THE HUMAN CONDITION d: Masaki Kobayashi

The Human Condition Trilogy
No Greater Love (1959), The Road to Eternity (1959), A Soldier’s Prayer (1961)
Direction: Masaki Kobayashi
Screenplay: Zenzo Matsuyama and Masaki Kobayashi; from Jumpei Gomikawa’s novel
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama
 

Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Nakadai in The Human Condition
 

Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition, based on Jumpei Gomikawa’s novel, is probably as well known for its scope and scale as for any other reason.  Originally released as three films — No Greater Love (1959), The Road to Eternity (1959), and A Soldier’s Prayer (1961) — Criterion has packaged everything together as one massive, nine-and-a-half-hour opus chronicling the adventures of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a young Japanese unwillingly participating in the Imperial Army in World War II.  The film’s [...]

by Dan Erdman | October 15, 2009   
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LEBANON Photos

“I dedicate this award to the thousands of people all over the world who, like me, come back from war safe and sound,” said Israeli war veteran and (first-time) filmmaker Samuel Maoz (above, lower photo) upon receiving the Golden Lion for his graphically violent war drama Lebanon at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. “Apparently they are fine, they work, get married, have children. But inside the memory will remain stabbed in their soul.” (On his notes for the film, Maoz writes: "On June 6, 1982, at 6:15 a.m., I killed a man for the first time in my life.")

Set during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Lebanon chronicles the travails of an Israeli tank crew sent [...]

by Andre Soares | September 14, 2009   
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ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT at Film Forum

Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front

The silent version of the best picture Academy Award winner All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), in my view the greatest war movie ever made, will be screened at New York City’s Film Forum on Monday, August 3. Showtimes are at 3:20, 6:50, and 9:20.
Having been restored and preserved by the Library of Congress, and featuring two reels cut from the original talkie print following the film’s East and West Coast premieres, this silent version — edited from the foreign negative — comes with musical accompaniment intended for foreign markets where theaters hadn’t yet been equipped to sound. (I should add that in the silent [...]

by Andre Soares | August 1, 2009   
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Berlin 2006: Is Dresden Burning?

"German filmmakers have tackled the touchy subject of whether the Allied firebombing of Dresden at the end of World War Two was a ‘war crime’ with a carefully balanced melodrama that got its worldwide premiere on Monday.
"Showing the German point of view of anything in World War Two is always likely to cause a stir — and that’s precisely what the makers of Dresden said they want to achieve.
"Dresden, which premiered at the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival, quickly reopened old wounds about what many Germans privately call a war crime — and even act of terror." Erik Kirschbaum via Reuters.
***
Directed by Roland Suso Richter, the made-for-TV miniseries Dresden stars Marie Bäumer, Susanne Bormann, Michael [...]

by Andre Soares | February 14, 2006   
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VALLEY OF THE WOLVES – IRAQ: Anti-American Film a Hit in Turkey

"It is rabidly anti-American, and it is the biggest draw in town." That’s the headline of Sarah Rainsford’s BBC article on the Turkish blockbuster Valley of the Wolves – Iraq, directed by Serdar Akar, and adapted from a successful local TV series by Bahadir Ozdener.
In Valley of the Wolves, Turks are shining heroes whereas Americans firebomb mosques, execute innocents, and deal in organ trafficking. The film stars Necati Sasmaz, Ghassan Massoud, Billy Zane, Berguzar Korel, and Gary Busey.
Here are a couple more quotes on Valley of the Wolves – Iraq:
Baha Güngör in the Deutsche Welle:
"The most expensive Turkish movie of all time, Valley of the Wolves, does nothing to contribute to an inter-cultural dialogue. It can neither [...]

by Andre Soares | February 13, 2006   
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SOLDIERS PAY / UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ Double Bill

E! reports that David O. Russell’s anti-war documentary Soldiers Pay has been picked up by the independent distributor Cinema Libre Studio. O’Russell, the director of the critically acclaimed Three Kings (1999) and of the upcoming I Heart Huckabees, had wanted Warner Bros. to distribute his 35-minute film in conjunction with the studio’s rerelease of Three Kings.
But Warners, like Disney earlier this year, balked at the idea of releasing a vociferous political commentary on the Iraq war during an election year. In fact, a Warners representative referred to the project as a "personal political statement" that might, if distributed by the studio, violate U.S. election laws. (Russell’s documentary will not be found on the Three Kings Special Edition DVD, either, for [...]

by Andre Soares | September 30, 2004   
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DOWNFALL Accused of Humanizing Hitler

One of history’s most hated monsters has undergone a humanizing makeover in the German motion picture Der Untergang: Hitler und das Ende des 3. Reiches (Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich), directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.
Based on historian Joachim Fest’s best-selling Adolf Hitler biography and on the memoirs of the dictator’s last personal secretary, Traudl Junge, Downfall chronicles the last days of the German Führer, besieged inside his underground bunker while the Soviet Red Army battled the Nazi forces on the ground.
During that period, Hitler suffers psychotic delusions and goes into mad rages, but also shows courteousness and even warmth toward Junge and his wife-to-be Eva Braun.
In the film, Hitler is played by Swiss-born actor [...]

by Andre Soares | September 4, 2004   
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