Movie Review

There are quite a few personalities who can actually handle a steering wheel rather well. James Garner did many of the racing scenes in Gran Prix himself (he also raced off-road; ala Baja). Steve McQueen was indeed into sports cars and motorcycles, he used to race under an alias (as per the movieOn Any Sunday). Craig T. Nelson (of TVs Coach) races on a regular basis and owns his racing team. There are also several musicians and younger stars that are in racing. Reminds me that I need to get out and work on my RX-7.
 
I cannot believe that no one besides me liked the Thin Red Line. I thought is was pretty darn good, because it showed both how war really sucks, and how one can nevertheless see the good and beauty in one's life (flashbacks about his wife, etc.), despite your crappy surroundings. The reality sets in though when he gets the dear john, then he sacrifices himself to give his men time to clear out. True, the cameos by Travolta and Harrelson did little to add to the picture, but they didn't hurt much either. I really liked the battle scenes and the way they built up the fear and apprehension in the soldiers - I thought all in all it was pretty good. However, I think it was based on a book, and as is often the case, the movie doesn't turn out as good as hoped when translated to film, perhaps. They could have shortened the flashbacks considerably, I'd agree.

You guys see "When Trumpets Fade" with Dwight Yoakam and the guy from Men Behaving Badly?

[This message has been edited by Futo Inu (edited September 02, 1999).]
 
Yes, like Futo, I thought it was a good movie and better than Saving Private Ryan,which except for the realistic D-Day scenes, never had the impact for me like TRL which showed real people in a horrible war. I could identify with the characters in TRL. I think people were turned off by TRL because it showed GI's mutilating enemy bodies. But this was done often by our soldiers in the Pacific and was something the Japanese rarely did. We would even send body parts back home. Japanese ears and gold teeth were big items of some GI's. E.B. Sledge, in his memoirs of Peleliu and Okinawa,records a still alive Japanese having his cheeks slit open by a Marine and his gold crowned teeth being carved out with a kabar. Read War Without Mercy by John W. Dower and you will see how brutal we could be . I am not condeming any veteran of that war because it was a bloody race war on top of a regular war in the Pacific. The movie was right on the mark when it showed ear taking. The Japanese soldier was brutal and committed horrible crimes, but ear collecting, teeth collecting, and bone collecting was a Allied trait. TRL was to me a depressing movie ,but it was a pretty accurate and moving movie in my opinion. Besides Speilberg is a left winger and a big buddy of the Big Comrade and I regret going to see his movie.
 
Ivan8883,
I'm not being judgemental just asking. Were you there or did you just read this?
Cat
 
Cat, I served my time in the army from 1967 -1970 so my information comes from Gi sources or talking to pacific Vets who are willing to talk about such things. Sledge, a marine Vet, woulnt be lying. Col. Linbergh, in his diary of his tour as a pilot in the Pacific told of many incidences of massacres of prisoners and in one entry of june 26,n told of out of several thousand prisoners taken,only 100 or so were turned in. His entry of June 28 tells of prisoners having their teeth knocked out "sometimes before or after shooting them. Linbergh wrote on July 13 that "it was freely admitted that some of our soldier tortured Jap prisoners and were as cruel and barbari c at times as the Japs themselves.When Linbergh cleared customs in Hawaii before coming home, he was asked if he had any bones with him. he was told it was a routine question . Life magazine published a picture of a attractive blonde posing with a Japanese skull she had been sent by here fiancee. Life treated it as a "human event story" Read "Ordnance Up Front" by Dunlop. He talks about our destruction of enemy hospitals in the Philipines AND the killing of patients. I am afraid that we would have had a lot more Japapnese prisoners if we hadnt killed so many after they surrendered or were wounded. I am not going to call such brave men as Col. Linbergh, E. B. Sledge, Dunlop, and many others(I could quote a bunch more Pacific Vets) liars. The Thin Red Line was right on the money as far as describing the taking of enemy body parts by some GI's. I didnt want to go into detail and have left out some really horrible stuff, but i had to answer you.
 
If you folks don't mind me spitting out a bit more of my personal opinions for this light-hearted discussion, I would like to elaborate on my original comment. :)

TRL is not a war flick. Saving Private Ryan is a war flick (and one of my favorite movies by the way). TRL is a poetic drama about the human psyche during times of war. If you expected a war flick, you will be sorely disappointed. If you somewhat love poetry, literature, and explorations of the human mind, you will like this movie. And the gorgeous visuals doesn't hurt either. The blur of stars is delibrate. Part of the message the movie is attempting to convey is the countless, ambiguous faces one sees in war. The movie shows only enough of each to let the viewers know they are human beings with history, personality, and life of their own, before they are moved off into amorphous oblivion.

Now, the reason why it bugged me so much is because many of the poetry got me. It just.. uh.. hit a chord or three. I mean, it's so.. beautiful. But because it deals with human trauma and suffering, this is one film I don't personally recommend to any vets out there who are still haunted by their past. No need for that.

NOW, as to WHY I don't like Ronin, I want to state that for a guy movie, I like it. There are very few of action movies I don't like at least a little bit just because I enjoy the theme. But, why Robert DeNiro was picking on the guy when he said, "Shoot here and hear, they shoot each other and die.", I wasn't quite sure. It was obvious from very early on that the guy was an idiot, and should've been kicked off (or rubbed off) the team long time ago. Robert DeNiro only got on his case when he made a stupid illustration on strafing fire? You know, you can strafing together like that depending on terrain. And real life being what it is, you're probably not going to strafe perfectly like that anyways. Then Robert DeNiro goes out and attacks the Bodyguard's cars, but but why he is gung-ho and shoots in front of his car rather than take cover behind the car's engine block is beyond me if he's the sensibly cautious type who places saving his own butt high on his list of priorities. Or at least this is what I was thinking when I was watching this movie.

None of this are really a problem of course, since I don't expect and don't want to see anything too realistic coming from Hollywood. But at the same time, I can't take them seriously as professionals that they protray because of the inconsistencies. Fine. What gets me is the annoying "quiet macho" image that they protray. Especially the end when they lament/reflect on the rules of being on this line of work. I sorry, but it makes me personally want to gag. :) What the movie DOES have, however, are a few clever points that serves as floatation devices to help keep this movie from sinking into the bottomless sea of bad movies. For example, I like they Robert DeNiro finds ways to gather information and plan their attack. That was fun. And I do like the hit! Yes! I also liked the miniature and story about the 40 Ronins (as the movie title implies). But in a world filled to the brim with action titles, this one pales in comparison with brighter examples out there.
 
Ivan883's gold teeth comments triggered some
memories. Fresh after the end of WWII, a neighbor, who fought with the "Kiwis" (New
Zealanders) in the Pacific told me this. They had quite a few Maoris (NZ natives) in their regiment. He noticed most of them carried the old cloth chewing tobacco pouches
and wondered why so mnay of them "chewed".
They all were ordered to bury some Japs who
tried to surrender and were mortared instead
("we'd been suckered before"). The bodies were bloated and stunk like hell. He saw the
Maoris smash in the faces of the dead Japs with their rifle butts, scoop op the goo in their hands and "pan" for the gold teeth, which they'd put in those "tobacco" pouches.
He stayed clear of them from then on. Scared the crap out of him (and he had been through some BAD stuff). Would love to see how they'd play that scene in a movie. BTW, ask the Aussies what happened to their boys that were captured by the Japs, including cannibalism. BTW2, the Turks in the Korean war used to collect ears too. It all boils down to Sherman's statement that "War is all Hell". I'm just glad I never went through it in my Korean War stint (never left North America). I always wondered why the
Hollywood directors making a war movie never teamed up with the special effects guys from the horror movies to show what war REALLY looks like. SPR was the first to even approach this, which is why I think it made such an impact.
 
Roger on the Maoris,deadly fighters. But what still amazes me is that after the war relations between American occupation forces and Japanese were really excellent after all the horrors before. It was almost like the war never occured. I think that says something for both sides. Japan and the US have had 50 plus years of non war and although we dont know the future, even i will give the post war leaders of Japan and America credit for healing the wounds of what amounted to a war to the death.
 
Ivan; I think our money had a lot to do with healing the wounds.

On the continuing saga of man's inhumanity to man, two points:
Humans are animals. Most of us have a patina of varying thickness over our animality, but if you scratch deeply it is there.
Many people have a problem reconciling the fact that while killing is exciting it is repugnant and morally wrong.To balance this they tend to dehumanize the people they kill to minimize the guilt they usually otherwise would feel.
I think that might help to explain the ears and teeth stuff.

------------------
Better days to be,

Ed
 
After watching, "The Rape of Nanking," I feel not one iota of remorse for anything our troops did during the Pacific Campaign. Their ideas concerning the rules of conflict were/are entirely different than ours. No quarter asked, none given.

What could the Japs have done during their occupation?
 
Thin Red Line was not a "war movie" (or for that matter an "anti-war" movie) per se. It was a lyric poem set against the backdrop of war, which included the, yes "surreal", juxtaposition of the beauty of the natural setting and the "unspoiled" children of Witt's AWOL island in the opening scene with the helacious slaughters (combining both heroism and cowardice) that followed.

Most of the important "dialogue" was in the form of the private solliloqies of the individual participants. I found the "dialogue" between Nolte's inner self and his public persona the most powerful contrast -- only when he blurts out the pain of being "passed over" to his protege (after the machine gun nest is taken) do the two voices merge, ever so briefly.

I have known people like Witt, the uncorrupted soul of this outfit who, like Huck Finn, goes AWOL when the sun is shining and he damn well pleases, but rallies when the chips are down.

The dialogue between him and Sean Penn was the core of the film. Witt telling him he still saw a "spark" in him -- and Penn asking "where's your spark now?" at Witt's grave.

If you didn't see a "spark" in Witt, you need to take a long hard look in a mirror.
 
TRL, didn't care for it the first time through. I could only take it in half hours doses. Will try and watch the whole thing again in one shot, like bad whiskey maybe it takes getting used to. It reminded me of a Felini movie.
Did any one see Monument Ave? I have talked to a couple of former coke heads and they seem to think it was realistic. Interesting movie.
 
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