Movie night deux
Last night's double feature:
Tuskegee Airmen (1995) - The true story of the 99th Fighter Squadron, part of the 332nd Fighter Group. So yesterday I said it was preachy, and it is, but it is also quite good for a made for TV movie and has a top notch cast. I only wish the budget had been a little better so the effects and sets could have been equal to the script.
The Thin Red Line (1998) - The battle of Guadalcanal as experienced by the members of a U.S. Army company. This movie cost $52 million and runs for 170 minutes. This bothers me for two reasons. First, when a movie costs $52 million I expect to see that money on the screen ("show me the money") and I didn't which is ironic when you consider the fact that the film removes all of the structure from the original novel and replaces it with an endless series of visual montages. Second, a three hour movie better be worth my time and this wasn't. The movie is just bloated, not just in time and budget but in everything else. The cast is an immense list of A list actors who all missed out on Saving Private Ryan and wanted to be in a World War II movie before it was too late. The score is apparently so important that entire scenes are muted so the score can swell over the action and dialogue. The expectations for the film were insanely high with Terrence Malick writing the screenplay and directing after years away from Hollywood but James Jones' novel deserved better than this. The book had a good story, strong characters and flowed from page to page despite having dozens of characters who come in and out of the narrative. The movie is so confusing I had to turn on the subtitles just to keep track of the character's names. The movie got seven Academy Award nominations which goes to prove how little that means.
Tuskegee Airmen (1995) - The true story of the 99th Fighter Squadron, part of the 332nd Fighter Group. So yesterday I said it was preachy, and it is, but it is also quite good for a made for TV movie and has a top notch cast. I only wish the budget had been a little better so the effects and sets could have been equal to the script.
The Thin Red Line (1998) - The battle of Guadalcanal as experienced by the members of a U.S. Army company. This movie cost $52 million and runs for 170 minutes. This bothers me for two reasons. First, when a movie costs $52 million I expect to see that money on the screen ("show me the money") and I didn't which is ironic when you consider the fact that the film removes all of the structure from the original novel and replaces it with an endless series of visual montages. Second, a three hour movie better be worth my time and this wasn't. The movie is just bloated, not just in time and budget but in everything else. The cast is an immense list of A list actors who all missed out on Saving Private Ryan and wanted to be in a World War II movie before it was too late. The score is apparently so important that entire scenes are muted so the score can swell over the action and dialogue. The expectations for the film were insanely high with Terrence Malick writing the screenplay and directing after years away from Hollywood but James Jones' novel deserved better than this. The book had a good story, strong characters and flowed from page to page despite having dozens of characters who come in and out of the narrative. The movie is so confusing I had to turn on the subtitles just to keep track of the character's names. The movie got seven Academy Award nominations which goes to prove how little that means.