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Topic: What Have You Seen In DECEMBER?
Graham Watt
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O Brother, Where Art Thou?Directed By Joel Coen
Screenplay By Joel and Ethan Coen from Homer's Odyssey
Photography By Roger Deakins
Music By T-Bone BurnettMain Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson
Three escaped convicts embark on their own very personal odyssey, looking for buried treasure.
I liked this as an antidote to noisy shoot-em-up movies and syrupy love rubbish. I was just a wee bit disappointed though: it's wacky and off the wall, but it's not quite wacky and off the wall enough, maybe. It is quite fun to spot the Homer references (not Mr Simpson), but it seemed to me to lack something, maybe pace.
Carter Burwell did additional music, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if I can place it: the songs are to the fore. I've still got that song that George Clooney and the gang sing for the blind record producer in my head!
I'd recommend this, but only if you don't have to travel to see it.
posted 12-01-2000 02:41 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
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The Offence (GB, 1972)Directed by Sidney Lumet
Screenplay by John Hopkins, from his play
Photography by Gerry Fisher
Music by Harrison BirtwistleMain Cast: Sean Connery, Ian Bannen, Trevor Howard
This is damn near great. As a psychological study of a disturbed character it's riveting, the difference being that the disturbed character is not so much the suspected criminal but rather the policeman.
This reminded me of the underrated Clint Eastwood film Tightrope, where the line between good and evil is very blurred.
It's an actor's piece, and all equip themselves admirably, in fact Connery has never been so good (it was a great part), and the late great Ian Bannen is simply splendid (apart from an exaggerated footstomping moment).
It's mostly set in grubby interiors, but the exteriors show a terribly realistic 70s England which would not go down well with the Tourist Board.
Harrison Birtwistle did the score (very effective, though it's mostly electronic doodlings). He's apparently huge in contemperary British music.)
posted 12-01-2000 03:13 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 1 2000THE THIN RED LINE (US 1998) movie **1/2 score ***
Disappointingly longwinded interpretation of the taking of Guadalcanal during WWII, but it is superior to the rather silly SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, thanks largely to the stunning imagery and Zimmer’s effective, though for him rather simple, scoring. A starry cast performs adequately, but the movie’s really about style over substance.
posted 12-02-2000 03:44 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 2 2000THE PATRIOT (US 1998) movie *** score ***
Exciting action thriller for all the family. Steven Seagal plays a doctor/family man/chef/veterinary surgeon/cowboy/computer expert/martial arts champion/biochemist/and so on, whose uneventful and peaceful existence in the mountains is shattered by the appearance of a neo-nazi organisation that unleashes a deadly virus on the Montana community. Seagal resolves to develop an antidote in between slaughtering the invasion force. The best bit has Seagal skewering the head of one of the bad guys on the stem of a broken wine glass. Fine score, great photography, a snappy script, a well chosen cast and some neat action sequences – wonderful stuff. My only real complaint – it was all over just a little too quickly.
posted 12-02-2000 02:35 PM PT (US) Marian Schedenig
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I saw O Brother, Where Art Thou? last Monday, and while I didn't understand more than half of it (I watched it in English, and there was MUCH slang in the dialogues), I found it really good. I don't know what Carter Burwell can have contributed to the music, but I loved that song Graham mentioned.Great performances, too, especially by George Clooney.
posted 12-02-2000 06:11 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 3 2000LORD JIM (GB 1965) movie *** score ***1/2
Joseph Conrad’s novel about a British seaman and his adventures in the Far East is vividly brought to life by writer/director Richard Brooks. However, the movie sags badly during its middle-third, and is fatally undone. Nevertheless, there is much to praise. The almost purely location shooting helps to authentically recreate life in the British Empire’s Far East territories during the Victorian era, and the cast is phenomenal. Peter O’Toole is typically ingratiating in the title role, and is backed up well by the likes of Akim Tamiroff, Jack Hawkins, Curt Jurgens and Eli Wallach, but it is Paul Lukas and James Mason who shine in totally contrasting roles. The story involves O’Toole committing a terrible act of cowardice and then resolving to make up for his ignoble actions, which he does…in spades. Along the way we are treated to a fascinating insight into the art of torture and for once, the many philosophical asides are both welcome and compelling. Bronislau Kaper’s score is almost a classic. A great theme, at times very reminiscent of Goldsmith’s love theme from STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, comes into its own as LORD JIM nears its moving climax.
posted 12-03-2000 08:54 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 3 2000THE AVENGERS (US 1998) movie * score **1/2
An expensive shambles, THE AVENGERS is an obtusely scripted update of the classic British 60s series. John Steed and Emma Peel must save London from destruction at the hands of meteorological madman Sean Connery. The original Steed, Patrick McNee, has a brief role as an invisible British Secret Service record-keeper. Despite the poor casting and script, the movie is strangely watchable thanks to the high production values and some imaginative visuals. McNeely’s score is one of the better elements of the movie; though derivative, it has a waltz-like and lighter than air quality when it doesn’t sound like an unlikely cross between Barry and Goldsmith. Laurie Johnson’s famous original theme is heard a couple of times during the movie. Don’t pay to see this.
posted 12-03-2000 01:34 PM PT (US) Obi Jok Kenobi
Non-Standard Userer
Time for some more (includes some of November's films but I haven't got around to doing quick reviews yet!)Quatermass and the Pit 1967. American title - Five Million Years to Earth
The big screen version of the classic 50's BBC science fiction 6 part serial.
If you like "thinking" SF you will really enjoy this as I did. A definate classic.
Plot: In the London Underground, an alien ship is found buried whilst extending the Hobb's End station. Quatermass from the British Rocket Group is called in to investigate, where upon opening the ship alien bodies are found and the beginning of pshyic visions....
Some genuinely scary moments, including the police man being frightened within an abandonded building as well as the visions of the alien massacre. Great acting, with a very young Julian Glover having a prominant role.
Overall **** out of *****Moonraker 1979
James Bond goes to "Outer Space". Jumping on the SF bandwagon after the success of Star Wars the James Bond series hits it's all time sillyness! The stealing of the Moonraker rocket is very good although completely impossible. Some excellent model work though.
Most memorable scenes: As above, the stealing of the Moonraker rocket. The very surreal dog chase.
Music: John Barry returns again and pulls out the old 007 action cue for one more try. Quite a rich score with a wonderful instrumental version of the theme song.
Best line: "Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him." Drax.
Overall *** out of *****.For Your Eyes Only 1981.
Roger Moore's best film and performance as Bond. A harder edged Bond film after the sillyness of Moonraker, although the pre title was silly but a nice bit of fun.
Most memorable scenes: The pre title, great fun! The ski chase down the bob sled track. Bond and Melina being pulled along behind a boat over the coral reef.
Music: Bill Conti's take on the Bond theme is easy to listen to. A very disco orientated score hasn't aged the best but still quite good.
Best line: "Alright. Keep your hair on." Bond referring to Blofeld at the start.
Overall ***** out of *****Octopussy 1983
Roger Moore hits silly central again. Some great performances all round but Kamal Khan is probably one of the weaker villians of the series. An excellent blending of the short stories of Octopussy and The Property of a Lady.
Most memorable scenes: The plane chase at the start. The chase around Khan's palace with the elephants. The Yo Yo fight inside Octopussy's palace. The defusing of the Bomb in the American Air Base (very edge of the seat!)
Music: John Barry's score is lush and exoctic. The theme for Ocotpussy is wonderful. Action cues are some of Barry's best work.
Best line: "Don't worry. It's a company car." Vijay just as he does a wheelie in the 3 wheeled taxi.
Overall: *** out of *****A View to a Kill 1985
Roger Moore's final film is a hit and miss affair. Zorin's plan to destory Silicon Valley was a good idea but Christopher Walken's Over the Top acting kinda makes him a weak villian.
Most memorable scene: The ski chase at the start. When the song "California Girls" breaks out I laugh every time. The chase with the fire engine is good. The fight on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Patrick MacNee (Steed from the Avengers) makes a welcome appearance in the series. Some great laughs with him and Bond.
Music: John Barry's score is great. Some excellent action cues and a very nice instrumental verision of the theme.
Overall *** out of *****The Living Daylights 1987
Timothy Dalton's first Bond outing is one of the best films from the 80's. Dalton takes the role of Bond and makes it his own, giving him a harder edge that was lacking from Roger Moore's films. A densely layered plot expanding on the short story by Ian Fleming really gives the film top marks.
Most memorable scenes: The pre title at Gibraltar. The car chase in the snow and the following chase on board the cello! The attack on the russian air base.
Music: John Barry's final score mixes the traidtional orchestral with electronics. Wonderful!
Best line: "You've had your 8. Now have my 80!" Whitaker.
Overall: ***** out of *****Licence to Kill 1989
The first original Bond film (although The Spy Who Loved Me could be counted as the first.) Probably the hardest edged Bond film with Bond becoming a Rogue Agent on a trip of revenge for the brutal attack on Felix Leiter and the killing of Leiter's wife. Far more adult as the main villian is a Colombian Drug Lord. The beginning of the stronger women characters.
Most memorable scenes: Felix is eaten by a shark. Bond escaping on the sea plane. The showdown with Sanchez aboard the petrol tankers.
Music: Michael Kamen's score has a distinctive latin flavour. Great action cues and his version of the Bond theme is totally different with extra notes added in, giving it a nice touch.
Best line: Well, more like a best written line on a piece of paper! "He disagreed with something that ate him."
Overall: **** out of *****.GoldenEye 1995
After a big long break, Bond returns with style with Pierce Brosnan in the role. Some great one liners and a good villian brings the new Bond into the 21st Century, with the Cold War no longer having an affect on the plots, new villians had to come about.
Most memorable scenes: The bungee jump at the start. The tank chase through St Petersburg. The destruction of the Severnaya facility.
Music: Eric Serra should have NEVER done the music. Worst score ever, although some cues do stand out quite nicely.
Best line: "No no no. No more foreplay." Bond to Onatopp.
Overall *** out of *****.Tomorrow Never Dies 1997
Although it's a rather silly story with a media mogul starting the 3rd World War, it comes across as a great action film. Jonathan Pryce's acting as Elliot Carver is very over the top and great fun to watch. Dr Kaufman's scenes are hilarious. Wai Linn, Bond's opposite number within the Chinese Secret Service is a great addition to the series and I'm hoping she returns one day!
Most memorable scenes: The pre title sequence with the Arms Bazaar. The car chase in the hotel car park (I just LOVE the remote control car.) The bike chase in Saigon (or wherever it was!) The showdown aboard the Stealth Boat.
Music: David Arnold enters with great gusto and makes his mark on the Bond films.
Best line: Admiral Roebuck: With all due respect, M, I don't think you have the balls
for this.
M: Perhaps. The advantage is I don't have to think with them all the time.
Overall: **** out of *****The World is Not Enough 1999.
Bronsnan's best film yet. Excellent story with a great villian and a nice twist (won't spoil for those who haven't seen it!)
Most memorable scenes: The boat chase at the start. The fight aboard the submarine.
Music: David Arnold's score is more electorincally based but still quite workable. A good score to waken you in the morning!
Best line: "What's the point of living if you can't feel alive"
Overall: ***** out of *****.posted 12-03-2000 05:28 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 4 2000A CIVIL ACTION (US1998) movie *** score ***
‘Ambulance-chasing’ lawyer John Travolta bites off more than he can chew when he takes on two industry giants, represented in court by a wily Robert Duvall, over a toxic spillage that may have contributed to a leukaemia cluster in Woburn, Massachusetts. A CIVIL ACTION is a reasonably good movie that benefits from some nice directorial touches, a decent script and its fine cast. Apart from the leading players, John Lythgow, Stephen Fry, Kathy Bates, Kathleen Quinlan and Sydney Pollock offer useful support. Danny Elfman’s slick scoring is all one could ask for considering the restrictive nature of the movie, and at one point we are even treated to a rendition of Steiner’s A SUMMER PLACE (heard on Duvall’s tranny).
posted 12-04-2000 02:06 PM PT (US) Obi Jok Kenobi
Non-Standard Userer
Time for another!The Matrix 1999
A great action SF flic with Keanu Reeves showing that he still can't act. Australia's (woo hoo!) Hugo Weaving steals the show with his performance as Agent Smith. The Special Effects are what made this movie such a hit as the plot is pretty simple. The impressive visuals move this film from medicore to one of the best SF films of the 90's.
One of the 3 films on 1999 that dealt with alternate realities, the other 2 being The Thirteenth Floor and eXistenZ, this one was far more hyped up and actually lives up to the hype. All though I love the other 2 as they are "harder" SF than this film was.
My favourite scene has to be the Lobby Gunfight as it's just so spell binding.
Overall: **** out of *****posted 12-04-2000 04:16 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 5 2000DAMSEL IN DISTRESS (US 1937) movie *** score ***1/2
Endearing and often amusing musical/comedy/romance set in England, with Fred Astaire romancing Joan Fontaine. A great cast, including Reginald Gardiner, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Montagu Love enters into the spirit of the proceedings, and the outstanding choreography was awarded an Oscar. The highlight of the movie is Fred singing “Foggy Day in London Town”.
posted 12-05-2000 10:31 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 5 2000THE GAY DIVORCEE (US 1934) movie *** score ****
The humour may have dated somewhat, but the music hasn’t. Fred Astaire chases Ginger Rogers across London, and eventually wins her heart at the English seaside town of Brighton. Musical highlights include “Night and Day”, “The Continental” and many others, all under the watchful eye of Max Steiner. The humour is provided by such legendary Hollywood character actors as Eric Blore and Edward Everett Horton.
posted 12-05-2000 11:35 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 5 2000HOLY MAN (US 1998) movie **1/2 score ***1/2
An initially pleasant and fun movie entertainment sadly descends into tedious and sloppy sentimentality during the final half hour. Eddie Murphy stars as enigmatic ‘holy man’ G, who becomes a prime-time shopping channel phenomenon. Murphy is fine, as are Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston and Robert Loggia, but that final half-hour kills the movie stone dead. Silvestri’s accomplished scoring is a model of CMS-excellence. No need to rush out to see this.
posted 12-05-2000 01:43 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 5 2000APT PUPIL (US 1998) movie **1/2 score ****
A young student discovers an ageing nazi war criminal living in his suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood and forges a relationship with the old man that reawakens the German’s sadistic nature and induces the same in the boy - this leads to murder. APT PUPIL amounts to an interesting, if rather low-key character study. Sir Ian McKellen is excellent as the German, and there is a small but significant part for another fine British actor, Michael Byrne. However, perhaps the best part of the movie is John Ottman’s superb score – who said the film score was dead?
posted 12-05-2000 03:56 PM PT (US) Kross
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PROOF OF LIFE
Directed by: Who cares
Scored By: Who really Cares
With Crowe and Meg Ryan.WHAT A LET DOWN! Worst film I have seen in a long while. Do not let the trailer fool you, sure it looks like a decent action flick but all the action is in the last 10 minutes, and even then it is insipid. Meg Ryan has proven herself to be an overacting bad actress in this one. STAY AWAY!~
Score: */****
Film: */****The score fits the film
---------------------------------------------
+ KROSS +posted 12-06-2000 09:41 PM PT (US) Kross
Standard Userer
CHICKEN RUNI saw this one by renting it after all of this time. I was let down once again. All this praise over another kid film that was boring, lame, and unoriginal. Good animation, bad film.
posted 12-06-2000 09:42 PM PT (US) Marian Schedenig
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Aw, c'mon. Chicken Run was PERFECT! One of the best movies I've seen, in fact.NP: Ultimate Edition (John Williams)
posted 12-07-2000 09:00 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 6 2000THE COUNTRY GIRL (US 1954) movie ****1/2 score ***1/2
Bing Crosby gives one of the great performances in this powerful, witty, atmospheric and multi-faceted musical drama. Writer/director George Seaton won an Oscar for his adaptation of Clifford Odets’ play, as did Grace Kelly for her brilliant performance as the wife of drunken and fading singer Crosby, who attempts a comeback in director William Holden’s musical. All of the performances are superb, and are further enhanced by the extremely intelligent scripting and the movie’s rich atmosphere – this is one of those movies that benefits from the stark black & white photography; somehow the character in the actors’ faces is enhanced, and even those plumes of exhaled cigarette smoke seem to take on a life of their own. Bing gets to sing as well, but here it is not his wonderful voice that dominates the movie, but his moving Oscar-nominated performance.
posted 12-07-2000 09:10 AM PT (US) Graham Watt
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Trolosa (Sweden, 2000)Directed by Liv Ullmann
Screenplay by Ingmar Bergman
Photography by Jorgen PerssonMain Cast: Lena Endre, Erland Josephson, Krister Henriksson, Thomas Hanzon
A wife is unfaithful.
I saw this dubbed into Spanish, and the title was "Infiel". If the translation is maintained, you'll see it as "Unfaithful". Just so you know what film I'm on about.
So...this is more Bergman than Bergman! An austere soap opera! It's not funny and it's barely even enjoyable, but it is serious cinema (or at least it gave the impression of being so).
How one must suffer for other people's Art!
Depending on your mood, this could be sheer brilliance or sheer hell.
posted 12-07-2000 01:16 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
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The China Syndrome (USA, 1979)Directed by James Bridges
Screenplay by Mike Gray, T.A.Cook and James Bridges
Photography by James CrabeMain Cast: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas
A nuclear power plant nearly goes Chernobyl, but there's a cover-up.
This film starts horrendously badly: the "crusading" banner is unfolded right from the beginning, and its self-important posturing is echoed in a truly terrible performance from Michael Douglas (as a self-important crusader), and in having real-life crusader Jane Fonda in the lead. That Michael Douglas character also seemed to have bought his hair and beard in the same Halloween shop that sold Jeff Bridges his for King Kong. (Funny how both men matured into fine actors.)
But stick with The China Syndrome. It gets better fast, and although it becomes little more than a well made conspiracy thriller, complete with car chases, it is pretty gripping. And Jack Lemmon is absolutely excellent.
I know I shouldn't complain about The China Syndrome turning into a car chase thriller, because just a minute ago I almost implied that "Trolosa" could have done with a few car chases.
posted 12-07-2000 01:35 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 7 2000JACK FROST (US 1998) movie ** score ***
A warm and pleasant first half hour is replaced by a silly and tedious remainder. JACK FROST is fine as a sentimental family drama, but it all becomes dull and stilted once the characterless talking snowman appears, not least because so many comic and emotional opportunities are missed. Still, the first half hour is well worth a look, Kelly Preston and especially Michael Keaton are fine, and so is Trevor Rabin’s diverse and appropriate score.
A FORCE OF ONE (US 1979) movie *1/2 score **1/2
Comically dated martial arts farce has Chuck Norris helping police chief Clu Gulager wipe out a gang of drug dealers. A FORCE OF ONE is worth watching for the many moments of unintentional hilarity, not least Gulager’s ridiculous performance, in which he seems to be impersonating James Stewart whilst occasionally lapsing into Marlon Brando-esque mumbling. Inept, but enjoyable.
HUNGRY HILL (GB 1946) movie *** score ***
Cecil Parker stars as an English land baron in Victorian Ireland who manages to stir up resentment from the local populace when he opens up a copper mine on the beautiful Hungry Hill. Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price, Michael Denison, Dan O’Herlihy, Jean Simmons and Dermot Walsh round off the accomplished cast in this predictable but well-made costume drama. John Greenwood provides an effective score, but the musical highlight of the movie takes place during a party at the manor house when an Irish fiddler has the guests, who had previously been dancing a stately waltz, erupting into an Irish jig – wonderful stuff.
posted 12-07-2000 03:06 PM PT (US) Pete M
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Suspiria (IT 1977) **** Movie **** ScoreThe story, for what it’s worth, deals with Suzy Bannion (the doe-eyed Jessica Harper), an American who travels to study at the celebrated Freiburg Dance Academy in Germany, only to find that something evil lurks behind it’s walls. Argento sets his film deep in the heart of Europe, the world of Dracula & Frankenstein, & he draws on old-fashioned horror tales like these for a full-on slice of Grand-Guignol mayhem. It’s Hansel & Gretel on acid. Argento & cinematographer Luciano Tovoli bathe the startlingly designed sets with a ravishing succession of deep reds & blues, creating a hallucinatory atmosphere like a twisted nightmare world. Adding to this feel is the maniacally screaming score by Argento & rock group Goblin, with it’s weird moans, load thrashes, distorted cries of “Witch!”, & habit of starting & stopping suddenly.
Actually, there are only really four cues in the whole film, & Argento puts bits of them here & there. The opening of the "Sighs" cue is used at least 8 times. This shouldn't work, but somehow does, as it adds to the insistent, dreamlike feel of the film. It's always there, never changing, & the relentless feel of it actually makes the film stronger. Rarely has a horror film been so reliant on sound & particularly the music for its' effect.
We see the hairy arms of a killer (Argento himself), but his identity is irrelevant, & Argento also uses animal attacks (including maggots, & a bat) to supreme effect. Ultimately, the fear is not of a mere slasher, but some nameless dread, a sense of all-pervading evil. This is the closest anyone has got yet to a filmed nightmare.
But what of the flaws, then. Those wanting realism, strong plotting & strong characterisation will be disappointed, although the lack of these actually adds to the unique feel of the film. To not let yourself be drawn into Argento’s nightmare world is like laughing, an easy way out for the weak & cowardly. It could be accused of misogyny, but Argento merely places in danger those (teenage girls, a blind man) that society traditionally tells us are more in need of protection. He seems to be asking us more to be shocked & horrified by what happens than to enjoy their pain. There’s no identification with the killer. The biggest flaw is the climax. At the end of some of the most nerve-wracking suspense sequences ever filmed, the final face-off is over too quickly & is slightly unsatisfying. However, the rest of the film is so strong, it barely matters.posted 12-08-2000 03:57 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 8 2000ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT (US 1953) movie *** score ***1/2
Illogical but entertaining seafaring action-melodrama. Whaling captain Robert Taylor sets sail from 1860s New Bedford for the South Seas and along the way tangles with his scheming brother, well played by a swaggering Stewart Granger. Ann Blyth provides the romantic interest, and Keenan Wynn, Lewis Stone and James Whitmore are good in support. Fine score from Rozsa too.
FLIGHT COMMAND (US 1940) movie *** score **1/2
Robert Taylor is excellent as a cocky and impetuous naval flying cadet in this corny but enjoyable yarn. Walter Pidgeon and Ruth Hussey are good in co-starring roles, and there are plenty of familiar faces amongst the supporting cast. Good aerial shots and special effects too.
posted 12-08-2000 03:02 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 9 2000TRUE CRIME (US 1999) movie *** score **
Lightweight but entertaining comedy/thriller has unconventional reporter Clint Eastwood desperately seeking the truth behind a liquor-store slaying. I’ve always thought of Clint and Henry Fonda as being very similar in many ways. Here in TRUE CRIME, Eastwood put me in mind of Fonda circa ON GOLDEN POND. Nevertheless, despite his cadaverous appearance, Clint has retained his considerable charm and likeable nature. An excellent supporting cast is put to good use. James Woods is hilarious as Eastwood’s boss, whilst Bernard Hill and Anthony Zerbe are also effective. However, TRUE CRIME is very much minor cinema. Although there are some great moments, overall the production has a rather amateurish and tv-movie feel.
THE ROAD TO UTOPIA (US 1944) movie ***1/2 score ***1/2
The gags run thick and fast in this hugely entertaining entry in the ‘Road’ series. Bing and Bob haphazardly make their way to the Klondike in search of gold and along the way encounter crooks, talking animals and Dorothy Lamour. Great songs, dance routines, one-liners and slapstick.
posted 12-09-2000 02:55 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 10 2000THE INVADER (US 1997) movie *1/2 score **
Benign alien Ben Cross impregnates schoolteacher Sean Young in an attempt to save his race, but is pursued by a nasty alien hell-bent on his destruction. Daniel Baldwin also figures as Young’s cop boyfriend. They couldn’t have made THE INVADER more ordinary if they had tried.
[Message edited by DANIEL2 on 12-10-2000]
posted 12-10-2000 01:37 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 11 2000DESIRE ME (US 1946) movie ** score ***
Greer Garson is torn between new-love Richard Hart, and returning husband-presumed-dead Robert Mitchum. The ridiculous story and inept scripting sink this melodrama. However, a wonderful atmosphere and some good work from Garson, Mitchum, and George Zucco helps to elevate this movie to the mediocre. Apparently, DESIRE ME had three directors, all of whom disowned it. Not only that, Robert Montgomery walked off the set after shooting a few scenes - a wise move.
posted 12-11-2000 03:18 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 13 2000SALOME (US 1953) movie *1/2 score ***
A magnificent cast is this movie’s sole virtue. Rita Hayworth is stunning in the title role, and is backed up by a parade of larger-than-life British actors, including co-star Stewart Granger, Charles Laughton (Herod), Basil Sydney (Pilate), Cedric Hardwicke (Tiberius) and Alan Badel (John the Baptist). Beyond that, SALOME is an expensive bore.
DEEP CORE (US 2000) movie * score **1/2
Underground experiments set off earthquakes that threaten the planet. A paltry entertainment.
THE HUGGETTS ABROAD (GB 1954) movie ** score **1/2
The Huggetts decide to leave suburban England for the South African veldt. Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison reprise their roles as Mr and Mrs Huggett, as do Dinah Sheridan, Susan Shaw and Petula Clark as their daughters in this harmless entry in the amiable series. Danger looms when diamond smuggler Hugh McDermott hitches a lift.
posted 12-13-2000 01:25 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 16 2000THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH (US 1954) movie ***1/2 score ***
One of the better of Hollywood’s medieval England sagas made during the 50s, THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH stars Tony Curtis as the son of a disgraced nobleman seeking to clear his family’s name and also to save King Henry IV from the plotting of an evil baron. Despite the legend, Curtis manages to mask his Brooklyn accent just fine; it is only the heavily American-accented utterances of a few of the bit-part players and the permanently sun-drenched Californian countryside that gives the game away. Janet Leigh is typically radiant as the love-interest, Patrick O’Neil is good as Curtis’ rival for her hand, and Dan O’Herlihy is effective as the dashing Prince Hal. But it is the British cast members who add much needed weight to the proceedings. Herbert Marshall, Torin Thatcher and David Farrar dominate in their respective roles. THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH is entertaining and childish in equal measure, but there are plenty of well-choreographed action scenes, a pleasantly tongue-in-cheek script and some surprisingly convincing period detail. Thoroughly recommended.
posted 12-16-2000 12:35 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 17 2000TOYS (US 1992) movie * score *1/2
Barry Levinson’s TOYS is a remarkably uninventive fantasy with Robin Williams yet again proving himself to be remarkably unfunny and self-indulgently maudlin. A couple of jokes about the Royal Family and Michael Gambon’s British accent almost provoke a vague smile, but the rest of the picture is a mixture of tedium and mild embarrassment. Even Zimmer made a pig’s ear of the score.
WHEN TRUMPETS FADE (US 1998) movie *1/2 score **1/2
Straight off the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN production-line, WHEN TRUMPETS FADE is an unconvincing, derivative and boring WWII drama. Lousy.
YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (US 1964) movie ***1/2 score ****
James Franciscus stars as a Kentuckian coal-miner who becomes the young lion of New York’s literary society when his first novel becomes a best seller. YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE is a hugely entertaining soap opera that benefits greatly from perfect casting, wonderful location-shooting, fluid direction, and an emotionally charged score from Max Steiner.
posted 12-18-2000 10:31 AM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 18 2000TOUCH OF EVIL (US 1958) movie * score *1/2
Mexican cop Charlton Heston clashes with corrupt police captain Orson Welles in this laughable, simplistic and juvenile border thriller. This is the recently reconstructed version that is more faithful to Welles’ original intentions, and is even more tedious than the originally released version – certainly on this evidence the studio was right to attempt to improve the movie by editing and re-shooting many of the scenes. A famous cast flounders on the weak scripting and puerile plot development. Although Welles is fine, as is Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff and Ray Collins, the rest of the cast is wholly inadequate. For instance, Heston makes the most unlikely Mexican, Janet Leigh is particularly wooden, and Joseph Cotten, Marlene Dietrich and Mercedes McCambridge are hilariously miscast. To top it all, Henry Mancini’s pretentious score aptly reinforces the ludicrous and yet passionless nature of the movie. Whilst the stark photography is superb, everything else about TOUCH OF EVIL is simply rubbish.
posted 12-18-2000 03:23 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
Standard Userer
Across The Wide Missouri (USA 1951)Directed by William Wellman
Screenplay by Talbot Jennings
Photography by William C. Mellor
Music by David RaksinMain Cast: Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalban, Maria Elena Marques
In the early 1800s, a trapper gets involved with good and bad Indians whilst trying to make a living.
Somewhere between sprawling family saga and standard western fare, this is a picturesque adventure (and a fake one, with shadows on backcloths etc) which actually ends up being quite affecting. Weird and very funny sense of humour in some places too.
David Raksin starts off by quoting much in the way of traditional melodies etc, but some of the later action cues are good and vibrant. David Raksin! What a great composer!
posted 12-19-2000 12:50 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
Standard Userer
What Lies Beneath (USA 2000)Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Screenplay by Clark Gregg
Photography by Don Burgess
Music by Alan SilvestriMain Cast: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer
I don't think I have to post a synopsis!
So, did anyone like it? I hear it has been received with very mixed reviews. I haven't got anything startling to say: I think many feel as I do about it, namely that it's a very watchable, rather mechanical horror suspense thingy, too stretched out by half, but with some effective shock moments along the lines of The Sixth Sense and Stir Of Echoes.
Well, wasn't THAT a radical opinion! The Silvestri score was fitting (professional, listenable, rather mechanical etc etc)
That's all, folks!
posted 12-19-2000 01:02 PM PT (US) Marian Schedenig
Standard Userer
While I found What Lies Beneath a bit too inconsequent and at a few points over-the-top, it was extremely thrilling. Silvestri's score worked brilliantly, I'll probably get the CD for Christmas.NP: Music From Great Film Classics by Bernard Herrmann
posted 12-19-2000 01:57 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
unregistered
December 19 2000CHAMELEON (US 1998) movie * score **1/2
A cyborg cop discovers maternal instincts whilst protecting a young boy from government assassins. Cardboard characters, cliched situations, lifeless direction, uninventive plot development, and inept scripting ensure that CHAMELEON is absolutely worthless.
TROUBLE IN STORE (GB 1953) movie *1/2 score **1/2
In his day, Norman Wisdom was extremely popular with British audiences (and he still is in Eastern Europe). However, although some of his later movies contain a few passages that remain entertaining to this day, Wisdom’s mawkishness is now almost as unbearable as an average Robin Williams performance (PATCH ADAMS for instance). Wisdom’s first movie at least contains another comically masterful performance from Margaret Rutherford, but beyond that, TROUBLE IN STORE is sadly dated.
WAGON MASTER (US 1950) movie ***1/2 score ****
A minor John Ford musical-western, but still a marvellous movie, and the inspiration behind the television series WAGON TRAIN. Ward Bond and Ben Johnson lead a perfectly chosen cast in this fascinating and richly detailed tale of a Mormon wagon train heading west. All of the usual Ford ingredients are there, especially plenty of good humour. That fine British character actor Alan Mowbray is excellent as a travelling entertainer….very similar to his wonderful performance playing a ham Shakespearean actor in Ford’s classic western MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. WAGON MASTER is a must-see for its wonderful characters, superb location-shooting and great use of music.
[Message edited by DANIEL2 on 12-19-2000]
posted 12-19-2000 02:48 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
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December 20 2000MRS PARKINGTON (US 1944) movie *** score ***
Lumbering, overlong and unconvincing MGM soap opera featuring that most charismatic of movie partnerships Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. This is no MRS MINIVER however, but it’s a fun film nevertheless. Most of the action takes place in New York, but there is a short interlude in England where Garson happens across the Prince of Wales (I said it wasn’t very convincing).
December 21 2000
EXODUS History Channel documentary *** music ***
Great Britain started the modern world.
It all began in England…..its democratic and legal institutions, its language, the Industrial Revolution and the British Empire influenced virtually the entire globe from the 17th century through to the mid 20th century like no other nation or peoples.
With the decline of the Spanish, French, Dutch and Portuguese empires during the 17th and 18th century, the British Empire went from strength to strength, with only the loss of the British American colonies during the American War of Independence (1775-1783) interrupting the British Empire’s global expansion. Indeed, Great Britain’s recognition of United States’ independence in 1783 served to consolidate Canada’s position as a loyal member of the British Empire.
At its height, the British Empire covered one-third of the globe, though its influence extended well beyond its official boundaries. As far as empires go, the British Empire was remarkable for its positive and constructive achievements. Rather than dominating its territories through oppression and persecution, the British mainly relied on diplomacy and presence, after all, the empire was primarily an enormous and complex trading system and a means by which the British people could colonize distant lands. A measure of the British Empire’s relatively benign attitude, is the way in which during the 20th century virtually all of its member nations gained independence with little or no argument from England; indeed, it was often the case that Britain encouraged independence. The continued existence of the British Commonwealth is proof of the good relations that still exist now that the empire has been dismantled. The most famous exception to this was of course the United States of America – the revolution brought about more by the autocracy and naiveté of the British authorities than anything else. A bitter and hard fought struggle for independence from England by the British-American colonists saw the British Empire suffer its greatest and most humiliating setback. It is ironic that Great Britain and the United States are now as closely linked as any other two nations – but this is understandable considering the shared history, heritage, culture, language and ancestry of Britain and America.
Despite the many positive achievements, inevitably the history of the British Empire is also littered with horrifying and vile crimes against humanity. The violation and decimation of many of the world’s cultures and peoples, most notably the North American Indian, the Australian Aborigine, the New Zealand Maori and many of the tribal nations of Asia and Africa. The destruction of China’s infrastructure and civilization through the massive importation of opium during the early 19th century, the building, training and equipping of the Japanese navy during the early 20th century and the invention of the concentration camp during the Boer War. However, one of the most unsavoury moments in Britain’s imperial history has to be the treatment of the Jewish refugees seeking to enter British Palestine aboard the Exodus in 1947/8. The Middle East had long been an important region of the British Empire – it was the British who first discovered and exploited oil in Iran and Iraq – and following WWII it faced mounting pressure from Jewish activists and the USA to allow the conversion of Palestine into the Jewish state of Israel. Though Britain allowed a controlled immigration of 1500 Jewish refugees a month into Palestine, it was more concerned with protecting Arab interests in the region – not least because of oil and the protection of its trade routes from North Africa to the Far East. Interestingly, the English were the first to practice anti-Semitism way back in the 13th Century when Edward I ordered the expulsion of the Jewish community from London. The ships carrying the exiled Jews made their way up the Thames, and having reached some sandbanks out to sea, the ships’ crews deposited all of the Jewish passengers at low tide. The ships then returned to London, and all of the Jews drowned in the rising tides.
This fascinating and moving documentary told the story of the heroic journey of 4,500 Jewish refugees from America to Palestine in 1947. Conditions were difficult enough onboard – the ship was designed to carry only three hundred people – and things only became worse when the ship entered the Mediterranean and attempted to break the British Naval blockade. British agents in America had already alerted London to the fact that an attempt was being made to deposit thousands of illegal immigrants on the shores of Palestine, and the Royal Navy had followed the ship’s progress across the Atlantic.
Thirty miles off of the coast of Palestine the British Navy surrounded the ship carrying the refugees and boarded the vessel with the maximum of force. Several of the refugees were killed and many were injured by British commandos who finally succeeded in gain control of the ship. The Exodus was then escorted to Palestine, and the refugees were unceremoniously deloused and the British insensitively segregated and numbered the Jewish people – to many this was a terrible reminder of the treatment they suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany. But, worse was to follow. The refugees were forced back on board the Exodus, but rather than being taken to nearby British Cyprus (a holding area for Jewish refugees at the time), the ship was escorted back to British occupied West Germany. There, the refugees refused to disembark, and endured terrible treatment from the British who supplied them with only two meals a day that consisted of maggot infested potato soup. Finally, the refugees gave in, and were escorted to and then detained within the very same concentration camps in which they were tortured, brutalized and murdered only a few years before. By this time the world’s press had taken up the story, and the plight of the refugees was viewed with sympathy by every nation, and public opinion, even in at home, mounted against the British. Of course, the refugees were finally allowed into Palestine, and the British withdrawal soon followed and the state of Israel was formed.
As the story was recounted, some of the Jewish contributors to the documentary became visibly distressed as they spat hatred towards the British – and nobody could blame them for that. However, the program makers failed to explain adequately the British position, and painted a very dark picture of Nye Bevan, the British minister who tried to prevent the Exodus from reaching Palestine. Bevan was a fine man, and amongst many fine achievements he created the National Health Service – he certainly didn’t deserve to be vilified as he was in this documentary.
Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews increased Jewish migration to British-ruled Palestine during the 1930s and early '40s, and relations between Jews and the Arabs there deteriorated. Partition into Jewish and Arab sectors was proposed but rejected. After World War II, Great Britain voluntarily relinquished its mandate over Palestine, and the United Nations voted in 1947 to partition the region into separate Jewish and Arab states.
What this documentary crucially overlooks is the fact that it was Great Britain who initiated the idea of Palestine becoming a home to the Jewish people once more way back in 1917. Lord Balfour, then British foreign secretary, wrote Lord Rothschild on Nov 2, declaring that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
The British government, which had made secret and conflicting arrangements with France and Russia for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of spheres of influence over former Ottoman lands, and with Arab leaders for post-WWI influence, hoped that a declaration in favour of Zionism would help to rally Jewish opinion, especially in the United States, to the side of the Allies and that the settlement in Palestine of a Jewish population attached to Britain by ties of sentiment and interest might help to protect the approaches to the Suez Canal and the road to India.
The declaration aroused enthusiastic hopes among Zionists and seemed the fulfillment of Herzl's hopes and it was endorsed by the principal Allied powers. The council of the League of Nations approved on July 24, 1922, British control over Palestine that included the Balfour Declaration in the preamble and various provisions dealing with facilitating Jewish immigration. Article 25 of the mandate gave Britain power to postpone or withhold the provisions of the mandate with regard to the area east of the Jordan River, and on Sept. 22, 1922, the British officially announced that the Balfour Declaration would not apply to that area (amounting to about three-fourths of the whole) and that the area would be closed to Jewish immigration. The mandate had been officially interpreted in a statement of June 3, 1922, in which Winston Churchill, the British colonial secretary, announced that the declaration meant not the "imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews of other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride." His Majesty's government, he announced, had not contemplated at any time, as appeared to be feared by the Arabs, "the disappearance or the subordination of the Arabic population, language, or culture in Palestine."
Arab nationalists everywhere, fearing that the Zionists meant to make Palestine a Jewish state, declared their unconditional opposition to the Jewish ambitions there. The question was more immediately the concern of the Palestinian Arabs, who saw their political interests as directly endangered by Zionist aims. Assured of general Arab support and somewhat misled by the pro-Arab sympathies of British mandatory officials, the Palestine Arabs saw no need to make concessions to Zionism beyond accepting the Jews already established in Palestine as a minority with guaranteed rights.
In September 1922 the British promulgated a constitution that provided for the establishment of a legislative council and the creation of a Palestinian state in which Arabs and Jews would cooperate. The constitution, however, made concessions to Zionism that the Arabs were unwilling to accept, and it was not applied.Since no constitutional Palestinian state could be established, the British continued direct rule. They also continued, however, to seek ways to create auxiliaries or partners in government, and in 1923 they offered each of the two major communities an "agency." The Jewish community accepted and formed the Jewish Agency in 1929, but the Arabs refused. As so often in the following years, the Arabs' political action amounted to abstention, while the Jewish community created a shadow government that enabled them to concentrate their efforts on achievement of their major objectives.
In August 1929 a dispute over the Jewish use of the Western Wall--the only remnant of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, forming the outer wall of the Muslim Haram area--was followed by the first large-scale attacks upon Jews by Arabs. Riots spread to other cities, leading to the deaths of 133 Jews and (mainly at the hands of the British military) 116 Arabs. In the course of the troubles, the mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, emerged as the leader of Arab nationalism in Palestine.
The 1929 troubles led the British to establish a special commission under Sir Walter Shaw, which blamed al-Husayni and other Arab leaders for the conflict while noting the disappointment of Palestinian Arab hopes for independence and the fact that Jewish expansion was creating a "landless and discontented" Arab class in the country. The Shaw Commission urged that restrictions be imposed on the management of the Jewish national home. A subsidiary commission under Lord Passfield was next sent to make concrete proposals, on the basis of which the Passfield White Paper, published in October 1930, recommended that Jews be forbidden to acquire more land while the Arabs were landless and that Jewish immigration be stopped as long as Arabs were unemployed. It renewed the offer of a legislative council that would serve as the basis of constitutional government, a proposal now favoured by the Arab leaders but not by the Zionists. However, when the Arab leaders refused an invitation to discuss the constitutional issue with the Jewish leaders at a roundtable conference, the offer was allowed to lapse.
Zionist pressure and British ambivalence worked against the strict application of the Passfield recommendations on Jewish immigration and purchase of land. When the mandatory government refused to take effective measures to forbid the sale of land to Jews and to stop the illegal Jewish immigration that increased with the persecution of the Jews in Germany after 1933, the Arab leaders announced a policy of noncooperation with the British and a boycott of British goods; at the same time, the existing restrictions on immigration, which were only partly effective, led to Jewish protests and riots.
In April 1936 an Arab High Committee was formed to unite the Palestinian Arabs in opposition to the Jews; its formation was followed by a renewal of Arab attacks on the Jews, soon developing into open war. The revolt of the Arabs continued during the next three years. In November 1936 a new commission, under Lord Peel, arrived to study the situation. The Arab leaders boycotted the commission until just before its departure. The commission's report of July 1937 emphasized that cooperation between Arabs and Jews in a Palestinian state was impossible; to the dismay of the Arabs, it recommended the partition of Palestine. The report made it clear that the establishment of a Jewish state would involve radical movements of population to secure the necessary Jewish majority, even in the parts of Palestine where the Jewish population was largest.
In September 1937 nonofficial representatives from the various Arab countries met at Bludan in Syria and announced the complete rejection of the Peel proposals. In Palestine the publication of the Peel report was followed by renewed Arab terrorism and violence. The British thereupon disbanded the Arab High Committee and deported its leading members. The mufti and a few others escaped arrest and fled to Lebanon, which became the headquarters of a continuing Palestinian Arab insurrection. Before long, however, the insurrection lost its singleness of purpose and degenerated into an Arab civil war as the leaders of the revolt turned their energies against their political rivals.
The British government appointed a new commission under Sir John Woodhead to reconsider the partition plan suggested by the Peel Commission. The Woodhead report, published in November 1938, proposed a reduction of the Jewish share of Palestinian territory to about 400 square miles around Tel Aviv--the only area where the Jews constituted a majority. The Woodhead scheme was rejected by the Zionists as being completely inadequate; it also was rejected by the Arabs, who on principle opposed granting sovereignty to Jews over any part of Palestine. A conference of Jews and Arabs was next convoked, including Arab representatives from various countries. The conference met in London between February and March 1939, the British conferring with the Arab and Jewish delegations separately.
When no settlement between the two sides could be reached, the British government decided to impose its own terms, which were spelled out in a White Paper published in May 1939. International events were by then moving toward a second world war. This made British appeasement of the Arabs imperative, as German propaganda was gaining wide support in Arab nationalist circles; the Jews, persecuted in Germany, had no choice as to which side to support in the coming war. The White Paper of 1939 was a renewed concession to the Arab position. It stated that there would be no partition and that it was not British policy that the country should become either a Jewish state or an Arab state. It envisaged the establishment within 10 years of an independent "Palestine State." In the intervening period, Jews and Arabs would be invited to take an increasing share in the administration; and Jewish immigration into Palestine would be limited to a total of 75,000 during the next five years, after which no further immigration would be allowed without Arab consent. Land purchases by Jews from Arabs would be prohibited in some areas and restricted in others, in accordance with regulations to be published by the high commissioner.
As a proposal for the final settlement of the Palestine question, the White Paper was opposed by both the Zionists and the Arabs. As a means for freezing the situation for the duration of the war, however, it succeeded. Between 1939 and 1945 Palestine was relatively quiet; only as World War II neared its end did the Arab-Jewish conflict resume.
Between 1922 and 1939 the Jewish population in Palestine had risen from 83,790 to 445,457 (30 percent of the total inhabitants). Tel Aviv had become a Jewish city of 150,000.
The limits on immigration set in the 1939 White Paper were soon rendered moot. As eastern Europe fell under German domination, and especially when the systematic slaughter of the Jews of Europe began in 1942, many more Jews sought refuge in Palestine by illegal immigration. Despite British efforts to reimpose controls on immigration after World War II, the number of refugees continued to increase.As the Jewish population grew with this increase in refugees, the nature of Zionist activity in the country began to change, tending more toward violence. A secret Jewish army called Haganah ("Defence") was formed in 1920. Until 1936 Haganah restricted itself to purely defensive action, but during the years of the Arab revolt it became more aggressive; it also received some legal recognition when the British administration formed a Jewish Settlement Police drawn exclusively from Haganah and placed nominally under British command. In 1931 a more clandestine Jewish militia representing the extreme revisionist party within the World Zionist Organization had been formed -- the Irgun Zvai Leumi ("National Military Organization"). During the early years of the war, Irgun followed the lead of the Jewish Agency and cooperated with Haganah; it soon resumed its extremist course, however, as Jewish refugees freshly arrived from Poland joined its ranks and took over its control. The Irgun leaders were convinced that Britain had betrayed the Zionist cause--an opinion that was shared by another extremist organization, the Stern Group, or Gang, whose leader, Abraham Stern, was killed in a British police raid in 1942. In the last years of the war, the Irgun and the Stern Group intensified its terror against the British.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Agency, under its veteran leader Chaim Weizmann and younger leaders such as David Ben-Gurion, tried to maintain British goodwill by offering help to the British war effort. They proposed formation of a Jewish Legion that would undertake the defence of Palestine. Though reluctant to sponsor a Zionist force, the British army eventually formed a brigade of Jewish volunteers that was active late in the war in Africa and Europe.
A new Palestine policy was decided upon at a Zionist conference held in May 1942 at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City; it called for unrestricted Jewish immigration into Palestine and for the ultimate establishment of the area as a Jewish commonwealth. By the end of the war, Zionist political activity in the United States had succeeded in winning the U.S. government's support for Zionism, and Britain, unable to resolve the predicament on its own, had to admit American involvement.
At the end of the war in Europe, the Jewish Agency addressed a memorandum to Britain demanding the full and immediate implementation of the Biltmore Resolution. Another memorandum followed in June 1945 demanding that immigration visas be issued for 100,000 European Jewish refugees awaiting admission into Palestine. By the time Japan surrendered in September, Haganah had gone into alliance with the Irgun and the Stern Group to present a united front in Palestine, though the alliance dissolved in 1946 when the Irgun and the Stern Group ignored the Jewish Agency's call for an end to attacks on British targets. The Jewish Agency stood ready to assume the provisional government of the Jewish state. In the absence of a unified Arab leadership in Palestine, Arab leaders from the neighbouring countries of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, which in March 1945 had formed the League of Arab States, proclaimed their intent to further the Arab cause in Palestine.In the United States, President Harry S. Truman took up the Zionist cause and urged that the European Jewish refugees be immediately admitted into Palestine. Beset by U.S. pressure, fighting a costly and unpopular war against Zionist guerrillas in Palestine, and seeing no practical solution, Britain participated in yet another commission, the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, which published its conclusions in April 1946. In essence, it recommended the immediate admission to Palestine of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe, the withdrawal of all restrictions on Jewish purchase of land, and the eventual incorporation of both communities in a binational state under United Nations trusteeship. The British government refused the central and immediate demand, admission of 100,000 refugees, and suddenly found itself in a state of war with Jewish military organizations in Palestine. Forced to maintain a large and costly military establishment when its electorate demanded demobilization and easement of the tax burden, with no end of the bloodshed in sight and with all its practical political and diplomatic ploys used and options closed, the British referred the question to the United Nations.
The General Assembly voted on May 15, 1947, to create a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to submit "such proposals as it may consider appropriate for the solution of the problem of Palestine." When it arrived in Jerusalem, UNSCOP was boycotted by the Arabs but actively aided by the Zionists. Few issues had been more studied than Palestine, and UNSCOP found nothing new but urgency. The only solution, it suggested, was partition, but it urged that the consequences of partition be mitigated by the maintenance of economic union. On November 29 the UN General Assembly approved, with slight frontier modifications, the UNSCOP recommendations.
The UN decision was a major Zionist victory. Not only did it affirm the Zionist right--the fundamental point at issue and bitterly opposed by the Arabs--to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, but it also gave the state a territory that, although smaller than that proposed by the Jewish Agency, was far out of proportion to the relative numbers of Jews to Arabs in Palestine. It comprised more than half the territory of Palestine, including the greater part of the valuable coastal area, leaving the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, half of Galilee, the Judaean and Samarian uplands, and a bit of the Negev to the Arab state. Shocked and angry, the Arab leaders refused to recognize the validity of the UN decision and declared their determination to oppose it by force.
By January 1948 volunteers were arriving from the Arab countries to help the Palestinian Arabs, but they were soon overwhelmed by the Zionist forces. By May 13 the Zionist forces had secured full control of the Jewish share of Palestine and captured important positions in the areas allotted to the Arabs.
On May 14 the State of Israel was proclaimed and was immediately recognized by the Soviet Union and the United States. On the following day, as the British announced the end of their rule in Palestine, troops of the Transjordanian army, the Arab Legion, and their counterparts from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq entered the country. The Arab forces, which at this point were vastly better equipped than the Israeli forces, occupied the areas in the south and east, which were not yet controlled by the Jews, and unsuccessfully laid siege to Jewish Jerusalem.
The United Nations on May 20 appointed Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg as mediator to bring about a settlement between Israel and the Arab states. He obtained a brief cease-fire in June and a second one in July. On September 17, however, Bernadotte was assassinated by Jewish terrorists; he was succeeded by his deputy, Ralph J. Bunche of the UN Secretariat. Despite the orders of the United Nations, the truce was not observed faithfully by either side.
Between February and July 1949 the mediator secured separate armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria. These agreements left Israel in possession of all the areas it had won by conquest: the whole of Galilee, the whole of the Palestinian coast minus a reduced Gaza Strip (occupied by Egypt), all of the Negev, and a strip of territory connecting the coastal region to the western section of Jerusalem. The remaining parts of Jerusalem (including the Old City), along with what remained of the Arab share of Palestine, were taken over by Transjordan, which then became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. No entity remained that was officially called Palestine. The departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs had meanwhile left Israel with a substantial Jewish majority.
I hope that helps to explain more fully the British position in Palestine at the time. And, to anyone, Jewish or otherwise, who may watch this documentary, please don’t think of the British too harshly. Yes, the British authorities handled the Exodus situation badly and with gross insensitivity. When you see images of the Union Jack with a swastika emblazoned on it, remember that Great Britain did more than any other nation to aid Jewish refugees from Europe during WWII. A new book by Deborah Oppenheimer entitled “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” has just been published here in England that provides evidence of Britain’s true concern for the plight of the Jews.
During WWII thousands upon thousands of Jewish child refugees were accepted into Britain, as their parents in Europe were herded into gas chambers. Indeed, Great Britain to this day has magnificent humanitarian record when it comes to the aid and incorporation of refugees from all over the world – most notably the East African Asians during the 1970s. Sir Richard Attenborough provides the Preface to this book, and his family was one of many that took in Jewish refugees during WWII. Many of these refugees have gone on to enrich and further sophisticate British society.
Some of the refugees later went on to America, and the views of one are shared by the many – “But England is in me. England is my second mother; always I regard it as such.”
A shame that documentaries such as EXODUS: THE DESPARATE JOURNEY fail to take in the broader picture…..nevertheless, a fascinating and moving tale in which the British did often behave atrociously.
December 22 2000
DAKOTA INCIDENT (US 1956) movie *1/2 score ***
A promising opening twenty minutes disintegrates into a tedious and formulaic western. Dale Robertson stars as a reformed bank robber whose stagecoach is hijacked by Indians. A good cast, including Linda Darnell, Ward Bond, John Lund and Regis Toomey have seen better days.
ON THE BEAT (GB 1962) movie *** score ***1/2
Unusually successful Norman Wisdom comedy has the diminutive clown attempting to join the police force. An expert supporting cast, including Raymond Huntley, Terence Alexander and David (I was in COCKLESHELL HEROES) Lodge wring out the script’s full potential. Great score from Philip Green too, everything from mandolins to Wagner.
CAMELOT (US 1967) movie ** score ****
The music’s good, and ‘merry old England’ is expensively reproduced – but it’s too long and nobody can sing. Still, Richard Harris is wonderful as Arthur, and Vanessa Redgrave, Lionel Jeffries and Laurence Naismith figure strongly in the supporting cast. A watchable but disappointing failure – but the music is good.
IDIOT’S DELIGHT (US 1939) movie *** score ***
Dated comedy/anti-Nazi propaganda piece. Various mismatched types are stranded at a Swiss ski-lodge at the outbreak of WWII. Norma Shearer and Clark Gable are simply brilliant – IDIOT’S DELIGHT is famous for Clark’s song-and-dance routine to “Puttin’ on the Ritz” – and a fine job he makes of it. Edward Arnold, Burgess Meredith and Charles Coburn also figure in the strong supporting cast.
posted 12-23-2000 10:01 AM PT (US) Graham Watt
Standard Userer
Mask Of The Avenger (USA 1951)Directed by Phil Karlson
Screenplay by Jesse Lasky Jnr
Photography by Charles Lawton Jnr
Music by Mario Castelnuovo-TedescoMain Cast: John Derek, Anthony Quinn, Jody Lawrence
Zorro-esque/Count of Monte Cristo-ish escapades.
Simple minded matinee fodder, Mask Of The Avenger is sadly about fifty years past its sell-by date. It's hard to imagine anyone sitting through this today, certainly not children, though nostalgic adults who found Disney's "Zorro" TV series starring Guy Williams exciting might be less bored.
I don't think John Derek was ever really considered a great actor, was he? Anyway, here, looking like a young (and very constipated) Larry Hagman, he's particularly wooden.
The film's only point of interest is that it boasts one of the few film scores written by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (one of Jerry Goldsmith's early tutors), though it's hardly out of the ordinary.
I suppose it's good to watch things like this once in a while, because then everything else seems good.
posted 12-23-2000 02:04 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
unregistered
December 23 2000THE MATRIX (US 1999) movie * score **
….zzzz….zzzz….zzzz…..
posted 12-23-2000 02:14 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
unregistered
December 23 2000THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT (GB 1969) movie *1/2 score ***
Giraudoux’s already insubstantial and relatively unsuccessful play makes for pathetic cinema. An accomplished cast, including Katharine Hepburn, Donald Pleasence, Yul Brynner, Charles Boyer, Paul Henreid and Danny Kaye (amongst many others) is entirely wasted….only Michael J Lewis’ evocative scoring and the movie’s first class production values provide any interest.
CHRISTOPHER LEE’S GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS (GB 2000) television ‘drama’ ** music **1/2
The setting is perfect….Christopher Lee’s schoolmaster recounts ghost stories to his pupils at dead of night in the school’s library. The clock on the mantelpiece ticks ominously, the crackling of the fire sends shadows dancing across the darkened corners of the book-strewn chamber, a half-full bottle of port reflects the ghostlike fingers of the flames from the hearth, and the wind whistles through the leafless trees beyond the library’s thickly-paned windows. The only problem is, the story narrated by Lee was a complete waste of time…..
December 24 2000
THREE COMRADES (US 1938) movie **** score ***1/2
It’s post-WWI Germany, and young men Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone (particularly good) and Robert Young try to make a life for themselves amongst the growing unrest amongst the German people. Taylor falls in love with a delicately beautiful Margaret Sullivan, but tragedy looms. Lionel Atwill and George Zucco round off the superb cast. A beautiful and poignant movie, set in a time and place that makes one glad of the peace and affluence that we enjoy in today’s Western societies.
ELMER GANTRY (US 1960) movie **1/2 score *1/2
Straightforward and unconvincing account of a travelling salesman’s rise from obscurity to evangelical fame. Well performed though, with Burt Lancaster in toothily Oscar-winning form as the maniacal bible-puncher. But it is the radiance of Jean Simmons’ fellow evangelist, the cynical intelligence of Arthur Kennedy’s reporter, the slaggish charm of Shirley Jones’ prostitute, and the luminous honesty of Dean Jagger’s performance that are this movie’s outstanding attributes. A typically polished script from Richard Brooks and a well chosen supporting cast also add to the movie’s value.
STEPMOM (US 1998) movie ** score ***
Likeable but predictable time-passer….it looks great, with Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts and Ed Harris in typically good form, but it doesn’t add up to much.
GUN GLORY (US 1957) movie ***1/2 score ***1/2
Crackerjack western with Stewart Granger excellent as a reformed gunslinger looking to start a new life with his son, but running up against corrupt cattle baron James Gregory. All the usual ‘western’ elements are here, but rarely have they been combined to such good effect. Burl Ives sings the movie’s title tune and Jeff Alexander’s score is a cut above the average.
December 25 2000
THE ITALIAN JOB (GB 1969) movie *1/2 score **
Infantile, dated and laborious farce with Michael Caine plotting to steal four million dollars worth of gold bullion in Turin for crime boss Noel Coward.
SON OF LASSIE (US 1945) movie ** score **1/2
Disappointing follow-up to CHALLENGE TO LASSIE starring Peter Lawford as an RAF pilot who is shot down in Nazi-occupied Norway with his dog Laddie, son of Lassie. Well produced in lovely technicolor and with a great cast, including Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce and Leon Ames, but the movie is slackly handled.
NOTTING HILL (US/GB 1999) movie **** score ***1/2
Pleasant and gentle fairytale romance has American movie star Julia Roberts falling for humble London bookseller Hugh Grant. The great thing about NOTTING HILL is it doesn’t try too hard to be charming. However, despite the implausibility of the story, the characterizations are genuine enough and Alec Baldwin makes a funny cameo appearance. NOTTING HILL is a great example of British talent and American money combining to create an Anglo-American movie that is popular with most audiences. It’s funny, I just watched Ewan McGregor being badly interviewed by an obsequious Tim Sebastian, and was disappointed that McGregor regarded Hollywood with such disdain, after all, he’s done alright in a number of blockbuster Hollywood movies, why should he insult the people who love STAR WARS by dismissing it because its commercial. Indeed, by appearing in such movies as STAR WARS he has been able to fund his own beloved and purely ‘British’ personal projects, such as his James Joyce biopic, untainted by American money and 'simplification', and free of any interference from the American studios. McGregor's attitude is so conventional and old-fashioned; it was the purely British-made 'message/social comment/kitchen sink/angry young man' movies of the 60s that killed the British Film Industry because they did not appeal to even UK audiences, let alone overseas. What McGregor seems to forget is that movies are made primarily to entertain, and whilst a movie about a dysfunctional and neurotic Irish novelist may be of interest to some, it is movies like NOTTING HILL, CON AIR and STAR WARS that most people want to see.
VIRUS (US/GB/France/Germany/Japan) movie ** score **1/2
Daft 'Alien' rehash starring the world’s ugliest woman, Jamie Lee Curtis. As far as the Halloween movies are concerned, I don’t know what’s more frightening, Michael Myers or Curtis. However, with VIRUS I am left in no doubt that Jamie Lee Curtis is infinitely more frightening than the alien monster. The story involves an American salvage vessel happening across a deserted Russian research ship that harbours a deadly alien force. There is not one element of this movie that is remotely original, and what is worse, the scriptwriters and actors actually seem to be taking the story seriously. Hardly a day goes by, it seems, without a Baldwin brother appearing in a movie; this time it’s William. The cast also includes Donald Sutherland and lots of mechanical monsters, so VIRUS is a fun and silly monster movie for all the family.
[Message edited by DANIEL2 on 12-27-2000]
posted 12-26-2000 01:53 PM PT (US) DANIEL2
unregistered
December 26 2000101 DALMATIONS (US 1996) movie ** score **1/2
Bland and uninventive live-action remake of the classic cartoon – still, this 1996 movie was a massive world-wide success, and it is very well-produced, the London settings are a bonus and Glenn Close is excellent as Cruella De Vil.
TARGET EARTH (US 1998) movie *1/2 score **1/2
Here we go again….a cop and a housewife foil an alien invasion force. The only good thing you can say about this predictable, tedious and derivative ‘alien-abduction/conspiracy theory’ movie is that it’s a lot better than the X-Files.
I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (US 1998) movie **1/2 score ***
This sequel to the rather good SREAM-homage I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER is enjoyable enough, but doesn’t really offer anything new. This time the man-with-the-hook miraculously appears on a Bahamian island where the survivors of his previous onslaughts are vacationing. Quality production, likeable leads, a jokey atmosphere and some amusing supporting characterizations cannot disguise the fact that this sequel is bereft of any originality. SCREAM was great when it came out, but is now in danger of being remembered as just another ‘slasher’ movie because of all the look-alike movies that tread the same ground. Still, a nice Christmas movie that will have the kids laughing their socks off and granddad hiding behind the sofa.
posted 12-27-2000 02:42 AM PT (US) Graham Watt
Standard Userer
D2, I saw part of that interview with Ewan McGregor that you mention. I may be doing the young man a huge disservice but in the five minutes I saw he didn't seem to have any logical ideas about ANYTHING! And wasn't he half-cut anyway? He seemed a bit like the pub bore to me.
posted 12-27-2000 09:46 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB