"1917" The Movie - A Review Of The 2020 Sam Mendes World War One Film...

"...Went To Sea In A Sieve..." 

"1917" - THE MOVIE

A Review of The Movie by Sam Mendes...

It's Friday 10 January 2020, opening night for 1917 The Movie in the UK and hot on the heels of its surprise win at The Golden Globes as Best Picture only a few days ago. Well, having been glued to my seat, heart in my mouth and jaw dropped unceremoniously to the sticky floor of Westgate On Sea's lovely Carlton Cinema - it will come as no surprise to me at all when it wins at least 4 Oscars come awards season - Best Movie and Direction for Sam Mendes, Best Cinematography for Roger Deakins (and about bloody time too) and Best Score (yet again) for Thomas Newman.

Visually and sonically part Revenant, part Saving Private Ryan with large dollops of Dunkirk's sheer otherworldliness thrown in - "1917" is seriously visceral stuff. Even now when I think about the opening single tracking shot that has to have lasted maybe as much as 20 minutes without a cut - had any single thing gone wrong - the whole set up would have been kaput (the action all takes place on 6 April 1917 near The Western Front). There are walks through miles of trenches with every horrible conceivable sight - hundreds and hundreds of extras all having to hit their mark on time (a beautifully understated Colin Firth and a nerve-frazzled cigarette-smoking Andrew Scott do their big name parts justice as various sides of the military brass).

But it’s the sequence that follows that utterly amazes as the two lads are tasked with finding a misguided 2nd Battalion's gung-ho Colonel to avert a slaughter of huge proportions by the supposedly retreating Hun – and it begins by finding a gap where they can go over the top. I can't even imagine how long it took to set up these miles of craters and mud and dirty water and rotten horse corpse and barbed wire and flies and the endless twisted mutilated bodies of men - but it stays with you long after the two try to navigate no man's land without being shot or blasted to oblivion.

The lion's share of the movie focuses almost exclusively on the two young lads burdened with a suicide mission that must succeed or so many will perish amongst them an older brother - George MacKay and Dean Charles-Chapman magnificent in their full-frontal roles as Lance Corporals Schofield and Blake. 

Having said that, if I was to nitpick - while the horrible relentlessness of World War I's trench/town conditions are portrayed with truly amazing set pieces - the sheer sickening waste of life seems somehow sidelined at times. I often feel like a convenient re-writing of history takes place with the First World War - swap upper class arrogance for ordinary-man heroism and the puppet masters of these completely avoidable massacres can divert responsibility and hide their shame. It's like the hero element is all when of course we now know from so many first-hand accounts that ordinary soldiers were left with only mental and physical waste, sadness, faith destruction and rage at the landed aristocracy back in London who put them and their buddies there in the first place to die with such callous ease for King and Country. You would also have to agree with some critics that the technical can and does overwhelm the emotional a little too much at times and I think it's only this that stops "1917" The Movie from reaching true greatness (I'd still rate it as a five-star barnstormer nonetheless). Richard Madden, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch also all make brief but hugely impressive appearances - men of war – just some more in touch with the humane than others.

Two huge elements in the film’s swallow-you-up envelopment are Roger Deakins stunning cinematography that goes up and down from muddy boot to bloodied uniform - somehow drawing you into their Hell in a new way that makes it all feel so horribly real - and Thomas Newman's score that ups the thump-pulse one minute then tugs on the heartstrings the next – and always just when you think no more emotion can be wrenched from a scene (he manages this time and time again even amidst the horror).

The other unspoken hero is the way Mendes has shot the film - always feeling like you're on their shoulders - behind them - beside them - in front of them. The choreography is astounding at times too - the camera casually observing the mundane – grunt soldiers on a truck talking about the dead cows in the fields they pass - and then terrifying in equally brilliant measure – Lance Corporal Schofield head-injured as he is sucked along in the current of a river where branches, rocks and dead bodies batter against him in the truly gross detritus of war. There's a chance night-time encounter with a beleaguered mother and infant entrenched in a French ruin where he recites Edward Lear's poem The Jumblies to calm the milk-starved baby and the words don't just do the soothing trick but somehow also describe the sheer stupidity and hubris of the war to end all wars. There are buddy-buddy talks as they walk with their rifles and bayonets at the ready - weapons that seem pitiful in the face of the merciless war machine facing them in every pasture - chatting one minute in beautiful cherry-blossom orchards and then dashing the next through collapsing wood and dust in horror dugouts where suffocation is only seconds away unless you can summon up the will to live and move that tired body and pummelled mind. 

"1917" is a brilliant film and it seems that all of Mendes work to date has been leading up to this. There is also a genuine Spielberg-like sense throughout of a master of his craft finally at work on something that really matters to him - aided by a cast, crew and technical know-how that can deliver such a mind-blowing one-continuous-shot vision (the movie is dedicated to his uncle Alfred and his stories handed down to Sam as a child). 

Oscar glory surely beckons for "1917" in the award ceremonies held 9 February 2020 - and when the BLU RAY (especially the 4K variant) is released later in the year - it's on my shopping list pretty damn quick. "Well done lad..." one of the soldiers says to Lance Corporal Schofield knowing what he's been through. Amen to that and huge congrats to everyone involved...

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” - A Review Of The 2000 Coen Brothers Film - Now Reissued On An ‘All Regions’ BLU RAY In 2011.

*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE 2011 ALL-REGIONS BLU RAY REISSUE ***

"Hot Damn! It's The Soggy Bottom Boys!"

When the Coen Brothers unleashed "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" into cinemas in September 2000 - it was an audio and visual sensation. The DVD that followed in 2001 received equal praise. But little will prepare fans for this truly beautiful 2011 BLU RAY transfer - it's properly gorgeous to look at - and up there with the best this (often frustrating) format can offer...

When it was originally filmed on location - a 'lossless' digital process was used to fully realise the specific light and scenery of Depression-hit Mississippi in 1937 (beautiful gold and yellow hues). That process combined with the stunning cinematography of Roger Deakins both get to shine like never before. There are times when the visuals are quite literally breathtaking in their clarity. And the canvas to impress your eyes just keeps coming at you as the movie progresses from location to location - open fields, hay barns, twisted swamps, dust roads, river banks, inside period cars and beat-up trucks, the chain-gang detail, radio stations and bank interiors. Even in the notoriously difficult indoor scenes in ramshackle homesteads and around campfires at night - it all looks 'so' good. Add to this a blisteringly funny script full of savvy life-observations and brutal local colloquialisms - and it's hardly surprising that it was nominated for 2 Academy Awards in these areas (Best Script and Cinematography).

Defaulted to 2.35:1 aspect ratio - it has bars top and bottom of the screen - but even when stretched to full screen - it rarely loses any definition. And better news for fans around the world is that this issue is an 'ABC/All Regions' BLU RAY - so it will play on every machine (as well as PlayStation 3 consoles).

Written and Directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen - "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" comes across as a sort of Three Stooges Road Movie with song accompaniment. Roughly based on Homer's Greek tragedy "The Iliad" about a journey of salvation with many "ob-stack-les" along the weary way - its genius soundtrack also sparked a worldwide interest in Blues, Gospel and Old Timey Country music - much of which had been long forgotten and often derided as hick and corny (2011 saw a 2CD 'Deluxe Edition' reissue of this). The film was immediately followed by the DVD release of the "Down From The Mountain" concert in Nashville, Tennessee featuring live music played by musicians on the Grammy-winning soundtrack. Anyone who has seen it will know that it's an equally joyful and musically charged experience. This is America before the sadness and loss of 9/11 - enjoying itself and celebrating its heritage - and rightly so.

The large and varied cast is exceptional - especially the grotesque caricatures that pepper scene after scene. Quinn Gasaway as a gun-totting boy in filthy overalls, Stephen Root as the bug-eyed giggling recording studio boss, John Goodman as the dodgy Bible salesman Big Dan Teague whose ears pop up when he hears the crisp click of dollar bills in a restaurant. His eye-patch signals him as the club-wielding one-eyed Cyclops. Wayne Duvall as the hood-wearing racist Homer Stokes trying to get elected over Charles Durning - the portly but wily Governor of Mississippi - Pappy "Pass The Biscuits" O'Daniel who also hosts a radio show. So many great parts...

The story goes something like this - chained together as a trio of escaped convicts - they are driven to find a $1.2 million dollar treasure Everett is supposed to have hidden in a shack in a valley that is to be flooded in five days time to build a massive hydro-electric dam. But they are being pursued by the Devil in sunglasses with his mean dog - Sheriff Cooley (played with relish by Daniel Von Bargen). After visiting a relative of Pete's called Wash (a man who rarely does) - the boys are hounded off the farm yet again. They then meet a Negro called Tommy Johnson at a crossroads and give him a lift (superbly played by Louisiana guitarist Chris Thomas King). He explains that at midnight the night before he sold his immortal soul to the Devil in return for a guitar that he "sure can play" (like the folklore surrounding Blues legend Robert Johnson). Delmar is appalled but Everett sees a business opportunity. If they can get to a radio station on the outskirts of the State - there's a man there who'll give them money to "sing into a can". They eventually get there - pretend to be The Soggy Bottom Boys - do a charged rendition of "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" - and cut a record. But unbeknown to the hapless crew - a radio hit is born that will literally save their souls (and lives) in the end. But before they can get to that redemption of sorts - all sorts of journey hilarity ensues - including a reunion between Everett and his estranged wife Penny (Holly Hunter) and their 4-strong progeny of mouthy daughters. There are gun-battles with a madcap bank robber George 'Baby Face' Nelson who shoots livestock because he hates cows (a fantastic turn by Coens' favourite Michael Badalucco) and sexy Sirens by the river who turn Pete into a horny toad. It all ends with tins of Dapper Dan pomade floating by the screen when the big flood comes (along with everything else)...

The music deserves a special mention. While audiences expected to howl with laughter and cringe at the array of unhygienic ingrates displayed on screen - what they hadn't expected was to be so moved by the old-timey music - full of ballads about heartbreak, poverty and death. A perfect example is The Cox Family singing "I Am Weary (Give Me Rest)" on a truck at a town gathering - the melody and lyrics are genuinely moving. The congregation making their way through the trees to the river to be baptised as they sing (Acapella) "Down To The River To Pray". Country and Blues musicians also have on-and-off-camera cameos - Clooney lip-synching in the recording booth is really being sung by Dan Tyminski of Alison Krauss' band Union Station - Gillian Welch asking for a copy of the song in a record shop - Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris provide the Acapella vocals as the seductive Sirens on the river - Ralph Stanley of The Stanley Brothers singing "O Death" as Tommy is led by a lynch mob to a gallows and a burning cross - The Fairfield Four Gospel group singing as they dig graves by a log cabin...

But the movie belongs to the three principal leads - John Turturro as the permanently moaning Pete Hogwallop and Tim Blake Nelson as the less than Mensa-material Delmar O'Donnell (a role he would revive to great effect in "Flypaper" - see review). There is a rare and completely believable chemistry between them. But the big revelation here is George Clooney playing the philosophy-jabbering Everett Ulysses McGill. While he doesn't quite reach the cult-inducing peaks of Jeff Bridges as 'The Dude' in the Coens incomparable "The Big Lebowski" (a part emblazoned into cinema lover's hearts forever) - Clooney shows a deftness of touch for comedy and pathos throughout that is quite fantastic. More importantly he seemed to finally park his devastatingly handsome good looks by taking a career chance and showing the world that he was more than just a pretty face. Clooney can act his soggy pants off if given the right part (something he's proved many times since).

The only real let down is the paltry extras (those that accompanied the initial DVD issue) which last only a few minutes and leave you craving more.

Still - this is a fantastic advertisement for what BLU RAY can offer. I only wish I had a humungous home-cinema system to watch it on.

To sum up - after they fail to catch a passing train full of men with "aimless lives of wandering..." Delmar is asked by the other two squabblers to give the deciding vote on who is leader of the trio. Delmar sappily says - "I'm with you fellas!"

I wholeheartedly agree.

BLU RAY Specifications:
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition - Aspect Radio 2.35:1
AUDIO: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital
SUBTITLES: English SDH (Hard Of Hearing), French and Spanish

EXTRAS:
1. The Making Of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
2. Two Storyboard-To-Scene Comparisons
3. "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" Music Video
4. Theatrical Trailer

PS: Isaac Freeman - the bass vocalist with the legendary Gospel/Acapella group "The Fairfield Four" (mentioned above) - released his 1^st solo album at the age of 73 in 2011 on Lost Highway Records called “Beautiful Stars”. It’s a beauty. Check it out…

 

"The Company Men". A Review of the 2010 Film Now On A 2011 BLU RAY.

"…You're Gonna Have A Rough Time Out There…"

Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) knots his silk tie, jumps into his silver Porsche Convertible, speeds out of the leafy drive of his seven-figure suburban mansion and heads off into his job as Regional Sales Manager for GTX – an $11 billion dollar ship-building conglomerate based in the plusher part of Boston who employ over 60,000 people nationwide…

In a less conspicuously wealthy part of town Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) – a man who’s been to Vietnam and then worked himself up from a 60-hour week doing dangerous riveting on the propeller shafts of oil-tankers to a distinguished 30-year managerial career – fixes his dapper cufflinks – albeit a little more wearily.

Out by the waterfront in a palatial monolith too gross for mere adjectives, the Executive Vice President of Global Transportation Services (GTX) Gene McClary (played by Tommy Lee Jones) looks down at a machine that polishes his leather shoes to a mirror-like shine. All three then look into their home mirrors with the faintest whiff of insufferable smugness.

Little do any of them know that Black Friday is about to bring a particularly cruel and detached word into their vocabulary – 'downsizing'…

"The Company Men" deals with the American bank collapses of September 2008 and their devastating knock-on effect on US heavy-manufacturing industries and their already constricting workforces. As you can see from the principal actors outlined above - the cast is to die-for – and John Well's Script and Direction gives them real substance to work with. Another weapon in the movie's favour is the cinematography of the legendary ROGER DEAKINS (“The Shawshank Redemption”, “The Hudsucker Proxy” and “True Grit”). Not only is the Blu Ray image immaculate throughout (he can make a car driving down a snowy road look like poetry) – the pristine sheen of home interiors and top floor offices strewn with Degas Paintings and iMacs is both beautiful and menacing – because beneath all that money, veneer and polish is a very real unspoken threat - poverty is only a corporate axe-swing away.

The story begins by putting all three 'company men' in the firing-line – forcing each to reassess themselves and the promises of people they once thought they could trust. Tommy Lee Jones – an actor with as much gravitas as the Lincoln Memorial – does a stunning job of portraying Gene McClary. You can literally 'feel' his treacle-like slide into the abyss. His lifelong friendship with his boss Jim Salinger (a typically excellent Craig T. Nelson) is poisoned beyond repair as corporate greed callously axes 5000 jobs to meet shareholder’s needs – and keep the big boys and their moneyed lifestyle intact (Bobby Walker is the first of these casualties). As the monetary noose tightens – another 5000 job cuts are called for and the blade comes closer to home. In a brilliantly written scene where they’re deciding who goes and who stays - a lawyer tells Gene "…We’re breaking no laws here…" to which Gene replies "…I guess I always assumed we were trying for a higher standard than that…" And is doesn’t help either that Gene is sleeping with Sarah Wilcox (Maria Bello) – an upper-coming executive who does all the firing in a sexy dress with a concerned look…

Chris Cooper too brings the film some badly-needed heart with a brilliant and unnerving portrayal of a man of a certain age losing his job – and by extension what defines him. In a particularly brutal scene - a tough female Career's Officer (Cady Huffman) tells Phil how it really is (her dialogue titles this review) and she doesn’t mince her words "You're pushing sixty and you look like Hell…" She outlines what has to be axed and what has to be massaged in his old fart’s resume. Sat there in a suit that no longer feels right and with his body crouched forward in an already defeated way, Cooper’s look of puppy-dog bewilderment combined with a barely contained rage is so good that it’s palpable. His disintegration later is both sad and painfully believable. He’s a great actor and such an asset to this movie…

But the whole thing pivots on Ben Affleck's character Bobby Walker and the arc of his painful journey. He starts out as an insufferable motormouth earning $120,000 a year plus incentives with a golf-club membership and eating-out expenses of $600 a month. His wife and two kids want for nothing and have every electrical gadget that screams 'we've arrived'. And when he joins the Jobseeker's club he cockily tells Danny (a huge presence in Eamonn Walker) that he'll have a job in a few days – he completely believes it. Three months later – with his car and possessions gone – their home foreclosed on – 100% of his phonecalls not returned and his severance pay running out - he’s beginning to look and sound like a 37-year old loser who can’t support his family. Luckily his wife Maggie (a superlative Rosemary DeWitt) keeps him and their world from falling apart with a practicality that her husband so clearly lacks (they rediscover each other in the process).

Affleck is often accused of being too pretty boy and too lightweight to be taken seriously, but with his two excellent directorial works "Gone Baby Gone" and "The Town" and past performances in "Hollywoodland" and "State Of Play" – once again he shows here that he can easily stand up with the big boys. There’s a scene in Jack’s house (a wonderfully held-back performance by Kevin Costner – a working man who is incensed at the mere presence of this upstart he clearly feels deserves his comeuppance) when Bobby is looking around the room at the dinner table. He sighs - he’s anticipating lectures about responsibility and prayers for hope - his eyelids weigh about 2000 tons. The slide of despair has begun – but there’s still that arrogance there. It's a spot-on performance by Affleck for his character at that particular moment. By the time his Bobby gets to huffing sheets of timber about on a construction site for his hated brother-in-law – his dirty-faced blister-handed appreciation of having 'any' job is real and complete. It's impressive stuff…

Niggles – despite the A-list cast, the beautiful presentation of the print, the often exceptional writing and the slick direction, there’s a gnawing feeling that you’re being asked to care about smug pricks with too much money – people you want to hit over the head repeatedly with a cricket bat. And worse - the movie slyly concentrates too much on the ‘young’ jobless type and not the men of 40, 50 and 60 who can be all but destroyed by such a loss. But luckily the script is smarter than all that and despite a rather pat happy-ending - the sheer quality of the cast and the material win out.

"The Company Men" probably isn't going to trouble any Oscar Nominations List or fire up critics into spilling out orgasmic soliloquies - but like a good night in with friends where way too many drinks have been taken – what was said in liquored-up truth the night before will stay with you for days afterwards. Mostly it’ll make you think about 'work' - how it traps/frees us - how it even gives us life itself...

And if "The Company Men" makes us appreciate what we have and value it - then it's a job well done. A good movie really...

Put it high on your rental list.