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Reviews
Two Rode Together (1961)
Grim and hilarious, Stewart, Widmark, and John Ford. Enjoy it
Searching through the John Ford movies I've missed, I happened on "Two Rode Together". Some parts had me laughing, some on the edge of my seat, some just perfect. As always, Ford's soldiers are all unique people...and, of course, there is the unmistakable Andy Devine ("Hold on, Wild Bill, wait for me!") as a John Ford sergeant.
The Unforgiven (1960)
Good movie, great actors. In Civil Rights of 1960, Huston tries something extra in a Western
Good movie, great actors. In Civil Rights of 1960, Huston tries something extra in a Western. That's said somewhere else, as others say, the cinematography is special. Looks for those shots from high, looking down on people who look like ants.
Spoiler part:
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The movie ends with a long battle scene in which a group of forty Kiowas charge, headlong, over and over at the hero family. The movie ends as Hepburn shoots her brother, the last of the Kiowa. This seems based on "human wave" attacks in the Korean War , and I've seen it in other 1950s Westerns.
It is NOT, however, the way the Kiowa fought, nor any other western tribes. Remember that Indian "warriors" are not soldiers. They are skilled, but they have not signed up to risk getting killed in battle. They might fight to the death, but only if trapped and then to protect their families.
An Indian "war party" was usually 15 or 20 warriors who had followed a charismatic leader, away from the tribe, in a raid for cattle, horses, and maybe a few rapes if women came their way. The charismatic leader had to make sure that none (or close to none) of his followers were killed, because that could be failure. Families in camp took revenge on him. And, remember that a tribe is a collection of families.
Example, from about this time and along the Texas - Oklahoma border. A group of Indians -- I forget the tribe -- had left camp to raid. A large group, maybe twenty or thirty of them, went for a "sod fort" that was home base for buffalo hunters. There were about a dozen hunters, and maybe less, but they were armed with Sharps rifles powerful enough to knock down a buffalo at long range and sighted to hit at long range. The buffalo hunters began to kill raiders. After several had been killed, and with little change of getting close enough to kill the hinters, the "war party" left.
The Kiowa in this movie do the exact opposite, like Civil War soldiers battling it out at Gettysburg. This is nonsense. Maybe that's the change that Lancaster felt the movie needed to be commercial. And maybe that's why Huston thought he had made a bad movie, or a good movie with a good, although unrealistic, action movie tacked into the end.
For some reality, look at Robert M. Utley's series of books about the US Army fighting Indians in the west, starting with Utley's "Frontiersmen in Blue".
Nameja gredzens (2018)
Among the worst movies I have ever watched
Beautiful cinematography when showing rivers and forests, and even some sea-scenes of dragon-boats. Otherwise, a stupid plot, with a comic over-acting villain. The actor, someone named Bloor, I think, behaves like Alan Rickman if a director had told Rickman to ham up his Sherriff of Nottingham.
The battle scenes are OK and the good guys (and gals) win. They rally to defend their land against a crusading army of about 30 or 40 who never speak except to shout "argh" and "glug" as they are stabbed. We know they are crusaders because they wear the same helmets and each has a white cloak with a cross.
The heroic boy-king faces sneaky tribal leaders ready to pledge loyalty and then to betray him and to betray their homeland. They go over to the villain's side, but, of course, the hero finds a way to defeat them all.
All of it has something to do with a Pope, father of the villain, who kills anyone who fails. Every now and again, another papal son pops up to rattle off some Latin and to beg people to follow the way of peace. At what looks like a climax, the priestly son throws himself between the crusading army and the good villagers, crying "Stop" (more or less). Ah, I thought, now he converts the pagan villagers and Latvians live happily ever after. Nope. The crusaders shoot him with about a dozen arrows, and the conversion sub-plot evaporates.
Nearly everything about this movie is painfully stupid.
Karppi (2018)
Fine, and waiting for Season 3 on Netflix!
Season 1 keeps turning and twisting, each time I think I know who-done-it. Exhausting, since it goes on for a dozen episodes. (A Netflix streamer is "supposed" to go for six or eight, so we would know when the detectives are in sight of the killer). Assumptions? Ha!
Season 2 has fewer surprises. However, it closes off one murder investigation but leaves another hanging, and another two story-lines unfinished.
Can't wait for Season 3. Up and down, it's all good. The two leads are right together. The other actors fit...just well acted. Helsinki seems always dark, frozen, snowing, slippery with ice, but somehow people get on with life. Ships shuttling between Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia. (In fact, the series caused me to look up Estonia to see that Estonians speak a language related to Finnish -- something called South Finnish -- and the two countries are close)
80 Steps to Jonah (1969)
Stuck watching this movie on an airliner, I fell asleep
I remember this as a dog of a movie that played on a late-evening flight from O'Hare to San Francisco in January, 1969. Wayne Newton was awful. I saw that he was in a car accident and that he ran away from the police, for some reason. After a bit, I went to sleep, only waking up when Mickey Rooney wandered through to save Newton and a happy ending.
This afternoon, something itched in my brain, so I went looking on IMDB for a Mickey Rooney movie. This is it. I almost never walk out of movies, I would have walked out of this if the exit had not been about 30,000 feet up.
Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
Watch this
One of those underplayed British WW2 movies...no fancy "message"...just a fine movie. You feel the heat, feel the exhaustion, admire the ingenuity of the characters.
Invasion (2021)
Not bad until the finale
Gripping story, although slow. Then the finale throws it all back to the beginning. I will watch when it rolls around again, but I'm counting off the days.
Shadowplay (2020)
Superb
Watch it. A fine cops-in-Berlin, postwar, when we almost expect to see Bernie Gunther skulking, or John Russell and walking with Effi. All-around good series.
Are there historical anomalies? Sure. The Brooklyn accent is not perfect. Yes, it should sound more like Bernie Sanders, but so what? The women carrying brick are right, and you can find a Youtube video by some British soldiers that show them. The dust looks right.