LtDuke75 Reviews

Open Range (2003)

Homage to Howard Hawks' Trilogy

[9/10 · 20 June 2022]

Here's a highly unsung western classic. It is marked by exemplary writing, acting, camera work, and direction. Great western wisdom, a la Louis L'amour enriches a well-crafted profile of good and bad guys. Of particular enjoyment for me was the homage to Howard Hawks' incomparable Western Trilogy (Rio Bravo, El Dorado, and Rio Lobo). Those films were Hawks' answer to the message of "High Noon" about good and evil in the west. Like Hawks' movies this is about sheriffs, autocratic cattle barons, victimized townspeople, hired guns, and righteous, Don't-Tread-On-Me loners. Western picture enthusiasts will not be disappointed.

The Pacific (2010)

A Marine Officer and a History Teacher Shares an Ambivalent View

[3/10 · 24 March 2021]

The view is not "Love/Hate." It's more like "Appreciate some of it/ Censure the mass of it." I have shown clips of this film to college and high school classes. Selected thumbnail clips are poignant and on point. For instance--Episode One, just after Pearl, Bob Leckie--a sincere Catholic-- lights a votive candle after enlisting in the USMC--or--John Basilone's family have a farewell Christmas dinner with Manila John and his fellow marines just before embarkation for the PTO--or Chesty gives a great rousing Mac Marine speech to his NCOs ("You are the backbone of the Marine Corps!"). Another useful scene is Episode Two--WATCHTOWER is successful and the dazed but relieved Marines leave Guadalcanal with barely enough strength to climb the cargo net onto a debarking USN ship. They are stymied to learn that a messmate knows about what they've been through: "Everybodies heard about Guadalcanal. " he says. "At home you guys are heroes..."

There are more of these wonderful vignettes sprinkled across the otherwise thematic wasteland of this profound letdown. The same guys that did Band of Brothers? Should be great right? Did Marine Sid Phillips know more than he should when he titled his memoirs "You'll Be Sorrrry?" Band of Brothers it is not. (Props out to reviewer Crazylegs2919 whose title "Spearssss get over here!!! Get in their and take over the Pacific!!!" A true LOL for me. Guess that makes Hanks or Hugh Ambrose Lt Dyke, right, Crazylegs?) My feeling is that Dad Stephen Ambrose would have kept his son Hugh more tractable and we would not have had the primal "Woke" scream that we get in the Pacific. But alas, he passed before it went into production. Speaking of that hyper-PC quality of the series I want to give credit to another excellent one-star review written by a fellow marine (Jeff Cole) who wrote an exceptional philippic on the series entitled "Disgusting ahistorical race-baiting swill ." That title as they say, says it all. Read the rest of his review for an informed and trenchant assessment. I looked forward anxiously to the premiere of the Pacific but saw ominous pieces in the papers about the hard-left tilt plaguing it. Cole quotes some of the lame damage control Hanks tried to conduct that only tended to confirm the growing apprehension. Conservative patriots have learned to adjust for bias in most mainstream media. I get it if this is just beyond the capacity of your crap filter. But with proper annotation there are diamonds to be mined in this treacherous landscape.

Secrets of War (1998– )

Worthwhile Documentary Series But Keep Your Bias Filter On

[7/10 · 12 May 2019]

I purchased this series because it was clearance priced and because it was narrated by Charlton Heston. The 50+ shows cover intriguing topics. Heston's participation suggested solid production value and perhaps an even-handed analysis. The episodes are treatments of intelligence and psychological warfare stories from varied historic events from World War II through the Cold War. A history teacher and former Marine Corps Officer, I find the average episode to be informative and worth the time. I learn a few tidbits of back story history with each episode. However, contrary to another reviewer who scolded the series for an excessive pro-American posture, I found it to be more ambivalent in its treatments, particularly in Cold War matters. Other times it appeared to come from a leftist perspective to such a degree that I wondered if the self-described conservative Heston was less conservative than advertised or was simply uncritically reading copy. For instance, he voices narration that gives free passes to Che Guevara in one episode and, in another paints South Vietnam's Diem as a ruthless dictator without equivalent characterization of Ho Chi Minh's leadership. The same pattern is observable during the review of the Korean Conflict when harsh words are used for South Korean Syngman Rhee but not so for Kim Il Sung. This series can be useful if one comes to it with his bias filter engaged. If you so proceed, you will find it a worthwhile documentary. Listen for the factual anecdotes and the neat sidelights. But don't go here for bottom-line verdicts on the good guys and bad guys of the Cold War. If you do, you might find the familiar bias instead.

Foyle's War (2002–2015)

Brit Whodunits with the backdrop of WWII

[7/10 · 14 June 2018]

Foyle's War is a good intro to a British detective story format. It follows the cases of Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle along the provincial south coast of England. Foyle is an intriguing, complex figure. Stoical, perhaps to a fault, he yet retains a rigid sense of right and wrong and the rule of law as he pursues the bad guys. Smarter than his bosses, he must suffer the typical snubbing that comes from mediocre superiors. Because of the snubbing, he brings his formidable deductive skills to bear on unsuspecting yokel perpetrators who nearly always get nabbed by him. He is joined in his adventures by a pleasant female driver and a somewhat brooding Dunkirk veteran. All three of the primaries are people you come to care about and their lives usually make up part of one of the subplot elements. Each episode usually has three subplots that often get inter spliced during denouement. US viewers will note the lack of car chases, and culminating shoot outs that are standard fare in American crime dramas. These shows wear well with second and third viewings. What wears less well is the tiresome BBC political bias. A pronounced distaste for the British aristocracy, conservatism, nationalism, and over-paid, over-dressed American GIs that are over there is sprinkled liberally throughout the various episodes. Anyone watching BBC, or HBO to take another example, is girded for these invariable skews. Expect it here too. Point it out to young minds as you go along enjoying the ride through this well-crafted reconstruction of the British Homefront during their Finest Hour.

Destination Tokyo (1943)

Best Submarine Movie

[10/10 · 3 July 2017]

Sub movies up to recent times are one way or another seeking to borrow the formula Delmer Davies conceived for this timeless war picture. First, careful attention was paid to technical accuracy. So consistent was the movie to the procedures of WW2 subs, it was shown as part of the instructional program at the Groton Sub School. Second,the picture is punctuated by great action sequences quickly followed by personal profiles of the crew or the officers--but especially the crew. Alan Hale is memorable as Cookie. John Garfield nails it as the more-talk-than-action with the dames "Wolf." Dane Clark hits a homer as a transfer from the surface navy to the special world of the submariner. He gets dubbed "Tin Can" by Torpedo man and 1st Class Petty Officer Mike (Tom Tully) who is the older guy that rookie Robert Hutton ("Slim") gains guts and spiritual sustenance from on his first patrol. Of course Cary Grant is his magnetic self as the skipper of the USS Copperfin. A young Tony Curtis saw this movie and enlisted in the Navy during the war in hopes of becoming a submariner too (he didn't but years later he played one in Operation Petticoat along with his idol Cary Grant). Third, the movie respects the heck out of the sailors for what they do and their loved ones for the allegiance they bear them. Those three factors make the formula that--if adhered to--will invariably produce a submissible addition to the genre. Now, the movie is not without its flaws. The chronology is anti-historical. We are told that it is Christmas 1942 and the guys are about to assist in executing Doolittle's Raid. Problem is the raid went off 8 months earlier in April. The physical environment of the sub is too big, too comfy, and too dry. But these and other nit picks aside, check it out. I watch it 3 or 4 times a year--especially at Christmas time. I got the colorized version a few years before they went off the market. Contrary to the naysayers and purists, I am a fan of colorizing.When you watch it, try to put yourself in the desperate days just after Pearl Harbor when the nation was aching for some scrap of good news. From December '41 through March of '42, it was a succession of gloom, doom, and defeat in the Pacific. These guys are off to give the nation something to cheer about. Go along with that ride. Suspend disbelief. Acquire the climate of opinion that prevailed at that time. If you can do it: you will be transfixed.

Lifeguard (I) (1976)

Real Important Movie for Old Life Guards

[9/10 · 2 July 2017]

So important to this old guard. Saw it on my future wife and I's first date during its summer premiere in bicentennial '76. Man did it talk to me. Afterward, I bought the "Book Made From the Movie" and read it more than once. During the following summer of '77 I saw it again while stationed with the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan. Remember taking a small cassette recorder into the theater and recording John Williams "Time and Tide" and listening to it days after in my BOQ. Why? Because being a life guard is special. The life saving has deep down importance. To this day I mark the lives I saved as among the top 2 or 3 things I'm proudest of. And the precious fleeting beauty of cooling sand in the early evening when the beach has emptied out and it's just you and the primal force of the water. All of that is captured tenderly and just right in this wonderful picture. And Sam Elliot's Rick knows that saving lives and standing sentry by the shore is profoundly more important than mundane pursuits of prestige and money. So he has the presence of mind to take a pass on the rat race and instead do what his soul tells him to do.

Crash Dive (1943)

Under-rated World War II Picture

[8/10 · 30 December 2015]

Crash Dive shows America's heart on its sleeve in 1943. Filmed in stunning Technicolor and featuring the great Tyrone Power, along with fine support work by Dana Andrews, Harry Morgan, James Gleason, and Ben Carter, Crash Dive is a feel-good action/romance yarn that will stand up well to second or third viewings. Like many such vehicles, the movie is vulnerable to critical comments regarding technical issues ( like the German "sub base", and the submarine interiors) and the somewhat tiresome love triangle plot element. It also would have been nice to have seen crew members brought more to life ( like Destination Tokyo). Yet, the movie gives more focus on a black sailor (played estimably by Ben Carter) than you will see in other war pictures of the period. There are great exterior shots of New London Conn during the war too. Whenever I am on Rte 95 crossing the Mystic River, I gaze up and down that place and in my mind's eye I can envision USN subs--some doomed for Davey Jones Locker-- leaving for harm's way in 1943 in service to the Red Whit and Blue. That's the allure of Crash Dive. It brings it back to life. And when the credits roll by at the end, and you are urged to buy war bonds in this theater, somehow and only for a whisper of time, the echoes are awakened and the peril and glory are again alive.

Crash Dive (1996 Video)

Worth One Sitting Only

[5/10 · 23 December 2015]

Some endearing characters played by a few name actors make this a tolerable ride. The great Frederic Forest (Blue Duck in Lonesome Dove and Cook in Apocalypse Now) plays a USN Admiral. However, the lack of competent technical advice made the military side of this submarine action thriller hard to take. On the SSN sub Ulysses, the new XO, we are told, is the youngest in USN history, yet he has --shall we say-- limited social skills. And his immediate subordinate ( a Lt. Commander) derisively refers to him as a "college boy". Problem is ALL USN commissioned officers are college graduates. Hatches are called "doors", lieutenant commanders are called "Lieutenant ", and an ex Navy SEAL also moonlighted as a submarine designer. Prior service guys will find these mistakes--and others like them--a hoot. But if you can say "whatever" and let it ride, it will provide a decent final act for your patience.