Movie Review: Network (1976)

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Brian Wright

Network _____ 9/10
Presaging the rise of the New Media

“It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today. THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And YOU WILL ATONE. Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy. There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.” — Arthur Jensen, UBS (United Broadcasting System) Chairman of the Board (of the conglomerate purchasing the network)

An actual, modern-day “Old Media” elitist couldn’t have said it better, as a domineering Ned Beatty (playing Arthur Jensen) rips into the self-destructing TV cult icon Howard Beale (Peter Finch)—explaining to the now-cowed newsman the facts of life. Continue reading →

Movie Review(s): Bridges… at Ramagen (1969) and One Too Far (1970)

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Brian Wright

Classic War Movies about Bridges (7/10)
… or anti-war movies: bracketing the antiwar movement

Bridge at Remagen (1969)

Written by Roger O. Hirson
Screenplay by Richard Yates
Directed by John Guillermin

George Segal … Lt. Phil Hartman
Robert Vaughn … Maj. Paul Krüger
Ben Gazzara … Sgt. Angelo
Bradford Dillman … Maj. Barnes
E.G. Marshall … Brig. Gen. Shinner
Peter van Eyck … Generaloberst von Brock
Joachim Hansen … Capt. Otto Baumann
Sonja Ziemann … Greta Holzgang
Anna Gaël … French Girl (as Anna Gael)
Vít Olmer … Lt. Zimring (as Vit Olmer)
Bo Hopkins … Cpl. Grebs

Gen. Von Sturmer: General von Brock, you must prepare to destroy the Remagen bridge at the earliest possible moment.
Gen. von Brock: Destroy? We have 75,000 men who would be trapped on the other side of the Rhine.
Gen. Von Sturmer: And if the bridge falls to the enemy, are you prepared for the consequences?
Gen. von Brock: These men are all that’s left of the 15th Army. Their only hope of salvation is that bridge!
Gen. Von Sturmer: The 15th Army will stand or die. Hitler has ordered that not one foot of our sacred soil will be yielded to the enemy.
Gen. von Brock: Herr Feldmarschall, if orders won wars, we wouldn’t now be fighting with our backs against the Rhine, we’d be dancing at the London Savoy!

Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Lucky Ones (2008)

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Brian Wright

Intelligent comic drama about war and real people (7/10)

Kind of a road picture for soldiers home from the Iraqi front, I don’t think writer/director Neil Burger intends to make an antiwar statement… but pretty much any human being with a heart will take it as such. The quote above, “No, thank you,” occurs at several points in the story as these three soldiers, on leave—Fred Cheaver (Tim Robbins), T.K. Poole (Michael Peña), and Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams)—make their way across the US. What happens is they have a transaction with a civilian who learns they’re from the front, and the soldier will say thank you to end the exchange, to which the civilian will say, “No, thank you.” With emphasis, expressing the fairly common sentiment that we have toward those in uniform.

In my previous review of the two (anti)war movies in the WW2 genre—Bridge at Remagen and A Bridge Too Far—I brought up the little used quote from Herbert Spencer:

“When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves.” —Herbert Spencer. Continue reading →

Movie Review: State of Play (2009)

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Brian Wright

“All the President’s Men” meets modern-media reality (8/10)

Della Frye: Did we just break the law?
Cal McAffrey: Nope. That’s what you call damn fine reporting.

Not being a reader of Variety or really in tune with the machinations behind the scenes of modern film making, I was unaware until sitting down to write this review that the movie State of Play is a two-hour Americanized condensation of the critically acclaimed six-part British television series of the same name. The BBC series State of Play aired in 2003; if you look at the two IMDb records, the movie currently ranks 7.8 with viewers while the TV series ranks a full point higher at 8.8! Continue reading →

Movie Review: Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Brian Wright

The Last of the Mohicans ___ (9.5/10)
Sparse dialog pure poetry for freedom fighters

Duncan: And who empowered these colonials to pass judgment on England’s policies, and to come and go without so much as a “by your leave”?
Cora Munro: They do not live their lives “by your leave”! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!

When this movie first appeared, I had an older friend and drinking buddy whose first comment was “Geez, these guys are running at full-tilt boogie all the time; it’s like a track meet in the woods. I get tired just watching.”

I don’t. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Pleasantville (1998)

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Brian Wright

Battling the guardians of the forbidden fruit (9/10)

A fascinating exploration of moral choices: the comforts of social conformity vs. the wild ride of personal liberation. Pleasantville is a movie I hadn’t seen in a while, then loading it into the DVD player I realize it’s been almost 10 years (1998) since it came to the screen. Seems like yesterday. For some reason—perhaps seven years of a full-frontal, faith-based political regime—the film deeply moves me now.

The theme is as timeless as the central issue posed by those hysterical autocrats who pontificate(d) the Old Testament: do I accept or defy God? And if I decide to leave my warm family home on Superstition Mountain, am I prepared to accept the consequences? Continue reading →

Movie Review: War, Inc. (2008)

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Brian Wright

“When it comes to war, America means business.”

Written by Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser and John Cusack
Directed by Joshua Seftel

War, Inc. John Cusack … Brand Hauser
Hilary Duff … Yonica Babyyeah
Marisa Tomei … Natalie Hegalhuzen
Joan Cusack … Marsha Dillon
Dan Aykroyd … Mr. Vice President
John McLaughlin … Himself
Montel Williams … GuideStar Voice (voice)
Ben Kingsley … Walken / The Viceroy

Walken: Every empire is summed up in Rome. The Romans, Hauser, dudes of the human race, torchbearers of culture! You and I are centurions, on about to defend civilization against the barbarians!
Brand Hauser: Let’s cut the shit, Walken! I like killing people as much as the next guy, but I signed up to kill the bad ones! Health clinics, trade unionists, journalists, agricultural coops, Catholic liberation theologians, impoverished Colombian coffee farmers, these are the barbarians that are opponents of civilization? We turned Central America into a fuckin’ graveyard! Whoever momentarily interrupts the accumulation of our wealth, we pulverize! I’m just not feeling good about that anymore, sir! Continue reading →