Redacted (2007)

Brian DePalma is consistent.

He left me scratching my head, and wishing I had a night of my life back, when I watched Raising Cain with John Lithgow and Lolita Davidovich in 1992. There was one saving grace. My connection with the student newspaper at Brock University meant I saw the film for free. For that, I give thanks.

PROMISING START, BUT THEN....

Here I am, 20 years later, watching his Iraqi war film, Redacted. The first half of this 90-minute effort from 2007 works pretty well. There's a definite sense of tension as American soldiers man a checkpoint in Iraq. Redacted earns points here. There are signs in Arabic and English to stop. It's suggested about 50% of Iraqi people are illiterate. All kinds of signage won't help these folks, and as the film points out, plenty die even they few are insurgents.


The symbolism is none-too-subtle with an American soldier watching a scorpion getting taken down by a bunch of ants. Get it? The scorpion is the American war machine. The ants are ordinary Iraqis. The Wild Bunch featured a similar scene about 40 years before Redacted came along.


GOING, GOING, GONE


But Redacted goes way off the rails when its story starts to get into the real-life event that inspired its making -- the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager by American soliders.


We know Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz) is filming anything, and everything, for his efforts to get into film school when he's out of the army. But taking along a camera to film said sexual assault and murder? Angel must be dumber than a post to think his actions will merit acclaim stateside.


Is DePalma trying to make American soldiers not look too bad by having the culprits include Reno Flake (Patrick Carroll), who chose service in Iraq Rush is livid at the Iraqi people when an improvised explosive device kills Master Sgt. Sweet (Ty Jones), but it's stupid behaviour by American troops that sure helps lead to his death.

SIGNS OF PROMISE


What makes Redacted interesting is the different ways the story is told - from the perspective of American soldiers, a French documentary crew, television crews from the area and Europe, Skype conversations and blog posts.

But even this unique approach to storytelling can save Redacted. It's bad.


Viewers be warned. There's a graphic beheading. A series of photographs of Iraqi war dead ends the film.


RATING: 4/10

Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler (1962)

Here's something different.


Black Fox is a war documentary that cuts between the life of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and a 12th century folk tale. Reynard the Fox was a cunning killer with a quick tongue perfect for getting him out of trouble. His reassuring words also soothed the worries of other animals. It's an apt comparison to Hitler.

HITLER COMPARED TO CUNNING FOX

Add in narration for Marlene Dietrich (Witness for the Prosecution, Destry Rides Again) and an often jarring score from Ezra Laderman and Black Fox is a documentary that is a little off-the-beaten path.

There are no interviews in this film, just Dietrich's off-camera narration and mountains of archival photographs, film footage and artwork from talent such as Pablo Picasso, George Grosz and Gustave Dore.

A GOOD HISTORY LESSON, BUT NO INTERVIEWS

Black Fox offers a solid base tracing Hitler's rise to power beginning with his disillusionment with the defeat of Germany in the First World War.


A message runner on the western front for four years, Hitler was wounded twice and temporarily blinded by a British gas attack.


Hitler blamed Jews, Communists and pacifists for his country's defeat in the four-year war.


An attempted putsch in 1923 didn't end well for Hitler, but he soon developed a more cunning approach to seizing political power. The German military was still a strong force in the European country post-First World War. Hitler pushed military might to attract support while eliminating rivals within his own party. Free speech? Not under Hitler's rule. Books are burned. Writers and artists were exiled, put in prison or killed.


Black Fox offers numerous graphic shots of Nazi atrocities before, and during, the Second World War. Parents of younger viewers taken note. Shootings, hangings, incineration and mass graves are all depicted in this film.


Black Fox reminds viewers of the numerous opportunties countries such as England, France and United States had to challenge Hitler before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Fear of war, and lack of preparation, stopped this possibility.


Black Fox quickly skips by 1941 to 1944 with a montage of shots including the liberation of France, invasion of Italy and bombing of Germany, before ending with Hitler's last hours.


This nearly 50-year-old documentary's big strengths are its description of how Hitler seized power and its prominent use of artwork to depict one of the darkest times mankind has known.

RATING: 7.5/10

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day (2004)

Hurray for the mavericks.


Several unconventional thinkers helped Allied leaders overcome many of the deadly obstacles Nazi Germany prepared for an invasion of France during the Second World War. Their story is not often told, but the first half of this very well made PBS documentary offers riveting details about their special creations.

THIS DOCUMENTARY HAS PLENTY TO SAY

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day also offers a welcome chance to hear of the experiences of American, British and German men who were part of D-Day on June 6, 1944.


To escape mines, hedgehogs and barbed wire, American, British and Canadian troops needed specialized equipment.


Andrew Jackson Higgins, a New Orleans boat builder, had starting building what would become assault craft used on D-Day a decade earlier. With some effort, he was able to get the American navy to pay attention to what he made. Even Nazi leader Adolf Hitler learned about Higgins and dubbed him 'The New Noah.'


Nicholas Straussler was a Hungarian engineer who created a flotation system for tanks to navigate on to the Normandy beaches and provide firepower for soldiers. The Allies learned the importance of getting tanks on the beach pronto after the disastrous raid on Dieppe, a French port, in 1942.

SPECIAL WEAPONS, THEN AND NOW

Archival films show early protoypes. A British man, Bob Grundy, tries the flotation system with a tank in the present day. A Second World War veteran who 'swam' to shore with such a tank watches.


Major Gen. Percy Hobart was a British military engineer who devised a number of modified tanks for use in the invasion inclduing a crab tank that used flailing chains to detonate landmines. The Bobbin tank put down a canvas cloth for tanks to ride on so they wouldn't sink into the soft blue clay on the beach.


Learning how these machines came to be is fascinating. The last half of this 95-minute documentary focuses on the invasion itself.

VETERANS SPEAK ABOUT OPERATION OVERLORD

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day includes remembrances from British glider pilots and tank crews, American paratroopers and a German soldier who was part of the defence force at Omaha beach where American troops landed.


Their stories are funny, informative and moving.


My big beef with this fine effort is based on being a Canadian. Where are the remembrances from the Canadian veterans? Canadian troops landed at Juno Beach, but receive scant attention here. Why couldn't at least one Canadian veteran been tapped to recount his experiences on June 6, 1944?


Secrets of the Dead: D-Day offers a great package -- details about new military weapons that helped make the difference in June 1944, archival footage that tracks the development of these weapons and interesting interviews with veterans who were at Normandy 67 years ago. Narrator is Liev Schreiber (X-Men: Origins of Wolverine).


RATING: 9/10

The 13th Mission (2004), The Goebbels Experiment (2005)

Two Second World War documentaries make for two very different viewing experiences in the days leading up to Remembrance Day in Canada.


A POWERFUL PAIRING OF STORYLINES


The 13th Mission is a powerful effort from Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that nicely ties together a pair of storylines -- the women who built Avro Lancaster bombers at a factory in southern Ontario and the seven-man crew that flew one of the aircrafts a week after D-Day. It's a good companion piece to Rosies of the North, a National Film Board documentary reviewed in September by this site.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Actors stand in for the real workers and flyers, as if they are being interviewed more than 60 years ago about their experiences. But their words are taken from interviews and letters they wrote at the time. Audiences hear what these people had to say about their experiences, good and bad, without a scriptwriter acting as middleman.


The women describe the pride they took in their job and the importance of making sure each rivet was properly placed.


The bomber crew recounts one of the most amazing stories of the Canadian military during the six-year war. When their Lancaster was hit by a German fire, mid-upper gunner Andrew Mynarski (Scott Gibson) saw rear-gunner Pat Brophy (Shawn Mathieson) was trapped. Rather than bail out, Mynarski crawled through burning hydraulic fluid to try and free his friend. Mynarski was awarded the Victoria Cross, for gallantry, for his efforts.

A VALUABLE EXTRA

Accompanying the docudrama is a 13-minute documentary from The Journal, a CBC Television current affairs program. Five of the seven members of that bomber crew reunite and share their memories of Mynarski. He couldn't get Brophy out and jumped from the bomber with his clothing and parachute on fire. Brophy shares his memories about the night and a special gift he had from Mynarski on that flight.


The 13th Mission, and the documentary, are rivteing viewing.


Not so successful, surprisingly, is The Goebbels Experiment. Joseph Goebbels was the minister of propaganda for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

This effort from German filmmaker Lutz Hachmeister (The Real American: Joe McCarthy) also draws exclusively from Goebbels' own words, narrated by British actor Kenneth Branagh.


He describes his lonley childhood, health problems and his barely getting by when he enters the workforce. In 1924, he calls for a firm hand in Germany and the throwing out of the Jewish people. Goebbels meets Hitler in 1926 and is thrilled with the First World War veteran's plans for his country.


"He has it all thought out," said Goebbels. He praises Hitler for his "stupendous mind" and notes he is "a born motivator."


The 13th Mission has a narrator to provide context of Canada's involvement in the Second World war, with one million serving in the military and another military dedicated to the war effort back home.


Such a guiding hand is missing in The Goebbels Experiment. There is startling footage in the film, inlcuding some in colour, and catty comments from Goebbels about others, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.


RATINGS: The 13th Mission 9/10
The Goebbels Experiment 7/10

For more information on The 13th Mission, go to www.cbc.ca/canadianexperience

FUN FACTS: Actor Scott Gibson apepared in another Second World War effort, The Pacific. Christopher Jacot guested on Degrassi: The Next Generation.