Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Saving Private Ryan proved to be another cultural touchstone in Steven Spielberg's epic career by launching a conversation on the legacy of the Second World War and "the greatest generation" phenomenon. An overpowering film and groundbreaking in its recreation of the Omaha Beach landings, it looked and felt like no WWII film made up to that point in time.

WWII has enamored Spielberg throughout his career. There was the USS Indianapolis speech in Jaws, the 1979 flop comedy 1941, and the Indiana Jones trilogy. Empire of the Sun from 1987 looked at the war from a child's perspective that was based on the J.G. Ballard novel. Schindler's List portrayed the Holocaust like no film before or since. Arnold Spielberg, Steven's father, had served in the Army Air Force in the China-Burma-India theatre. When asked why the Second World War looms so large in his films Spielberg answered: 

I think that WWII is the most significant event of the last 100 years; the fate of the baby boomers and even Generation X was linked to the outcome. (208)

Robert Rodat wrote the screenplay, a fictional story inspired by a real-life anecdote he read in Stephen Ambrose 1995 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II. The story involved a squad of soldiers sent behind enemy lines to locate a lost soldier who unbeknownst to him had lost all his brothers in combat. Rodat's script found its way into Spielberg's orbit, an ideal project for him since he had always wanted to make a film about WWII combat, plus the story of a behind the enemy lines mission to save a family especially appealed to his sensibility. 

The cast of the film featured some of the finest young talent in Hollywood. Tom Hanks, easing into his role as America's dad at this point, was a natural as Captain Miller, the "citizen soldier" leader of the squad assigned to find the lost soldier. Matt Damon earned the title role as Private Ryan. Other members of the squad included Tom Sizemore as battle hardened Sgt. Horvath, indie filmmaker Edward Burns as Private Rieben, Barry Pepper as the sniper Jackson, Adam Goldberg as Jewish-American Private Mellish, Giovanni Ribisi as the medic Wade, Jeremy Davies playing the interpreter Upham, and Vin Diesel as the gregarious Private Caparzo. 

Recreating the Omaha Beach landing remains the most memorable sequence. The sound design and visual style provide both the scope and horror of the battle. A feat of filmmaking unsurpassed - but not without controversy. Some have pointed out that it downplays the contributions of all the Allied Forces at Normandy and that it glorifies warfare.Francois Truffaut famously stated that it's impossible to make an anti-war movie since any depiction of battle will look exciting no matter how awful. Others have accused Spielberg of glorifying war crimes when American troops are shown shooting German troops after they surrendered. 

To the last point, Captain Miller looks on with disapproval when he witnesses the killing of the prisoners. The issue comes up again when they capture the German soldier who killed Wade. After debating whether killing him in retribution they decide to let him go (only to have him return and kill Miller, Mellish, and Horvath at the Remelle battle). Perhaps the point was to show the absurdities and cruel nature of war (not endorsing war crimes).

Once Allied forces secured Omaha and the other landing sites, the grueling drive to liberate France began. The long middle section of Private Ryan is another point of contention, one which I find even more baffling. Spielberg allows to get to know the soldiers and their personalities. Unlike all the soldiers who perished on the beaches, just a pile of nameless typed sympathy letters, we feel the loss when someone gets killed in the squad. It reminds us that the loss of all soldiers on all sides was a shattering loss to their loved ones, a void that never goes away. Spielberg fans always point out that a great strength of Jaws is the screen time devoted to character development, we get to know the men on the Orca. Granted the middle section lacks the pure cinematic force of the opening, but it develops character in a series of effective sequences.

Quiet moments of the men reflecting on their experiences late at night or the tense moments before battle provide a humanity. At the French village an interaction with civilians leads to the death of Private Caparzo, shot by a sniper while trying to comfort a terrified little girl. Spielberg lets the camera linger on him forcing the audience to ponder the loss. The men also debate the logic of their mission, resenting the idea of their lives being sacrificed to save a fellow soldier, the implication being Ryan's life is worth more than their own. Once the squad locates Ryan they remind him of their losses they suffered in order to save him, but they eventually come to respect him as a soldier. 

The climactic battle at Remelle is more in the classically cinematic mode with Spielberg pulling out all the stops with long shots, close ups, tracking shots, a far more personalized than the Normandy sequence. A sense of desperation and intensity are the primary tone, but it's also a textbook action sequence heightened by the personal drama. 

The bookend sequences, with an older Ryan revisiting Normandy with his family, also elicits conflicting reactions. When Ryan asked his wife if he was a good person, it feels overly sentimental. From a narrative perspective, it does provide a proper ending to the story. Though part of me is more interested in a film where we don't know the fate of Ryan.

Saving Private Ryan continues to influence war movies with its dedication to realism and kinetic style. Tom Hanks's quiet but determined performance as Miller offered an everyday type of heroism free of the over the top bombast of the John Wayne movies. While there are still so many stories to be told about the war and its ongoing meaning in American and World history, Saving Private Ryan opened new possibilities. 

Steven Spielberg: Interviews. Ed, Lester D. Friedman and Brent Notbohm. Jackson: UPM, 2000.

Boogie Nights (1997) ****

If Hard Eight was a throwback the days of New Hollywood in the tradition of Scarecrow or California Split, Boogie Nights takes a more epic approach. Spanning the late 1970s from the early 1980s, the story follows various figures in the adult film industry gathered around charismatic director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). It would be easy to blurb Boogie Nights as the ultimate synthesis of Altman and Scorsese, while that's not completely wrong, Paul Thomas Anderson continued to develop themes he would return to again and again, specifically alternate family structures and an identification with  the outsider.

In a star making role, Mark Wahlberg is Eddie Adams who becomes pornstar Dirk Diggler. The story opens with Eddie working as a busboy at a nightclub where adult film stars frequent, Horner discovers Eddie's physical gift that will make him famous. In one of many memorable sequences, Eddie's introduced to Horner's world at a never ending poolside party. Cocaine and beautiful people are everywhere with "Spill the Wine" playing in the background. The fantastical world of the 1970s adult film industry is countered by Eddie's dull middle class life and a mother who rejects him outright. Wahlberg convincingly portrays an innocent who develops an inflated ego destined to bring about an epic downfall.

Other luminaries in the cast included Julianne Moore as starlet Amber Waves, John C. Reilly as Dirk's sidekick Reed Rothchild, Don Cheadle as Buck Swope, and Heather Graham as Rollergirl. Anderson also highlights the era of filmmaking by also making the crew supporting characters including William H. Macy as Little Bill, Ricky Jay as editor, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a sound operator. The ensemble cast manages to create an enduring tapestry. 

Anderson loves his characters and that's part of the enduring power of the film. It's not a jokey picture about the adult film industry or the people who work within it. There's empathy in every frame. Nine years before Boogie Nights, Anderson directed a mockumentary shot on video entititled The Dirk Diggler Story, which takes a satirical approach to the subject matter, I suspect was inspired by trashy news magazine shows of the era. When Scotty J makes a sexual advance on Diggler while drunk the moment plays as awkward and tragic, Anderson lets the camera linger on Scotty as he weeps in the car. The entire cast does a great job of fostering the empathy - Julianne Moore at a custody hearing or Don Cheadle in the middle of a hold up. Even the now famous "Jessie's Girl" scene towards the end with Alfred Molina devolves into tragicomic violence that's both heartbreaking and terrifying in its own unique way.

Boogie Nights also suggests some of the larger themes Anderson would explore in the future, an interest in systems and the mysterious forces that move them. As Horner explains to Diggler, the movies are all about making money. The organized crime funding the films is alluded to but peripheral to the story. The changing technology from film to video allows the films to be made quicker and cheaper. There's also the idea of being outside of society - the thrill and cost of it. 

Visually impressive , funny and tragic, while moving at a kinetic pace Boogie Nights has aged well.

Dead Poets Society (1989) **1/2

The inspirational teacher remains a popular movie trope. Goodbye Mr. Chips celebrated the dutiful teacher dedicated to his students, and many classic films followed in that spirit. Dead Poets Society is remembered as one of Robin Williams's memorable roles, one that earned him an Oscar nomination and was fondly memorialized after his passing. Set at a New England Prep School during the 1950s, Williams plays an anti-conformist poetry teacher who inspires his students in the right ways and wrong ways.

Peter Weir's direction complements the Williams performance. At the vanguard of the Australian Wave 1970s cinema, Weir directed multiples classics including The Cars That Ate Paris, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, and Gallipoli all notable for their distinct sense of setting and history. Weir made two films with Harrison Ford in the mid-1980s; the popular Witness set in Pennsylvania Amish country and The Mosquito Coast a prescient and moody fable of American hubris and the colonizer mentality. 

The insular Prep School (Welton Academy) environment suits Weir's sensibility and mirrors Hanging Rock which was set at a Girls School during the early 20th Century. Dead Poets Society lacks the sense of mystery of Hanging Rock and instead tells a more focused story (the boys retreating to the cave to read poetry may be an indirect reference) one might find on an After School special. 

Robin Williams stars as John Keating, the new English teacher at the academy. The students all come from white families of privilege and are destined for Ivy League colleges and lucrative careers. Notables among the cast of students are Ethan Hawke in an early role as a shy student and Robert Sean Leonard (Neil) as a sensitive young man inspired to pursue acting by Mr. Keating. 

Williams certainly commands every scene he's in, but the story's not really about his character. Next to nothing is revealed about his personal life or about his past (in an early version of the script he was struggling with cancer). While the students are skeptical of his unorthodox teaching methods at first: ripping out pages of the textbook and arguing that poetry should be viewed as a way of life, they come to admire him as a role model. The now often repeated slogan of the movie, "Carpe Diem" (seize the day) inspires the boys to take risks, but at the same time leads to conflicts with their elders. This is where the movie suffers from not revealing more about Keating: Has he lived by his own principles? 

Keating's anti-academic approach to teaching poetry is illustrated in the scene where he defies the need to study poetry strictly by looking at form (meter and verse). Keating mirrors the Beats of the 1950s, although neither Ginsburg nor Howl are referenced. Keating's teaching methods put him at odds with administration who want to deter students from pursuing the arts instead of a professional career. It's an indictment of a system designed to stifle creativity that remains the ethos in the even more careerist educational system of the 21st Century. 

As the administration notices a change in Keating's students, the Dean (Norman Lloyd) begins to get suspicious. When Neil's passion for acting bring him into conflict with his conservative father it leads to tragedy. The false optimism of the final scene speaks to an emptiness running throughout the film. At one point Williams appears to go into his stand-up routine doing a Brando impression, a moment that now lands as forced. Neither is there much personality among the students who continually view Keating as more of an entertainer than a teacher. 

While Dead Poets Society is obviously speaking to 1950s conformity, a less melodramatic approach to the material would have allowed for nuance on the theme of teaching methods and purpose of an education.

Hard Eight ***1/2 (1996)

Hard Eight opens with the image of a forlorn looking young man sitting outside a diner entrance with his head hung down. Thus, begins the first feature length film from Paul Thomas Anderson.

Originally titled Sydney and loosely based on Anderson's short film Cigarettes and Coffee (both starred Philip Baker Hall), Hard Eight is not so much a story about redemption, but one about loyalty and survival. 

An imposing, but genial, figure Sydney invites John to join him for breakfast and offers to help him out. Sydney teaches John how to manipulate slot machines and the two forge a bond. Sydney knows how the world works - and his own limitations. He takes a risk management approach to everything. Everything from business relationships to crap games to fashion choices are governed by principles, it all comes down to minimizing the losses.

When the story jumps ahead two years Sydney and John are in a de facto partnership. Anderson tends to cast Reilly as a well meaning simpletons, his naivete both a strength and weakness. Hall played Richard Nixon in Secret Honor, one of Anderson's favorite films. In Hard Eight he's playing a more benevolent version of Nixon, a figure with a tempered strength barely veiling a haunted darkness. 

Their partnership is complicated with the entrance of Jimmy and Clementine. Jimmy works in security and is a small time hustler on the side. Clementine is a waitress/call girl John falls for. Jackson and Paltrow were up and coming stars at the time. Jackson delivers a nuanced performance with his suave intensity, while Paltrow brings a humanity to a tropey type of role. 

Now eight films into his career (with one in post-production), Anderson loves to subvert the family structure, focused on the intricacies of these relationships and how they evolve over the passage of time. After John and Clementine get married they get themselves into a dicey situation of their own doing. When called in to help, Sydney is faced with agonizing decisions. The scene in the hotel room is impressively acted and rippling with tragedy, the real climax of the movie (the denouement plays out with a fatalistic melancholy.)

A keen character study of characters on the fringes sometimes at odds and sometimes helping each other out, Hard Eight is a throwback to New Hollywood cinema with its beautiful losers and regal tones. 

The Truman Show ****

The Truman Show predicted the coming of reality television at almost the exact moment the phenomenon hit. Also notable for being Jim Carrey's first foray into a serious role, Carrey would go on to play many dramatic roles and abandoned his Ace Ventura persona, here he's channeling a parodic version of Jimmy Stewart. Upon revisiting The Truman Show I was taken surprised at how fast the movie whizzes by in under two hours. Directed by Australian filmmaker Peter Weir, his focus on the fine line between utopia and dystopia still resonates. 

Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman who lives in an idyllic island community which unbeknownst to him is actually the largest television set in the world. Millions tune in everyday to watch the daily activities of Truman. Adopted by a corporation at the time of his birth, the world has watched him grow into adulthood. Behind the scenes Christof (Ed Harris) is the God like producer manipulating every aspect of Truman's reality. Laura Linney plays Truman's fake wife Meryl and Noah Emmerich is the prototypical best friend Marlon. 

Seahaven is idealized version of a 1950s sitcom universe. A harmonious community of mostly white couples with white collar jobs. Truman works for an insurance company, but it's clear he's restless and starting to question his reality. He cannot point to anything specific, just a feeling. Product placement is everywhere, Truman's been conditioned to be pitchman for all sorts of products. The TV show is a massive commercial enterprise feeding the capitalist system. At the same time the world of Seahaven is set up to keep Truman complacent and content. A few have attempted to tell Truman the truth over the years, but it's a realization he must reach himself. 

The Truman Show invites everyone to put on their cultural critic hat. Today many aspire to be the star of their own reality shows and many have found a way to do it through social media. Facebook, Twitter, youtube instagram and a myriad of other platforms allow anyone to become the star of their own lives, some with substantial audiences. If 20+ years of reality stars and digital stars have taught us anything, it's all fleeting and artificial. The highest aspiration for an ambitious social media user is to become an influencer, they have their own hustle and eventually become unwitting tools of parties with a better hustle, supported by corporate wealth. Digital celebrities in the end become glorified advertisers. Like Truman, their humanity is reduced to a pre-packaged product consumed by the masses and used by corporations. 

Marshall McLuhan wrote all media works us over completely. Few films better illustrate this than The Truman Show. Peter Weir's direction jolts us when we shift to the real world, who in the film are composed of people watching the show in a parody of the Spielberg gaze. Observing the doings of a reality show character cannot compete with spaceships landing or a boy riding a bicycle over the moon. Christof comes across as a villainous version of a Spielberg or Lucas type figure, supremely confident in his ability to manipulate the emotions of millions - most of all Truman. Like all the best visual artists he knows the power of imagery and has a primal sense of narrative, which can also be used for nefarious purposes. Ed Harris is quite effective in his limited screen time as a futuristic master of cinema and narrative/marketing strategies.

Peter Weir maintains a humanistic touch throughout. A modern version of Plato's Cave Allegory, we are all conditioned by our environment but also have the ability to see beyond it. Every dystopian story deals with the human need to pursue a life that's fulfilling, not a life under control by outside parties. The Truman Show never answers the question: What happens when one shatters the confines of their controlled world? There's no need to, from an existential perspective the victory is the realization itself. 

As an afterthought, many have written about the "What is reality?" type movies coming out during the turn of the millennium including Fight Club, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City, and most famously The Matrix. The Truman Show eschewed the dark and nihilist tone of those films and rooted itself in a not so bizarro reflection of our own world. Unlike the 1976 classic Network which was a little too on the nose with its satire, The Truman Show is a modern fable and appropriately ends on such a note. 

The Queen's Gambit (2020) ****

 

Written and Directed by Scott Frank (based on the novel by Walter Tevis)

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Camp, Moses Ingram, Marielle Heller, Harry Melling, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Marcin Dorocinski

The Queen's Gambit is long form television at its best. Based on the novel by Walter Tevis* the limited series breezes by over seven episodes, each approximately an hour long. Anya Taylor-Joy is a revelation as chess prodigy Beth Harmon, an intriguing, fictionalized character traversing through the 1960s. Going along with Beth on her journey is a rewarding experience as she perseveres through a myriad of challenges. Like Beth, the plot stumbles at times, but always lands on its feet.

The analogies between Chess and the Cold War go back to the very beginning of the era. Whether it was Herman Kahn or Henry Kissinger writing bestselling tomes on nuclear diplomacy or more literally during the 1972 World Chess Championship matches between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spaasky. Early in the series I was concerned Beth would end up being a female version of Fischer, especially when a Life Magazine reporter quizzes her with questions about chess prodigies being destined to lose their minds. But the story steers away from that direction. The 2014 film Pawn Sacrifice deals with Fischer, which I've also reviewed on this site.

A recurring theme is the tension between solitary life and one of connection. Beth comes of age in an orphanage after losing her mom and discovers chess. The custodian (Bill Camp) appears foreboding at first, but sees Beth's gift and teaches her the game. Jolene, an African American resident at the orphanage, becomes Beth's best friend and plays a key role towards the end. Beth also becomes addicted to tranquilizers, which were apparently administered to orphans during this era, but the drugs seem to clear her mind for chess. After becoming a local sensation after defeating the local High School team, Beth does not return to chess until High School after she's adopted by a middle-aged couple from Kentucky.

Socially isolated at school, Beth joins the chess club and swiftly decimates all the local competition. In time Beth bonds with her adoptive Mom Alma (Heller) as they pool their resources and become travel companions. Beth takes the chess world by storm. Typically, the only female competing at tournaments, she navigates through the male dominated world and develops relationships along the way with socially awkward Henry (Beltik) and flamboyant U.S. champion Benny (Brodie-Sangster) (with a persona somewhere between Leonardo Di Caprio and D.J. Qualls.) Polish actor Marcin Dorocinski is also memorable as the Soviet champion "Borgov" who's mere presence says wonders in an almost silent performance, who, in the words of Beth, plays chess "like a bureaucrat." All these relationships evolve and payoff by the end.

As the 1960s swing into gear Beth moves along with the changes. Taking style points from a composite of iconic figures ranging from Ann Margaret, Edie Sedgwick, and Nico as she becomes a confident adult. Beth navigates through creative inertia, drinking binges, and eventually achieves a balance (with a little help from her friends.) While the story does build to conventional confrontation with her Soviet rival, every moment of it is earned.

Chess matches, not the most cinematic activity, are always suspenseful and fast paced. Steven Zaillian's underrated 1994 film Searching for Bobby Fisher about a child prodigy was an obvious influence. Yet chess remains in the background, the focus is always on the relationships. The set designs are memorable, a recreation of the 1960s bordering on fantastical. Musically the choices are never overbearing as many films covering this era can be, "Venus" by Shocking Blue is used memorably. Anchored by a charismatic lead performance by Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen's Gambit is a masterclass of storytelling.

(Tony Macklin's review provides valuable background and insight on the writings of Walter Tevis),

The Phenomenon (2020) ***

 

Directed by James Fox

Narrated by Peter Coyote

The Phenomenon covers the history of UFO phenomenon as told mostly by former military personnel and other government officials. Produced with a stately tone minus the tin foil hat crowd drawn to this subject like moths to a flame (they've graduated to more (flat) earth based conspiracies for the moment), the documentary backs off from making major assertions about contacts with extraterrestrials, mainly concerned with what governments know and what they are not revealing to the public. At the same time it covers much of the same ground as TV shows like In Search of . . or Unsolved Mysteries. Intriguing questions are raised, but those hoping for smoking guns and mind blowing confessions will be disappointed.

UFO's were back in the headlines last spring when the Pentagon released footage of some strange craft pilots have encountered over the years. With the pandemic commanding everyone's attention, the story did not prove to be a watershed in saga government secrecy on the subject. Interest in UFO has somewhat waned over the past few decades, but has by no means disappeared. The realm of conspiracy theories has more competing narratives than usual these days. In a time of political polarization with people suspicious of their neighbors, teachers, dog catchers, and pizza parlors - conspiracy theories are like rocket fuel. While I joked about UFO believers in the previous paragraph it is a topic that brings together people from different political stripes and diverse professions ranging from academia, the military, law enforcement, the scientific community, and pockets of political circles. Maybe some hope in that regard?

The Phenomenon begins in the 1940s when reports of UFO sightings increased all over the world. Pilots reported encountering strange craft in the sky. There's the requisite recounting of the "Roswell Incident" that was probably a weather balloon crash, as Carl Sagan covered in his final book The Demon Haunted Earth. The so called "UFO Invasion" of Washington DC in July of 1952 also gets covered but with hardly any context. Much attention is given to odd activity around nuclear weapons bases, and reports of UFO craft messing with nuclear missile systems during the Cold War in the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1994 it was reported that ET craft landed near a school in Zimbabwe. Children at the school believe they interacted with "visitors" from the craft and the documentary includes their reunion 20 years later when they recall the incident. These people obviously experienced something, but the "ET" explanation bears no supporting evidence beyond eyewitness reports.

In recent decades politicians have expressed interest in UFOs. President Bill Clinton expressed an interest and asked for a special investigation of Roswell, but admits he learned little from his inquiries. Harry Reid, retired Senator from Nevada, also attempted to investigate the Pentagon for more transparency on the issue. Few have taken it seriously or expressed their concerns to the public. The Phenomenon suggests there's a government within the government deep state that knows all the secrets. Or perhaps some sort of global organization? Oh man, just listen to me.

That's the problem with documentaries of this type. They raise questions, but never raise the right questions. A sociological or psychological explanation would be helpful, since all questions regarding these phenomenon come down to more nuanced and complicated explanations that often involve religion. Carl Jung proposed such an approach to the issue of UFOS, but the public gets sidetracked into the rabbit hole of government conspiracies. For all I know there's a galactic body somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy keeping close tabs on Earth so things don't get too crazy. I'm certain that Brexit, the death of Prince, and election of Trump set off a Five Alarm Fire. But until there's overwhelming evidence, I'll remain a skeptic.