Leaders of the Storm Troops: Volume 1: Oberster SA-Fuhrer, SA-Stabschef and SA-Obergruppenfuhrer (B - J)
Andreas Schultz and Michael D. Miller
Book
How did an Austrian-born misfit who had never risen higher in military service than the rank of...
Awix (3310 KP) rated Wonder Woman (2017) in Movies
Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Feb 10, 2018)
There's something very refreshing about the way laborious franchise concerns are firmly put on the back burner, and all the focus is kept on telling a good, strong story. The decision to change the setting to the First World War (apparently made to avoid comparisons with the first Captain America movie) proves to be a really smart one, giving the film its own tone and atmosphere, and the story is well-paced with great character development. It's now hard to imagine anyone other than Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman, and even Chris Pine is not too annoying for once.
Watching Wonder Woman feels a bit like travelling back in time to a point when summer blockbusters were less calculated, grasping, and egregiously thick-headed. My advice to DC would be to give the security staff a nice long paid holiday and hope the makers of Wonder Woman come back and do it again.
Piercing the Horizon: The Making of a Twentieth-Century American Space Luminary
Book
We all know the names: Grissom, Armstrong, Cernan-legends of the space age whose names resonate with...
The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire
Book
In the pantheon of freedom fighters, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. His fame and...
A Few Hares to Chase: The Economic Life and Times of Bill Phillips
Book
The Phillips Curve is world famous amongst economists. The man who invented it was an inventor, an...
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Podcast
Extraterrestrial invasion, the earth taken over by omniscient intelligences from Mars, the whole of...
When Men & Mountains Meet: Like the Desire for Drink or Drugs, the Craving for Mountains is Not Easily Overcome
Book
'We had climbed a mountain and crossed a pass; been wet, cold, hungry, frightened, and withal happy....
Army Wives: From Crimea to Afghanistan: The Real Lives of the Women Behind the Men in Uniform
Book
Most families have an army wife somewhere in their past. Over the centuries they have followed their...
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated 1917 (2020) in Movies
Nov 28, 2019
As we know this did not happen as a generation later the world was once again at war with even great death and destruction to follow. However in “1917” we see the conflict from the viewpoint of a lowly Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) who along with his friend Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are tasked with delivering a message across enemy lines to warn advanced units to call of an attack due to an ambush being set by the Germans.
The duo are told that the enemy has pulled back and as such; the dreaded No Man’s Land between the opposing trenches are likely to be abandoned as well their approach to a town near their destination. With the phone lines down; the duo are the only option and they are at first shocked to learn that it would just the two of them.
As they make their way across a grim and corpse-laden battlefield, the audience as well as the two men get a look at the horrific conditions that combat took place under and how fallen individuals were left to decompose where they fell due to the entrenched and stagnant nature of Trench Warfare.
As complications mount, the two must face up to their greatest fears and challenges; driven by a sense of mission and purpose for a conflict they just want to see end so they can return home to their families.
Director Sam Mendes has crafted an Oscar Caliber film as it is gripping as it is breathtaking thanks to the amazing visuals. The contrast between the beauty of the landscape and the carnage of war has rarely been captured as well as it was in this film and the fact that Mendes had a hand in writing the story based on stories told by a relative really help to bring the full impact of the story home.
The film has some amazing sequences like sustained and extended shots where you wonder how Mendes was able to film scenes with so many things going on in one take as there is a scene near the start that looks as if it is an extended scene with no breaks or cutaways.
In the end the biggest selling point for the film is that it is a human drama at its core. While there is combat and action, they are not the focal points as much of the film centers around the young men and their conversations.
The film will stay with you after the credits roll and I consider “1917” to be one of the best films of 2019 and one not to be missed.
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