Peacemaker (1990/II)

User Rating:

(awaiting 5 votes)

Director:

Jonathan Sanger

Writers:

Jana Sue Memel (screenplay)
Jonathan Sanger (screenplay)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Cast

Lukas Haas	...	Davy Cooper
Jeffrey DeMunn	...	Daniel Cooper
Alan Rosenberg	...	David Cooper
Matthew Brooks	...	Brian Cooper
Marg Helgenberger	...	Mrs. Cooper
Chris Demetral	...	Paulie
Jacob Kenner	...	Charlie
Justin M. Rice	...	Eddie (as Justin Rice)
Myra Turley	...	Miss Rice
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert N. Skir	...	Businessman on Plane

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Chanticleer Films

Movie Connections:

References Rambo III (1988)

Soundtrack:

Pipes of Peace

Worthy but spelling it all out in a smug fashion really damaged the film (spoilers)

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A young boy gets angry because his model kits for tanks and planes get all mixed up before he gets a chance to make them. However his father steps him to help him with the models and, while relating a story about his own father from his childhood, tries to teach the boy a valuable lesson.

Flashing back to the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, this film sets out to explain that weapons are bad and that the world would be a better place without them. OK, so this isn't that clever a message even if it a worthy one. It could have been done in a clever way though – because the "memories" telling of the story means that we see it with the eyes of a child and the film would have been great if it could have subtly delivered the emotional impact of the childhood experiences. However the film fails to do this because it really forces its message in such a way as to make me assume that Sanger must have had zero faith in the audience to get the point. Even when the actions on screen make the anti-weapon message clear, we still have to suffer the voice-over explaining the actions to us.

This really put me off and rather being clever and wellcrafted, it came over as heavy-handed and lacking any subtly at all. It doesn't help that the guy playing the grownup kid is very smug in his delivery and that the film's message is so very simple and black/white about the issue – I applaud the opinion but not the presentation of the issue. A young Haas is good as the young boy impacted by what he has seen.

Overall this could have been a clever and interesting short film but, although worthy, it is far too simplistic and smug to have any value. Too much of a hammer approach, it is OK but nothing more than that and not really worth the effort you'll need to put in to find it nowadays.