OK, so lets put on our imagination caps for a moment.  Imagine that Porky's or Stripes or Animal House had been made in '61, and for some reason it'd been set in Tokyo during the Korean War with a bunch of misfit Marines.  And lets say that they cast a bunch of nobody's and tried to wrap it in a meaningful war story.  And they hired a bunch of drunk college freshman to write the script.

Then you'd get 1961's Marines, Let's Go.  Gads.  As awful as the "war story" parts of this movie are, the entire "shore leave in Tokyo" bit is actually quite funny, if a bit juvenile.  Thankfully that takes up most of the film, because the beginning and ending sections where they're actually attempting to do some fighting are simply terrible.

And who wrote the dialog for Chatfield's Korean squeeze and her father, anyway? My God, that was actually painful to listen to.  It sounded like bad high school love poetry on acid or something.

Yes, there are plenty of Japanese stereotypes to satisfy all the PC-ers out there.  More than enough.  Actually they seem to extend this towards the Koreans, as I swore the Korean prisoner they capture at the end of the film was speaking Japanese.  Unforgivable from a continuity standpoint if true.   Pair this up with the condescending attitudes of the Marines towards the "natives" and you'll fully understand what I mean by "juvenile."

"Let's Go!" indeed.  Really I can't find fault with the performance of the Marines.  They pulled off what they were written as.  Most of the supporting cast though should go back to school, I think.  I was getting flashbacks to the beginning of "Strange Brew" where you hear Doug McKenzie behind the camera going, "Psst. Act! ACT!"

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, marines let's go, 1961, korea, usmc, japan

Well, I've seen the first three installments of Ken Burns' "The War" (Last night's is still on the DVR awaiting my eyes!) and I have to say I am impressed in a big way.

"The War" tells the story of the war mostly from the perspective of people from four US towns/cities.  Sacramento CA, Waterbury CT, Mobile AL, and Luverne MN.  As such, the entire thing carries a decided United States bias, so there's a lot of things that happened elsewhere which aren't even mentioned, or just mentioned in passing.

What you get is interviews with a handful of people from those places telling their stories.  Some of them were in the service, some of them stuck it out at home, but their stories are all equally compelling, and moving.  Some of it is kind of funny, but when you get to stories like the B-17 ball turret gunner talking about how his arm was nearly blown off and he's having to throw pellets of his frozen blood out of the turret, or the Ciarlo(?) family talking about when they received "the telegram" about their brother.... you can't help but be moved.

The other side of that is the use of stock photos and footage, mixed with a rather melancholy soundtrack, and also expertly mixed-in sound effects.  So where that stock footage shot on 8mm or whatever may have been without sound before, they've tried their best to add that in, and unless you think about it, you're not going to notice it was never there to begin with.  I was able to catch the first episode in HD and the added sound was particularly chilling in full digital 5.1.  They've managed to restrain themselves in showing the particularly graphic stuff, but they've thrown in few photos of bodies that you should be on the lookout for if the kids are around.

Complaints?  A couple.  The first is the overwhelming "PC-ness" of the thing.  Now I understand that there are stories that need to be told, but we seem to be spending a lot of time telling stories about the oppressed minorities back home, and the terribleness of the Japanese internment camps, and how women were left out to do their part back home, and ...well you see where I'm going with this.  I'm not saying those aren't all valid points that need to be discussed, stories that need to be told, and lessons that need to be learned, but it just seems to me to be a lot of time devoted to it.  People had it rough all around.

And was I correct in noticing that the Doolittle raid of April '42 went completely unmentioned?  I will have to go back and watch the first episode again to make sure it wasn't just glossed over, but I don't recall any significant time spent on it.  Seems to me that would have been an important event to spend a little time on.  And also left out was any mention of the US volunteer air effort in China, i.e. the "Flying Tigers" boys.  Maybe I'm just not remembering correctly.

Well, like I said, I am mostly impressed so far.  "The War" continues again this coming Sunday, for three more episodes.

Link: Ken Burns' "The War"

Technorati Tags: pbs, the war, world war ii 2, ken burns

Ouch, these guys don't seem to have much good to say about it.  Looks like we should be getting some good solid reviews soon, though.  Also appears to have a release from Magnolia on Dec. 14.  Just in time for Christmas! Um, yeah.

"How could these boys have gone so wrong?" De Palma asks again in his director's statement for "Redacted." In order to get at answers to that question (which is also posed by writer/director in the Iraq-themed "In the Valley of Elah"), De Palma pored over soldier's home made war videos and blogs, surfed their Web sites and YouTube postings. "Redacted," which refers to documents and images that have been cleansed of sensitive information, is De Palma's attempt to restore to documentation of the Iraq War what has been taken out.

Winner of the Silver Lion award for best director at the Venice Film Festival, "Redacted" will be screened at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 10 at 6 P.M. and Oct. 11 at 9 P.M., at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Broadway and 60th Street.

Link: Fictionalized Iraq war film, 'Redacted,' to screen at New York Film Fest -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Technorati Tags: redacted, brian de palma, iraq, casualties of war, new york film festival

I'm reading a lot of other reviews praising this movie, and quite frankly I just don't get it.

To be even more frank, I'm not sure I should even be writing this, as I honestly quit paying attention about 30 minutes into the movie.  Seriously.

One of Our Aircraft is Missing is the story of a British bomber crew who gets shot down, and bails out over the Netherlands.  From there they find help from the Dutch resistance.  What happens after that I don't know, and quite frankly I could care less.

If you make it through the film longer than I did, congratulations, you have infinite patience, which I do not.  About the only redeeming quality I saw in the part I made it through were the (I think) innovative "receding" titles, which I can't say I've seen much of in films of the day.

From there, the movie progresses into an infinitely dull conversation on board the bomber.  Which is nearly drowned out by the constant drone of the engine.  That's about all I heard.  Hummmmmmm.....  talk talk talk... Hummmmmm.....  man.  All this with no soundtrack to speak of.  Realistic?  Sure, I suppose, but man....

The acting and script seemed better suited for a stage production, and in particular the parts of the resistance that I saw were really suited for the cornfield rather than the screen.

Maybe I should have toughed it out, but I couldn't.  I was nearly falling asleep from the drone of the engines and the dull conversation.  Maybe someone can explain to me why One of Our Aircraft is Missing is such a lauded film and I may give it a second look when I'm tanked on caffeine or something.

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, one of our aircraft is missing, 1942, peter ustinov, raf, bombers, world war ii 2

In the eternal words of the almighty Beavis.... "Fire. FIRE!"

1971's Raid on Rommel has plenty of it.  And gunfire, and explosions.  Unfortunately the sound effects folks used the same clips.  Over and over again.  Which makes for a fairly monotonous exercise.

The plan is for Captain Foster (Richard Burton) of the British 5th Commando unit to get himself captured and from there stage a raid to take out the shore gun emplacements at Tobruk, in North Africa round about 1943.  Well, of course it doesn't go as planned, and he winds up escorting a group made up of medics and objectors, along with an Italian general's squeeze into the fight.

Just what was the purpose of having Vivi (Danielle De Metz) in this anyway, except as a brief moment of comic relief and something better to look at than Capt. Schroeder (Karl-Otto Alberty) and desert sand?!  Who knows.

Well, along the way they get sidetracked into burning down an Afrika Corps. fuel depot to immobilize the two Panzer divisions they find along the way.  That little exercise alone takes way too long in screen time.

Then there's the final battle.  What is with the editing here?  I lost count of how many times we saw the same clip of the same three or four guys rappelling down the side of the cannon bunker.  At least ten.  Here is the most monotonous bit of sound you'll come across.  Endless identical explosions and ricochets.  Argh.

Oh, and then there's a couple of strange moments when a member of the team gets shot, and there's some sort of freeze frame with an odd sound...  Eh?  And how can we forget the audio overlay of one of Hitler's speeches as they storm the bunker.  What is that?

Really, I remember watching this a lot, a long time ago on good old WGN and company back in the day, and for some reason don't recall it being this, well, awful.  Burton's performance is just dull, sort of reminds me of a less tongue-in-cheek version of McGoohan's No. 6 in The Prisoner.  At least No. 6 was somewhat funny.  And the rest?  Well, apart from a rare glimpse at John Colicos acting outside of a Cylon basestar there's not much else to say. 

I will give Wolfgang Preiss kudo's for his acting in the part of Rommel, though.  Even though, yet again, we seem to be somewhat celebrating him, as the Doctor and the General have a nice civilized discussion about stamp collecting, and he seems to take a genuine interest in the men in the hospital tent....

Ah well.  Couple all of the above with a soundtrack that is just overly pomp-and-circumstance and you've got Raid on Rommel.  Worth a gander if nothing else is on, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, raid on rommel, 1971, richard burton, karl-otto alberty, john colicos, wolfgang preiss, afrika corps, 1943, tobruk

If there's one thing I've learned from watching movies for this site, it's the respect and admiration a lot of critics have for director Lewis Milestone.  In 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front, he explores the experience of a young German who eagerly signs up for duty in the army during the first World War, and is quickly shown exactly what it means to be a solider.  It's based on the novel by the same name (which I have yet to read) by Erich Maria Remarque.

I've basically outlined the story for you already.  A German schoolboy named Kat (Louis Wolheim) joins up for the army after a rather overplayed exposition by his teacher.  Really this opening sequence almost put me off the movie entirely.  The overzealous preaching of the teacher, coupled with the giddy "oooo sign me up!" actions of the kids, topped off by the trashing of the classroom in excitement and patriotic fury... it's a bit much.  But I suspect that's on purpose, just to show how over the top a lot of propaganda and flag waving can get.

But he signs up, and is shipped off from his peaceful little German burb, to a nearly decimated city someplace else near the front, and is quickly initiated into soldierhood.  The shells start falling nearly as soon as they're off the train, and some of his squad mates meet their doom early on.

From there he waits, quivering in a bunker with the rest of his mates as the shells fall around them.  Trying their wits and nerves, and even the grisled veterans are visibly nervous and scared.

Then it begins, they're called to action in the trenches, and Milestone makes his statement about the pointlessness of it all.  The encroaching Allied forces getting cut down by machine guns, overrunning the trenches and the messy close-quarters combat that ensues.  Then they're pushed back, only to have the tables turned as the Germans make an advance on their lines, to suffer nearly the exact same fate.

I'm going somewhat out of order here, so bear with me....  There's a section where Kat returns home, lauded as a hero, but he wants none of it.  Called back to that same classroom to tell his glorious tales of battle, he winds up telling quite the opposite tale, of being scared out of his mind, and of the horrors he's seen, much to the dismay of his patriotic teacher.

In another segment, he's pinned down in a hole with the body of a French soldier whom he had to kill, and we're treated to some more of that Milestone pontification that seems to permeate his films to the core.

And there is a lot of that.  Although its fit in much better here than in other Milestone pictures such as the dull "A Walk in the Sun", and even the more mainstream "The Halls of Montezuma."  The squad talks about the usual Milestone topics: Why are we here, fighting? What does it mean? Does anybody really care?....  You get the point.

How does it end?  Well, on that note I was a bit disappointed, but I suppose it fits with the entire theme of the picture.  Be it a little too "art school" for my tastes.

Even for the early days of "talking" cinema, this film can get a bit intense.  And given the era, I can't really fault the performance of anyone, I mean in 1930 "movie acting" was still a new art, and the cast really isn't full of your typical "stars" to speak of.

Sure All Quiet on the Western Front is more "anti" war at its core than a lot of pictures (aren't most of them anyway?) and it's told from the "enemy" point of view....  But this isn't a picture about us vs. them, or historical events, or any of that.  It's a thoughtful look into the events and experiences that (as they say) turn boys into men, and men into crying little boys again, and that scar their souls for the rest of their lives.

And in that respect it truly is a classic war movie.

Technorati Tags: war movie review, all quiet on the western front, 1930, world war i 1, lewis milestone, erich maria remarque, louis wolheim

Just a reminder to set those VCR's and DVR's.  PBS's and Ken Burns' epic documentary mini-series "The War" starts this Sunday night, Sept. 23.  The seven two to two-and-a-half hour episodes will air each Sun-Wed evening over two weeks...  Here's a breakdown of the episodes and the dates they'll cover.  (apologies to those involved for the cut-n-paste on the episode summaries!)

I will say I'm a little miffed they chose to debut this right during the big networks' "premiere" week.  Which means I'll be relegated to watching this off the DVR in SD instead of HD, since I'll lose the battle for the set!

Sun. 9/23 "A Necessary War": 12/41 - 12/42  (Debut: The story of World War II is related through the eyes of ordinary people. First up: "A Necessary War," which summarizes the war and its cost (some 50 million lives).)

Mon. 9/24 "When Things Get Tough": 1/43 - 12/43  (The events of 1943, including U.S. forces engaging Rommel's panzer divisions in North Africa, where success eludes them until Patton takes command. Also: bombing raids over Europe; the Allied invasion of Sicily and southern Italy.)

Tues. 9/25 "A Deadly Calling": 11/43 - 6/44  (The November 1943 Army-Marine Corps assault on Tarawa in the Pacific and the reaction to color footage of the battle shown in the U.S. are recalled. Also: The drive north in Italy stalls at Monte Cassino.)

Wed. 9/26 "Pride of Our Nation": 6/44 - 8/44  (The events of June 6, 1944 (D-Day), when Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, are recalled by several veterans who took part. While the casualty toll is huge, the victory enables the Allies to push the Germans out of France.)

Sun. 9/30 "FUBAR": 9/44 - 12/44  (By September 1944, Allied success in Europe leads some to believe the war will soon end, but U.S. and British forces on the German border face a fuel shortage; a plan to drop airborne troops behind enemy lines goes awry.)

Mon. 10/1 "The Ghost Front": 12/44 - 3/45  (On Dec. 16, 1944, the Nazis launch a counteroffensive in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg. This Battle of the Bulge (as it came to be known) catches the Allies by surprise.)

Tues. 10/2 "A World Without War": 3/45 - 12/45  (The final months of World War II are chronicled. Included: the death of FDR; Germany's surrender; the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.)

Link: The War | PBS  (be sure to grab the PDF "Viewer's Guide" for a detailed look at what's to come!)

Technorati Tags: war movie news, pbs, ken burns, the war