jeswartz Reviews

The Conspirator (2010)

solid characterization of an American tragedy

[10/10 · 18 July 2011]

what is it about the public that prefers action heroes with heavy CGI to serious drama? cut in the mold of gods and generals that also sputtered at the box office, the conspirators tackles one of the saddest days in American history when the female owner of a civil war era boarding house is hanged without a trial by a jury of her peers.

the charge? conspiracy to kill president Lincoln along with his vice president and secretary of state.

the evidence? she owned the boarding house where assassin john Wilkes Boothe stayed for a night or two.

my daughter and i drove almost two hours to see this film where it was playing on the ONLY screen in southern California. the theater was almost full, the audience mesmerized by the solemnity of the subject and the skillful treatment of the material by director and cast.

good luck finding this treasure anywhere until it appears on DVD or bluray.

The Haunting of Sorority Row (2007 TV Movie)

You must be kidding me

[1/10 · 6 November 2009]

Let me get this straight. This is the most prestigious sorority on this campus. And there are, count them, a total of only THREE active members of this clan and only FIVE pledges? In my house we had 120 members including pledges. Even in the wee hours there was more activity than at this sleepy hollow.

But this yarn gets better. People keep dying and there's no alarm, everyone just hangs around, and there's no police or campus officials looking into things? Where do the bodies go? Do they just vanish and then the survivors just hang around waiting to be next? And roll in the hay with the frat boys as if nothing happened? Is this sorority house on the moon or something? Ludicrous beyond belief. Is a zero possible here?

The Strangers (2008)

Predictable, Pedestrian, and Passe

[1/10 · 7 June 2008]

Don't be confused by all the glowing reviews about this film. I was, and then ended up wasting an afternoon watching every predictable sequence ever imagined in this so-called horror classic.

As mentioned in an earlier review if you imagine every ridiculous thing a frightened couple would not do under any circumstances you have the outline of this film.

Ordinarily I put some thought and care into these reviews but this stinker really isn't worth the time. Blair Witch 2, hardly a masterpiece in the genre, is a piece de resistance by comparison.

The acting is acceptable enough but the screenwriter needs to get a job doing something other than dreaming up utterly absurd scenes that will excite only the most unsophisticated viewer.

Gods and Generals (2003)

BREATHTAKING AND INSPIRATIONAL!!!

[10/10 · 2 March 2003]

It is unbelievable to read so many negative comments about this film given the enormous range and scope of this film and in particular the tour de force acting performance from Stephen Lang as General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Lang alone carries this ultra long film but is well supported by many of the same cast that brought the film GETTYSBURG so much acclaim a decade ago. His passion for his men and his family is only outmatched by his unwavering faith in Providence, and in some sense that zeal is matched only on film by Robert Duvall's zealot-like performance in The Apostle a few years ago.

For his part Duvall is a far more credible Robert E. Lee than Martin Sheen in Part Two of this trilogy. Much credit must go to the makeup and costume crew who even has Lee's hair identical, strand for strand, with famous Matthew Brady pictures of Lee. And Duvall has that lilting Virginia drawl down cold in clear contradistinction to Sheen's inferior interpretation of the role in 1993.

The film if anything is too ambitious in its attempt to cover the first two years of the Civil War, one that focuses merely on the three battles at Manassas Junction, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, Rebel victories all. But this is a noble effort and surely one worth seeing just to see Lang as his very, very best.

Praiseworthy as this effort is were I director I surely would have backed off on the dialogue, however. Credibility is lost when various characters freely quote Shakespeare as if they were the Bard himself. Even Jackson's seemingly illiterate cook has a handle on Napoleon. Quite a reach, but an entertaining way to advance the plot. The scenes are well done, equal to its predecessor or better, the rubber bayonet scene notwithstanding. And where else can you see Ted Turner, a colonel in the Palmetto Volunteers, singing "The Bonnie Blue Flag" with the Confederate High Command? Two Thumbs Up!!!

Once an Eagle (1976–1977)

AWESOME!!!

[10/10 · 30 August 2001]

This miniseries is the mystery of the ages. It rightfully enjoys one of the highest ratings--if not the very highest reviewer rating on record--of any product on film, yet for some inexplicable reason nobody has managed to release it commercially for a quarter century. Does anyone know why? A new generation of viewers never have seen this masterpiece, and to compare it to inferior products as The Winds of War led by the ever sleepy Robert Mitchum is like making an analogy of Lawrence of Arabia to Ishtar.

The cast was incredibly deep for television and included early roles for such actors as Melanie Griffith and Amy Irving and late ones for the likes of Ralph Bellamy and Glenn Ford. And at center stage was the steady work of Sam Elliott, who seemed tailor made for his interpretation of Anton Myror's straight arrow soldier Sam Damon. Truly, it ranks with his John Buford character in Gettysburg as among his best roles.

If anyone knows any way to locate a dub of even a part of this epic please email me. I have been trying to use it for a course on leadership that I teach at a California university. This drama, for our purposes, ranks above such acclaimed films as Hoosiers, Twelve O'Clock High, and Wall Street for lessons to be learned. A must see for anybody who can--and the number seems to be near zero today. What a tragedy.