The Great Escape (1963) - Sturges' further manly exploits in war-adventure classic

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An elaborate, dramatically drawn and painted poster for John Sturges' The Great Escape, which effectively screws up expectations

The [in fact far from] true story of the ambitious escape mission from German POW camp Stalag Luft III during WWII by mainly English and American officers.

The Great Escape is written by W.R. Burnett (Sergeants 3 (1962)) and James Clavell (Five Gates to Hell (1959)), adapting the same-titled 1950 book by a survivor of the camp, Paul Brickhill (The Dam Busters (1951)), and directed by John Sturges (The Man Who Dared (1946)).
Compared to some of the other great prison escape films, I don't count The Great Escape among the most suspenseful, and the filmmakers' multi-character approach carries a large part of the guilt for this. Even so this popular classic is ripe with beautiful images, (cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp (A New Kind of Love (1963))) and in the very manly cast especially Richard Attenborough (Secret Flight (1946)) is in top shape in it.

Related posts:

John Sturges:  The Eagle Has Landed (1976) - Sturges' enjoyable, last man's adventure
Chino/Valdez, Il Mezzosangue/Valdez the Half BreedThe Valdez Horses (1973) - Bronson is his own man only in Sturges' good spaghetti western

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3.8-4 mil. $ (different accounts)
Box office: In excess of 11.9 mil. $
= Uncertain - but at least a box office success and more likely a big hit (returned at least 2.92 times its cost in North America alone)
[The Great Escape premiered 20 June (London) and runs 172 minutes. Brickhill played a minor part in the escape mission in the Stalag Luft III camp but lived to tell the story: 50 allied airmen were executed as punishment for the escape, which only succeeded in getting 3 free; two Norwegians and one Dutch. The book had first been adapted for TV in 1951. Many in the star-studded cast had served in the war, including Attenborough, Charles Bronson and Donald Pleasance (who actually spent a year captured in the German Stalag Luft I POW camp); James Garner (The Pink Jungle (1968)) served in the Korean War. Shooting took place from June - October 1962 in Germany. Steve McQueen (The Reivers (1969)) did his own driving in the film's famous climactic motorcycle chase, except for the jump stunt, which was performed by stuntman Bud Ekins. The film changes the actual history on several fronts, making composite characters of altered nationalities and changing many facts surrounding the escape. It was the year's 10th highest rental grossing title in North America and likely similarly popular internationally, although gross numbers are regrettably not reported online. It was nominated for an Oscar: Best Editing, lost to How the West Was Won. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. It has been re-released many times, recently a 2019 re-release in the UK grossed the film another 227k $. An unofficial TV movie sequel was made; The Great Escape II: The Untold Story (1988). IMDb's users have voted the film in at #137 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Howl's Moving Castle (2004) and All about Eve (1950). Sturges returned with The Satan Bug (1965). McQueen returned in Soldier in the Rain (1963)); Garner in The Thrill of It All (1963)); and Attenborough in The Third Secret (1964). The Great Escape is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.27/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Escape?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi/Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017) - Glorious, rousing, superb adventure

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+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best 3D Movie of the Year + Best Adventure of the Year + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Blockbuster of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Kelly Marie Tran + Most Profitable Movie of the Year

Several key characters and visuals of Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi are teased on this grand, marvelous poster

Rey has found Luke Skywalker isolated on a rough island and is looking for answers. Meanwhile the Rebel Resistance, headed by General Leia Organa, face overwhelming opposition from the destructive First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren and General Hux.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a far cry from the dismal, calculated bummer that was last year's first lone-standing 'Star Wars Story', following Disney's costly acquisition of the sci-fi franchise, Rogue One (2016). This instead follows right in the tracks of J.J. Abrams' great Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - aka Episode VII. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is written and directed by Marylander master filmmaker Rian Johnson (Looper (2012)), based on George Lucas' characters.
Johnson does just about everything right here and makes a Star Wars film that's as overwhelmingly great and sharp as to dethrone Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as the best Star Wars film to date. - The Last Jedi is now it!
So: What's so great about it?
Story is always at the center of a true masterpiece, and The Last Jedi relies on not one but several very exciting storylines, told with uniformly highly engaged and engaging performances:
Daisy Ridley (Murder on the Orient Express (2017)) is still a terrific new lead for the franchise as Rey, who is up against both a regretful, surrendered Skywalker, - Mark Hamill (Sushi Girl (2012)) gives a deeply felt performance in the most important part in his career here, - and the angry, seductive Kylo Ren, whom she defeated for a spell at The Force Awaken's conclusion. - Adam Driver (Paterson (2016)) is magnetic in the part, which is effectively torn here in what is Last Jedi's primary edge-of-your-seat plot-line: Kylo Ren's loyalty; will Rey be able to shift it? While I found this interminable until it is actually determined, (at least for now), the film offers so much more, too:
Carrie Fisher (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)), together with Hamill, carry the film's main emotional core ahead, making Last Jedi the most emotionally charged Star Wars movie to date. Laura Dern (October Sky (1999)) is perfectly cast as Vice Admiral Holdo, who commands the Resistance's main spaceship for a while as popular jet-fighter Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac (Won't Back Down (2012)) opposes her leadership. Dern adds another layer - and another kick-ass performance, - to the film and her career.
Besides the tears that these emotionally wringing characters and situations cause, Last Jedi also offers compelling adventure and laughs and good times aplenty:
John Boyega (Attack the Block (2011)) returns as rebel Finn, who gets a new, resourceful, brave partner now in a Resistance maintenance worker, Rose, who is portrayed with admirable determination and charisma by Kelly Marie Tran (Untouchable (2011)). Their adventure, which is about getting them into the First Order's main ship to upend their advantage, takes them to a casino on the planet Canto Bight, where one of the film's greatest sequences takes place, as they survey, get imprisoned and break out of jail there in riveting style.
Andy Serkis' (Sugarhouse (2007)) eerie, motion-captured Snoke villain gets more space here, while Lupita Nyong'o's (12 Years a Slave (2013)) funny Maz Kanata alien character only appears very shortly. The film contains a short surprise revisit from a major character of Star Wars, which is too amazing for me to spoil here and only adds to the gleeful, dramatic magic that already surrounds the film. Domhnall Gleeson (About Time (2013)) is still an ideal General Hux, the fascist leader caught between two meaner, more powerful and passionate villains in the First Order.
Last Jedi features vast amounts of stunning, funny and wowing practical - and digital - effects and creatures small and large to satisfy that particular need, as well as a climax that is both a high-note for the narrative as well as visually arresting. All of this to another grand, heart-thumping score from John Williams (Story of a Woman (1970)).
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is, quite simply, a spirited, unadulterated joy from beginning to end.

Related posts:

The Star Wars franchise: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) or, Ginny's Fate: A Star Wars Calculation
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Abrams scores big time, makes beautiful space opera blockbuster
Rian Johnson: Top 10: Best franchise movies

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best future-set movies
Looper (2012) - Time traveling assassinations have never been hipper or more exciting!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 573.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered 9 December (Los Angeles) and runs 152 minutes. Johnson was also considered to direct The Force Awakens. He has described writing the film as a joyous experience, being a childhood fan of the Star Wars universe. Shooting took place from September 2015 (second-unit work on Skellig Michael, Ireland, posing for Skywalker's island) with principal photography running February - July 2016 in Croatia, Ireland, Bolivia and in Pinewood Studios, England with some sequences shot with IMAX cameras and a reported 125 sets built. Carrie Fisher sadly passed away Dec. 27 2016 of cardiac arrest, (her also movie icon actress mother Debbie Fisher passed away just the next day from a severe stroke), and the film is dedicated to Carrie Fisher, whose Princess Leia has also now been recognized as an official Disney princess. The film opened #1 to a 220 mil. $ first weekend in North America, only bested by The Force Awakens' 247.9 mil. $. Its world opening of 450.8 mil. $ was the 5th biggest of all time. It has yet to open in China, its last market, where it will roll out 5 January. It is reported to break even at 800 mil. $, figuring in massive marketing costs. The next of the central arc films, Episode IX, lost its director Colin Trevorrow earlier this year, as his latest film The Book of Henry (2017) flopped massively, and Force Awakens' helmer Abrams has been hired for the film instead, for a Dec. '19 release. Johnson is slated to write a new Star Wars trilogy, following the end of the first six slated films in the new roster, as well as direct its first film. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is certified fresh at 93 % with a 8.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Star Wars: The Last Jedi?

Robin Hood (2010) - R. Scott's grand film of the English legend

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1 Film Excess nomination:

Best Production Design: Arthur Max (lost to Boardwalk Empire S1)

 

Russell Crowe looks like a distinctly different kind of Robin Hood than we have seen before on this poster for Ridley Scott's film of that legend

 

This review is based on the director's cut edition of the film.

 

In the late 12th century, Robin Hood serves under the war-mongering King Richard Lionheart, but when he gets killed, Robin escapes for home with a group of soldiers. In England, the throne now goes to the idiotic John.

English master director Ridley Scott (Gladiator (2000)) and the producers get an incredible lot out of their admittedly gigantic budget here: Robin Hood is a fiercely handsome, modern swashbuckler with beautiful sceneries and a luxurious cast to suit it: Russell Crowe (No Way Back (1995)) and Cate Blanchett (Hanna (2011)) are sweet together. Danny Huston (Children of Men (2006)), Léa Seydoux (Traceless (2010)), William Hurt (The Host (2013)), Mark Strong (Fever Pitch (1997)), Mark Addy (The Full Monty (1997)) and Max von Sydow (Pelle the Conqueror/Pelle Erobreren (1987)), in the touching part as the father of the fallen Loxley, complete the ensemble.

Robin Hood is a heady mix of strong fight scenes, romance, excitement and fun. Only its climax isn't right; it doesn't feel like a part of the rest of the film: The Troy/Saving Private Ryan-like CGI-heavy invasion from the sea and overly bloodthirsty Hood of the finale somehow wasn't how the film was supposed to end. Also, Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)) isn't altogether confident as the villainous John; plus he looks outlandish with blue contact lenses.

Still, Robin Hood, which is written by Brian Helgeland (A Knight's Tale (2001)), is still a thoroughly enjoyable, grand piece of entertainment.

 

Related posts:

 

Ridley Scott:  Prometheus (2012) or, Even Then, Space Eggs Were Bad News

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

American Gangster (2007) - Great American - now black - gangster picture
A Good Year (2006) - Ridley Scott likes Provence

Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Blade Runner (1982) director's cut - Visual extravaganza, great SF 
Alien (1979) or, Space Eggs Are Bad News 

Listen to a part of the film's score here

Cost: 200 mil. $

Box office: 321.6 mil. $

= Big flop

[Robin Hood premiered May 12 (UK and Ireland) and runs 140 minutes, with a director's cut edition of 156 minutes. The spec script that Helgeland took story elements from was bought for a 7-figure amount in 2007. Crowe was paid a hefty 20 mil. $ against 20 % of the gross. Scott was not happy with any of the previous Robin Hood adaptations and got Helgeland involved to rewrite the script. Production was delayed due to writers and actors strikes. Filming took place in England and Wales from March - August 2009. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Iron Man 2, to a 36 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell out of the top 5 after 4 weeks and grossed 105.2 mil. $ (32.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 23.1 mil. $ (7.2 %) and France with 18.2 mil. $ (5.7 %). Roger Ebert was critical of the film, giving it only 2 stars, equal to two notches harder than this review. Robin Hood is rotten at 43 % with a 5.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Robin Hood?

Warcraft (2016) - A mildly entertaining war fantasy

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A bearded man and a brutish orc with paint-splattered faces divided by a sword make up this poster for Duncan Jones' Warcraft

Warcraft is the long-awaited computer game adaptation, based on the popular Blizzard Entertainment games and novels, which is the 3rd film for great English director, Duncan Jones (Moon (2009)).

An alarming number of brutal orcs crash into the human world through a portal, but it may be in collaboration that man and orc should have to secure the future.

The good news for WoW (World of Warcraft) fans is that Warcraft isn't as bad as some critics make it out to be, - and the critical video game adaptation ridicule seems to have become somewhat tiresome and ritualistic by now, I think, - and that many fans of the universe seem to be delighted with it.
I have never played the game, but the film only achieved status as an okay time-filler in my opinion. 
The script, by Jones and Charles Leavitt (Seventh Son (2014)), tries to create an ambitious story where we are introduced to, and supposed to care for an orc family, a steadfast, human commander, a human wizard, a human guardian, a half-human/half-orc female, and the king of the humans. Those are many characters, and also too many, I think. I still can't tell you who was the protagonist of Warcraft, a film that clearly should have elected to focus on one of its stories.

The film presents a bombastically sounding, war-crazed universe, (befitting its title, I suppose), with muscular, often ugly characters. The CGI, landscapes and orc designs are mildly interesting. The fantasy universe feels like a thin cup of The Lord and the Rings with such place names as 'Stormwind' and character names as 'Orgrim Doomhammer'. The film has to move fast to tell its wide story, which happens at the expense of scenes, which play out fast, - so fast that characters rarely get to show personality and the locations never get to sparkle or impress any charm. Backgrounds shift again and again, and nothing sticks with you.
The actors do mostly well: Travis Fimmel (Vikings (2013-16)) is intense as the commander, Ben Foster (Rampart (2011)) is engaged as guardian Medivh, (though it takes a minute to get used to his look), and Ben Schnetzer (Pride (2015)) brings a much-needed whiff of lightness and humor to the film as the guardian who might have made a good protagonist. Paula Patton (Deja Vu (2006)) looks fierce while struggling to act and look attractive with massive orc incisors, and Dominic Cooper (Need for Speed (2014)) seems conspicuously uninvolved as the king, especially if compared to Fimmel.
The voice-over in the beginning of the film states that man and orc have fought as long as anyone can remember. The king of men later claims no knowledge of orcs at all. This is another head-scratcher.
SPOILER Finally I was puzzled to see that the film eliminates so many of its characters in the end: Both likable orcs die, the guardian and the king.
Whether we shall see more Warcraft, (which is called Warcraft: The Beginning in many countries so as not to cast any doubt that the companies behind it would like it to be the first in a lucrative franchise), on the silver screen after this venture seems dubious at best, - but of course it is ultimately up to audiences across the world, and their willingness to purchase tickets, - or lack thereof.

Related post:

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 160 mil. $
Box office: 31.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Warcraft premiered May 25 and runs 123 minutes. It has been in development since 2006, with directors Uwe Boll and Sam Raimi earlier in talks to head it. Jones' involvement was marred by his wife's breast cancer in 2013 and his father, David Bowie's death due to cancer in 2016. Filming took place from January - May 2014 in and around Vancouver. Warcraft has opened in much of the world already, but will not open stateside until June 10, going up against other new titles Now You See Me 2 and The Conjuring 2, while also battling the holdover powers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, X-Men: Apocalypse and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Warcraft is rotten at 18 % with a 4.4 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Warcraft?

The Conqueror (1956) - John Wayne's inauspicious turn as Genghis Khan

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The colorful poster for Dick Powell's The Conqueror

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of Genghis Khan's becoming the greatest war hero in the world gets told here as a pure, happy cock-and-bull story, or like a western removed to the East, complete with Pedro Armendariz (From Russia With Love (1963)), Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)), Susan Hayward (The Snows of Kilimajaro (1952)) and John Wayne (True Grit (1969)) in the title role.

Particularly Hayward and Wayne seem to compete in trying to be the most absurd in their roles; vampy, horribly mercurial Hayward wins. Although Wayne also does his part (in)justice with hammy lines such as, "I call that women's talk, my mother!" (Script by Oscar Millard (Angel Face (1952)).)
The Conqueror is very stiff throughout and amusingly theatrical, not unlike Yul Brynner's concurrent turn as Cossack war hero in J. Lee Thompson's Taras Bulba (1962).
Yet the film as such is also well-paced, lavishly produced (by Howard Hughes (Hell's Angels (1930)) in his penultimate film) and excitingly colorful, (in rich Technicolor.) It is directed by actor-director Dick Powell (The Hunters (1958)).
The Conqueror has become notorious as 'the film that killed John Wayne.' - Referring to the stomach and lung cancer that killed him in 1979: The movie was filmed near St. George, Utah, about 140 miles from a military site where nuclear tests may have affected the 200 some film crew with radiation, although the government had deemed it safe to be there. Reportedly, by 1981, 91 persons of the film's cast and crew had developed cancers, (leaving 46 dead at that time.) A lawsuit was never filed, and no-one was ever held accountable for the possible disaster.
- But it is said that Hughes felt bad about the film's production, and especially its shoot at the possibly hazardous site; so bad that he bought back all of its prints for 12 mil. $ and kept The Conqueror out of the public loop, (until Universal bought it from his estate in 1979, three years after his death.) Reportedly, Hughes saw the film - and the 1968 espionage thriller Ice Storm Zebra, - obsessively in his last years.

John Wayne ironically really wanted this one of his most inauspicious roles, as Dick Powell's The Conqueror

Titanic also in terms of real human tragedy, some might say. Here's the trailer for the film

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 9-12 mil. $
= Flop
[The film made 4.5 mil. $ of its gross in the US, where it was the 11th biggest hit at the box office of 1956, which, however, wasn't enough to make it a success. The Conqueror became known as one of the worst films of the 50's (and, to some, of all time.) - But not to Film Excess, it isn't!]

What do you think of The Conqueror?
Please, share any trivia knowledge about it that you may have

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - One of the all time greats

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Co-star Alex Guinness looks paranoid while holding a riffle in front of his precious bridge on this evocative poster for David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai

A large group of British prisoners of war in Japanese-occupied Burma in 1942 get as forced assignment to build a bridge for the railway. The mentally deteriorating British Colonel Nicholson in charge puts all of his pride into the project, which is to symbolize the unparalleled craftsmanship and unbreakable will of the British, he announces, while other allies are sent on a deadly sabotage mission through the hostile jungle towards the self same bridge.

 

The Bridge on the River Kwai is written by Carl Foreman (The Key (1958)) and Michael Wilson (Salt of the Earth (1954)), adapting the same-titled 1952 novel by Pierre Boulle (La Planète des singes/Planet of the Apes (1963)), and directed by English master filmmaker David Lean (This Happy Breed (1944)), whose 11th feature it was.
Kwai is an unequaled masterpiece in the suspense-based war movie genre. It is inspired by facts, but is for the most part fiction, as the real life parallel, the Japanese-led construction of the Burma-Siam railway, was actually much more terrible and deadly than the events depicted in the film. (13,000 war prisoners and between 80,000-100,000 civilians died as a result of the project; Nicholson is also entirely fictional.)
The film has some of the most exciting suspense scenes in all of cinema, and yet most of this epic relies on unforgettable, insightful character studies: There's the pragmatist doctor, who sees only pointlessness in the trials of the war; the zealous major, who makes it a matter of personal spite and principal to prove the Japanese inferior to the British. And there's the Japanese colonel Saito, who buds heads with the Brit and follows his own culture's specific codes of conduct.
Alec Guinness (Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)) portrays Major Nicholson brilliantly, a character whose rigid mind and jungle fever takes him to the blinded edge of sanity. Sessue Hayakawa (The Geisha Boy (1958)) is also supreme as Saito. The scenes between the two are some of the film's best. Highly sophisticated, intense and alive.

In other supporting roles, Jack Hawkins (To Bury Caesar (1963)) and William Holden (The Towering Inferno (1974)) are enjoyable. The film is also unusual in that it is almost entirely bereft of women.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of the best war films of all time, an eminent epic, and it has been restored beautifully. It is a must watch for every movie-lover out there, and especially so for the war-interested ones.

 

Related posts:

 

David Lean: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Great Expectations (1946) - Lean's first Dickens adaptation is pure cinema magic 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: 30.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 10.6 times its cost)

[The Bridge on the River Kwai premiered 2 October (London) and runs 161 minutes. The film's American writers wrote the screenplay in British exile due to being on the McCarthy blacklist, and this also prompted non-English speaking Boulle to become credited with its writing. Foreman was paid 17k $ for the job. Guinness was paid 150k $; Holden 250-300k $ (different reports) plus 10% of the worldwide gross. Shooting took place from November 1956 - May 1957 in Sri Lanka. Lean had serious disagreements with Guinness during filming and also at one point nearly drowned in the river. A scene with a woman was shot solely to appease US studio Columbia. The film earned 17.1 mil. $ (55.9 % of the total gross) in North America: It was Columbia's highest-grossing at the time and the global top-grosser of the year, as well as the highest-grossing of the year in North America and the UK. It was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 7: For Best Picture, Actor (Guinness), Cinematography (Jack Hildyard (Emily (1976))), Director, Editing, Score (Malcolm Arnold (Hard Times (1977, miniseries))) and Adapted Screenplay; losing Supporting Actor (Hayakawa) for Red Buttons in Sayonara. It also won 4 BAFTAs, a David di Donatello award, 3/4 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a Grammy, won 5 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. The first TV screening of the film was in 1962 on ABC, with a record result of 72 mil. viewers. Warren Buffett has said that it is his favorite film. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #171 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Trainspotting (1996) and Klaus (2019, VoD). Lean returned with Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Holden returned in The Key (1958); Guinness in All at Sea (1957); and Hawkins in Terror! Theatre (1957, TV-series), The World Our Stage (1958, TV-series) and theatrically in Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958). The Bridge on the River Kwai is certified fresh at 96 % with a 9.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Bridge on the River Kwai?