Solomon's Discs: Cross of Iron (1977)

Hello, Readers Mine!

Well, the grad. school tradition of DVD's over live TV continues, as does my self-directed study of war films. This week, I watched Cross of Iron, by the late, great Sam Peckinpah (aka, the guy Quentin Tarantino has been trying - and failing - to be for his entire career.)

James Coburn as Unteroffizer Feldwebel Rolf Steiner in Cross of Iron

Cross of Iron was Peckinpah's anti-penultimate film, and the only war film that he ever made. Peckinpah is best known for his work in the western genre with such classics as Ride the High Country (1962), The Wild Bunch (1969), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), and for his sometimes hyper-realistic portrayals of violence. During filming for The Wild Bunch he famously rejected the Warner Brothers gunfire sound effects, which had remained unchanged since the 1930s, and demanded that new effects be recorded using each type of weapon which would appear in the in the film, thus bringing a level of realism to the screen that had never been seen before. Peckinpah's obsession with realism continued with Cross of Iron, which was largely filmed in Yugoslavia because the Yougoslav army had preserved a multitude of World War II era weapons, including Soviet T-34 tanks, specifically for use in films. The German and Soviet uniforms, weapons, vehicles and tanks are all period-accurate, something that was particularly rare at the time (for example, see Patton (1970), where Rommel's 1942 Afrika Korps is using M-47 and M-48 "Patton" tanks, which were not produced until 1951, and were, you know, American tanks).

Interestingly enough, despite the almost continual skirmishes, attacks, counterattacks, shelling, etc that occurs throughout the film, the story has very little to do with the war, and is instead an examination of class. Sargent Rolf Steiner (James Coburn) is a soldier's soldier, the quintessential and mythologized NCO who survives whatever gets thrown at him, keeps his platoon alive, and is only fully alive when he's at war. His nemesis is Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), a member of the Prussian officer-aristocracy, who has transferred from a cushy, safe post in southern France to the Russian Front in late 1943, where the Red Army was steadily throwing the Wehrmacht out of the Taman Peninsula. Stransky wants to win the Iron Cross, a medal for bravery highly prized by the Prussian aristocracy, but seen as so just so much metal by fighting men like Steiner and his regimental commander, Colonel Brant (who, in the finest tradition of WWII films, is played by the very British James Mason). Despite his overweening pride in his ancestry, Stransky turns out to be a miserable failure as a line officer, and so blackmails his homosexual adjutant into signing a false statement qualifying him for the Iron Cross, and also puts Steiner's name on the necessary forms. Steiner, proletarian to his core but well educated, and possessing a command of poetry and philosophy, refuses to corroborate Steiner's story.

In the mist of almost daily death and danger, Stransky plays out his petty game, because he cannot face his family if he returns form the war without the Iron Cross. Stransky believes that after the war things will go back to the way they have always been, with the aristocracy at the top of the socio-political heap and everyone else below. Steiner knows that the war has blasted all of that apart for good, and his opinion of the upper class both within and without the army is summed up in the line "I hate all officers." Cross of Iron is an astonishing film, and as with all of Peckinpah's work, asks probing questions about the nature of manhood and masculinity. Steiner, the hard-working, hard-fighting proletarian is full of all of the many virtues, from bravery to strength to sexual prowess to manly love for the men under his care. Steiner is cold, manipulative, self-centered, and obsessed with appearances above all. Peckinpah gives the viewer a powerful, if broadly drawn psychodrama, and reveals the class structure not just of the Wehrmacht  but of all armies, particularly during World War II, when the separation and distinction between officers and enlisted men was rigidly maintained even by the American "citizen-soldier" Army. Coburn delivers an incredible performance as Steiner, and is one of the Great Sergeants of war films, right up there with Lee Marvin, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and Audie Murphy.

Cross of Iron was sited by Tarantino as his inspiration for The Inglourious Basterds (2009), and although the film did porly upon its release in 1977, Cross of Iron's reputation has been on the rise for the past decade or so. The film's portrayal of combat is highly realistic, especially for the time, with battle scenes that are desperate, confused, frantic, and bloody. It's not for everyone, but for anyone interested in the war film genre, Cross of Iron is a must see.

Solomon's Discs: Sherlock

Hello, Readers Mine, I hope this finds all of you hale and hearty.

For some time now I've been hearing good things about the BBC TV series Sherlock, a modern day revisioning of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great consulting detective. So a couple of months ago I put the first disc of Season 1 (or Series 1 as the Brits term such things) on my Netflix queue, and it showed up in the mail last week. I should probably disclose that, while not a Holmes fanatic, I do tend to take out one of my three copies of The Complete Sherlock Holmes every few years and read it cover to cover. I have always been able to find something new to delight me in every reading, and as I grow older more and more is revealed in the text. So, not a fanatic, but definitely familiar, and maybe even well versed in things Holmesian. To this point I have generally held a low opinion of the various attempts throughout the years to revamp Holmes, with the huge exception of the Basil Rathbone films, even the ones set during World War II, because Rathbone was the only actor who really got Sherlock Holmes right, and he got him so right that the character transcended any flubs with the mythology. Rathbone is the only one who's ever been able to pull that off.

Until now.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes, and Martin Freeman as Watson, and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, Sherlock gets it right - at last! The cast and crew manage to bring Sherlock Holmes firmly and fully into the 21st century while maintaining the heart and soul of Doyle's characters and the atmosphere of his stories. In part, this is done by the reliance on local color, and the city of London is quickly revealed to be the third major character. It is Cumberbatch and Freeman, though who must carry the weight of the show, and they make it look effortless.

Cumberbatch's tall, gangling frame and long, hollow-cheeked face instantly recall the deceptively ascetic-looking Holmes of Doyle's stories, and Cumberbatch's ability to be absolutely still while expressing furious mental activity with minuscule movements of his eyes and facial muscles is matched only by his absolutely frenetic physicality when Holmes leaps into action after his period of cogitation. His Holmes is brilliant, arrogant, abrasive, and and self-proclaimed "high-functioning sociopath." He is also a terribly lonely man, who is both astonished and delighted to find, at last, a faithful friend.

Freeman (who also landed the role of Bilbo Baggins in 2012's The Hobbit) may well be the first time Dr. Watson has ever been done properly (I disliked Nigel Bruce's Watson just as much as I adored Rathbone's Holmes). A Afghan War vet, and British Army doctor who is discharged after being wounded in the field, this is the Watson from Doyle's stories: steady, an excellent physician with nerves of steel, a deep reservoir of courage, friendship, and loyalty to Holmes, while never sacrificing his own self-concept. This Watson accepts Holmes for what he is and delights in his friend's abilities and in accompanying him on his adventures, no matter how ridiculous they might seem on the face of it. Occasionally irritable, Freeman's Watson is never jealous.

The friendship between the two men is quintessentially British, acknowledged not by hugs or discussions of feelings, but a very restrained warmth and wit as the two men go about their daily routine. The cast and crew  keep the the Holmes mythology intact, including the sometimes dark humor of Doyle's stories, but also manage to update  things a bit and even to comment on the body of literary criticism determined to see a homosexual relationship between the two men, as in the first episode where, much to Watson's frustration, person after person assume the two are lovers - though everyone is also very supportive of that possibility. 

Long story short, I've added the rest of the available discs to my queue, and can't wait to catch up on the series and to DVR Season 3 in March on BBC America. This is the Golden Age of television, Readers Mine, and I'm willing to put Sherlock right on up there with the shows that are making that gold. You should watch it.

Solomon's Discs: Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War

Hello, Readers Mine, and welcome to what is the first installment in a regular series of posts here at Solomon Mao's. When I finished up my Associates Degree in 2010 and started in on my last two years of undergraduate work at UNC-Greensboro, during the week I lived in a great little place without cable TV. So Mockingbird and I went out and bought me a little 22-inch HDTV with a built in DVD player, and I subscribed to Netflix. Mock' insists that I am constitutionally incapable of watching live TV, and I am not one to channel surf. When I want to watch something, I want to sit down and watch it. Now my graduate apartment here at ETSU has Dish TV, but I still rarely watch live TV. What I do watch are films and TV series/seasons on DVD. My schedule is such that I can usually find two or three nights a week to settle in and watch a movie, so little red envelopes come in and out of my place regularly.

The great thing about Netflix is that their selection of DVDs is truly impressive (not so their streaming service, however) so when I go on a kick for one particular director, actor, or genre, I can go deep. For most of a year now, I've been on a self-taught course in film studies focusing on war films, sparked by a paper I wrote on Joss Whedon's The Avengers (yes, it's a pretty classic American combat film piece), and reading Jeanine Basinger's excellent The World War Two Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre. Since last May (2012), I've watched a bunch of war films, beginning with American movies, which pretty much created the genre and still exert a heavy influence on the style of war films worldwide, but I've also been branching out into foreign war films as well. Which brings me to last night's DVD: Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War.

Directed by Kang Je-kyu and starring Jang Dong-gun and Won Bin Tae Guk Gi is a story about two brothers whose lives are are thrown into bloody chaos by the Korean War. This is "America's Forgotten War" as seen from the Korean perspective, and I get the sense that in South Korea, the war is anything but "forgotten." The film is not for the squeamish. Though the violence, blood, and gore are not gratuitous, they are highly realistic, and modern war is not kind to the human bodies which get caught up in its meatgrinder.

Jin-soek Lee (Won Bin)is the youngest child of his family, just 18 in 1950 when the film begins. He is the hope of his family, an excellent student, and college-bound. His elder brother Jin-tae Lee (Jang Dong-gun), became the man of the family as a teen when their father died. He works the streets of Seoul shining and repairing shoes while his mother, mute since his father's death, and fiance run a small noodle shop, with all of their efforts focused on enabling Jin-soek to complete his schooling and thus move out of the ranks of the working poor. Theirs is a very traditional Korean family knit together by bonds of duty, sacrifice, and deep and affectionate love. 

When the war breaks out, Jin-soek Lee is swept up by an official conscription gang, and, unable to get his brother out, Jin-tae Lee joins up too and devotes his military career to protecting his brother. His appeals to his regimental commander result in Jin-tae being offered a deal: if he fights hard and bravely enough to win the Medal of Honor, then the commander will discharge Jin-soek and let him go back home. Fortunately Jin-tae discovers in himself a true talent for war, and becomes the stuff that Medal of Honor winners are made of by November of 1950, just as the Chinese People's Volunteer Army enters the war, ensuring that all deals are off. Unfortunately, along with that talent for war comes a hatred for the enemy that makes Jin-tae grow harder and colder as the war progresses.

Tae Guk Gi is a true masterpiece of the genre, and the story of the Lee brothers (only vaguely and incompletely outlined above - you should really see the film) is deeply moving. Kan Je-kyu refuses to flinch from showing the true horror of war and the damage it does to those fighting it and those caught in between. Nor does he ignore the madness that gripped the South Korean people as they informed on, imprisoned, and summarily executed many of their fellows, men, women, and children who were labelled as communists for the most spurious of reasons. Tae Guk Gi is a film about a nation gone mad, where both sides in the brutal conflict speak the same language, and slaughter each other en masse. Above all, Tae Guk Gi is a humanist piece, and never blinks at the realities of human beings caught up by deadly forces far beyond their control who only wish to survive and return to some semblance of normalcy. The Lee brothers are Everymen from every family, from every nation, in every war, and their love for one another leaves the viewer in tears by the end of the piece.

I've only given you the smallest of taste of this film here, and you should put it on your queue immediately. At two and a half hours long, be ready to settle in for the evening, but I promise you it is worth every minute. I fully intend to add some more of Kang Je-kyu's films to my own queue, especially any featuring the lead actors in Tae Guk Gi. In the final analysis, this film puts Saving Private Ryan in the shade, and for my money rates as one of the greatest war films ever made. Go forth and watch it!