Change Your Image
rtmdoctrine
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Titanic (1943)
Remarkable Similarities to Titanic (1997)
Just saw this film on TCM. It is clearly a propaganda film, no one can debate that.
The fun of this film is seeing just how much of it is incorporated into the later Titanic Movies, namely "A Night to Remember" and James Cameron's "Titanic"
I reference this entry from Wikipedia.org:
"Several commentators have observed archly their conviction that James Cameron must have been very familiar with the 1943 Nazi propaganda film when writing and filming his own Titanic. Several story aspects are in both films but not in any other Titanic version: e.g., the salt of the earth non-British Hero orders his girlfriend into the lifeboat, she hesitantly complies and watches her love disappear behind the railing as the lifeboat is lowered (though she doesn't jump out in the 1943 film); a young, dashing man coaches the girl he loves that she should not marry the man she does not love just because her parents ordered her so; a stolen jewelry subplot; a man is accused of a jewel theft (including a blue diamond) he did not commit; a main character gets locked up in a flooding cabin as the other character (male in this version) rescues him with an axe; etc. Additionally many of the scene compositions and camera angles are uncannily similar." from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_%281943_film%29
War of the Worlds (2005)
French Battle Tactics
Its funny that Speilbergs worst film is still more entertaining that people's worst films.
Massive and I do mean MASSIVE inconsistencies (along the lines of after the circuitry of an entire area being EMP blasted out of working, then 5 minutes later at the same location, watching a camcorder taping the events), and a humanity you don't give two shits about saving (but for the three main characters), and needless violence left me numb after this film.
eh...
the worst part of this film is that it assumes humanity is worth saving... witness the actions of everyone but the main 3 characters... all selfish and humanity at its worst. Wells concluded we had "earned" our right to exist by our acquired resistance to ordinary viruses... but Spielberg's film casts the world in harsher tones, where we are damn lucky to survive and where no heroic action saves us, but the mindless saga of endlessly multiplying paramecia not to mention that you always know the 3 main characters will survive... despite the fact that one of them advances on a hill embattled by the aliens... the entire ridge of the hill detonates... but at the end of the film, the kid somehow made it to Boston...
and the inclusion of every conceivable disaster reference... walls of the "have you seen this person" fliers a la 9/11, "There's more room on this boat!"... a la Titanic, ...whenever someone takes out a gun, disaster ensues... well, thats just from every disaster ever... all you needed was an escape from a burning building a la towering inferno, and a Poseidon adventure reference and you would have been set.
Spielberg's War of the World's: More Flawed than French Battle Strategy
Apollo XI Landing (1969)
Different versions
little known fact: Certain stations did not have the direct feed from NASA... they imposed a model of the LEM making its final descent... the supposed reason: Armstrong's proposed LZ was treacherous, so he expended his landing fuel maneuvering for a better landing site. Fearing a disaster, NASA did not give the live feed until seconds before the LEM touched down upon Tranquility Base.
Hence the words which appear at the bottom of the screen, "Live from Moon" was the first televised coverage. Armstrong was (by mission plan) supposed to wait upwards of a half hour to walk on the surface. NASA allowed Armstrong to go EVA early, perhaps even so audiences at home would not need to wait.
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Well aimed, Well placed
Two bits of historical inaccuracy (and spoilers): 1: The True Cross was destroyed after the battle of Hattin; 2: Templar knights were not allowed to marry (though I say this in Guy's case with some fear, and need to check on the historical figure.
If you can embrace the subtlety of action that was the Second Crusade, you may like this film. I loved it, it is a tremendous study of the events, philosophies, and honor of the people who fought this episode of the unrelenting struggle we face today.
The portrayal of moderate Saladin, plagued with his Hashashin adviser, mirrors the moderate Leper King beset with his Templar fanatics.
There were those in the middle.
There were good men who died protecting people, not stones.
For if the Kingdom of Heaven is one of conscience, ideals, and choice, then this film truly embraces that understanding. Well done to all.