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cynthesismusic
Reviews
Nikoly ne zabudy (1969)
Compelling, but with suspension-of-disbelief problems
The film is intriguing and has good acting, and is about an often-neglected part of WW2 history (partisans fighting in Ukraine against both the Nazis and the Soviets). That said, there are suspension-of-disbelief problems.
#1. How is the Canadian airman shot down, treated, and then allowed to somehow hang out solo with partisans without needing to report back or without anyone checking on his whereabouts? Besides initially saying he needs to get to Moscow and being unable to do so, there seems to be zero consequences for basically going AWOL.
#2. The airman decides to become a partisan fighter himself instead of an Allied airman...yet in spite of this basic desertion, is still in the Canadian military years later, to tell the story?
#3. The beautiful Ukrainian partisan fighter Oksana runs, heavily armed, through the woods, in a medium-length skirt. I doubt any female fighter would wear this as her common uniform.
#4. At the end, the airman says he did not know of the Ukrainian struggle during WW2 but now will never forget. Yet...he was fluent in Ukrainian when he enlisted? Is he Ukrainian-Canadian himself? If so, how was he unaware of the independence struggle?
#5 SPOILER: the border guard does not shoot him at the end. Why? What happens, does he just let him go?
These plausibility problems spoiled part of an otherwise great film. It's still worth a watch though.
Insomnia (1997)
"Behind blue eyes"
Excellent character study of Engstrom (Stellan Skarsgard). The viewer is drawn into empathy, confusion, and horror at the character (where the protagonist becomes one more antagonist). The sense of constant tension and a carefully-caged, potentially explosive temperament make Skarsgard's character a must-see.
That said, as a thriller/entertainment (which it probably was not trying to be), the film as a whole felt less than satisfying. I'm sure this was intentional (to subvert audience expectations for a payoff at the end), but it felt much more character-driven (seeing into the deteriorating mind of the character) than action/plot-driven. Of course, when the character is played by Skarsgard, this isn't a problem. 7/10
Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
3.6 out of 10...not great, not terrible
I wanted to like this movie, and for the first 20 minutes or so, I did. Dmitri Diatchenko is hilarious as the "extreme tourism" guide Yuri, and his acting is light-years ahead of everyone else in the film. The first 20 minutes are fun to watch, and I've watched it a few times.
The minute the film starts to turn into a horror movie (around minute 25 or so) is when almost all the acting becomes unbelievable and hokey. The Geiger counter inexplicably turns on and off at random. The dialogue becomes weak and unbelievable in its motivation. Also, I could see a plot point in the end coming before it happened.
On a serious note: Because "Chernobyl Diaries" was ostensibly set in the historical location of Pripyat and the nuclear reactors, rather than just somewhere in some fictional woods near a no-name nuclear reactor, I feel that its portrayal of radiation victims was extremely insensitive. I don't know anyone personally who was a victim of radiation at Chernobyl or who worked as a liquidator, but I can't imagine any of them or their relatives being happy with the portrayal of fictional radiation victims or fictional Pripyat residents in this movie. I feel that the director/writers could have come up with a better idea for the danger or the "monster" than what they chose to do.
The film is maddening because it could have been so much better.
Apt Pupil (1998)
Great acting by McKellen; uneven plot
The idea is a solid one for a film, but it kept running into problems in its realization. The believeability of Renfro's acting kept getting in the way of the plot for me. I almost feel that he was mis-cast and that a character with his persona would not have had the morbid fascination with perpetrators as well as somehow being, apparently, the most popular boy in school. There were also serious suspension-of-disbelief problems about how the relationship between the two main characters came to be. Overall, the story concept was good, and McKellen's acting was eerily stellar. There were just too many problems with suspension-of-disbelief, especially about the boy. Still worth a watch though. 6/10
The Grey Zone (2001)
Brutal and historically important film, highlights male and female prisoner resistance
While the film focuses on the hideous moral dilemmas that Jewish prisoners faced when 'agreeing to' work in the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz II Birkenau death camp, it was one of the few films I've seen that highlighted the role of the resistance of female Jewish prisoners in the camp as well. The uprising of the 12th Sonderkommando, doomed by the Nazi "tradition" of murdering and replacing the troop every 4 months, was carried out with the help of female prisoners who smuggled gunpowder from a munitions factory to the Sonderkommando. Some of these female prisoners were caught and tortured, and died rather than betray the rest of the resistance. I had never learned about the Sonderkommando uprising at all until recently.
The film is extremely brutal, and I would not recommend watching if you are a sensitive viewer or have experienced trauma. That said, it was well done and worth a watch (or at least a read about the Sonderkommando uprising).
Gehenna: Where Death Lives (2016)
Great ideas, confusing execution.
A bit late to the "party" here, just watched this in 2020. Gehenna: WDL attempts to tackle several major themes here, while only partially succeeding. It touches on themes of colonialism, atrocities, individual guilt/inability to repay wrong, horrific retribution, etc. Any of these themes, more completely fleshed out (yeah, I know) would have made for a really compelling movie. The setting and setup for the plot is great. However, most of the characters are rather flat (think of the characters in "The Mummy" w Brendan Fraser that you just KNOW are going to get it).
And then there's the confusion. The Chamorro legend of the separated couple needing to be reunited (by the dolls) confused me, as I couldn't see how this fit in with the cursed place of retribution idea. I would have to watch it again to figure this out, and I don't particularly feel like doing so.
Also...the Native Chamorro guide Pepe seems seriously conflicted as a character as to whose side he's on. He seems a composite of many different potential Native characters (rejecting ancestral tradition, believing in it, sacrificing himself for it), but the transitions between his states of mind don't seem organic. I couldn't tell whether he was being sarcastic to his Ugly American boss or actually struggling with whom to follow.
On the plus side: The idea of an impersonal, almost non-theistic Gehenna is interesting, as if impersonal forces mete out horrific repeating justice and retribution without any individual decisions of a creator figure. The location itself becomes the malevolent main character, willing all the inhabitants to die from guilt or be killed. And the existential horror of being in the dark, solo, forever, is a very common human fear of Hell, possibly more infernal than actual flames. (See biblical references to "outer darkness/weeping and gnashing of teeth" etc.) This deep fear is effectively hinted at in Gehenna: WDL.
That said, the film made me have more sympathy with the creatures, dead and undead, than the actual living human characters. I just didn't have much sympathy for most of them, and the sympathy I did have was manipulated by their past tragedies.
Conclusion: The movie is worth a watch just for the ideas of guilt and unpaid retribution, even in death. It's just that these ideas could use a more polished telling.
SPOILER>>>>>>
Creepiest line in the film, by the undead Japanese WW2 officer: "I will attempt to make amends with my life...(he cannot do so)...Apparently my life was not enough."
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