The Hurt Locker

I would dare to say that I’ve reviewed close to a hundred war movies on this blog.  Most of those deal with WWII, usually with a sense of pride and valor.  Coming in second would be Vietnam, with a more jaded and anti-war agenda.  Then there were some dealing with WWI, the Civil War and other wars spread throughout the history of the world.  Until The Hurt Locker, there was not one good movie made about the war going on in Iraq.

In a way, it seems that a typical war film has gone out of style at the Oscars.  Since 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, the only other nominated film focusing on soldiers in action was Letters From Iwo Jima, and that took on the Japanese perspective of WWII.  More often, we find war just to be the background and setting for twenty-first century films, like The Pianist or Atonement.

What I’m trying to say is that it takes a leap of faith and some real balls to make gritty modern war film these days.  Those balls belong to Kathryn Bigelow, who fearlessly brings us a story of men on an army bomb squad in an Iraqi city.  There, everyone is a possible enemy and nearly anything could be a possible bomb.  We quickly sense how nerve-wracking this life is.

It may look like fun at first, playing with the cool little robot to get a look at the possible explosive from a safe distance, but we quickly realize how things can go dangerously wrong in a flash.  The term kill-zone is used in the most accurate sense.  It’s scary to think of that as just part of a normal on-the-job vocabulary.

The Hurt Locker does some of the best moments of suspense in recent film history.  Paraphrasing Hitchcock, it is not the sound of the bang that brings suspense, it’s the anticipation.  Over and over throughout the film, we’re watching men defuse bombs.  That in itself screams suspense, but add in a reckless character, and his crew scouting out onlookers on balconies and rooftops wondering if any of them hold the detonator.  You won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen and won’t even realize that you’re holding your breath.

Men like Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) realize the constant danger far too well and becomes obsessed with the fact that he could be dead at any moment.  It’s not healthy to dwell on the risks of this job too much.  On the other hand, it doesn’t help that Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) puts himself in unnecessary danger.

James focuses on being on the brink of demise in a different way.  He thrives on it.  Like an artist in the zone, he is at his finest when he is trying to figure out how to defuse a bomb.  Simply put, he is a real expert about things that are meant to blow up and kill him.  There’s a feeling of swagger and power about him and he loves wearing the padded suit.  Besides taking rough chances, he is an excellent soldier.  Though it’s what he is best at, James isn’t the kind of guy who cares about medals or rank.  Under his bed, he keeps bits of bombs he’s defused, “things that nearly killed me” he calls them.  Back home he has baby son and ex-wife, those are the things he doesn’t know how to handle, so he keeps coming back to Iraq for more.

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”

Wings

Beginning the long tradition of excellence in film, this high flying story of friendship, love and war Wings was the very first winner of the Best Picture Oscar.  Directed by William A. Wellman, Wings is about two young men, middle class Jack (Charles Rogers) and rich boy David (Richard Arlen).  Jack has eyes for David’s girl, Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston), who doesn’t have the heart to plainly shoot the boy down.  The girl next door, Mary (twenties It-girl Clara Bow), is good friends with Jack, helping him work on a car they dub The Shooting Star.  Mary drops huge hints about her affection for Jack, but he doesn’t catch on at all.  Many times throughout the film, Jack is too focused on one thing to see the big picture.

When war breaks out, the boys are off to flight school.  We’re shown some fun footage of antique flight simulators and men stumbling dizzily away from them.  But soon we’re shown the real dangers of flight.  You may notice a very young Gary Cooper in a quick scene, but it seems that too soon he’s been in a crash.  He’s just a small role to give a face to the dangers of flight.

Soon, the boys are on dangerous missions and epic dogfights fill the screen.  We’re shown from far away, tiny planes performing death defying stunts among the clouds and up-close images of the actor-pilots flying and acting simultaneously.  It’s quite a feat really, considering each pilot actor had to fly and then turn on the camera mounted on the front of the plane, then continue to play out the scene while flying.  Today, our actors just sit in a fake cockpit next to a green screen.

In the dogfight scenes, the title cards become especially important.  Without them, it would just be planes flying around aimlessly, the narrating cards explain the situation and turn it into a story.  And they’re timed very well, they never seem to hinder the action, but further it.   I especially love how they are written with elegant prose, at times it’s downright poetic.  Some of my favorite clips of text I wanted to share from the dogfight scenes are: “there was chivalry in the knights in the air,” “zooming into the belly of the monster” and “earthward, twisting and doubling though the clouds.”  It’s all quite beautiful and fitting for this film of flight and war, I sure wouldn’t describe Top Gun that way.

There are more effects than capturing flight on film.  In a scene where Jack is on leave in Paris, he gets drunk on champagne and starts to see little bubbles around him.  It’s really such a fun little bit of old movie magic that is done so well, but the gag runs for quite a while.  Soon there’s bubbles fluttering out of flutes, tubas and a bedpost.  With Jack intoxicated, there can also be a great bit with his vision extremely blurred.  This is also pulled off very well.

If you’re reading this, enjoy classic film and need a brush-up on the silent era, there’s no excuse for you to not watch Wings.  Right now, you can watch Wings for free on YouTube and no copyright laws are being broken.  The picture quality is of surprisingly good quality for both being over eighty years old and on YouTube.   It’s the very first Best Picture winner, quite an enjoyable film and broken up into fourteen ten minute videos.  Guilt free, you can take breaks and grab a snacks and check your social networks between the buffering.  I bet Wellman never imagined that to happen to his film.

“Jack, don’t you know me?”

Seventh Heaven

Since we’re onto the inaugural year of the Oscars, I feel a little history is in order.  The very first Academy Awards was held on May 16,1929 and honored the films made in 1927 and 1928.  There were only twelve awards presented and of those twelve categories, only six are still honored today:  lead actor, lead actress, cinematography, director, art direction, adapted screenplay and picture.  The whole ceremony was only fifteen minutes long, with no live coverage and the winners were notified three months prior.  Today, we’re in the middle of the 83rd Oscar season, clucking about ten Best Picture nominees and two dozen awards to be announced over nearly four hours on a Sunday night.  My, times sure have changed.

Our first-first Best Picture nominee, is Seventh Heaven, a silent film about hope, love and war.  In Paris, Chico (Charles Farrell) works in the sewers and dreams of becoming a respectable street washer.  Diane (Janet Gaynor) is poor and at the mercy of her absinthe addicted sister Nana (Gladys Brockwell) who beats her regularly.  A relative offers to take the sisters in, but only if they have been keeping themselves clean and decent.  Diane is an honest girl, confesses to Nana’s drinking and the girls are left on their own.  Nana is so furious, she chases Diane, beating her in the street.  Thankfully Chico pops out of the sewer and intervenes, saving Diane.

For his good deed and to help Chico gain some faith, he is appointed to street washer.  But when the police try to arrest Diane, Chico saves her again claiming that she is his wife.  Now, he has to let Diane stay at his place so that when the police check it can look like she lives there.  Chico is a tough guy and tells Diane not to get comfortable, her stay will only be temporary.  To his surprise, they fall in love, but when war breaks out Diane and Chico may not have much time together.

One moment that really impressed me in this film, was the long shot up the stairs when we first go to Chico’s apartment.  The camera rises steadily as we watch Chico and Diane ascend six flights of stairs and one ladder without cutting away.  The idea for making this set is quite ingenious for the time and when we count the floors we realize where the title comes from.

The best thing about silent films is that they have to show and not tell.  That’s where so many movies today go wrong, they make dialogue a crutch and leave us nothing to interpret through our eyes.  Here, dialogue must be boiled down only to the most necessary lines and they must fit on the screen in large type.

With less dialogue comes more expression from the actors, a huge mark in the silent era.  Nana must always look menacing while Diane more meek and downtrodden.  As the film goes on, Diane becomes more confident and independent, but again this must be shown, she can only explain it in so many words.

I realize the silent film enthusiast are far and few, but seeing a few really is key to understanding film history.  If you’re on the fence or merely curious, there are plenty of silent era bits on YouTube, including the very first Best Picture winner, Wings.  Seventh Heaven is available on DVD through Netflix, it’s a miracle how well these films have survived the past eight decades.

“I work in the sewer, but I live nears the stars.”

MASH

Set up just three miles from the front lines in Korea, the men and women in MASH stitch soldiers back together while trying to keep their sanity in tact.  The level of comedy is dark, and revolutionary, and helped promote anti-war movements in Vietnam.  MASH holds true today, standing at number seven on AFI’s top 100 comedies list.

Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould play Hawkeye and Trapper, two leading surgeons and the ringleaders in camp.  They’re almost too laid back and playful to be military men.  Their antics bring quenching laughter and life to a place in real need of refreshment.  Without them, MASH would feel like a desert rather than a small oasis.

The only problem I had with MASH was it’s lack of a substantial plot.  It’s a series of events, taking turns on different characters with a final battle during a friendly football game.  Easy to see how it turned into such a successful TV series.  Sure, Hawkeye and Trapper save some lives and maybe even learn a few lessons along the way, but there’s no real arc to the story.  Hmm, maybe that’s the point, that there’s no real story or arc to war as well…and therefore sending an antiwar message with some laughs, brilliant!

Don’t let my rambling revelations confuse you.  I really enjoyed MASH.  Great dark comedies are a rare breed and should be praised more.  MASH doesn’t preach against war and it doesn’t throw you onto the battlefield.  It’s like a small limbo where everyone, including the viewer, is allowed to breathe and think for themselves for a while.

Putting stark war and operating tent realism in a comedy is genius and took some balls back in 1970.  The men are dirty, just as they would be in Korea.  They live in tents, sweat and get blood on their hands.  Look at a lot of more pro-war films (most of Patton) and you’ll see soldiers shine like they just had a shower.  In fact, the only reason some soldiers in Patton are a little rough at times, is because of a Fox executive’s visit to the set of MASH.

One piece that really caught my eye was a scene where a few men are sunning in lawn chairs and beach towels right next to the remains of a crashed helicopter.  They even nonchalantly discuss the pilot’s condition.  These men aren’t living in the fantasy of being all they can be, it’s real-as-the-limbs-they-amputate life.  I’d crack open a Pap’s and lay in the sun if I got the chance too.

MASH is a wonderful film, for those to can stand some dirty tricks, sex talk and blood.  Oh, and it was the first to use the F-word in film, just a fun fact.  So don’t miss out on a classic, just send the kids to grandma’s or something.  Unless you want to explain why Trapper and Hawkeye are wagging their fingers down by their pants.

“Tonight’s movie has been “M*A*S*H.” Follow the zany antics of our combat surgeons as they cut and stitch their way along the front lines, operating as bombs and bullets burst around them; snatching laughs and love between amputations and penicillin.”

The Long Voyage Home

This forgotten gem stars John Wayne.  Based on four one-act plays by Eugene O’Neill, the film follows the lives of the sailors aboard a freighter ship.  They’re comrades and stick together through thick and thin, but at sea, loneliness and of fear enemy submarines come between them and make them suspicious of each other.  When they’re not facing the troubles at sea, they’re having too good of a time on land.  The real tension comes when they need to make sure that Ole (Wayne) gets aboard his ship so he can go back home to Sweden.  They drunkenly run around town for “one more drink” and “just one dance” trying to live as much as they can before they’re cast back to the sea.  While Ole is waiting for his friends to have their fill, a man has been following them, trying to find one more man to sail on a famously dreaded ship, the Amindra.  Till the end, it’s a nail biter to see if Ole will get home or not.

Wayne fans will notice something very odd; he’s playing a Swedish man.  At first, Wayne was apprehensive to the role, thinking people would laugh at his attempt at a Swedish accent, but director John Ford talked him into it.  I’ll admit, it’s a little funny at first to hear Wayne’s cowboy voice say, “Ya, from Sveeden.”  But we’ve got to give him props for branching out, he does it well and we never laugh at him.  Maybe with him.

In my opinion, The Long Voyage Home only bows Rebecca in cinematography.  Shots are set up beautifully and leave a lasting impression of the film.  When a man is punched in the barroom, the camera is graceful as he stubles down the bar.  A man is killed in a lifeboat and covered with a tarp flapping in the wind is captured with surprising elegance.  We watch men approach their ship from under the boarding ramp.  It’s genius, beautiful and more sophisticated than I expected for 1940, but then, so is John Ford.

The Long Voyage Home is a good movie for guys.  They can join this band of shipmates as they drink, party and face hard times together.  Sorry, no quote today.

The Guns of Navarone

Action and adventure await six men on a dangerous mission to destroy the two powerful guns on German occupied Navarone.  These guns control the fate of the seas and nearby Greek islands, including one full of trapped British troops.  No one can get to or leave the island, not even by plane and more men are lost every day.   The six men, hand picked with their own abilities, must sail into enemy waters, scale vertical cliffs and somehow sneak into the German base in order to complete their mission.

The action and special effects are the best things about this film.  Not one ounce of water is spared when the little boat is caught in a fierce storm in the middle of the sea.  It splashes everywhere and the boat rocks until we’re afraid it’ll just fall apart.  And the explosions, ah!  Every red blooded American loves a good explosion, and they’re so satisfying here.

Along with the action is an excellent feeling of suspense.  Thompson knows how to make his audience anxious and how to pull the tension just slow enough so that the snap is a great release.  And this isn’t done once, but at all different obstacles through the mission.  Without such great action and thrilling suspense, this would just be another dull war movie with no adventure.

I have to poke fun at the sound effects.  When the wind howls, it drones until it’s annoying.  The splashing of waves can sound like a kid in a bathtub at one minute and then Shamoo landing the next.  And the variety of sirens!  At one point I was laughing as Germans were marching to their guns because I couldn’t get over the noise the siren was making.  I know it was fifty years ago, but they weren’t all deaf were they?

If you’re not into musicals, The Guns of Navarone is the most fun you’ll have for ’61.  It’s a high seas, cliff hanging, big ol’ explosion good time.  Watch it if you’re into old action flicks.  I would even suggest looking for more strange sound effects.  Plus, there’s this hysterical line to tied up Nazis:

“Hmm, not very hygenic.  Stark choice of undies, too.  Heil, everybody!”