Review: "THE FINAL COUNTDOWN" is Still Timeless Entertainment

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 37 of 2023 (No. 1926) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Final Countdown (1980)

Running time:  103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTOR:  Don Taylor

WRITERS:  David Ambrose & Gerry Davis and Thomas Hunter & Peter Powell; from a story by Thomas Hunter & Peter Powell and David Ambrose

PRODUCERS:  Peter Vincent Douglas

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vincent J. Kemper (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Robert K. Lambert

COMPOSER: John Scott

SCI-FI/MILITARY

Starring:  Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Ron O'Neal, Charles Durning, Victor Mohica, Soon-Teck Oh, and Alvin Ing

The Final Countdown is a 1980 science fiction war film from director Don Taylor.  The film features an ensemble cast starring such Hollywood legends and icons as Kirk Douglas, Charles Durning, and Martin Sheen.  The film focuses on the crew of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that is tossed back in time to the year 1941 near Hawaii, just a day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Final Countdown opens in 1980.  The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Nimitz, departs Naval Station Pearl Harbor for naval exercises in the mid-Pacific Ocean.  It is commanded by Captain Matt Yelland (Kirk Douglas).  The ship also takes on a civilian observer, Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen), a systems analyst for Tideman Industries.  Lasky is working as an efficiency expert for the U.S. Defense Department on the orders of his reclusive employer, Richard Tideman.

Once at sea, the Nimitz encounters a mysterious, electrically-charged storm that eventually becomes a vortex.  While the ship passes through the mystery storm, its radar and other equipment become unresponsive, and the crew falls into agony.  After the event, Capt. Yelland and the crew are initially unsure of what has happened to them.  They also discover that they have lost radio contact with U.S. Pacific Fleet Command at Pearl Harbor.

Yelland wonders if there has been a nuclear strike on Hawaii, but soon Lasky and Commander, Air Group Richard T. Owens (James Farentino) begin to suspect that they been tossed back in time to December 6, 1941.  That is one day before “a day which will live in infamy,” December 7, 1941 – the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Now, comes the big questions.  By itself, the Nimitz has the aircraft power to destroy the Japanese fleet.  So should Yelland launch that air power and change history by stopping the attack on Pearl Harbor?

The Final Countdown is one of my all-time favorite films.  I have a soft spot for time-travel movies, especially such films as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and of course, The Terminator (1984) and its sequels.

In spite of my intense love for this film – yes, I said intense – I can see its flaws.  I think The Final Countdown's concept would work better as a television miniseries or even as an ongoing series.  Its relatively short runtime is not enough time for the film to really be indulgent in revealing its most important character, the U.S.S. Nimitz.  Director Don Taylor gives us several scenes of the planes, jets, fighter aircraft, etc., but every scene of the ship's interior makes it obvious that the film needs to take a deeper dive into the bowels of the Nimitz.  All that military hardware demands more screen time, or at least, I'm the one demanding more of it.

Most of all, the time travel angle of the story seems to come and go so fast, and the screenplay does not really grapple with what would happen if Captain Yelland and his crew inserted themselves into the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It glosses over that and over the many points of view that would result from the kind of command structure that a ship like the Nimitz has.

The wild card characters are Senator Samuel S. Chapman (Charles Durning) and his secretary, Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross).  Their appearance in the narrative is a considerable development and creates conflict and complications in the decisions that the captain and crew of the Nimitz will make.  Time constraints mean that the film doesn't really deal with these two characters.

I spotted so many cracks in this recent viewing of The Final Countdown, I still really love this film.  I enjoyed seeing some of my favorite movies stars, such as Kirk Douglas (Out of the Past), Martin Sheen, and Charles Durning (To Be or Not to Be) in roles that called upon their usual film personalities.  I don't think I remembered that Ron O'Neal (Super Fly, 1972) was in this film, but he gets his chance to emote and overact.  I have seen this film at least three times, and this was the first time that James Farentino;s presence also registered with me.

Yes, The Final Countdown seems to be missing at least another half-hour of story, but the first time I saw it, when I was a teenager, it blew my mind.  I saw it again years later, and I was surprised to find that I still loved it.  I just watched The Final Countdown again, and guess what?  I still love it, even adore it.  That's why I'm being generous with the grade I'm giving The Final Countdown.  I need a Blu-ray or DVD copy.

8 of 10

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

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Review: "GRAVEYARD OF THE FIREFLIES" is as Powerful as Any Live-Action Wartime Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 of 2023 (No. 1924) by Leroy Douresseaux

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Hotaru no Haka – original Japanese title

Running time:  89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)

MPAA – not rated

DIRECTOR:  Isao Takahata

WRITER:  Isao Takahata (based on the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka)

PRODUCER:  Toru Hara

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Nobuo Koyama

EDITOR: Takeshi Seyama

COMPOSER:  Michio Mamiya

ANIMATION/WAR/DRAMA

Starring:  (voices) Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Akemi Yamaguchi, and Yoshiko Shinohara

Hotaru no Haka or Grave of the Fireflies is a 1988 Japanese animated World War II drama and historical film directed by Isao Takahata and produced by Studio Ghibli.  The film is based on the 1967 short story, “Grave of the Fireflies,” by Akiyuki Nosaka.  This was the fourth animated film produced by Studio Ghibli and the first one directed by studio co-founder, Isao Takahata.  Grave of the Fireflies focuses on a young boy and his little sister as they struggle to survive in World War II Japan.

Grave of the Fireflies introduces a boy, Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi), and his little sister, Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi).  They find themselves on their own as a result of one of the American raids that was part of “the Bombing of Kobe” campaign during World War II.

One day, a group of American Boeing bombers firebombs Kobe.  Though Seita and Setsuko survive the bombing, their mother (Yoshiko Shinohara) is severely injured and later dies.  Seita conceals their mother's death from Setsuko in an attempt to keep her happy.  Seita does not know the status of their father who is an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy.  The children move in with an aunt (Akemi Yamaguchi), but although Seita tries to accommodate his aunt's demands, she becomes resentful of the children being in her home.

After leaving their aunt's house, Seita and Setsuko move into an abandoned bomb shelter located near a pond.  The place is swarming with fireflies, which delights Setsuko.  For a time, Seita and Setsuko are happy, but like the life of an adult firefly, the children's happiness is short-lived.

Previously, I have only reviewed two Studio Ghilbi films that were not directed by Hayao Miyazaki.  They are Tales from Earthsea (2006), which was directed by Miyazaki's son Gorō Miyazaki, and The Secret World of Arrietty (2010).  As Netflix is shutting down its DVD-by-mail division (in September 2023), I am hoping to get to more Studio Ghibli films that I have not previously watched.

I think Grave of the Fireflies has received much praise because it is not only a powerful war film, but it is also a truly unique war film.  Grave of the Fireflies is not an anti-war film, although it depicts the suffering that wartime can bring, mainly through Seita and Setsuko, but also via background characters.  The film is haunting and achingly sad, but at the same time, life goes on, even in wartime.  Seita and Setsuko make the best of life, a nearly inseparable pair enjoying life the best that they can.  The film portrays how Seita watches over Setsuko so that she can still live the life of a small girl, frockling, having adventures, and using her imagination.  Her smiles and happiness permeate this film even in its darker moments.  One might question the choices that Seita makes, but he did not make them out of concern of his own pride.  He made them so that his little sister could live in dignity.

Grave of the Fireflies proves that animated films can tackle the most achingly human conditions, including the heartbreaking experiences that afflicted many Japanese during World War II.  The animation's glorious colors might suggest a vivid pastoral fantasy, but the story is a depiction of the human pastoral.  Thematically, the film's fireflies can represent many things, from birth and decay to the flight of planes that attack Japan.  However, I usually thought of the spirits of children in flight when I saw a scene of fireflies gently moving upwards.

Grave of the Fireflies is a film that no fan of animated feature films should miss.  It has a timeless quality, and I found it hard to believe that this year (2023) is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the film's original Japanese theatrical release.  The story that it depicts may be from a long-gone time, but like Seita and Setsuko, the spirit of Grave of the Fireflies still stirs.

9 of 10

A+

★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Thursday, August 3, 2023

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Review: Steven Spielberg's "EMPIRE OF THE SUN"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 27 of 2023 (No. 1916) by Leroy Douresseaux

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Running time:  153 minutes (2 hours, 33 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg

WRITER:  Tom Stoppard (based on the novel by J.G. Ballard)

PRODUCERS:  Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, and Kathleen Kennedy

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Allen Daviau (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Michael Kahn

COMPOSER:  John Williams

Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring:  Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, Joe Pantoliano, Leslie Phillips, Masato Ibu, Emily Richard, Rupert Frazer, Peter Gale, Takataro Kataoka, and Ben Stiller

Empire of the Sun is a 1987 wartime drama and historical film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is based on the 1984 semi-autobiographical novel, Empire of the Sun, from author J.G. Ballard (1930-2009).  Empire of the Sun the film focuses on a young English boy who is separated from his parents and then, struggles to survive the Japanese occupation of China during World War II

Empire of the Sun opens in 1941 in the “International Settlement,” an enclave of British and American citizens in Shanghai, China.  James “Jamie” Graham is the only child of an British upper middle class couple, John Graham (Rupert Frazer) and Mary Graham (Emily Richard).  Jamie enjoys a privileged life in the International Settlement, but he keeps an eye on the activities of the Japanese who have encroached on Shanghai.  After their attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese begin their occupation of the settlement.  During the family's bid to escape, Jamie is separated from his parents.

Eventually, Jamie is taken prisoner and moved into an internment camp.  He survives by befriending the American expatriate and hustler, Basie (John Malkovich), and also the kindly Englishman, Dr. Rawlins (Nigel Havers).  Now, called “Jim” by everyone, he establishes a successful trading network that keeps him with food and necessities.  As World War II drags on, however, Jim realizes that he no longer remembers what his parents look like.

Last year, I began watching and, in some cases, re-watching early Steven Spielberg films, such as Duel, Jaws, and 1941, in anticipation of Spielberg's autobiographical film, The Fabelmans, which was released in 2022.  The film has long since completed its theatrical run, but there remained Spielberg films I wanted to see.  I had been putting off watching Empire of the Sun for 36 years, and my best resource to see it, DVDNetflix, is closing soon.  So why not see Empire of the Sun now?

What can I say?  Empire of the Sun is not one of Spielberg's better films.  It does not really have a narrative center, and the plot is unfixed.  The film plays like a series of anecdotes – many, many, many anecdotes – played over a film that runs nearly two and a half hours long.  Some of the scenes have great emotional impact, such as Jim's reunion with his parents and even that last shot of the suitcase in the water.  Still, overall, the film lacks dramatic heft and emotion.  It's too cold and is disjointed.  Instead of feeling like a narrative that flows from beginning to end, Empire of the Sun feels like individual pages from a children's picture book.

If Empire of the Sun is a coming-of-age story and a boys' adventure tale, then, the film needs a great boy.  That is what actor Christian Bale is for this film.  All of 13-years-old when filming began, Bale carries Empire of the Sun with the tenacity and acting chops of an actor more than twice his age.  Bale embodies the emotional depth and dramatic depth that this film lacks as a whole.  None of the other actors' performances approach his, not because they are bad, but because neither Spielberg nor Tom Stoppard's script gives them the space and material.

Spielberg makes this film seem as if its true purpose is to be about a boy and his wartime adventures.  Thus, none of the Japanese elements really feel as if they have the force of an empire behind them.  Still, the focus on Jim Graham works because Christian Bale is the child emperor of Empire of the Sun.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Sunday, June 25, 2023

NOTES:

1988 Academy Awards, USA:  6 nominations:  “Best Cinematography” (Allen Daviau), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Norman Reynolds and Harry Cordwell), “Best Costume Design” (Bob Ringwood), “Best Sound” (Robert Knudson, Don Digirolamo, John Boyd, and Tony Dawe), “Best Film Editing” (Michael Kahn), and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1989 BAFTA Awards:  3 wins: “Best Cinematography” (Allen Daviau), “Best Score” (John Williams), and “Best Sound” (Charles L. Campbell, Louis L. Edemann, Robert Knudson, and Tony Dawe); 3 nominations:  “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Tom Stoppard), “Best Costume Design” (Bob Ringwood), and “Best Production Design” (Norman Reynolds)

1988 Golden Globes, USA  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Original Score-Motion Picture” (John Williams)

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Review: Spielberg's "1941" - Raiders of the Lost Invasion (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 67 of 2022 (No. 1879) by Leroy Douresseaux

1941 (1979)

Running time:  118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg

WRITERS:  Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale; from a story by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, and John Milius

PRODUCER:  Buzz Feitshans

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  William A. Fraker (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Michael Kahn

COMPOSER:  John Williams

Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/HISTORICAL/WAR

Starring:  John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Christopher Lee, Nancy Allen, Ned Beatty, John Candy, Elisha Cook, Jr., Bobby Di Cicco, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Dianne Kay, John Landis, Michael McKean, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Dick Miller, Warren Oates, Slim Pickens, Mickey Rourke, Lionel Stander, Robert Stack, Dub Taylor, Treat Williams, and Frank McRae

1941 is a 1979 comedy, war movie, and period film directed by Steven Spielberg.  Although not as popular or critically acclaimed as Spielberg's earlier films, 1941 began to gain in popularity after an expanded version of the film aired on television.  1941 is set almost a week after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor and finds various California residents in a state of panic about an alleged inevitable Japanese attack on the state.

1941 opens on Saturday, December 13, 1941, at 7:01 a.m. (six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor).  Surfacing off the Northern California coast is a submarine of the Imperial Japanese Fleet, commanded by Akiro Mitamura (Toshiro Mifune).  Also aboard, as an annoying advisor, is Nazi Kriegsmarine officer, Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt (Christopher Lee).  Because he did not participate in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Commander Mitamura wants to destroy something in Los Angeles, in an act or honor.  He has decided to target “Hollywood,” although he and his crew are having trouble finding the place.

Meanwhile, in Santa Monica, servicemen from the U.S. Army and Navy have overrun the town.  Wayward youth, Wally Stephens (Bobby Di Cicco), is trying to hold on to his girlfriend, Betty Douglas (Dianne Kay).  She is the target of the unwanted attentions of Corporal Chuck Sitarski (Treat Williams), a member of a 10th Armored Division tank crew.  The crew, which also consists of Sergeant Frank Tree (Dan Aykroyd) and Private First Class Foley (John Candy), is suddenly dealing with its newest member, Private Ogden Johnson Jones (Frank McRae), a Black serviceman!

In Death Valley, the cigar-chomping Captain Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) of the United States Army Air Forces aims his fighter plane towards L.A. where he believes he will help fight off a Japanese attack.  Everything is going crazy around everyone, and there seems to be a hundred melodramas and subplots.  Can Americans stop fighting Americans long enough prevent a real Japanese attack on Los Angeles and the surrounding area?

I recently saw 1941 for the first time in preparation for this review.  Although I am a huge fan of Steven Spielberg, 1941 was one of his films that I was not really interested in seeing.  I found a DVD copy containing a “restored version” of the film that is almost half an hour longer than the original theatrical release.  When I was a kid, 1941 was considered a “box office bomb,” which is apparently not true.  The film reportedly did make a profit, but it was not as financially or as critically well received as Spielberg's previous films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Jaws (1975).

For what it is, 1941 is way too long, even at its original length (1 hour, 58 minutes).  Still, it is funny in many spots, and, in spite of a really large cast, all the individual subplots and comic melodramas do come together so that the film does not feel disjointed.  I like that 1941 gives me a chance to see some of my favorite actors:  Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee, Warren Oates, Ned Beatty, and character actors:  Dick Miller, Dub Taylor and Elisha Cook, Jr., all of whom are now deceased.  Another favorite, Robert Stack, practically steals the film as Major General Joseph W. Stillwell, a character that seems to center the film.  And I'm always happy to see Dan Aykroyd.

One thing that really stuck out to me is that much of 1941 seems like a dry run for the action sequences in my favorite Spielberg film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, which would be his next film after 1941.  The action in 1941 is conveyed in a humorous mood, and Raiders, more of an adventure film than an action film, features action scenes that are breath-taking, but are delivered with something like a wink and a nod.

Regardless of where it is positioned in Steven Spielberg's filmography, 1941 shows that, as the guy at the helm, Spielberg's most impressive talent may be his ability to gather a large cast and crew and very talented collaborators in order to make really spectacular films that are epic in scope, even in their quite and funny moments.  1941 is not a great film, but there are moments during this movie when it is obvious that one of the greatest filmmakers of all time is the guiding force and the main man behind it.

5 of 10

B-

★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, November 5, 2022

NOTES:

1980 Academy Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Cinematography” (William A. Fraker), “Best Sound” (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall, and Gene S. Cantamessa), and “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (William A. Fraker, A.D. Flowers, and Gregory Jein)

The text is copyright © 2022 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 #3" Races with the Devils

DARK BLOOD #3 (OF 6)
BOOM! STUDIOS

STORY: LaToya Morgan
ART:  Moisés Hidalgo
COLORS: A.H.G.
LETTERS:  Andworld Design
EDITOR: Dafna Pleban
COVER: Valentine De Landro
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Juni Ba; Valentine De Landro; Christian Ward
24pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S. (September 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 Walt Barna and Moisés Hidalgo; 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 new abilities.

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 #3 opens in 1945, ten years before the Variance.  In Alabama, Emma Aldridge, Avery's wife, feels the penetrating eyes of a member of the local wolf pack, also known as a police officer, specifically Officer Wright.  Meanwhile, near the Austrian border, Avery and a fellow pilot race for safety with another kind of wolf pack, in the form of a Nazi commandant and his soldiers, nipping at their heels.

Ten years later, back in the present, it is the “Night of the Variance.”  Once again, Emma evades a wolf, while Avery runs away from one.  As he did a decade before, Avery will once again have to decide when he should stop running and turn around and start fighting.

THE LOWDOWN:  The indignities that Avery Aldridge suffers in Dark Blood #2 are familiar to me because I have experienced some of them and others were told to me via first hand or second hand accounts.  A theme that runs throughout Dark Blood, thus far, is the notion that Black people are often being hunted.  Sometimes, even being watched is a form of being hunted; the difference is that the hunter hunts with his stare or gaze.

Television writer-producer LaToya Morgan (AMC's “TURN: Washington's Spies”) offers in Dark Blood a comic book that flows through multiple genres, including science fiction and fantasy, horror, history, and reality-based drama, to name a few.  As a television writer, she knows how to deliver action, suspense, and thrills along with the character drama.  And Dark Blood #3 offers the thrill of the hunt.

This third issue finds husband and wife, Avery and Emma Aldridge, living and surviving on the razor's edge more than once, over two time periods.  It would not be inappropriate to compare this issue's hunters, Alabama law enforcement and Nazi military personnel to one another.  After all, one was the teacher of codified racism, and the other was the student.  [I'll let you, dear readers, figure out which was which.]

Morgan delivers Dark Blood's most taut thrills and fraught drama, thus far, and this time she has a different artist as her creative partner.  Moisés Hidalgo, who drew a few pages of Dark Blood #2, returns to draw Dark Blood #3's dark nights of pursuit to life.  Hidalgo's compositions seem inspired by the surreal madness of Steve Ditko's comics and also the impressionism and and wild-eyed emotions of Japanese manga.  Here, Hidalgo makes the reader feel, as if he refuses to allow the reader to experience Morgan's story only in a rational way.  His art wants us to be fearful, desperate, and even irrational.  While reading this issue, I believed that I had to feel this story if I was really going to have a chance of understanding the characters' plights.

Once again, I must praise A.H.G.'s coloring for Dark Blood.  I read comiXology's digital editions of Dark Blood when I am reviewing the series, and A.H.G.'s colors look gorgeous in this format.  The coloring makes Dark Blood's interiors look like pages from a vintage comic book, so Dark Blood seems to be not a comic book about the past, but a comic book from the past.  It is like a memento from a time capsule, a story that has been waiting for us.

Strangely, Dark Blood #3 confirms what I have been thinking since I started reading this series.  Dark Blood is the comic book that some comic book readers need and have needed for a long time, though some may only discover this later via a Dark Blood trade paperback.  So, once gain, I highly recommend Dark Blood.

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

https://twitter.com/boomstudios
https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/
https://www.facebook.com/BOOMStudiosComics
https://www.instagram.com/boom_studios/


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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Comics Review: "DARK BLOOD #2": Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby

DARK BLOOD #2 (OF 6)
BOOM! STUDIOS

STORY: LaToya Morgan
ART: Walt Barna with Moisés Hidalgo (pp. 10-12, 19)
COLORS: A.H.G.
LETTERS: Andworld Design
EDITOR: Dafna Pleban
COVER: Valentine De Landro
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Juni Ba; Valentine De Landro; Taurin Clarke
24pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(August 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 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 new abilities.

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 #2 opens six months before the Variance and reflects that which occupies Avery's oft-troubled mind.  He thinks of his wife, Emma, and their daughter, Grace Emmadell.  We see his life in “Vale Junction,” a small Black community where everyone knows him and loves Emma's “Vale Junction Book Mobile.”  Even his wartime experiences, especially from a particular time in Austria, circa 1945, flits in and out of Avery's memories.

However, reality intrudes after an altercation leaves Avery hurt.  Dr. Carlisle, a white university doctor, is the unlikely bystander who steps in to help, offering Avery immediate first aid.  As luck … would have it, Dr. Carlisle also operates a clinic “right outside of town on the old Rickman Farm” where he offers free medical care.  But nothing is really free...

THE LOWDOWN:  The indignities that Avery Aldridge suffers in Dark Blood #2 are familiar to me because I have experienced some of them and others were told to me via first hand or second hand accounts.  I admire a writer who can take such things and transform them into drama.  When a writer takes reality and inflicts it on make-believe people in a way that hits the audience in the soft spots (the heart, the soul, the mind), that is some mighty powerful storytelling.

Television writer-producer LaToya Morgan (AMC's “TURN: Washington's Spies”) offers in Dark Blood a comic book that is both science fiction-fantasy/horror and historical or reality-based drama.  She makes the Jim Crow world in her corner of Alabama truly an awful place, but at the same time, she presents in Vale Junction a Black community permeated with love and possibilities.  And that was the world that Black Americans lived not that long ago.

There are times when Avery suffers the insults of White people, and I can feel the hoary ghost of Nat Turner scratching at every window of my soul.  A documentary film or a work of journalism in our world would take Avery's experiences and attempt to engage our intellect.  Great drama takes those same experiences and engages our soul and ensnares our imagination.  It is through such mighty and imaginative drama that Morgan makes Dark Blood work as serialized fiction, a kind of fantastic fiction born in our reality based histories.

By page design and panel composition, artist Walt Barna brings the compelling drama of Dark Blood #2 to life.  With each panel, he is like a photographer working the right angles and capturing the perfect moments as he builds this chapter/issue.  There are also some beautifully drawn pages by guest artist Moisés Hidalgo.  Of course, A.H.G.'s gorgeous colors shift with the winds of Avery's memories, as well as with the linear jooks of Morgan's narratives.  So I credit the colors with forcing me to pay attention to the graphics throughout Dark Blood, especially this second issue.

After reading the first issue, I thought that LaToya Morgan, Walt Barna, A.H.G., and Andworld Design were off to a most excellent start, offering something that had great promise.  Dark Blood #2 aggressively delivers on that great promise.

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

https://twitter.com/boomstudios
https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/
https://www.facebook.com/BOOMStudiosComics
https://www.instagram.com/boom_studios/


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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Comics Review: "DARK BLOOD #1" is Hot Blooded

DARK BLOOD #1 (OF 6)
BOOM! STUDIOS

STORY: LaToya Morgan
ART:  Walt Barna
COLORS: A.H.G.
LETTERS:  Andworld Design
EDITOR: Dafna Pleban
COVER: Valentine De Landro
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Juni Ba; Dan Mora; Valentine De Landro; Marcus Williams; Javan Jordan; Mico Suayan; Felix Icarus Morales with Robert Nugent; David Sanchez with Omi Remalante; Karen S. Darboe; Ingrid Gala; Marco Rudy
24pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(July 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 Walt Barna; colored by A.H.G.; and lettered by Andworld Design.  The series focuses on an Black World War II veteran who discovers that he has strange new abilities.

Dark Blood #1 opens in Alabama, 1955.  It's night.  Avery Aldridge, also known as “Double A,” is leaving his job at the diner, “Hardy's Eats.”  In the alley, he 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, grown-ass 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.

THE LOWDOWN:  As I much as I love the original Star Wars movies and a number of classic Walt Disney animated features (Peter Pan), my all-time favorite movie moment occurs in 1967's In the Heat of the Night.  Involuntarily assigned to a homicide case in Sparta Mississippi, Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs (played by Sidney Poitier) is interviewing a suspect, a local and powerful rich white man named Endicott (Larry Gates), when Endicott slaps him in the face.  Tibbs slaps him right back.  The first time I saw Tibbs slap Endicott, it took my breath away … and it still does.

Television writer-producer LaToya Morgan (AMC's "TURN: Washington's Spies") offers a sci-fi/horror spin on Tibbs' slap as the spine of the first issue of her new comic book, Dark Blood.  This time, the confrontation is longer, and Avery Aldridge's response is made a bit more complicated, partly because he seems unstuck in time.  Morgan does everything to tell her readers a lot by whetting their appetites for more, because they don't know the half of it, and she makes that “it” intriguing.

For all that I am intrigued by Dark Blood #1's story and concept, this first issue is also a showcase for the art team of illustrator Walt Barna and colorist A.H.G.  Barna's compositions are some of the most convincing period art that I have seen in a modern comic book in years.  Barna's Alabama, 1955 looks so “old-timey” that I could believe that it is something Barna drew at least half-a-century ago.  Barna's aerial sequences depicting Aldridge's time as a Red Tail reminds me of the comic book art one might find in EC Comics' legendary war comic book, Aces High (1955).

A.H.G.'s colors are gorgeous and also from a time machine.  If I didn't know better, I would say he hand-colored this comic book and manually separated those colors in a back office at a NYC-based comic book publisher – in days gone by.  Seriously, his colors shimmer, but are also earthy, and they make the storytelling's time periods look and feel authentic.

And I always enjoy Andworld Design's lettering, which is always stylish in a way that brings immediacy and power to the drama.  So LaToya Morgan, Walt Barna, A.H.G., and Andworld Design are off to a most excellent start, and Dark Blood #1 sparkles with promise.

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

https://twitter.com/boomstudios
https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/
https://www.facebook.com/BOOMStudiosComics
https://www.instagram.com/boom_studios/


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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#28DaysofBlack Review: All Black Cast is Glorious in "CARMEN JONES"

[For her performance as the title character in Carmen Jones, Dorothy Dandridge became the first African-American actress to be nominated for the “Academy Award for Best Actress.” Dandridge was also the first Black actor nominated for an Oscar in a leading role category, besting by four years Sidney Poitier, the first Black man nominated for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (for 1958's The Defiant Ones). Dandridge was dead a little under 11 years after the release of Carmen Jones.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 of 2021 (No. 1743) by Leroy Douresseaux

Carmen Jones (1954)
Running time:  105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:  Otto Preminger    
WRITERS: Harry Kleiner (screenplay); Oscar Hammerstein 2nd (lyrics and book); (based on the opera by Georges Bizet)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Sam Leavitt (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Louis R. Loeffler    
COMPOSERS:  Herschel Burke Gilbert (musical director); Georges Bizet (original music)
Academy Award nominee

MUSICAL/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Olga James, Joe Adams, Brock Peters, Roy Daniels, Nick Stewart, and Diahann Carroll

Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger.  It is a film version of Oscar Hammerstein II's 1943 stage musical, Carmen Jones.  Hammerstein wrote the book (story) and lyrics to Carmen Jones and set them to the music of Georges Bizet's 1875 opera, Carmen.  However, Carmen Jones is a contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics, and it features a lead cast of all African-American and black actors.

Carmen Jones is set during World War II.  The story opens as a young woman, Cindy Lou (Olga James), arrives at the “Parachute Division” of A.J. Gardner Manufacturing Corp. (apparently located in North Carolina), where U.S. Army soldiers provide security.  Cindy Lou is there to meet her betrothed, Corporal Joe (Harry Belafonte), a young soldier who is about to enter flight officers training school.  But Cindy Lou isn't the only young woman with her eye on Joe.

Carmen Jones (Dorothy Dandridge) is an employee at the parachute factory.  One of her fellow employees describes Carmen as a “hip-swinging floozie.”  She arrives late to work wearing a loud red skirt, and she shamelessly declares that he wants Joe – mainly because she is attracted to men who play hard to get with her.  Joe seems bound and determined to focus only on Cindy Lou, and, in fact, he wants to marry her right away.

However, after Carmen gets in a fight with another female employee, scheming Sgt. Brown (Brock Peters) orders Joe to take Carmen to a civilian jail in the town of Masonville, which is over fifty miles away from the parachute plant.  Fate and circumstance seemed bound and determined to bring Carmen Jones and Corporal Joe together, but the cards and the spirits seem to say they are bound for tragedy.

When it comes to Carmen Jones the musical film, I can take it or leave it.  Oh, I enjoyed it enough, and some of the songs actually tickles my senses.  For me, the joy of Carmen Jones is its magnificent cast.  It is a shame how things were for African-American actors and performers in film back in those days.  This cast includes actors who should have dominated their craft and profession.

When Dorothy Dandridge first appears as Carmen Jones, she cuts through this film like a red hot knife through butter, and it is not only because of the hot red skirt she wears, which could launch a thousand ships.  Her presence is glorious, and director Otto Preminger clearly makes her the center of the film – as if he had a choice.  Because Dandridge, who was a singer, did not sing opera, she does not sing in the film; her singing voice is dubbed by Marilyn Horne, but Dandrige's lip-syncing is so convincing that it is hard to believe that she is actually not singing.  I can see why she captured the imaginations of enough voters in the Academy Awards to earn a “Best Actress” Oscar nomination as Carmen.

That is saying something considering that Harry Belafonte as Joe throws off quite a bit of energy himself.  When he wants to, Belafonte moves about like a panther, all power and lightning.  Belafonte's name appears first onscreen among the performers, and he acquits himself very, very well.  Belafonte's singing voice is also dubbed (by LeVern Hutcherson), but he also does some powerful lip-syncing, probably because he is also a singer.

If there is another actress in Carmen Jones packing as much dynamite as Dandridge, it is Pearl Bailey as Frankie, one of Carmen's friends.  Wow!  I am almost without words to describe how mesmerizing Bailey is the moment.  When she sings “Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (Gypsy Song),” Bailey pumps so much sexual heat into the film that I am surprised that scene did not get cut out by censors.

So I recommend Carmen Jones to anyone ready to see that an all-black cast can be magnetic on the screen.  They can be sexy and alluring and make you want to follow them on any adventure.  They can transport you to another world, and … they make Carmen Jones much more than it could have been.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, February 2, 2021


NOTES:
1955 Academy Awards, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Dorothy Dandridge) and “Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture” (Herschel Burke Gilbert)

1955 Golden Globes, USA:  2 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Most Promising Newcomer – Male” (Joe Adams)

1956 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Film from any Source” (USA) and “Best Foreign Actress” (Dorothy Dandridge-USA)


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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NatGeo Celebrates 75th Anniversary of V-E Day, May 21st

On May 21, 2020, National Geographic Pays Tribute to the 75th Anniversary of the Victory in Europe With a Full Day of Programming, Including Two Powerful Primetime Specials, Featuring Stories From the Front

“This is a solemn but glorious hour.” - President Harry S. Truman - The White House Oval Office, May 8, 1945

Beginning May 21, at 8/7c, WWII IN EUROPE: VOICES FROM THE FRONT, Narrated by ABC News’ Bob Woodruff, Features First-Person Accounts From Some of the Last Surviving Veterans of World War II

Experience the Stories of the Legendary Airmen who Shifted the Fate of World War II in HEROES OF THE SKY: THE MIGHTY EIGHTH AIR FORCE Premiering May 21, at 9/8c

World War II Commemorative Specials Complement National Geographic Magazine’s June Cover Issue "The Last Voices of World War II"

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On May 8, 1945, the Allied forces formally accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany, officially bringing an end to World War II in Europe. This historic event, which became known as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, offered a long-awaited moment of hope and celebration for millions of people around the world whose lives had been gripped by turmoil, overwhelming devastation and heartbreaking loss throughout the breadth of the war.

    “We look at history in order to understand our past and inform our future”

In observance of the 75th anniversary of the pivotal day, National Geographic gives voice to those who were on the front lines of the global war that took the lives of an estimated 66-85 million people. On Thursday, May 21, 2020, the network is programming a full day of World War II content underscored by two primetime original premieres, beginning at 8/7c. The specials combine thousands of hours of research, interviews and original footage that give viewers an intimate account of the epic war told through historians as well as those who experienced the war firsthand.

Beginning at 8/7c, WWII IN EUROPE: VOICES FROM THE FRONT, narrated by ABC News’ Bob Woodruff, offers viewers a chance to hear from some of the last remaining voices of a war that forever changed the world. Giving attention to a full range of those who experienced the war in Europe, including the Allied Powers and the Axis Power of Germany, the one-hour special uniquely presents vivid memories from more than three quarters of a century ago.

Told using rarely seen archival footage and photographs and dozens of interviews, WWII IN EUROPE: VOICES FROM THE FRONT captures the moment of jubilation and remembrance when people around the world learned that the European chapter of the second world war had drawn to an end. From New York’s famed Times Square to London’s Piccadilly Circus to Moscow’s Red Square, the special captures how that moment represented different meanings to all who were involved.

At 9/8c, the two-hour special HEROES OF THE SKY: THE MIGHTY EIGHTH AIR FORCE introduces viewers to the courageous men of the legendary Eighth Air Force of the United States. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States officially entered the war as Nazi Germany stood at the pinnacle of its power, occupying most of Europe. To take the fight to the enemy, suddenly, the Eighth Air Force was called into action and entered the brutal air war over Europe.

HEROES OF THE SKY: THE MIGHTY EIGHTH AIR FORCE features recollections of the brave men from the U.S. Eighth Air Force who entered the cockpit mission after mission, knowing that their call to duty was a likely death sentence. Integrating the airmen’s own words from personal diary entries, letters to loved ones and previous interviews, the special seamlessly draws from more than 1,000 hours of rare and never-before-seen intimate footage to tell the incredible story of the heroic figures in “The Mighty Eighth.”

“We look at history in order to understand our past and inform our future,” says Geoff Daniels, executive vice president of global unscripted entertainment at National Geographic. “At National Geographic, we combine our trademark access and our commitment to historical accuracy to deliver authentic, meaningful content to our viewers. As we approach the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, it’s more important than ever to revisit and remember this crucial time in world history and to ensure that these stories live on for generations to come.”

National Geographic’s full day of World War II remembrance programming features the very best historical programming, including premieres of the Europe from Above series and re-airings of top specials, such as Nazi Underworld, Inside the SS: Rise to Power and Hitler’s Last Year. The day’s full programming line-up is below.

The June issue of National Geographic magazine features a cover story commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII. The cover feature shares the stories of some of the last surviving veterans of the conflict from seven countries through a series of interviews and photographs. Subjects include still-living members of the military and those affected by the war from both the Allied and Axis powers of the time, including the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and others. The June issue cover story, "The Last Voices of World War II," will be available online at natgeo.com/WWII on May 6.

WWII IN EUROPE: VOICES FROM THE FRONT is produced by National Geographic. Christine Weber serves as executive producer. The special is produced, written and directed by Chad Cohen. Bethany Jones is associate producer.

HEROES OF THE SKY: THE MIGHTY EIGHTH AIR FORCE is produced by National Geographic and Lou Reda Productions. For Lou Reda Productions, Scott L. Reda, Marc L. Reda and Bruce Kennedy serve as executive producers and Anthony Buzzetti serves as supervising producer. The two-hour special is directed and edited by David Jakubovic. For National Geographic, Simon Raikes and Francesca Johnson are executive producers.


About National Geographic Partners
National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 132 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

About Lou Reda Productions
In the 1970s, Lou Reda, a decorated World War II veteran turned television producer, started Lou Reda Productions after seeing a need and opportunity in television to create historical documentaries through a fresh lens that would examine and bring to light the issues of the day. The company was propelled to the national stage when Reda produced the first syndicated television series for Viacom, and later, the acclaimed CBS scripted miniseries “The Blue and the Gray.”

Nearly five decades later, Lou Reda Productions’ humble beginnings have led to over 600 hours of programming for domestic and international networks and the amassing of the largest privately-owned film archive – Reda Archives, LLC – in the United States. The company has received immense praise and numerous awards from the industry, including a People’s Choice Award, Peabody Award, and Primetime Emmy Award (including nine nominations).

Now known as Reda Films, the company has expanded into formatted and scripted television. From a documentary about the intersection of sci-fi and rock & roll, to a formatted series about the dissection of ordinary objects, to a scripted series about Prohibition-era Mississippi, Reda Films has one mandate when developing new content for film and television: to bring to light stories that are underrepresented or told from an atypical point of view. By telling these stories, Reda Films continues to solidify itself as a leading producer of important and thought-provoking contemporary work.

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National Geographic Channel Commemorates 75th Anniversary of D-Day

National Geographic Commemorates 75th Anniversary of D-Day with a Week of Powerful Programming Devoted to World War II

The Weeklong Event Includes Premieres of Original Specials Drain the Oceans: Secrets of D-Day; Hitler’s Last Stand: Lost Battalion; Eyewitness: D-Day and The King Who Fooled Hitler, Plus Encore Presentations from National Geographic’s Programming Archives

D-Day Marathon Begins June 3, 2019, at 9/8c on National Geographic

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The world was in its fifth year of war, when on June 6, 1944, western Allied forces crossed the English Channel and stormed the German defenses across the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy, France. Invading by land, sea and air, the broad attack was code named Operation Overlord, but the world knows it as D-Day, and it is said to be the beginning of the end of World War II. Ranking as the greatest amphibious landing in military history, the invasion allowed the Allies to advance into France. As a result, by August 1944, Western Europe was liberated from the Nazi German occupation, and World War II would be over the following year.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the pivotal battle at Normandy, National Geographic is celebrating with a week of powerful programming devoted to World War II. Beginning Monday, June 3, 2019, at 9/8c, the D-Day Marathon will feature premieres of original specials including Drain the Oceans: Secrets of D-Day, Hitler’s Last Stand: Lost Battalion, Eyewitness: D-Day and The King Who Fooled Hitler as well as encore presentations from National Geographic’s programming archives.

In addition to providing unprecedented access to archival material, National Geographic’s original special The King Who Fooled Hitler presents never-before-seen documents, including secret letters from King George VI himself, correspondence and diary entries, along with new interviews giving fresh insight into the infamous D-Day deception that outsmarted Hitler.

All specials will air globally in 172 countries and 43 languages on National Geographic. Full details of the programming event are below.

Original D-Day Marathon Specials Include:

DRAIN THE OCEANS: SECRETS OF D-DAY
Monday, June 3, at 9/8c
World War II saw the greatest-ever loss of ships and submarines at sea, and beneath the oceans lies a hidden graveyard of those vessels that has its own story to tell. Using the latest sonar technology, National Geographic goes on a unique expedition to map the sunken Allied vessels off the Normandy Coast, revealing stunning images from beneath the waves, and uncovers extraordinary, secret technology that was deployed by both the Allies and the Nazis in the battle for western Europe.

HITLER’S LAST STAND: LOST BATTALION
Monday, June 3, at 10/9c
On June 6, 1944, the Allies finally land troops in Normandy to open the western front. But after the surprise of the D-Day landings and Allied advances, Nazi loyalists dig in, determined to keep a merciless grip on the towns, strongholds and fortresses of occupied Europe to defend the Third Reich. These are the stories of desperate battles waged on the edge of defeat — not just for victory but for survival.

EYEWITNESS: D-DAY
Tuesday, June 4, at 9/8c
One famous day. Five heroes. Five key turning points that changed the course of World War II during the D-Day landings, told through the eyes of the people who made a difference. Using rarely seen archive footage, dramatic reconstruction and written accounts from eyewitnesses and personal testimony from five heroes, this is D-Day as never seen before.

THE KING WHO FOOLED HITLER
Wednesday, June 5, at 9/8c
This landmark film unearths exclusive new documents — secret letters, correspondence and diary entries — about D-Day that shed new light about the deception that fooled Hitler. In a tale of double agents and decoys, the investigation reveals for the first time the identity of the most secret agent of them all: King George VI. It also uncovers how the queen and future Queen Elizabeth II were enlisted in the ruse, and how the royal household managed to lose one of Britain’s greatest secrets of World War II.

Additional Programming Includes:

D-DAY SACRIFICE: BATTLE FOR FREEDOM
Monday, June 3, at 8/7c
In the spring of 1944, the Allies rolled the dice and chanced the whole fate of World War II on a single day. On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, National Geographic revisits the Allied forces’ June 6, 1944, Normandy landings and the ensuing 100 days leading up to the liberation of Paris from the Nazis.

AFTER HITLER: SPOILS OF WAR
Tuesday, June 4, at 8/7c
May 8, 1945: World War II has finally ended and the world is celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany, but the celebration is short lived. A shattered Europe has to rebuild, heal its wounds and deal with the fallout from an interminable and barbarous conflict while sketching the outlines of its future. For many civilians, the aftermath of the war is even more brutal than the conflict itself.

HITLER YOUTH: NAZI CHILD SOLDIERS
Tuesday, June 4, at 10/9c
In 1930s Germany, the Nazi Party created the Hitler Youth to indoctrinate children and adolescents with Nazi ideology and prepare them to become a child army for Hitler. The first program traces the rise of the movement through to the war. The second program starts at the height of World War II and traces the story of the Hitler Youth as they face defeat.

INSIDE WWII: BEHIND ENEMY LINES
Wednesday, June 5, at 7/6c
Day by day. Hour by hour. Second by second. This is the story of last century’s bloodiest conflict told in a concise and compelling three-hour special. Including personal accounts, strategic analysis and rare footage, the special provides a new and intimate perspective on the experience of war.

NAZI MEGASTRUCTURES
Across three nights, beginning Wednesday, June 5, at 10/9c
High-tech superguns. Weapons of mass destruction. In the quest for world domination, the Nazis built some of the biggest and deadliest pieces of military hardware and malevolent technology in history. These weapons changed the face of modern warfare forever. Witness the hidden remains of Hitler’s most ambitious projects and hear the stories of the engineering geniuses who designed them.

MAKING A DICTATOR
Back-to-back nights, beginning Wednesday, June 5, at 11/10c
A growing threat to democracies appears in the force of dictatorships. Dictators like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Mobutu Sese Seko and Fidel Castro found their way to power through similar methods. The special examines the brutal methods and common practices implemented by each dictatorship, along with the ways in which the dictators corrupted the countries they claimed to improve.


About National Geographic Partners LLC
National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between the National Geographic Society and Disney, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 131 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

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Image Comics Announces "Son of Hitler" Graphic Novel for June 2018

Creators of WWII spy thriller explore the death—and near resurgence—of Hitler in timely graphic novel SON OF HITLER

PORTLAND, OR — Image Comics is pleased to reveal preview pages from the “controversial” graphic novel SON OF HITLER, which will hit shelves this June. The alternative history story, written by acclaimed creators Anthony Del Col and Geoff Moore with art by New York Times bestselling cartoonist Jeff McComsey, explores a longstanding legend from the war with a twist that chillingly echoes today’s hostile American politics.

In the darkest days of World War II, SON OF HITLER follows a rogue female spy handler who discovers a shocking secret—that when stationed in France during the first world war Adolf Hitler fathered an illegitimate child. She finds this young man in Occupied France and recruits him to get close to—and kill—his biological father and end the war. In the vein of The Man in the High Castle, Inglourious Basterds, and Zero Dark Thirty, the story’s creators were inspired by recent worldwide political events to craft a completely new ending.

“When Geoff, Jeff, and I first started working on this project, we wanted to tell a pulpy tale of a manipulative woman on a Nazi-hunting expedition that culminates in Hitler’s bunker,” said Del Col (Kill Shakespeare, Assassin’s Creed). “But as we witnessed unfortunate world events like the Charlottesville riots—combined shortly thereafter with the moment I witnessed someone on my neighborhood street wearing a Nazi swastika—I realized we had a duty to explore the roots of what’s happening today.”

Perhaps as a reflex of the recent rise of white supremacist groups in the news, stories of World War II and Nazism are growing in every medium, from film (Dunkirk, Darkest Hour) to video games (Call of Duty: WWII, the revived Wolfenstein franchise) and even television (The Man in the High Castle, the just-announced Jordan Peele project The Hunt). Canadians Del Col and Moore turned to indie stalwart McComsey (FUBAR, Flutter), who has done many stories and anthologies set during World War II and has created a book that feels like it’s from the era.

First announced at the prestigious ImageExpo in February, SON OF HITLER (ISBN: 978-1-5343-0224-2, Diamond Code: MAR180612) is an original graphic novel that will hit comic shops on Wednesday, June 20th, 2018 and bookstores on Tuesday, June 26th, 2018. It can be pre-ordered on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, IndieBound, and Indigo.


ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of bestselling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has six individuals on the Board of Directors: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, and Eric Stephenson. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline Comics, Skybound Entertainment, and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

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Chris Nolan's "Dunkirk" Begins Filming in Dunkirk, France

Filming Has Begun on Christopher Nolan’s Epic Action Thriller “Dunkirk”

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that principal photography on the epic action thriller “Dunkirk” is underway in Dunkirk, France. Christopher Nolan (“Interstellar,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy) is directing “Dunkirk” from his own original screenplay, utilizing a mixture of IMAX® and 65mm film to bring the story to the screen. The production will shoot in France, Holland, the UK and Los Angeles.

“Dunkirk” opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.

“Dunkirk” features a prestigious cast, including Tom Hardy (“The Revenant,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Inception”), Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies,” “Wolf Hall”), Kenneth Branagh (“My Week with Marilyn,” “Hamlet,” “Henry V”) and Cillian Murphy (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), as well as newcomer Fionn Whitehead. The ensemble cast also includes Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, James D’Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney.

The film is being produced by Nolan and Emma Thomas (“Interstellar,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy). Jake Myers (“The Revenant,” “Interstellar,” “Jack Reacher”) is serving as executive producer.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema (“Interstellar,” “Spectre,” “The Fighter”), production designer Nathan Crowley (“Interstellar,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), editor Lee Smith (“The Dark Knight” Trilogy, “Elysium”), costume designer Jeffrey Kurland (“Inception,” “Bullets Over Broadway”), and visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson (“Mad Max: Fury Road”).

Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing “Dunkirk” worldwide and has slated the film for a July 21, 2017 release.

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Skydance Media Announces "Flying Tigers" Film Project

Skydance Media and Alibaba Pictures Join Forces to Finance and Produce Flying Tigers Feature Film

Oscar-Nominated Writer Randall Wallace to Script

SANTA MONICA, Calif. & BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Skydance, a diversified media company that creates elevated, event-level entertainment for global audiences, and Alibaba Pictures, Alibaba Group’s entertainment affiliate, today announced that they will join forces to finance and produce a Flying Tigers feature film for global release. It has been designated by Skydance Media and Alibaba Pictures as a high-priority development project. The screenplay will be written by Oscar-nominated writer Randall Wallace (Braveheart) and the film will be produced by David Ellison and Dana Goldberg of Skydance together with a team from Alibaba Pictures.

    @Skydance and Alibaba Pictures Join Forces to Finance and Produce Flying Tigers Feature Film

The Flying Tigers – formally known as the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force – was a group of volunteer pilots from the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Led by Captain Claire Lee Chennault, the group fought alongside the Chinese during World War II. The Flying Tigers project will tell the story of the unique brotherhood formed by these intrepid soldiers.

“This production partnership with Alibaba Pictures on Flying Tigers marks an important next step in our strategy to expand the reach of the Skydance brand on a global basis,” said David Ellison, Chief Executive Officer of Skydance Media. “We could not be more excited to work with the incomparable Randall Wallace to bring to life the extraordinary, untold story of the great commitment and sacrifices made by this courageous group of pilots.”

“Flying Tigers carries with it a rich legacy and a movie about this subject matter has been highly anticipated for a very long time,” added Zhang Wei, President of Alibaba Pictures. “It is an ideal piece of content in which to invest and produce with Skydance, a studio with a proven track record of bringing films to the big screen that are both sweeping in scope and universal in appeal.”

“Skydance’s relationship with Alibaba Pictures got off to a great start last summer with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and we look forward to deepening our ties even further as we jointly develop, produce and finance Flying Tigers, an authentic story that draws from both Chinese and U.S. history,” said Skydance Chief Operating Officer Jesse Sisgold.

Randall Wallace is a screenwriter, director, producer and songwriter who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Writers Guild of America award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Braveheart. He also wrote and directed The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers and Heaven Is For Real and wrote the screenplay for Pearl Harbor. Wallace is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels.

Today, Skydance is a leading producer and financier of major Hollywood studio films and television shows. Since its inception in 2010, Skydance has produced 10 feature films, which have cumulatively grossed approximately $4 billion in worldwide box office receipts. The Company’s current film slate includes Star Trek Beyond with Paramount on July 22, 2016, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back with Paramount on October 21, 2016, Geostorm with Warner Brothers on January 13, 2017 and Life with Sony on March 24, 2017.

Alibaba Pictures began investing in Hollywood film with its stake in the 2015 Skydance film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in partnership with Paramount Pictures.


About Skydance Media
Skydance is a diversified media company founded by David Ellison in 2010 to create elevated, event-level entertainment for global audiences. The Company brings to life stories of immersive worlds across platforms, including feature film, television, gaming and digital. Among Skydance Media’s commercially and critically successful feature films are Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Terminator Genisys, World War Z, Jack Reacher, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Star Trek Into Darkness and True Grit. Its 2015 feature films, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Terminator Genisys, together grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Skydance’s feature film slate includes Star Trek Beyond on July 22, 2016, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back on October 21, 2016, Geostorm on January 13, 2017 and Life on March 24, 2017. Skydance Media’s rapidly growing and critically acclaimed television division launched in 2013. The Company’s television slate now features a variety of projects across a number of networks, including Emmy-nominated Grace and Frankie and Altered Carbon on Netflix, Red Mars on Spike TV and Jack Ryan on Amazon.

About Alibaba Pictures
Since its establishment in August 2014 as the flagship of Alibaba Group’s entertainment business, Alibaba Pictures has been aiming to create an innovative Internet-powered movie and television entertainment powerhouse that covers all segments of the industry’s value chain. Alibaba Pictures’ core businesses span content production, Internet-based promotion and distribution, entertainment e-commerce and international operations. Alibaba Pictures has invested in and produced a series of movies that will be released in 2016, including Ferry Man, Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Ao Jiao Yu Pian Jian. Alibaba Pictures has been eager to be involved in the competitive global entertainment industry. In 2015, Alibaba Pictures invested in the Hollywood blockbuster movie series Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation; and in REAL, a Korean production starring popular Korean actor Kim Soo Hyun which is expected to be released in 2017. Alibaba Pictures is stepping into every sector along the value chain of the film and TV industry. In June 2015, the Company completed the acquisition of Yueke, one of the largest suppliers of cinema ticketing systems in the PRC. In November of the same year, the Company acquired Taobao Movie and Yulebao from Alibaba Group. Alibaba Pictures is listed on both The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (stock code: 1060) and the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (stock code: S91).

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Warner Bros.' Announces Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk"

Christopher Nolan to Direct the Epic Action Thriller “Dunkirk” for Warner Bros. Pictures

Casting is underway on the ensemble to be led by unknown actors, with Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy in talks to join the cast

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that Christopher Nolan will direct “Dunkirk” from his own original screenplay. An epic action thriller, “Dunkirk” is set during the legendary evacuation. The announcement was made by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production.

The large scale film will be shot on a combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm large format film photography for maximum image quality and high impact immersion. Shooting will begin in May using many of the real locations of the true-life events, which form the background for the story.

The cast will be headed by yet-to-be-cast unknowns. Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy are currently in talks to join the ensemble.

Nolan will also produce the film with his longtime producing partner Emma Thomas.

Silverman stated, “We are thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Christopher Nolan, a singular filmmaker who has created some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films of all time. ‘Dunkirk’ is a gripping and powerful story and we are excited to see Chris, Emma and their cast realize it on the big screen.”

Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing “Dunkirk” worldwide and has slated the film for a July 21, 2017 release. The film will be released theatrically on IMAX, 70mm, 35mm and all other screens.

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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.