Breaker
Morant (Tuesday, April 4). Location and Time TBA.
Breaker Morant
is one of the most acclaimed Australian films, telling a powerful tale of wartime
betrayal and injustice. Henry "Breaker" Morant (Edward Woodward) is
an Englishman living in Australia at the end of the 19th century. When war breaks
out in 1899 between Britain and the Boers (descendants of Dutch colonists),
Morant and a number of Australians volunteer for duty and are absorbed into
the non-regular units of the British army. Acting under orders from his commanders,
Morant oversees the execution of several Boer prisoners; it turns out that one
of them was German, and in order to keep the peace with Germany, Britain agrees
to courtmartial Morant and two other soldiers, sentencing two to death and one
to life imprisonment. Based on a play by Kenneth Ross, Bruce Beresford's film
is powerfully filmed and acted and has become a classic anti-war movie since
its 1980 release; the script (co-written by Beresford) was nominated for an
Academy Award. The final execution scene is nearly overpowering in its sense
of tragedy and futility. (Courtesy
of the All Movie Guide)
The
Battle of Algiers (Tuesday, April 25). Location and Time TBA.
A forerunner of
the "docudrama," this 1965 Italian-Algerian co-production won a slew
of awards and became an unlikely international success that remains eerily resonant
today. It shows the guerrilla war for Algerian independence from the French
in 1954 as seen through the eyes of some of the participants. Shot in the actual
locations, mixing actors with real-life combatants and eschewing the use of
stock or newsreel footage, The Battle of Algiers comes across as probably
being closer to the truth than any straight documentary could have been, mainly
because it captures the complexities of the situation without resorting to facile
finger-pointing. Although banned in France for many years, the film has become
accepted as a masterpiece of its kind, conveying emotion without ignoring cold,
hard facts. Its principal asset is a rigorous, impartial examination of views
held by both sides, carefully woven into the narrative. Director Gillo Pontecorvo
never again made a motion picture of this style, depth, or impact, but his place
in film history is assured nonetheless, if only on the strength of this powerfully
affecting movie. (Courtesy
of Barnes and Noble website)
Black
Hawk Down (Sunday, April 30). Location and Time TBA.
A gripping dramatization of the abortive 1993 U.S. military operation in Somalia, Africa, that resulted in the Ambush in Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down earns high marks for its hyperrealistic representation of modern-day conventional warfare. Director Ridley Scott re-creates the fateful October 3rd mission in painstaking detail, capturing the horrifying chaos that ensues during armed conflicts on unfamiliar urban battlegrounds. Portraying the U.S. Army Rangers who fought in the streets of Mogadishu, Scott's talented ensemble cast helps make the events all the more real. Especially strong are Josh Harnett as Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann and Tom Sizemore as the grizzled veteran Lt. Colonel Danny McKnight. Also superb are Ewan McGregor, Ron Eldard, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Shepard.
To his credit,
Scott remains politically neutral on America’s role in the Somalian civil
war. He doesn’t engage in the moral equivocation so fashionable among some
Hollywood directors who’ve depicted failed U.S. military operations; instead,
Black Hawk Down focuses on the heroic efforts of American soldiers committed
to covering their buddies’ backs and bringing everybody home, dead or alive.
Scott’s darting camera and rapid cutting make it occasionally difficult
to follow the action, but that’s an intentional choice designed to emphasize
the maddening confusion of warfare at close quarters. Sturdily mounted, brilliantly
acted, and almost unbearably suspenseful, this powerful film shows the events
of a fateful engagement in a new and considerably brighter light. (Courtesy
of Barnes and Noble)
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