Truth & Conviction: The Helmuth Hubener Story (2002)

Helmuth Hubener was a teenaged German Latter-day Saint from Hamburg, who with the assistance of two fellow young Mormons from his branch, was a surprisingly accomplished anti-Nazi pamphleteer. Though once an apparently contended Hitler Youth, Hubener became convinced of the evils of Naziism by observing their treatment of the Jews and listening to forbidden British radio broadcasts. Recruiting two of his friends to assist him, Hubener composed dozens of anti-Nazi pamphlets which they distributed in fair numbers throughout the Hamburg area. Hubener and his friends were eventually captured by the Nazi’s and Hubener executed, though his compatriots lived to tell his tale.

I admit to being somewhat ill disposed to this story at first, feeling Hubener's tale to have been overplayed within LDS circles in recent years. I can’t help but feel hyping Hubeners story is a way some Latter-day Saints have come to retroactively insert themselves, and their faith into the understandably popular historical narrative of anti-Nazi resistance (in other words, we want in on the righteous indignation too). Truth is most of the relatively small group of Mormons in Germany at that time, like their fellow country men, made no active attempts to resist the Nazi movement. Also some Mormons were Nazi’s themselves, and I’m glade that this documentary addressed that issue. This being said I found Helmuth’s story more interesting that I thought I would, and found him to be a truly impressive individual who showed an unusual amount of courage and conviction, especially given his age. Helmuth’s is not a story of a particularly ‘Mormon’ kind of resistance, but rather of a kind of courage that sets apart valiant individuals from all backgrounds and creeds. Grade: B.

Soon to be a 'major motion picture' with Haley Joel Osment.

Pandora's Box (1929)

A series of G.W. Pabst references that I’ve encountered recently (notably in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds) prompted me to see this, the Austrian directors signature film. American actress and sex symbol Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a character that comes from a series of plays on which the film is based. Lulu is ‘Pandora’s box’, without meaning to she unleashes chaos among the men (and one women in an early lesbian sub-plot) in her orbit, ultimately resulting in much suffering and death. Despite the significance of the film, and its strong statements about female sexuality and social dynamics in Germany between the wars, I find that I don’t have a lot to say about it, the two dulling film scholars who provide the Criterion collections audio commentary say it all (and then some). Still I recognize solid film making when I see it, and it was on the whole an interesting film to watch. So, grade: B.

Criterion release includes 1998 TCM documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for LuLu (Grade: B-)

The Unit: Season 1 (2006)

David Mamet created this bifocaled look at army life and all that is coveret. In essence it is two shows, one about an elite, officially nameless army ‘unit’ tasked with high risk, officially off the record operations around the globe; the other the home lives of the army wives back on base, and all the sacrifice and domestic drama that entails. The balance is kept remarkable well, very taught story telling, satisfying as both action adventure and melodrama. As much as I appreciated and enjoyed the show, and recognize its arguable greatness, I just felt a little held back from the proceedings, there’s not a character there I completely connect with, which I’m afraid takes what should have been an A- down to a B+ (which may be just a little harsh). The surprise ‘twist’ at the end of the season final however, couldn’t have been done better.

Yet More Recent Deaths

Ted Kennedy (1932-2009)

You can’t deny his iconic statues, one of a very small numbers of senators who will be remembered a hundred years from now.

Army Archerd (1919-2009)

Legendary Hollywood columnist, great name too.

Frank Batten (1927-2009)

Founder of The Weather Channel, I enjoyed his guest appearance on the Dennis Miller Show a few months back.

Larry Gelbart (1928-2009)

That guy in the M*A*S*H credits who you may have confused with a local weatherman.

Patrick Swayze (1952-2009)

I admit I was never much of a fan as I’ve seen very little of his work, but his unique supporting part in Donnie Darko legitimizes him for me.

Mary Travers (1936-2009)

Some Recent Deaths

Budd Schulberg (1914-2009)

Son of Paramount Studio head B. P. Schulberg, as a service man in WWII Budd was tasked with arresting Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Bud became involved in far left politics including the Communist Party, and later ‘named names to HUAC’. He collaborated with director Elia Kazan on the screen plays to A Face in the Crowd (my favorite Kazan movie) and On the Waterfront, the latter story meant to glamorize the ‘stole pigeons’ that Kazan and Shulberg effectively were.

Dallas McKennon (1919-2009)

The voice of Gumby.

Henry Allingham (1896-2009)

The last British vetern of the first World War.

John Hughes (1950-2009)

Underapricated, a genious at what he did. Uncle Buck is pretty close to a perfectly executed comedy.

Les Lye (1924-2009)

Mr. Barths burger himself.

The Taco Bell chihuahua (1994-2009)

Hey Jackson, "Yo quiero auto bargins."

Marley & Me (2008)

Warm film based on author John Grogan’s memoir of his beloved lug of a dog Marley. One must admire the straight forward simplicity, and good natured sentimental honesty of this movie. While it breaks no new ground, it does tell a simple story well, and seems to purposively evoke memories of any viewers own beloved pets of yesteryear; for me that was an expectationly kind Shetland sheep dog named Kirby (1995-2007). Grade: B.

Fun short little movie reviews

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2007)

Straight forward documentary on media manipulation in support of American military conflicts abroad since World War II. Nothing new, adequte presentation. Grade: D +

Dexter: Season 3 (2008)

Still a very solid show, but not addicting in the way seasons 1 & 2 where. Show settling into a little bit of a formula, Dexter thinks the seasons main guest star could finally be the one to really understand his serial killing ways, only to have said guest star turn out to be more nuts then he is. This season that role is filled by Jimmy Smits, in a powerhouse performance as an ambitious Cuban born assistant district attorney, with a propensity for anger and cutting corners. This is the first season not based on one of the Dexter novels, and I give the writers kudos for doing as well as they did (particularly liked the episodes concerning the lung cancer of Margo Martindale's character), but am hopping for just a little more out of next season. Still even a weaker season of Dexter rates a laudable A-.

Public Enemies (2009)

Michael Mann is always a reliable source of ‘cops & robbers’ action, and this film about famed gangster John Dillinger is no exception. Several vintage Mann action sequences are complimented by the subtle performances of Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the G-man personally tasked by FBI director Hoover to bring the famed gangster down. Depp has said in interviews that he views Dillinger as a man of the people, and the idea of the gangster as a sympathetic 'Robin Hood figure' has been around since Cagney. Though Dillinger largely tried to avoid the taking of innocent life, and only took money from banks never directly from average citizens, he did use people as human shields, and while not a crazy bastard like Baby Face Nelson, he hardly counts as a hero. Dillinger is however (in this film at lest) largely likable, and one can understand how he came to be what he was (he tells us briefly, and in such a way that if your not paying attention you might not catch it). The lovely Marion Cotillard plays Johnny’s half Indian love interest. Grade: B. Film shows us an unusually long sequence of clips from Manhattan Melodrama (1934), the movie which the gangster finished just minutes before he died.

Jackie Brown (1997)

I complete my viewing of Quentin Tarentino’s entire directorial cannon with his third film Jackie Brown, so far the autor’s only film adapted from a pre-existing source (in this case a Elmore Leonard novel). It’s a caper film, elegantly handled, and in the forum of bail bondsman Max Cherry ( a great performance by Robert Forster) boasts probably my favorite character from any Tarentino film. The title character is essayed by Pam Greer, the star of many 70's blacksplotation film and source of inspiration to the director, she here proves still quite the force on screen. Sid Haig, who menaced Ms. Greer as a tough in a number of her 1970's films, here has an amusing (and ironic) cameo as a judge. Fine work by Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, and an unexpectedly cast Micheal Keyton. Fun and quite engaging. I love it when there’s so many con’s and double deals going on at the same time that anything can happen, lends a great deal of excitement and anticipation to the goings on. Extremely well executed. Grade: A

Earthquake 7.9 (1980)

aka Megaforce 7.9

From the Grindhouse set. A Japanese geologist is confident that a major earthquake is going to strike Tokyo, only various bureaucracies won’t listen until its too late. The disaster strikes just as our geologist hero is grappling with a major ‘shakeup’ in his own personal life, and must chose between his semi-estranged wife and the co-worker who loves him. A lot is made of Japanese concepts of family loyalty and ‘the right way to do things’ against which an individual with vision is nearly as powerless as he is against nature itself. The earthquake in my opinion seems far in excess of the 7.9 richter rating in the amount of damage it does. The movie actually compares fairly well to the disaster films of the time from which it takes its inspiration. In fact towards the end of the film, when the storyline splits in two, you have homages to Irwin Allen classics The Poseidon Adventure (the group trapped in the flooding subway tunnel), and The Towering Inferno (reporter attempts to save love interest from her burning and collapsing building). The very last few shots of the film may even be taken from the end of San Francisco (1936), only without the payoff of seeing the whole of the city in ruin. This grew on me. Grade: C

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quinton Tarantino’s first film quickly establishes his unique style. The dialogue, the music selection, the performances, the subject matter, the editing and story structure, they all bear the autours imprint. It’s a heist film, where we never see the heist. But we don’t need to see the heist, because even though it’s a heist film, its not about the heist. I couldn’t fully encapsulate what it was about until I learned what is meant by the term ‘reservoir dog’. As Pam Greer describes it in a bounce feature, they are the junk yard dogs, the street dogs, the ones who really appreciate every scrap of food, the ones who have had a hard life. It is the story of desperate people in a desperate situation, and it doesn’t matter so much how they got into the situation, but how they react when they are in it. It’s a character study of half a dozen men we learn about but never really know, we are constantly surprised by them, and that’s what resonates. A triumphal beginning to Tarantino’s now already storied career. Grade: A.

Waiting for God: Season 2 (1991)

Series about the more eccentric denizens of the Bayview Retirment Home is still one of my favorite britcoms. Bonus features include a short retrospective on the work of actress Stephanie Cole (the series contrarian Diana Trent), I had no idea how diverse her performances where and how consistently she’s stared on British television. Grade: B.

The Atheism Tapes (2004)

A brief ‘supplementary series’ to Jonathan Miller’s multi-part televison documentary, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (which I wish I could find on DVD because I’d like to see it). Simply put this six part series consists of interview footage with prominent Atheists that had to be cut from the original documentary. As Miller says in his introduction for this series, the BBC agreed with him that much of this cut material was interesting enough to warrant broadcast, and the conversations presented here must at the very least be considered informative and well reasoned ones, even if you are a staunch theist.Interview subjects include the playwright Arthur Miller (who actually spends the bulk of his interview talking about anti-Semitism), Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg (who I didn’t think I was going to like but did), and others like Cambridge Theologian Denys Turner (yes an atheist theologian), and philosopher/ Darwin expert Daniel Dennett. Richard Dawkins the distinguished biologist and writer is probably the most famous of the group as far as being an atheist goes. My favorite of the interview subjects however was the philosopher Colin McGinn, who has now got me interested in learning more about his work. Intellectually stimulating, and something of a novelty as this is material something I have seldom encountered outside of books. Hard to score, but I’ll give it an A for the material and interview subjects (and for Atheism I suppose) and a B for presentation.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Sometimes one get’s just overwhelmed with the prospect of writing a review for something like Inglourious Basterds. This was the move I was looking forward to all summer, and indeed my very high expectations for the film left me feeling just a little detached for probably over half the movie. What I was seeing was excellent, but how could it compare with expectations. In addition to this, Tarantino’s style is so stylized and idiosyntric, that it almost necessitates an extra layer of internal processing to transcend the gap between his aesthetic and the stories emotional core or thematic essence. I sound like I’m being critical here but I don’t mean to me, I loved this movie, I’m telling you right now it gets Grade A. But I do feel overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to encapsulate my many thoughts about the film, and though the same could be said about The Night of the Hunter (which I also only recently saw) and any number of other films that I’d love to have long conversations about, when it comes to a Tarantino’s film this desire almost always seems a more urgent one.

I saw the film with my sister, it was her first Tarantino’s film, and though I had some trepidation about bringing her to see the movie (she was the one who brought up her desire to see it) I’m glade I did. It is fun to watch someone watch their first Tarantino film, especially the moments when you can see that they’ve caught on and are getting it. My only regret was not seeing the movie with a larger audience, because Tarantino films seem as though they’d resonate with large crowds very well.

The film can be analyzed many ways, as indeed I’m sure its meant to. This may not make a lot of since if you haven’t seen the movie, but this is a film about film. It’s about how we relate to film, the conventions of film, the study of film, how it can filter perception, and its role as a vehicle for both dreams and disillusionment (and its all rather overt about this). It’s a revisionist World War II film, in the truest sense. It is a revenge fantasy. It is an acting show case. It is a loud meditation. Tarantino thinks it might be his masterpiece, and its certainly his biggest smash on all fronts since Pulp Fiction. Anyway I’d love to talk about it more, but I wouldn’t now where to begin. But if you’d like to start a conversation about it, just feel free to leave a comment.