Friday Minute
No. 161 | September 17, 2010

It Was a Very Good Year … 1957

Our theme this week
Notable films of 1957

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Sweet Smell of Success
Tuesday         —   The Bridge on the River Kwai
Wednesday    —   12 Angry Men
Thursday        —   Wild Strawberries

Paths of Glory

I was ten when I first saw 2001:  A Space Odyssey, and I left the theater that afternoon with a new idea about what movies were all about.  I followed Stanley Kubrick’s career from then on.  Eventually, I caught up with his earlier films, but somehow I made it into my thirties before ever getting to Paths of Glory.  I shouldn’t have waited.  It’s one of his best.

Paths of Glory is a devastating portrayal of the French army during World War I.  For two years, the French and Germans have been engaged in a standoff, neither side advancing, neither retreating, locked down in the trenches.  The losses are measured in the hundreds of thousands.  Orders come down from above for the French soldiers to take the Anthill, a position held by the Germans.  It’s a suicidal mission, and when it’s not successful, General Mireau (George Macready) lays blame with the soldiers for their failure to muster sufficient effort.  Three men are court-martialed for cowardice.  Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) attempts to present a defense, but as the saying goes, military justice is an oxymoron.  The men are convicted and sentenced to die.

Kubrick made an antiwar film, but his target was more than just the military.  Paths of Glory is a parable for the battle between class divisions in society.  The general’s headquarters is a palatial estate, where at night grand balls are held.  It’s safely away from the fighting, where soldiers duck in the trenches as bombs blast a few yards away.  The officers fret over their petty careers, the men pay with their lives.  The enemy is said to be the Germans, but they’re never once seen on the screen.  As Orwell said in Nineteen Eighty-Four, “The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.”  In Paths of Glory, General Mireau orders strikes against his own troops.  As General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou), Mireau’s superior, explains later to Dax, “One way to maintain discipline is to shoot a man now and then.”  That’s bluntly put, but the point is made.

It’s been said that all war films—even antiwar films—tend to glorify combat.  I never get that sense here.  The action is well-staged—it’s extraordinary, really—but there’s no appeal to it.  Kubrick makes his point and leaves no doubt.  War is hell, combat is frightening, life is not fair, and death is painful.

Paths of Glory is one of the great films of 1957, or any other year.  The writing is superb, with Kubrick and others adapting a 1930s novel by Humphrey Cobb.  The editing and sequencing of the the action is very effective, and there are many memorable scenes.  I’m especially fond of several, including one with the two generals discussing plans for the operation;  they speak in coded language, careful not to be too coarse about putting their careers over the lives of their men.  The acting is first-rate too, with Douglas, who carries much of the movie, at his best.  As Dax, the one officer with any decency, he finally lets his rage fly without concern for the consequences, and it’s a cathartic moment; he can’t change the gross injustice that’s occurred, but it gives the audience some relief to know that he, at least, is clear with the truth and will not be corrupted.

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Paths of Glory (1957)
Stanley Kubrick, director
Humphrey Cobb (novel); Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson (screenplay); writers
Georg Krause, cinematographer
Trailer

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Paths of Glory (1957)
Battle Scene

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Quote of note
Paris:  See that cockroach?  Tomorrow morning, we’ll be dead and it’ll be alive.  It’ll have more contact with my wife and child than I will.  I’ll be nothing, and it’ll be alive.
Ferol [he smashes the cockroach]:  Now you got the edge on him.
—Corporal Philippe Paris (Ralph Meeker), Private Maurice Ferol (Timothy Carey), Paths of Glory (1957)

…58…59…60.

Tuesday Minute
No. 158 | September 14, 2010

It Was a Very Good Year … 1957

Our theme this week
Notable films of 1957

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Sweet Smell of Success

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Pierre Boulle published the novel on which the movie was based in 1952, and when Academy Awards were handed out in 1958, Boulle won for best adapted screenplay, one of seven awarded to the film, including Best Picture.  What’s notable about Boulle’s Oscar is that he was a Frenchman who spoke French, not English.  The screenplay was in fact written by two Americans, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, who were part of the Hollywood blacklist and not eligible to get screen credit during the time.  In 1984, the Academy corrected the record, awarding Oscars properly, but posthumously, to Foreman and Wilson.

The film was a huge success, both at the box office and with critics.  Director David Lean earned the first of two Academy Awards he won in his long and distinguished career.  Lean had a special talent for making epic films that reeked of respectability, and were very good too.  That’s not as easy as it sounds.  (His earlier, shorter films were very good too, but his epics seem to have been a greater influence on later generations of directors, who could more easily emulate the length of his pictures than their quality.)  I wasn’t around when The Bridge on the River Kwai came out, but as I remember hearing about it while growing up, it was about as esteemed as any film ever made, especially for the World War II generation.  I saw it again not too long ago, and though it’s no doubt set in a time and place far different from our world today, the film stands up.

The largely fictionalized story centers around British soldiers at a prison camp in Southeast Asia.  The Japanese commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), orders them to work on construction of a bridge to help the Japanese war effort.  The British leader, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), objects to Saito’s treatment of his officers, citing the Geneva Conventions.  Two parallel storylines follow.  One is the interplay of Saito and Nicholson, and the effort to get the bridge built.  The other involves an American, Shears (William Holden), who escapes from the camp but then is enlisted by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) for a mission to blow up the bridge.

The film packs a lot into its 161-minute running time.  We see Nicholson’s principled and admirable resistance, and also the madness of his obsession to build the bridge.  We see Saito’s cool determination, and his private humiliation as he fights desperately with thoughts of suicide.  We see Shears’s lack of concern about anyone but himself, and finally his selfless heroism.  The characters are easy to peg as British, Japanese, and American, but they’re not painted with too broad a brush.  Their treatment is very much as complicated individuals struggling to make the best of difficult circumstances.

The American star, Holden, got top billing, though the film was a British production.  Yet in 1997 the movie was selected for the U.S. National Film Registry.

Anyone who sees the The Bridge on the River Kwai will never forget the tune whistled by the British soldiers, “The Colonel Bogey March.”  It became a hit for Mitch Miller, but it was composed by a British bandmaster, F.J. Ricketts, during World War I and adapted various times in later years.  One parody sung during WWII had the title “Hilter Has Only Got One Ball.”  The tune, and film, had special resonance for British audiences who may have remembered that version.

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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
David Lean, director
Pierre Boulle (novel); Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman (screenplay, originally not credited), writers
Jack Hildyard, cinematographer
Trailer

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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Arrival of the British at Camp 16

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Quote of note
“I’ve been thinking.  Tomorrow it will be twenty-eight years to the day that I’ve been in the service.  Twenty-eight years in peace and war.  I don’t suppose I’ve been at home more than ten months in all that time.  Still, it’s been a good life.  I loved India.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  But there are times when suddenly you realize you’re nearer the end than the beginning.  And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total of your life represents.  What difference your being there at any time made to anything.  Hardly made any difference at all, really, particularly in comparison with other men’s careers.  I don’t know whether that kind of thinking’s very healthy, but I must admit I’ve had some thoughts on those lines from time to time.”
—Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

…58…59…60.

Thursday Minute
No. 155 | September 9, 2010

Once Is Enough

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Tuesday         —   Gary Oldman:  Nil by Mouth (1997)
Wednesday    —   Morgan Freeman:  Bopha! (1993)

Frank Sinatra:  None But the Brave (1965)

“Nobody Ever Wins.”  Those words, rather than “The End,” appear just before the end credits.  It’s a war film with a message we never seem to learn.

It’s an anti-war film, and not one you’d expect to find from the middle of the 1960s.  Hardly the work of a young radical looking to make a point about the country’s involvement in Vietnam (Kent State, in fact, was still a few years off), None But the Brave is a story about World War II, directed by a guy from the generation who fought it. 

The action takes place on a small island in the Solomons.  A platoon of Japanese soldiers is stranded with no contact to the outside world.  Then a plane carrying American soldiers crashes nearby.   As the two sides learn of each other’s existence, they first have a skirmish, destroying a boat that may have saved them, then begin to cooperate, calling a truce.  The armistice offers an environment for survival.  It lasts only until the Americans establish radio communications with the Navy.  With help on the way, the Americans extend the Japanese the chance to surrender—an offer that’s refused.  Hostilities arise and after a final gun battle the point of the movie—the pointlessness of war—is vividly clear.

Frank Sinatra’s company made the film for Warner Bros, a co-production with Tokyo-based Toho Studios.  It was Sinatra’s only time in the director’s chair (though he had a hands-on role in making several other films without taking director’s credit).  Sinatra starred as well, as a pharmacist with the American platoon.  It’s hardly the most inspired of his performances—he could be quite good at times, though not here.  Among the other actors, the one that got the most attention was Sinatra’s son-in-law, singer Tommy Sands, who was panned for his over-the-top performance.  (Sands was married briefly to Nancy Sinatra and after the divorce, Frank was famously reported to have ruined his career.)

The production was not especially notable, effective at times, cheesy in parts.  What makes the film worth watching is the story, a timeless tale with some crisp writing.  None But the Brave might in fact be a good candidate for a remake.  Hollywood is obsessed with telling the same stories over and over.  Here’s one worth seeing again, where a new, updated production could actually offer an improvement.

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None But the Brave (1965)
Frank Sinatra, director
John Twist, Katsuya Susaki (screenplay), writers
Trailer

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Quote of note
Craddock:  Lieutenant Kuroki.  Our communications have been restored.  One of our destroyers is on her way to remove us from this island.  Captain Dennis has extended me permission to offer you terms.
Kuroki:  Surrender?
Craddock:  I’ll see you and your men receive good treatment.
Kuroki:  Prisoners of war?  No, thank you.  As you can see, I am moving my camp.
Craddock:  Yes, we looked for you there.
Kuroki:  That position was no longer defensible, since you know it so well.
Craddock:  We wouldn’t attack you, lieutenant.
Kuroki:  I would!  The truce is ended.  I belong to the Japanese army.  Until my country advises otherwise, I remain at war.
—Lieutenant Kuroki (Tatsuya Mihashi), Corporal Craddock (Sammy Jackson), None But the Brave (1965)

…58…59…60.

Monday Minute
Entr’acte | August 30, 2010

“What a Wonderful World”

from Good Morning, Vietnam

One more week of musical selections before we return to regular features.  This time around, a variety of songs that make for some memorable movie moments.

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Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Barry Levinson, director
“What a Wonderful World”
Bob Thiele, George David Weiss, songwriters
Louis Armstrong, singer

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…58…59…60.

Thursday Minute
No. 105 | May 27, 2010

Shades of Gray

Our theme this week
Black-and-white movies since 1990

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
Tuesday         —   Clerks (1994)
Wednesday    —   Ed Wood (1994)

The Good German (2006)

Director of Photography:  Steven Soderbergh (as Peter Andrews)

Watching The Good German made me wonder what Steven Soderbergh did to offend the critics.  Did he forget to send them Christmas cards?  Did he shoot spitballs at them from the back of the theater?  Did he say something nasty about their mothers?

Surely he did something egregious to account for the reaction to his film.  The critical response doesn’t seem entirely rational.  I hesitate to use the word savage, but after reading another review just now, I’d say it might be the right word for describing the critical war party that was out to get the director when The Good German came out.  “Off with his head!” is the approximate gist of many reviews, though as far as I can tell, those exact words didn’t make it into print.  (It might have made for an engaging ad campaign.)

I won’t say that The Good German is an unqualified success.  I’m not sure it’s even a qualified success.  But I’d say at the very least it’s an interesting misfire, and probably even better than that.  I’ve only seen the film a couple of times—once when it was first released, once recently—and I may need another viewing before making any firm assessments.  Some films are like that.  This one seems to be.

Set in 1945, in the aftermath of the Allied victory, The Good German follows Jake Geismer (George Clooney), a war correspondent (for The New Republic, no less), as he returns to Berlin to search for, among other things, his former lover, Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett).  Lena’s husband, Emil (Christian Oliver), is a mysterious figure and the “good German” of the title.  Having been involved with the German rocket program during the war, Emil is a much-wanted man, sought by the Americans, the Soviets, and the British, all with their own motives.  The war was hell, and even for those who made it through, there was a price paid for survival, secrets they’d rather not divulge.  The end of the war is no end to the moral compromise, and in Soderbergh’s universe, there is not the usual clear line between the good guys and the bad guys.  At least you can’t tell by the uniform.

The Good German is an adaptation of the 2001 novel by Joseph Kanon.  The film version departs from the book, and Soderbergh borrows freely from films of the ’40s for story material, and more.  One obvious influence is Casablanca, and perhaps this is where Soderbergh gets himself into hot water with the critics.  It’s an unwise comparison to draw for any film, but more than that, the borrowing overshadows what’s onscreen, especially the final scene with the plane waiting at the airstrip, and it does get in the way of The Good German telling its own story.  The divided-city milieu of The Third Man is also evident, as are echoes from Chinatown, though that isn’t a war film or in black-and-white.

Soderbergh has had an interesting career, hopping between entertainments and experiments.  The Good German qualifies as one of his experimental works, though essentially it’s a genre film, an historical spy story/murder mystery, with a recognizable narrative.  Soderbergh made a 1940s film in the 21st century.  He did mimic the technology of the early era, at least, though the sensibility—not to mention the language and subject matter (the Hays Office would have had a field day with this one)—is more appropriate of our time.

The initial response was hardly receptive, though I do think it’s worth another view.  The final word (as always) has yet to be written.

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The Good German and Casablanca
Homage, Theft, or Just Wishful Thinking?  Discuss.

 

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The Good German (2006)
Steven Soderbergh, director, director of photography
Trailer

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The Good German (2006)
Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire

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Quote of Note
“You can say what you want about the war, but the war was the best thing that ever happened to me.  Because when you have money, then, for the first time in your life, you understand it, what money does for you.  Where before all you understood was not having it? Money allows you to be who you truly are.”
—Patrick Tully (Tobey Maguire), The Good German (2006)

…58…59…60