Review: First "HELLBOY" Film Still Dances with the Devil

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hellboy (2004)

Running time:  122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and frightening images

DIRECTOR:  Guillermo del Toro

WRITERS:  Guillermo del Toro; from screen story by Peter Briggs & Guillermo del Toro (based upon the comic book by Mike Mignola)

PRODUCERS:  Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, and Mike Richardson

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Guillermo Navarro

EDITOR:  Peter Amundson

COMPOSER:  Marco Beltrami

HORROR/ACTION/ADVENTURE and SCI/FANTASY

Starring:  Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, John Hurt, Corey Johnson, Doug Jones, Brian Caspe, James Babson, Biddy Hodson, Jim Howick, Kevin Trainor, and (voice) David Hyde Pierce

Hellboy is a 2004 American superhero and horror-fantasy film from director Guillermo del Toro.  The film is based upon the Hellboy comic book franchise and character created by writer-artist Mike Mignola.  Hellboy the movie focuses on a demon who becomes a defender against the forces of darkness after being conjured by the Nazis as an infant.

Mike Mignola’s titular character of his wonderful Hellboy comic books comes to life in director Guillermo del Toro’s colorful and well-dressed B-movie, Hellboy.  This horror/action flick is dry, slow, and even the action is deadpan, although there are a few funny and genuinely scary moments.  Now, I can describe a plethora of movies as having “a few good moments,” but this movie does have quite a few.

The film begins late in World War II.  A young scientist, Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm (Kevin Trainor) and a squad of Allied soldiers come upon a group of Nazi kooks.  The kooks include the Russian mystic, Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden), in the midst of a ritual to summon a group of big bow wow evil gods.  The Allies stop the evil that is coming “from the other side,” but something does slip through – a little demon kid they name Hellboy.

Sixty years later, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is now an adult, having been raised by Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt).  Hellboy is the main man/strongman for "The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense," which is a group fighting the good fight against all manner of bogeymen and boogens.  Our entry into this dark world of supernatural special operations is an FBI newbie, John Myers (Rupert Evans).  Myers comes just in time, as Rasputin and his gang of uglies are back to finish what they started six decades earlier.

Hellboy is a pleasant diversion, and it certainly is pretty to look at, featuring colorful art direction, set decoration, and makeup.  Hellboy looks a lot like Guillermo del Toro’s last film, Blade II, but whereas the latter had a dark atmosphere and a convincing, unbroken line of suspense, Hellboy is flat and too long to be as flat as it is.  Perlman is, at times, almost D.O.A. as the title character, and then, quite lively at other times.  I don’t think Perlman's interpretation of Hellboy really fits the comic book original version of the character.  The four color Hellboy is more humble and earthy, whereas Perlman’s creation often comes across as a cocky, uncouth roughneck.

Hellboy has excellent production values.  It is a great looking film, from its set and environments to its costumes and hair and make-up that transform actors into a menagerie of inventive and imaginative characters.  Still,I don't think audiences have to see Hellboy in a theater; they can save it for a rental.

5 of 10

B-

★★½ out of 4 stars

EDITED:  Saturday, March 1, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "INDIANA JONES and the Dial of Destiny" is a Wonderful Final Adventure

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 of 2023 (No. 1918) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (1989)

Running time:  154 minutes (2 hours, 34 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, language and smoking

DIRECTOR:  James Mangold

WRITERS:  Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp & James Mangold (based on characters created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman)

PRODUCERS:  Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Simon Emanuel

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Phedon Papamichael (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker, and Dick Westervelt

COMPOSER:  John Williams

ADVENTURE/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonino Banderas, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters, Ethann Isidore, Nasser Memarzia, Karen Allen, and John Rhys-Davies, 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a 2023 action-adventure film directed by James Mangold.  It is the fifth entry in the “Indiana Jones” film franchise that began with the 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Dial of Destiny finds Indiana Jones racing to retrieve a legendary artifact from a Nazi who wants change the course of history.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens in 1944, deep inside Europe during the Allied liberation of World War II.  Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) and his colleague and fellow archaeologist, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), are both captured by Nazis while attempting to retrieve “the Lance of Longinus.”  This relic is also known as the “Spear of Destiny,” the lance that is alleged to have pierced the side of Jesus Christ.  Adolf Hitler believes it can save him and his dying Third Reich.

However, Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) believes that he has found part of the relic that can save the Nazis, the “Antikythera”or “Archimedes's Dial,” a device created by the ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes,  Voller believes that if he can make the device whole it is capable of locating fissures in time.  As usual, Indiana Jones foils the Nazis.

A quarter-century later, in August 1969, Jones is retiring from his position as a professor and instructor at Hunter College.  He is approached by Helena “Wombat” Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Jones' goddaughter and Basil Shaw's daughter.  She has come looking for the Dial, but she isn't the only one.  A Nazi ghost from Indiana Jones' past also wants to retrieve the Dial and to find its missing half.  Can Indiana Jones, now an old man, find the will for one more adventure to save the world from Nazi machinations?  Can he really trust his own goddaughter's motivations?

In preparation for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I recently watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in its entirety for the first time in over two decades.  I have seen the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, countless times, and I re-watched its follow-up, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), in November of last year (2022).  I have watched the fourth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), many times since its release.

I am happy to report that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the best Indiana Jones since Temple of Doom.  It is a bit long and drags in the middle, but when it is time to deliver the old-fashioned Indiana Jones thrills, this film brings it with renewed freshness.  The two street chases, one in New York and one in Tangier, Morocco, kept me on the edge of my seat.  Indiana Jones on a horse tearing through the streets and subways of NYC is every bit as good as it could be.

Dial of Destiny is also blessed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw.  The script presents a very well conceived and executed character, and Bridge turns her into a character that can match Indiana Jones step for step.  Hers is not the only high-quality supporting character, but this film could not work without Waller-Bridge playing Shaw the way she does.

The best Indiana Jones villains are the Nazis, and Mads Mikkelsen as Voller and Boyd Holbrook as Klaber, Voller's crazy and homicidal lackey, gives us Nazis worthy of not only being punched, but also of being killed.  It's good to see that the Indiana Jones franchise makes Nazis plainly and clearly evil.  There isn't any “good people on both sides here” double talk in this movie.

No, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas do not return for Dial of Destiny, being listed in the credits as “executive producers.”  James Mangold has replaced Spielberg as director, and he does a much better job with this film than I expected.  Lucas has co-written the story for the previous films doesn't for this one, but the spirit of adventure and mystery he first imagined decades ago is strong in Dial of Destiny.

I understand that some viewers may be put off by the age of Dial of Destiny's star and title character.  I like that Dial of Destiny does not hesitate to grapple with Indiana Jones' age and about the grief and regret that have become a big part of his life.  It is nice to see returning supporting characters, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), although it is a bit off-putting not seeing them so much older.  Still, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, with its themes of time and tide, of change, of new eras, of aging, of a hero in the sunset of his life, offers a perfect good-bye to a beloved hero.  It says that there is still a story to tell, but the story we followed for so long … well, that's over.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, June 30, 2023

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "INDIANA JONES and the Last Crusade" Stills Feels Like a True Ending

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 of 2023 (No. 1917) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Running time:  127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13

DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg

WRITERS:  Jeffrey Boam; from a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes (based on characters created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman)

PRODUCER:  Robert Watts

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Douglas Slocombe (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Michael Kahn, A.C.E.

COMPOSER:  John Williams

Academy Award winner

ADVENTURE/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody, Denholm Elliot, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne, Kevork Malikyan, Robert Eddison, Richard Young, and Michael Sheard

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 action-adventure film from director Steven Spielberg.  It is the third entry in the “Indiana Jones” film franchise that began with the 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).  The Last Crusade finds Indiana Jones searching for his father, who along with the Nazis, are search for the Holy Grail.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opens in Utah, 1912.  It is there that teenage Henry Jones, Jr. (River Phoenix) has his first experiences with raiders of an archaeological site.

Over a quarter-century later, in 1938, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) recovers the treasure he lost as a teenager.  Jones returns to teaching (apparently at Barnett College in Fairfield, New York) when one of the college's wealthy patrons approaches him about a special mission.  Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) wants Jones to help him locate the Holy Grail.

Jones informs him that his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), is the expert on the Holy Grail and the one whom Donovan should seek.  Donovan shocks Jones by informing him that he had hired his father to find the Grail, but the senior Jones has disappeared.  Jones and his colleague, Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliot), race to Venice, his father's last known location.  Waiting for them is Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), who was working with the elder Jones in Venice as he sought to find more clues about the Grail's location.

Before long, Indiana Jones and Henry Jones Sr. are racing for their lives, staying one step ahead of the Nazis, who also want the Grail, and the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who want to protect it.  Reunited with his old friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), the Jones boys get closer to the Holy Grail, but the secret of the Grail is that it offers both eternal life and total destruction.

In preparation for the upcoming fifth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I decided to see the one Indiana Jones film that I have not watched in its entirety since the 1990s, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I have seen the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, countless times, and I rewatched its follow-up, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), in November of last year (2022).  I have watched the fourth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), many times since its release.

I have long considered Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the true end of the Indiana Jones film series because it was the third film in the original trilogy and because it felt like the end of something.  The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull felt like a “coda,” in the sense that it was both an addition to the three-film series that ran from 1981 to 1989 and a final piece added to the ending of The Last Crusade's tale of family and friends out for one last adventure.

Seeing The Last Crusade in its entirety for the first time in decades, I still feel like I'm watching the end of trilogy.  If there was going to be another film after it, that ceased to be when River Phoenix, the actor who played teen Henry Jones, Jr. in this film, died in 1993 at the age of 23.  Actor Denholm Elliot, who played Marcus Brody in the original film and in The Last Crusade, died at the age of 70, a year earlier in 1992.  Henry Jones Sr., actor Sean Connery, only recently died (2020) at the age of 90.  So, you see, dear readers, because of the passing of a number of cast members, more and more, I associate Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with endings.

The Last Crusade is my least favorite film of the original trilogy.  I know that some audiences prefer it to the darker Temple of Doom, and apparently, director Steven Spielberg made The Last Crusade the way he did to offer a lighter film in response to the criticism of the Temple of Doom's violence and exotic mysticism.  However, I find Temple of Doom to be wildly inventive, darkly imaginative, and a roller coaster ride.  If Raiders of the Lost Ark is an original, in a way, Temple of Doom still seems determined to be something very different from its predecessor.

Honestly, I find The Last Crusade to be only mildly entertaining until the film's last 45 minutes.  Then, it explodes and really finds itself with lots of Nazi-punching and killing and also with a spine-tingling jaunt to the Holy Grail.  Besides, Indiana Jones is always at his best when he's beating Nazis.  Honestly, I think it is important that audiences who have not seen the original films watch them all before moving on to the new film.  By the time they get to the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, many newbies may finally understand what Indiana Jones meant to American cinema once upon a time, and why, over four decades after the release of the first film, there is a new one.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

You can purchase the "INDIANA JONES 4-Movie Collection" Blu-ray or DVD here at AMAZON.

NOTES:

1990 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Ben Burtt and Richard Hymns); 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy, and Tony Dawe), and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1990 BAFTA Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Sean Connery), “Best Sound” (Richard Hymns, Tony Dawe, Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, and Shawn Murphy), and “Best Special Effects” (George Gibbs, Michael J. McAlister, Mark Sullivan, and John Ellis)

1990 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Sean Connery)

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Comics Review: "DARK BLOOD #5" is Simply So Much Fun to Read

DARK BLOOD #5 (OF 6)
BOOM! STUDIOS

STORY: LaToya Morgan
ART:  Moisés Hidalgo
COLORS: A.H.G. with Allison Hu
LETTERS:  Andworld Design
EDITOR: Dafna Pleban
COVER: Valentine De Landro
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Juni Ba; Valentine De Landro; Ernanda Souza
24pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S. (December 2021)

Dark Blood created by LaToya Morgan

Dark Blood is a new six-issue comic book miniseries created and written by screenwriter LaToya Morgan (AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” “Into The Badlands”).  Published by BOOM! Studios, the series is drawn by Moisés Hidalgo and Walt Barna; colored by A.H.G.; and lettered by Andworld Design.  The series focuses on a Black World War II veteran who discovers that he has strange powers.

Alabama, 1955.  After leaving his job at the diner, “Hardy's Eats,” Avery Aldridge, also known as “Double A,” has a fateful encounter with a racist.  Double A is a highly decorated World War II soldier, a former fighter pilot, a member of the soon-to-be-legendary “Red Tails.”  He is expected to act like a boy … when he is actually a very powerful man.  But this is “The Night of the Variance,” and everything is going to start to change – even the things some don't want changed.

Dark Blood #5 opens in 1955 – the Night of the Variance.  But this night feels the weight of a time a decade earlier when World War II servicemen, Avery and Henderson, two pilots of the Red Tails, face injustice masquerading as justice in Austria.  Oh, how it resembles the same process of injustice in the United States.  What happened that night may have laid the groundwork for Avery's situation now.

What Avery discovered about himself six weeks before the Night of Variance seemed like a good thing, but this night, there is horror and there must be a reckoning.  As Avery's condition continues to manifest and become more intense, is his search for answers merely going to lead him to something far worse?

THE LOWDOWN:  In Dark Blood, television writer-producer LaToya Morgan (AMC's “TURN: Washington's Spies”) offers a comic book that flows through multiple genres, including science fiction and fantasy, horror, and history.  It has layers and subtexts.  There is metaphor and symbolism and history made reality.  Morgan presents her readers with a beautiful and complex work.

On the other hand, I see the art of Moisés Hidalgo, who has been the regular artist on this series since the third issue.  I read his signs and graphics and symbolism, and I realize that Dark Blood #5 is just so much fun to read.  I feel like a kid again discovering something every time I read a new comic book or new issue of a favorite series.  Even if I were too ignorant to figure out the layers behind this story, Hidalgo turns this tale into a wild adventure of mad scientists, Nazis, and rotten cops.  It is pure escapism, and ain't nothing wrong with that.  Hell, Dark Blood #5 is the magic and the mystery of the Golden Age of Comics before busybodies ruined this outsider art form with the “Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954.

A.H.G.'s beautiful colors on Hidalgo's art makes this vintage mode (so to speak) feel so real.  I hope the upcoming final issue of Dark Blood also has a touch of escapist entertainment in it.  I also hope that it isn't the end...

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of modern science fiction and dark fantasy comic books will want to drink Dark Blood.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


Dark Blood trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzzXIYr_FrA&feature=youtu.be
Dark Blood first loook: https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/archives/dark-blood-1-first-look/
https://twitter.com/MorganicInk
https://twitter.com/WaltBarna
https://twitter.com/AHGColor
https://twitter.com/andworlddesign

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https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/
https://www.facebook.com/BOOMStudiosComics
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The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "The Tin Drum" is a Masterpiece (Remembering Maurice Jarre)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 118 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Die Blechtrommel (1979)
The Tin Drum (1980) – U.S. release
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  West Germany
Running time:  142 minutes (2 hours, 22 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Volker Schlöndorff
WRITERS:  Jean-Claude Carrière, Franz Seitz, and Volker Schlöndorff, with Günter Grass providing additional dialogue (based upon the novel by Günter Grass)
PRODUCER:  Franz Seitz
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Igor Luther
EDITOR:  Suzanne Baron
COMPOSER:  Maurice Jarre
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach, Daniel Olbrychski, Tina Engel, Berta Drews, Roland Teubner, Tadeusz Kunikowki, and Heinz Bennent

The subject of this movie review is The Tin Drum (original title: Die Blechtrommel), a 1979 West German drama and black comedy from director Volker Schlöndorff.  The film is an adaptation of the 1959 novel, The Tin Drum, written by author, Günter Grass, which is the first book in Grass’ Danzig Trilogy.  The Tin Drum the movie follows a most unusual boy who, on his third birthday, decides not to grow up.

The 1979 West German film Die Blechtrommel won the 1980 Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film.”  It is the story of Oskar Matzerath (David Bennent), a young boy in 1930’s Danzig, Germany who decides to stop growing at the age of three.  Oskar carries a small tin drum around his neck that he beats often, much to the chagrin of the adults, and Oskar has the unique physical gift of being able to scream at such a high pitch that he can break glass.

Although Oskar’s body stops growing, mentally and psychologically he keeps aging, and as he grows he witnesses the rise of Nazism and the beginning and the end of World War II.  With everything going on around him, however, Oskar’s world revolves around pleasing himself.  Despite Oskar’s self-centeredness, the film also examines the chaotic and tumultuous lives of the adults around him, especially his mother, Agnes (Angela Winkler), and his mothers two lovers, a German shopkeeper named Alfred (Mario Adorf) and Jan Bronski (Daniel Olbrychski), a handsome Polish man who works at a Polish post office in Danzig, either of whom could be Oskar’s biological father.

Many consider The Tin Drum to be one of the great films to come out of West Germany in the last quarter century.  The film, however, isn’t one of those beautiful and genteel foreign films or one of those French films shot to mimic the immediacy of realism.  The Tin Drum is an unflinching and dense psychological examination of people caught in complicated relationships who also have to navigate the narrow straights of their own interior lives.  It’s also a sweeping cinematic observation of Nazi Germany that unfurls its ideas simultaneously through symbolism and blunt literalism.  Like some glossy, Hollywood eye candy flick, The Tin Drum doesn’t allow the audience to look away; it’s like watching a miraculous apparition unfurl before one’s eyes or like watching a mesmerizing accident.

The focus of the story is, of course, Oskar, who is mostly not likeable.  In fact, there’s something menacing or even evil about him.  He seeks to shut himself off from the world or at least totally funnel existence through his wants, but what’s most fascinating is watching Oskar’s life grow (his personality doesn’t change) with the rise of Nazism.

This is powerful stuff, the kind of thing that stands out amidst all the pedestrian films.  The Tin Drum has had a somewhat controversial existence in the United States because there is both full and partial nudity of children, which some people saw as kiddie porn.  The film is not pornography or pornographic; this film is art.  The nudity and frank sex (including a sex scene between children) is actually handled quite carefully and with imagination by director Volker Schlöndorff, as he handles everything in his masterpiece.

9 of 10
A+

Updated:  Saturday, March 29, 2014


NOTES:
1980 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Foreign Language Film” (West Germany)

1979 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Palme d’Or” (Volker Schlöndorff – tied with Apocalypse Now1979)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "The Keep" Plays Keep-Away with Audience

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 154 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Keep (1983)
Running time:  93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Michael Mann
WRITER:  Michael Mann (from the novel by F. Paul Wilson)
PRODUCERS:  Gene Kirkwood and Howard W. Koch Jr.
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alex Thomson (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Dov Hoenig and Chris Kelly with Tony Palmer
COMPOSER:  Tangerine Dream

HORROR/FANTASY with elements of a thriller

Starring:  Scott Glenn, Alberta Watson, Jurgen Prochnow, Ian McKellan, Gabriel Byrne, and Robert Prosky

The subject of this movie review is The Keep, a 1983 horror-fantasy film from writer-director Michael Man.  The film is based on the 1981 novel, The Keep, by author F. Paul Wilson.  The Keep the movie focuses on a group of Nazis and the Jewish historian they turn to for help after they inadvertently free an ancient demon from its prison.

During World War II, the German army is sent to guard a Romanian mountain pass.  The soldiers take up residence in an old, mysterious and uninhabited fortress, The Keep.  They unwittingly unleash an ancient evil that begins killing them.  Thinking that the deaths are the result of rebellious locals, Nazi commandos arrive to deal with the trouble.

However, the Germans eventually summon an ailing Jewish historian, Dr. Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellan), from a concentration camp.  The professor arrives with his daughter, Eva Cuza (Alberta Watson), to solve the mystery.  Arriving right behind them is a stoic stranger (Scott Glenn) with mysterious powers and who obviously knows something about what’s going on in the Keep.

I imagine that the novel from which this film is adapted is lively and wildly fantastic, but the movie is short and dull.  Apparently, the original version of this movie ran nearly three hours in length.

Director Michael Mann would eventually produce the seminal television series, Miami Vice, and would direct well regarded films like Manhunter, Heat, and The Insider.  With The Keep, he gives us lots of smoke, glaring lights, and an extended laser show.  There is little story and no plot, and the cast, which is very talented, is lost in a maze of nothing.  This movie is, at best, a series of vaguely related scenes taped together into something coherent but really, really boring.  The saddest thing is that this film really has the basic material to make an entertaining horror and fantasy film.  What happened?

2 of 10
D

Updated: Friday, February 07, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Jack Benny is Eternally Cool in "To Be or Not to Be" (Remembering Jack Benny)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 161 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

To Be or Not to Be (1942) – Black & White
Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:  Ernst Lubitsch
WRITERS:  Edwin Justus Mayer; from a story by Melchior Lengyel
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Rudolph Maté
EDITOR:  Dorothy Spencer
COMPOSER: Werner R. Heymann
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA/WAR

Starring:  Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges, Sig Ruman, Tom Dugan, Charles Halton, George Lynn, Henry Victor, Maude Eburne, Halliwell Hobbes, and Miles Mander

The subject of this movie review is To Be or Not to Be, a 1942 film starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.  The film was produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, who also wrote the film’s original story with Melchior Lengyel, although Lubitsch did not receive a screen credit.  Set during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the film focuses on an acting troupe involved in a Polish soldier’s efforts to track down a German spy.

If you’ve ever seen the 1983 Mel Brooks’ film, To Be or Not to Be and wondered how anyone could eke laughs out of the Nazi’s invading Poland, part of that most contentious time in recent history, World War II, then imagine how shocked many moviegoers must have been when they the original To Be or Not to Be, a 1942 directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

In occupied Poland, ham actor Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) leads a troupe of actors in a game of subterfuge against the Nazi’s.  It begins with the Nazi’s invasion of Poland.  At the same time, Tura’s wife, Maria (Carole Lombard, who was killed in a plane crash before this film was release), is returning the affections a young military pilot, Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack), who often visits the Turas’ theatre, the Polski, to woo Maria.  After the invasion, Sobinski escapes to England where he continues the fight against the Nazis.  However, he must sneak back into Poland to stop Prof. Alexander Siletsky (Stanley Ridges), a Nazi spy who has information on the efforts of the Resistance in Poland.  Upon discovering Maria and Sobinski’s playful “affair,” Tura is reluctant to help the young pilot, but his patriotism wins the day.  Tura and his ragtag troupe of actors don Nazi uniforms and march right into the heart of the Gestapo headquarters in Warsaw to take on Nazi Col. Ehrhardt (Sig Ruman), but his is a game not only to save the Resistance, but also save their own necks.

Ernst Lubitsch is perhaps one of Hollywood’s best directors of satire and subtle comedy, and his phrase, “The Lubitsch Touch,” became famous because his films reflected his sophisticated wit and style.  Taking nothing away from a novel concept and unconventional comic script or even denying the talents of the cast, a film like To Be or Not to Be could be a disaster without a master helmsman.  Lubitsch (who directed Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, and Heaven Can Wait among other) gracefully mixes menace and comic in an erudite manner that manages to poke fun at the Nazi’s (essentially this movie is the filmmakers’ way of thumbing their noses at Nazi Germany), while satirizing the Nazis’ insatiable need to conquer and their arrogance in believing that they had all the right answers.  While Mel Brooks remake was broad slapstick presented as if it were a stage show (vaudeville?), Lubitsch film is a clever farce that treads broad comedy with highly understated sexual innuendo, cunning wordplay, and sly mischief.

Although they’re good, most of the cast comes across as either workman-like character actors and glorified extras, which is not an insult to them.  There are some standout performances.  Sig Ruman as Col. Ehrhardt personifies this film’s monsters/clowns approach to the Nazis, and Henry Victor is menacing as the machine-like Capt. Schulz, so much so that he is the victim of some of the film’s best humor.  Carole Lombard pretty much owns the first half of the film, and while the second half relegates her to a supporting player, it allows her breezy sexiness and comedic talents to shine through.  Whenever she dresses in an evening gown, the audience can see why she was one of those special actresses who personified the glamour of old Hollywood.

The second half of the film belongs to Jack Benny.  His gentle sarcasm, mock self-deprecating humor, and his clueless belief that he was more talented than he was – all part of his act – solidifies this film’s unusual mixture of farce, slapstick, patriotism, and idealism.  Benny is a sly fox and his Joseph Tura knows he’s smarter than the Nazi’s, even when he’s in mortal danger.  His performance mixes leading man as comic hero and comic hero as overconfident ringmaster.  The joke was supposed to be on Benny’s Joseph Tura, and it is for a long time.  Still, Tura will get the last laugh no matter how many times the joke’s on him.  It is that uncommon nature that makes To Be or Not to Be an inimitable comedy and drama.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1943 Academy Awards:  1 nomination: Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Werner R. Heymann)

1996 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  National Film Registry

Friday, July 28, 2006

Updated:  Thursday, December 26, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: 1983 Version of "To Be or Not to Be" Still a Favorite

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 119 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

To Be or Not to Be (1983)
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  Alan Johnson
WRITERS:  Ronny Graham and Thomas Meehan (based upon the 1942 screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer; from a story by Ernst Lubitsch and Melchior Lengyel)
PRODUCER:  Mel Brooks
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Gerald Hirschfeld
EDITOR:  Alan Balsam
COMPOSER:  John Morris
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA with elements of music and war

Starring:  Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Tim Matheson, Charles Durning, Christopher Lloyd, José Ferrer, Ronny Graham, Estelle Reiner, Zale Kessler, Jack Riley, Lewis J. Stradlen, George Gaynes, George Wyner, and James Haake

The subject of this movie review is To Be or Not to Be, a 1983 comedy-drama starring Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks, who also produced the film.  Directed by Alan Johnson, To Be or Not to Be is a remake of the 1942 film, To Be or Not to Be, which starred Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.  In the 1983 film, a bad Polish actor is depressed that World War II has complicated his professional life and that his wife has a habit of entertaining young Polish officers.  One of her young officers, however, is about to get the actor and his acting troupe involved in a complicated plot against the Nazis.

Frederick Bronski (Mel Brooks) and his wife, Anna (Anne Bancroft), are impresarios of a Polish acting troupe in Warsaw, Poland circa 1939.  Their Bronski Follies, performed of course in the Bronski Theatre, is the toast of the city.  However, Germany invades Poland, and, arriving in Warsaw, the Nazis take the Bronskis’ stately home as their headquarters and also close the theatre.

Later, the Bronskis and their acting ensemble get involved with Lt. Andre Sobinski (Tim Matheson), a young Polish fighter pilot (who is smitten with Anna), in a complex subterfuge to prevent the Germans from getting their hands on a list of Polish underground fighters.  Things get more complicated when Nazi Colonel Erhardt (Charles Durning, in a performance that earned him an Oscar nod) orders the Bronski Theatre open again to perform for the Furher himself when Adolf Hitler visits Warsaw.

Real-life husband and wife Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft made a great comic team in To Be or Not to Be, a zesty remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 film classic starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.  This film is, of course, filled with delightful musical numbers and a splendid array of costumes, clothes, and uniforms.  But what would a Mel Brooks film be without comedy?

Although Brooks did not direct To Be or Not to Be (the honor went to Alan Johnson), this is clearly a “Mel Brooks movie.”  It isn’t a parody or send-up of anything (as Brooks films are want to be).  It is, however, a witty and often dark farce marked by suave comedy and droll dialogue.  The Nazis are played for fun (Christopher Lloyd and Charles Durning make a comical duo), but their awful menace is always present.  The filmmakers managed to be both respectful and funny with history.  While To Be or Not to Be isn’t as funny as Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, it isn’t far behind those two comic classics, and it is a fine comedy-historical in the vein of Brooks’ History of the World, Part I.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1984 Academy Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Charles Durning)

1984 Golden Globes:  2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Anne Bancroft) and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Charles Durning)

Updated:  Thursday, December 26, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Days of Glory" Chronicles the Forgotten WWII Fighters, the "Indigenes"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 118 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indigènes (2006)
Days of Glory (2006) – International English title
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – R for war violence and brief language
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: FRANCE with Algeria, Morocco, and Belgium; Languages: French and Arabic
DIRECTOR: Rachid Bouchareb
WRITERS: Olivier Lorelle and Rachid Bouchareb
PRODUCER: Jean Bréhat
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Patrick Blossier
EDITOR: Yannick Kergoat
2007 Academy Award nominee

WAR/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Roschdy Zem, Bernard Blancan, and Matthieu Simonet

Indigènes or Days of Glory (as the film is known by its English title) earned a 2007 Oscar nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film” as a representative of Algeria. Indigènes recreates a chapter largely erased from the pages of history and pays overdue tribute to the heroism of a particular group of forgotten soldiers who fought and died during World War II. Days of Glory chronicles the journey of four North African soldiers who join the French army to help liberate France from Nazi occupation during World War II.

Saïd Otmari (Jamel Debbouze), Yassir (Samy Naceri), Messaoud Souni (Roschdy Zem), and Abdelkader (Roschdy Zem) leave their country, Algeria, a French colony, to fight for France, which they call the “Motherland.” They chafe under the command of the Sergeant Roger Martinez (Bernard Blancan), a French Algerian. The men fight passionately for France, although they’ve never been to the country. Still, despite the North Africans’ bravery and loyalty as they travel fight from Italy to France, they face daily humiliation, inequality, and naked bigotry from the French. The four men eventually find themselves alone in a small French village defending it from a German battalion. This pedagogical or educational film is also a reminder that the controversies of French World War II history remain today, especially as the French government has denied the surviving North African soldiers their pensions.

Days of Glory is a good, but not great, historical film. Its strength is in the chronicling of the prejudice and bigotry these non-white or non-European soldiers faced while sacrificing their lives, limbs, and peace of mind for France, a country that many still believe largely did not fight for itself against the Nazis. For war movie buffs, the best combat sequence takes place in the movie’s closing act.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Algeria)

2006 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins – “Best Actor” (Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Blancan – To the male ensemble cast) and “François Chalais Award (Rachid Bouchareb); 1 nomination: “Golden Palm” (Rachid Bouchareb)

2007 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Foreign or Independent Film”

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Review: "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - 30 Years Later, It's Still a Beast

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Running time: 115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Lawrence Kasdan; from a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
PRODUCER: Frank Marshall
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Douglas Slocombe (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Kahn
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Award winner

ADVENTURE/ACTION

Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliot, Wolf Kahler, Alfred Molina, Fred Sorenson, and George Harris

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark to movie theatres (specifically June 12, 1981). The 1981 American adventure film went on to become the top-grossing film of 1981 and spawned four sequels and a short-lived television series. The film introduced the still wildly-popular character, Indiana Jones, portrayed by Harrison Ford (with a few exceptions), to audiences. The creation of director Steven Spielberg and executive producer, George Lucas, Raiders of the Lost Ark showed that a family film didn’t have to be G-rated fare, but could be a movie with nonstop action and quite a bit of violence.

Raiders of the Lost Ark follows archeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), who braves ancient temples to retrieve archeological relics. After his latest adventure, Army intelligence officers seek Jones help in finding his old mentor, Abner Ravenwood. The officers also inform Jones that the Nazis, in a quest for occult power, are looking for the Ark of the Covenant, the chest the ancient Israelites built to hold the fragments of the original Ten Commandments tablets. Ravenwood is supposedly in possession of the headpiece of the Staff of Ra, an artifact essential in finding the Ark. Ravenwood is also an expert on the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, where the Ark is believed to be hidden.

Jones discovers that Ravenwood is deceased and that his daughter, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), is now in possession of the headpiece. With Marion in tow and the Nazis hot on their trail, Jones travels to Egypt, where enlists the help of an old friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), a skilled excavator. Meanwhile, Dr. René Belloq (Paul Freeman), Jones’ arch-nemesis who always seems to beat him, has joined forces with the Nazis to find the Ark before Indiana Jones does.

I’m old enough to have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark in a movie theatre, and I also remember how much I loved the movie. I was flat out crazy about Raiders, and, as far as I was concerned, Indiana Jones was the man. I must have watched Raiders more than 20 times within a five year period after it was first released. I watched it a few times in the late 1980s and early 1990s because of the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Since then, I’ve watched bits and pieces, but I just recently sat down and watched the entire film. Do I still feel about Raiders of the Lost Ark the way I did after I first saw it and after I watched it countless times over the next decade? Yes.

It’s just a great movie, a magical summer movie. Raiders of the Lost Ark is fun and ingenious, in terms of story and also film technology, in the way only American-made adventure movies are. It has a sense of humor and the droll wit of the characters simply makes Raiders something special – something more than just another action movie with fistfights, gun battles, and chase scenes. The actors’ wit and style make it seem as if they are really into this movie and are determined to make us believe the outlandish, logic defying leaps the action and story often take.

Raiders of the Lost Ark may be an ode to the old movie serials of the 1930s and 40s (especially the ones produced by Republic Pictures), but it is a triumph that has stood the test of time better than the stories that influenced it. Every time I see Raiders of the Lost Ark, I am reminded of how much I love movies, and that makes up for the bad movies.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1982 Academy Awards: 4 wins: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, and Michael Ford), “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson, and Joe Johnston) “Best Film Editing” (Michael Kahn), “Best Sound” (Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, and Roy Charman) and “Special Achievement Award” (Ben Burtt and Richard L. Anderson for sound effects editing); 4 nominations: “Best Picture” (Frank Marshall), “Best Director” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Cinematography” (Douglas Slocombe), and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1982 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Production Design/Art Direction” (Norman Reynolds); 6 nominations: “Best Film,” “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams), “Best Cinematography” (Douglas Slocombe), “Best Editing” (Michael Kahn), “Best Sound” (Roy Charman, Ben Burtt, and Bill Varney), and “Best Supporting Artist” (Denholm Elliott)

1982 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Steven Spielberg)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

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Review: "Inglourious Basterds" is One Crazy Bastard

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2009) by Leroy Douresseaux

Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Running time: 153 minutes (2 hour, 33 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence, language, and brief sexuality
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino
PRODUCER: Lawrence Bender
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson
EDITOR: Sally Menke
Academy Award winner

ACTION/DRAMA/WAR

Starring: Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Jacky Ido, B.J. Novak, Omar Doom, Martin Wuttke, Mike Myers, Julie Dreyfus, Rod Taylor, Samm Levine, and Samuel L. Jackson (uncredited voice)

Inglourious Basterds is the most recent film from Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction). While Inglourious Basterds is actually short on the titular Basterds in action, it isn’t short of Tarantino hallmarks.

Apparently inspired by the 1978 Italian war movie, The Inglorious Bastards, Tarantino’s film opens in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a “Jew hunter” or “Jew detective” (which is the term Landa prefers). Meanwhile, somewhere else in Europe, American 1st Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish-American soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as, The Basterds, their mission is cause havoc and panic within the Third Reich by savagely killing Nazis and German servicemen. Raine tells his Basterds that being in this squad means they owe him a debt, and to pay it off, each man owes him 100 Nazi scalps.

Shosanna, who narrowly escaped Landa, fled to Paris, where four years later she has forged a new identity as Emmanuelle Mimieux, the owner and operator of a small cinema named La Gamaar. She catches the eye of a German marksman turned war hero, Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl). In an attempt to impress her, Zoller convinces his superiors to hold a film premiere at La Gamaar. Meanwhile, Raine’s squad has joined German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich – during the film premiere at La Gamaar. It seems that fates have converged at the cinema, as Shosanna, with the help of her projectionist boyfriend, Marcel (Jacky Ido), is poised to carry out her own plan of revenge on the Nazis.

I consider Tarantino’s best feature-length films to be his first three: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Jackie Brown (1997), with Jackie Brown being his best work. His films since 1997 have been very good, but are mostly genre exercises and fanboy porn. Inglourious Basterds is the least of all of them, but compared to most American filmmaking, it is very good.

What else can be said about it? Basterds is not a World War II movie; in fact, it really isn’t a war movie. It’s just a Tarantino movie that may be, as the filmmaker himself described it, a spaghetti western dressed up as a WW II movie. Of course, the additives are gleefully executed violence and snappy banter passing as dialogue. Inglourious Basterds is a ferocious and sadistic fantasy that revels in a World War II that doesn’t even come close to existing.

This is also an ensemble movie. The film never depicts the entire Basterds squad in action together. Each scene focuses on a small group of characters chosen from the larger ensemble. In a way, Inglourious Basterds could have been called “Shosanna’s Last Picture Show” or “Landa the Basterd” because the film is as much about them as it is about Raine and his Basterds. Shosanna is one of the few truly high-quality characters in this film, and actor Christoph Waltz creates one of the year’s best villains in Hans Landa. Just about all the others are less characters and more like character types that Tarantino probably stole…err…borrowed from other films.

Inglourious Basterds is merely glorious Tarantino. He is a highly skilled filmmaker with an encyclopedic knowledge of film, but he desires to make bloody pastiches of the violent action/martial arts/war/western films he so clearly loves. Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s version of a summer movie – entertaining, but loud, violent, and empty.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, September 12, 2009

NOTES:
2010 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Christoph Waltz); 7 nominations: “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Achievement in Editing” (Sally Menke), “Best Achievement in Sound” (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, and Mark Ulano), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Wylie Stateman), “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Lawrence Bender), “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Quentin Tarantino)

2010 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Supporting Actor” (Christoph Waltz); 5 nominations: “Best Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Director” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Editing” (Sally Menke), “Best Production Design” (David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Quentin Tarantino)

2010 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Christoph Waltz); 3 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Quentin Tarantino)

Review: Oscar Nominee "Zelary" is Simply a Wonderful Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Zelary (2003)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Czech Republic/Slovakia/Austria; Languages: Czech/Russian/German
Running time: 148 minutes (2 hours, 28 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Ondrej Trojan
WRITER: Petr Jarchovský (from the novel by Jozova Hanule)
PRODUCERS: Helena Uldrichová and Ondrej Trojan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Asen Sopov
EDITOR: Vladimír Barák
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/ROMANCE with some elements of war

Starring: Anna Geislerová, György Cserhalmi, Jaroslava Adamová, Miroslav Donutil, Jaroslav Dusek, Iva Bittová, Ivan Trojan, Jan Hrusíinský, Anna Vertelárová, and Tomás Zatecka

Zelary earned a 2004 Academy Award nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film” (as the official entry from the Czech Republic). The film tells the story of a clash between two different worlds, and it also tells the story of the odd pairing of two different people who fall in love because of the circumstances forced upon them. It begins in Czechoslovakia 1943. Eliska (Anna Geislerová) is a nurse in a city hospital, and she and her surgeon lover are part of the Czechoslovakian resistance movement against the Nazis. The arrest of a fellow fighter exposes their identities to the Gestapo, and her lover flees the country leaving Eliska to find her own way to safety.

The day before that disaster, she’d donated her blood to save the life of a mountain dweller injured in a mill accident. Members of the resistance send her with the mountain dweller, a man named Joza (György Cserhalmi), back to his home in the remote mountains, Zelary, a place where time seems to have frozen 150 years earlier. The only way to hide in safety is to become Joza’s wife, a move Eliska bitterly resists, but one to which she must ultimately submit. She takes a new name, Hana. A strong bond and eventual love forms between the simple peasant villager and the city sophisticate, but always looming over their heads is that if discovered, the Germans will kill Joza and perhaps his fellow villagers for hiding Hana, a former member of the resistance.

Zelary may seem especially familiar, and that’s because its observations and depiction of rural live aren’t original. In fact, Zelary has that lived-in feel. We might not see something like this very often at the local theatre, but rustic utopias are a staple of cable television networks such as the Hallmark Channel or even TV Land. Still, it is the execution of the film that makes this few of simple peasant life unrelentingly engrossing and powerful cinema. In spite of the danger that the characters face, either from fellow villagers or outsiders such as German soldiers and partisan fighters, this is a heartwarming film. Star-crossed lovers from different worlds, a remote mountain cottage, and a pastoral setting – add that to a gripping, evocative, and emotionally charged score by Petr Ostrouchov and cinematography that transforms the seasonal colors of the Czech countryside into glorious eye-candy and Zelary is an epic romance. However, it is the surprises that come around every corner and the gentle shockers around the edges that make Zelary a refreshing perspective, although the plot, setting, and characters have that instant familiarity.

Director Ondrej Trojan turns the recognizable into something special; like a playful ringmaster, he correctly measures the right ingredients for a film that is a heart-warming romance and tragic war drama. The film does tend to bounce back and forth between too many characters, and because all of them are good, I found myself wanting more time with each. This is especially true of the leads; there is not enough of their story. Anna Geislerová and György Cserhalmi sell this unlikely romance. Geislerová is a radiant beauty with the kind of evocative face the serious actress must have. György Cserhalmi is pitch perfect as the rough-hewn, salt-of-the-earth Joza. While a beauty like Geislerová is expected in such a movie, György Cserhalmi is the one who makes the romantic inside the viewer desperately want to believe Hana and Joza’s love could really happen. Zelary speaks directly to the heart.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 1 nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film” (Czech Republic)

2004 Czech Lions: 2 wins for actress (Anna Geislerová) and sound; 9 nominations including film, director, actor (György Cserhalmi), supporting actress (Jaroslava Adamová), art direction, cinematography, editing, music, and screenplay

Thursday, January 26, 2006

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