Right Words

Below are more films I’ve enjoyed recently, listed chronologically by year of release. Please see my disclaimer re: content under Movie Batch #1.

1. The Big Red One (1980). I had seen this classic WWII film on TV as a kid but could only appreciate it superficially then. It’s larger in geographic scope than many other WWII films, and it provides a good balance of action sequences with the more banal aspects of war. Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill lead the cast with fine performances, but the acting and content is good all around. Not quite as much profanity as some of the R-rated war films, plus much of the gore is offscreen. Today it would probably be rated PG-13, but in 1980 it was PG. if you like military films, you should enjoy this one.
2. Gaudy Night (1987). This three-part series is offered free on YouTube, and I highly recommend it to mystery lovers. It’s based on the novel by Dorothy Sayers and reminiscent of Agatha Christie as it revolves around an amateur sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. But the other lead character is a mystery writer and Wimsey’s love interest, Harriet Vane. This series is the third of three based on Sayers’ novels that I found on YouTube, the first being Strong Poison, followed by Have His Carcase.
3. Napoleon (2023). I watched the director’s cut of this film on Prime Video, which ran about 3-1/2 hours (fine with me). There’s much to like about this film, including the cinematography, costumes, and battle scenes. Some of the historicity is off, especially about the battles of the Pyramids and Austerlitz, but to me that’s forgivable for the scope covered by the rest of the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this film’s version of Waterloo, though the 1970 film of the same name was much more comprehensive. In my opinion, the 2002 series Napoleon is the best study of the Emperor’s private life. The battle scenes are not the highlight of the series, perhaps because it was made for TV. My advice would be to watch all three of these portrayals of a very complex personage from history. Joaquin Phoenix (2023) and Rod Steiger (1970) bear striking resemblance to Napoleon in certain ways, but I think that Christian Clavier comes the closest to capturing his entire persona, at least as much as a film can. Clavier also has the advantage of being French, which the other actors are not. A final caveat about this film: there are two brief conjugal scenes that make this movie unfit for young people. I consider them gratuitous since it was known that Josephine was intimate with Paul Barras and that she and Napoleon had a passionate love life. Sometimes I wonder if such scenes, considering their brevity, are thrown in so that people who aren’t truly interested in history don’t get bored. Anyway, with modern technology we have the option of skipping material that we find objectionable. It wasn’t like that when I was growing up, so I’m grateful for the innovation.
4. Nuremberg (2025). This new film wasn’t as compelling as I thought it might be, but I still enjoyed it. Russell Crowe was believable as Hermann Goring but not German enough in my opinion. Rami Malek did fine as U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, which is amazing considering that he’s of Egyptian descent. The other Nazi war criminals didn’t get much air time in this movie; they might have if it had been longer. Still, the movie made me go back to William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for further details. Another fine work on the trial period is War and Grace by Don Stephens, which recounts the work of chaplain Henry Gerecke among the criminals, some of whom may have found redemption in the end.