Movie Reviews: 1917

1917

directed by Sam Mendes

This was a fictionalized tale that touched on the experiences of the director's grandfather during WW1.

The most noticeable thing about this film was the cinematography and photography which appears to all have been taken in one or two continuous shots. This film won various awards at the Oscars, Golden Globes and British Film Awards.

Although this is a war film it's far closer in spirit and style to Dunkirk than to Saving Private Ryan. Depicted combat is very rare though the effects of the pointless violence are constantly around for all to see. There are long periods of silence or where only a few people are talking. As much of the film's events take place in no-man's land, this makes sense though I have to say it felt unrealistic a few times. 

In part because of the sense of unreality I couldn't really get into the story's characters as easily as I might otherwise have. The characters and plot aren't all that important here. 

This is the director's film all the way from the amazing sight of lines of men jumping out of the trench and running over the green fields through the beautiful, quiet, and yet ghastly riverbanks. The colors are lush and intriguing. Close to the end of WW1, the German and British armies are locked in a grindfest in northern France. 

Joe Biden and Tara Reade Double Standards

I don't know if presumptive 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate, former Vice-President Joe Biden sexually assaulted Tara Reade in 1993. People who dislike Biden will be likely to believe that he did it. 

Alleged sexual harassment or assault aside, Biden does inarguably have a very long and public history of putting his hands on women or girls to whom he is not married and with whom he presumably has not had consensual intimacy. Biden has behaved in a way that in today's corporate world could see a man of lesser status reprimanded or even terminated. Does the existence of smoke mean that there's fire?

Biden partisans or those who just want control of the Presidency will be less likely to believe that Biden sexually assaulted Tara Reade. They will scream about Republican dirty tricks, say that Trump's gotta go no matter what, claim that Reade is a (insert contemptuous word for woman of low morals), or simply say that the Biden they know would never have done anything like that.

For too many people across the political spectrum, due process, proof, and skeptical inquiry (especially) for sexual crimes have become concepts that are ONLY to be granted to people that agree with you or look like you. They are NEVER basic human rights guaranteed to people who differ from you politically or have the "wrong" set of chromosomes. 

Donald Trump: Inject Disinfectant to Cure Coronavirus!!

In the movie Sin City, Senator Roark (Powers Boothe), the corrupt father of a pedophile rapist murderer, tells the wounded hero that the Senator could shoot the hero dead and walk away without any charges at all, because power is the ability to lie and make other people believe and repeat the lie.

I recall that way back in the day apparently insane and profoundly wicked cult nut job Reverend Jim Jones convinced, tricked or forced hundreds of previously rational but emotionally damaged people to drink poisoned Kool-Aid in Jonestown, Guyana. 

I was reminded of those people, fictional and real, because President Trump, who has also boasted of being able to shoot someone in public and walk away clean, recently asked his experts if it was the case, as he believed it might be, that the coronavirus could be treated or eliminated by the ingestion/injection of disinfectants.

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” Trump said. “Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical doctors with — but it sounds interesting to me.”LINK

Unsurprisingly, when someone says something so stupid and can't deny that he said it, he later says that he was joking. And there will be plenty of people happy to repeat that lie. 

But quizzed on his proposal Friday, Trump falsely claimed he was in fact “asking a question sarcastically to reporters” about the efficacy of disinfectants, “just to see what would happen.”

When Bears Attack!

Not every bear is as cute and cuddly as Paddington or Winnie the Pooh. When you're in the wilds of Michigan and want to feed the birds, sometimes bears show up to eat the bird food, eat the birds, eat your pets or perhaps eat you. Of course Michigan women are not that bothered by such occurrences, apparently...

CRAWFORD COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- Face to face with a bear: it is not something many of us need to experience to understand just how terrifying that situation can be. However a Grayling woman who saved her dog from a bear on Saturday, April 18, 2020, said this wasn’t the first time she crossed paths with a bear, but she said this was different.

“This whole time I’m thinking 'this bear’s not right, this bear’s not right, but I have to save my dog,'” Heather Willobee, owner of 8-year-old Lucy, said.

For Heather, it began like any other night: letting her dog Lucy outside before calling it a night. But something was off when Heather called Lucy's name.“I could see her in the light and I knew she was coming but I also knew she wasn’t coming alone and that something big was right behind her,” Willobee said. 

Movie Reviews: Gun Crazy

Gun Crazy
directed by Joseph E. Lewis

I've always liked older movies. Over the past few years I've been watching more noir films. This 1949 film, although it obviously was not explicit in terms of sex or violence, was nonetheless quite bold at how it used those two themes.

It was something which was Tarantino before its time. The script was written by blacklisted screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo.

Gun Crazy certainly had to have made an impression on Arthur Penn's later film Bonnie and Clyde, in terms of the beret wearing female lead, the innovative camera work and the automobile being used as metaphor for danger and freedom. There is a long unbroken shot from the rear of the automobile that is intoxicating. It puts the viewer in the criminals' POV.

Although as mentioned there's little here that would offend modern audiences in terms of sex/violence (people fall down wordlessly when they're shot, an attractive woman runs while wearing tight clothing) in some aspects this is an intensely sexy film. The leads had great chemistry together. People can express a tremendous amount of emotion with eyes and facial expressions.

Bart Tare (John Dall) is an aw shucks kind of guy who, despite being unwilling to harm any living creature, has since childhood been obsessed with firearms of all kinds. Not only is he a natural marksman, he works continually to improve his skills. 

Movie Reviews: Dracula Untold

Dracula Untold
directed by Gary Shore

For centuries the Ottoman Turks conquered large areas of Europe . They were turned back at Vienna twice, in 1529 and 1683. Those experiences, along with others, could explain why so much of European inspired fantasy or historical literature has themes of invasion by dark hordes from the East. 

Before the Turks could besiege Hungary and Austria and go toe to toe with the Holy Roman Empire they had to go thru Romania, or more precisely Wallachia. 

Like any small state caught between two larger states , Wallachia made the best of a bad situation. Vlad Dracul III, who became known later as Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, for his preferred method of dealing with enemies, was as a young boy along with his brother Radu, sent to Istanbul as a hostage for his father's (ruler of Wallachia's) good behavior. Neither Vlad nor his brother were well treated. They were part of the system of devshirme or blood tax, in which conquered Christian states were forced to provide thousands of young boys to the Ottomans. 

These boys would be taught Turkish, forcibly converted to Islam and trained as soldiers or state officials. Some would also be raped, something that happened to Dracula and his brother, either as punishment or just because some Turk felt like it. Christian boys were also subject to beatings, starvation and imprisonment.

While such treatment left Radu with a fear of Turks and  constant desire to please them, it caused the exact opposite reaction in the older Vlad. Well that's the history which the movie obliquely references. 

Bill Maher and Coronavirus Controversy

It's rare that Bill Maher and I are on the same side of the issue. But Maher recently pointed out something that was previously posted on this blog. The coronavirus apparently started in Wuhan, China. It is not racist to say that.



Maher did not put on yellowface and say that the virus started in China. He didn't pull up the sides of his eyelids, use racial slurs for Chinese, or deliberately affect a bad Chinese accent. Maher didn't start ranting that the pandemic proved that Chinese were inferior and should be repatriated from Western nations or exterminated altogether.