patjam Reviews

Five Days One Summer (1982)

a cinemagraphic masterpiece!

[10/10 · 11 May 1999]

A cinemagraphic masterpiece where all the relationships and tensions developed by the story (a tale of irrepressible love fulfilled, thwarted and betrayed) are conveyed in the exquisitely rendered images carrying the communications that you read as if they were a text; and with the verbal dialogue reduced to the barest minimum required.

The Thin Red Line (1998)

in ref. to Alex Iosjpe comments

[22 December 1998]

If as Alex Iosjpe says "Saving Private Ryan" pre-empts the justification for anyone ever again making a war film (and with specific reference here to the imminent arrival of "The Thin Red Line") because "Saving P.R." tells it all, then "Saving P.R." should never have been made. Because 68 years ago in "All Quiet on the Western Front" (based on the Erich Marie Remarque novel) we had an even more deeply penetrating telling about war; and with not the sentimental patriotism laced into it that with his eye ever more strongly focused on box office receipts than on telling the truth Spielberg could not resist as a hedge on what otherwise could have been his more honest anti-war pitch. So hurrah for Terrence Mallick's having a go at it again, the telling of what can never be told well enough or truly enough for it to ever be fully understood! And if it's a truer go-at-it than Spelberg's then a double hurrah for Mallick!!

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

not the best ever by a long shot

[22 December 1998]

Some filmgoers have short memories when they praise the latest candied-over anti-war-message film as the "best ever". For raw brutal honesty in imaginative film-making what about "Full Metal Jacket" or "Apocalyse Now" or "The Deerhunter" or "Platoon" to mention just a few of the recent entries for best ever. And what about still best of all "All Quiet on the Western Front" (issued 68 years ago in 1930 based on Erich Marie Remarque's novel). All of these better than Spielberg's "Saving P.R. that with his eye as ever more keenly on the box office than on telling the truth he mars with the sentimental patriotism that he laces into it as a hedge on what might not be the overwhelming popularity of his anti-war theme.