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Reviews
Idi i smotri (1985)
Come and See why this Movie Breaks the War Movie Rules
Come and See
Growing up watching war movies from Apocalypse Now to Black Hawk Down, I thought I knew what war movies are. Apparently, I was wrong. Come and See is not like those films. It does have soldiers, explosions, and people dying. However, Come and See doesn't have John Williams making you feel like storming the beaches of Normandy is somehow best expressed by French horn. What makes Come and See so interesting are 3 basic elements: 1. We experience war through the eyes of a teenager, 2. It doesn't follow a formulaic approach and 3. It's brutally real.
First of all, war movies are typically seen (in America) through the eyes of some brave (almost always white) man heading off to the glory of the war. Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor, Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, Tom Sizemore in every major American war movie or TV Show since 1989 (including the two aforementioned). In Come and See, our protagonist Florya is a teenager who eagerly jumps at the chance to fight with the Russians against the Nazi invasion. His youth and innocence at the beginning is just like the audiences. He believes he knows what war looks like, but when confronted with the reality of it he, along with the audiences, slowly loses his mind and his prefabricated ideals. He (and we) become lost in this seemingly alien world of war that had previously been a clear vision to us. Our joint progression is a testament to Klimov's smart design.
What I cannot stand about American war movies is the obviousness of plot. That doesn't mean all American war films are bad, but I do believe they follow a very specific pattern. Here it is: Someone goes off to war; they battle, lose a friend, gain some friends, recover from loss, learn some important lesson, and come home. Saving Private Ryan's title character (Matt Damon), Pearl Harbor's Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett), Jarhead's Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) all follow this line. In Come and See, Florya does go off to war with some ideals, he makes and loses some friends, but he never comes home. Also, he's not doing it in any cookie-cutter/Michael Bay way. He is literally destroyed of all his innocence, family, self- worth, and judgment. He never recovers from his losses, he simply pushes them deeper within or ignores them (which could be argued is the same thing), he never learns lessons from his experiences (he becomes angry and disavowed with own thoughts and ethics), and he never comes home, because he doesn't have a home anymore and he wants to keep fighting (I also understand that "war" and "The Army" could be his home, but I disagree with that. I feel his home is truly destroyed, when his innocence is destroyed).
Lastly, Come and See's realistic approach to filming is remarkable and startling. There are no sweeping shots of the horizon and the soldiers walking through vast fields, epic crane moves around the statuesque protags (a la every Michael Bay-type war film), or funky color separation or manipulation. It is really is 2 hours of hand-held camera, live ammunition and explosions, real color, and original WWII uniforms. Come and See is an intelligent exploitation of your senses and emotions that are clearly visible in the young actors own minds. When Florya stands next to the nearly leaded cow you see his real fear just like the guy watching the film next to you. Some documentaries are a cleaner look at war than Klimov's film.
La otra conquista (1998)
Production Design and Costume raise Conquest
During the 16th century the empires of Spain, Portugal, and Britain colonized, enslaved, converted, and literally destroyed hundreds of years of native religious and cultural history. The Other Conquest is an examination of one man's journey of coping with his changing world. At its simplest metaphor, The Other Conquest is the tragic truth of all lost native people in a post-colonized world.
Some of the most impressive elements of Conquest are in its production. Director Salvador Carrasco's limited budget is hidden behind beautiful costumes and vastly beautiful settings and sets.
Conquest is epic. Obviously, we're not watching Lord of the Rings here, but The Other Conquest feels grand (especially in scene where Topiltzin is painting the day-after-battle scene) when it needs the scale (shooting on location in Mexico brings authenticity even $180 million dollars can't bring to New Zealand in Rings), an impressive feat on a limited budget. I truly believe you cannot create period buildings and environmental nature in it's totality on a sound stage and Conquest takes that to it's most affecting place. The eerily spiritual feelings of the church come through in the film, but are understated. The colors of Topiltzin's paintings are mirrored as the vibrant colors throughout the whole film. However, the moments of vibrancy are most poignant when the color is limited and telling. In the love scenes of Topiltzin and Tecuichpo the color of the glowing skin makes a very simple, but gracefully beautiful scene. Our introduction to Topiltzin is a rainy, dirty, mess that is a reflection of the protagonist's battle he faces, but skillfully shot in a dream like state.
Halfway through the film I realized I was watching a period drama. You watch Marie Antoinette or Casanova and you KNOW its Kirsten Dunst in very well done costume and Heath Ledger in a bad wig, but they're explicitly costumes in the most Hollywood sort of way. In Conquest, the costumes are unassumingly simple, yet chic in an historically accurate way. The accuracy of the costumes is never the focus of attention. For example, the most poignant scenes are often scenes of nudity (the sacrificing of the virgin, Topiltzin and Tecuichpo's love scene, Topiltzin's introduction). Interestingly enough, the most recognizable costume in the entire film is that of the Virgin Mary statue. Her idyllic beauty is shown in her subtle features and brightly colored and undemanding draping.
The story of The Other Conquest is very engrossing and even though it wasn't touched upon almost at all in the former commentary, it could not have been so believable and interesting had these other essential production elements not been top notch. It is not easy to make a period film (historical or future-based) believable and many have tried and failed due to obvious Hollywood-ness (A Knight's Tale), museum like qualities (The Patriot), or just plain misfiring (Waterworld). The Other Conquest joins the ranks of period films whose accurate and unpretentious production design and costume (Schindler's List, Blade Runner, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) raise it's story to another level.
Day of the Dead (2008)
I love Zombie movies, but NOT this one
I saw the screening for Day of the Dead in LA in September... I wanted my money back, but i didn't even pay for the movie.
Cardboard acting, completely ridiculous character traits that defy all sense of realism (Marines do NOT act like that, ever), and very odd casting that didn't work out (Mena Suvari and Nick Cannon? Come on). Also, there was definitely no style to this movie at all! Dawn of the Dead had style, Grindhouse (although not a Zombie flick, but of a similar genre-style) was greatly stylized, Sin City was exciting visually as well, but this movie could have been shot in daylight outside of LA over a weekend. It had no "Feel" to it. I love Zombie movies (James Gunn's Dawn of the Dead, awesome), but this one was true Hollywood schlock and a big disappointment.
Who ever thought a ZOMBIE movie could be Boring?