Movie Reviews

Fauda: Israeli Series in The War on Terror Is Gritty, Brutal, Must-Watch TV

It isn’t often that I get surprised like this weekend when a very good friend of mine mentioned the Netflix series “Fauda” that is produced in Israel. He and his wife had been watching it and called me to recommend it. The exact words were, “if you like ‘Homeland’ then you’ll love Fauda”

The story centers around an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Special Operations/Intelligence team which is part of the Commando Brigade that works across the border into the Palestinian territory. The 24-part, two-season series begins with the protagonist Doron Kavillio who was part of the team but stepped away when family issues arose. He’s called back when Israeli intelligence learns that a senior terrorist, Taufiq Hammed, Doron believed he killed 18 months earlier, is alive and preparing to resurface for his brother’s wedding. Hammed, who goes by the codename “The Panther” is the most wanted man in Season 1.

Fauda which means chaos in Arabic was developed by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff who based the story off of many of their own experiences while serving in the IDF’s Duvdevan Unit. Doron and his team, are part of a Mista’arvim unit, who are specially trained units that are tasked with working undercover in the Arab areas with their ability to assimilate in the cities and towns. And their operations are seldom without events going awry as they frequently do and the very first operation at the wedding is a testament to that.

What makes Fauda so damned compelling is the outstanding character development on both sides of the border. While the story centers around “the unit” as they call themselves, they are hardly just the forces of good here. Each of the characters has his flaws, none as much as the hard-boiled Doron. If you’re looking for a suave, debonair James Bond-type character in a tuxedo and driving an Aston Martin, Fauda isn’t for you.

Doron is a shorter, heavy-set, balding, foul-tempered badass with a permanent five o’clock shadow. His marriage is falling apart, his wife is screwing another member of the unit after he ignored her for several years. In one moment Doron is seen cuddling and cooing with his children whom he adores, the next, he breaks the teeth out of a Palestinian suspect with over the top brutality.

When a member of the unit gets kidnapped by Hamas, Donor snatches the terrorist’s daughter and when they’re doing a prisoner exchange, straps one of the Palestinian suicide vests on the seven-year-old girl threatening to blow her to bits. No, this isn’t your father’s John Wayne hero here. But at the same time, whenever he’s onscreen, you can’t take your eyes off of Doron, he’s like a wolf in the backyard. He may not be exerting any overt hostility but you have to watch him because he’s apt to explode at any second.

Captain Gabi Ayub, the Israeli interrogator is another compelling character. The suave, slightly oily Gabi is a master manipulator. He knows exactly which buttons to push. In one scene, his eyes look positively doe-like while he talks to a Palestinian mother about saving her children. The next moment after another woman tells an Israeli female interrogator to “Shut up you Zionist bitch.” Gabi turns on the devil eyes. He storms into the room and tells the pregnant Palestinian that he’ll make her suffer a miscarriage in exactly one minute if she doesn’t tell him what he needs to know.

I’ve read that the show is a smash hit not only in Israel but in Palestine as well. The Hamas, ISIS and Palestinian Authority players get the same treatment, they are far from the one-dimensional characters that we’re used to seeing on screen. The very evenhandedness by the producers towards the Palestinians is one of the biggest draws of the show. The series shows both points of view in every scenario and takes great pains to show the plight of the Palestinians. While little is shown about the West Bank and the border other than the benign checkpoints, the contrast between the Israeli countryside and the rundown, seedy Palestinian territory is stark.

Nowhere is the plight of the Palestinians shown better than the tragic case of Dr. Shirin Al Abed. A half-French, half Palestinian woman of 32, whose husband died of MS. She spent most of her life in Paris, worked for Doctors Without Borders and only moved to Palestine to be closer to her mother.

Shirin is forced to work for Hamas after they kidnap her mother. He gets taken advantage of from both sides. Doron goes undercover and woos here while telling her he is a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security. Her life gets turned upside down as she’s caught up in the intrigue and bloody killing that she wanted no part of.

Although the story is told basically from the standpoint of the unit, the differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians gets mighty blurry. Both sides threaten, torture and kill with increasing reckless abandon. Both the unit and the terror cells have big issues with individuals losing discipline, ignoring orders and going off on killing sprees.

The one thing Doron, Hammed and in Season 2, al-Makdasi have in common is the personal enmities and blind hate the characters have for one another that trumps their duties and responsibilities.

The action, though bloody isn’t too graphic, it is, however, very gritty. Israel likes to tout its army as the “most moral military in the world” but Fauda lays waste to that claim and Doron and the unit, routinely snatch Palestinians off the street, torture and beat their captives in an attempt to gather information and kill the Palestinians with callous disregard.

The series shows the awful price of the type of war that the two sides are fighting both physically and mentally. And the price paid by the families in this series is very steep. And like all wars, there are very, very few black and white issues, but various shades of grey. Are there plot holes in the series? Yes. Were there believability issues as well? At times, sure. It is like that with virtually every film Hollywood has done.

But if you tune into to Season 1, clear your calendar. As I said I was surprised and in a good way. I binge watched all 24 episodes this weekend and can’t wait for Season 3. This is most recommended and despite it being broadcast in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles, it doesn’t take away from the story at all.

Photo Netflix

Top Five Must Watch Films for Independence Day

Happy 4th of July to all of our readers out there. In honor of our Independence Day and the fact the weather is calling for a continuation of the heat wave that is consuming the Northeast with temps in the mid-to-high 90s with the heat index of well over 100 degrees, I plan on being a lazy bones today and sit in the air conditioning all day and watch a list of appropriate films for the day.

About dusk, we’ll grill some steaks that have been marinating all day, give a birthday wish to the Bulldog (her papers say English but her birthday is American as they come), and then watch the town fireworks from our front lawn, since they’re only a block away.

Since we’re not expecting company until about 8 p.m. I don’t have to worry about putting on a film fest for all types, it is a military-themed (what did you expect?) group of films with a couple of Revolutionary War flicks thrown in to fall in with the whole spirit of the holiday.

So, since this is my list and I am watching in my house, my five Independence Day Holiday Film fest features are as follows:

Northwest Passage: 1940 Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, and Walter Brennan. Filmed in Technicolor. Shot on location in Oregon and Idaho, Northwest Passage was a big budget film shot in 1939 and depicts Rogers Rangers moving against the French and Indians in what was supposed to be New Hampshire and Canada.

Gorgeously shot in Technicolor, this was the era of the big movie studios and Tracy as Robert Rogers was fantastic as he leads his Rangers against the Abenaki Indians. Today, the depiction of the Native Americans in this film was awful, although it correctly displayed the American colonists’ views of the Indians at that time.

The action scene where the Rangers attack the Abenaki village, done long before the days of CGI was one of the best film action sequences of the big studio era and the Rangers are shown using muskets and tomahawks as they would have in that era. The uniforms are much more realistic as well with the Rangers favoring the green tops and bottoms that blended into the New Hampshire landscape.

There is a particularly gruesome scene that was way ahead of its time in 1939. A Ranger loses his mind while laughing maniacally and clutching something wrapped up in his ruck. He keeps repeating to the other Rangers if they were smart they wouldn’t have to eat parched corn. After crawling behind a large boulder. Rogers follows and finds him eating the head of an Indian.

Tracy and the lead actors didn’t use stunt doubles in another excellent scene where the Rangers must make a human chain to cross a raging river. The only issue with the film is the title. The Northwest Passage mission is given to Rogers at the very end of the film, as they initially planned on a sequel. If you’ve never seen this film, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Kelly’s Heroes, 1970, Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles, and Carroll O’Connor, filmed 30 years later, this satirical look at the stupidity and waste in the war set in the backdrop of World War II in Europe turns into a caper film and a dark comedy.

Eastwood is Kelly, a former officer who was given the order to attack a hill held by Americans and is busted to private. He captures a German colonel and while getting him cocked on good brandy in order to get military information, he learns the Colonel is in charge of a shipment of gold bullion being shipped to Germany.

Kelly assembles a wacky cast of characters including a whacked-out tank commander in Donald Sutherland who seems more like a hippie in the 1960s than a tanker with three Sherman tanks under his command. OddBall,(Sutherland) has a group of troops who more resemble pirates than armor soldiers. Crapgame (Don Rickles) is a black market profiteer of a supply sergeant who crawls out of his hole only when he smells a profit.

The crew of Kelly’s along with OddBall’s tanks goes 30 miles behind enemy lines to hit a bank guarded by three German Tiger tanks and a company of infantry. It is being held in a bank. The men plan on hitting the bank, splitting up the gold and getting back before their hair-brained commander CPT Maitland, even realizes they are gone.

Things go horribly awry when General Colt (O’Connor) gets intel reports that his troops are conducting a breakthrough deep behind enemy lines and gets his entire army chasing the men, thinking that they’re hard chargers and not bank robbers.

One German SS Tank Commander holds out in the center of town. Two Shermans are destroyed and the other, OddBall’s is broken down. Crapgame, who was wounded tells Big Joe (Savalas) and Kelly, “make a deal.” Big Joe asks, “What kind of a deal?” Crapgame smiles, “a deal, deal. Maybe the guy is a Republican.”

Kelly makes a deal with the SS tank commander after a classic Sergio Leone moment when the Americans walk up to the tank like the OK Corral, complete with spaghetti western music. The SS tanker had no idea he was guarding gold and the Americans and Germans depart as friends and much richer moments before the American Army and General Colt (a caricature of General Patton) arrive in town.

The Patriot, 2000, Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs, Tom Wilkinson, this one was filmed in South Carolina 30 years after Kelly Heroes….hmm noticing a trend here? Our second Revolutionary War film and historically, a farce, however as a Revolutionary War action film, it was excellently done. Gibson is Benjamin Martin, a former officer who fought for the British during the French and Indian War. His massacre of the Indians that is alluded to in the film makes him a pacifist with the Revolution approaching. His character is loosely (very loosely) based on Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox.

His baser instincts return and he joins the “Cause” after his young son is murdered by the evil Colonel Tavington expertly played by Isaacs. I had the pleasure of working on another war film with him (Green Zone) and Isaacs explained he gets these type of roles “because I can play a perfect prick” with ease. The British officers are all mindless fops or bloodthirsty murderers. My Brit friends hate the way they are depicted in this film, which is a staple in Gibson’s films. And they have good reason to.

General Cornwallis was nicely done by the outstanding character actor Tom Wilkinson. Cornwallis is trying to sweep the Rebels out of the Carolinas so that he can join the battle against Washington farther north.

The battle scenes are bloody and the violence in this one is quite graphic and not recommended for the younger crowd, especially when Martin tomahawks a group of English soldiers holding his son prisoner. Forget the obvious gaffes on the history and get lost in a period action film and enjoy great performances by Gibson, Isaacs, and Wilkinson.

Another interesting tidbit. About 9 years after this was made, I had the opportunity to work with Wilkinson in Israel on a spy film about the Mossad, “The Debt” with Helen Mirren. He was a very down-to-earth personable man and when we got on the subject of the Patriot, he told me that he’s never seen it.

Soon after filming was completed, he signed up for a film in Asia which ran much longer than envisioned so he missed the premiere. When he finished that film project, he quickly did a few others and he said, the next thing he knew, the film was far back in his mind. When recounting some of his scenes, including the ones with Isaacs, he laughed and said, “you remember those lines much better than I do, so I will have to get a copy of that and watch it now.”

Independence Day, 1996, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Randy Quaid is a cliche-filled, Red, White and Blue flag-waving extravaganza. The script was singularly awful but the star of the film is the action and especially the gorgeous special effects which raise this from a pot-boiler to a must-see action film. But hey how the hell can you be watching a July 4th film fest and not have this one in there.

The characters are straight out of comic books with the resultant cliched lines. “Today is our Independence Day!” where a wimpy President (Pullman) who used to be a hot-shot fighter jock flies the assault against those bad aliens. A worse line by Harry Connick Jr. in a small part, “They won’t let fly the Space Shuttle if you marry a stripper.” Ugh, but for every cliche and stereotypical character, there are those awesome action scenes which 22 years later, still stand the test of time.

Randy Quaid, as the boozy, crop duster pilot who flew in Nam and was taken by the aliens is typically hilarious. “Hello, boys….I’mmmmmmmm Baaaaaack!” This film has to be included in any 4th of July list despite the issues with the film itself. And there can only be one other film more apt for the 4th of July.

Gettysburg, 1993, Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Richard Jordan, Sam Elliott, Stephen Lang, C. Thomas Howell This sweeping epic was a meticulously done Civil War film was a marathon (258 minutes) that will keep you riveted to your seat for the entire thing. There were none of the old cliches seen in this film.

Wonderfully crafted by the book, “The Killer Angels” the main characters from the book and the key players on both the Union and Confederate sides come to life. Jeff Daniels is outstanding as Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the theology professor from Maine who leads the 20th Maine to hold the end of the Union line on Little Round Top on the second day of the battle and may have possibly saved the Union on that day.

Chamberlain’s men held off several assaults by Confederate forces intent on taking that hill. Now exhausted, outnumbered and out of ammunition, Chamberlain rallies his men and leads them on a charge down the hill and breaks up the attack for good.

Tom Berenger is very good as General Longstreet who tries unsuccessfully to talk General Robert E. Lee out of making that final brutal frontal assault. Lee played by Martin Sheen was arguably the most wooden of the cast. But his men who would follow him thru the gates of hell itself cover up whatever flaws his characterization produced.

Richard Jordan, as General Lewis Armistead gave arguably the best performance of his life and his last. He died of a brain tumor shortly after filming. Armistead is torn between his loyalty to his army and his state and the vow he made to his best friend, Winfield Scott Hancock the commander of the Union troops facing his, that if he ever raised a hand against Hancock, may God strike him dead. Armistead leads the Confederate advance during Pickett’s charge and makes the furthest advance of the charge, “the high water mark” of the Confederacy.

The film was beautifully filmed and used thousands of extras from the countless Civil War reenactors who are decked out perfectly down the buttons on their uniforms, in realism that Hollywood only dreams of producing.

While we marvel at the bravery and courage of the men of both sides, the horror and the awful cost of the war, using outmoded Napoleonic tactics are all too common here. Over 51,000 men became casualties in just three days of fighting.

This was a great war film and was expertly done. Filmed on location in Gettysburg, PA, it gets all of the things we usually find fault in most war films right. They don’t waste their time with the old cliches. This was as accurate a war film that you’ll find. Pop it in the DVD and enjoy.

Photos: Wikipedia

After Families are Gone Home, Enjoy an Easter Epic, Ben-Hur

Unlike some of the other times of the year when we glued to the screen watching action films that coincide with the particular time of year, there aren’t too many what we’d call “Easter” themed films. But after we celebrate what Easter is all about and enjoy our time with our families, there are a couple of personal favorites that I always pop in the DVD at this time of the year.

The best is the epic 1959 (not the remake) of Ben-Hur. This actually has the events of Jesus in Jerusalem as a backdrop but it weaves the story brilliantly throughout. It also will appeal to the action film genre by having the climactic chariot race, where no expense was spared in the realism of the danger involved.

There was also a large naval battle scene where the Roman navy takes on Macedonian pirates using miniatures that for 1959 was pretty high speed. Of course, there was no CGI that filmmakers use today.

Charlton Heston was cast as the protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy merchant and Jew from Jerusalem. He lives with his mother and sister and has a love for but not acted upon, for his beautiful slave girl Esther, portrayed by then unknown Israeli actress Haya Harareet.

His friend growing up was a Roman citizen, Messala, excellently portrayed by Stephen Boyd. The two friends grow apart when Messala returns after several years away as the commander of the Roman garrison. Messala demands that Judah turn over all of the supposed Jewish rebels who plot against Rome.

Boyd is excellent at one second looking like a chiseled leading man and the next turning his face into a mask of hate and rage at his former friend.

An accident causes the Roman governor to fall from his horse, Messala uses this as an excuse to condemn Judah to the galleys and sends his mother and sister off to prison. As he’s led off to the galleys, the slaves pass thru Nazareth. Judah begs the Romans for water. They ignore him but an unseen man (Jesus Christ) gives Judah a drink. Their meeting, which lasts but a second, will be replayed later.

Judah catches the eye of the Roman general Arrius on his flagship. He sees the strength and courage of Judah (#41 of the galley rowers), and senses there is more to this galley-slave than meets the eye. “You have the spirit to fight back but the good sense to control it. Your eyes are full of hate, Forty-One. That’s good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength.”

Ably portrayed by esteemed British actor Jack Hawkins, he lends a sympathetic and much more humane view of Rome and Romans than the evil Messala. Arrius offers him a chance to fight as a gladiator or train as a charioteer but he refuses.

Before the climactic battle, Arrius orders all of the galley slaves chained to their oars except Judah. The pirates ram his flagship and it sinks. The exterior miniature scenes were well done for the 1950s but don’t hold up to the CGI of today. But the interior scenes of the ship to ship fighting are outstanding and they are visually top notch with hundreds of extras.

Judah frees the other slaves then saves Arrius, who believes he lost the battle and tries to commit suicide. Judah saves him from that as well. When later rescued, in one of the better scenes in the film, once safely onboard the Roman ships, Arrius stuns his senior officers by offering a cup with wine to the galley slave as they look on with stunned silence. It was, in an epic film, an understated brilliant short scene.

After a triumphant return to Rome, Arrius petitions Emperor Tiberius to free Judah and adopts him as his son. While in Rome, Judah races Arrius chariot in the circus, making a name for himself with Pontius Pilate, whose horses had always won. Pilate is unhappy, not only for his horses losing, but to learn he is to be the new governor of Judea.

Judah returns to Judea as the heir to Arrius and is approached by a wealthy Arab, Sheik Ilderim who asks him to drive his quadriga (four-horse chariot) in the races. He initially declines. He goes to Messala to demand the release of his mother and sister. Esther returns and convinces Judah that they are dead, rather than break the news that they are now lepers. So, as we knew all along, Judah seeks vengeance on Messala by taking part in the chariot races.

The chariot race was a remarkable piece of filmmaking. The building of the circus of Jerusalem took months to complete and the filming of the race took over 5 weeks and cost over a million dollars. There were 78 horses (mostly Lipizzans) used in the race while Heston raced Andalusians. The training for the horses as well as the charioteers took months.

Heston and Boyd had to train for hours a day to be able to handle the rigors of handling the quadriga. Boyd almost all of his own stunts, including the one where he was dragged by his horses. A dummy was used in the pivotal scene despite the urban myth that a stuntman actually died during the filming.

During the race, Messala attempts to wreck Judah’s and other racer’s chariots with weapons attached to his wheels. But he is the one who is wrecked and is trampled by not only horses but by a chariot as well. As he lays dying a gruesome death, he has one last cruel stab at the victorious Judah. He tells Judah that he will give him one last reason to hate, and tells him that his mother and sister are alive and that he can find them in the Valley of the Lepers. “If you can recognize them.” Messala adds as he dies, “the race is not over.”

A clip of the fantastic scene of the chariot race which was filmed in widescreen format can be found here from Movieclips:

Embittered, Judah sinks into depression contemplating death itself when Esther urges him to return to who he was. “It was Judah Ben-Hur I loved. What has become of him? You seem to be now the very thing you set out to destroy, giving evil for evil. Hatred is turning you to stone. It’s as if you had become Messala.”

Stunned by the comparison, he softens and with Esther’s help they go to the leper colony and attempt to bring them to the “Rabbi of Nazareth” who has been healing the sick. But before he can, Pilate has sentenced Jesus to crucifixion and they arrive as he’s being led thru the streets.

After he recognizes the man that helped him, he returns the favor and tries to give him water but it knocked from Jesus’ hand after their eyes lock for the briefest of seconds. As Christ’s blood is mixed with the rain after his death, Judah’s wife and sister are miraculously healed. Judah declares, “And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand.”

It was a powerful ending to the film, giving hope as it were to all of mankind.

It was a true epic of filmmaking, the marathon 3-hour and 37 minutes is the length of two feature films today. It cost a then $15,000,000 which was at that time, the most expensive film ever produced. In today’s terms that would cost $130,206,000 dollars.

William Wyler, the director, spins a masterful tale but the entire cast and crew did a fantastic job. The film won a very deserved 11 Academy Awards. It is as good today as it was when it was released. In fact, with the release of the updated version in 2016, audiences didn’t buy it and the film flopped at the box office.

So, do yourself a favor and reserve an entire afternoon or evening for a classic spectacle. It fits perfectly with the weekend and enjoy.

Photos: Wikipedia

Dr. Strangelove Premieres in 1964, A Film Comedy Classic

On this date in 1964, the fabulously satirical and hilarious “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb” opened in theaters across the United States.

Stanley Kubrick directed the film and it starred Peter Sellers who played three distinct roles. It was adapted from Peter George’s novel “Red Alert”. Originally supposed to be a serious drama, Kubrick decided to change it to a political satire and added the character of Dr. Strangelove who wasn’t in the book by the former RAF officer.

There are several sexual innuendos that escaped audiences in 1964. Now the double entendres are hilarious but perhaps the meaning of several of those went right by the target audience during the pre-Woodstock America. It also happens to be one of my favorites, if offbeat military films of all time.

Peter Sellers plays three roles as mentioned above. He plays the wimpy President Merkin Muffley, the RAF liaison officer Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and of course the maniacal scientist Dr. Strangelove. Strangelove is based on several real characters including the former Nazi rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun, H-bomb designer Edward Teller and some say, Henry Kissinger, although he was a little known Harvard professor at that time.

Strangelove steals every scene in which he’s in as he struggles with a right arm that has a mind of its own where it constantly tries to give the Nazi salute or choke him when he talks. Sellers was originally going to play a fourth role, that of Air Force Major Kong. But he struggled with a Texas twang and the director brought in Slim Pickens who, although had never done comedy before, was outstanding.

“Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”

The film centers around a very real fear in the 1960s, could a madman in the military on either side trigger a nuclear holocaust? In Kubrick’s film, we have that madman. Fantastically portrayed by Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper who becomes obsessed with the idea that the Communists were infiltrating our way of life…by fluoridation.

“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids…

That’s the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love… Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I — I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, er, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake…but I do deny them my essence.”

Again, in the 1960s, fluoridation was a hot-button topic and banned in many cities and towns. Ripper fondles his cigar in an almost sexual way while his conversations with Mandrake are the stuff of comedy legend.

George C. Scott in a comedic role shines as the over-the-top General Buck Turgidson whose facial expressions and ranting about the Soviets are simply outstanding. Scott’s distrust of the Soviet ambassador and his description of how a talented pilot like Major Kong can maneuver the big B-52 into Russia to start a nuclear war was classic. I read somewhere that Scott was worried that his portrayal was too far over-the-top. He shouldn’t have been. It was one of the highlights of the film. As the hard-nosed, tough-talking Turgidson,“I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say that no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops—depending on the breaks.” He was superb in a funny, facial contorting way that Jim Carrey turned into a Hollywood career.

Sellers, as the wimpy President, who seems remarkably like former presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, reluctantly calls the Soviet premier when he learns Ripper’s B-52s can’t be called back. “Ah Dimitri, it seems we have a little problem… he did a silly thing…”

When the Russians tell the President that a nuclear strike will set off a Doomsday machine, the maniacal Dr. Strangelove says life will go on, in deep mine shafts where women, “chosen for their sexual attributes” will outnumber men 10-1. With Turgidson talking to the President about a “mine shaft gap” after Muffley consults with Premier Kissoff, the film shows how silly some of the real banterings between East and West was.

Keenan Wynn is also excellent as Colonel Bat Guano, the Paratrooper officer who leads the attack on Ripper’s Air Force base to stop the psychotic general. When Mandrake can’t call Washington to warn them, as the phone lines are down. He attempts to use a payphone but has no change. He exhorts Guano to shoot open a coke machine. Guano who just destroyed an air force base, says, “That’s private property…OK, I’m gonna get your money for you. But if you don’t get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what’s gonna happen to you?…You’re gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company.”

The satire is brilliant as Kubrick spins the ridiculousness of a mutually assured destruction deterrent when the first bomb is ridden to the ground by Major Kong, whoopin’ and hollerin’ like a bronco rider at the rodeo goes off and the world is about to be destroyed. What’s the point in a deterrent when there is nothing left to deter?

The film did inspire changes in the way the Air Force handled its nuclear weapons. By the 1970s, the Air Force began employing coded switches that would override any unauthorized launch of nuclear arms, as the fictitious General Ripper did in the film.

Kubrick’s film, as brilliant and funny today as it was 54 years ago in 1964 is a must-see addition to anyone’s military or comedy collection. It was perhaps one of the best political satires of our country.

Photos: Wikipedia

“12 Strong”, A Visually Powerful, Important War Film

If there was ever a story from the endless war in Afghanistan that needed to be told, the story of the Horse Soldiers from the 5th Special Forces Group was it. Just weeks after the terrifying events of 9/11 played out, the Army inserted a Special Forces A-Team, ODA-595 into Afghanistan to link up with fighters from the Northern Alliance to fight the Taliban. It was a classic UW (Unconventional Warfare) mission, one that only Special Forces train for and is able to conduct.

The Northern Alliance fighters didn’t have vehicles, they traveled across the steep mountains of Afghanistan on horseback. The SF men embedded with Afghan fighters, and they too moved on horses, fought alongside them while calling in airstrikes that decimated a numerically superior enemy that had tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery.

The producers billed it as “the declassified true story of the horse soldiers.” So, did SF finally get its Hollywood film after the Navy SEALs had several made of their exploits during the Global War on Terror? Yes and no. Which we’ll explain later. And while the story is true and it really happened, Hollywood made it into a fictional representation.

The film was based off the book, The Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton, and when turning the pages it reads like a novel or a bad B movie, but everything that appears in the book truly happened.

Chris Hemsworth is the star of the show and the story. He portrays a Special Forces Captain named Mitch Nelson, whose has served on an SF A-Team but has asked for a staff job because he’s trying to spend some time with his family. Soon after moving into a new home, Nelson and his family watch the events of 9/11 unfold on his television.

Nelson is based on the real-life Mark Nutsch and his XO Hal Spencer, portrayed by Michael Shannon, is the grizzled, old veteran. Shannon’s character is based on the real-life Bob Pennington, who was a CW4 on A-595.

Jerry Bruckheimer is known as a producer who likes his bang for the buck. And he didn’t disappoint here. But unlike some of his other films that go over the top, the action sequences were wonderfully presented. The director making his film debut, Nicholas Fuglsig, previously covered the war as a photojournalist and he captures the action perfectly.

The sweeping, jagged mountains with incredible vistas are offset in the valley where the Taliban, finding themselves in the same pickle that they forced on the Russians a decade plus earlier. They have heavy tanks and armor that are tied to the narrow roads that bisect the mountains. And they’re facing a tough, determined enemy that has the ability to outmaneuver them, despite their archaic mode of transportation. The cinematography has the gritty realism that shows what a dirty business war is. All the while showing a B-52 bomber soaring in the clear blue sky, 30,000 feet above, dropping 2000 pound bombs into the Taliban below.

Fuglsig didn’t get caught up in the BS political speak that often mars war films. The men know why they’re there, because of 9/11, but after that, there are no more sweeping speeches about God and country. The men are fighting to do their job and to protect one another.

Nelson’s mission is to link up with the Uzbek guerrilla warlord General Dostum, wonderfully portrayed by Navid Negahban, who many viewers will know from “Homeland”, gain their trust and take the Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i- Sharif. The interaction between Nelson and Dostum is very good as the former tries to influence the warlord while proving himself, time and again.

Dostum initially doesn’t trust Nelson as he doesn’t have “killer eyes” and prefers the older Spencer.

But other than Nelson, Spencer, and Dostrum, we really don’t get to know much about the other characters. Michael Pena, the excellent character actor seems to be the senior enlisted team member, the team sergeant but they never really acknowledge that. Pena’s wise-cracking SFC Sam Diller deserved more airplay but we only get short glimpses into what he’s about. Rob Riggle gets a serious role as Colonel Bowers. Riggle was a PAO officer in Central Command during the early part of the war in Afghanistan. William Fichtner plays the steely-eyed Colonel John Mulholland. Fichtner has been in many war films but with his shaved head here, is almost unrecognizable.

When the team learns their Northern Alliance guerrilla force doesn’t have vehicles (Toyota Hilux) as they thought but only horses it is a bit of a shock. Only Nelson who grew up on a ranch has riding experience. In reality, the shock was as great for the horses as the men. The guerrillas gave the SF troops their spare horses which were smaller and the animals were not used to carrying bigger American men loaded down with all their kit.

But the visual of seeing an American Green Beret loaded down with modern weapons and gear riding on a horse was a wonderful anachronism just as they call down the rain of bombs from the B-52s. Later Nelson and A-Team lead an attack with the Northern Alliance on Taliban and Al-Qaeda positions, fortified with armored vehicles while on horseback.

Fuglsig blends an awesome visual here with a musical score that keeps you on the edge of your seat and brings the viewer right into the action. For the action film lovers out there, this will satisfy them, Bruckheimer is at his best when he’s showing explosions and non-stop gunfire and with the surround sound of the theater, you’ll feel it.

So back to the top, is this a “Special Forces” film? As I said above it is and it isn’t. Why? For the SF veterans we can see and recognize the patches and crossed arrow brass on the collars of the officers in what is the headquarters at Ft. Campbell, but not a Green Beret was seen. In fact, there isn’t one in the entire film except when Nelson’s family sees Donald Rumsfeld on television talking about the “Horse Soldiers.” Only then do we see a few SF troops standing far behind him. The terms “Green Beret” and Special Forces are mentioned very few times. As the team lifted off, they were singing a few bars of the Ballad of the Green Beret, but it was somewhat muted by the roar of the helicopter blades.

Except for the trained eye, the average viewer may come away with confusion as to who exactly these men were. Am I being nitpicky here? Perhaps. No mention was made either that the team was augmented by an Air Force Combat Controller who was instrumental in bringing down the rain on the Taliban.

There was as mentioned above, the lack of the Team Sergeant role in the film. As everyone in SF knows, the officers command the teams but the team sergeants are the men who drive the train. The interaction between the men and the team sergeant are what makes A-Teams go. There was a little of the banter of what SF team rooms unique, but not much. Pena’s character Diller is the closest thing we see to a true team sergeant but it was seeming like it was only Nelson and Spencer running the show here. Perhaps having an SF military advisor to the filmmakers would have made that clearer.

Horse Soldier statue sits in its final resting place at Liberty Park, adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Eric Hudson, 160th SOAR Public Affairs.)

Then there was the standard issue with nearly all war films, that are out there, where the actors have those M-4s with the never-ending magazines. The only magazine change I saw was at the end of the climactic battle when Nelson finally changes his out. But that has been an issue with nearly every war film ever made. Some of the kit the men are wearing looks closer to what the guys are wearing today than what they would have had in 2001. But again, we’re just picking here.

In the theater, I could hear some voices of probable conventional military veterans questioning why none of the SF men were wearing helmets or body armor. The simple answer is, they didn’t have any. Their Northern Alliance cohorts didn’t have any and the weight factor of the chopper ride in made the troops decide to forego them. Such is the way of life in a UW scenario where you have to make rapport with the host forces.

One excellent portrayal was the aircraft used. The Army cooperated with the film and actual members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flew the real deal helicopters for the filming. The mountains of Afghanistan were pretty nicely represented by the terrain of New Mexico which was a surprise. I thought the producers would have opted for the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Overall, the production was fine. Hemsworth was excellent as the steely-eyed (with eventual killer eyes), barrel-chested Special Forces captain. One interesting aspect which was nice was that the super action hero who played “Thor” is forced to prove himself again and again. There is your Special Forces Selection hook for the SFAS cadre. If Thor has to prove himself every day, you better come prepared and yes, you are always being evaluated. Shannon, Pena, and Negahban were all excellent in their own roles.

This was a good film, and will certainly please fans of the action genre. Does it play with the facts a bit as Hollywood is apt to do? Of course it does. But let’s not forget it is honoring what the real men of ODA-595 did. And that was one of the most classic UW operations ever conducted. A handful of Special Forces teams, inserted into Afghanistan with Northern Alliance fighters and supported by US Air Force air strikes, brought the Taliban and Al Qaeda to their knees. The fact the US screwed the pooch in the end game doesn’t come into the picture here. Nor that the US is still embroiled in the fighting. This isn’t the big picture here. It is simply these soldiers’ story. And it is a fantastic one.

Nutsch and Pennington, the real Nelson and Spencer have said the producers of the film do a good job of trying to capture the essence of the Special Forces men in the post 9/11 era. That is good enough.

Go see “12 Strong”. You’ll be glad you did. DOL

Photos: Warner Bros./US Army

Deployed Troops in Afghanistan Get First Look at New Star Wars Film

For the troops deployed overseas in Afghanistan, they are getting treated to a little bit of Hollywood magic ahead of the rest of the world. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which is already one of the year’s most anticipated films doesn’t open until Friday, but some service members are getting an advanced screening of the movie this week.

The special screenings follow similar events for previous entries into the Star Wars canon in 2015 and 2016.
The latest entry in the popular film series will make its debut on overseas military installations thanks to a partnership between the Army & Air Force Exchange Service and Walt Disney Studios, officials said. The film will be shown in at least six countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
“The Last Jedi” will premiere on Dec. 14 in Baghdad, Iraq; Bagram, Afghanistan; Azraq, Jordan; and Camp Beuhring, Kuwait, according to AAFES. Additional showings will follow through Christmas Day at various locations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
“We are thrilled to give service members a chance to see ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ a full day ahead of its U.S. release,” said U.S. Army Col. Scott McFarland, Exchange Europe and Southwest Asia Region Commander. “Our Middle East screenings of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ and ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ in 2015 and 2016 were very well received. We are excited to once again be able to offer a much-needed break from the harsh day-to-day reality these service members face while on deployment.”

Some of the troops will be getting a special challenge coin of the Millennium Falcon as well. DOD officials refused to answer FOIA requests from certain media members asking if it was a conspiracy to hide Chewbacca while he was on leave in Afghanistan and it not counting against the current troop strength.

To read the entire article from The Fayetteville Observer, click here:

Photo courtesy US Air Force

Looking For a Good Film For the Weekend, Pop “6 Days” in the DVD

For many of us, Thanksgiving Day is a day of feasting on turkey, all of the sides and lots of good sweets and pies that throw our diets out the window for a few days. And for many more that includes watching copious amounts of football.

Families gather around the television, or up here in New England, go to the early morning high school Thanksgiving Day games and then go home to eat and watch more football in the afternoon between feasts. But many folks are on the non-football kick right now. So if you’re one of those or are relaxing at home this weekend when the women folk all rush out to do those ridiculous “Black Friday” sales, there is no better time to pop in a DVD and watch a good action film.

For Thanksgiving Day weekend this year, I’d recommend a new film that came out this year about a real event that went down 37 years ago.

“6 Days” is about the takeover of the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980. Six men burst into the Embassy and took 26 people hostage. The world was already watching the American hostage saga going on in Tehran but the situation in London unfolded on television, including the dramatic takedown during Operation Nimrod by the British SAS (Special Air Service), on live television.

6 Days takes place from April 30 – May 5, 1980. Margaret Thatcher is still a new Prime Minister in England and although we don’t see or hear from her until the final moments in the film, her trademark iron will is pushed down to the smaller government operatives who were actively involved in the siege of the Embassy.

The Director, Toa Fraser isn’t crafting an intricate character development story here. He’s telling this story in the context of a docudrama. If you’re looking for a ton of CGI with over the top explosions and a storyline that takes a lot of liberties with the actual events, then 6 Days probably isn’t for you. It is as realistic and gritty as the Real McCoy.

The film is told from several different perspectives. It begins with scenes inside the embassy and what the filmmakers perceive to be (since this part of the story really isn’t known) discussions between the terrorist leader, Salim (Ben Turner), and his fellow terrorists as well as the interaction between the terrorists and the hostages.

Police negotiator Max Vernon (Mark Strong) wants to negotiate this without any bloodshed although you know that isn’t going to happen. Strong is one of my favorite actors and always puts on a compelling performance. He’s excellent as always and the scenes with him are among the best in the film.

But the protagonist of the film is Rusty Firmin, the SAS team leader played expertly by Jamie Bell. The SAS men spend the entire six days getting ready and preparing for the call to enter. As Firmin himself stated in his book, he just wanted to hear from his Squadron Commander the words “Go! Go! Go!

And from the press perspective, the filmmakers have added the reporter Kate Adie who was played by Abbie Cornish. Her scenes seem a little stiff and forced despite her being a witness to what was to unfold in front of our eyes.

The best part of the film’s finale-setting action sequence is the tense back and forth between conversations between Strong and Turner. As the negotiations get tense, the filmmakers cut back to Firmin and his SAS men preparing to breach.

Once the terrorists kill a hostage and toss him out on the street, the SAS are called in and with the results that one would expect from, at that time, the best counter-terrorism unit in the world. Firmin and his men do a tightly choreographed dance of death that took all of 17 minutes to neutralize the threat and move the hostages out.

6 Days isn’t the typical action film but it is true to life docudrama that stuck to the facts and told the story straight. It isn’t a “big picture” kind of film. It doesn’t tell the politics of the situation and what the character’s motivation was. It is a down-in-the-dirt first-person perspective of the people involved at the lowest level

It is a worthwhile film and for those of you who are fans of the SAS, you won’t be disappointed. Put this one in the DVD this weekend and you won’t be disappointed.

Rusty Firmin who was a team leader for the SAS on Operation Nimrod, sat down with SOFREP.com’s Jack Murphy back in June and spoke about the actual operation and his being involved with the film. His interview can be found here:

Photos: Wikimedia, SAS

Worst War Movies Ever… Don’t Waste Your Time on These Stinkers

Back in May around Memorial Day, we listed some of our favorite War Films that are guaranteed to entertain and keep your interest. We could have easily added a couple of more as the genre always has some worthy additions by Hollywood’s filmmakers. This year’s blockbuster “Dunkirk” could easily make its way into that list.

But today’s list is going in the opposite direction. These are some of the worst war films, in our humble opinion out there. In every genre, especially one as chocked full of entries as the war film category, you’ll have plenty of lousy films, that are just groan worthy from military veterans and war film buffs alike.

So watch these following films…if you dare. But as a word to the wise. You may turn it off before it is over. As some of these films are just plain awful. Normally we’d say, drum roll, please. Instead, we’ll play a dirge. In no particular order here is your Wall of Shame of Worst War Films:

Battle of the Bulge (1965) – Despite a stellar All-Star cast of Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Dana Andrews, George Montgomery and James MacArthur this one got nearly everything wrong. The uniforms, the tanks, the history was skewed horribly.

Less than a minute into the film, the narrator, William Conrad uttered this: “To the south lay Patton’s Third Army, to the North Montgomery’s Eighth”….What? Field Marshal Montgomery’s Eighth Army, for which he rose to fame in the desert, was in Italy, not the Northern edge of the Bulge. That should tell you right away that this stinker was not going to get things right.

The German Tiger Tanks were actually M-47 Patton tanks and the American Shermans were portrayed by M-24 Chaffee light tanks. Filmed entirely in Spain, the terrain resembled the wooded, hilly Ardennes, not at all.

The film wasted a good performance from Robert Shaw, as the fanatical SS officer Col. Hessler who was tasked to break through the Allied lines. Shaw’s Hessler was loosely based on SS Colonel Joachim Peiper. No mention is made of the counter-attack from Patton’s forces from the south, the 101st Airborne’s holding of the key road junction of Bastogne or the Allied air power, which after the skies cleared, decimated the Germans on the ground.

Instead, this film would have you believe that the only thing that stopped the Germans from reaching Antwerp was the lack of gas. The climactic tank battle at the end was another loosely based big tank battle at Celles. In the film, the Germans wipe out the American forces. In reality, it was the opposite. The 2nd Armored Division left 88 German tanks smoking in the hills. This film was so bad that General Eisenhower came out of retirement to excoriate it for its lack of historical accuracy.

Inchon (1979) – This stinker was produced by the religious leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of the powerful Unification Church in the 1980s. He put up $30 million of his own cash to make this limp, tepid offering. The production costs ballooned up to $46 million, which would be near $150 million today. Sir Laurence Olivier was paid $1 million bucks to play General Douglas MacArthur and it is clear, he was there for the paycheck only.

Rev. Moon claimed that the spirit of MacArthur visited him during the filming giving his blessing to the project. OK…does anything else need to be added here?

The cast of Olivier, Ben Gazzara, and Jacqueline Bissett was wasted here with dialogue as dry as a buffalo fart. Olivier looked more like Emperor Palpatine than MacArthur in this one. And Moon threw in a little sex action between Gazzara and a Korean hottie while cheating on Bissett who was his wife at home to take away from the rest of this potboiler I guess to show that the war was the cause of marital infidelity. It was actually filmed in 1979 and Moon shopped for three years for a studio to release this turkey.

I didn’t make it thru the original release, falling asleep in the theater and guarantee if you are having sleep issues watch this and it will do the trick. This one was so bad that MGM didn’t even release it on video. You can find it on YouTube if you care to.

Pearl Harbor (2001) – Michael Bay took a 90-minute action film about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and squeezed it into a 3-hour 3-minute monstrosity that took severe creative license with the actual history. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale who are involved in a complicated love triangle during the and immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack that kicked the U.S. into World War II.

Pearl Harbor had a huge operating budget of $140 million but made a respectable $450 million at the box office. Some of it was filmed in the huge Baja Studio that James Cameron built for Titanic. And the ship scenes filmed there were still visible (the wreck of the Arizona) a few years later when I got to work on the beginning of a Narnia film there in 2009.

The numerous factual inaccuracies were pretty numerous, the Marlboro Lights in a sailor’s pocket…was inexcusable. A pretty amusing scene is where Affleck is talking to Colonel Doolittle in his office and behind the Colonel are his trophies for air racing. Look closely and there is an F-86 Saber jet from the Korean War. Affleck’s supposed action in the “Eagle Squadron” with the RAF is flawed. No American Army pilots were allowed to join. Only civilians. And what in the wide, wide world of sports is the intelligence officers and Beckinsale listening to during the Doolittle Raid? It certainly wasn’t radio chatter from the planes over Japan. They were on strict radio silence.

This one at least had some good action scenes during the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor which Bay did well although again inaccurately and had the always enchanting Beckinsale in the lead. A curious decision was the one to portray Mrs. Ben Affleck (Jennifer Garner) as a dowdy nurse, perhaps to take away from Beckinsale’s draw.

Redacted (2009) – If you’ve never heard of this one, don’t be alarmed, you aren’t missing anything. Normally I love the films of Brian De Palma but he swung for the fences with this one and missed. De Palma took a real incident about a rape of a young Iraqi girl and the murder of her family and tried to create an anti-war film about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Surprisingly, some of the medium’s most well-known critics loved this film. Don’t waste your time, it was unmitigated trash, exploitation. He tried to shock the audience, right down to a slide show of gruesome pictures of Iraq’s war dead. We aren’t told who killed them, or who they are…it is just supposed to shock the viewer.

The message? here is that the war is making monsters out of American youth? I don’t know. It is kind of murky there but De Palma goes full-blown exploitive with the two Americans being the cartoonish, one-dimensional villains in the scene.The one perpetrator even wears a helmet mounted camera to catch the ugliness on film as the antithesis of the combat footage we’ve seen on screen during the war.

This was one of De Palma’s lesser efforts, the dialogue is atrocious and totally unbelievable for any grunts and sounds like a cliche machine.The way these guys interact with one another is a joke. Is this a unit that went to Iraq together or did they meet on the set just ten minutes before? It was just a crudely done, poorly defined film that even the “found camera footage” is unbelievable. It was a one-dimensional bit of schlock that is best left to the imagination.

Revolution (1985) – Ok, I know “The Patriot” also taking place in the Revolutionary War took tremendous liberties with the historical facts. But the cast at least made it entertaining. Revolution was one of the most horrible films I think I’ve ever been subjected to. A few years ago, I hadn’t even heard of it, and a friend of mine, said that I absolutely, positively had to watch it.

Well, I did and I agree with the original review published in 1985 with its release that it was quite probably the worst film of the year. The casting was absolutely ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love Al Pacino. Some of his performances are legendary stuff, Scarface, Heat, the Godfather saga. But casting him as a trapper caught up in the Revolutionary War is a head scratcher. Where was he trapping? In Brooklyn? His accent is not American Revolution-esque unless we had a lot more Italian immigrants in the colonies than what has been reported.

Speaking of accents, Nastassja Kinski, who back in the day was quite the box office draw, has a completely different one from the actresses who play her mother and sisters. I guess we’re supposed it ignore it or assume that she was adopted.

The British characters led by Donald Sutherland, are the unequivocal bad guys here. And just in case you don’t see it first hand, the director makes sure that you do by making most of them kiddy-diddlers. Pederasty aside, it is still a horrible film that is just not worth your time. The director wasted some nicely filmed battle scenes in Yorktown by making a boring, yawner who…like the ones listed above, took great liberties with history.

There are several more we could have listed here but you get the idea. And please feel free to chime in with some of your own Hall of Shame War Films. So with Labor Day Weekend upcoming, if you’re not making one last run to the beach this summer and you’re content with sitting home and watching some of your favorite war films, do yourself a favor. Skip these five. You’ll be glad you did.

Photos courtesy: IMDB

Dunkirk an Intense, Masterful, MUST-SEE War Film

Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” is a masterpiece of a war film that is a must see for any fans of the genre. The battle and evacuation of Dunkirk have been very rarely touched by filmmakers and for that reason, this film is a fresh look at a part of World War II that is largely forgotten.

To give an accurate breakdown, during the timeframe of 26 May – 4 June 1940, it was a full 18 months before America enters the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Nazi war machine is at its peak. After overrunning Poland, the Germans sliced thru Belgium and France, the British and French are a defeated army trying to get to England to prepare for the invasion that was thought to be coming.

Nolan doesn’t care if the audience knows that or not, there are no sweeping history lessons, no politicians or generals making speeches or moving big flags across a map. This film is about the ordinary soldiers and opens with a squad of infantry already on the run with the Germans on their heels just blocks from the beach.

The film and Nolan’s filmmaking feel like a documentary and he builds an incredible amount of tension. The soldiers, packed tightly in formations on the beach look up in dread at the sight of the Stuka dive bombers lining up for a bombing run. No one knows what is about to happen, there is nowhere to run and the men are sitting ducks in the open.

There is a distinct lack of blood and gore here, instead, the tension, the suspense, realism, and the filming, done in IMAX brings the viewer onto the beaches. You are not an observer, but part of the chaos and uncertainty flooding the beaches. The musical score does a fantastic job of lending, even more, tension to the action. Like a ticking time clock, it sets one on edge and keeps you there throughout the film.

The Germans are the unseen enemy without a face. Yes, the machine guns and rifles bark constantly and the planes zip overhead at regular intervals but the Germans are like an invading alien horde. Without a human face attached to it, they are the monsters licking at the British soldier’s heels.

Nolan breaks down the evacuation in three parts, one if by land (which lasts a week), two if by sea (which lasts a day) and three if by air (which lasts an hour). It is a juggling act where he breaks off one scene and jumps immediately into another and in another timeframe. While confusing at times, it lends itself superbly to the tense, dread that permeates the film from the opening shot to the final frame.

Kenneth Branagh, as Commander Bolton is the closest we’ll get to intense character development but the film doesn’t care about that. The character IS the 330,000+ men stranded on the beaches. However, Branagh’s character based on an actual person is the quintessential British hero. Understated, calm, with a deep compassion for the men he must get off the beach.

And while his eyes betray the difficulty that job entails, his “stiff-upper lip” English countenance never lets the slightest doubt to be visible to the sailors and men with this unenviable task. The only emotion we see from Bolton is when he spots the flotilla of tiny English fish and pleasure boats answering the call.

Because Nolan doesn’t overdo the dramatics of the boats arriving, they are just pinpricks on the horizon, bobbing up and down in the French surf. There aren’t the thousands of boats to a musical fanfare, just a few scattered, tiny boats with much more to come. But as Branagh says when asked what does he see in the distance, “home.” Absolutely brilliant.

Academy Award winner Mark Rylance puts in another fantastic performance as British civilian Mr. Dawson, who, with his son and a friend pilots his small boat from England. Like an old warhorse, Dawson is running right to the sounds of the guns rather than away. But with the understated brilliance he showed in “A Bridge of Spies”, he stays calm and tries to keep his young charges the same, even after they pick up a shell-shocked soldier who was torpedoed off another rescue ship.

Tom Hardy puts in a terrific performance while having no more than a dozen lines in the film. He is Farrier, a Spitfire pilot and we actually see his face very few times, like his character Bane from the Batman series. He wears an oxygen mask for most of the film, as he flies over the beaches and takes on German aircraft. But Hardy’s eyes are what tells the story as he scans the skies for the Luftwaffe and continuously checks his fuel which is running low.

CGI was kept at a minimum, Nolan supposedly had thousands of extras and cardboard cutouts on the beaches. The aerial sequences are superb as the pilots do their own death’s dance high above the ocean. With the filming done in the cramped quarters of the old planes, the realism is striking. Reportedly Nolan purchased a restored Nazi bomber for $5 million dollars just to crash it.

The sinking of the ships after being hit with bombs and torpedoes is the height of suspense. As the soldiers and sailors scramble out from under the ship as she turns over threatening to take the men down with her. It is claustrophobic, scary as hell as realistic as I care to ever get to a sinking ship.

Dunkirk isn’t a film about heroics or an over-the-top patriotism parade. It is a gritty, story about survival. Not everything that happens on the beaches are things the soldiers would care to remember. But they persevere and get over 330,000 men off the French coast and back to England. The British and French lost over 68,000 troops in casualties during the battle. And this film was made in a tribute to them.

See this film in an IMAX theater, you’ll be glad you did. This film will clean up at the Academy Awards when it comes to cinematography and musical score. There were only two points that I could find that didn’t pass the realism test and the strange part is one is in the opening scene and the other in the final one.

The first is admittedly a tiny one, British soldiers pluck leaflets out of the sky urging them to surrender. They’re in full color. Having read books on Dunkirk and seen the photos the original ones were in black and white. Granted, it is something only a military film buff would recognize. The second, however, was a bit of a whopper. As Hardy’s Spitfire runs out of fuel high above the beach, he begins coasting down to the shore. A German dive bomber is lining up the troops for a strafing run. And Hardy/Farrier takes them out in one pass as his plane plummets to earth with no fuel. That dog won’t hunt. But it doesn’t take away from an overall outstanding war film and will quickly become a must see and must add to any military war film collection.

However, it doesn’t take away from an overall outstanding war film and will quickly become a must see summer blockbuster and must add to any military war film collection.

Photo courtesy IMDB, YouTube

Clint Eastwood Casting Real Heroes in Paris Train Attack Film

Clint Eastwood’s next film about a terror attack on a train in Paris that was thwarted by three American men on vacation, will star the actual heroes of the 2015 incident.

Eastwood’s film, “The 15:17 to Paris” is based on the book the trio, Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone co-wrote with Jeffrey E Stern. The three men will play themselves in the film despite having no acting experience.

Actors will play younger versions of the trio in the film, which is thought to focus on the three men’s friendship.
The men were awarded Legion d’honneur medals for their actions.
They also received a hero award from Eastwood himself at an awards ceremony last year.
Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone were among a number of passengers who overpowered a heavily armed man who had opened fire on the train.
Stone and Skarlatos were both off-duty servicemen, while Sadler was a student at California State University.
The man they apprehended was later named as Ayoub El-Khazzani, a Moroccan believed to have had links to radical Islam.
The film is the latest in a series of movies Eastwood has made based on real-life people in extraordinary situations.
His last film, Sully, told of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who landed his damaged plane on the Hudson River in 2009.
If made, The 15:17 to Paris will not be the first fact-inspired film to feature non-actors in leading roles.
In 2012 release Act of Valour, real-life Navy Seals were shown embarking on a fictional covert mission.

The film will also star Jenna Fisher (“The Office”) and Judy Greer (“War for the Planet of the Apes”). The men, who have been friends since meeting as young boys in California, were hailed as heroes after the thwarted attack, as were two other passengers.

To read the entire article from the BBC click here:

Photo courtesy White House