Black Rain

Shôhei Imamura, Japan, 1989 (9.0*)
This film begins with a harrowing recreation of the Hiroshima atomic blast to those nearby but separated enough from ground zero to escape immediate annihilation. This film follows a Mr. and Mrs. Shizuma and their niece Yasuko (wonderfully played by Yoshiko Tanaka), who wander through the devastation of Hiroshima just minutes after the blast. The three survive this harrowing apocalypse, and the film picks up their lives five years later, when they are now living in a secluded mountain village, along with other survivors of what they call "picabon" or the Japanese equivalent of the 'nuclear flash'.

The basic story follows the lives of survivors five years later to show the lingering aftereffects on the Japanese civilian population. This is not a pleasant story, but in Imamura's hands becomes an elegaic homage to all the victims who managed to survive for years longer, but whose lives were forever touched in some way. Many seem resigned to the inevitable problems and thus never really continue normal lives, while others are content to spend their time fishing or enjoying the simple pleasures of slow mountain life.

Director Shôhei Imamura adds to the journalistic look of this film by choosing to shoot in classic black and white, in fact, the film resembles the style of Japanese films circa 1950. The story ends to remain faithful to the original novel by Masuji Ibuse, but the dvd includes an alternate ending in the form of a 17-minute color epilogue added by Imamura, who decided to not add his ending to the original film.

Actress Yoshiko Tanaka adds a lot to this film with her subtle yet emotionally moving performance as a young woman who walked through Hiroshima immediately after the blast, yet appears physically immune to any aftereffects.

One of Imamura's assistant directors was famed director Takashi Miike, who said in an interview that his job on this film was "hired dog", yet it gave him an inner strength that he's used in his own works, such as Ichi the Killer and 13 Assassins, which have been criticized for featuring 'over the top' violence.

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Gettysburg

Ronald F. Maxwell, 1993 (8.1*)
Memorial Day WAR-a-thon film #14
Based on Michael Shaara's excellent novel The Killer Angels, about the leaders of the armies that met at Gettysburg. Actually filmed as a tv miniseries, this gives the three-day battle it's proper cinematic homage at nearly four hours. Even though made for tv, and it looks it at times, it's still probably the finest film treatment of Gettysburg to date.

In spite of some well-known actors in pivotal roles, which usually means "all-star ineffective cast", some manage to turn in remarkable performances, especially Jeff Daniels as Col. Joshua Chamberlain, the ex-teacher from Maine, who held Little Big Top in the battle's early fighting, thus saving the high ground for the Union cannons, and who was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and later served in Congress.

Martin Sheen turns in a credible performance as Gen. Robert E. Lee, with the proper accent, but without any of Lee's charisma. Some of the beards don't look quite real enough, like the one on Tom Berenger, but his performance is a good one so it's a trifling issue, just one of the many tipoffs of lower-budget, tv-level source of the production. Sam Elliott shines as Gen John Buford, the cavalry commander who initiates the battle, as does Richard Jordan (in one of his last roles) as Gen. Lewis Armistead, facing his best friend from earlier days in this battle. Stephen Lang perhaps chews the scenery a bit as Gen. George Pickett, forced by Lee to send his troops across exposed ground in the face of Union cannons.

It was perhaps a war deciding moment in just one huge battle, one that killed over 53,000 men, more than all of Vietnam. The film does a good job attempting this scale, using the help of a historical war re-enactment group. A war-weary Lee is shown saying "I leave this up to God now", which is often a big mistake, one that sacrifices your own war experience and rationale judgment, which had been used to Lee's advantage up to this point, offsetting the greater numbers and better equipment of the Union.

Gods and Generals
Michael Shaara's son Jeff finished his unfinished sequel novel "Gods and Generals" after Michael's death. It was also filmed, with Robert Duvall as Lee, a better choice than Sheen, and is about all the civil war years leading up to Gettysburg.

Bring the Jubilee
For those interested in Gettysburg, read Ward Moore's excellent alternate-history novel called "Bring the Jubilee", about a scholar who agrees to test a time travel machine if they'll send him back to the beginning of the famous battle, so he can see how the South won the battle, and thus the war, keeping the north and south as two separate nations and thus both second-level world powers, still dominated by European empires.

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Glory

Edward Zwick, 1989 (8.4*)
Memorial Day WAR-a-Thon Film #11
A pretty realistic civil war film with some real battle action, which places this in a handful of films that actually combined the two. This tells the true story of the all-black army unit that fought for the Union in the Civil War, led by white officer (naturally) Robert Gould Shaw, played by Matthew Broderick, who first has to fight prejudice within his own army.

The story follows the 54th Massachusetts from it's initial days until their first major action in the war in 1963. Denzel Washington won his first Oscar® this, for supporting actor, as a cynical yet heroic soldier. Morgan Freeman also has a supporting part. James Horner contributed a nice music score, as usual.

Even though most characters in the film were composites except for Shaw, Glory was based on a screenplay written by American screenwriter Kevin Jarre, which was based on two books:
(1) One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment (1989) by Peter Burchard, a novel that itself was based on letters written by Robert Gould Shaw, the colonel in command of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which entered the American Civil War in 1863
(2) Lay This Laurel (1973), a photographic tribute to the Civil War sculpture of Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Winner of 12 awards out of 19 nominations, and three Oscars®: sound, cinematography, supporting actor.

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Gone With the Wind

Victor Fleming, 1939 (7.2*)
Best Picture (AA)
Much ballyhooed epic long considered the “most popular” movie is really just a too lengthy soap opera – it needs an hour-long trim as each scene runs on and on - with an overblown budget (and music score) and one good war scene: the train platform at Atlanta littered with hundreds of wounded and dying soldiers. Unfortunately, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning book Margaret Mitchell couldn’t convince Hollywood that it “couldn’t be filmed”; it is better as literature. Even at four hours, the film is just a synopsis of what seemed like decades in Scarlett’s life (maybe it was decades to read!). The film would have been better as a 10-12 hr miniseries, and with perhaps less-stereotypical characters all-around, not just the slaves either.

It’s ironic that the two leads, Scarlett O’Hara, played by Vivien Leigh in her Oscar-winning performance, and Rhett Butler, Clark Gable at his most wooden, are really two of the least likeable characters in the story. Each is arrogant, shallow, and self-centered, while their friends Melanie (Olivia de Haviland) and Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) have the real humanity and heart, along with Oscar®-winning nanny Hattie McDaniel, who steals the film and received the only Academy Award for an African-American actor until Sidney Poitier roughly 25 years later, and the only woman until Whoopi Goldberg half a century later! Ironically, she’s really better as a comic actress yet her tearful scenes here likely tipped the voters.

Directed by Oscar®-winner Victor Fleming (The Wizard of Oz), the film’s plus is a great epic look, which ironically makes some of the faked studio scenes stand out more, like a carriage ride with Rhett and Scarlett in Atlanta before the war with an obviousy filmed backdrop moving at a different speed than they are, or the overused silouettes of actors against giant painted or filmed backdrops. This film also screams for widescreen, but alas, “Cinemascope” had not been invented yet so we’re forever stuck with the square 35mm image – but at least they used color, which the remastering has faithfully maintained. Winner of a then-record 8 Oscars, with 13 nominations.

Quote: As God is my witness, if I have to lie, cheat, steal, or kill, I shall never be hungry again. - Scarlett (apparently losing all ethics in a dog eat dog world!)

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The Red Badge of Courage

John Huston, 1951, bw (8.4*)
The master director once said this was his best film, but that was about 1951 and long before his illustrious career was done (he was yet to make The Man Who Would Be King as well), also perhaps before it was cut by the studio. There are some amazing Civil War battle sequences in this filming of the Stephen Crane classic novel, written when he was just 22, about a youth having a hard time adjusting to battle. A young looking Audie Murphy was a good choice, he was a decorated WW2 hero.

This is really some of Huston’s best black and white work, almost expressionistic at times with so much dust and smoke from battle that you can barely see what’s happening; soldiers appear like ghosts from the dust in front. Unfortunately, there was a major dispute at MGM internally over the making of this film, and it was whittled down from Huston’s 120 minutes to just 69 (and released as 2nd film on a double-bill!) and the studio later claimed to have destroyed the expurged footage when Huston wanted the complete cut. This is what happens when capitalists have control of art…

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The Civil War

Ken Burns, 1990, tv, 12 hrs (9.1*)
Ken Burns set a new style and standard for tv documentaries with this multi-part documentary based largely on still photographs, maps, and interviews with historians, authors, other experts. The series immediately becomes addictive for all history buffs, whether interested in the Civil War or not. Burns establishes a style he later used on a history of jazz music, another on baseball, finally one on World War II. Terrific stuff, not to be missed.

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