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robertalexanderlindsey
Reviews
Titanic at 100: Mystery Solved (2012)
Titanic and Olympic were not switched around!
Some people are just idiots... YEAH, how would they somehow be able to switch the ships around in Belfast without it being noticed by at least SOMEONE, even though the moment in which the Olympic arrived at Belfast for repairs after her collision were fully recorded? And you would at least THINK that one of the many thousands of shipyard workers in Belfast would have spoken of it later, or recorded it in his private journal. And if the two ships were switched around for insurance reasons, then wouldn't the White Star Line attempt to announce to it's workers in Belfast that it was SECRET? And if it was secret, then why is there so much photographic material collected from the entire 'fitting out' process? And someone with adult thought-processing would at least care enough to realize that it would have taken, many, MANY more months to actually switch the ships around than it would have to repair the gashes made by the H.M.S. Hawke in the Olympic's hull, and it would have been far costlier.
Anybody with at least half a brain can tell that the two ships WERE NOT SWITCHED.... Distinctive structural features... The fact that the Titanic had an extra restaurant and staterooms from day one, while the Olympic didn't... The fact that Titanic was Yard #401, while the Olympic was #400. The more observant experts among us would know that #401 is still stamped on parts of the wreck site of Titanic, including her starboard propeller. Do you think that White Star would actually go to the trouble to switch such an insignificant thing around?
These idiots who actually believe that the two ships were switched around deserve to have a nice slap in the face.
S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
Still better than Cameron's.
O.K., so it might be a tad worse than some other Titanic films, and 'A Night to Remember' may be to 'S.O.S. Titanic' what '2001: A Space Odyssey' is to 'Star Wars: Attack of the Clones'. But remember how badly directed James Cameron's 1997 'Titanic' was, and bear in mind how badly 'Raise the Titanic' flopped at the box office in 1980. What I'm trying to say is, look at the better things attributed to 'S.O.S Titanic', like David Warner's awesome performance as schoolteacher Lawrence Beesley, who, in 1912, wrote the book 'The Loss of the S.S. Titanic', which stands as one of the most authentic and realistic eyewitness accounts ever written about any disaster. Or how about Howard Blake's wonderful soundtrack, or Cloris Leachman, or Ian Holm as White Star Line president J. Bruce Ismay. And even better, the fact that the original 1979 Television version is superior to the edited theatrical release that many of you have seen. It may not be the best, but 'S.O.S. Titanic' is second only to 'A Night to Remember' when it comes to retelling the story of history's most famous ship.
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
"Torrific! Toriffic! Torrific!" (And Realistic, Too!)
For someone who has studied the events that took place at Pearl Harbor in the December of 1941 in detail for years, and for someone whose great uncle partook and survived those events, the 1970 film 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' is literally like looking through a window into history itself. Dim-witted viewers may prefer Michael Bay's awfully written and poorly directed chick-flicked version of the story from 2001, which is a travesty and an insult to those who were there. I'm fine with that. If they want to watch Michael Bay's 'Pearl Harbor' while they breast feed their three year olds and release their pet pythons into the Everglades, I'm perfectly cool. But to those who prefer thoughtful films with realistic action, careful direction, and scenarios that make sense, comes an underrated masterpiece. That underrated masterpiece is 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'. Not only does it successfully tell the true story of Pearl Harbor in a documentary-style fashion while managing to keep the audience interested, but it also succeeds as a film where 'Pearl Harbor' does not. 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' has the most realistic battle sequences ever filmed, the greatest special effects in a war film, the greatest movie sets ever built (Which include an entire recreation of the Japanese Battleship Nagato, an entire section of the USS Arizona's stern, and the flight deck and bridge of the Carrier Akagi, meticulously accurate, although the bridge is on the starboard side rather than port as it was in real life), the greatest sound effects in a war film other than those of 'Platoon'... Need I go on?
In short, it is a spectacular and realistic film that sticks fully to the facts, rather than speculation or fiction, or romantic nonsense like Bay's film does. It tells the TRUE STORY of Pearl Harbor... The story of the Japanese military leaders and admirals who carefully plotted the attack out, the generals, admirals and officials on the American side who failed to heed the warnings and allowed it to happen, to the courageous and determined Japanese airmen who carried it out, to the equally as courageous and determined American soldiers and sailors on the burning airfields and sinking ships who tried to repulse it.
It does have some very minor inaccuracies, like the wing shapes and markings of the A6M Zeros, or the model of the B17s being flown by the American airmen coming in from the mainland, whom the Japanese were tragically mistaken for by the radar boys at Opana Point. It also shows sailors evacuating the USS Navada via rope ladders or simply jumping, which never happened. It also shows the destroyer USS Ward as a modern, post-1945 vessel, rather than the antiquated, WWI-era four-funneled destroyer she actually was. And, less noticeably, the Japanese Carrier Akagi's bridge is on the starboard side, rather than to port, as it was in real life. But this doesn't matter, since the film's film's portrayal of life aboard a Japanese Carrier, as well as the technical details involved, are still paramount.
But, other than these few, minor glitches, everything else in 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' is at least 99% accurate, from the way the USS Arizona looked when she exploded, to the moment in which Adm. Husband Kimmel (played wonderfully by Martin Balsam), said "It would have been merciful had it killed me," when a spent round of ammunition smashed through the window of his headquarters and scarred his jacket.
No film has ever shown the suffering and terror experienced by those who were there better than this film, from the burning corpses strewn across the decks of the Nevada to the horrific sight of the Arizona being consumed in an explosion that killed more than a thousand men in an instant. When watching the film, you can almost smell the burning fuel and feel the concussion of the bomb-hits. You can feel the jubilation of Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida in his B5N High-Level Bomber, high above the jagged Hawaiian hills, when he sees the U.S. fleet totally asleep and waiting for his flight to sink it, and the dismay Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto must have felt when he found out that his primary targets, the U.S. carriers Enterprise and Lexington, were out on a training exercise and out of the range of his own fleet.
'Tora! Tora! Tora!' is a realistic, terrifying, and fascinating film that every American should see, and a fine tribute to the brave few, on both sides, who were at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, the morning in which America's hopes for peace in the Pacific capsized like the USS Oklahoma.
Samson og Sally (1984)
The Greatest Animated Movie of All Time
I was barely six years old when my mother found an old VHS copy of what seemed to be a cute little kid's cartoon in the local library in our neighborhood. 'Samson & Sally' certainly does have a cover that shows it to be a light-hearted cartoon; a pink sky, a shallow sea, cartoony walruses with musical instruments, a smiling pink octopus... It goes on. It seems almost like cotton candy material.
The truth is very different. Watching 'Samson & Sally' is more like being plunged into a dark, freezing ocean during a shipwreck at night than being tipped off a pool floatie at the beach. It is a graphic, dark commentary about the cruelties of the whaling industry, about burning oil-slicks and underwater cities, about shipwrecks and killer whales, about death and life. It is deep, thoughtful, and surreal. So surreal, in fact, that it is almost like a Stanley Kubrick film, but animated, and from the perspective of marine life.
'Samson & Sally' is the story of two whales, whose names are obviously those in the title! Samson is a white whale who has no real friends, boasts about himself, and doesn't eat octopuses. I can't blame him for any of these, especially the octopus issue, since he is young. As I've mentioned earlier, the VHS cover features a smiling pink octopus. In the film, though, octopuses are portrayed as toothy, nasty buggers with some rather unfavorable attributes, such as a tendency to grab onto other unfortunate creatures, which happens twice to poor Samson. From the beginning of the film, he is also teased by a seagull, one of the film's major protagonists and it's major source source of humor (which succeeds.) Samson's mother tells him stories of Moby Dick, the great white whale who had, long ago, protected whales from death at the hands of mankind. Apparently, according to legend, Moby Dick will come back once again to protect whales, and Samson takes this aspect of the story to heart.
Sally is a girl whale whose mother was killed and whose pod was ravaged by 'Steel Beasts', which is what whales call whaling vessels, and ships in general. She meets Samson and his mother as she is hiding near the wreck of a 'Steel Beast'. She is adopted by Samson's pod, and soon, the two are the best of friends. Unfortunately, the two find out rather painfully that there is no such thing as safety in their world. They are attacked by a pair of orcas and forced to hide within the shipwreck where they had met. The attack, however, is repulsed by Samson's mother, who smashes the orcas with a blow of her tail (the crumpled paper noise that is made when the orcas are smashed still makes my stomach swim after all these years.) Later on, they find themselves within the sights of a 'Steel Beast's' harpoon gun. The Seagull saves their lives when he decides to distract the ship's officer at the harpoon gun in a truly hilarious scene. Unfortunately, this victory is soon overshadowed by the tragic death of one of Samson's pod-mates, who suffocates and drowns in an oil slick the pod is later forced to traverse when the 'Steel Beast' bears down on them. This tragedy strengthens Samson's wish that Moby Dick would come back to help them. Soon after, Samson & Sally are truly in love, and the scenes of romance are truly heartfelt. But they face yet another tragedy when Samson's mother sacrifices her life to save him from a horrific death at the hands of the whalers. Her loss wrecks Samson, who finally decides to go on a quest to find Moby Dick...
I'm not going to describe anything else. The final sequence of the film should be a surprise to those who see it.
I would like to tell you that this film does have a BLAM (Big Lipped Alligator Moment, that is, a random musical number that comes out of nowhere,) just about 20 minutes on in the film, that features two walruses who sing in scat-gibberish and dance around amidst the sunken wrecks of several vessels, including the Titanic. But it's very short, thankfully, and actually very funny.
For an animated feature made in the mid-1980s, 'Samson & Sally' is very modern indeed, although the animation might be considered primitive by today's standards. The soundtrack, though, is perhaps the greatest in film history. Although the main theme is very 80's, the rest is almost indescribably beautiful, perfectly fitted with the film's dark theme. One of the greatest pieces, perhaps, is the romantic theme that plays twice in the film. The rest is just as beautiful, and the film's moments of suspense are perfectly scored with some edgy, rough, and very synthesized music that fits in well with the decade.
The voice acting the the American/English dub released by Just For Kids Entertainment in 1991 and 1995 is alright, but there are some odd moments. For the first 7 minutes of the film, for instance, Samson's mother has a male voice. The original Danish version from 1984 is great, but the Swedish dub, released on the same day as the Danish, ranks at the top. The film was directed by Jannik Hastrup, a very popular director of European animated movies, such as the hugely successful 'Benny's Bakadar' ('Benny's Bathtub') in 1971, 'Subway to Paradise' in 1987, and 'War of the Birds' 1990. But his most popular film will always be 'Samson & Sally'.
I'm almost 16 now, and the film has lost none of it's wonder and power. If I were to be stuck on a deserted island out in the middle of nowhere and allowed to choose only one film to watch, my choice would always be 'Samson & Sally'.
The Iron Triangle (1989)
At last, more than one side!
'The Iron Triangle' may not be the best or most realistic Vietnam movie, and it may not have the best acting, but it certainly has an edge over some other 'Nam films made in 1989, like 'The Siege of Firebase Gloria', or even 'Born on the Fourth of July', directed by Oliver Stone, the man who brought us the brilliant film 'Platoon' three years earlier, which kicked off the Vietnam craze that brought us the equally-as-powerful, ultra-realistic 'Hamburger Hill', and Stanley Kubrick's surrealistic 'Full Metal Jacket.'
'The Iron Triangle' is different than any of these films, because it not only gives us a perspective from the U.S. point of view, but also from Mr. Charles himself. Most Vietnam films portray Charlie as sort of a ghostly apparition, a specter lurking in the depths of the jungle, waiting to ambush the protagonist's platoon at any moment. The only times we ever really get to see Mr. Charlie in these films are a few fleeting glimpses of pith-helmeted ghosts dashing thru the bushes and vanishing into thin-air after unleashing a few AK-47 bursts or tossing a few grenades. 'The Iron Triangle' tells it's story through the perspective of these elusive warriors. The main VC character is Private Ho, a young soldier who refuses to kill a captured American soldier who, when given the opportunity, doesn't finish him off. Later on, after the last engagement in a VC-run village, which results in an American victory (as usual), the same American soldier runs into Ho again in the jungle, badly maimed. In the final moments of the film, the American returns the favor and saves Ho's life.
For the first time, audiences got to see our Communist enemies face to face on screen for the first time, felt his pain, felt his victories and defeats, and saw that his struggles were equal to ours. Even though it may not be the best Vietnam movie, 'The Iron Triangle' is by far the most equal-minded, and is a must-see for anyone who wants to see Vietnam equally from two perspectives.
A Night to Remember (1958)
REALITY: Cold, Brutal, and Moving beyond Words...
THE GREATEST TITANIC FILM OF ALL TIME, and that's all I need to say. For those who have been obsessed with the Titanic for more than a decade, like me, or for those who want to know what really happened on the night of April 14-15, 1912, without having to watch pathetic love stories or listen to corny Celine Dion songs, 'A Night to Remember' is a film that absolutely must be seen, by everyone. It pays more attention to realism and the individual, fascinating true stories of those who were there, and looks very closely at the causes of the disaster, such as the reason for the infamous lack of lifeboats, the failure to deliver ice warnings to the bridge by the Marconi wireless operators, the fact that passengers actually REFUSED to enter the lifeboats and escape the ship until the very end, and the truly gruesome end that awaited the over 1500 passengers and crew who failed to leave the Titanic in time. For those who care about history and humanity, here is the TITANIC, the way it really happened, and the way it should always be remembered.