retro rated: two war movies

[danny_galaga]

I think the theme for Saturdays telly viewing was histories 'lesser known' battles. Both based on true stories. I had heard of neither of these movies until a couple of days ago.

Glory (1989)

Based on the letters of Robert Shaw, A Union officer in the American Civil War. Mathew Broderick plays Shaw. The beginning of the movie sees him at the battle of Antietam, where he is slightly wounded. Going from being gung ho to shell shocked. its apparent he feels like a failure, and maybe a coward too. Back home in Boston, he is offered the role of leading the 54th regiment, which is an all black volunteer regiment. Initially he takes it as an insult, but soon decides to make the most of it. Two of his childhood friends also enlist. His white friend is an officer, but his black friend enlists as a private.  There's some clever tension happening there because unlike a lot of the other black volunteers, Thomas  was born free and is educated. He has a really hard time of it, and Shaw is determined to maintain his professionalism, at one point telling him "If you wish to speak to an officer, you need to ask permission, do you understand?"

Anyway, while I found Brodericks acting to be in keeping with the character, and Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington play fine parts (just looked it up and Washington won best supporting actor) this movie somehow comes off as a TV movie to me. So while the whole story was fascinating- It's not just two 'countries' at war, there are 'grey' factions as well, like the more renegade 'contraband' negro squads, who are basically just lead on sack and pillage missions on the periphery, and whose white leaders are pretty much in the war to profit- still it didn't feel very 'whole' somehow.

Standout supporting role from John Finn, who plays the Irish drill sergeant Shaw brings in to get the lads into shape.

And has Morgan Freeman always been old? He is always the sagely wise man, isn't he? At one stage denzels character asks "Is you an old man, or an old woman. I forget"  

So, important historically. But didn't seem like a movie. I think if they chopped it up into three episodes for TV, it would have made more sense

3.5/5



The Silent Enemy (1958)

This is an English movie set in WWII. No goose stepping Nazis, or 'Banzai' yelling kamikaze here though. This is set on Gibraltar, which is sorta Englands Guantanamo you could say. Laurence Harvey plays Lionel Crabbe, a munitions expert sent in to investigate a spate of mines being found on ships visiting the port. Initially, they suspect the mines are being attached in other ports like Lisbon, but it soon becomes apparent that there are some Italian operatives in neutral Spain across the bay. How are they attaching the mines? How do they get in to Gibraltar? How can the brits retaliate?

My description is much shorter than for Glory, but I enjoyed this more. There is a charm about pommy movies from this era (another great one, early sixties I think, is This Sporting Life). The Uk was absolutely on it's knees after WWII and to make any movies at all was a miracle I think. Probably their best ones are WWII ones because, hey, if it's one thing the brits had in piles, it was war surplus equipment! This movie had a slight danger of seeming a bit 'Carry On' especially since Syd James guest stars, but it pulls through.

4/5