Nr 24

Set during the Nazi occupation of Norway, this is the story of Gunnar Sønsteby, a Norwegian resistance fighter/leader. The plot mechanism is Gunnar as an old man giving a lecture / telling his history to a room full of school children. As he tells his story, 80% of the film is flashback to the events of the 1940's. With the telling, most of it is straight forward resistance warfare (sabotage, who do you trust, etc.). But what makes this film outstanding is the interactions in the present, as Gunnar reflects on his history, what he is willing to talk about, and the questions that the students ask. When is it appropriate to be violent? What is different about "war time"? Did you ever consider nonviolent resistance, like Ghandi? Gunnar's response that Ghandi never faced the Nazis is not sufficient for one particularly interested kid. When the kid says something to the effect of  "it seems like nonviolent resistance is more important in that situation", the filmmakers give us time to think. Wait, is it? Or is that just naiveté? It also struck me how daily and personal that threat was for Norwegians, and a that a real resistance grew in opposition. Gunnar telling his story to modern kids (2 or 3 generations removed) is an important part of a society struggling with threat, violence, resistance and freedom. Collectively in the US we haven't experienced a daily and personal threat since the 1800's, too many generations removed to have a connection to the moral dilemmas and trauma, to be able to have an experience informed discussion of what resistance really requires. 

5 stars (out of 5)

War Machine

Alan Ritchson is an Army vet who joins Ranger School at an advanced (for the Rangers) age. He is singularly focused on fulfilling a promise to his brother, at the cost of developing team camaraderie or trust. On the last 24 hour trial, it turns out that aliens are invading and he and his training team are thrown into the middle of it. Pretty good. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Counterstrike

A Mexican Special Forces team encounters a drug cartel boss with a vendetta against Mexican Special Forces. This is an excellent portrayal of how war and violence are lose-lose scenarios. We are supposed to say the good guys won since only two of them die vs scores of the bad guys. But there is no win. Short term or long. 

3 stars (out of 5)

The Six Triple Eight

Historical fiction telling of the WWII unit of soldiers who were sent to England to fix the army's mail problem. Mail was deprioritized by the leadership, with the result being a massive backlog of deliveries (17 million pieces) and the associated low moral that comes with being cut off from communicating with family. The 6888 delivered all of this mail, while simultaneously fighting sexism and racism since they were an all black, all women company. I am sure that this telling glorifies the work and overlooks the awfulness of war. But it is a feel good, crowd pleaser in the end. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Gladiator

The 2000 Russel Crowe vehicle that tells the story of Maximus, the star Roman general of Marcus Aurelius. After conquering the germans, Aurelius dies and his sociopathic, tyrant son names himself emperor. Maximus becomes a slave/gladiator who works from that stage to support the senate and overthrow the emperor... of course. Subtly touches on the meaninglessness of war, just enough to be able to say it is not a warmongering movie, but not enough to really shine through the warmongering movie that it is. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Unthinkable

A highly disturbing (on many levels) war thriller. The story features a radicalized U.S. Muslim man who has built and planted nuclear bombs in 3 U.S. cities. He is captured and the entirety of the film is the interrogation drama that unfolds to find where he has hidden the bombs. Seems like it is basically a window into "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e. torture) and the effect on all the people involved. Truly horrible from all points of view. You leave this wondering one thing: how are humans capable of being so in-human? Or is our aspirational ideal of "humanity" just naïveté and the real surprise is those who move away from in-humanity? I don't recommend this movie.

2 stars (out of 5)

Land of Bad

A tier-one team is sent into a jungle island bad guy lair to rescue a captured "JSOC Asset". Their normal tech guy is out so they get an air force guy sub. He is connected to the drone operators. Supposed to be a quite extraction, but everything goes wrong, everything blows up, everyone gets killed. And I do mean everything, everything and everyone. The air force tech earns the respect of his team and gets his honorary "tier one status". Oh, and they get the asset. 

3 stars (out of 5)

American Renegades

Action, war thriller set late in the Bosnian conflict. A U.S. special forces team is tasked with seeking out and eliminating genocidal leaders. In the process, a team member falls in love with a local, and said local has a secret history. Her grandfather told her about a cache of Nazi gold that only they can help rescue and make a difference in thousands of lives. So they do. Far fetched and physically inaccurate action sequences are par for the course in order to move the simple story along. You definitely get bang for your buck here, but not much else. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Heart of the Hunter

Zuko is a regular guy, trying to be a good father to his girlfriend's son. But his past catches up with him. He was a black ops, special forces guy for the South African democracy movement during the transition out of the apartheid system. And now a presidential candidate is running who has deep roots in corruption and siphoning off resources for his own gain. Only Zuko can do the right thing for the country. In doing so he must navigate both sides of humanity - ultra violence and tender care for those he loves. It's a movie, so eventually everything works out, but Zuko will always be questioning the benefit/cost balance. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Halo (serial)

Season 2

Following up the first season, Master Chief and his group of spartans is trying to stay one step ahead of the Covenant. This season is more about exploring the humanity of John-117, and uncovering the connection he has with the Halo. We get the humanity, and the spartan mystique wears thin. But we end with just as much mystery at the end -- which makes a good serial. Thoroughly enjoyed this

4 stars (out of 5)

The Contractor

Chris Pine stars in this movie that we have all seen before. He is a special ops soldier whose injury prevents him from active duty. So he reaches out to a friend to get a high paying, private contractor job. But it goes wrong, and it is unclear who the good guys are. So Pine has to rely on only himself and his personal ethical code to make things right... or at least not wrong. What is interesting about this movie is the pacing. Yes, there are action scenes, but it shies away from 90 minutes of non-stop action that is common. We actually get to endure with Pine as he struggles. In this case, the slow pace is effective.

3 stars (out of 5)

Hidden Strike

Set in China, John Cena is a one-time mercenary who has adopted a village and works to ensure they have water and food. Jackie Chan is special forces team leader charged with escorting oil refinery personnel in an evacuation when the refinery is taken over by other U.S. mercenaries looking to cash out. Cena and Chan end up teaming up to protect the workers, protect the village and take down the bad guys. I am not a good enough observer to put a finger on it, but this is definitely Chinese action, vs U.S. action. It really does have the feel of The Wandering Earth. The story quality here is really lacking however. 

2 stars (out of 5)

Sniper: The White Raven

This Ukrainian film is set during the Russian invasion of Crimea. An ultra-eco couple has basically staked a claim and is living on the land when they encounter a Russian incursion, leading to death. Mykola responds by joining the Ukrainian army, training to be a sniper, and becoming the best sniper ever. Definitely less action and more contemplation and slow build up than you would expect from a western film, which really pulls you in to the pain and angst of the characters. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Kingdom

Set in China in 250 BCE, a couple of slave boys with big dreams are our heroes. They practice swordsmanship on their own as they dream of changing their lives and getting out of slavery. One gets the chance of a lifetime to leave and takes the offer. The second follows on and becomes a key part of correcting a coup and helping the rightful king return to power. Simple, but with depth as we explore class, race, culture and gender stereotypes.

4 stars (out of 5)

Operation Mincemeat

Colin Firth stars in the historical fiction version of a World War 2 subterfuge mission. The allies want to invade Sicily, but want the Nazi's to think they are invading somewhere else. So Firth's team comes up with an elaborate plan to leak believable false intel to the Nazis. Quite involved at times, but the fact that this is historical fiction makes it fantastic rather than farcical. Firth is always good. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Female Agents

The historical fiction telling of 5 women who are recruited to parachute into France a week before the Normandie allied beach landing. Their task is to rescue a geologist who was captured in Normandie and who would give up the entire invasion plan. A cat and mouse war film that is a fascinating and thrilling story, but also horrific as it reminds us of the brutality of people (both individuals and systems). The film captures well a lot of the nuance of gender bias, personal motivations of the characters, and just the machine of war.

4 stars (out of 5)

Ender's Game

The movie version of Orson Scott Card's book by the same name. The film is pretty true to the plot lines of the novel, putting into view what Card created. Sometimes, especially with alien/space characters, the movie version and my imagination version from the book are very different. But in this case, Card's original text is so vivid that creative license took the viewer to the same place as the reader. Meaning no real surprises or revelations here and the movie was as expected. Perhaps because of this, I wanted to see more of the battle training sequences - which were the most fun of the entire movie. I'll stick with 'the book is better' only because it was fun to have my own images of Card's world.

3 stars (out of 5)

SAS: Red Notice

Action thriller set in England where a black ops private contractor is abandoned by their government sponsor when a job they were hired to do (clear a village of protestors so an oil pipeline can go through) goes viral for the wrong reasons. To 'clean up' the problem, the contractor is being eliminated, having had a Crimes Against Humanity red notice applied to them by the Hague. Ruby Rose is the protagonist (antagonist?) contractor who forces the truth into the open with a hijacking and Sam Heugan the antagonist (protagonist?) who is chasing her down. There really isn't anyone to root for here, which makes this possibly the most realistic war/conflict film in awhile. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Azorian: The Raising of the K-129

Documentary detailing an ocean salvage project from the 70's. A Russian nuclear sub (K-129) sunk in the Pacific to a depth of nearly 3 miles. The U.S. detected and pinpointed the accident and wreckage pretty quickly, while the Russians had no real idea where it was. This led to a massive secret CIA project to raise the sub and glean intel that would help win the cold war. The documentary chronicles the engineering challenges and methods that were undertaken to enable this salvage. Fascinating cold war history and even more fascinating engineering problem solving. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Sniper: Ghost Shooter

Definitely a B-movie in the action/war genre. Both the dialogue as written and as delivered are noticeable as contrived, showing how hard it is to actually have a film feel authentic. The story follows a JSOC sniper team (4 sniper/spotter pairs in a team) who travel around and do sniper stuff. In the current assignment, they are providing protection for some VIPs at a Georgian oil pipeline and the bad guys seem to know exactly where they are. The shooter has an idea about what is wrong, the officers don't believe him, send him to Siberia (literally) where he learns valuable lessons, comes back and saves the day as it turns out he was right. All pretty standard in terms of plot, and pretty plain in terms of execution. 

2 stars (out of 5)