Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
I recently watched three movies featuring William Holden. It wasn’t part of a HoldenFest; all three happened to be on TV in recent weeks. I’ve always admired his ability to convey a decent fellow wrestling with problems and doing so with facial expressions and vocal inflections rather than flamboyance and Read More …
8/10 Director: Martin Ritt (Hud, Hombre, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Norma Rae) Starring Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Frank Finlay The film is set in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town in the 1870s where Irish immigrants work in hazardous conditions, live in stark shanties, and watch Read More …
Director: Christopher Nolan Stars: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon 7/10 This much-awaited film tells the story of J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) who directed the development of the atomic bomb during WW2. He’s depicted as knowledgeable of physics of course but also an avid reader of Read More …
Directed by Jack Clayton Starring Robert Redford, Sam Waterston, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern 8/10 It’s been almost a hundred years since F Scott Fitzgerald gave us his renowned story of the Jazz Age. I’ve read and enjoyed it twice over the years but avoided the movies. One made in the Read More …
Director: Martin Scorsese Stars: Leonard DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone 8/10 This long-awaited film is based on a string of murders that took place in the Osage tribal lands in Oklahoma back in the 1920s. The victims were Osages who’d benefited from revenue when oil is discovered. Many became Read More …
9/10 Director: Elem Klimov Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Ro0SZf438 Entire film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjIiApN6cfg&t=3s Though made almost forty years ago, Come and See offers insight as to how Russia wages war in Ukraine today, though of course sympathy for its cause isn’t likely to arise and isn’t hoped for here. This Read More …
Director: Sam Esmail Stars: Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Kevin Bacon 7/10 A couple (Roberts and Hawke) and their two children rent an isolated estate on Long Island. They are self-absorbed, antagonistic toward one another, barely integrated into family life, and disinterested in the world outside them. Cell and Read More …
Reviewed by Brian M Downing Director: Peter Farrelly Starring: Zac Efron, Bill Murray, Russell Crowe 6/10 This comedy set in 1967-68 concerns Chickie Donohue who lives with the fierce Vietnam debate all around. He and most in his working-class neighborhood are traditional patriots who instinctively support the war and the Read More …
Director: Edward Berger 6.5/10 Twenty minutes into this, the third film of the masterful Remarque novel, it was clear this one has little to do with the book. That isn’t necessarily a problem. Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line is only loosely based on the James Jones novel but it’s Read More …
Director: Joseph Kosinski Starring: You know full well who stars in it 7/10 This much-awaited sequel opens with Maverick (Tom Cruise) working on the engine of a P-51 Mustang – a venerable airplane which no longer has military use but which enjoys a mythic status. Cruise is involved in an Read More …