“On
the morning of July 1, 1916, 120,000 British soldiers prepared to fight the
greatest battle of the First World War on what would be the worst day in
British military history.” A sentence like that may sum up what happened at The Somme, but to truly understand
and appreciate the sacrifices that were made that day -- sacrifices on both
sides of the trenches – you need to settle back and watch the three movies
included in this excellent collection. The first film, The Somme, gives us an
overview of the battle by using historical footage and historical reenactments
to recreate what life – and death – was like for the soldiers who fought that
day. Battle of the Somme: The True Story is a documentary that delves a bit
deeper into the historical narrative of the film to separate actual footage
from propaganda film used to inspire those left behind. Finally, the aptly
titled Instruments of Death: The Great War – The Somme 1916 explains in great
detail how modern warfare changed forever with the battle along The Somme.
There
have been a lot of movies made about Stalin’s reign of terror, but far too many
of them have focused on the ‘terror’ side of the equation with all the subtlety
of a sledge hammer. They try to shock the audience without ever taking the time
to give them characters they can understand and identify with. For her movie,
writer/director Marleen Gorris (Mrs Dalloway), working from an autobiography by
Eugenia Ginzburg, takes a much different, and in a way much more successful
approach. In telling her story of the Stalin purges, she focus on the story of
one woman and lets what she goes through on a personal level speak for a
nation. It helps, of course, that she has an actress as talented as Emily
Watson to play the lead, and watching Watson navigate the emotional waters of
the role is an absolute treat. The story falters a bit along the way, with the
high level of tension that Gorris builds in the pre-arrest days of Ginzburg’s
life strangely missing from the scenes in the gulag. The journey ends on a
note, though, that makes the trip worthwhile.
Like
a lot of great storytellers before him, Matt Reynolds is obsessed. Unlike a lot
of those artists, who have been obsessed with everything from a woman to a
great white whale, Reynolds is obsessed with the wings of a flightless farmyard
bird – particularly when they are fried to golden perfection and dipped in a
spicy sauce. The lengths that he goes to find the perfect chicken wing are
impressive, if a bit nuts: 16 days, 72 stops, 2,627 miles and 270 types of
wings. If this was a Food Network special, the film would be all about the
wings, how they are made and what makes that special one perfect. While the
ultimate goal of the trip may be to find that perfect wing, the film is more of
an exploration of obsession, friendship and endurance than about anything the
people in the film actually eat. You get just enough back-story on each of the
people that Reynolds invites along on his quest to make them stand out as
individuals, and the way they all deteriorate along the way as the miles and
chicken bones pile up is fascinating.
You
might look at the cover and wonder if it’s worth it, if you will enjoy watching
a 29-year old film of a musical that made its Broadway debut in 1976. Well
don’t think about it too much, because the answer is a resounding YES. Directed
by Richard Attenborough (Gandhi, Chaplin) the film follows a group of young
(and not-so-young) dancers as they go through a hellish audition process before
a talented jerk of a director named Zach (Michael Douglas). While some of the
situations may come across as a bit dated
and cliché – the old chorus girl trying to keep up with her younger
competition, the gay chorus boy trying to prove his family that real men dance,
too – the cast does a pretty good job of making them feel alive. The same goes
for the music, although "Dance Ten looks Three,” once a show-stopper is a
bit embarrassing now. Best part of all is the dancing, which Attenborough
captures with a visual flair that is sorely missing from the majority of modern
dance movies, where the editing does the heavy lifting. In A Chorus Line, you
know the people on screen are dancing
for real and it’s brilliant.
Modern day action movie makers need to study this 1976 film from director Alan J.
Pakula (Klute) to rediscover how to build tension – and maintain it – over the
course of a film. And Pakula, in telling the story of two Washington Post
correspondents who uncover a political scandal that eventually forces a
president to retire, does it without any car chases or explosions or huge
complicated stunts. There isn’t a shot fired in the entire movie. He does it,
instead, with the basic building blocks of movie narrative – pacing, plot,
believable dialogue and a talented cast who can make even asking what time it
is sound like an important clue. The extras on the DVD do a great job of
putting the film –and the historic moments it covers – into context, but the
main thing here is and always will be watching Robert Redford and Dustin
Hoffman break the news.
This bleakly hilarious film from director Phil
Morrison (Junebug) stars Paul Giamatti as Dennis, an ex-con trying to find his
way back in a society that has moved on since he went away, Not only is his
wife now sleeping with his best friend/partner in crime, Rene (Paul Rudd) but
she actually told their daughter he was dead rather than admit he’d gone to
prison. To make some money, money he plans to use to buy his daughter the piano
of her dreams, Dennis takes a job with Rene selling Christmas trees in NYC.
What follows is a series of increasingly outrageous scenes where Rene and
Dennis learn everything but the meaning of Christmas. The story gets a bit too
outlandish at times, but Giamatti and Rudd are always interesting to watch.
In
this classic episode from 1966 (Story #29), the Tardis and her crew -- The Doctor (William Hartnell in his last
regular appearance in the role) and his companions Ben and Polly (Michael Craze
and Anneke Wills) l-- are on the South Pole of the future (1986). The join a
scientific expedition that is studying the Earth’s long forgotten twin planet,
Mondas, home of one of the series most famous villains, The Cybermen. It’s
fascinating to watch the first doctor go toe-to-toe with the Cybermen in their
first incarnation, especially since this is one of the legendary lost episodes
of the series and episode 4 had to be recreated using existing sound and new
animation. The way the torch is passed form the first Doctor to his successor
is a bit outdated, but still fascinating.
