Valkyrie tells the true story of Nazi army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) and the many men and women who formed an underground resistance movement against Hitler during World War II – from within the German armed forces. Von Stauffenberg was the key figure in what was one of several attempts to assassinate Hitler, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'War'
Valkyrie
June 12th, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Action/Adventure · Biographical · Capsule · Ensemble · Thriller · War
Defiance
June 9th, 2009 · No Comments
Now that Quentin Tarrantino is getting attention (which he so hates) for his yet-to-be-released bloody World War II revisionist tale about a band of Jewish assassins (Inglourious Basterds), there is something even more striking about the fact that Edward Zwick’s Definance is based on a true story. A couple of ruffian brothers lead an inconceivably large Jewish [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama · Ensemble · War
The Response
June 2nd, 2009 · No Comments
Actor/producer-turned-attorney Sig Libowitz, and director Adam Rodgers have shown a keen understanding of the one element missing from most courtroom dramas: restraint. While courtroom scenes in movies and television shows often have glaring factual inaccuracies, there is nothing more cringeworthy than when the filmmakers indulge in high-pitched drama in a forum which is governed by [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama · Short · War
W.
April 28th, 2009 · No Comments
W. is a strange little film. Throughout the first 15 minutes of the film, I was looking for clues as to the tone that Oliver Stone was trying to achieve, and am still confused as to where on the line between parody and earnest biopic the experience of this story is meant to reside. The opening cabinet [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Director · Drama · War
The Burmese Harp
April 21st, 2009 · No Comments
Japanese director Kon Ichikawa died last February at age 92 and after directing nearly 90 films. The Burmese Harp is the first of two films (followed by Fires on the Plain) which tackles the post-war Japanese ethos. In this one, a Japanese unit in Burma must submit to the allied forces after Japan officially surrenders. The [...]
Tags: Capsule · Drama · Ensemble · Foreign Language · Musical · War
The General
April 16th, 2009 · No Comments
There is a scene in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers in which the young cineasts debate whether Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton was the superior filmmaker. So when I recently saw that The Auteurs had Keaton’s The General available for online viewing, I figured I might as well find out for myself. In my grandfather’s basement, we kids were treated to [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Romance · Silent · War
Australia
March 11th, 2009 · No Comments
No one can say that Baz Luhrmann isn’t ambitious. After a 7 year hiatus, the energetic director has returned to the cinema with a work intended to be epic in just about every way, clocking in at 2-3/4 hours of nearly non-stop largess. After being notably snubbed by the Academy, which denied him a best director [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Director · Drama · Popcorn · Romance · War
Days of Glory
February 25th, 2009 · No Comments
The opening sequence of scenes in Days of Glory, a film about the colonial African men who fought and died for France in World War II, contains an intimate exchange between a mother and son in a poor, dusty village. She’s begging him not to enlist, “I’d rather be poor than lose you,” and the physicality [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama · Foreign Language · War
The Good German (2006)
June 3rd, 2007 · No Comments
Despite his perhaps being the victim of the one-too-many curse of Hollywood’s obsession with franchise (in the recently-released Ocean’s 13), director Steven Soderbergh (The Limey, Solaris, Bubble) has shown, through the more personal projects he makes between studio paychecks, that his only recognizable formula is to continuously create new challenges for himself and his audience. [...]
Tags: Crime/Noir · Director · Review · War
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
May 16th, 2007 · No Comments
Biopics are Oscar fodder, especially of late, so one wouldn’t be unreasonable to view the attention Forest Whitaker received for his role as General Idi Amin Dada with at least a slight degree of scepticism. That is, of course, until one experiences that performance. I have always respected Whitaker, as much for his strange collection [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Biographical · Drama · Review · War
Black Book
April 15th, 2007 · No Comments
The two films I wanted to see this weekend were both only playing at the Music Box Theatre, the glamorous old lady of Chicago cinemas. For me, going to the Music Box is like going to the gym. I dread the concept because it seems like so much work (it’s “far away,” there’s no parking, [...]
Tags: Crime/Noir · Drama · Foreign Language · Romance · War
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
April 15th, 2007 · No Comments
The second part of this afternoon’s Music Box double feature, Ken Loach’s Cannes award-winning The Wind That Shakes The Barley, is also a war film, also has a (much more secondary) romantic subplot, and could not be any more different than Black Book. Unlike Paul Verhoeven’s reputation as a hedonic provocateur, Loach’s work is known [...]
Letters From Iwo Jima
March 4th, 2007 · No Comments
Rounding out World War II week at the Mishmash we have the second of Clint Eastwood’s pair of Iwo Jima stories, this time from the Japanese perspective. Although suggested to be “the other side of the story,” the relationship between Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers is actually slight. This is not [...]
Tags: Biographical · Director · Drama · Foreign Language · War
Flags of Our Fathers
February 22nd, 2007 · No Comments
Prior to beginning jury selection, most trial judges in Chicago deliver a stock speech to the room full of potential jurors. One particular judge, however, would infuse some drama to the otherwise dry remarks. While his comments began as welcoming and informative, the primary objective of the speech was to combat the burning question on [...]
Tags: Biographical · Director · War
Pan’s Labyrinth
January 31st, 2007 · No Comments
While there is nothing as maddening as the inability to skip them, trailers on DVDs are a great resource to the discovery of films and filmmakers. I can’t recall what DVD had the trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001), but I do remember being instantly intrigued. Despite a few hair-raising [...]
Tags: Director · Drama · Foreign Language · Horror · Sci-Fi/Fantasy · War
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
