Archive for the 'WWII' Category

The Counterfeiters

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 12, 2008
in Based on a book, Based on a true story, Drama, Foreign, Germany, Jewish, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

Fälscher, Die, or The Counterfeiters is based on the true story of Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history.  During WWII, the Nazis had a great idea in 1936 to destroy the economies of their foes by counterfeiting large amounts of currency and flooding the markets.  By 1945 the Germans had successfully created 8,965,080 British banknotes valued at £134,610,810.  Their efforts were then turned towards the US dollar, but due to some sabotage on the part of the Jewish prisoners and Allied Forces winning the war, large amounts of US currency were never printed.

This film follows the story of Salomon Sorowitsch, the best counterfeiter at the time, and Adolf Burger, an expert printer, as they simultaneously try to stay alive and foil the Germans plans.  Housed at Sachsenhausen, these special prisoners were kept apart from the rest of the camp.  They were given nice clothes, plenty of food, real beds to sleep in, showers, and even had music playing all day long.  I am by no means an expert on the Nazi camps, but I had never heard of this kind of treatment before.

Towards the end of the war the countfeiters at Sachsenhausen were moved to Ebensee, but the operation was never started back up again before the camp was liberated.  Many of the banknotes were thrown into a nearby lake and were recovered by divers years later.

This is another great film for any history buff.  Very interesting and enjoyable.  Some of the special features even include interviews with Adolf Burger.

Rating: ★★★★☆

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 22, 2008
in Action, Adventure, Based on a book, Based on a novel, England, Family, Fantasy, Remake, Sequel and WWII
. 1 Comment

If you were disappointed by the first film in this more recent series, I think you might enjoy the second installment. I thought The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was too kid-like and G-rated for my tastes. Don’t get me wrong - I enjoyed it, it’s just that I thought a lot more could have been done with the fight scenes. I do realize this series was C.S. Lewis’ response to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and it wasn’t necessarily made for adults, but it could still be way cooler. If you didn’t know, they were pals back in the day and hung out at the same pub. They both decided to make something for the kids and these two great literary works are what came of it. I should know this because the university I attended and currently work at has a big part of their library dedicated to Mr. Lewis and an exact replica of said bar…

Anyways, back to the movie - I really enjoyed what was done with Prince Caspian. I think Andrew Adamson did a fine job at stepping up to the plate and directing something worth seeing. If you didn’t know, he did direct the first film along with a couple of the Shrek films. He’s also slated as a producer on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader set to come out in 2010.

If you’ve seen the BBC versions, you might be aware that Warwick Davis played several roles throughout those films. I’m not sure what he’s most famous for because he played an Ewok in Star Wars. He was also in Willow, the Leprechaun movies, Labyrinth, and many others more recently. He’s really made a career for himself as being the guy that gets into suits. He happens to play Nikabrik in this film and Liz and I thought it was really cool to see him in a movie with Peter Dinklage, another amazing actor who has also made a great name for himself.

Seeing the progression of these two movies, if there’s one to be seen, reminds me of the Harry Potter series in the way that it grows in age appropriateness with each installment. I really hope these films continue in this manner. I’d also like to see them tackle the last three books that the BBC never got to, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle. It’s always been my opinion that these three are the coolest of the seven, and also the hardest to make due to needed special effects.

Rating: ★★★★½

Atonement

Published
by
Lij
on January 24, 2008
in Based on a novel, Drama, Romance, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

Atonement is a beautiful film, full of stunning imagery and moments of musical intensity. I see why it recently won Best Picture-Drama at the Golden Globes — it is intense, what a movie critic would probably call “sweeping,” dramatic, heartbreaking, remorseful, and unusual.

The “sweeping” intensity comes from the fact that the film doesn’t spend a lot of time telling you how the characters got from one place to another. The first act takes place entirely over one afternoon and evening, and while it gives you a bit of backstory here and there, you’re pretty much right in the moment. The viewer almost feels the ungodly heat of summer in that act, as the characters try to stay cool. The plot goes back and forth in time a lot, giving you different perspectives on certain events. It’s jolting the first time it happens, but it is done masterfully and becomes a natural part of the flow.

The film is dramatic because it covers such monumental events in these characters’ lives. It shows how little decisions and misunderstandings can lead to life-changing situations. Young Briony, who could perhaps be called the main character, misunderstands and misreads so many moments that she literally destroys the lives of the people she loves, including her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley, who is amazingly not mouth-gapingly irritating in this movie!) and childhood crush Robbie Turner, played by James MacAvoy, whose roles are getting more and more interesting.

Eventually, Young Briony grows up and is played both by Ramola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave, all three of them dwelling on the same part of Briony’s character: her guilt and how she comes to terms with it. (Yes, how she atones for it.)

The movie is certainly heartbreaking, but the rationale behind that claim is for the viewer to understand. I’m going to guess that many viewers will disagree on where the real tragedy is found in Atonement: in Cecilia, in Robbie, in their relationship, in the war, in Briony’s guilt, or in the moment early on when Robbie accidentally passes his dirty note to Cecila through a nosy Briony, causing the whole thing to change from innocent confusion to less innocent anger.

I would definitely recommend Atonement, and based on the recommendations of my good friends, I’m going to get the book and read it just as soon as I can.

Letters From Iwo Jima

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2007
in Drama, History, Sequel, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

This is Clint Eastwood’s sequel to Flags of our Fathers; showing the Japanese viewpoint of the battle for Iwo Jima. It stars some of the same actors and I thought it was much better than the first installment.

Ken Watanabe does an amazing job portraying General Tadamichi Kuribayashi trying to beef up the fortifications and defenses of that tiny island in the last ditch effort to defend their homeland. He and other officers knew it was a losing battle before even going there.

There’s not many war movies out there, made by American studios, that show the “enemy’s” point of view. Especially not in the World War II era. I think it’s a good thing to view them as fellow human beings than savages. I think Eastwood did a good job pointing this out in a couple scenes where one side shows compassion for a POW and gives them medical treatment. At the same time there are other scenes showing brutality, but that’s also what happens during a war.

Being a huge fan of war movies, I would recommend Letters from Iwo Jima over Flags of our Fathers. This movie is more about the people fighting the war than epic battle scenes. Other movies like this would be Thin Red Line and Paths of Glory.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 16, 2006
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Child Labor, Coming of age, Drama, Japan, Prostitution, Romance and WWII
. 0 Comments

I really liked this movie too. In fact, I was just realizing the other day that I usually don’t write about things on here if I really hated them. There were a lot of good Chinese actors in this film. Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh, from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Ken Watanabe, from The Last Samurai and Batman Begins, are the only three whose names I recognize. I saw other faces that seemed familiar, but I have no idea what their names are.

This story starts out in pre-WWII Japan. Two little girls are sold by their father and taken into the city. Chiyo is trained to be a geisha and her sister presumably escapes. From here on we follow Chiyo as she trains and eventually becomes one of the ‘most celebrated geisha of Japan’. I don’t mean to sound cheesy here. It really was a very interesting story. I bet the book would be a good read.

When watching this I kept thinking back to other movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers or Hero. I’m not really sure why - maybe because of some of the actors involved. This movie didn’t have some of the amazing color-scenes, but the acting was phenomenal in my opinion. I think Ken Watanabe is great and am really looking forward to seeing him in more movies. Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh also performed well…again. I have yet to be disappointed.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 12, 2006
in Action, Adventure, Based on a book, Based on a novel, British, Drama, Family, Fantasy, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

I was so excited for this movie to come out and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. The only way it could have been better, in my opinion, was to have a more adult-themed movie with more intense scenes. By this I mean the battle scenes could have been sweeter and the witch scenes could have been scarier. However, this doesn’t really matter to me because we’re talking about a children’s book here.

I was such a huge fan of the BBC production for the first four books in C.S. Lewis’ epic children’s series: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader(Reepicheep was played by that little dude from Willow!) and The Silver Chair. These were so awesome back in the day. This latest version is top notch.

I think they did a great job with the casting on this one. Liz pointed out to me that all of the British children had full lips and that seems to be the “thing” these days. I also think that Jim Broadbent was a great choice for the professor and Elizabeth Hawthorne as Mrs. MacReady. Oh and who can forget the White Witch? Tilda Swinton pulled off another good performance here. If you don’t recognize her right away you might have seen her in Constantine or Thumbsucker or Adaptation. And Aslan. I think the digital Aslan was so much better here than the BBC’s large stuffed animal. It’s pretty sweet what they can do these days with computers.

I’m not going to talk much about the story here because you really should go out and read the book. It shouldn’t even take you a day to finish it. I would also like to point out that Weta Workshop had a large hand in a lot of the weapon, armor, and costume making for this film. So keep that in mind. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s the company Peter Jackson created while filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Ok, so I think I’ve crooned enough about this film. I liked it a lot. This is definitely a family friendly film, but may not be suitable for the little tikes. This is one movie that could lend itself to lots of constructive conversation afterwards.

Fog of War

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 11, 2005
in Cold War, Communism, Documentary, History, Vietnam, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

If you’re into documentaries I’d throw this out as a must see. The whole movie is Robert McNamara talking about when he was Secretary of Defense, things that happened in WWII and Vietnam, getting along with presidents, etc. The movie is setup as Mr. McNamara talking about some lessons he’s learned over his 85 years of existence. I can’t really say much else other than it was awesome. Here’s the lessons he presents us:

  1. The human race will not eliminate war in this century, but we can reduce the brutality of war - the level of killing - by adhering to the principles of a “Just War,” in particular to the principle of “proportionality.”
  2. The indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will lead to the destruction of nations.
  3. We are the most powerful nation in the world - economically, politically and militarily - and we are likely to remain so for decades ahead. But we are no omniscient. If we cannot persuade other nations with similar interests and similar values of the merits of our proposed use of that power, we should not proceed unilaterally except in the unlikely requirement to defend directly the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii.
  4. Moral principals are often ambiguous guides to foreign policy and defense policy, but surely we can agree that we should establish as a major goal of U.S. foreign policy and, indeed, of foreign policies across the globe: the avoidance in this century of the carnage - 160 million dead - caused by conflict in the 20th century.
  5. We, the richest nation in the world, have failed in our responsibility to our own poor and to the disadvantaged across the world to help them advance their welfare in the most fundamental terms of nutrition, literacy, health and employment.
  6. Corporate executives must recognize there is no contradiction between a soft heart and a hard head. Of course, they have responsibilities to stockholders, but they also have responsibilities to their employees, their customers and to society as a whole.
  7. President Kennedy believed a primary responsibility of a president - indeed “the” primary responsibility of a president - is to keep the nation out of war, if at all possible.
  8. War is a blunt instrument by which to settle disputes between or within nations, and economic sanctions are rarely effective. Therefore, we should build a system of jurisprudence based on the International Court - that the U.S. has refused to support - which would hold individuals responsible for crimes against humanity.
  9. If we are to deal effectively with terrorists across the globe, we must develop a sense of empathy - I don’t mean “sympathy,” but rather “understanding” - to counter their attacks on us and the Western World.
  10. One of the greatest dangers we face today is the risk that terrorists will obtain access to weapons of mass destruction as a result of the breakdown of the Non-Proliferation Regime. We in the U.S. are contributing to that breakdown.

The Pianist

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 27, 2005
in Based on a book, Based on a true story, Biography, Drama, Foreign, Music, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

Somehow I missed this one when it was in the theaters, but I finally saw it. This won Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay. I’d have to say it was pretty good. Adrien Brody did an excellent job in this timepiece.

This wasn’t nearly as disturbing as Schindler’s List, but I think it really did show how people survive. At one point Brody’s character is asked what he used to do. He says that he’s a pianist. He’s then asked what he’s going to do after the ware is over and he says he’s going to be a pianist and that’s exactly what he does. It’s really horrible that these kinds of tragedies have taken place in our world, however, it’s even more horrible that good men and women stand by and do nothing when they know about it.