| Author | Message | ||
     Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Just saw this Russian film last night. Elim Klimov's last movie is, quite frankly, fucking brilliant. Harrowing, haunting, lyrical, beautiful, terrifying, disturbing- stunning. Technically it's a war movie, but don't be fooled- if any film is purest horror, this is it. It's out on DVD and it's not expensive, so you have no excuse. WATCH THIS FILM. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
I bought this on DVD a couple of years ago. Sensational, isn't it? Truly horrifying. The film was Speilberg's main influence for the battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan, apparently. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Doesn't surprise me. Although it makes Shaving Ryan's Privates look positively tame by comparison. Although, to be fair, Klimov used live ammunition for the battle scenes, which you'd never get away with in contemporary Hollywood. Back in the 60s or 70s, maybe, if a holy lunatic like Peckinpah was behind the camera, but not on a Spielberg film. (Then again, in SPR you get to see Tom Hanks shot, so it's swings and roundabouts...) The scene with the destruction of the village is one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen in a film. And the kid in it- Alexei Kravchenko- is incredible. He was just 13 years old at the time. Christ. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.219.221 |
I've had this one for ages, but when's the right time ot watch it? Adam & Joe did a phone in of shelf classics: films you've bought but never watched. I rewatched Saving Private Ryan recently and the Omaha Beach scene is still very strong. I didn't realise what an infantile and pro-violence the rest of the picture was until the second viewing, though. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.219.221 |
"I didn't realise what an infantile and pro-violence mess the rest of the picture was until the second viewing, though." | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
I remember reading an interview with the actor Richard Todd, who'd actually fought at D-Day. When asked what he thought of SPR and Band of Brothers, his response was simply: 'Rubbish. Overdone.' Which surprised me, given how widely it's reported that actual WW2 vets had praised the authenticity of the combat scenes. I think the best films I've seen about the war are Russian (Come and See) or German (Das Boot, Stalingrad, Downfall). One of the best American films I've seen about the conflict is Peckinpah's Cross Of Iron- where the protagonists are German. It's impossible to indulge in glorification, I guess, from that viewpoint. The Russians were on the winning side, but at such hideous cost... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.112.5 |
My shelf of unwatched classics (at least in the dvd form) - Gone With the wind, Deliverance, The Innocents... (- scared to - want my memory of it to last ALAP) The list is as long as those of the one's I've watched. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.184.161 |
Tony, have you got the recent BFI DVD of 'The Innocents'? If so, you've got to watch the short 'The Bespoke Overcoat'. It's wonderful. Not scary and not meant to be, just sad, ironic and tender, a glimpse of a lost generation. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
I've watched every DVD I own at least once. It's impossible to make an accurate war film without glorifying in some small way violence and warfare. The whole military machine glorifies it; it's part of what the military is, what they do. Without that myth, young men wouldn't sign up and fight for their country. Surely when you've had your backbone blown out and spend the rest of your life pissing through a tube, that myth of glory is the only thing you have to convince yourself your sacrifice was worth anything. glo·ry 1. Great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.211.255 |
I didn't have any problem with SPR bestowing glory on those who fought in the war. The real problem was the disrespect the film showed by turning it into a Hollywood product and in one scene, implying that cold-blooded murder is positive character development. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.184.93 |
I haven't seen Come and See - hadn't even heard of it until now, if I'm to be honest - so thanks for the recommendation. One of my favourite films about war (and one of the best anti-war movies) is Paths of Glory. Breaker Morant is another one - very powerful. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.92.146 |
BREAKER MORANT is very good; came out of 'strilia when it was churning out a good film every week, it seems. COME AND SEE needs to be seen too... | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.106 |
One of the best and bleakest war pictures I've seen is THE GREY ZONE. Incredibly, I've just discovered an online negationist pamphlet - actually a 455-page tome - which examines the holocaust 'lie': THE RUDOLF REPORT - EXPERT REPORT ON CHEMICAL AND TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE 'GAS CHAMBERS' OF AUSCHWITZ. It gets very technical, with pages of chemical formulae which are frankly incomprehensible to me. I'm not sure whether the guy who wrote it was a nazi himself. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Huw, is Paths of Glory really an anti-war film? More anti-corruption, I should say, insofar as we end up rather feeling things would have been much better with the Kirk Douglas character in charge. I'll propose La Grande Illusion as the greatest anti-war film, which contains no battle scenes at all. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.184.93 |
You know, I think you're absolutely right, Ramsey. I haven't seen Paths of Glory in ages, and I think that being exposed to hearing it described as an anti-war film so many times must have worn off on me. I really need to watch it again (I just picked up the DVD, along with a couple of other early Kubrick films). I'm ashamed to admit this, but I've had the Criterion Grand Illusion for a couple of years now but still haven't gotten round to watching it.... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.184.93 |
Would you recommend the French film Army of Shadows, Ramsey? I've heard mostly good things about it, and have nearly given in and ordered it a few times. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I would indeed, Huw. Actually, Optimum are about to release a box set of six Melville films, including that one. I enthused about the film in Video Watchdog a while ago. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.182.40 |
Thanks, Ramsey. I'll look into that Optimum release - the Criterion DVD looks tempting, but I suspect this forthcoming set will be a better bargain. |