Trailerz
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) – Dir: Guy Hamilton. Principals: Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray
Diamonds Are Forever is a customarily fun, goofy James Bond romp, but unfortunately this installment is probably the poorest that Sean Connery appeared in (save his unofficial remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again). The plot isn’t as sharp as the earlier films, there isn’t as much excitement, and certain scenes are downright ludicrous. In one scene, James Bond commandeers a moon rover (top speed: 15 MPH) and manages to outrun a team of assassins outfitted with ATV’s and motorcycles. Bond movies are often ridiculous, but we’re forgiving of that for the most part because James Bond is such a great character and because we come to expect craziness in these films. It takes something truly baffling to stand out in a negative way in a Bond film.
I don’t watch Bond movies for psychologically driven realistic action, but I do like to have at least a tenuous grasp of the plot to put the explosions and car chases in the right context. I had no idea what was going on in terms of the storyline while I was watching Diamonds Are Forever, and I have even less of an idea now. Bond films usually have nonsensical world domination plotlines, and I’m fully on board with that, provided I can follow them. This film tried so hard to create a zany but engaging plot that it outsmarted itself and caused everything to become a big mess.
Of course, Connery is the film’s chief asset, and he’s terrific in the role as usual. His portrayal of James Bond is as easygoing and at home as ever, and the genteel and nonchalant manner he lends to Bond is just as exciting as the explosions and ridiculousness all around him. A Bond movie starring Connery always makes for at least solid entertainment, but in the case of Diamonds Are Forever, we don’t get much more than that. C+. (Diamonds Are Forever was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound).
The Dirty Dozen (1967) – Dir: Robert Aldrich. Principals: Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Robert Ryan.
The Dirty Dozen is a late 60s war/caper film starring iconic tough guy Lee Marvin, and is one of my first forays into this area. Marvin, playing main character Major Reisman, gives the film its legs, and he’s surrounded by recognizable and capable actors (Donald Sutherland, John Cassavetes, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson, and even football legend Jim Brown). In the film, Marvin is tasked with training a group of soldiers, all of whom are either serving long prison sentences or have been sentenced to death. Their mission is to storm a German-controlled chateau in France (the film is set in WWII) and kill all said Germans inside. If the group cooperates and are successful, their sentences will be commuted.
The best scenes of The Dirty Dozen show Marvin interacting with the men, slowly gaining their trust, respect and confidence. They work together to play pranks on Col. Breed, (Ryan), who is trying to figure out what Marvin’s top secret mission is all about. The joy of The Dirty Dozen is watching the men go from sarcastic and sadistic one-dimensional killers to strong characters, each with a distinct personality and mannerisms. The way Marvin is then able to combine these personalities into a tight-knit combat unit is fun to watch unfold.
My issue with The Dirty Dozen is that its end result feels a bit pointless. Maybe I’m unaccustomed to “rah-rah” war films such as this, but at the end, the group blows the shit out of some Germans and a number of them die. There’s no emotional denouement; in fact, watching what had essentially been lighthearted fare for two hours to that point made the film’s ending odd and unsatisfying. C+. (The Dirty Dozen won an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects, and was also nominated for Supporting Actor (Cassavetes), Film Editing and Sound).
Feature Presentation
The Corporation (2003)
Directors: Mark Achbar & Jennifer Abbott
Featuring: Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Milton Friedman, Ray Anderson, countless other talking heads
If you want to watch a film that will provide you with a comprehensive source of ammunition against the biggest corporations in the United States and across the world, The Corporation is for you. This documentary cites countless specific examples of corporations engaging in various illegal and immoral practices; animal cruelty, support of despotic and dictatorial regimes, financial fraud, layoffs. You name it, and The Corporation covers it.
The Corporation doesn’t make too many bones about what it is. Its aim is to show a viewer, who may not be aware of what’s going on in the world, what these companies are doing and essentially how they’re going to destroy humanity if we don’t intervene in some way. It fires shots at big companies (and, by extension, the capitalistic system that enables these companies to grow and thrive) and simply lays out the awful things they do. As such, The Corporation is absolutely a well-done and powerful documentary. The things corporations will do for an extra dollar, and their immorally numb mindset while committing willfully heinous acts, are truly frightening. The Corporation definitely had my blood boiling at points.
I don’t think it’s fair, however, for a film to take one side on an issue like this without offering alternatives or ideas on how we can make things better. The viewer is subjected to 2 ½ hours of disheartening footage of companies doing everything from suppressing negative news stories to creating environmental catastrophes. After such a marathon, the film needs to put forth some sort of theory as to how the people can change things and what we can do to protect ourselves. Small victories of civilians over corporations are mentioned towards the end of the film, but these feel shoehorned in and not nearly strong enough to help combat everything that came before. The Corporation is a bit too bleak for its own good.
The film would also be better if it didn’t delve into potshots and childish antics. One of its scenes begins with muted video clips of a child’s birthday, with the narrator talking about how “Happy Birthday” is a copyrighted piece owned by a corporation that charges $10,000 for films to use it. In another scene, the CEO of Goodyear Tire is talking about how layoffs are the hardest part of his job, and underneath him we see a subtitle that “Goodyear laid off 4,000 workers since 2001” or something like that. It comes off as a bush-league approach that works to undermine the film’s own point. It’s truly too bad they take this route, because the commentary of some of the CEO’s interviewed for the film provided some of the most insightful thoughts and ideas presented here.
The Corporation gets the easy part down; corporations are bad, and here’s why. It does a real good job of presenting this argument. But the hard part, and the interesting part, is: what can we really do about it?
C+
John Lacey
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