Category Archives: War

Mariinka

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Mariinka              4 ½ stars

For my first film of the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival, I saw the documentary Mariinka by Belgian director Pieter-Jan De Pue. You may think that we have seen enough on film about the Ukraine-Russia war which is now in its fifth year. This film takes a different approach that I found to be original and refreshing. De Pue went to Mariinka, a small city in Donetsk Oblast which is in the same region as Mariupol around 2013 with the idea of filming several young people living there over a period of several years. Of course, he had no idea that it would become a war zone that would impact millions of lives and that he would spend over ten years making his movie. His subjects include a family of four brothers living in an orphanage, a female paramedic/medical student and a woman smuggler. The filming started when they were still kids and all of them were orphans or from broken families, something quite common in Ukraine. He follows each of them into adulthood showing their involvement in the seemingly never-ending war of Russian aggression. Mariinka has been completely destroyed, and no one lives there anymore. Of the four brothers, one is in the Ukrainian army, one fights on the Russian side, one has been disabled from combat and the youngest was adopted by an American family living in Mississippi as a toddler. The film gets up close with them in actual combat situations with casualties. The paramedic is filmed as a high school student, training to be a boxer and at a program in the high school auditorium. Later during the war, she is visiting the same auditorium in its bombed-out state as well as visiting the grave site of her mother. The smuggler is filmed as she delivers goods to soldiers and others by riding through the war zone by bicycle. The film is both terrifying and peaceful. One senses the hopelessness that each of these young people must have. It is hard to imagine what the filmmakers had to endure to film these scenes. Each of the last three Documentary Academy Awards have gone to movies about the Ukraine war. These include 20 Days in Mariupol, No Other Land and Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Next year there may well be a fourth.

Operation Finale

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Operation Finale                               3 ½ stars

Operation Finale is the newly released film by director Chris Weitz that tells the true story of the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind of the final solution by Nazi Germany, the killing of the Jewish population in Europe during World War II.  Eichmann had fled to Argentina after the war along with many other German Nazis where he started a new life with a new Spanish name and family.  The agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency have been tirelessly hunting down these former Nazis since the war and in 1960 believe they may have located the long sought after Eichmann in Buenos Aires.  Eichmann, masterfully portrayed by Ben Kingsley maintains that eternal defense that he was merely “following orders” and was but “a cog in a machine”.  Oscar Isaac is Malkin, one of the agents of Mossad who manages to connect with the captured Eichmann in the many conversations with him as the agents are awaiting their opportunity to smuggle him out of the country back to Israel where he is to stand trial.  Isaac does his usual creditable acting performance as the Israeli agent.  Most of the movie focusses on the time that the Israelis have Eichmann in captivity where they attempt to get him to confess his role in the killing of the Jews.  Only in the first part of the movie do we see how the agents find and suspect they may have found the elusive Eichmann.  This part of the film seems unconvincing to me as they seem to have only the thinnest of evidence that they have found the right man.  (Early in the film we see Malkin involved in the killing of a man mistakenly thought to be Eichmann.)  Also, there are flashbacks to scenes of mass killings during the war that are shown as memories of what happened that may or may not be accurate.  What is interesting is Kingsley’s portrayal of the way Eichmann goes from admitting little of his involvement to outright pride of what he accomplished in the face of his captors.  By the end of the film there is no doubt that the agents have found a true psychopath who embodies the phrase “the banality of evil”.  Director Chris Weitz has had a hit and miss career as director, giving us hits About a Boy and A Better Life, while also delivering disappointments like The Golden Compass and the Twilight Saga: New Moon.  Operation Finale was good but not the greatest of his work.

The Breadwinner

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The Breadwinner                             4 ½ stars

The Breadwinner has to be one of the most enthralling and fascinating animated films I have seen in quite a while.  It takes us into the world of Afghanistan during the time when the Taliban have taken control while focusing on one eleven year old girl and her family.  We live through the suffering that this family goes through as the young self-righteous soldiers of the Taliban inflict unimaginable cruelty on those who cannot defend themselves.  Parvana’s father is forced into prison for nothing more than matter of factly addressing a soldier.  When the family is left with no male adults the women are beaten for the crime of walking alone in public trying to buy food.  Parvana then cuts her hair and passes as a boy to go on a quest to free her father from jail.  The story is aided by the stories Parvana tells about a young man trying to save his village by confronting the monsters that have stolen their seeds for crops.  The movie is done with very expressive and colorful animation and treats its characters as very real and believable.  The Breadwinner is suitable for adults and children, though perhaps not for the very young because of the acts of cruelty portrayed.  The Breadwinner is done by the same studio that made The Secret of Kells and The Song of the Sea, two of the best animated films of the last several years.

The Post

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The Post              5 stars

In my quest to see all Oscar nominated movies of last year I watched The Post, the Spielberg directed thriller drama about the Washington Post struggle to stay relevant in 1971 by reporting on the secrets revealed in the Pentagon Papers.  In this true story, the first woman major newspaper publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) and the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) must make the critical decisions about whether to publish the government secrets about the failures of the Vietnam War, risking the very future of the newspaper business.  This film was put together in near record time as the producers including Steven Spielberg wanted to make a movie that was very relevant to the relationship between Washington and the press of today.  The film pays great attention to detail and gets the feel of the newspaper business of the early seventies.  The newsrooms and printing press equipment are very authentic down to the metal desks and loud typewriters.  The drama brought to us by the acting skills of Streep and Hanks as well as the excellent supporting cast is compelling and will keep your attention throughout the movie’s run time.  The movie was written based on the memoirs of Graham, Bradlee and Daniel Ellsberg, thus it is very close to a representation of the true story.  It’s hard to imagine putting together a team of filmmakers more talented this this crew.  The Post may not have won best picture last year but it had to be in the running.  One interesting piece of trivia about the movie is that it took only nine months from putting the screenplay together until completion of the editing, which is close to a miracle in Hollywood.

Mudbound

Mudbound                         4 ½ stars

One of the most culturally relevant films of last year was Mudbound, written and directed by Dee Rees, takes of back to 1940’s Mississippi, where the Jim Crow laws are strictly enforced.  This story brings two families together, one white and one black as they each struggle against the odds to make a living farming in the Mississippi Delta, while dealing with the social norms of the time.  The McAllans (Jason Clarke and Carey Mulligan) just moved here after buying a farm they hope will fulfil their dreams.  The Jacksons are poor black tenants who work under them and are led by the father, strong and quiet Hap (Rob Morgan) and the mother, Florence (May J. Blige).  These families are of course very different, but must depend on each other to survive the realities of farm life.  At the same time the strong undercurrent of racism is always present and threatens to upend their world at any time.  Some of the most interesting moments are the scenes with younger brother Jamie McAllan and Hap’s son, Ronsel, both returned from World War II as war heroes as they share their stories of the war.  The title of the movie perfectly describes the conditions the families face as most of the farm scenes depict the dirty conditions these people face daily, there being no electricity or running water for these poor farmers.  Hollywood has seen plenty of movies portraying the deep roots of racism in the deep South, but Mudbound presents it in a dramatic fashion that keeps us interested throughout.  The movie is long at 2 hours and 15 minutes.  It was nominated for Academy Awards in Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay.

Golda

Golda                    2 stars

If you are as old as me, you can remember the days in 1973 when there was a war raging when Israel was attacked by the armies of Syria and Egypt that was called the Yom Kippur War. This was the fourth of the Arab-Israeli wars and a very closely fought one that lasted for 19 days. The outcome was uncertain until Israel succeeded in trapping and isolating an Egyptian army forcing a cease fire. The movie Golda tells that story, but mainly from the perspective of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir with an unrecognizable Hellen Mirren buried in makeup in the role of Meir. The movie focuses primarily on her interactions with the cabinet and the generals as they struggle to make the best decisions to save Israel and her conversations with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schrieber of Asteroid City and Ray Donovan: The Movie). There are also frequent scenes of Meir, who is suffering from lymphoma, being cared for by her personal assistant (Camille Cottin of A Haunting in Venice and House of Gucci). What’s missing are any battle scenes showing what is going on in the field. Instead, we have the generals discussing the situation over battle maps and radio transmissions from commanders and soldiers yelling of how they are being swarmed and killed by the Egyptians. We get no background of what led to the war or even much about the general international situation. While Mirren’s acting talents are on full display here, showing Meir’s pain over the casualties suffered by the Israeli troops, we don’t get much in the way of her own background. Golda is mainly a history lesson about this war of long ago and not a very good one.

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour                      4 ½ stars

I finally got to see Darkest Hour, the 2017 release about Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England during World War II.  This film starring Gary Oldman follows Churchill through the first four weeks of his service in the office.  It is the time of greatest peril to the country, when the Nazi war machine was raging across Europe conquering one country after another.  Not long after assuming office the Germans invade Belgium and France and threaten to destroy most of Britain’s army as they are caught facing the coast at the English Channel.  Besides this threat, Churchill has to deal with opposing Parliament members who are scheming to cause his downfall.  Gary Oldman puts on an inspiring performance as he captures Churchill’s mannerisms and his style of speaking under some very convincing makeup.  We only get some glimpses of what is happening in Europe as the bombing of the British forces continues.  Most of the action centers on Churchill’s interactions with the King (Ben Mendelsohn), his wife Clemmie (Kristin Scott Thomas), a secretary (Lily James) and a collection of common people he encounters in public.  The scene stealing moments come when he delivers his greatest speeches though, including the memorable We Shall Never Surrender speech before parliament.  I am just sorry I waited so long to see it and that I missed the effect it would have in the theater.  The picture won two Oscars last year including Best Makeup and Best Actor for Oldman.

Never Look Away

Never Look Away                                             4 ½ stars

Never Look Away is an epic storytelling of a young German artist who lived through the time of Nazi Germany and Communist controlled East Germany growing as an artist and developing his own special kind of painting.  Its three hour length covers a great span of time from the thirties to the sixties, starting with 10 year old Kurt witnessing a display of “degenerate art” and the horrors accompanying the Nazi’s waging war against the world.  After the war, Kurt, the young man (Tom Schilling) works as an artist for the Communist regime of East Germany producing art of the Socialist workers, but you can tell his talent calls for him to be something better.  Fortunately, he meets Ellie, a young pretty woman supplying new pencils to the artists.  Of course the two fall for each other having secret night rendezvous destined for disaster, given that her father is a former SS Nazi in hiding.  Eventually, the two of them escape to the West at the time of the wall going up where Kurt’s artistic career is advanced with the help of prominent artists of the growing movement of contemporary art.  The movie is at its best when we see Kurt being inspired to do his best work by the beauty of the world around him, but also influenced by some of the horror he has experienced from his younger days.  He develops a way of painting photographic images while blending them together in haunting black and white images.  The story is apparently loosely based on the life of real life artist Gerhard Richter, an admired painter of the 20th century.  Never Look Away was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and is one that should not be missed.

Jojo Rabbit

Jojo Rabbit                          4 stars

In a time when our society seems to be tearing each other apart in the culture wars who would conceive of a satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi campaign to exterminate Jews?  Here comes Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit to take on the task of telling us the insensitive, comedic story about a 10 year old German boy who is a member of the local Hitler Youth during World War II, where the children are taught to fight for their country and to hate the Jews.  Besides all this, young Jojo as he is called, has an imaginary friend who just happens to be Adolf Hitler.  There is plenty of comedy here that is used to poke fun at the hate being spread against our fellow man.  When little Jojo has to return home to his mother, he happens to discover that Mom is secretly hiding a young Jewish girl in the house.  Jojo considers turning her in to the Gestapo, but is reluctant when the girl promises to cut off his Nazi head if he does.  Given this stalemate, Jojo decides to learn about what Jews are like by quizzing the girl who tells him all sorts of nasty things that Jews do.  Of course by doing so the two are only becoming closer and come to realize how much alike they are.  The film delivers on its message with the help of fine performances from Thomasin McKenzie as the Jewish girl, Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo and Sam Rockwell as the incompetent Captain Klenzendorf who serves as the camp commander for the local Hitler Youth.  Waititi brings us a movie with a message of hope amid all the slapstick humor and dramatic moments.  I highly recommend it.

1917

1917                       5 stars

1917 is a war movie that features no great battles of armies and no grand strategies of generals.  Yet it succeeds in conveying the horrors of war and the dangers of being a soldier in one of the greatest conflicts in human history.  Sam Mendes tells us the story of two British Lance Corporals who are sent on a mission to deliver a message to the commander of a British force that is about to launch an attack into what is described as a trap set by the German army.  This force is otherwise cutoff from communication in the days before wireless radios, so these two must venture through No Man’s Land in daylight to deliver the critical message.  Mendes, through the miracle of today’s special effects and tiny mobile cameras manages to film the scenes with an absolute minimum of cuts.  The result is a feeling that the audience is right there with the soldiers as one horror after another unfolds before them.  In addition the effect is aided by a superb score from Thomas Newman that captures the feeling of dread in No Man’s Land and the fast pace of the action sequences when the enemy is confronted.  The sets are just as I imagine what World War I looked like including the dead soldier’s bodies peering from the mud and the contrast of the construction of British trenches vs. German trenches.  Mendes used two unknown actors in the parts of the Corporals in order not to distract from the film’s focus.  The two young men are very effective in their roles so he made a good choice.  There are some well-known actors in supporting roles including Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch as commanding officers who perform well.  I had been rooting for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood“ to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, but now I will have to go with 1917.  I find it even more compelling than Dunkirk from a couple of years ago.