Been biding my time, waiting for those people I interviewed with to call me back. Unfortunately, I have absolutely NOTHING to do in the meantime, so I decided to go on a WWII movie watching spree. I have seen a good number of Hollywood's products and decided to only watch the 'foreign flicks'. There were a couple duds, but I'll list the good ones first.
Max Manus: Wow, what a film. An account of the life of the man with the same name, also had the highest budget of any film to be made in Norway (and it shows). Was made around the same time as another one of my favorite foreign war films, Flame and Citron. They are compared with each other quite often, and Max Manus is often seen as slightly inferior. If I were forced to choose one though, I wouldn't think twice about choosing Max over the other.
Stalingrad (1993): A movie depicting the battle and it's aftermath from the German perspective? Amazingly, it works. A fictional account of a squad of soldiers told in a very historically accurate manner. It's not apologetic, nor does it sympathize with Nazis, it's just gritty and realistic story, though sometimes it has some confusing continuity.
The Winter War: Obviously about the Finno-Russo war. Not as exemplary or as well financed as the three previously mentioned films, but still very watchable, and interesting in the historical sense, but if you're looking for big budget wow, this might not be your cup o' tea.
Now for the duds, read below the fold.
Max Manus: Wow, what a film. An account of the life of the man with the same name, also had the highest budget of any film to be made in Norway (and it shows). Was made around the same time as another one of my favorite foreign war films, Flame and Citron. They are compared with each other quite often, and Max Manus is often seen as slightly inferior. If I were forced to choose one though, I wouldn't think twice about choosing Max over the other.
Stalingrad (1993): A movie depicting the battle and it's aftermath from the German perspective? Amazingly, it works. A fictional account of a squad of soldiers told in a very historically accurate manner. It's not apologetic, nor does it sympathize with Nazis, it's just gritty and realistic story, though sometimes it has some confusing continuity.
The Winter War: Obviously about the Finno-Russo war. Not as exemplary or as well financed as the three previously mentioned films, but still very watchable, and interesting in the historical sense, but if you're looking for big budget wow, this might not be your cup o' tea.
Now for the duds, read below the fold.
Cross of Iron: Okay, maybe it's not really that foreign, but I wanted to watch it anyways. It's another eastern front tale told from the perspective of German soldiers. From the look of the cover art, you'd think it was pretty good. All the reviewers I read also praised this movie highly, but for me, it failed to deliver. Excruciatingly slow pacing, convoluted story, and characters you could mostly care less about, seemed to prevail. It's a pity, because I wanted to like this one. There are great actors, has an ok director, and actually has some great scenes (including a great ending), but everything else nearly forced me to sleep through it.
Okay, so I know I watched another one, but I can't remember it right now. Must have been pretty bad. Anyways, I still have a list of some others that I think I'll enjoy that I'm in the process of finding a copy of. They are:
Katyn <-- next on the list.
T.T.F.N.
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