Im giving this a high rating because it excels at a subgenre of movies that I love but there doesn’t seem to be an audience for, and that is war movies without any moralizing.
There’s no set up, so flashbacks to loved ones, no great dramatic closeup with sweeping music. There’s no amazing headshots or even a hero’s journey. It’s just an event that happens and is recorded. Even more this team isn’t a team of badasses mowing down enemies, they’re the team that gets fucked up and has to be saved by the badasses. The men sometimes do good things and sometimes can’t even do the simplest things because of the stress of the situation or being concussed or whatever.
It comes in at a crisp 90 minutes and I was unusually disappointed the movie was over so quickly because it was so good and it was surprising because modern movies, especially war movies, love to go on forever.
My takeaway from the movie is logistics. The men in charge ask the smallest details. On which side of the gate is the tank pulling up to? What pocket is a smoke grenade in? Getting a gun from the next room that could be targeted by an enemy takes 3 men and 10 commands. The movie really excels at the feeling of the whole world collapsing in. Where before they could move around the house freely suddenly or before maybe they could move out of the house, suddenly they’re suck in two rooms, with all communication to the outside world going through radios.
The movies point or really lack of point is interesting. I say that because that war is pointless is a moralizing point of its own and the movie doesn’t dwell of it. The mother whose house they took over and that’s been completely demolished is crying why? And the only thing the soldiers can say as they leave is ‘I’m sorry’, and at the very end after the tanks pull away the shot hovers on the street where everything has been happening and all the men who have been shooting at the Americans come out of hiding and congregate on the street. You can imagine them swapping stories just like you can imagine the soldiers doing.
It was fine. Nothing too new mostly, except that I didn’t realize that it was filmed before Mary Poppins had ever been released, which explains why the studio just barreled ahead with having Andrews basically play Mary Poppins twice in a row in the form of different characters (though I’m certainly glad she did). Honestly, when the “turn your damn phones off” announcement comes and the lights drop, I was geared up for the movie to start, so seeing him come on the screen to tell me why the movie is so great was a bit of a welp. Not his fault though; I just don’t usually care for those.
I figured that was probably why you asked. It came through without issues. I see a lot of gripes about the A/V on Fathom presentations, but I’ve never actually felt like they played any worse for me than any other theatrical rereleases.
If it’s this one, I was unaware of it, and I gather that most people must be similarly unaware. The fact that Letterboxd doesn’t have enough votes to give it an average means that it’s REALLY not logged much. Actually, just looked: story checks out. Logged 149 times total. Virtually no activity on it.
Honestly, the only significant miss for me in the entire movie is how abrupt Captain Von Trapp’s character turn is. I don’t buy it. I shrug it off quickly, so as flaws go it’s whatever, but it’s the one critique I’d be most likely to level at it.
I do think the turn to it being a Nazi-focused movie at the end is also a bit on the abrupt side after most of the movie has been a very light family drama, but I took less issue with that on rewatch than I did on first run.
Guess I struggle to care about this in any instance where playing fast and loose with the facts doesn’t mislead audience members in a way that has any impact at all today. Also why I wasn’t joining in on all the bitching about Ridley Scott’s Napoleon movie that I thought was quite good.
Sound of Music 100% lives and dies by the musical numbers, but the plot - which I do enjoy - is incidental. If it’s a bit liberal with the facts, whatever.
I think I saw the first two? Maybe I just don’t understand what makes ghost stories scary. I’d feel a lot more invested if I understood each ghost’s power set. But as it is, there’s no rhyme or reason to when a ghost appears or what kind of damage it can do. I don’t even need the characters to understand how to exploit the ghosts. The script has already taken away every character’s agency. Just make the rules clear to the audience so we know when the tension is ratcheting up to more than yet another jump scare.
