rlpolo04 Blog

There is a moment of ease and when all the chaos surrounding the imprisoned German-American Vietnam pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) and fellow prisoner of war Duane (Steve Zahn) has taken a back seat to their simple conversation. Dieter explains to him how he became a pilot and what motivated him (a fighter pilot was attacking his town when he was a little boy and Dieter and the pilot both made eye contact, from here on he knew what he wanted in life). After he tells him the story, the two just stare off into some sort of amazement or they’re both searching for what they once had. This is when Dieter wants that feeling back. He’s now motivated to escape the camp. Based on the true events, we realize Dieter should be recognized for his courageous achievements.

Legendary director Werner Herzog does a fantastic job of capturing the feeling of loneliness and hatred. The setting of the film is all natural and Herzog is known for that. Just see his films Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, and even the documentary hit Grizzly Man and you’ll also realize all these films put man against nature. The most amazing shots in the movie aren’t scripted at all, rather they are an act of nature. Notice the shot when Dieter is finished talking to his group. Herzog pulls the camera up slowly and shows the giant rocks that overshadow him. The intense river ride as well. Herzog wants to make it clear to us that the jungle is the prison. The other point the makes clear is that the Vietnam war was hell. No one thought the war would be so time consuming. At one point, Dieter signals to US choppers and they fire shots at him. That signifies the confusion that was going on.

As Dieter plunges deeper into his plan to escape, people might find the movie to drag a bit. But this is how it should be. You can’t jazz up something that isn’t true. Our audience is prone to the heavy use of special effects but here there is none of that. As he descends into the jungle, we feel that we are doing it with him. This is all done with perfection by Bale. He is, today, the best all around actor we have. Whether he plays a psycho, an insomniac, batman, or a 17^th century English settler, he makes the audience believe his character. Surely, he’ll do the same magic in the upcoming western 3:10 to Yuma.

When he falls from the sky to the Vietnam city of Laos, the procedure is done perfectly. The camera style seems to be documentary like, making us more involved in the action. They torture him and throw him in the camp. This is where he meets five others who each have been captured from about 1 ½ years to 2 ½ years. One of the tells Dieter “keep your head down and mouth shut, that’s your only way to survive.” Well, this person doesn’t know Dieter. He’s a person who refuses to die. He tells them he has a plan to escape and eventually they come to accept that task. He came to give these terrified men some hope.

Herzog does something unique during these scene at the POW camp. Amongst all the torturing and confusion, Herzog adds a touch of comedy and that’s exactly what was needed. When they all go to bed at night they’re all handcuffed together. They undo them to escape but one the guard is coming to check on them and they frantically try to put them back on and act like nothing happened. Three Americans and three Asians are the prisoners and they bond with time. Three Americans and three Asians are the prisoners and they all bond with time.

The ending is breathtaking and heartfelt, just like the entire movie itself. Set to the haunting score of Klaus Badelt the movie hits you in the gut. No special effects at all. No need for them. This movie isn’t suppose to be thrilling. What it sets out to do is show us the anguish that Dieter goes through. This is pure and great filmmaking at its absolute best.

At the end of the film an officer tells Kit (Martin Sheen, never better) “you’re quite an individual” Kit replies “you think they’ll take that into consideration?” This scene really sums up the entire movie because Kit wants to be his own person and wants people to know him. Badlands (1973) is based on the true story of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate (Malick changed the names to Kit and Holly). They went on a shooting spree in the Midwest during the year 1958. Terrance Malick brings this story to life as he writes, produces and directs for the first time at the age of twenty-nine.

It happens all too quickly. I really couldn’t figure out why they loved each other so much. That is the only problem I had with this beautifully shot film. Kit, who is twenty-five, just got of work (he’s a garbage man) and lays eyes on a young red headed girl twirling a baton in her front yard. The girl’s name is Holly (Sissy Spacek) she’s fifteen years old who acts as if she’s more in her twenties. She knows a lot of things that your normal fifteen year old wouldn’t. At first she tells him that she’s forbidden to see him because he’s a garbage man and her father (Warren Oates) doesn‘t approve of that. Kit understands that. The next day he comes back to her house jobless. He quit his job as a garbage man so he can have her in his life.

Other than that, their relationship is every really built upon. They just laid eyes on each other and BOOM they have this relationship going on that has her going along every plan he has. We never see them in a normal conversation, never eating together, or sleeping with one another. Nothing. There’s no foundation or base to the relationship that it wants us to believe is going on.

Kit goes on a shooting spree starting with Holly’s father because he told him he can’t see his daughter. He knows Kit is no good. No good is a tough title but maybe he is just a troubled and lost soul. The same goes for Holly as she lost her mother at an early age and doesn’t have a good relationship with her father. She isn’t even mad when Kit guns him down. Holly might’ve been looking for a “father” figure. Kit is ten years older than she is and really cares for her. The only logic for her is to go with the man who really loves her and is willing to do anything to keep their lone intact.

The story is told in a humble narrative by Holly. She seems so sincere when she talks through the narration. So we have an idea that she makes it out of this fiasco and Kit doesn’t. Their journey is memorable. They can’t live or be seen by the public because there is a huge reward out for them. They go around South Dakota and Montana making their homes in tree shacks. Kit carelessly shoots whoever witnesses their being around.

This being Malick’s first directorial he would follow with only three more movies: Days of Heaven (1976), The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005) all of which take place in the past and have narration done. His films have your normal and nice people who suddenly turn bad and some kind of switch ticks them off.

The performance that Sheen gives is brilliant and low key. Never once does he go “over the top.” It reminded me of a young Brando or James Dean performance. The way Sheen handled himself was flawless and his way of mumbling words was so Dean like. He also resembled they way he looked and throughout the movie people tell him how much he looks like James Dean.

That was the problem with Kit and why he was so troubled. He wanted people to recognize him and know who he is. When he is taken into an army base a guy asks him how old he is and Kit replies “don’t you read the papers?” That whole scene there is great. As he is handcuffed and begin showed off to the police men and officers Kit has his “15 minutes of fame.” He offers his personal belongings as if though he is some hero as he offers his comb, jacket, and lighter. He wanted to be famous and somebody. In this final scene he doesn’t care that he’s going to be sentenced to death because he’s caught in the moment. He wanted to be a criminal but not this big of a criminal.

Richard Gere tears into the role as Clifford Irving in this surprise movie about trying to get his Howard Hughes autobiography published, while lying to all who enter his world. Gere is back to form here and he looks better and cooler than ever (having a fake nose and his hair died dark black doesn't hurt either). Though this movie is about how Irving lied and conned his way on trying to get his book published but if you would dig deeper you find a more complex and scary plot development and that is how Irving falls under the power of Howard Hughes' spell.

This is based on the true story taking place in 1971 about Irving who is a struggling author who recently got his new book turned down by McGraw-Hill. The next day he goes into their office and says he's going to write the book of the century. "That book would sell more copies than the Bible itself", that book is going to be the Autobiography of the eccentric Howard Hughes, whom Leonardo DiCaprio played perfectly in the 2004 hit movie The Aviator. This is when Irving begins to enter a world he wished he'd never explored. Along for the ride is his best friend Dick (Alfred Molina who adds a hilarious touch to this movie) who is his researcher and also a children's literature author. With the idea to write this autobiography they receive a one-million dollar advance because the people at McGraw-Hill think they're really dealing with Howard Hughes himself but it's really Irving they are dealing with. The company is willing to negotiate anything because Hughes is such a powerful man (hotels evacuated their entire building for him).

Irving transforms right before our eyes as he writes letters in Hughes' handwriting, steals some top secret information from his closest colleagues and in a haunting scene Irving slowly becomes the eccentric billionaire as he starts to dress and talk just like him, recording himself the entire way. It shows you how one can be overwhelmed by what he is set out to do. It was suppose to be something quick to get him some money, but instead it ruined and alters his entire life. His relationships between Dick and his wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden) go to shambles as he chooses his obsession with getting his book published over his closest of friends.

The relationship between Clifford and Dick is strange. They're total opposites. When Dick is asked a question, he's suppose to come in on cue, by McGraw-Hill associates he panics and always breaks into a sweat. Meanwhile, Clifford has to bell him out and capture the associates with his compelling story about how both of them really meant Howard Hughes (which is done to perfection, you have to see it to believe it).

Irving's greed also played a part in his downfall. He found information in a list of documents he got a hold of from Hughes' advisors that would have President Nixon impeached (how Hughes gave money to wipe away some debt). We see how one man will go so far over the edge to keep something going even though he knows he's going to end up in jail if he gets caught. Today we are told that he is still trying to get that autobiography published. Irving wanted this published but McGraw-Hill denied it and this sent him mad. He wasn't happy with just getting his fake book published, he wanted to go further and drop some major bombs. This resulted in Hughes making a phone speech on TV as he finally tells the world that he never had any contact with Irving at all (it was shown as the real footage). Watching Gere act as this scene plays out is magical. What a performance he puts on this entire film.

Director Lasse Hallstrom (What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Chocolate) does some really impressive work here. As well as cameraman Oliver Stampleton as he creates beautiful images with beautiful color (the scene when Irving is tossed out a window shades of Vertigo and when he is racing home in the night driving his convertible on a winding road, such beautiful colors). What I loved about it was he would have flashback scene when Irving was telling a false story to either Time Magazine or McGraw-Hill or when he would try to confess something to someone. These aren't your normal flashbacks, these flashbacks never happened during the movie and since Irving believes in his head they really did happen we're suppose to believe that they really did. It's done to perfection. A true psychological game The Hoax turns out to be.

You have to have a mighty heart to watch this movie. Yea it’s tough to watch because director Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland) makes this movie boring and really unwatchable within the first half-hour or so. What could have been a movie of great emotional power is instead a chore for us to watch. Having this based on the true story of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, who got brutally murdered by a group of terrorists, is that we know the outcome before the movie even starts and that only makes the movie worse.

That quote expresses Mariane’s frustrations as her husband Daniel Pearl has been kidnapped by a group of terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. They’re both journalists and after 9/11, in 2002, they traveled to get interviews and stories about a “shoe-bomber.” They’ve been living in Pakistan for a year and a half. All the other American journalists already left for American but not Daniel and his wife. All he wants is just one more interview with a powerful person, Sheikh Gilani. Daniel gets information through email from Sheikh’s supporting people about when and where to meet him. Eventually it turns into a circus. He always asks the question “is it safe?” and the answer is always “if you’re in a public place.” Being a Jew doesn’t help him either and the terrorists think that journalists are CIA agents. When you’re a journalist you have to do what you have to do, even if it means trusting people in the worst part of the world.

We’re never shown how Danny gets kidnapped or any action when he’s being held captive. Instead, it’s all Jolie’s show as she buts on Oscar caliber acting to keep the audience’s attention while the entire movie is all procedurals. Playing this role, Jolie completely morphed and looked more like Jennifer Lopez but let’s thank God that she didn’t act like her. Most of the time we get Jolie just sitting at her table looking through paper’s and writing on a white chalk board because everything is so confusing. Most of all she’s seven months pregnant and she doesn’t want to create any problems for the baby. It’s at the end of the movie where we get the powerful and exhilarating scene of her breaking down and letting everything out but it’s the scenes where she gets interviewed that gets you in the heart. She isn’t going to let anybody terrorize her. Having her baby only makes her stronger as she keeps moving forward.

Jolie’s acting can only carry this movie so far. The middle of A Mighty Heart is down right snooze worthy. To top it off, most of the people doing the talking (Pakistani officers) are so hard to understand.

Shot in a docu-style way makes this movie more authentic and buts you in the middle of all this commotion. Besides Jolie’s acting, what I loved most were the flashback scenes of Mariane and Daniel (only time he is in the movie are in these scenes) having diner, getting married, and cuddling in bed. Though they didn’t work my feelings the way I wanted them too, they still benefited the movie.

You have to accept Grindhouse for what it is and what it brings to the table. It offers the audience more than three hours to get away and get lost in the two stories. Rodriguez (Sin City) and Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) don't hold anything back as they create a movie full of laughs, horror, suspense and such behavior that only these two directors can achieve. This movie is suppose to do homage to the seventies B-Movies. We get two movies into one screening with fake trailers to accompany it during intermission. Grindhouse is in its own world and league and was I ever excited to be enthralled in all of it.

Rodriguez was first to bat with his feature presentation of Planet Terror, which works better than any other B-Movie of its kind. It has to do with a bio-terrorism plot and how the civilians have to handle an attack by zombies (the people who have been exposed to the noxious chemical gas) whose faces form huge boils and their heads inflate three times the regular size. We get our hero's who are memorable and we will never forget them. Darling….Cherry Darling (a smoken hot Rose McGowan) is a go-go dancer and has dreams of becoming a doctor until her leg gets torn off by the zombies and has to use a peg and a gun as a leg. El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) is Darling's ex-boyfriend who has charisma, talent, and bravado of a John Wayne type. Then the small town sheriff (Michael Brehin) adds some humor. These are the people that lead their community friends against Bruce Willis' evil plan (as he tries to use the noxious gas for his own needs) and also to kill the zombies.

We get the homey feeling (each film is in the same location) watching this movie with settings such as "The Bone Shack" and the hospital (which is the same set-up for the second movie). Like the movie Slither last year Planet Terror one-ups it because it forms its characters better and makes them more believable. Rodriguez does a wonderful job establishing each character from the bio-scientist to the doctor's (Kurt Russell) wife to the strip club owner. We all get how they feel and act.

When a movie like this comes around it makes you enjoy the movies better. At a running over three hours you don't stop and look at your watch one time or start to get restless in your seat. It flows and it makes you grip your chair or the person next to you. I found myself jumping, laughing, and absorbed in both movies. It's always a treat to get something like this early in the year and to obtain such a fun action movie that isn't dull.

Quentin Tarantino's dialogue filled feature was second, Death Proof and it didn't fail to live up to Planet Terror it kept the momentum, never slowing down and always keeping your interest. Since Rodriguez focused on science fiction and some heavy violence, Tarantino is going to stay put in reality (Austin Texas) and do what he does best and that is making any conversation interesting and fun. He introduces to us a psychopath killer who has a perfect head of hair and a tan most people would kill for his name... Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) he stalks young woman and tries killing them by way of his "Death Proof" car. This movie is in two parts each part with Stuntman Mike dealing with a different group of girls (first group led by Austin, Texas DJ Jungle Julia, Arlene and Shanna, the second group led by bad-ass ghetto bitch Kim, Lee, Zoe, and Abernathy).

The car chase scene between Stuntman Mike and the second group of girls is done to perfection (no CGI crap or computers) and Tarantino delivers to us a movie that doesn't have to lure us in with explosions and what not, but his power to carry a movie on sheer dialogue alone is amazing. Any other movie would have Stuntman Mike leave the girls alone after trying to ride them off the rode and kill them but instead QT has the girls go after him.

QT makes us feel like we're part of each girls group sitting at their table listening in on their conversations and makes us grow found of them and establishes how they act so we can be close to them.

Each movie is great in its own way but Tarantino's film seems to have a special ring to it. Like his previous works Pulp Fiction (the car ride with Jackson and Travolta riding to make a hit talking about what a quarter pounder is called in Europe) and Reservoir Dogs (when all of them are talking at the diner table about the rights of giving a tip to a waitress) we get the same style of dialogue in those films as we do here, on the same level of greatness. I loved listening to the smart dialogue in Death Proof because it makes us realize who are characters really are. QT also shows us his obsession with feet! In the beginning of his movie it opens with Jungle Julia's (Sydney Tamiia Poiter) feet dangling out the window of her friends car. Then later on one of the girls brings up a "foot massage." Echoes of Pulp Fiction. Tarantino also expresses his love of movies when he mentions classic films such as Vanishing Point and others. When the girls are at a restaurant we see an array of Italian movie posters, indicating his love for cinema.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was when the screen would say "REEL MISSING." That only happening when some sex was going to happen and they would tease us with a little sample or some sexy talk, they should've gone the entire way with that. They showed us heads exploding off, so what's wrong with giving us a little hot action or a nice lap dance!

This whole "Grindhouse" feel works. Each movie looks very vintage and worn out. Also, I loved how in Death Proof they kept redoing scenes, very innovative. Kudos to everybody in these two films because some or most played parts in both movies including Tarantino. Grindhouse brings out the children in Tarantino and Rodriguez, they dreamed of making a one of a kind movie like this.

These are the people’s stories that high schools and colleges should be teaching not just to history majors but to all students. This is a story that has to get the attention that it deserves because there’s meaning to it and it’s such a powerful film.

It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (Algeria) at last years Oscars. And it won the Best Ensemble Cast at last years Cannes Film Festival. Rightly so! The movie mainly follows five French Army men. Each of them have their own troubles. Taking place during WWII in parts of Italy, France, and Tolstoy. This movie has deep meaning and a powerful result.

“Indigenes”, meaning Natives, is what this movie is all about. Several hundred North African soldiers gathered their pride and what they felt was right, to go join the French Army run by Sgt. Martinez (Bernard Blancan) and help liberate France from the Germans. Leaving behind their loved ones for a good cause and to make their own poverty stricken lives better. The guts that these men possess is overwhelming. As the group of soldiers come back to France after winning a little battle, one of the North African Arabian soldiers Said (Jamel Debbouze) tells a lovely woman who is at the parade of their arrival: “I never even seen France before and I’m fighting for it.”

The natives that joined the French Army get treated like animals and slaves. The French and the natives don’t get along and that leads to arguments then fights. Even though these men are fighting for the same country for the same reason and against the same enemy it’s hard to see eye to eye. This subject is something no other war movie ever tried to capture.

During a lunch break one of the natives tries to get a tomato and the server will not serve any of them a tomato while the next person in line, a French men, gets a juicy tomato. This leads to a speech given by one of the natives about how they deserve equal quality because they are all ONE and the Captain coming down to straighten the situation out.

Said is a man struggling to fit in with the rest of the Army. The Sgt. Though has something special for him and Said plays as his “gopher.” It grows on him and when the Sgt. Tells him he has been upgraded to a Private (the Sgt. Is joking) but Said turns down the offer and prefers “gopher” to Private. The relationship’s that form over this war begin to set in.

Messaoud (Roschdy Zem) is obsessed with a beautiful French woman named Irene (Aurelie Eltvedt). He has a tattoo around his neck that translates to “unlucky” but he tells her he isn’t now because he found her. As he leaves her to go back and fight he never gets a letter in return from her. He’s heartbroken. He’s written ten times and the French mail carriers read the letter and stamp “ceased” on it. They don’t want a beautiful French woman with an Algerian soldier.

Yassir (Samy Naceri) has a wounded brother that he’s looking after the entire way of their journey through war. They enter church’s and his brother wants to take the collections of the church. He stops him. Dead German soldiers get their pockets picked by these two when they are told that they shouldn’t. They’re poor and that’s why they joined this war. Even though, when they were children, the French Army killed their entire family. They put that behind and join the army that killed their family.

Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila), a corporal, yearns to be sergeant on day. His day will come sooner than he thinks. This man follows his heart and stands up for things that he believes is wrong: the tomato scene. Higher officers want soldiers who obey their every order but Abdelkader does just the opposite. The smartest and most commanding of his regiment.

Rachid Bouchareb directs with such detail. There’s a shot that takes us to a birds eye view and we see the French army amongst the mountains and they look like ants in an ant farm. The final twenty minutes is also captivating and with the music playing it makes it more dramatic. It takes place in the rural village of Alsace where our four North African soldiers find themselves against devastating odds. All that stops as the French Army comes to rescue them and the four realize, whether they die or not, that they know that they did the right thing on joining and helping France liberate their country.