Recently in War/Military pg.2 Category

Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring: Christopher Waltz, Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Diane Kuger, Jacky Ido, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Martin Wuttke. Synopsis: In WWII France, a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers are choosen specifically to terrorize the occupying Nazis with their brutal methods. Drama/War.  

I'm a big Tarantino fan, but Inglourious Basterds just didn't work for me...not even a little bit. Don't get me wrong, there are some compelling scenes, the trademark parallel story telling, violence, and dark humor of Tarantino, as well some fine acting, but the flick as a whole didn't do it for me and, I would suspect, not for more than few Taratino, Pitt, or war movie fans.

The first thing you might notice is that I don't categorize this movie as "historical", despite the subject matter, because its not even a little bit factual nor does it make a very serious attempt to be legitimate historical fiction. Another thing you should realize when you're getting ready to see this one is that, like many Tarantino movies, the story is heavy on dialogue, but understand that much of it is in French or German, and, in my view, at times the subittiles moved too quickly and/or were hard to read against background.

The story itself, as I alluded to, is fantastical. We have a very powerful and well done opening scene between an eloquently evil Nazi officer, Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz) and a nervous French dairy farmer who is secretly hiding a Jewish family named Dreyfus from the occupying Germans. This scene is, by far, in my opinion, the best of the flick and Walz is superb throughout.  In classic Tarantino fashion, we have another story going on at the same time and we just know the two will meet at some point.

Cut to a group of American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt Burn After Reading) is a fast talking, blood and guts, good ole' boy type who tells his assortment of troops that they have been assembled for two reasons 1) they're Jewish 2) they are going to spread unprecedented fear among the Germans by being incredibly barbaric. In fact, Lt. Raine tells his group of recruits that each of them owes him "100 scalps, or die tryin'". Let me make this clear right now: you will see some scalps being cut off in the film, sometimes when casual dialogue is going on.

Mpw, you might think this film will be a story of this group of men (which include Eli Roth Hostel, Daniel Bruhl, and Til Schweiger) -given the title of the flick-along with their feelings of revenge, justification due to their religion and the crime the Nazis had committed upon their people, but its not. In fact, the "inglourious basterds", other than Pitt, are merely secondary/backgound characters in the story, one dimensional and no real attempt to develop them.

On the other hand, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) is really the effective protagonist of the story, a theater owner who has a dedicated business associate (Jacky Ido) and who is developing an intricate plan to wreak some havoc on the Nazis who will be viewing a film in her theater, including Goebbels and Hitler ( Martin Wuttke) himself.

Look, I never want to be a spoiler and I already told you the plot was fantastical, but I just have to say again, it was a little too over the top for me and, worse, just didn't fit together as a good story. I will say that Tarantino fans should check this one out, no matter what, and I predict some will like it very much as it does have his distinctive flavor, but for me the one key ingredient to a good flick is a good story and this one doesn't get there. The dark humor mixed with violence  that works so well in most of Tarantino's films falls flat here, but in fairness, its hard to find any humor with Nazis and the war as your backdrop and, other than Hogan's Heroes, its probably better not to try.

Like I said, Waltz is excellent and Laurent is not far behind, but not enough to save this one. I was disappointed in Pitt. I know his character is supposed to be over the top, but to me it was to the point of being cartoonish, and this is beneath him a bit, in my view. Not a terrible performance, good for some laughs, and the character as written is over the top, but I just expected more from Pitt in terms of carrying the movie. He really doesn't. That might be unfair of me to expect great things from him in any film, but I do think he has that type of talent-I'm not talking about being a star-where its reasonable to expect more than I would from most actors.

I will also mention Wuttke's performance as Hitler, he has the look nailed and the histrionics are what many of us would associate with one of the most despicable men who ever lived. 

Overall, the good acting from some of the cast, trademark directorial florusihes, and a few interesting scenes just can't save a story that is too far fetched and contains events that just plain did not happen, e.g. the murder of Hitler along with hundreds of Nazis in a theater. I know the whole point was to paint a 'fantasy' revenge type of movie, but against the real life historical backdrop and people, it falls flat. 

But, you might think differently. Try it for yourself and find out, don't take my word for it. Hell, even I don't do that unless I've got no other alternative.

Directed by Rod Holcomb. Starring Scott Glenn, Zachary Ty Bryan, Theo Rossi, Jeff Roop, Corey Sevier, Adam Grimes, Jake Busey, Richard Zeppieri. Drama/Historical/Sports/TV Movie. Synopsis: The story of the 1950 Army football team and its involvement in a historic cheating scandal and breaking of the honor code. The scandal ended the West Point careers of 30 football players, bo other cadets, and shocked the nation during the height of the Korean War.

This is a very good historical drama that is, surprisingly, relatively absent from the consciousness of many die hard college football fans (like me)-and not just because it happened more than 50 years ago. Believe me, a lot of die hard college football fans can tell you plenty about Red Granges' epic 6 touchdown effort or the Four Horseman of Notre Dame, both of which happened decades prior to the events in this movie. 

Code Breakers is made by ESPN, but those of you who are not sports/football fans per se shouldn't worry, this is a quality drama and not shot just for jocks. And, its not the first time (The Junction Boys) ESPN has hit paydirt with a movie based on a historical period of college football.

The film is set in 1950, with the West Point (Army) football team coming off of two straight undefeated seasons, and heavy favorites for a third, a feat then unmatched in college football. Army was, unlike today, one of the glamour teams in college football with only Notre Dame being comparable in the national consciousness. The euphoria of the victory in WWII was still fresh, yet the specter of Korea looms large. The football team was coached by the legendary Earl "Red" Blaik (Scott Glenn Training Day Urban Cowboy), well on his way to college coaching immortality and helped by an impressive staff that included future NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi (Richard Zeppieri)

Holcomb does a great job of bringing this all to us and setting the mood in the first few minutes of the movie with a very good replica of the West Point campus and good use of period newsreels. The cast is ensemble, as you might guess, but the most important characters for the purpose of introducing us to the scandal are George Holbrook (Jeff Roop), a key football player who struggles with some of his subjects and his swim team roommate Brian Nolan (Zachary Ty Bryan). The two are best friends and mutually worried about their grades amidst the incredible pressure and expectations of the Academy.

Holbrook is introduced to a ring of cadets, including several key football players, who are able to share questions and answers with each other to get borderline academic qualifying players over the hump. The main players in telling the story of the ring, which was so sophisticated and ingrained that there was actually a member of the ring on the honor committee, include the quarterback-and coach's son-Bob Blaik (Corey Seveir) and the aggressive star running back DeSantis (Theo Rossi)

Holbrook reluctantly gets drawn into the cheating, though he, like so many of the cadets involved, did not directly benefit from cheating yet did break the code to help others, and ultimately confides the existence of the cheating ring to Nolan, who in turn goes through his own struggle in deciding how to proceed. I never want to play spoiler, but if you want to see this movie, even if you know nothing about this story, you know that the cheating ring was exposed just from the title. 

But, without giving you a overview of what happens next, I can do it justice by saying that it is done in such a way as to make it ambiguous, at least to me, as to what the truly honorable thing to do and the personal struggle some of these cadets went through in reaching their decisions, honorable or not.

The desire of some of the players not to want to tell on their friends-some of whom were literally weeks away from going to the war in Korea after graduation-is done in such way as to not be superficial or cheesy. On the other hand, the necessity of upholding the honor code and to tell the truth is presented with equal strength.

The acting is excellent. Scott Glenn (Urban Cowboy, Silence of the Lambs, Courage Under Fire)  is incredible as Coach Blaik. The young actors who portray  the cadets seem to me, an Army veteran, to be legitimate military men and, as you would guess, an ESPN produced film is righteous with the football as well. To me, Bryan, Roop, Sevier, and Rossi were all excellent in their roles and brought their characters to life as well as you could expect. The rest of the cast is good, too, with Jake Busey probably being the most recognizable for the obvious reason that he is an exact replica of his father.  

Some of you know that special features in a DVD are important to me, and the special features in this film are an A+. They are informative and substantive. There is a nice feature on the actual team complete with contemporary news footage, a touching feature on both the Army and Navy teams leading up to their big game in 2001 in the wake of the terrorists attacks on America, and several excellent interviews with famous Army men and West Point graduates such as Norman Schwarzkopf, several West Point Graduates who were there during the scandal such as Bill Yeoman, whom some of you college football fans will remember as the successful head coach of the University of Houston in the '80's, 1959 Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins, and even some notable Navy men, such as Roger Staubach and John McCain. All of this, plus the standard stuff: interviews with the cast and on the set, director's commentary.

The special features last as long or longer than the film and you just couldn't ask for more if you are interested in this movie, the making of the movie, learning more about the story, or the Army-Navy football rivalry.

The only complaint I have about the film is that it could have done more in telling us what happened specifically to some of the characters who were featured. Instead, we got general stuff at the end like "..so and so went on to serve with distinction in the U.S. Army after leaving West Point..."    But, I do understand that this is still a touchy subject a half century later, some of these men are still alive, the facts are undoubtedly still in dispute, and I would guess that not everyone who was involved in this affair, at any level, was on board for the movie. So, its a small complaint.

Most movies that make it to my favorites have to be viewed at least twice (how good can it really be if I don't want to watch it again....and again...?), but Code Breakers made it after one viewing.

For what that's worth.