Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label William Broyles Jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Broyles Jr.. Show all posts
A young soldier with no uniform on his top half marvels at a barren oilfield in a foreign land on this poster for Sam Mendes' Jarhead
A young US marine gets deployed to First Gulf War (1990), against his own ill and without much understanding of the situation.
Jarhead is written by William Broyles Jr. (Apollo 13 (1995)), adapting the same-titled 2003 autobiographical book by Anthony Swofford (Exit (2007)), and directed by English master filmmaker Sam Mendes (American Beauty (1999)), whose 3rd feature it is. The title is a Marine slang term for themselves.
Definitely not a typical war genre movie, Jarhead is a kind of study of the anticlimax of war and frustrations that war - and life in general - entail.
Jake Gyllenhaal (Wildlife (2018)) very skillfully portrays the young protagonist marine. The images of the Iraqi desert are handsome, (cinematographer Roger Deakins (A Serious Man (2009))), and the film is underlain with music typical of its period. SPOILER The film revolves around the almost poetical dilemma that the young men think they get sent to war, but instead they wait around for 175 days in 45 degrees heat, before the war ends and they get to return home without having fired a single shot. The lack of plot is still somehow remarkable in Jarhead.
[Jarhead premiered 27 October (Hollywood) and runs 123 minutes. Gyllenhaal was paid 3 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from December 2004 - ? in Arizona, New Mexico, California and in Mexico. The film opened #2, behind Chicken Little, to a 27.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5), grossing 62.6 mil. $ (64.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.5 mil. $ (9.8 %) and Germany with 4.7 mil. $ (4.8 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Mendes returned with Revolutionary Road (2008). Gyllenhaal returned in Zodiac (2007). Jarhead is fresh at 53% at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Star Mark Wahlberg fronts a group of human/simian characters looking our way on this gloomy and crowded poster for Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes
In 2029 an astronaut crash-lands on a planet where apes are the dominant race and humans are their subordinates.
Planet of the Apes is written by William Broyles Jr. (Cast Away (2000)), Lawrence Konner (The Many Saints of Newark (2021)) and Mark Rosenthal (Mighty Joe Young (1998)), adapting Pierre Boulle's (The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1952)) same-titled 1963 novel, previously adapted for the same-titled 1968 masterpiece by Franklin J. Shaffner and its 4 sequels. The film is directed by Californian master filmmaker Tim Burton (Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)), whose 9th feature it is.
It is an atypical venture for Burton, who fails to make a really good new interpretation of the fascinating source material.
Mark Wahlberg (All the Money in the World (2017)) as Captain Leo Davidson, this version's human on the ape planet, doesn't muster what it takes to make his character anywhere near interesting. The fight scenes lack dynamic energy and don't bring anything new, which is a big problem for an action movie.
An important quality, however, are the good-looking ape costumes, prosthetics and makeup, which helps us to accept the simian supremacy surprisingly fast. Especially Tim Roth (Broken (2012)) and Paul Giamatti's (Win Win (2011)) ape performances are fun. The reversed world, where apes are in control (over us), is also still thrilling, and especially the film's first half is quite good.
[Planet of the Apes was released 26 July (Hong Kong, Puerto Rico) and runs 120 minutes. Development of a new Apes movie had been ongoing since the late 1980s with a long list of talent involved including Adam Rifkin, Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Oliver Stone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Phillip Noyce, James Cameron, Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay and the Hughes brothers, - before Burton was finally hired. Wahlberg was paid 8 mil. $ for his performance. Production was rushed with shooting taking place from November 2000 - April 2001 in Australia, Arizona, Utah, California, including in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and in Hawaii. Burton insisted that the apes be created with practical effects and not CGI. The film opened #1 to a 68.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#5), grossing 180 mil. $ (49.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 24.7 mil. $ (6.8 %) and France with 20.2 mil. $ (5.6 %). It was the 10th highest-grossing film of the year in North America, and the 9th highest-grossing in the world overall of the year. The film was nominated for 2 BAFTAs and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film earned an additional 40.8 mil. $ on video rentals in North America in 2001 alone. Plans for a sequel never came to fruition, - and Burton stated that he "would rather jump out a window" than direct a sequel to the film, - as the franchise was instead rebooted for a new trilogy starting with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). Burton returned with The World of Stainboy (2000-01) and theatrically with Big Fish (2003). Wahlberg returned in Rock Star (2001). Planet of the Apes is rotten at 44 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best War Movie of the Year + Best True-Story Movie of the Year + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year
This powerful, simple poster for Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers evokes the power of the iconic Iwo Jima photograph of the American flag-raising
Flags of Our Fathers presents the incredible story of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, the taking of the Japanese Mount Suribachi, a sulfurous, volcanic island, but mostly about the sensational photograph of a flag-raising there, which effectively kept the US war effort afloat for the last months of WWII and immortalized the names of 3 ordinary, young men. Flags of Our Fathers is written by William Broyles Jr. (China Beach (1988-91)) and Paul Haggis (EZ Streets (1996-97)), based on the same-titled 2000 book by James Bradley (Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (2003)) and Ron Powers (Face Value (1979)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (The Rookie (1990)) as his 26th feature. Eastwood handles the extraordinary story with an elevated integrity and arranges an epic circle around the narrative, which is about sacrifice and our need for heroes. It is structured in an advanced and highly affecting order with lots of flashbacks. The cast, especially Ryan Phillippe (MacGruber (2010)) and Adam Beach (Crook (2013)), who plays the phenomenally tragic character of native American Ira Hayes, are outstanding, and several supporting characters also come to vivid life by the strong ensemble. Some of the large-scale, CGI-heavy composite shots in the film sometimes have an artificial quality to them. It doesn't change the general effect of Flags of Our Fathers, which is a film primarily for and by men, a truly Great Manly Film.
Listen here to the film's theme suite here from its score by Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens
Cost: Reportedly around 55 mil. $ Box office: 65.9 mil. $ = Big flop (1.19 times the cost) [Flags of Our Fathers premiered 9 October (Los Angeles) and runs 131 minutes. It was Eastwood's idea to make two Iwo Jima films; one about the American side (Flags of Our Fathers) and one about the Japanese soldiers' experiences (Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). Shooting took place in Illinois, including Chicago, California, including Los Angeles, in Texas, Washington, DC, in Iceland and Iwo Jima, Japan for about 60 days from August 2005 - 'early 2006'. The budget was set high at 80 mil. $, but Eastwood wrapped shooting way ahead of time, thus seemingly saving a whopping 25 mil. $. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release The Prestige and holdover hit The Departed, to a weak 10.2 mil. $ in North America, where it spent one more week in the top 5 (#4) an grossed just 33.6 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 13.1 mil. $ (19.9 %) and France with 3.9 mil. $ (5.9 %). Spike Lee caused controversy by criticizing Eastwood for not showing more black Marines in the two films, which turned out to be factually based; Eastwood stated that Lee should "shut his face." The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Sound Mixing, lost to Dreamgirls, and Best Sound Editing, lost to Letters from Iwo Jima. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won a National Board of Review award, several other honors and high placement on countless critics' annual top 10 lists. The film has reportedly made in excess of 45 mil. $ on home video sales in North America alone, which would change its status to just 'flop' if figured into its gross. It has since (in 2016) come to light that John 'Doc' Bradley was not, in fact, one of the Iwo Jima flag-raisers. Eastwood returned with Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and after that with Changeling (2008). Flags of Our Fathers is certified fresh at 73 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Flags of Our Fathers?
