Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 5th, 2012
"Blacks are mentally inferior, by nature subservient, and cowards in the face of danger. They are therefore unfit for combat." - U.S. Army War College Study 1925
Obviously, there's another story to be told here. George Lucas says that he's been wanting to tell this story for over 20 years. It's a story that has often been told in both film and documentary form. In none of those cases has the movie been made into the kind of spectacle film that we find in Red Tails.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 29th, 2012
"This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings. He's more than a creeping thing. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger."
There's a certain hierarchy when it comes to the amount of cinematic interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays. At the top tier, we have the endlessly adapted Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth the Scottish Play. A step below that, you've probably got your King Lear, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream and a few more. And about a dozen tiers below that, we finally come across Coriolanus.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 28th, 2012
"It's Memorial Day. What am I supposed to remember?"
Happy Memorial Day, everyone! When I saw that I would be reviewing a movie called Memorial Day, I was afraid Garry Marshall had made another one of his awful ensemble romantic comedies — ala Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve — that stars everyone in Hollywood...and Hector Elizondo. Thankfully, this film is simply an (overly) earnest dedication to the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces, as well as their families.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on May 3rd, 2012
In terms of major conflicts involving the United States, the Korean War has sort of gotten the short end of the cinematic stick with American audiences. Most people can easily rattle off their favorite movies dealing with World War II, the Vietnam War or the U.S. Civil War, but when it comes to the Korean War the options are comparatively more limited. Off the top of my head, there's M*A*S*H, the original Manchurian Candidate, and Don Draper suffering one of the most famous cases of identity theft. (I realize Mad Men is a TV show, so forgive me for reaching.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 3rd, 2012
Forgive the impending fun-with-words but, hot on the TAIL of the theatrical release of Red Tails is the Blu Ray release of this 1995 interpretation of the same story. Based on the actual group of airmen who were the first African-American fighter pilots in the United States Army Air Corps. This film follows the first cadets through their training and onto their various combat and mission in North Africa and Italy during World War II.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 24th, 2012
"The 2nd World War's violent, disturbing images have been constantly replayed for decades. Sometimes it seems there is little we can see that we haven't seen before. But buried in archives and tucked away in private collections an astonishing set of 3D films and photographs with the power to erase time and transcend space will now be seen for the first time in nearly 70 years."
I know what you're thinking. Like the above prologue says, it hardly seems like we can get anything new out of footage from World War II.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2011
"This film documents the Vietnam War in the words of Americans who served there. It features home movies and rare archival footage collected during a worldwide search and now presented in HD. Many scenes are graphic in nature. Viewer discretion is advised."
A while back History brought us one of the best war documentaries I've seen for television. That was called WWII In HD and put you as close to the real battlefield as any American has come since the brave soldiers who fought there so many years ago. The images were stunning and the descriptions came from the words of several people who were actually there.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 18th, 2011
The attack on Pearl Harbor and the days leading up to that fateful event are the subject of the 1970 effort. The narrative jumps back and forth between the Japanese and American perspectives as just enough things go both wrong and right on both sides (the ascendancy of the militant army faction over the reluctant navy in Japan, crucial intelligence always arriving just a bit too late to the right people in States) to make the surprise attack inevitable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 4th, 2011
This historical film looks at the three-year siege of Leningrad during World War 2. The film follows a Russian, female police officer who aids a stranded, English news reporter as they try to survive the siege.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 8th, 2011
"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking." - General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces."
World War II was a turning point in American history unlike any other in the 20th century.
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