Sunday, January 07, 2007
GLORY HOLE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Stanley Kubrick's
This is a timeless anti-war film depicting the wide gap between the command and the commanded in any army.
In this case, it is the French army. I am not an expert in military arrogance but the frogs seem to have made the template for it.
It is a crisp and sometimes dispassionate view of the spoils of war as they occur for one's own side.
Kirk Douglas attempts to save his three men who are arbitrarily chosen to die for 'cowardice' during an impossible, failed mission which had been assigned to their entire battallion.
Adolphe Menjou is a slick top dog with the ever hateable George Macready as the real bastard of the piece. Macready was the uber-villain in this kind of thing with his saber scarred jaw and his snarly demeanor. At the same time, he never went over the top with his stuff and it came across genuinely hateful.
The film has some great cinematography; dolly shots in the trenches, hand-held cameras doing the battle right besides the troops.
I said that it is timeless. It could be applied today as well as then. Nothing changes but the place and the characters.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5 because it is so perfectly laid out and runs like a machine. The human side is a little cold here and there but I think that is part of the deal also.
You can see that I am a little shaky on the 5. Maybe a 4. We will see.
