AGE OF UPRISING PORTRAYS THE EARLY CLASH BETWEEN FEUDALISM AND CAPITALISM
Michael Kohlhaas (played by Mads Mikkelsen), a 16th century trader who has accumulated considerable property and many servants, is on his way to sell two black horses and other commodities when he is stopped on a road over a bridge by a baron (Swann Arlaud). The baron demands that he surrender the two horses temporarily if he is to proceed to market. Kohlhaas agrees and also leaves his servant César (David Bennett) to care for them. But when he returns, César and the two horses have been roughed up. Kohlhaas pays a lawyer to bring the tort to the Navarre royal court but loses the case because the baron has more influence and he even sends servants to kill his wife (Delphine Chuillot). Kohlhaas then assembles a militia to overpower the baron, but the local priest (Denis Lavant) talks Kohlhaas into seeking a fair trial instead. There is mention of an earlier peasant uprising that resulted in a massacre of the commoners, so Kohlhaas courageously agrees to the trial. What ensues in the tale is what passes for justice during the age of feudalism. Directed by Arnaud de Pallières, Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is an extraordinary if slow-moving glimpse of a now-forgotten era as told in a famous novel by 19th century writer Heinrich von Kleist. MH
NIGHT MOVES IS A NOIR WHYDUNNIT
Why would three eco-terrorists blow up a dam on a river in Oregon that already has several dams? That’s the question that bugs filmviewers if they care to stay to the ending of Night Moves, directed by Kelly Reichardt. Early in the film a documentary-within-the-film makes the case that the world is headed for environmental catastrophe, but the documentarian counsels small moves, not big ones. One in the trio, Dena (played by Dakota Fanning), believes that the oceans will dry up by 2048. The other two (Jesse Eisenberg and Peter Sarsgaard) buy the idea without articulating why. Accordingly, the early part of the film, character development, is boring. The plot to damage the dam heightens interest. But the noir ending will definitely leave filmviewers questioning why the film was made in the first place. MH
BURNING BLUE IS RELEASED TOO LATE FOR AN IMPACT
In 2011, the “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy was abolished, filmviewers are reminded at the end of the poorly written Burning Blue which, if released earlier, might have influenced passage. D.M.W. Greer, the director, had written a play based on his own experiences that got attention on Broadway in 1995. But sometimes fiction is better than fact as a basis for an exciting film. More than half of the film shows the social life of four navy airmen who live in a room with two bunk beds—alcohol, parties, and the women to whom they are attached. During a stopover in New York, they find a bar to be wild enough for their enjoyment, where the female prostitutes strip shirts off two of the men; soon, they dance together. When aerial accidents occur, another navy soldier, also at the bar, suggests to NCIS that two or more are gay, and an investigation is launched with the flimsiest of evidence. The investigation, in turn, forces two of the pilots to question their sexual orientation, but the only evidence filmviewers see is an unexpected kiss. MH