Movies you love that other people don't

Dave68124

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I suppose that for most people it is too long and not enough percentage fighting for a war movie.

I remember watching it and at the end my reaction was "Wow, did I really see that". Of the WW2 war genre, I regard it as a masterpiece. The only other that I think that rivals it is the very different "Cross Of Iron".

Some of the Chinese historical epics, though most likely not well known in the West, are excellent like "Red Cliffs" and "A Battle Of Wits". Check out the Russian & multinational film "Mongol" (2007) as well, another magnificent film.
Thought the same thing of Thin Red Line - wow, did I really pay for that movie as I walked out about 3/4ths the way through. Top 10 worst movies ever IMO, but I can see how someone would like it. My first issue was casting and went down from there. Nick Nolte as a captain wasn't sellable.
 

Blackcloud6

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Nick Nolte as a captain wasn't sellable.
Watch it again, he plays a Lieutenant Colonel in command of an infantry battalion and then later is promoted to Colonel and command of the Regiment. He plays the part extremely well. It was quite accurate too as many battalion commanders in the early part of the war were older, in their late 40s and 50s and promotions in the pre-war army were slow if not stagnant.

The Company Commander was played by Elias Koteas who also did an excellent job. The struggle between Nolte's Characters and that of Koteas' is a great story of the problem of mission or men; which do you put first and for what reasons do you push the men into extreme danger? was the Captain too close to his men? Was it as bad as he thought it was? (note the way the artillery barrage his company gets caught in is filmed). Was Nolte's character's motivations the right one? Accomplish the mission, or look good to his superiors for promotion? Are the two notions mutually exclusive or do they go hand in hand in order to get the terrible job done? Does The Army care what a leader's motivations are as long as the objectives are being taken? There are many underlying stories and plots in this movie if you take the time to really watch it. Terrence Malick showed his genius on this one as he stuck pretty firm to the portion of the book he chose from which to make the movie.

What hurt TTRL is that it came out after Saving Private Ryan which although a good movie, it suffers from Spielberg's usual goody-two-shoes smarmy-ness. For example, the more powerful ending would have been when the elder Ryan walks up to the headstone and salutes Captain Miller's grave than the emotional breakdown that immediately follows. And if you are worried about age problems, Ted Danson as a young Airborne Infantry Lieutenant? Really?

SPR was all hooah, flag waving mom and apple pie. it is fine, a good movie and it brought back realism to filming war movies not seen since the excellent Cross of Iron. But TTRL was that much better as it showed the WWII was no-cake walk. It was hard, violent brutal and ripped at men's' souls. Whereas SPR made you fell proud, TTRL might make you squirm a little. it is funny that Band of Brothers, also showing ETO, was all flag waving and positive, making the men larger than life, but The Pacific, also about the PTO like TTRL, was dark, and showed how war destroyed not just men's bodies but their heart mind and souls.

My father was a WWII vet and a grew up with many influences form such men. One high school girlfriend's father was a tanker in Normandy who was pulled from a burning Sherman on one nice summer's day. When he took a little sun you could see, even in the 1970s, the outline of his goggles around his eyes. He spoke not at all about his glory days of 1944-45. He was a gentle man for all the time I knew him; kind of quiet.. went about his daily work with little to no complaint. Reflecting on that, I suspect his soul was damaged if not shattered by his terrible experiences. He probably had nightmares up to the day he passed on. I wish I knew him better now that I think about it.

You might not like it, because I suspect your expectation of TTRL was to have the Pacific War version of SPR. But no, you got a darker vision of war, with music in a constant minor key that rises in volume with the fear and expectation of death (the score is one of the most excellent ever written for a war movie as it conveys mood very well) just before the violence hits.

Each time I watch TTRL, I like it even more; SPR not much as so.
 

Dave68124

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Well maybe I will record it and give it another try. I would agree coming out after Saving Private Ryan created a bit of a uphill battle so to speak. BTW- I agree. I thought having Ted D as airborne platoon leader and the platoon sgt, I cannot recall the actors name, were quite misplaced. At least Ted D was in shape to play the part.

BTW- my grandfather spent 39 months in a Japanese POW camp with bayonet scars on him and heard him more than once wake up in the middle of the night screaming. Also heard the stories about the Bataan death march and riding in the ships from the Philippines to Japan as well as working in the mines. Also about the beating he got after Roosevelt died and the guards told them that Japan would win the war and my grandfather laughed at them. Also the story about getting released from the camp and going trough Tokyo with the intent of riding the Emperor's white horse. My intent in watching wars films isn't mom, apple pie and flag waving, it is looking for realism (historical and otherwise) of what those men went through.

I think Band of Brothers and The Pacific had their shortcomings, but also did an effective job of telling the stories of the men. Any shortcoming of Band of Brothers I think was more to do with Ambrose short cuts than Speilberg or Hanks frankly. A lot of stories from BoB have been debunked. In episode 3, the private who hides and later shot by a sniper in the neck. He didn't die as shown in the credits, but eventually would become a Command SGT Major.
 
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Blackcloud6

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Well maybe I will record it and give it another try.
If you have Blue Ray and can rent it on a Blue Ray disc, that would be the way to see it again. Dump all your previous notions and watch it and really listen to the dialog. The voice overs are crucial. The film isn't really about WWII, neither were James Jones' three novels; they are just set in WWII. Jones had no love lost for the US Army, he served in the pre-war Army and that all comes out in From Here to Eternity* and The Thin Red Line. Whistle was the last in the trilogy and it is about wounded vets coming home at the end of the war. Unfortunately Jones died before it was finished and his wife pieced it together from drafts and notes. I cannot recall if I had finished it, but I recall it being somewhat depressing.

There is nothing wrong with the Apple Pie type movies for WWII, after all. the Good Guys were really fighting some really Bad Guys; but what it took to rid the planet of that filth should never be glossed over either. SPR didn't do that, thankfully; the beach scene is some of the most intense minutes of all movies; and throughout the movie, the squad suffers one lost after another, and Captain Miller final request was not just intended for Private Ryan.

*BTW The 1953 movie of From Here to Eternity is most excellent.
 

Blackcloud6

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... oh and don't get tripped up on Joh Travolta as a BG in TTRL. That was a clever plot device to make you, the viewer a bit incredulous and Nolte's Character is thinking about it in the voice over as they walk the ship. He "ate sh!t" for years in the pre-war army and then the war comes along, the army expands and younger men zip past him in rank.

If you notice, outside of Nolte, the more famous an actor, the lesser his role was in the film.
 

Dave68124

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*BTW The 1953 movie of From Here to Eternity is most excellent.
Agree. Always end up watching it when I see it on TV. If you like Burt Lancaster, I highly recommend The Train and Judgement at Nuremberg. Two excellent films from the 50's.

Maybe we can double date. You bring Tater and your copy of TRL and House of Cards and I will call Glennbo to see what he is doing that night. :p
 
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Blackcloud6

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Agree. Always end up watching it when I see it on TV. If you like Burt Lancaster, I highly recommend The Train and Judgement at Nuremberg. Two excellent films from the 50's.

Maybe we can double date. You bring Tater and your copy of TRL and House of Cards and I will call Glennbo to see what he is doing that night. :p
Just watched Judgement at Nuremberg the other day. Great movie.

You're on for the date; I hope Tater wears his fishnets again.
 

Sand Bar Bill

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GATTACA
Lost in Translation
pi
Thin Red Line
Remains of the Day.

qA movie I wanted to love but didn't: The Hours. The book was so much better.
 
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Nexus6

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GATTACA
Lost in Translation
pi
Thin Red Line
Remains of the Day.

qA movie I wanted to love but didn't: The Hours. The book was so much better.
I've actually been meaning to put GATTACA and Thin Red Line in my netflix queue. I know I've read some bad things about these two films, but some good comments too. Thank you for reminding me about them. I think the best thing about Lost in Translation was some of the cultural humor and the 80's music (loved 'More Than This' by Roxy Music). Other than that, I think the movie is a bit overrated, especially Johannson. All she seems to know how to do is strut about showing off her tush and giving people that moronic look with her lips slightly ajar.

The movie that comes to mind concerning me is Paul Verhoeven's 'Starship Troopers'. This movie has a lot of haters here, including our beloved Scott T. ;) Not a great movie by any means but I thought it was a lot of fun, and I loved Verhoeven's usual quirkiness and dark humor. Come to think of it, I also really liked 'Ghosts of Mars'. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Natasha Henstridge and Ice Cube were a great odd couple, and it was also nice seeing Pam Greer from Jackie Brown, Joanna Cassidy from Blade Runner, and a young Jason Stratham and Clea Duval.
 
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prymus

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Rob Roy, great movie, loved it, One I like is Chronicles of Riddick, loved it but a lot didn't. Also liked Thin Red Line but I see it more as an anti-war movie than War movie.
 

kawaiku

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Never heard of anyone hating on Rob Roy, Chronicles of Riddick, and The Thin Red Line. I see the last two getting a lot of love but almost no mention of Rob Roy.
 

prymus

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I have, especially Chronicles from the so called aficionado crowd.
 
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