HotToastyRag

If you like this genre, you will not want to miss A Town Like Alice. It's very similar to Claudette Colbert's classic Three Came Home, but it's told from a British perspective. The lead is young, beautiful Virginia McKenna, and she's quickly rounded up and sent to a women's POW camp at the start of WWII. She quickly makes friends with a host of women, different in background and temperament (why does anyone think it's a good idea to sass one's captor?), and just when you think they're going to sit back and knit in a safe little hut throughout the remainder of the movie, things change. . . The women are forced to march through miles and miles of unruly and unfamiliar terrain until the Japanese army can find a place or figure out what else to do with them.

There really isn't a reason to skip this movie. Virginia does a wonderful job, and it's an inspiring yet harrowing story. Most war movies are men-focused (understandably) and it's an interesting change of pace to see what happened to some women during WWII. Since it was made in 1956, it isn't that gruesome by modern standards, but it got the point across. These women had to march through Hell, literally, and hope they lived to see the end of the war.

Why on Earth did Glenda Jackson win an Academy Award for Sunday Bloody Sunday? I've watched the movie twice and I can't see any acting. I understand her award for Touch of Class. It was a very funny, charming movie, and she had perfect comic timing. Sometimes we just have to reward cute performances. But this movie? It's an absolute waste of time, the audience's and everyone involved. Glenda is involved in a relationship with a younger man, Murray Head. Murray is also in a relationship with an older man, Peter Finch. Glenda and Peter know Murray is playing both fields, but rather than confront him, each other, or insist Murray gain some maturity and responsibility, they just turn a blind eye because they're afraid Murray will break up with them. Am I missing something? Is this supposed to be deep? Are we supposed to feel sorry for anyone?

Obviously, this "romance" left me cold. I thought it was cheap and pointless. Al Pacino famously refused to film a gay kiss scene during 1975's Dog Day Afternoon because he knew all anyone would ever remember about the film was, "Ooo! Al Pacino kissed a man!" All anyone ever remembers about Sunday Bloody Sunday is, "Ooo! Peter Finch kissed a man!" He's worth more than that in my book.

The basic structure of The Red Tent is so interesting, I'd love to watch it again. However, there are some scenes that are too upsetting, so I might change my mind. I don't need to see people starving to death, killing and eating a polar bear to stay alive. I don't need to see a man curl up in the snow, waiting to die. If you can handle this gritty survival drama, you're a better man than I.

It starts with Peter Finch as an old man, and as he's alone with his memories, those memories come to life. One by one, the ghosts from his past enter his living room and join in his conversation. To complete the illusion, Peter himself turns back into a young man and remembers what happened. Peter, Hardy Kruger, and Claudia Cardinale relive the 1928 Arctic exploration, and all the things that went wrong. From botched landings, cracked glaciers, death, starvation, isolation, and human nature turning on one another, there are so many horrors the explorers live through (or do they?) Included high on the cast list, Sean Connery is hardly in the movie, so if you're watching it for him, you might be disappointed. This is for folks who love explorer flicks, or the other two movies Peter Finch made where he got stranded somewhere he didn't intend. Granted, this movie is nothing like Lost Horizon, but that's why I watched it!

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. The botched landing might make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to violence against animals, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.