And the Oscar goes to. . .

[Pat Holscher]

Some interesting war pictures up for nomination this year. As usual, I managed to miss nearly every interesting film at the movies. So, I haven't seen any of them.

What do we think of them here? I'll list the ones I know in replies below, and those of you who have seen them, give us your views.

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

Flags of Our Fathers.

Yes, I missed it. How is it?

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

Letters From Iwo Jima.

Yes, I haven's seen this one either. How is it?

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

Indigenes

I haven't seen this, but I haven't had the opportunity to. Given the international nature of this film, perhaps some of you have. This is a French film, about North Africans who join the Free French to help liberate occupied France.

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

The Last King of Scotland

I haven't seen this, but it hasn't been here. But I'd like to see it. This film concerns the former Ugadan dictator, Idi Amin, and features the acting of the usually pretty good Forest Whitacker.

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

I guess another new one, which I also haven't seen, would be "Fly Boys", the WWI flying epic.

Pat

[JV Puleo]

Pat,
I have exactly the same record...what a coincindence!
Joe P

[Joseph Sullivan]

Likewise.

Joe

[Pat Holscher]

Well Joe S. and Joe P., we appear to be on the cutting edge of the non movie going public.

My office is actually right next door to one of this town's main movie theaters, and another one is up on the corner. I often tell people how to get here by making reference to the movie theaters.

When I read the posters for the movies posted there, it occurs to me that I've often never heard of them. From some of those posters, I'm glad that I haven't heard of quite a few of the current films.

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

As a complete aside, its interesting how many World War Two pictures have been made in recent years. I'd read at one time that, in the post Vietnam War era, those films were no longer relevant (although they continued to be made during the Vietnam War). Now they've come roaring back, but with a different focus.

Pat

[drillrider]

I've just seen Blood Diamond and the nomination of DiCaprio for best actor is well deserved (this is coming from a non-Leo fan!) The same goes for Djimon Hounson for best supporting. Worth seeing if you don't mind screen violence.

I saw both The Prestige and The Illusionist, both up for Best Art Direction and VERY similar movies about magicians. I personally thought that The Prestige was the better film.

I see the interest in World War II history growing in leaps and bounds among graduate students as well as in the movies. The military history section of our History Graduate department here at the University of New Brunswick is filled to the brim and many are interested in this area.

Leah

"You will find that man's pathway to glory is strewn with the bones of horses" Anon.

[wkambic]

Last movie I saw was "Flyboys" (and we had a free pass for that [8D]). In the past ten years we've seen five flicks at the theater. We are not a "target audience" for Hollywierd. [;)]

When the DVDs come out I'll watch "Flags" and "Letters" back to back. That seems just kind of logical.

There's nothing on the marquee right now that makes me want to drop close to $20 for a couple of hours of entertainment. We've not had any of the premium cable channels for years for the same reason. I might spring for Blockbuster/Netflicks contract and use that to play "catch up" over the next year.



Bill Kambic

Mangalarga Marchador: Uma raça, uma paixão

[throwback]

saw "letters from iwo jima," not bad. to me it was a justified universal critique of militarism. it gives a more complete perspective on not just the japanese side, but the geographic parameters of the battle (we usually just see the volcanic sand and suribachi).

i loved the zing as m1s actually kicked out a clip every 8 rounds and the distinctive sounds of u.s. and japanese small arms. just what we drive folks crazy with.

the infantry has to conform to the cameras, just as in all war movies.

i will see flags of our fathers (which i did read). i bet ole clint caught at least some of the flavor of the story, that the flag raisers were just part of the mix and that their ranks attritioned rapidly afterwards, just like all the rifle companies on the island.

eastwood did the same thing in "unforgiven," (which features morgan freeman as an ex-buffalo soldier with his spencer): there's not much to someone else's hero, if you ask the "hero." in "letters" you see a soldier struggle with an overfilled chamber pot under artillery fire, in "unforgiven" munny wrestles with sick pigs in the mud.

[Grant]

I got & ran the 2 DVD "Collector's Edition of "Flyboys". Thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the faults that others have blown up into intense condemnation in reviews! It tried very hard to give tribute to those far off pioneers who joined the French Lafayette Escadrille in WWI. Admittedly somewhat cliched characters based on real people. For some reason, director Bill, in interviews, overlooks mentioning the late Willian Wellman's film with Tab Hunter, which never succeeded. Wellman was a member of the "LE" in WWI, & made several aviation films. Great thematic music by Trevor Robin helps the story along & of course fantastic flying sequences. A combination, seamlessly done, of real planes, blue screen & CGI. The people behind this film are real stunt pilots & two of the young actors fly, or in the case of the lead lad, learned to fly for the movie! "Teddy" Edwin Parsons, who was also in the Lafayette Escadrille & later wrote books on the Escadrille, came back, joined the FBI, after working in Hollywood on top aviation movies like "Hell's Angels", entered the navy & wound up a rear admiral! My late Dad met him in France in WWI. Once, when I was about 5 years old, I can just remember Parsons visited my dad & showed him a bunch of stills from I think "Hell's Angels"!!! Years later, while she still lived, my Mother could not even recall this visit! But I do have a memory of a man holding an envelope of photos & showing them to my Dad. Boy was I small! So I'd say go for it & watch "Flyboys" & make your own judgement. Some of the sequences chillingly recreate trench warfare & the devastation of that war! Grant. (P.S. They spent 60 million making it in England & at Pinewood!)

[bisley45]

I note that Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" is up for Best Documentary. He joins, then, the rare air of Michael Moore, and with about as much credibility.

SOAPBOX ADVISORY- HIDE THE GUNS AND LIQUOR!

One day, thousands of years ago, the Ice Age experienced its coldest day ever. It never got that cold again, and Humankind thrived. That's great, but are we so arrogant that we figure the weather and the planet are supposed to stand pat for us, and never change again? Climate change has been the story of Earth, and will continue to be whether the Kyoto Accords get rammed down out throats or not.

SOAPBOX MODE *OFF*

Bisley 45

"Evidently, Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him."

[Pat Holscher]

I finally saw Fly Boys, on DVD. It was amusing, but didn't stand up in comparison to earlier WWI flying movies. It gave me a renewed appreciate for The Blue Max, as the flying scenes from that film, without all the modern computer generated technology, looked so much more realistic than the computer enhanced, or created, ones in Fly Boys. Better plot in The Blue Max too.

There's lot of flaws in Fly Boys, but it is amusing. Its a really old fashioned film in some ways, perhaps recalling movies like The Dawn Patrol, etc., more than it means to. Like those early flying films, you're aware of the attempts to impress you, and that the plot is thin. It has a classic romantic subplot, etc. Of minor interest, the main hero is supposed to be a Texas cowboy whose family has lost the ranch (classic melodramatic element), and he's shown riding a horse in a couple of scenes, but he's not a very good rider, at least in the few scenes depicted.

Pat

[bisley45]

James Bradley, author of "Flags of our Fathers," also wrote a book entitled "Flyboys." I tchronicles the fate of some US pilots shot down and captured during the Iwo Jima campaign. George H.W. Bush was shot down in this same action, but was rescued by the USS Finback. Those who were captured met with some rather grisly fates, and this information has been a rather closely held secret for the last 60 years or so. I don't look for this one to be made into a movie, but I highly recommend the book.

Bisley 45

"Evidently, Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him."

[Pat Holscher]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by bisley45</i>
<br />James Bradley, author of "Flags of our Fathers," also wrote a book entitled "Flyboys." I tchronicles the fate of some US pilots shot down and captured during the Iwo Jima campaign. George H.W. Bush was shot down in this same action, but was rescued by the USS Finback. Those who were captured met with some rather grisly fates, and this information has been a rather closely held secret for the last 60 years or so. I don't look for this one to be made into a movie, but I highly recommend the book.

Bisley 45

"Evidently, Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him."
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Were they captured and held on Iwo Jima?

As long ago as it is, there continues to be some odds and ends that are released to the public on WWII from time to time. I haven't read this book, so I was unaware of this story. But, as a NYT story Joe linked in recently detailed, some photos of the rebuilding effort, and aftermath, of Pearl Harbor have recently been released.

Pat

[Pat Holscher]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Pat Holscher</i>
<br />Flags of Our Fathers.

Yes, I missed it. How is it?

Pat
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Finally saw this on DVD. It is pretty good. The battle scenes (with the Japanese very rarely seen, which is probably realistic) were very well done. The movie jumps about from scene to scene in terms of time, but it is well done, so it is not a distraction. I'd have to say that it establishes Eastwood as a real directing talent.

Some of the scenes must have had computer assistance, such as the huge number of ships depicted offshore, but it was so well done that, unlike "Flyboys", you really can't tell, at least on the small screen. I'd presume that the large capital ships depicted must likewise be attributed to some technical feat, but on the small screen you can't tell. I'd recommend the film.

If I have any criticisms, they aren't really that significant. One might be that this film fits, like all war films do, into the generation of films reflecting when it was made, rather than the era it depicts. There seems to be a series of newly reflective films coming out, perhaps because we are currently in a war, and all wars are grim. This film fits into that category, although perhaps mildly so. Something along those lines, if well done, probably needed to be done with the topic of World War Two. At any rate, this film fits into the genre of highly realistic war films ushered in by Saving Private Ryan, but it isn't as sentimental or uncritical as Saving Private Ryan was.

My other comment isn't so much a criticism as it is an observation. I"ve heard several people who have seen the film remark on how it is groundbreaking in exposing the fate of the men who are depicted in Rosenthal's legendary photograph. That's not correct, as the sad fates of some of the men have been very well known for a very long time. I don't think there's anything new in that at all. Indeed, its been the subject of at least one prior film in that The Outsider, film in the early 60s, depicted Ira Hayes sad decline after Iwo Jima. Hayes was played by Tony Curtis in that film, which centered solely on the fate of the Pima Indian Marine who declined into alcoholism fairly rapidly after Iwo Jima, and who died of exposure some years later. Curtis' performance in that film was actually quite a bit more dynamic than Adam Beach's performance here, although perhaps Beach's performance might have more accurately reflected Hayes. (Beach, a Canadian Indian, depicts a WWII Indian Marine here for the second time, having also played a codetalker in Windtalkers.)

Pat

[bisley45]

Pat- the pilots spotlighted in Bradley's "Flyboys" were held on Chichi Jima, which was a Japanese radio outpost. Captive pilots were forced into listening to US radio traffic and translating it, though one wonders how accurately the POWs did this, as the Japanese couldn't double-check their work.

The meat of the book lies in the poor treatment of the captured pilots by their captors, including summary executions and cannibalism. To balance that, Bradley details the US firebombing of Japanese cities, just to remind the reader that there was plenty of blame to go around.

By the by, one of Eastwood's earliest movie roles was in "The Lafayette Escadrille," which parallels the storyline of the movie "Flyboys."



Bisley 45

"Evidently, Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him."