Reviews
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
SPOILERS SPOILERS
SPOILERS ... An OK diversion despite the confused above-ground action and even more confused "burried city" geography. Great dog; fair Hero, Fair Famsel. Amazing that nobody has commented on the events of the film's last 60 seconds ... specifically the source of the meal they've just had and the food they expect will sustain their travels. Probably won't watch this a third time.
Behemoth the Sea Monster (1959)
Worse Than My Home Movies
This is a movie without use. The title tells all: Translate into English (any continental variety)...it means something very close to
"...The Giant Big."
The film itself is worse. How, exactly, did the "creators" imagine the repeated use of the same shots would be un-noticed? How, exactly, did the "director" expect his audience wouldn't notice repeated reverse shots from lines earlier in the film? etc. etc.
Don't buy. Don't rent. Don't steal.
Ignore it.
Maybe the glaciers will grind it to dust.
Der Untergang (2004)
Not Just a "Movie"
As a professional soldier (retired), I've studied many, many books, papers, studies, analyses...describing the beginning, middle, and end of the third Reich. As a descendant of German farmers, miners, soldiers, sailors, engineers, artists, etc., I've always been intensely insulted by the nazi's perversion and destruction of (what was once) one of the planet's 3 great cultures. This movie ("Downfall" in USA) is the first I've seen that addresses the fundamental fact that all the perpetrators were, initially, human. It is a warning that any of us can be convinced of the purity of our prejudices. Do you know that Traudel was about 11 years old when Hitler was elected (!)? When did your personal perspective begin? Carter? Johnson? Regan? Clinton? Who are those people? Why don't you know? Why do you know what you think you know? Watch the film, boring facts or not. But don't stop there...
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Is it possible EVERYONE missed the point?
Top of my list of 10 films. But I cannot believe ALL the user comments to date have completely missed the emotional foundation of the film. Read Kipling's "Tommy" aloud if you don't understand why Peachy and Daniel (NOT "Danny") seemed so desperate for a new place in life. Otherwise, the best movie all the participants (except Saied Jaffery...you really need to explore his Bollywood career) have ever worked. Although "Zulu" is a close near-miss for Caine.
"The Man Who Would Be King" is (as has been noted by others) one of the very rare occasions of a motion picture improving upon brilliant literature. My "A Complete Kipling", dog-eared as each volume is, has not been as often read as my VHS and then DVD of THIS film. Should a writer/director of John Houston's capacity (demonstrated, of course) appear on the scene, I'm willing to suggest a dozen other projects.
Bombers B-52 (1957)
Great Pictures: Not Much Military History
Gives great Airplane, and great Natalie Wood. Plot? Historical accuracy (in the "how the USAF worked" sense)? Naaaa. But: So what? Is it less accurate than Alfie, Goldfinger, Hamlet, Spider Man, Fahrenheit 9/11? Certainly not. Fact is, you can watch it with the sound off and lose very little. A lot of it looks like my childhood on USAF AFBs here and there. But just for the record, it takes a professional screenwriter to create and amplify the significance of the hypothetical "enlisted vs. officer" conflict. Only a Martinet(who rarely makes it past 1Lt)or a damn fool idiot (~academy puke...many of whom learn better) fails to understand that all airplanes fly not on Bernoulli's equation or jet fuel, but on sweat. Guess who's? Ask any combat pilot.
Eagerly awaiting a DVD release...my off-HBO VHS is about worn-out (same for Strategic Air Command...just bought two copies of The Hunters DVD just to emphasize flyover country interest).
The Hunters (1958)
Gives Good Airplane
First saw this in a first run theater. Last watched it as a theater projectionist in 1959...a DVD is on order. As an Air Force brat and professional, I've known several copies of all the characters in this film. They are mostly for real. Not as real as in the book perhaps (recommend the book also). If you don't recognize any of the characters in this film, then you've never been somewhere where you had to learn that you might not come home from work tonight...and that you might kill someone before you go to sleep. And enjoy it. Worth watching.
Now. For the non-historical: The "good guys'" airplanes are North American Aviation F-86 "Saber Jets". That "bad guys'" airplanes are Republic Aviation F-84F "Thunder Jets". This is perhaps the most jarring inaccuracy in the movie...but in 1958 we all understood that nobody with a herd of MiG-15s and MiG-17s was interested in helping make a movie.