FURY HAS SOUND, BUT WHAT DOES IT SIGNIFY? Fury, written and directed by David Ayer, is not designed as an anti-war film. Credits at the beginning note that German tanks were technically superior to American tanks, yet in the film the American tanks do better. Featured is a tank unit commanded by Don “Wardaddy” Collier […]
SIMÓN BOLÍVAR IS CELEBRATED IN THE LIBERATOR Biopics can provide fascinating personal background information, and The Liberator is no exception. To make the film enjoyable, director Alberto Alvero even has Bolívar (played by Édgar Ramírez) naked a couple of times to stress his charisma with women as well as men, but flashbacks to provide personal
WHATEVER HAPPENS IN FRONTERA DOES NOT STAY THERE In the pre-cellphone age, communications moved more slowly, including efforts of Mexicans to get across the border into Arizona (actual filming is in New Mexico). One such migrant, Miguel (played by Michael Peña), goes along with an amigo and, after crossing the border, is met on horseback
A MOST WANTED MAN IS NOT WHAT YOU FIRST IMAGINE To gain some credibility for the fiction film A Most Wanted Man, based on a 2008 spy novel by John Le Carré, credits at the beginning remind filmviewers that the 9/11 plot was hatched in Hamburg, and then inform that Hamburg is a closely watched
LOVE IS STRANGE IS A STRANGE WAY TO CELEBRATE LOVE When the film begins, artist Ben (played by John Lithgow) and musician George (Alfred Molina) are married in New York City after living together for 39 years. Ben is retired, living on a modest pension. However, George is fired from his position of music teacher
CAN YOU TAKE THE GIVER? In Pleasantville (1998), the supposedly serene but dull 1950s are viewed from the perspective of the liberated 1990s. Based on the novel by Lois Lowry, The Giver presents an image of a more serene future beyond the turbulent present. Something catastrophic has happened in the past, and the new beginning
STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN FORT McCOY In 1909, Fort McCoy was established as an army training base. In 1942, due to a roundup after Pearl Harbor, about 300 aliens of German, and Italian, and Japanese origin were temporarily interned and then sent to other camps to make room in 1943 for the training of some
APES DISLIKE WAR, BUT DO HUMANS? “They’re animals and they attacked” is the simplistic justification for Dreyfus (played by Gary Oldman) to launch war in The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Matt Reeves. Just substitute Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis for “animals,” and the film would be accused of partisanship. But
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A COFFEE IN BERLIN IS BLACK WITHOUT CREAM OR SUGAR Director Jan Ole Gerster, born in Hagen near the French border, has had enough of the rudeness of Berliners. So he has made A Coffee in Berlin to expose overly aggressive characters throughout the city, while his hero, Niko Fischer (played by Tom Schilling) puts
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Dormant Beauty and Lullaby, released the same week in Los Angeles, present different situations but culturally predictable stories, posing the question who has the right to end life. Dormant Beauty (Bella addormentata), directed by Marco Bellocchio, dramatizes the famous situation in 2009, when Beppe Englaro announced his decision to take his daughter Eluana, in a