shaman-7 Reviews

Command Decision (1948)

Under-Appreciated, A Great War-Movie

[25 April 2001]

This is an under-appreciated gem of a move.

To start with, the core story sounds utterly fantastic, but it is partly true. There was never a "Lance-Wulf 190", but there really was a Messerschmidt Me-262 in World War 2. The Me-262 wasn't quite the wonder-plane which the mythical Lance-Wulf was, but it was a swept-wing jet with a top speed of 540 mph, a blinding speed for the time. And, as fighter pilots say, "speed is life".

American bombing in August, 1943 did delay the introduction of the real Me-262. (The pre-production aircraft were wrecked on an assembly line, forcing a delay of several months.) The irony is that the German jet fighter program was really stymied by Hitler's aversion to defensive weapons and the German feeling that the war could be won with existing fighter types.

There is, however, a "message" in this film which fully applies to civilian life. You know that everything is okay just now, but this will soon come to an end. Given those facts, are you willing to take some massive losses now and solve the problem? Or do you just wait for the situation to become visible to everyone before you act?

I don't know how many times I've seen people--even bright ones--opt for the "wait and see" course of action. It never works.

Just as Betty Davis's 1938 film "Jezebel" was overshadowed by "Gone With The Wind", this film was overshadowed by "Twelve O'Clock High".

Hannibal (2001)

Five Favva Beans!

[9/10 · 9 February 2001]

Five Favva Beans. (out of five)

Well, I've just come back from seeing "Hannibal", the sequel to 1992's "Silence of the Lambs" and I am wired.

Every once in a while, there is a sequel that outdoes the original. "Beverly Hills Cop 2" comes to mind and so does "Superman 4". To my way of thinking, "Hannibal" is better than the original and that's going some.

I rather liked Jodie Foster as "Clarice Starling", but Julianne Moore handily out performs her. As before, Sir Anthony Hopkins is spellbinding. Add Gary Oldman to the movie as a mutilated multimillionaire/former boy toy, a gilt-edged script and the result is shocking, seductive and eminently entertaining. This movie is more than harrowing, it is absorbing. It pulls you right into its dark and relentless story line.

This is going to be more than a successful movie, it is a movie that deserves to be successful.

Hannibal (2001)

Five Favva Beans!

[9/10 · 9 February 2001]

Five Favva Beans… (out of five)

Well, I've just come back from seeing "Hannibal", the sequel to 1992's "Silence of the Lambs" and I am wired.

Every once in a while, there is a sequel that outdoes the original. "Beverly Hills Cop 2" comes to mind and so does "Superman 4". To my way of thinking, "Hannibal" is better than the original and that's going some.

I rather liked Jodie Foster as "Clarice Starling", but Julianne Moore handily out performs her. As before, Sir Anthony Hopkins is spellbinding. Add Gary Oldman to the movie as a mutilated multimillionaire/former boy toy, a gilt-edged script and the result is shocking, seductive and eminently entertaining. This movie is more than harrowing, it is absorbing. It pulls you right into its dark and relentless story line.

This is going to be more than a successful movie, it is a movie than deserves to be successful.

Dr. Strange (1978 TV Movie)

On Balance, A Great Flick

[23 October 2000]

So, it's not "Gone With The Wind" or even "The Omen". However, I like it and it is well worth watching.

The basic idea here, that a small number of empowered men(certainly women, too) act to preserve the world that we know from falling into demonic chaos, is an old one. It makes a stylish premise for this movie, which was based on the best-selling "Dr. Strange" comics.

The "astral" sequences are handled with style and grace. The actors play their respective parts very well.

I'd recommend this neat little movie both as entertainment and as a springboard for discussions. Do people like "Lindmer", "Wong", "Morgan LeFay" and "Dr. Steven Strange" actually exist?

I find a disconcerting similarity between Morgan LeFay's self-help cult(mentioned at the very end) and the all-too-real "Jonestown" in Guiana. (The mass suicide there, with all its disturbing implications, came a few weeks after this flick was released.)

Maybe there is "war in heaven", with some spiritual powers trying to bring humanity into enlightenment, while others try to "bust" us back into the Dark Ages. Then again, maybe I was just stoned when I saw this movie for the first time.

But I really did have a good time watching it either way!

The Scarface Mob (1959 TV Movie)

Not historical, but good fun anyway

[7/10 · 19 September 2000]

Al Capone versus Eliot Ness--Evil versus Good--Darkness versus Light...

The late 'Fifties brought B&W television to its highest point and "The Untouchables" was a case in point. People have a way of forgetting that the series--with its graphic violence--was controversial in its own time.

Robert Stack(as Eliot Ness) was here the perfect film noir hero--tough, laconic and utterly loyal to his subordinates. Neville Brand, no slouch himself, lit up the screen as Al Capone--sadistic, as tough as Ness and totally without concern for his own people(or anyone else, for that matter).

The reconstruction of mood and ambiance in this movie(re-edited from the TV series) is flawless. The mythic world which you see here is one that psychologist Carl Jung would have approved of. It was the "world" in which my own Dad had grown up--as seen through a child's eyes.

But, as history, it is woefully wide of the mark. The real Eliot Ness left Federal service after a few short years and was much less moral and self-possessed than the character played by Robert Stack. The real Al Capone had a weakness for beautiful women which ultimately killed him.

While Ness put the Chicago Gangsters under financial pressure, an accountant from the IRS actually put this multiple murderer behind bars--for income tax evasion.

I saw this as a kid, with my Dad at my side. It made me feel that there is, in the end, no issue more important than simple justice. Since that time, like most folks, I've learned to live with moral ambiguity. But that's not all good news, by any means.

Militia (2000)

I Quite Enjoyed This...

[6 August 2000]

This TV-movie premiered locally on HBO last Friday night(August 4). I was favorably impressed with it.

Frederic Forrest(played mystery author Dashiell Hammett in the Zoeotrope film "Hammett" with finesse and style) played an imprisoned militia and right-wing fanatic. Dean Cain(also of the "Superman" TV series), played an ATF agent who had captured him. Stacey Keach played a malevolent and reckless militia movement leader with chilling authority.

In today's "politically correct" climate, it would have been easy to portray all of the militia-men as morons or thugs. HBO's production, however, deftly distinguished between degrees of fanaticism and various types of men. The result was more dramatic, more thoughtful and more optimistic than a standard "PC" piece of **** would have been.

In the wake of its errors at Ruby Ridge and Waco, the ATF and the FBI have already taken to heart the implicit message of this fine film--even paranoids want and deserve their "day in court".

Clash of the Titans (1981)

It is truly great...

[9 March 1999]

When most modern people hear the word "myth", they often "translate" it into the word "lies". To my way of thinking, that accounts for the radical differences in how this film has been evaluated by various viewers. Here is my view and I speak as a casual student of psychologist Carl Jung.

The story line is--not surprisingly--mythic. It is a grand story told on a grand scale with the best tools which were available in 1981. Note the differing ways in which Caliban and Perseus handle misfortune--how many ordinary mortals become so sorry for themselves that they much worsen their own condition? To be sure, it is an invented tale, but it is a myth, not a pack of lies.

It is hard not to like Ray Harryhausen's superior special effects. The technology is better today, but Harryhausen was and is unsurpassed at getting his "mythologicals" to act and interact with the cast.

Oddly enough, Laurence Rosenthal's score--which recently became available on CD--isn't given the attention which it deserves. The music which he composed is spirited, unique and utterly supports whatever is happening on the screen--from the seemingly careless destruction of an entire city to Perseus' "love at first sight" when he sees the sleeping Princess Andromeda.

If you have the gift of mythological consciousness, this is a "10" film for sure. If not, I feel sorry for you. Read some Jung.

The Last of His Tribe (1992 TV Movie)

A true story, every way good!

[4 March 1999]

This is a true story. It is more emotional than a soap opera and, yet, unflinchingly genuine.

Just as was depicted in this film, Ishii stumbled into a white man's barn near Oroville, California, in 1911. He later told Kroeber that he expected nothing but death. Graham Greene's portrayal of a soft-spoken primitive gentleman is delightful. Greene's Ishii speaks English only after a fashion.

If you have the time, look up Kroeber's story of Ishii in the "Handbook of California Indians".

Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days (1975)

brief review

[19 January 1999]

Begins with a classically stupid "braino" by a New York Judge, who pronounces that some of the Mitchell Bros. movies "...would have violated community standards in Sodom and Gomorrah..." (For the records, sexual practices in pre-Hebraic Palestine embraced temple prostitution (both male and female), anal intercourse, exhibitionism, orgies and a good deal else.)

The story opens with a fight and a familiar story. Lot, his wife and daughters separate from the rest of the tribe and head for the unknown city of Sodom. There, they become temporarily enmeshed with a society where anal intercourse is a brutally enforced community standard. Shortly afterward, two space travelers with an incomprehensible obsession about human venereal disease "raid the party", sparing only Lot and his family. (This last element seems to have been adapted from Eric Von Daniken's books. He was popular at that time.)

Overall, this is the best erotic film ever made. Attractive young people having pleasantly varied sex with no barriers in sight. It leaves the bored supermodels of today's porn films far behind. The SF Bay Area was a great place to be in the mid-'70s if you were horny. This was filmed near Castro Valley, due to the better filming weather. Just warm enough to make romping around in the nude to be delightfully comfortable.