Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004)

I seem to be watching more movies involving soldiers lately, including a few rewatches I didn't write about on this blog. It's not that my interest has grown. In this case, I noted that the anniversary of D-Day is coming up. And the TV movie runs less than 90 minutes without commercial breaks.

The story begins in December 1943, but the exact number of days remaining is first shown after one of several time jumps, to March 1944. It ends, of course, shortly after the Normandy landings. General Dwight Eisenhower (Tom Selleck without a mustache) spends the interim mostly hashing out details with other important figures, including Omar Bradley (James Remar), George S. Patton (Gerald McRaney), Walter Bedell Smith (Timothy Bottoms), Winston Churchill (Ian Mune), and Charles de Gaulle (George Shevtsov).

Father Goose (1964)

I hadn't heard of this movie before YouTube suggested it. It turns out to have been Cary Grant's second-to-last work and one of his favorites, not least because he acts more like himself than ever before. (No, the protagonist doesn't do any drugs besides whiskey.)

American civilian sailor Walter Eckland (Grant) swipes Australian naval supplies and openly cares only about himself, so we don't feel too scandalized when Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) strong-arms him into staying at a Papua New Guinea hut and watching for Japanese planes during World War II. He hears about an eligible replacement he can fetch, but by the time he arrives, the replacement has been killed. All he finds are teacher Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) and seven female students of various ages, two of whom speak only French. Reluctantly, Walter takes them to the relative safety of his hut, where Catherine disapproves of his slovenly lifestyle. The navy can't rescue them any time soon, so they'll have to get used to each other.

Number 24 (2024)

I picked the first war epic I could find for Veterans Day. Not much has been written about it yet, because it's a Norwegian indie with limited screening, but it gets a warm reception among viewers.

In old age, Gunnar Sønsteby guest-lectures a class about his life from shortly before World War II to the end of it, during part of which he was Agent #24 of Britain's Special Operations Executive. In particular, he coordinated the Oslo Gang, which specialized in sabotaging German occupation projects, usually with explosives, but expanded to assassinations.

Midway (1976)

I considered saving the last U.S. war movie left on my list for a patriotic holiday, much as I like to save horrors for October. But in all likelihood, I wouldn't remember on time. Besides, I was already in the mood for something very different from what else I'd seen lately.

The story begins with the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April '42. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Tohiro Mifune overdubbed by Paul Frees) sees it as a blessing in disguise, because now his superiors will give him carte blanche for his next move. Soon after, U.S. intelligence staff supervised by Commander Joseph Rochefort (Hal Holbrook) and monitored by composite character Captain Matthew Garth (Charlton Heston) find inconclusive evidence that Japan's next target is Midway Atoll. By the time of the eponymous battle in June, U.S. naval forces are not fully prepared and consider themselves the underdog.

Unbroken (2014)

For Veterans Day, I picked the first new-to-me war movie I found on Netflix. I did not know that it was directed by Angelina Jolie and co-written by the Coen Brothers, but those facts would have increased my curiosity.

In 1943, Olympic runner Louie Zamperini (Jack O'Connell) is serving as a U.S. Air Force captain when his plane gives out over the Pacific. For nearly half the movie, he and the other two crash survivors, Phil (Domnhall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Witrock), are holding out on rafts. Then they get taken as POWs, which is a worse situation in some ways, particularly under the war crime-level command of "the Bird" (Miyavi).

The Zone of Interest (2023)

To avoid my prior mistake, I watched this at the start of my flight home, when my attention wouldn't be flagging yet. I also had a strong feeling that I would need a palate cleanser afterward.

We might call this a slice of life, but that kind of implies an ordinary setting. The focus is on the large family of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), commandant at Auschwitz, living very close to it. The most notable plot developments concern changes in his job, whether he likes them or not. His five kids seem not to know or care what he's up to.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The only Godzilla movie I'd seen before was the 1954 original, which my dad and I found surprisingly serious. Most of the rest sounded schlocky, and Pacific Rim confirmed that I had little interest in kaiju. But GMO (heh, appropriate initials) got such a warm reception that I had planned to see it in a theater, only to discover that I'd waited too long. Once I saw that it was on Netflix, I pounced.

The story is really about Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a World War II pilot who first cheats his way out of a kamikaze mission and then is too scared to shoot the titular mutant dinosaur during an island rampage. He goes home to face poverty in a bombed Tokyo neighborhood where neighbors tend to blame his cowardice, tho one Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) and an orphan in her care, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), shack up with him to improve their chances. He gets a job sweeping for naval mines -- and then sees that Godzilla has gotten even larger in the wake of Bikini Atoll experiments. As further devastation ensues, Shikishima and his compatriots (among them Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Yuki Yamada, and Munetaka Aoki) can see that the world's governments aren't helping, so they take it upon themselves to try to kill the beast.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

I wanted to see this the moment I learned that it was the first feature directed by Hayao Miyazaki since he semi-retired a decade ago. I didn't bother to look up much else about it. The reputed semi-autobiographical nature led me to suspect another realistic story like The Wind Rises, but only the first act could pass for realistic.

In World War II, when Mahito is a preteen or early teen, his mother dies in a fire. Following Japanese tradition, his father marries her pregnant sister, Natsuko, and moves from Tokyo to her country home, where a bunch of seniors also live. Traumatized Mahito isn't keen on his new classmates or his new maternal figure, but he does take interest in a ruined building in the nearby woods. Moreover, a mysterious gray heron seeks his attention with increasingly abnormal behaviors, provoking curiosity and spite. When Natsuko disappears into the woods and no one can find her for hours, Mahito decides to follow the heron, fully expecting a demonic trap.

Oppenheimer (2023)

I knew my dad and I would have to see this while it was still in theaters. Not only is it popular, but it loses something on a smaller screen. Not that nuclear explosions, "real" or imagined, make up much of the three hours.

The story covers the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) from his doctoral student days in 1926 to his receipt of the Enrico Fermi Award in '63. His key work on the Manhattan Project and reactions to its aftermath tend to dominate the focus, but there's more to it than that. He hangs out with communists too much for the comfort of authorities, and two party members, eventual wife Kitty Puening (Emily Blunt) and codependent Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), become his love interests.

Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

OK, so I got a head start on my war movie viewing for Memorial Day. This one may have caught my attention because of John Wayne getting an Oscar nod for it when he thought his She Wore a Yellow Ribbon performance worthier. As it is, some viewers think SoIJ is great, and some think Wayne is the only great thing about it. I'm sure four years after World War II wasn't great timing for public interest either.

The story begins with some U.S. Marines arriving in New Zealand in 1943. Sgt. John Stryker (Wayne) strikes me as a typical harsh sarge, but his men deem him unusually so. Most personally hostile to him are PFC Pete Conway (John Agar), son of a colonel whom Stryker liked but who wasn't a kind father, so Conway tars Stryker by association; and PFC Al Thomas (Forrest Tucker), on whom Stryker had snitched in the past. As a former sergeant major with a drinking problem, Stryker doesn't have the cleanest record himself. Nevertheless, his overall approach gradually wins the men's admiration, starting with the Battle of Tarawa. And you can guess the climactic setting.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Yes, it was necessary to provide the director's name in the title. This same year saw a mostly live-action Disney remake. There's also Pinocchio: A True Story, which is officially dated 2021 but keeps getting counted with the others. Since del Toro's version is easily the most popular, I invited a friend to watch it with me.

The first distinctive thing about this retelling of the Carlo Collodi story is that it's set in World War II, with a brief appearance by Benito Mussolini (Tom Kenny, who also voiced Gepetto in P:ATS). Here, carpenter Gepetto (David Bradley) drunkenly creates a rather crude, asymmetrical pinewood puppet to replace his war casualty son, Carlo (Gregory Mann, whose voice had to be digitally altered as it changed during production). The fervency of Gepetto's desire persuades a wood sprite (Tilda Swinton) to infuse life in the puppet. Gepetto is initially scared and then frustrated that Pinocchio is nowhere near as ruly or considerate as Carlo (despite the same voice), but his care for Pinocchio is clear when cold-hearted men, namely Count Volpe the ringmaster (Christoph Waltz) and a fascist official (Ron Perlman), want to employ the puppet's unique advantages.

The Tin Drum (1979)

I picked a war flick for Veterans Day, but it wasn't the best choice. The protagonist isn't a soldier, and the soldiers we see don't exactly look good to us. You'll understand why in a moment.

On his third birthday, Oskar (David Bennent, actual age 11 at the time) deliberately injures himself in a way that prevents him from growing physically anymore, which ensures that people never treat him as fully adult. That premise alone can be pretty disturbing, but it's also set in Nazi-occupied Poland. His own family sometimes supports the invaders, tho they learn better eventually.

Old Acquaintance (1943)

Had I realized that the title evoked "Auld Lang Syne," I would have saved this viewing for New Year's. But while the song is played at the beginning and ending, no part of the film takes place at that time of year. We are to think of its actual meaning, not its holiday association.

The story begins in 1924 small-town America, when Kit (Bette Davis) has become a celebrity for her first published novel. Her long-time friend Millie (Miriam Hopkins, not dissuaded by previous experience with Davis) takes inspiration and becomes a novelist in her own right, far less favored by critics but far more prolific and financially successful. Alas, by 1932, Millie's husband Preston (John Loder) feels neglected enough to leave her and daughter Deirdre (Francine Rufo, later Dolores Moran). He courts Kit, but she declines for the sake of Millie's friendship. Most of the rest happens in 1942, when Kit and Preston meet again through the war effort, by which time Kit is finally if tentatively dating someone, the younger Rudd (Gig Young).

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

I was only tentatively planning to see this someday and hadn't expected to right after another Disney movie about kids and non-evil witchcraft. But people have been bringing it up with the passing of Angela Lansbury, so I thought it a fitting way to honor her.

In World War II, Eglantine Price (Lansbury) is legally compelled to host three evacuated siblings in her rural English mansion, however unwillingly and temporarily (a scenario I hope never happens in the U.S.). She has been studing magic via mail-order instructions to help the war effort, but the course ends abruptly before she can learn a key spell. Since youngest child Paul (Roy Snart) has a habit of collecting random things and Miss Price wants to enchant a turnable object, he supplies a bedknob. From then on, he can make a certain large bed travel to any destination, which allows the party to hunt for the needed information.

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

Looks like this is my first boxing movie viewing in two and a half years. Can't say I missed the subgenre, but this one has a little something extra to interest me: basis on the life of a real boxer I'd already heard of. Not that I could have told you anything else about him.

Rocco "Rocky" Barbello (Paul Newman) is a fairly violent Brooklyn thief. Fellow con Frankie (Robert Loggia) suggests that he box for money. Rocky does so only in desperation, adopting the last name "Graziano" to hide his criminal record. Once he realizes how far he can go without losing a match, he learns to love it. But his past threatens to catch up to him, particularly when Frankie tries bribery and then blackmail to get him to take a dive.

The Book Thief (2013)

From the title, I was not at all surprised to learn that this is adapted from a book. More surprising to me is the mixed response: Less than half the critics on Rotten Tomatoes like it, yet the mainstream audiences mostly do. And this isn't some dopey entertainment fest.

In the '30s, at age 12, Liesel (Marie-Sophie Nélisse) gets transferred from her mother to foster parents Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) in a fictitious German town, for reasons she doesn't immediately understand. Having lost her kid brother to illness en route, she starts a habit of swiping fictitious books for comfort, despite being illiterate at first. That deficit and her habitual silence toward new acquaintances make it hard for her to make friends, and Rosa's cranky to begin with, tho at least neighbor Rudy (Nico Liersch) has a semi-requited crush on Liesel. But she gets a bit more practice with friendship when a nearly dead young Jewish man, Max (Ben Schnetzer), calls in a family favor for shelter from the Nazis.

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

All I really knew about this before -- perhaps all anyone today is expected to know about it -- is that it includes a dance sequence involving Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. That told me it was going to be whimsical, even by old musical standards. If nothing else, that scene promised to be cute.

On shore leave in Hollywood, Clarence (Frank Sinatra) looks to Joe (Kelly) for guidance on courtship. Lessons are interrupted when a cop irregularly strong-arms them into persuading single-digit boy Donald (Dean Stockwell), who wants to join the Navy right away, to return home that night. They accompany him and meet his Aunt Susie (Kathryn Grayson), an aspiring singer who immediately appeals to Clarence but not Joe, who'd rather pursue the local woman he's already dated. Through a series of events that's tricky to summarize, Joe winds up claiming that Clarence can get her an audition with concert pianist José Iturbi (as himself), figuring it's Clarence's best shot. As the two men try to make that claim a reality, their feelings shift....

Ministry of Fear (1944)

Woohoo, Fritz Lang and Graham Greene, together at last! Alas, neither one was happy with the output, which they could blame largely on writer-producer Seton I. Miller exercising too much creative control in his deviation from the novel. But the movie's still pretty esteemed, so I had to check it out.

At a British village fair, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) accidentally says a code phrase and comes into possession of a cake containing a MacGuffin. Someone tries to make off with it by violent force, but the chaos of war ensures that nobody has it anymore. Suspecting the alleged charity that gave him the cake, Neale hires a PI (Erskine Sanford) to help investigate. Organizer Willi Hilfe (Carl Esmond) and his sister Carla (Marjorie Reynolds) appear surprised at the possibility of a spy ring in their ranks and offer their own cooperation. Of course, this wouldn't be the first Lang picture or the first Greene picture to feature major secret Nazi infiltration, so our heroes may have bitten off more than they can chew. It doesn't help that Neale wants to avoid contact with the police, because he was only recently released from an asylum....

The Small Back Room (1949)

This British production was released in the U.S. as Hour of Glory. I can see why the title changed: "Back room" had a slang meaning that didn't carry across the pond, denoting wartime scientific researchers. Not that directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger regularly did a good job with titles (e.g., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp omits his death), but this time, they were adapting from a same-title novel.

In 1943, bomb disposal expert Sammy Rice (David Farrar), between pain from a prosthetic foot and apparent mismanagement in his line of work, is usually in a mood bad enough to strain his romance with Susan (Kathleen Byron). When pills don't dull the pain, he hits the bottle hard. But his career isn't over; they still count heavily on him when the going gets tough, especially when they're down a man from the latest failure.

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

It looks like my queue is currently short on war movies, especially ones depicting American soldiers. Had I realized in time, I might have pushed this World War II drama, the third in a trilogy by director Andrzej Wajda, back to Memorial Day weekend. Or if I did have an appropriate viewing lined up for then, I'd have pushed this several weeks out for the sake of spacing. Oh well.

In 1945, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski), Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski), and Drewnowski (Bogumił Kobiela) have served in the recently disbanded Home Army of Poland and are now anti-communist agents. Their first attempt on the life of Polish Workers Party secretary Konrad Szczuka (Wacław Zastrzeżyński) results in the death of two misidentified men. For most of the rest of the film, they seem to be dragging their heels about a second attempt. They hardly believe in their cause anymore, and Maciek at least may have something more to live for after meeting barmaid Krystyna (Ewa Krzyżewska).