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heywood2001
Reviews
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Historically astute, but why did they get stuck with musical score by Addison
Many of the commenter's posts about, 'A Bridge Too Far' hits the marks about the above average attention of this films attention to historical accuracy, and for that I give it kudos. The use of subtitles with Germans and Dutch speaking their native tongues is another plus as well.
One point well taken by another poster is this film condensed Two SS division commanders who fought in the actual battle into one fictional character. A small amount of this type of creative license is acceptable if it does not sacrifice historical accuracy as egregiously as U- 571 depicting Americans as the first to capture an Enigma machine when it was the British that were the first to capture this device from a U-Boat. All in all ABTF kept historical facts pretty well on the mark but by no means perfect. The movie depicted the Polish paratroopers being shot at in the sky at their drop zone which is inaccurate, they were warned off in time when amazingly one of British Airbornes radios were working to warn off the drop which was changed to another spot. There are other inaccuracies but the filmmakers certainly had integrity in the historical depiction of Market Garden, not perfect, but it's by no stretch of the means a U-571 which is a churlish movie.
I think the film would have been served better by using unknowns for the major characters. The battle scenes could have been made more clearer as to just where they were taking place without having to resort to 'take note audience' type dialog by the principals for audiences unfamiliar with the historical facts about the battle, but of course, if not deftly done, this can make a film of this nature very ponderous; keeping the narrative flowing while giving a sense just where in the three cities (Eindhoven, Nijmegan & Arhnem) the action is taking place is difficult.
My biggest gripe about this film is John Addison's musical score which sounds like the music from Alvin & the Chipmunks. I really thought the score was a major minus to the film. It sounded as if Addison was doing a weak imitation of the major fanfare from 'The Longest Day' by Maurice Jarre.
With all the money spent on this film, it was crying out for a Jerry Goldsmith score or at the very least Ron Goodwin who scored many WW-II pictures such as, 'Battle of Britain (1969)', 'Where Eagles Dare', '633 Squadron' & many others. I would be so bold as to say the score was incompetent. It lacked any kind of emotional depth and did not convey the proper emotive qualities for the various stages of the film. A very one-dimensional score by John Addison.
A very exemplary film with great pains to get original military hardware or fabricate facsimiles of equipment not available. Loved it when they showed the Bailey bridge being thrown up and the collapsible boats the Americans used to ford the river at Nijmegan.
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
Brother can you spare an F4F Wildcat
My angle on this film echoes some other posters who have a historical take on the film of which the most glaring inaccuracy is F6F Hellcats substituting for F4F Wildcats. The grainy combat footage was irritating and other WW-II films shot during wartime or shortly post wartime have been far more creative and sparing when possible in integrating stock combat footage in tandem with its own filmed footage, but the production simply appeared to not care about continuity in this regard.
Not one of the best John Wayne WW-II films but not a complete slouch either, but as other posters noted, is fairly derivative of previous Wayne outings in term of his character in films such as 'Sands of Iwo Jima'.
A decent but sluggish Wayne film in comparison to other Pacific theater films, the technical inaccuracies of 'Flying Leathernecks' definitely soured my enjoyment of this film.
Mackenna's Gold (1969)
Colorado Sharif and the Lost Addams
I had had fond memories of Mackenna's gold when I had seen it as a young kid. When I revisited the film years later I was disappointed to a certain extent but it still held a great deal of fascination too. Upon re-visiting the film years later, I was disappointed as quite a few posters on this page were that the large cast was largely wasted, hardly utilized in the story at all. The large cast of characters were introduced only to be killed within minutes of their introduction which brings me to the next comment.
One of the postings had mentioned that this film had originally been intended to last three hours long but studio considerations had a shorter 2 hour cut imposed on it.
If this is in fact the case, perhaps there were many more scenes with Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quayle, Edward G. Robinson, Eli Wallach & Keenan Wynn that were cast on the editing room floor.
Most Directors cuts in my opinion ever do a great deal to improve a film with exceptions of course. An example that comes to my mind is the directors cut of, 'The Abyss', by Cameron, that had a whole sub-plot that got relegated to the editors room floor -this made the film vitally more interesting and coherent because the MacGuffin had been completely excised in the studio cut.
The biggest flaw for Mackenna's Gold I thought was as other posters had mentioned, the incredible supporting cast was not utilized well and prematurely excised from the story.
In the case of Mackenna, the MacGuffin was not affected but some potentially interesting character interaction was precluded.
Many of the postings have in my opinion ruthlessly attacked the special effects which, by all means had some substantial flaws, but never the less were competent special effects. Wide and medium miniature shots of the Lost Addams canyon shots were acceptably good, but as the camera got in closer to some falling canyon rubble shots the focus got soft. In the balance though, I think the effects are perfectly adequate.
The under-cranked horse chasing sequences were a bit clumsy but they didn't use it to nauseating extremes.
I am willing to excuse quite a bit in effects work if its supporting essentially sound script content.
I agree with one commenter about using Caucasians to play Indians which to a large extent spoiled things for me, but never the less, did not inhibit my basic enjoyment of the film.
Another posting to which I agree to an extent is that Omar Sharif's character was too sophisticated for a Mexican bandit, but on the other hand, Sharif plays the character so well, and whose to say that a would be Bon Vivant desperado could not have existed.
The scene where Colorado tells Mackenna what he's going to do with his gold money showing Mackenna French newspaper clippings of Parisians in cafés and dancing girl parlors was delightful; it was interesting that Colorado showed a little bit of vulnerability showing Mackenna what he really wanted to be doing, living as a millionaire in Paris. It was interesting with a track of Parsian music playing and Mackenna imagining Colorado in a Parisian Gentlemans dress suit with top hat & cane. Sure Colorado may not be a totally realistic character but I thought Sharif in many way stole the movie with his character.
one of the postings cited Peck as giving an understated performance in the film, but I think you got to consider that after all, in nearly the whole film he was an unwitting prisoner of Colorado. Events were in control of him and not the other way around; plus Shariff as Colorado was chewing up the scenery and stole the show so if Peck looked understated that would be natural in contrast to the over the top character Shariff played
There was one little bit with Keenan Wyn near the beginning of the film after Addams played by Edward G. Robinson finishes telling the story about the lost gold, and Wyn, playing one of Colorados cohort Mexican bandits starts dancing with J. Robert Porter who plays the young Englishman with long hair; Wyn says to him, "You Pretty! I can't tell if your a boy or a girl. If you a boy, I'm going to cut your hair. If you a Girl, I kiss you -I think you a girl!" (Wyn kisses the young Englishman who immediately slugs him). It was about the only time that Keenan Wyn, a very gifted character actor got to shine in the film.
So although Mackennas Gold certainly has a significant amount of weaknesses to it, I certainly don't think its a total write off either.
It does seem inexplicable that such a heavyweight team, J. Lee Thompson directing, Carl Foreman as producer & writer along with Dimitri Tiomkin co-producing, a Quincy Jones score which I liked just did not ignite as they did with 'Guns of Navarone'. I liked the 'Old Turkey Buzzard' song, I don't care what anyone has to say bad about it.
All in all, an epic scale Western on the edge of the realm of mystical.
One last thing: I really think Spielberg must have seen this film & borrowed a scene from it because of the map room scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Ford uses a scepter with a crystal that focuses a beam of sunlight to show where the Ark was is very similar to the Shaking Rock scene where the shadow from the rock points to the entrance to the canyon. When I think about it, Colorado almost seems like the kind of character that Indiana Jones would encounter.
In Harm's Way (1965)
In Morphs Way
I don't take this movie to the mat for taking creative license by morphing Guadalcanal which took place in the Solomons into the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Phillipines since it serves the story, and as other postings commented with which I agree, it's more character driven and the effect of the war on their lives, the war serving as backdrop to characters.
Preminger did well to cast Wayne and Patricia O'Neal together likely because as another poster mentioned that Preminger saw the two in 'Operation Pacific'. They even managed to morph PT-109 into the story when one of the PT's is rammed by a Japanese destroyer (PT-109 staring Cliff Robertson in 1963 was the likely reason for this sequence to be tacked in).
No gripes from me regarding the portrayal of the characters and their motivations and so forth, that indeed was what made the film.
The shots of the miniature ships held far too long on them when they should have been shown for a much shorter amount of time, consequently, Preminger over used the model shots when they should have been much briefer.
There should have been cut away close-ups to the Japanese ships to show reaction shots of the Japanese officers & crewman reacting to explosions on their ships, giving firing orders, looking through binoculars etc. It was very odd to see all the 'crewless' Japanese Naval vessels cruising along taking hits from mines and PT torpedoes with no cut aways to Japanese sailors and officers running around freaking out. it would have made the battleship dueling sequence much more interesting. The model shots held way to long and drew to much and unnecessary time to themselves. One other gripe is they shot the ship models day-for-night for the night sequences which didn't enhance the realism.
Another technical gripe is when the attack on Pearl Harbor took place, they only set off explosions near the real naval vessels to simulate bomb drops with just sound effects of Japanese planes off camera in sky that should be filled with Japanese torpedo bombers, fighters, etc.
I guess I'm spoiled by the technical astuteness of special effects production in 'Tora Tora Tora'.
However, it was the human drama which was first and foremost that made the film.
Interesting to hear early Jerry Goldsmith, he certainly added some weight to the film although IHW is fairly light on musical score which is entirely appropriate.
All Nitpicking aside on the technical details, it is a very entertaining film that has realistic characters, the film stands up very well to repeated viewings, definitely an important film in my WW-II collection.
The Lost Continent (1968)
The-Lossssst- Connnn-Tinn-Eannnt
I thought this romp was somewhat in the vane or spirit of those Doug McClure movies where the U-Boat ends up in a pre-historic lost area of the globe and the crew has to deal with cave people, Dinosaurs etc.
I certainly don't hold the feet of this film to any super critical standard since it dosen't seem to take itself seriously anyway. I agree with the one reviewer of the postings on this page that if you just suspend your disbelief somewhat that it's a quite entertaining film since it is quite imaginative in the visuals and the situation (albeit quite ridiculous) such as the Conquistadors stuck there for several centuries. The buxom balloon girl was most pleasant to look at and took to speaking English quite quickly (They have Berlitz books out there).
I think a story like this would be a bit more easier to swallow if it had taken place in the 20's or 30's, but again, the movie does not seem to take itself seriously so who cares(Giant crabs are not to beyond the pale, but giant scorpians!).
The cast plays it straight despite the absurdity, and that helps to suspend disbelief.
The weird factor is very high which is the most appealing factor of this flick.
I think there was a bit of 60's political angle of questioning of authority as the ship crew incited the lord kid to question his own blind obedience to the hooded inquisitor. There was a rapprochement between the crew of the ship and the conquistadors both standing in respect for the kid ruler in his burial at sea. So I suppose this could also be kind of a 60's version of 'can we all just get along' type decade influenced feature in this film.
Yes! A beer and pizza film.