams is like an argument between the tactical methods of all the major countries of World War II.) While the show had some semblance of realism in the tank’s capabilities, albeit small, the movie goes full-out bonkers with tanks flying through the air, sliding down rollercoaster tracks, and zooming around like high-capacity bumper cars. Some of the casualties would carry more weight if anyone was actually in danger, but that apparently never happens in this sport, and it’s perfectly fine to stick your head out the top hatch while being shelled (really).

This isn’t the first anime film I’d recommend to anyone, but it’s now high on my list of guilty pleasures just for how gleefully crazy and bombastic it gets. By the time the battle moves into a theme park to use the rides as unconventional weapons, I was just enjoying the outlandishness of it all, and finding unexpected satisfaction with every enemy tank disabled. Sure, it’s silly and predictable, but that’s sometimes the very definition of fun. There’s a whole future series of films planned, but it’s hard to imagine how they’ll top this one.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
552 Followers and Counting

Here’s a good representation of what to expect, if you’re curious:
 

Testament of Youth (2014)

Tags

Biopic, Drama, History, Romance, War

How keenly and eagerly do wars begin,
When winners and losers have yet to be picked,
Before its true horror and hardship set in
And man is reminded how great is its sin!
The world returns ever, a careless addict,
To battle and blood, as the wise can predict.

Each new generation discovers firsthand
The truth only mastered when foolishness dies.
It cannot be scheduled; it cannot be planned;
It comes only when the naïve understand
That war is a futile and grave exercise.
Then do the innocent fools become wise.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Alicia Vikander broke onto most people’s radars with 2015’s Ex Machina and her Oscar-winning role in The Danish Girl, but Testament of Youth not long before them should not be forgotten. Based on the same-titled World War I memoir by Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth features the kind of lead performance that makes one wonder why it didn’t get more awards attention. As Brittain herself, Vikander plays an early feminist whose academic dreams are dashed by the onset of war and its unforeseen tragedies.

I’d never heard of Vera Brittain or her apparently famous memoir before this movie, but that’s why I love well-done adaptations that introduce me to new and worthwhile stories. Early on, Brittain is a relatively carefree girl whose greatest challenge is convincing her father to let her go to Oxford. Thanks to the intervention of her brother Edward (Taron Edgerton in one of his first roles) and a sympathetic professor (Anna Chancellor), she is able to attend her dream school, right as she’s also finding love with one of Edward’s friends, Roland (Kit Harington of Game of Thrones fame). Before long, though, the Great War begins, and when all her male friends enlist, Vera’s priorities shift as well, compelling her to join the war effort as a nurse, first on the home front and later in France.

Testament of Youth may seem like your typical beautifully mounted British period piece, and if you don’t like beautifully mounted British period pieces, you might find it boring. Yet the cinematography is sumptuous and the acting of everyone involved stellar, with Vikander in particular embodying the wartime transformation of the nation as she develops from a naïve schoolgirl who advocates her brother joining the military to a war-weary mourner reeling from all that was lost. There are times when it seems to be treading familiar ground, such as a shot lifted straight from Gone with the Wind, but a scene where Vera declares to a vengeful crowd the best way to respond to the defeated Germans is especially powerful. While the end could have been depressing as heck, there are glimmers of hope as she discovers how to move beyond misfortune.

As far as style, the closest thing I can compare Testament of Youth to is the John Keats biopic Bright Star, which also imbues a tragic true romance with a poignant beauty and literary passion. The anti-war themes center on loss and empathy, which is strongly endorsed through Brittain’s nurse experiences, as when she cares for both British and German soldiers as if they were her own brother or fiancé. Whether you’ve heard of it or not, Testament of Youth is a prime choice the next time you’re in the mood for a beautifully mounted British period piece.

Best line: (Vera’s college partner Winifred Holtby) “All of us are surrounded by ghosts. Now we need to learn how to live with them.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
530 Followers and Counting

 

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Tags

Action, Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller, War

As long as wars and battles rage,
The world will yearn for peace;
So says the pacifist with sage
Detachment and release.

Yet when the battles come too close
And reap their ruthless wound,
How quick is he made bellicose,
His former faith impugned!

Yes, grief can make the wholesome hate,
The peaceful prime for war.
Sometimes their conscience wakes too late,
With much to answer for.
_________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Perhaps the most surprising thing about these new Planet of the Apes movies is how good they are compared with how bad they could have been. Think about it: apes using sign language, sparse and simple dialogue, “monkeys riding horses,” as Everybody Loves Raymond once put it, concepts that could so easily become laughable. And yet both Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes raised the bar for what this science fiction series could be, and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes continued the high quality and stuck the landing, so to speak.

Picking up two years after Dawn, this end to the trilogy sees Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his band of intelligent apes embattled with a military garrison led by the fanatical Colonel (Woody Harrelson, in grand villainous mode). There is plenty of wreckage still from Koba’s uprising in Dawn, from defecting gorillas siding with the humans against Caesar to the emotional baggage of Koba’s and Caesar’s actions. When the Colonel exacts a personal toll on Caesar’s family, the ape leader starts to share in Koba’s hatred and soon sets out with his most loyal friends on a quest for revenge. The story morphs several times as it goes, from western-like journeying through snowy mountains to brutal incarceration to a thrilling prison escape tale, all while following Caesar’s emotional rollercoaster and completing the allegorical Moses narrative begun in Rise.

With each film in this trilogy, the visual effects have gotten more and more polished. The previous two still had moments when I could tell the apes weren’t real, but War makes them as realistic as any effect I’ve seen. Even if motion-capture technology  is perhaps not entirely perfected, it’s jaw-droppingly convincing at this point, which allows the apes’ emotions to be as clearly conveyed as any of the human characters’. The characters behind that effects façade are also better defined here than in prior films. The chimp Rocket and orangutan Maurice have been with Caesar since the first film, and while they barely registered in Dawn, the fact that they join Caesar on his trek allows them to stand out better from the rest of the apes. Also joining them is the eccentric Bad Ape (Steve Zahn), a zoo escapee who adds some much-needed humor to an otherwise bleak tale.

My VC has had a more restrained appreciation for these movies, admiring the visual skill but finding the execution a bit plodding and slow-paced. Even so, she found the story of War to be the strongest of the three, and although I prefer Dawn, War had the clearest character arc of the three, continued the subtle references to past movies, and worked in some evidence of how the world becomes as Charlton Heston found it in the original.

I agree with her that the pacing could be tighter, particularly during the grueling prison scenes, but these films aren’t content to be mere action spectacles. They instead tackle deeper moral questions and universal themes of humanity, enlivened by moments of refreshing sweetness and stunning action. They’re a rare breed of blockbuster, and if their example overran Hollywood, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Best line: (Caesar) “If we strive but fail, and the world remains armed against itself, then we’ve been divided, because the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining the previous two)

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
524 Followers and Counting

 

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Tags

Action, Classics, War

When Nazis are doing what Nazis will do,
And you’re busy planning for D-Day’s debut,
Too busy to spare a commando or two
To send on a raid that could likely get you
Fired if it were to fail or fall through,
Who wouldn’t think, “I’ve an idea to pursue!
I’ll gather a murderous felon or two
Or twelve and I’ll line them all up in a queue
And train them to do what I want them to do.
Who cares if they misbehave out of my view
Or turn psycho, causing a hullabaloo?
It’s not my fault if something bad should ensue.
I know it’s a risk, and it’s dangerous too,
As my bosses would tell me if they only knew,
But expendability has its value.”
Who would think that? That’s right, very few.
___________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (should be PG-13)

Considering I only saw it once years and years ago, I thought it was about time I reminded myself why The Dirty Dozen is so popular. After all, its memory brought Tom Hanks and Victor Garber to tears in Sleepless in Seattle. While it didn’t quite leave me choked up like them, I must admit it’s a unique classic of the war genre, full of surly machismo and a highly talented cast. And despite having practically the same basic premise, it’s way better than Suicide Squad.

In the months leading up to D-Day, Lee Marvin’s Major Reisman is put in command of an experimental unit of twelve convicted prisoners, who are to be trained and sent on a probable suicide mission for the Allied cause.  Half of them plucked from death row, this “Dirty Dozen,” as they’re later explicitly called, is full of murderers and rebels, and despite being offered amnesty if they survive, they aren’t about to become model soldiers overnight. Thus, the no-nonsense Reisman pulls no punches in whipping them into shape and encouraging them to work together for their own (and the army’s) best interest.

The main thing I recalled from my first viewing was that I had trouble telling the men apart. Obviously, I could recognize Jim Brown as the only black member, but the others all blended together to the point that the deaths toward the end didn’t mean much to me since they were all interchangeable. While not everyone stood out this time either, I was better able to distinguish the actors I’d seen elsewhere, such as Donald Sutherland as Pinkley, Charles Bronson as Wladislaw, and John Cassavetes as Franko, plus Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy as officers. Others stood out for their distinct personalities, such as Clint Walker’s shy Posey and Telly Savalas’s psycho Maggott. That’s still only half of the Dozen that I could pick out of a lineup from memory, but at least it’s better than my first go-round.

When I ignored trying to tell the other six apart, I was able to just enjoy the movie, which starts out slow but gets better with time. Periodic humor keeps the tone relatively light, such as Pinkley impersonating a general, and although the Dozen are labeled as bad men, there were levels to their “dirtiness.” Some like Maggott with his religious zealotry were downright crazy, but others were simply high-strung and bitter in their defiance. A few even had mitigating circumstances to their crimes that made them more sympathetic than others. This was something that Suicide Squad didn’t do well in making all the villains psychopaths, along with some of the “good guys” too. There has to be someone the audience can sympathize with, and at least a few of the men in The Dirty Dozen were worth caring about.

While the training and the war games scenes were rather fun to watch, the best part is the actual mission against the Nazis to which everything else builds. With the high body count and higher bullet count, this is war action at its best, even if I’m still not sure where and when everyone who died bit the dust. The film got a fair amount of criticism at the time for its violence, and I was a bit shocked too by the ruthlessness of killing both Nazi officers and their potentially innocent escorts, though I suppose such is war and the mission at hand. The Dirty Dozen lives up to its reputation as a “man’s movie,” but my VC enjoyed it too. Even with its large cast, it wrings plenty of excitement from the risk of its somewhat implausible but entertaining premise.

Best line: (Reisman, leaving the room after a racist comment starts a brawl) “Oh, the gentleman from the South had a question about the dining arrangements. He and his comrades are discussing place settings now.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Tags

Action, Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller, War

They said no bridge could cross the divide,
Too far and different were each side,
And yet two chose
To still propose
A bridge to span the gap so wide.

They slowly worked with cautious hope
To lay foundations, tighten rope,
And earn the trust
That is a must
For silencing the misanthrope.

Naysayers had their efforts spurned,
Yet look what trust can build when earned!
Then fast as fire,
The doubters’ ire
Had lit the bridge and down it burned.
_____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Wow! If Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a prime reboot, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an exemplary sequel. It continues the storyline of its predecessor while establishing a new yet complementary scenario with far more depth than the simple “rise of the apes” concept could have had in the hands of lesser writers.

Set ten years after Rise, Dawn sees Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his band of intelligent esc-ape-ees having built their own mini-civilization, hidden in a dense redwood forest, while humanity has been decimated by the same virus that gave the apes their heightened intelligence. When a band of immune human survivors stumbles upon the apes, tensions immediately flare, especially because the humans’ energy needs won’t allow them the logical course of keeping their distance. Yet the human leader Malcolm (Jason Clarke) actually tries to reach out to Caesar and his apes and work toward mutual trust, something of which apes and humans alike disapprove, especially Caesar’s second-in-command Koba (Toby Kebbell).

The roles of both Caesar and Malcolm are very much representative of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If—” as they try to “keep [their] head when all about [them] are losing theirs and blaming it on [them].” They both want what’s best for their respective groups, and they know that that includes peace between   them. We as level-headed viewers recognize the wisdom of their actions, and yet so many of their subordinates carry far too much baggage and resentment to trust that wisdom. Whether it be humans who automatically associate the word “ape” with the virus epidemic or surly Koba, who still hates humans for using him as a research guinea pig, they question their leader’s judgment and even his loyalties without questioning if he might be right. It’s frustrating and yet all too believable, considering humanity’s known weakness and intolerance.

Another major theme is that the apes and humans are not as different as either side would think. That weakness and intolerance are common to both, as is the tendency to view such opponents as a group rather than individuals who don’t necessarily all believe the same thing. The act of a rogue can quickly spiral into “us versus them” violence that makes such perceptions harder to undo. What’s astounding about Dawn is how it gets these complex messages across with minimal dialogue, utilizing the apes’ broken English and hand motions to their fullest. The motion-capture CGI is also even more impressive than in Rise, wowing with the action battle scenes, as well as benefiting the story in less flashy ways, like the clearly recognizable emotions that play out on Caesar’s face, courtesy of the talented Andy Serkis.

In addition to the Oscar-nominated visuals, all the performances are outstanding, especially Clarke, Serkis, Keri Russell as Malcolm’s wife, and Gary Oldman as Malcolm’s less trusting counterpart. James Franco is sadly departed from the story, but there are affecting reminders of him and Caesar’s past. Caesar’s ape friends who do carry over from Rise don’t stand out that much, making me glad I still remembered them from having just seen the first film, but Koba’s role is greatly expanded as an antagonist, with the ending directly mirroring one of his actions in Rise. Also, as a fan of tracking shots, I must point out a scene I loved in which the camera follows Malcolm as he stumbles through a maze of hallways trying to avoid invading apes. It made me think that a tracking shot could be a running element for the series, since Rise had the scene with young Caesar swinging throughout Will’s house.

Dawn is a sober movie that views the ape versus human struggle with far more nuance and regret than any earlier installment, precisely because the film shows it didn’t have to turn out the way it did. An action blockbuster is expected to have awesome visuals, but it’s a rare and pleasant surprise when there’s this much depth too. With so much tension between various groups nowadays, the film remains as timely as ever, a potent reminder to not let the worst parts of our nature carry us to destruction.

Best line: (Caesar) “I always think… ape better than human. I see now… how much like them we are.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining Rise)

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
516 Followers and Counting