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umberto_scalli
Reviews
Milosevic on Trial (2007)
Unfortunate...
The climax of this is without a doubt the Obrad Stevanovic segment which is the "gotcha" moment when Milosevic has been effectively checkmated by the prosecution. What a pity that this effect was achieved by doctoring the footage.
Stevanovic was a general in the Serbian Ministry of the Interior Police and the issue was his diary that described a meeting having to do with the war in Kosovo. Specifically, the diary contained the line "no bodies, no crimes". According to the trial transcript, he says...
"At that meeting...one of the representatives of the security forces, whether it was the military or the civilian security, I don't know, warned against perfidious action by terrorists, namely that they are removing the corpses of their victims and the casualties of anti-terrorist actions only to gather them again later and place them in mass graves in order to blame these mass graves later on Serbian forces."
Unfortunately, he is made to say "the military or the civilian security, I don't know in effect that they are removing the corpses of their victims and the casualties of anti-terrorist actions only to gather them again later and place them in mass graves in order to blame these mass graves later on Serbian forces."
Then they claim that Stevanovic commanded an armed group called the Skorpions and they show them shooting people supposedly as part of the Srebrenica massacre.
They don't show that Milosevic proved in reexamination that Skorpions were under RS Krajina command, and that the shootings in the video happened nowhere near Srebrenica.
This trial footage ends with Judge Robinson chewing Milosevic out during the Stevanovic reexamination and ending it. It does not explain the reason for that, which was that Milosevic was using the issue of Srebrenica in order to push his government's contention that the massacre was the work of the 10th Sabotage Detachment under foreign control. The judges wanted to cut off this line of questioning, Milosevic then asked the witness a question about it, and then the judge snapped.
Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973)
See the Pope lead a public stoning!
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** This movie is an excuse to see a series of death scenes, made possible by demonic entities. The first features a woman who looks at her "future in the crystal." She is in an apartment. A man approaches her. Hilarious cuckoo clock music plays as she is being strangled. "Die, die, die", the man says as the music goes "cuckoo! cuckoo! cuckoo! cuckoo!". Following the assassination of the ambassador to the UN from Rhodesia(!)and the complications of this, a professor describes the days of witch hunting. Religious organ music plays as we see first the torture of the alleged witch, and then her death at the stake. They whip her child for good measure. This would probably be the most disturbing of the death scenes. The next that will come up is similar, yet done in a totally hilarious way. Almost immediately following the witch burning scene, another woman is made by Mara the witch to see her past life in a mirror. Naturally, she sees how she died in this past life. A cleric who seems to be wearing the garments and hat of the Pope begins with an exorcism. The religious music of the witch scene is used again, but is hilariously distorted, and includes what seems to be slide whistle accompaniments. The Pope says these prayers of exorcism, causing her to scream, and quickly gives up, saying "She is lost! Stone her!". So the Pope leads a mob which carries her outside a ramshackle-looking wooden church to some wooded area where the stoning begins; the scene ends with a giant stone about to fall on her. After a brief scene where the professor is told of the great ceremony that Mara the witch is planning, the boyfriend visits Mara to find out about one of his past lives. He too was executed; this time by American Indians who dance around and throw an axe into him. This was appropriate preparation for what Mara had in store for him.
Black Dragons (1942)
Probably the most ridiculous of Bela Lugosi`s Monogram movies.
This is probably the most ridiculous of Bela Lugosi`s nine Monogram movies of the early 1940s, and considering that they include such films as The Ape Man, Voodoo Man, and the Corpse Vanishes, this is quite an accomplishment. This picture, quickly produced following the Pearl Harbour attack, features a gang of Japanese saboteurs posing as US industrialists and their many perils. They say things like "These Americans are like children. They quickly forget the fire that burns their fingers", and "I wish we could blow up more ammunition dumps before we have to leave". The dialogue among them is other worldly! Meanwhile, Bela shows up claiming to be a "very sick man". He tries to project a jaded and philosophical image, saying things like "All men are in danger of dying, the question is when", "One must not flirt with destiny", and "Do you know which way you`re really going?". When the leading lady falls into his arms, he says "Mine can be dangerous", then adds "it`s nothing to worry your pretty head about". A film with both Bela Lugosi and ridiculous dialogue, a great combination.