A Bridge Too Far is a long and complex look at the spectacularly failed Operation Market Garden, where Allied troops were to drop behind enemy lines into Holland and take bridges to support an advancing ground force in September 1944.  As history has shown, it didn't go as planned.  At all.

This movie is rather long (3 hrs) and for the first two, is a mixture of rather dull scenes of talking-head-generals discussing strategy and a disjointed and confusing following of no less than five different groups going after their respective goals.

The problem here is that once they get going into a bit with one of the groups, a battle begins, we're abruptly taken away to another force who's either doing nothing, or doing something seemingly unrelated.

The last hour chronicles the final failing hours of the operation, and is actually quite a moving bit of film.  If you've made it that far, that is.  A "reel too far" maybe.

The ensemble cast is spectacular: Caan, Connery, Redford, Gould, Olivier, Hackman, Hopkins... they all do marvelous jobs.  It's just there are too many things going on here, too many interlude stories, and too many talking heads to try and keep track of.  If they'd focused on just a couple less, it might've made for a far more compelling story.

Technorati Tags: war movies, film, a bridge too far, operation market garden, 1944, world war ii

Saigon.

Shit.

Few movies could pull off opening with those two words.  Apocalypse Now is that movie.  Period.

Apocalypse Now:Redux is a "director's cut" of sorts which puts back several scenes / episodes into the film that were dropped from its initial 1979 release.  Additionally it puts back the original ending.

A.N. is the story of one already-unstable Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen) and his top-secret mission to "terminate the command" of one Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone stark raving mad and disappeared into the jungles of Cambodia.

Of course most of the film isn't so much about that, as it is about getting there, and how Willard prepares himself (and events prepare *him*) to meet this madman.

Along the way we're exposed to a lot of general madness.  A gung-ho surfer-dude Colonel in search of the perfect break, tigers in the bush, Playboy bunnies, the battle for a bridge that has gone completely out of control, what should be a routine riverboat insepction, native spear and arrow attacks...

... and in this release a couple of other deviations, namely the re-appearance of the aforementioned bunnies at a more-or-less abandoned "wild west" station, and the discovery of a group of French colonials defending their "plantation" in the midst of the war, complete with proper table settings.

I'm not sure putting these scenes back in was a good idea.  A lot of times the "director's cut" of a film rings truer to the original "vision" of a film.  If that's the case here, then its probably for the best that these scenes were dropped.  While the original "episodes" served to illustrate the madness of war, and prepare Willard somewhat for his final encounter, these two additions just don't make much sense at all.  The re-visited bunnies scene just comes across as twisted and morbid, and the French colonials just a boring sidestep.  I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind that bit being filmed, but the first?  It's just too "out there", even for this movie.

Of course eventually he and the remaining personnel on board "PBR Streetgang" finally meet up with Kurtz, and the journey towards madness is complete.  For both Kurtz and Willard.  The insanity of Kurtz is played brilliantly by Brando here.  And if nothing else, Dennis Hopper's short performance as the just-plain-weird photographer under Kurtz's spell is nothing short of genius.

I'm not going to spoil the ending, but the superimposition of the native's sacrifice with Willard's execution of his duties gets the message across.  Loud and clear.

The "fixing" of the final scenes in this version also tells us what happened to Willard.  The original it wasn't quite clear if he made it out before... well, I guess you'll have to see both to find out.





Technorati Tags: war movies, apocalypse now redux, vietnam, madness, dvd, reviews

In this sequel to the eternal 1961 classic The Guns of Navarone, two of the same characters return to join a new mission and a new squad into enemy territory.  The result doesn't carry the same punch or weight as the original, but still puts Force 10 From Navarone into the realm of the semi-classic Saturday afternoon fare.

Of course that's partly due to the replacement of Peck and Niven in the roles of Mallory (Robert Shaw) and Miller (Edward Fox).  But hey, it is 16 years since the original, so what do we want, right?  The leader of this mission is Lt. Col. Barnsby, played by the newly-made-famous-as-Han-Solo Harrison Ford.  And unfortunately, he's just merely average here.  Also along for the ride (literally in the sense of the film) is Carl Weathers as Sgt. Weaver.

Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher's Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.

The style of the film is a little interesting. You'll quickly notice that "above ground" things are all in black-and-white, while "below" everything is in color. This makes perfect sense, as we start the film in B/W with a horrific and brief look at Hitler's rise to power.

"Whatever the Dirty Dozen did they do it dirtier!"

Well, I don't know about that. I do know that the Italian made 70's B-movie campfest Inglorious Bastards was surprisingly a lot of fun. This despite an obvious low-budget production, mediocre writing, and even more mediocre acting. Hey, this is late 70s cheese at its finest. I can see why Quentin Tarantino is looking at remaking this, its right up his alley. I suspect his will be even more cheesy, though, as he has a tendency to amplify this sort of thing... Anyway!

Our band of GI prisoners escape their transport in 1944 France. Led by the rogue Lt. Yeager (Bo Svenson), and featuring Fred Williamson (of Black Caesar, and MASH fame) as the cocky killer Canfield.... plus tagalongs Tony (Peter Hooten), the cleptomaniac Nick (Michael Pergolani), and the shell-shocked Berle (Jackie Basehart). From there they try to fight their way to Switzerland, and presumably freedom. Along the way they pick up an escaped German criminal-slash-escapee, Adolf (Raimund Harmstorf).

There are some movies which simply defy a proper explanation.  Kelly's Heroes is just one of those movies.

Really this is a good film.  It follows a band of misfit soldiers as they head out on their own in search of a stash of Nazi gold behind enemy lines.  Of course with any film like this, getting there is 90% of the fun, and Kelly's Heroes doesn't disappoint.

The adventures (if you want to call them that) they get into range from the normal wartime far (getting stuck in a minefield) to the bizarre (taking out a rail station with the tanks) and even the intense (eliminating the enemy resistance around the bank.)

What's the problem then?  Well, if you take a decent World War II action movie, and add a dash of vintage 1960's "flower power" soundtrack from Hell in the Pacific and THX 1138 soundtrack wiz Lalo Schifrin, with a healthy (?) heaping helping of 60's hippie "positive waves, man"... and you get this.  The end result is an enigma, albeit a humorous one, there's no denying that.

If you can put aside the cultural transplants, you'll really get a kick out of this one.  Clint Eastwood plays Private Kelly in usual gruff, hardcore, textbook Eastwood style, which I suppose makes him the straight man in all this comedy.  Telly Savales is there as "Big Joe," in an equally gruff, but still likable role.  Then you've got Don Rickles as "Crapgame" the dealing quartermaster, Carroll O'Connor as the damn-funny general Colt, and the equally enigmatic Harry Stanton as Willard.

Of course the real star of the picture is Sgt. Oddball (Donald Sutherland) and his gang of tank driving hippies, including "Moriarity" (Gavin McLeod.)  These guys steal the show whole heartedly, even though their presence and actions present the biggest puzzler of the show.

And who can not mention the ever type-cast Karl-Otto Alberty as the German tank commander they coerce into helping them get the gold. (Whoops! Spoiled it!)

If there's a flaw to Kelly's Heroes its the ending.  It'd have been nice to see them try to get the gold out of the town and out of Europe, but then you're looking at probably another good hour of movie.  (What?! No sequel?)

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, kelly's heroes, 1970, clint eastwood, telly savales, don rickles, carroll o'connor, donald sutherland, positive waves man

So is M*A*S*H a "war movie" or an "anti-war movie?"  It's been called both, and I think they're right on both counts.  Robert Altman's 1970 masterpiece which spawned the spinoff TV series comes at you from both directions, dead serious and dead funny. All at the same time.

It follows the doctors of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH!) in Korea during the war.  Some of which were drafted and wind up there by fate, others are "regular army clowns" who seem to live for this stuff.

Now, if you've never seen the movie, but only seen the TV series, you need to take everything you think you know, and just throw it out the window.  About the only common traits the two have is the name, the location, and the characters' names.  And Radar.  He'd be the only actor that stuck around for the series.

There are lots of things which make MASH an incredible movie.  Not the least of which are the performances from a stellar ensemble cast.  Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, and yes even the infamous Gary Burghoff.

MASH jumps between hilarious episodes, filmed with brilliant vision by Altman (my favorite is the "Last Supper" table) and the dead seriousness of their situation.

While watching this, you also realize how much of this you probably couldn't get away with in a movie today without having the riot act read to you. It's damn funny, but given the climate of today you don't really want to laugh in case someone sees you. 

One of the problems though, is a lot of the humor is so subtle and "dry" that its lost on a lot of folks.  There's a lot of things that if you're not paying close attention, you'll miss the point.  The style is a bit disjointed and irregular, and could also put a few people off.  Once you get used to the strange cuts and angles, and realize what's going on, you'll get the hang of it.

It's been called an "anti-war" movie, and I suspect that's for a few reasons, probably more to do with the period it was made (at the height of Vietnam) and the way it belittles Army life as a series of mishaps connected by madness.

Of course, in a way, all good war movies are "anti-war" to some degree.

That is all.

Technorati Tags: korean war, war movies, m*a*s*h, mash, 4077th, review