This is the only movie I saw about the Finnish Civil War and I must say it was way too short: it did not leave enough time for the viewer to remember and discover the personality of the main characters. It has plenty of action and has believable costumes and weapons. What annoyed me in this feature was the frequent monologues of some characters talking to the camera like if they were reading a letter while the rest of the guys where fighting: it was turning me off each time.
Reviews
8 Reviews
The Elusive Corporal
(1962)
A comedy, really?
17 May 2022
This movie fell short of being funny and even dramatic. It hosted an unbelievable love-at-first-sight love story and an over-the-edge friendship. I found the movie boring and it's not due to a language barrier, as I'm French-speaking myself. "La Grande Vadrouille", another French comedy happening during WW2 which was released four years later (in 1966), is much funnier than this one.
The Passage
(1979)
Poor scenario and direction but what a cast!
30 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This movie had a great cast and they all played their role right: Anthony Quinn, Malcolm McDowell, James Mason, Christopher Lee, Michael Lonsdale... Kudos to Malcolm McDowell who offered a jaw-dropping performance as the most ruthless and sadistic SS officer I've seen in a war movie so far.
Unfortunately, possibly due to a poor scenario and direction (surprisingly, the director, J. Lee Thompson, also directed The Guns of Navarone with brio), this movie did not rate high. Some scenes were obviously filmed in slow motion, to be seen as playing too fast in the movie, an SS officer dressed in pre-1938 black uniform (while in post-1940) ordering a higher-ranked Heer officer, cameras wrongly placed where you clearly see punches in the air, wagons and vehicles exploding twice and unrealistically, all Germans speaking English, etc.
Unfortunately, possibly due to a poor scenario and direction (surprisingly, the director, J. Lee Thompson, also directed The Guns of Navarone with brio), this movie did not rate high. Some scenes were obviously filmed in slow motion, to be seen as playing too fast in the movie, an SS officer dressed in pre-1938 black uniform (while in post-1940) ordering a higher-ranked Heer officer, cameras wrongly placed where you clearly see punches in the air, wagons and vehicles exploding twice and unrealistically, all Germans speaking English, etc.
Five Graves to Cairo
(1943)
A fabric of improbabilities
13 April 2022
Let's start with an arrogant, smoking Erwin Rommel (he didn't smoke) speaking very good English (he didn't speak English), teaching German tactics to captured English officers and calling himself "Your Excellency" by the personnel of the hotel. Let's admit, though, that the movie was released in 1943, when Rommel was still unknown to the public. Let's continue with a German officer (also speaking very good English) who can't see an enemy 5 meters away from him in his field of vision? Surprising. And what about the owner of the hotel... His gestures and his fearful words irritated me. On the good side, the backdrop of the story was telling historical events. Overall, the acting was good but the script fell a little flat for me and was predictable.
Blanche and Marie
(1985)
The Resistance seen from a female point of view
15 February 2022
A compelling story about these women and their French comrades and families, acting against their German oppressors, avoiding close-by informers and resisting the cruelty of the Vichy French police, between 1941 to 1944. The main actresses, Blanche and Marie, are very well impersonated by Miou Miou and Sandrine Bonaire and represent well womens share in the French "Résistance".
Attack on the Iron Coast
(1968)
The movie that could have become a classic
30 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The Attack on the Iron Coast is a fictional story based on a true one, the St Nazaire Raid, a.k.a. The greatest raid of all.
The opening scene has Major Jamie Wilson (Loyd Bridges) watching a movie reel showing images of actual combat between English troops and German, but from the German perspective too (!), looking more like a 1944 movie than a film taken from combat reporters. And again, would there be a cameraman filming during a commando raid? That was my first deception.
Second deception: later we see a Messerschmitt Bf 109 (fighter) dropping 8 bombs on the main ship when that plane could not carry more than four (small 110lb bombs) and not one was showing under the fuselage.
Apart from that, the script and the action was faily good and I enjoyed the movie. I would have wished, though, that they stick with the reall story (which was still very interesting), using British commandos instead of Canadians (couldn't Loyd Bridges speak with an English accent?), used 15 small boats instead of only a few (which were tasked to bring back the commandos afterward), etc.
The opening scene has Major Jamie Wilson (Loyd Bridges) watching a movie reel showing images of actual combat between English troops and German, but from the German perspective too (!), looking more like a 1944 movie than a film taken from combat reporters. And again, would there be a cameraman filming during a commando raid? That was my first deception.
Second deception: later we see a Messerschmitt Bf 109 (fighter) dropping 8 bombs on the main ship when that plane could not carry more than four (small 110lb bombs) and not one was showing under the fuselage.
Apart from that, the script and the action was faily good and I enjoyed the movie. I would have wished, though, that they stick with the reall story (which was still very interesting), using British commandos instead of Canadians (couldn't Loyd Bridges speak with an English accent?), used 15 small boats instead of only a few (which were tasked to bring back the commandos afterward), etc.
Excellent documentary on the 1944 Normandy landing
5 May 2020
Subjects treated: Dieppe raid, Tehran conference, London Controlling Section, Operation Fortitude, spies and double agents, X-craft submarines, Operation Tiger, Atlantic wall reinforcements, French territory mass bombing, Montgomery's double, Stagg's weather predictions, June 5th cancellation, interception of the invasion radio messages by the Germans, Eisenhower, Churchill and De Gaulle memoirs.
* in French.
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