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steve-1338
Reviews
Nackt unter Wölfen (1963)
As fiction, this is a fine film; but it is fiction.
The Communist prisoners did not lead a revolt to liberate Buchenwald, which was liberated by the United States Army. The movie does not show one American. The German Democratic Republic set up a ceremonial entry to the camp next to the tower that predated the camp. They put up a giant statue showing armed prisoners. After unification, the German government moved the entrance to the main gate (seen often in the movie) and closed off the ceremonial entrance. The tower was closed to the public, ostensibly because it was unsafe. The statues were allowed to rust. In any event, East Germany overlooked another force for revolt, the Canadians. An article I wrote about a stamp showing the monument brought a flood of mail from Canada informing me that the Canadians, not the Communists, were at the core of the revolt.
Kill the Irishman (2011)
But it ain't history
Because they could not film the movie in Cleveland, the only recognizable landmark in the film is Berkowitz-Kumin funeral home, which is seen for the burial of Alex (Shondor) Birns.
The film gives credit to Paul Sciria, who used to be a radio newsman, and "Cleveland's 'Plain Dealer.' " But since the paper has long had no historical memory, I cannot figure out what the movie could have learned at 1801 Superior. In the movie, the PD reporter who investigated Danny Greens and the Longshoremen's Union is called Steve Marshak, and I can't figure out why it couldn't say Sam Marshall.
When plans are made to kill Mike Frato, Greene voices his objection by saying, "He's got 10 kids." No mention in the film of Frato's three wives. (Full disclosure: I lived two doors down from Beverly Frato and her five children for many years.)
You never get to see the inside of the PD's city room. You never see any PD people. And you are never shown Mairy Jayn Woge's turf, the Cleveland Mafia. You only see one after another of them get killed.
The film ends with a clear indication that Greene was killed at 2000 Brainard Rd. in Lyndhurst, a building I always referred to as the Daniel Greene Memorial Building because it took months to scrape the last of Greene's body from the modern skyscraper.
It's an entertaining movie, but it's not something you need to see to learn about Cleveland history. --
Stephen G. Esrati (Plain Dealer retiree)
Dayton, OH 45410
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
The note after the movie is incomplete, as is the movie
The note says Kappler was visited in prison only by Msgr. O'Flaherty. Not so. After the wife who was shown in the movie divorced him, he married his nurse. She then carried him out of the prison in a suitcase and took him to Germany, which refused extradition. The movie also omits Kappler's major crime (not the execution of the priest): the massacre of 305 people at the Ardeatine caves. This was the worst war crime committed in Italy. Finally, the movie failed to name the top SS general, Karl Wolff, because he was still alive. My U.S. Army division, the 88th Infantry, stopped Wolff from handing out medals in Bolzano to his men AFTER the Krauts had lost the war.
The Sentinel (2006)
Implausible, senseless, shoot-em-up
A bum gives a Secret Serviceman a tip about a Secret Service man in the presidential detail who plans to kill the president. Baloney. How did the bum know? The script then turns to a most detailed examination of how the Secret Service works, but who cares. Most of this just slows down the movie. All the chases that follow are this film's version of the tiresome car chases of many movies. Then, after a lot of impossible athleticism in which our hero outruns and out-guns all his buddies, we have a shootout in the Toronto City Hall. The Canadians are clearly marked with maple leafs, but how did they get into this? Finally, all is worked out. But it still makes no sense.
Week end (1967)
Best and worst all in one
The woman wants to kill her parents; the man has no feelings or emotions. He sits by as she is raped. All this happens amid the worst traffic jam in history. It is an upsetting film that tells you it's a film and asks, "Is this film or reality?" It is full of maddening graphics and long speeches, long scenes, and long episodes. Ebert and Renate Adler called it great. I call it a great pretense at being a film but still a great film. I cannot in good faith say anything good about "Week End," it lacks even one notable bit. But neither can I pan it, although it is the weirdest film I've ever seen and lacks anything that I can pan except Goddard's many excesses, which you have to watch to believe.
Dama s sobachkoy (1960)
Attention to the smallest detail
I admired the fact that the director paid such close attention to local detail that he included several scenes to point out the Moslem presence in Yalta (some 20% of the people are Tartars). There is a scene in which two touristy looking males order drinks in the hotel and then stick a pinkie into their glasses. This is a custom among westernized Turks who wish to follow the Koran's admonition that "the first drop of alcohol shall not pass your lips." So the first drop is removed. Then the coachman does his prayers while waiting for the lovers. And a mother is shown wearing a birka as the children are drilled in their Russian declensions. My fedora is tipped for him.
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
I cannot understand the praise for this poor film
I am a retired journalist. I can remember how journalism was practiced at the time of the movie. That is done well in the film. So are the jaundiced characters who practice the profession. Since I've never been in Indonesia, I cannot comment on the realism of the Philippine locations. But I've seen a lot of movies, and this one is not a good one. I heard not one Strine (Australian) accent in the movie, certainly not from Mel Gibson. The Brits in it, including that asshole colonel, all sound as if they were brought up in Manhattan. And Peter Weir, an Australian, certainly must have known that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation did not have an ABS competitor. Finally, as we see the Royal Netherlands airliner that is the focus of the last scene, we see it inscribed as "Royal Netherlands Airlines." Bullshit! I've flown on KLM and have seen KLM planes. They do not say "Royal Netherlands Airlines." In short, what the previous paragraph is saying is that there is so little realism in this film that one is hard-pressed to accept any of it as historical fiction. And one never gets the sense that the CIA-backed Suharto would prove to be one of history's great mass murderers, nor that Soekarno was considered one of the great forces for good in the world along with such other lovely people as Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Tse-tung (as we still spelled it then), and Josip Broz Tito. Their Bandung Conference was considered a step forward, toward the raising of the Third World to its supposedly deserved place in the scheme of things. Finally, I could not understand the love story between Weaver and Gibson. Maybe it was just animal magnetism, but there was nothing in it that was convincing.
Strafsache 4 Ks 2/63 - Auschwitz vor dem Frankfurter Schwurgericht (1993)
A 30-hour journey into hell
The movie covers the trial, which took almost two years, in a court in Frankfurt of the men who ran Auschwitz. Frankly, many long segments of it are boring. Some are very moving.
In covering its subject, the movie also reviews the whole gamut of the 12-year "1,000-year Reich," even the trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann.
Perhaps because there were no survivors, the film does not cover the abuse of Soviet prisoners of war in Auschwitz, especially the horrible medical experiments that they were subjected to (I recall one from another source in which two Russians were submerged in ice water, either to see how long it would take them to die, or to see whether they could be resuscitated by being placed between two naked women).
But the movie concentrates on the murder of Jewish children, while the accused denied all.
Playing for Time (1980)
What Vanessa told me
This is a great movie and I've seen it on TV. I cannot understand why there is no DVD or video -- except that Vanessa Redgrave once told me that he movie was "banned" in the United States because of her support of the Palestinians.
I told her I had seen it on TV and that her last scene at the liberation of Auschwitz was extraordinary.
Another reason I liked the movie was that it was the first film even to mention my personal heroine, Mala Zimetbaum, about whom I have written.
My story about Mala can be found at: http://www.ideajournal.com/articles.php?id=15
Decision Before Dawn (1951)
Harrowing experience
For anyone who is used to freedom, this movie shows better than any other what it is like to live in a total police state. The Thousand-Year Reich is shown with every wart and blemish, making this one of the greatest propaganda movies for freedom. But it is a harrowing experience, a true thriller. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this film is not better known and why it is hardly available in public libraries. Could this reflect the conservative, McCarthyite influence on movies? I think it is a must-see.