Movie night trois
Oops, I almost wrote that title as "Movie night Troi." Geek.
I considered watching Lawrence of Arabia tonight but conejodanz would have killed me if I watched it without her. That, and sticking to World War II films seemed better.
Onward:
Enemy at the Gates (2001) - A sniper duel plays out during the pivotal battle of Stalingrad. While loosely based on real events, there is a lot of historical inaccuracy in this film. But the detail in the battle scenes is impressive, you have to watch key scenes several times to see all the action on screen. The cast is great: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins (who has way too much fun playing Nikita Khrushchev), and Ron Perlman. The story of the sniper duel, the battle for the city, and the propaganda campaign surrounding them would be a strong enough story by itself but in movieland that isn't good enough so an idiotic love triangle plot is written in for Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and Joseph Fiennes to waste a lot of screen time on. On the plus side, at least they didn't try to find a way to write in an American character for no apparent reason.
Patton (1970) - This film is 171 minutes long and unlike The Thin Red Line this is a movie that can be watched over and over again. I also like the old school intermission in the middle with a full musical score. I actually did a lot of chores while this was on.
The Rear Gunner (1943) - This is a 20 minute propaganda short buried in the DVD extras for Objective, Burma! about a boy from the country who makes his mark as the rear turret gunner of a bomber and wins a medal. The segment on training for gunners is actually pretty interesting and Burgess Meredith really sells the lead role. Ronald Reagan flys the plane. The horrible casualty rate for bomber crews doesn't get mentioned of course.
Victory at Sea (1952) - I decided to stick with short format and watched several episodes of the classic NBC documentary.
Bed time.
Edit: The mention of Navajo in Never So Few reminded me that I haven't seen Windtalkers so I need to track down a copy of that.
I considered watching Lawrence of Arabia tonight but conejodanz would have killed me if I watched it without her. That, and sticking to World War II films seemed better.
Onward:
Enemy at the Gates (2001) - A sniper duel plays out during the pivotal battle of Stalingrad. While loosely based on real events, there is a lot of historical inaccuracy in this film. But the detail in the battle scenes is impressive, you have to watch key scenes several times to see all the action on screen. The cast is great: Jude Law, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, Joseph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins (who has way too much fun playing Nikita Khrushchev), and Ron Perlman. The story of the sniper duel, the battle for the city, and the propaganda campaign surrounding them would be a strong enough story by itself but in movieland that isn't good enough so an idiotic love triangle plot is written in for Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and Joseph Fiennes to waste a lot of screen time on. On the plus side, at least they didn't try to find a way to write in an American character for no apparent reason.
Patton (1970) - This film is 171 minutes long and unlike The Thin Red Line this is a movie that can be watched over and over again. I also like the old school intermission in the middle with a full musical score. I actually did a lot of chores while this was on.
The Rear Gunner (1943) - This is a 20 minute propaganda short buried in the DVD extras for Objective, Burma! about a boy from the country who makes his mark as the rear turret gunner of a bomber and wins a medal. The segment on training for gunners is actually pretty interesting and Burgess Meredith really sells the lead role. Ronald Reagan flys the plane. The horrible casualty rate for bomber crews doesn't get mentioned of course.
Victory at Sea (1952) - I decided to stick with short format and watched several episodes of the classic NBC documentary.
Bed time.
Edit: The mention of Navajo in Never So Few reminded me that I haven't seen Windtalkers so I need to track down a copy of that.