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Die Funfte
(5th) Page |
Achtung! On this page you will grasp the
scrollbar firmly and move it to navigate the movies herein. It's the Prussian
way. Also, the "CLICK FOR MORE MOVIES" button at the bottom of this screen
is a marvel of modern convenience! In the absence of full commitment from
Count Blitzenspeicher to abandon live stage entertainment for movies, we
have been fortunate to secure, from the Dark Diaper Film Institute, a steady
supply of surplus movie reviews from the talented pens of none other than
the incomparable Dark Diaper and the ravishingly incisive Caped Vixen themselves.
As people of stature seldom venture out into the jostling indelicacy of public
screenings, reviews of previously-shown pictures are apropos for our typical
patrons. In a bow to the Haus of Blitzenspeicher, the Diaper Duo has
graciously consented to allow us to substitute our torpedo rating system
for their usual diaper pins. Last update July 9,
2000.
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One-half Rating
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Unnecessarily
Graphic or
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One-half Rating
Point
Immoral Lifestyling,
Gratuitous Sexual
Content or Profanity |
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Whatever
It Takes This is hilariously funny! It's
funnier than any movie has a RIGHT to be, and it is consistently so throughout
the entire story. Laughs are fresh and easy all the way, due to really clever
writing, timing, directing, cutting, and ACTING. Every member of the cast
is a laugh riot unfolding or a perfect straight man.
As a bonus, there is a solid, easy to follow, interesting plot... even
though it is a clear rip-off of numerous other carbon copies before it. The
cast seems to have established a natural rapport that makes everything come
alive in a very much more meaningful, clever, outlandish, and gratifying
way; i.e. huge new flavor: same low price!
You know the basic idea: Boy and girl grow up next door to each other,
and share everything. They know each other so well they almost finish each
other's sentences. They adore each other and mistake their closeness for
just a sibling relationship.
Then, comes the call of puberty. Their adolescent dream mates begin unfolding
in their heads as some exotic, esoteric, stupefyingly different and exciting
person. One or the other is afraid to test the waters and the other finds
an unexpected angle that helps them in their quest. It usually involves a
plot to help the other find their dream mate.
But, long after things have already gone too far, the plotter discovers
that they REALLY love their childhood friend. The other one has more intuitively
felt the same way, but was too self-doubting to express it. Suddenly, the
cobwebs fall from their eyes and they find themselves madly in love with
each other.
Along the way, a bunch of crazy, difficult, embarrassing, hurtful, FUNNY
stuff happens. You can predict each one of them, but you don't care that
it's a well worn formula because this is a uniquely creative, entertaining,
and FUNNY variation with enthusiastic, spontaneous, insanely entertaining
performances by a WHOLE cast of idiots!
All of this comes at a price, however. You must suffer dissertation
involving a four foot plastic male member and safety shield, scattered
peltings of infantile profanity, a triple dip of male bootie, plus highly
suggestive situation comedy and clothing.
If you go, realize that -- as adults -- you probably won't be hugely offended
if you like incredibly well done adolescent humor. But, ironically, such
humor is inappropriate for ADOLESCENTS. |
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Here on
Earth (by Caped Vixen) Sweet, syrupy
romantic tale of three high school seniors on the verge of growing up. Private
school student, Kelley Morse (Chris Klein), tangles with the locals of a
quaint small town when he takes his buddies driving in his shiny new Mercedes.
Local boy Jasper (John Hartnett) and Kelley get in a shoving match when Kelley
comes onto coy Samantha, Jasper's girl. The brief fight later culminates
in a hairy car race that ends in the total destruction of Samantha's family
diner. Fittingly, the local judge requires both boys to spend their summer
helping to rebuild the diner.
Samantha can't keep her eyes off of Kelley and discovers a soul mate in
their mutual love of poetry. Jasper's left hanging as Sam wanders through
unresolved desire versus loyalty. The story twists at this point and romance
wins. There are some cuss words, fight scenes and a couple kissing in bed
- we're left to figure the rest out as the next shot shows them still on
the bed in the morning light.
I disliked the drawn out scenes of sunlight through the trees and gradual
panning of beautiful scenery laced with emotion charged music - all to bring
forth tears from the audience - hmm.
Dark Diaper enjoyed this movie much more than I. It's OK, but not on my
"You gotta go see this" list. |
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THE NINTH GATE
THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS! Yet another offering from the
same fount that has birthed such epic abstractions as: Felicia's Journey,
Ghost Dog - the way of the Samurai, and The Blair Witch Project.
Dean Corso is a book sleuth, well regarded in the dim alcoves of the world's
grand book collectors, legal and otherwise. He views no assignment too
challenging as long as the money's good.
Then a very private, notorious, and sinister collector -- Boris Balkan
(Frank Langella) -- summons his talents for a highly unusual and personally
scintillating commission that sparks his imagination more than ever before.
The money is also greener than ever before.
He is given brief access to an elaborate and highly inaccessible library,
and is shown one of the rarest books in the world. It has just been acquired
by his patron at considerable cost, actually mere days before the previous
owner committed suicide. Upon examining it, he is told that its inspiration
is a book that no longer exists, one written by Lucifer himself.
His task is described in simple terms. He is to travel to and examine
each of the other two examples of the book still extant; and, in doing so,
is to prove the illegitimacy of the others. As each of the three copies has
previously been regarded to be authentic, this challenge could seem quite
heretical among rare book owners but that is of no consequence to Balkan
who seems certain that he alone has the only remaining legitimate copy.
To a sleuth of his caliber, this seems to Corso a rather simple assignment
with little downside and lots of intrigue and financial reward. He is easily
persuaded and flies off to Europe for the first book examination.
What he quickly discovers, however, is that it turns out to be a quite
a treacherous and inimical gauntlet laced with death... though not his own,
not yet, but maybe.
His death comes later when a big, gossamer pterodactyl-like visage swoops
onto him and coalesces into a hideous cannibalistic beast that rips out his
heart and drinks him white. Actually, that's MY preferred ending. The real
one is more perplexing and anticlimactic. Mine is quite better.
Anyway, as with all evil movies, there are the obligatory bare-naked sex
acts, other nude scenes, and episodes of vile language and demonic acts.
The much maligned Johnny Depp looks really sharp as Corso and does an
incredibly good job of sustaining an ever so delicately building tension
that artfully rivets you on the unfolding drama. He is the central figure
of the movie and all action centers and builds around his character. Strong
character actors do an equally admirable job of fleshing out the periphery
(no pun intended.)
The movie waits until the last seven minutes to utterly fall on its face
with an ending that transgresses the story's central promise. Maybe that's
an unintended blessing. We get to feel the betrayal that sin always brings,
but in the safety of a fictional setting.... a simulation, you might say.
Obviously, this is NOT a movie for sub-adults, and its appropriateness
beyond that is a question only for those without a good moral compass. Depp
was GREAT, as was most of the central story development; but, given advanced
notice, I would have treated Vixen to an ice cream cone instead. |
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ERIN
BROCKOVICH Erin Brockovich (convincingly played by
Eric Roberts' sister, Julia Roberts) is a former Miss Wichita who still has
her tiara to prove that she's not just another un-savvy, unskilled, unemployed
mother of three who has already struck out with two previous husbands. Her
native skills include a vocabulary unapproachable even by a turbo-charged
Tourette's patient, as well as a knack for fashion that would dazzle a $50.00
street-walker. AND, there's a lot of double-dribbling goin' on as she walks...
You know what I mean?
With this resume, it might seem surprising that this story is essentially
very uplifting (no pun intended) and inspiring... cross my heart. True, there
some paradoxes here. A heroic mom who dresses like a tart. A mom who cusses
out her young boy for cussing.
An ill-prepared, though intelligent, mom running to grasp the hem of life's
coattails, she has a calamitous fender-bender a block from home and winds
up in court with a snaky, mean doctor opposing her and lying about his
culpability. When tact, money, and social position win out, Erin is left
with another loss in life to add to her growing collection (not to mention
joblessness and $17,000 in debts.)
What to DO? Hmmmmm. On the same day she looses in court, her dependable,
next-door babysitter announces that she is going to move away and live with
her children. THEN, bikers move in NEXT DOOR and, when she tells them not
to rev up their bikes at bedtime, one of them, George (beautifully portrayed
by Aaron Eckhart,) HITS ON HER with the ardor of a modern day Romeo. He is
struck with Cupid's arrow from the start.
Meanwhile, having been married and having spent all of her time at maternal
pursuits, Erin has no resume. So, job hunting is rather bleak. Babysitter
finding is even MORE bleak. Then, through a providential turn of events,
the biker gets to try-out as a stay-at-home mom for Erin's kids one afternoon...
and likes it. She doesn't want HIM to baby-sit for her, but can't really
afford any other option.
Finally, the can-opener of desperation opens a portal to inspiration,
infusing her with the raw, reckless courage to inveigle her former lawyer,
Ed Masry (played warmly and entertainingly by Albert Finney) into giving
her a job, because he "lost" her case and she didn't get anything. He relents
and gives her a job -- minimum pay with NO benefits -- and she becomes the
step-child Cinderella of the clerical team.
Then comes the magic! One day, while being routinely snubbed at lunch
by the REAL office girls, Masry gives her the booby prize for being at her
desk... a bunch of stuff from a pro-bono case that she gets to put in order.
But this bono has some gristle in it and when she tries to unravel the snarls
things get EXCITING!
She has stumbled into the defining challenge of her life and her super-human
persistence and singular devotion to the cause of HUNDREDS of terribly wronged
individuals propels not only herself and family, but Masry and his law firm
into the stratosphere of success, stature, and prosperity through the biggest
victory in a direct-action lawsuit in history.
I should add that Peter Coyote was spellbinding as cooperating attorney
Curt Potter.
Though we do not applaud the liberties taken with profanity, Vixen and
I had to put that aside in order to appreciate the positive message of the
main story line. This is a cautionary to everyone, however. Profanity under
any guise is not acceptable. The idea could have been conveyed without polluting
the air for movie goers. It is also reprehensible that a young actor should
be made an accomplice in such behavior in the crass pursuit of a buck. There
is no nudity, but a pair of quivering melons were almost always stealing
the camera's eye and a bedroom scene between unmarried adults in a home inhabited
by three young children is not a good role model for any movie goer, even
though it was deftly handled.
If you decide to go see this movie, you've been warned. Be sure to leave
teens and lesser beings at home. |
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MY DOG SKIP
YOU'LL SIT UP AND BARK FOR MORE! This movie proves
that a simple story can be intensely interesting and entertaining, especially
one that is biographical (based on the childhood of Harper's magazine editor
Willie Morris.) After having seen this movie with Caped Vixen several weeks
ago, I returned this last Sunday afternoon for another helping and was greeted
with a waiting line snaking across the lobby and almost to the outside doors
of the theater! People want good, wholesome entertainment. They CRAVE it,
and this show gives it to you in spades.
It's warmly sentimental and sweet, not saccharine. Set against the backdrop
of World War Two, it's a gently beautiful story of small times in a small
town, the rough-and-tumble of being a kid, and the profoundly ripening effect
of a smart and devoted dog, Skip, on Willy, a smothered and retiring young
boy (played instinctively by Frankie Muniz, star of Malcolm in the Middle.)
It's a biography painted by Norman Rockwell informed by the quirks, blemishes,
and warts of an era long gone; and redolent with a continual undercurrent
of wonderfully innocent humor, reminiscent of those old Hal Roach movies
from the twenties and thirties (The Little Rascals, etc.)
Skip is played with relish and elan by that rascally dog who plays Eddy
on Frasier. Most dogs would muff an Oscar speech.... most dogs EXCEPT THIS
ONE. He should get one. Other solid performances come from Kevin Bacon as
Willy's dad, Diane Lane as Willy's resourceful mom, and Luke Wilson who NAILS
the role of Dink Jenkins (high school athletic luminary who arcs into a social
abyss after returning from the war with chicken feathers and a long-term
stubble.)
Also... talk about nailing a role! Caitlin Wachs... COME ON DOWN! This
little pistol is a dramatically aware and stunningly lovely kid who turns
in a stellar performance as Rivers Applewhite. I have never seen a more
convincing portrayal of the girl we all drooled over in grade school. And,
how about that great trio of neighborhood ruffians? Especially Bradley Coryell
who plays that big, bad bully to the bone! Also, Harry Connick, Jr. must
be one of the more versatile guys around: singer, musician, actor, and --
in this movie -- narrator: Excellent in each.
My Dog Skip is a refreshingly honest and unapologetic portrayal of the
societal biases and norms of the time. It was the way people lived. Racism
and sexism weren't strident and divisive ideologies: they were customary,
each a thread in the cloth of everyday life. And, were likewise portrayed
in this movie... without rancor, remark, or objection. It was a time of great
paradoxes. It was, also, an atmosphere more hardy and spontaneous, less
cluttered, more thick-skinned and blunt; yet, more mannerly than today.
There are lessons and laughs for everyone in this jewel... even moments
of reluctant kindness, as when the childhood bully is slowly revealed to
be less a violent tormentor than simply a rugged kid disgusted by the
neighborhood weakling he derisively calls a "titty boy." He ultimately fatigues
of tormenting Willy and opens a small, but significant, door of opportunity
for him that helps him outgrow his painful awkwardness and isolation.
Another keystone event is the wonderfully innocent friendship and affection
that blossoms between Willy and Rivers, the prettiest and most popular little
girl in school.
But, none of these miraculous transformations would have ever occurred
without Skip's wily and dedicated machinations. This is truly a story celibrating
the undying love of an untiringly lovely animal. It's funny and clever and
endearing. Go see it. Everyone will connect with this. It's even O.K. for
postal workers, the terminally tearful, and carefully monitored asylum
patients.
Now, if I can just find a Jack Russell terrier who loves and adores me
for who I am........ |
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HANGING
UP Imagine a movie with greater complexity
than content or integrity. Imagine a biting comedy about a dyspeptic family
that wrenches a thin string of humor from a puree of mourning, resentment,
regret, selfish egotism, derision, and sacrificial martyrdom.
Imagine dramatic overtone that goes nowhere. Imagine four reliably consummate
comic talents managing to cast off enough of the maudlin to retain some
bittersweet aftertaste and hold the viewers' interest to the desperate end....
and you have this movie; a triumph of talent over content.
This was a paramount example of parasitic humor. And the movie stoops
EVEN LOWER, dragging spare sinews of humor from such shock elements as strong
expletives and a tasteless bedroom liaison between the world's oldest father
(Matthau) and his equally over-ripe girlfriend.
The central theme of this is not comedic at all. It deals with the inability,
each in their own inimical way, of three sisters to accept and deal with
their father's deterioration and imminent death, hastened by the stark
indifference of his wife, their mother (flawlessly captured in its cold essence
by Cloris Leachman.)
Diane Keaton plays the hyper-driven successaholic oldest sister to a T.
And Lisa Kudrow is perfect as herself, which doubles a satisfactory rendition
of the flaky youngest sister, a floundering soap opera actress.
There is no nudity, but virtually every scene involving Meg Ryan (the
middle sister, Eve) is a running update on the current status of nipple erection
and their current loci beneath her blouse. Like Kudrow, Meg Ryan is Meg Ryan;
which is the essential ingredient for the character of Eve.
Whether or not you go is your call, but you've been adequately warned.
Obviously, this is not the movie for manic depressants or kiddies. God is
requested many times, though not in the religious sense, and the "F" word
makes numerous appearances.
I like all of the stars in this film, but this is just not a good
entertainment vehicle unless you're so up and over the top that you need
a sappy downer just to level your trajectory. If so, by all means, TAKE YOUR
MEDICINE!
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WHAT PLANET
ARE YOU FROM? (by Caped Vixen) Gary Shandling
lost big with this one. As an alien coming to earth to impregnate any woman
and eventually dominate the earth from "within" (wow, such an original idea)
this movie is NOT-SO-SOFT pornography for even mature adults and full of
bare breasts, vulgar language and just plain syrupy stupidity. Stay away
in droves!!
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WONDER
BOYS (by Caped Vixen) The professor / "Seven Years
ago I sold a Novel" author (Michael Douglas) is experiencing writer's block
and is incredibly numb to much else. The much else includes, his wife leaving
him, his publicist drops in town to wrench the latest novel from his clutches
(can't 'cuz it's not done - even at 2,611 pages!), one of his students is
just more than a bit weird, and oh, yes, his married-to-the-professor's-boss
girlfriend announces she's pregnant. Looks like more than the character was
smoking pot when this one was made.
This story felt more like a live theatre performance than a movie - you
know you're watching it all play out but the liberal premises are so absurd
and unsubtle that you just watch to see how it all unravels - not because
you could possibly care for these immoral, selfish people.
Major themes include adultery, transvestite and homosexual relationships,
theft, in short a great many self absorbed characters - none of which I would
EVER want to know. The acting was good, but who cares when the picture's
plot and lack of aim are so pointless! Get the lint out of your belly button,
you'll have more fun.
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LEGEND OF
1900 Very good music but,
otherwise,
pointless!
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EYE OF
THE BEHOLDER Do you remember how you met YOUR
first love? There is nothing more memorable than that life-altering event.
But, I'll bet you weren't a burned-out British foreign service cutout
ravaged by guilt and grief over losing your family because of neglect, haunted
by an impish, omnipresent, imaginary daughter-cum-super-parent, and spying
(via an audio/visually augmented sniper rifle) on a manic serial killer/love
temptress while nursing a growing desire to be her guardian angel and quickly
becoming obsessed with her. This is a complex, non-traditional love story.
Along the way, our fatal "ingenue," Joanna (a deft blend by Ashley Judd
of steely resilience and sociopathic ambiguity,) supports herself by grazing
on a random series of unsuspecting victims.
Here you have dialog littered with insalubrious verbal shrapnel, gruesome
random murders, intense moments of deviant sexual content and suggestion,
emotional dysfunction, and the ever-present pall of mental abuse. The mood
is continually either psychotic, dreary, or dreary AND psychotic.
Of course, every serious modern screen work MUST incorporate SOME reminder
of homosexuality. Here, we have an authoritarian family services Nazi (played
with a razor's edge by Genevieve Bujold) who plops down in front of her large,
contemporary oil of a nude lesbian couple brazenly peering over her shoulder
through nearly ALL of an interview scene.
Then, there is the tireless polishing of the name "Hillary." Media mavens
keep trotting it out. I'm surprised that there hasn't been a miniseries set
in some squalid Washington slum watched over by a saintly, self-sacrificing
Mother Hillary. In THIS movie, the handle is used by real-life lesbian K.D.
Lang; but, then, that's probably apropos given today's social "relevances."
(I just wonder if Ethel Mertz was given HER first name because of the Rosenbergs?
It's a thought.)
When it was all over, I overheard two guys in the bathroom. One was saying
"I feel guilty because I picked the movie." (Nearly half the audience reacted
with derisive laughter as it ended with what should have been a poignant
moment. I suspect the laughter was also a sign of relief.)
There is something to like and dislike in this film. The subject is disturbing
but the suspense and uncertainty build masterfully like a runaway train ride,
SUCKING YOU DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO ITS BOWL-LAPPING SWIRL. It's a strong
action/suspense. It's intriguing and grabs your imagination, but it's an
unwholesome story.
The screenplay is as taut and gripping as a panic attack, but I'd rather
be flogged with a bag of medical waste than see it again. Adults Only
please.
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THE
HURRICANE This riveting movie
is drawn from the rocky true-life story of former welter-weight fighter
Rubin Hurricane Carter.
Starting with his hard scrabble childhood in Patterson, New Jersey, we watch
as the young Carter confronts a "pillar of the community" who makes a scummy
homosexual advance toward one of Carter's childhood friends. He hurls a nearby
bottle against the head of the pervert, knocking him down and nearly out.
The other boys run away, illustrating the "close" bonds that develop among
children on the streets.
Bloodied, the pedophile revives, staggers to his feet, and corrals young
Carter as he also tries to escape. In a murderous rage the pervert tries
to sling young Carter over the edge of a great precipice to his death, but
the resourceful child finds a LARGE switchblade in his clothes and begins
anemic stabbings on the arm and shoulder of the creep until he lets him go.
The creep runs to the police and makes a false claim, young Carter is
nabbed, and the race game turns everything into a hellish inquisition for
the small, stuttering boy that is most vividly captured in one callous sentence
uttered by the detective who becomes his life-long nemesis: "He's just a
nigger with a knife."
The eleven year old Carter is railroaded into a
juvenile detention facility for ten years! Before his term
is up, Carter escapes and enters the Army, becoming a paratrooper and an
inner-service prize fighter, a pressure valve for his growing sense of injustice
and resentment.
From the first injustice to the last, this saga spans over 35 years of
his life, during which he is relentlessly hounded by obsessed police
detective Della Pesca, whose unrelenting resentment and vindictiveness eventually
drive the detective to perpetrate the ultimate outrage by framing Carter
for three murders he didn't commit.
Carter's ensuing struggles to maintain his dignity, his sanity, his
reputation, and ultimately his survival are heroic; as is the epic and eventually
successful struggle of a group of Canadians and a young black man working
to free him.
This is a marvelously splendid and rich story made all the more majestic
and extraordinary by the way that Carter is shown to have turned every adversity
into an ally and a growth step. Through shear will and faith in God, he becomes
a self-made scholar and a powerful emotional and physical presence.
His story explodes before your eyes with the power of TWO TURBO-CHARGED
FISTS! It captivates your senses and your heart. You cheer for each success
and I challenge anyone not to shed at least one tear as they watch this...
a tear of sorrow, a tear of joy.
Denzel Washington (as Carter) turns in the best performance of his career!
This can be said, equally, of Dan Hedaya who makes the incredible viciousness
of Detective Della Pesca palpable and utterly sinister.
Likewise, Vicellous Reon Shannon is powerful and heart-wrenchingly touching
as the idolizing young black man, Lesra Martin, whose devotion and determination
inspired and underpinned the successful effort to free Hurricane Carter.
Especially poignant is the parallel drawn by Carter between his relationship
with Martin and that of two biblical characters, Reuben and Lazarus, in which
Carter shows his deep trust in and gratitude for God's indisputable care.
* This is tough, adult material with
contextually tough language, as you might well expect. Treat it that way
and leave teens and lesser beings at home. Those conditions met, this is
a rich gem of a movie and definitely one with valuable life lessons.
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Ride With
the Devil Hey! Did you know that Robert
E. Lee has family in Taiwan? Well, you'd think so after seeing this product
of Ang Lee's greatly intuitive directing. It's like he was drawing strength
from the souls of Taiwanese-Confederate ancestors.
The movie locations were skillfully chosen for their often mystical and
haunting appeal and superb camera work took full advantage of them. They
drew your imagination into every scene, as did the splendid action shots
which captured your brains and wouldn't let them go until they felt the full
thunder of hooves and the hard breath of horseys as their riders came together
in bloody combat.
The polite and lyrical speech that was so typical of period correspondence
flavors the film's dialog and gives it a rich broth of authenticity, as well
as reminding us that there was a time in history when, even during tough
conflict and suffering, good people didn't abandon civilized speech and manners.
A terrifically good object lesson.
* There is also no nudity, though a
breast-feeding scene almost trips the alarm buzzer and gives flight to vivid
imaginings. Singer Jewel (Kilcher) plays Sue Lee Shelley in that interlude
depicting one of motherhood's defining chores. Just a brief glimpse demonstrated
her instinctive grasp of impressive resources in the portrayal. I think I
finished my fruit punch at that point.
Speaking of Jewel, the Diaper Worldwide Transceiver uncovered key intelligence
pinpointing other fundamental assets that confirm her as the perfect casting
choice. According to unnamed sources, she grew up on a large primitive farm
in rural Alaska that didn't even have any "indoor plumbing" or electricity!
AND, she is also instinctively comfortable with horseys. How do you beat
them credentials? They give her gut-level (and nose-level) insight into the
historic privations of the story era.
She comes across clean of any dramatic baggage... just wholesome and completely
natural in the setting. It's powerful and convincing.
This movie focuses on a rather obscure chapter in "The War Between the
States," as it is called by well adjusted people. There was quite a bit of
fussin' and shootin' ... and SCALPIN' goin' on at the border betwixt largely
Confederate Missouri and the free state of Kansas. Sentiments ran high and
kinfolk were divided amongst themselves and against their neighbors. They
all fell into either the secesh or evil unionist camps.
Satanic regular troops from the Union Army and unionist neighbors were
bedeviling secesh folks with death and mayhem. They were trying to hurt their
feelings for wanting to just own some negroes and be left alone. Sniffle.
Two life-long friends, Jack Bull and Jake Roedel, find themselves in common
sentiment with others outraged by the murderous Union incursions. Jake (played
memorably by Tobey Maguire) was virtually raised with Jack (Skeet Ulrich.)
Together, they join a loose band of freelancing insurgents that ultimately
throws in with the infamous William Clarke Quantrill (formerly a school teacher)
and his forces for a raid on citizens and two squads of black Federal troops
in Lawrence, Kansas. Historians will recall that several of his legendary
sidekicks were Cole Younger and brothers James, John, and Bob; and Jesse
James and his brother Frank.
The movie's central figures are Jake, Sue Lee, and manumitted slave Daniel
Holt (played by Jeffrey Wright.) Though this is a work of fiction, it opens
the viewer to a rich taste of life in those times -- replete with warts and
contradictions -- and this is, indeed, its great value and its most entertaining
aspect.
For the first time, for instance, many will gain a bare hint that there
were surprising numbers of blacks who chose to fight for the Confederacy,
and with great courage and passion. Their reasons were often convoluted,
as in the case of Holt. Some were actually regular uniformed soldiers in
their state units, fighting alongside whites. (Several eye-opening books
on this are: "Black Southerners in Gray" and "Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees
in Civil War Virginia.")
You'll follow the lives of these three characters through a sweeping panorama
of physical and emotional experiences, compressed and altered by the
uncertainties and exigencies of war. You WILL come away richer for having
gone.
Wimpies and young'uns may find the level of war killins' dangerous to
their delicate constitutions; but, there is little else to offend and much
to fertilize one's sensitive brain cells.
Genteel speech and manners, and the absence of nudity make this movie
very satisfying to watch. It is a humorous, intelligent, at times contextually
violent, and very engrossing look at another era. There ARE a couple of subtle
insinuations of an adult nature but nothing that would unfurl flags of caution
or moisten the brow.
Most adults will enjoy the period accuracy of this movie and the intriguing
saga of its main characters. Mature teens might also join you, but leave
unstable postal workers, low wavelengthers, and the maturity challenged at
home.
The ending is a bit "oops it's over," but that's a minor complaint. The
Dynamic Diaper Duo liked it a lot anyway.
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permission. March 26, 1999
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