tim_buk2 Reviews

Morgan Spurlock Inside Man: Immigration (2013) Season 1, Episode 3

Essential Viewing

[10/10 · 18 April 2021]

For anyone interested in learning about one of the most talked about subjects in the USA, immigration, this piece by Morgan Spurlock is essential viewing.

Spurlock gets right to the heart of the matter by signing up to pick oranges in Florida.

From a total of 7000 job openings, only 15 or 16 American citizens had the physical and metal endurance to hold down the job. All the remaining positions were taken by immigrants.

With his natural charm and curiosity Spurlock gets the facts from the conversations he strikes up.

Powerful, eye-opening, and myth busting TV that all Americans should watch.

This episode and many others in this series should be shown in every US school.

Tommy and the Wildcat (1998)

Beautiful nature film from Finland

[9/10 · 20 January 2008]

We have just finished watching this movie on TV for the second time. I asked my two young daughters to write up what they thought of it. So here is their first IMDb user comment!

Daughter aged 7: I liked the music a lot because it always was exciting and I liked the actor for Tommy and also the lynx. I didn't like when the trap was caught on the lynxes leg and blood was coming out. And I thought Tommy was really nice to the man who fell off a cliff.

Daughter aged 9: I liked: (a) The nice back ground, where it was filmed.

(b) How Tommy let Leevi free from the truck, but then realized that he didn't know how to hunt, so he got him back.

(c) How Oala got into the story.

I didn't like so much:

When Hapalla pushed Tommy away, to shoot Leevi, the lynx. But then Leevi jumped on Hapalla, and sent him falling down a very steep, and icy hill. It was not a nice sight for me, as a kid, seeing Hapalla's face covered in blood, when he fell down. I thought Tommy was very nice to Hapalla, when he fell down, even when he did such bad things to Tommy.

Universal Soldier (1971)

Universal Soldier was the film that changed my life!

[3 June 2002]

Universal Soldier was aired on British TV around 1980* and I watched it, as a young teenager, in our family sitting room on my own with the lights turned down. It was the first film I can recall having any kind of emotional effect on me (other than fear, which was the usual outcome watching 'scary stuff' like Dr. Who as, say, an eight-year old).

Having not seen the movie since then, this review might understandably be a little shaky in the fact department. All I am writing here is a memory of a film I saw over 20 years ago.

Universal Soldier stars ex-007 George Lazenby who plays a mercenary being hired by some African despot to carry out dirty deeds. The movie opens with him arriving off a long-haul flight and going to collect his pistol from the purser/ customs department in the arrivals hall (you could obviously do this sort of thing in 1971 especially if you had been Bond). Whilst back office he glimpses some long-haired bum having his body cavities searched for illicit substances, and gives him a wry smile. He is living a glamorous lifestyle with flash cars and a bird on each arm but the purpose of this visit is also work related: making contacts for his next assignment, testing some assault hovercraft on a country estate in England, that sort of thing.

Anyway, somehow along the way he meets fellow Australian Germaine Greer, the now-well known feminist, who plays a sexy hippie chick with a cool pad where they can both smoke pot and chill out. They fall for each other; she shows him the light and causes him to reject his immoral and unethical ways.

I am sure the movie is hiply shot and full of devices in fashion with filmmakers at the time, giving it a now much dated feel. (See the incongruous running-around-in-circles 'musical' scene in the otherwise excellent The Swimmer for example). But, at the time, I saw through that (or more likely, obliviously went along with it).

The film made a strong impact on me as a teen full of romantic ideals about love and war. Universal Soldier has many potent ingredients: dashing leads, cool gadgets, interesting plot, soft drugs, a strong female, sex and ethics. (I wonder what my ex-girlfriends think of this review). Incidentally, another film that appealed, viewed several years later, was Sherman's March.

In the days after seeing the film I kept coming back to it in my mind and marvelled at how a mere movie could have such an unexpected impact. From then on I saw all films with different eyes learning to pay close attention to what was going on to get the most out of them.

Since then movies have played a small but significant role in my life as I have served on the committee of my university film society, been a buyer for a video club and have over 300 movies at home on DVD and video.

In my memory of over 20 years ago, this is surely a cult classic but when I first looked up Universal Soldier on the IMDb in 1998 the title didn't even exist as an entry and now at time of writing only has 10 votes. If I saw it again would I be disappointed???

Edit 17 Oct 2014 - just found out the actual date this was broadcast due to the BBC genome project: 28 Feb 1981. http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5042eb362d8b4cb89f97531ad4e90615

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

a 3-minute story stretched out to more than 2 hours

[2/10 · 11 March 2002]

I like all kinds of films, including musicals, low budget, art-house and experimental films. I own copies of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (how un-hip is that?!), Clerks, Topsy-Turvy, El Mariachi, Brazil and Sherman's March. I found Breaking the Waves powerful and memorable (except the awful ending, but that is another story). `Riget' is on my must-see list.

But I am very disappointed by Dancer in the Dark. The tale is so slight it could be adequately told in a 3-minute MTV video. To add to its slenderness, the story is also hugely contrived and unconvincing, particularly the legal process in the second half. The plot holes are big enough to drive a freight train through (complete with 20 dancing lumberjacks). Von Trier's signature use of the hand-held camera, whose shakiness is unsettling, gives the film the unwanted air of an actor's improvisation session or a fly-on-the-wall documentary of a late rehearsal, especially in the first half. I found the pace of the drama to be far too slow (the DVD version is a yawning 141 minutes) and the characters too wooden, especially that of David Morse. Bjork, however, is perfect and perfectly cast; her presence on the screen is the sole redeeming feature. I am no particular fan of her previously released music, although I do like her more commercial songs, but I thought her soundtrack just does not work with the film.

I found the choreography sloppy. This feeling of looseness in the dance routines was perhaps desired by Von Trier in his attempt to create a `live event', so he tells us in the DVD Special Feature documentary. His team created the `100 camera technique' whereby the dance numbers were filmed simultaneously by 100 fixed position, digital video cameras and then edited in post-production. This way the film crew could capture a huge amount of material from only one take with 100% guaranteed continuity. It also means that all mistakes are recorded with the increased possibility of them ending up in the final cut, which they inevitably do.

I really did not like this film no matter how much I wanted to. It is with regret that, I cannot bring myself to give more than 2/10 and am quite at a loss to understand how it scores so highly here on the IMDb.

The Story of O (1975)

A rare thing, a hard-core subject treated in a soft-core manner.

[4/10 · 1 October 1999]

Warning: possible spoilers ahead.

I was perusing the shelves at the local video hire store when I came across their only erotic film, Histoire d'O. My curiosity was aroused (but little else) as I recognised this title as one of the few films still banned in the UK.

Someone at school had an illicit copy of this most infamous of erotic novels and it was probably the most widely read book at the place. The novelist Graham Greene called it `a rare thing, a pornographic novel well written and without a trace of obscenity', which is not quite how I would sum it up. The book purports to be neither case history nor fantasy, presumably a melange of the two. It is also interesting to note that the author is a woman. Let me point out that I am not into the S&M scene but am a regular guy who has an open mind and no big hang-ups about sexuality.

The eponymous heroine willingly submits herself to all manner of masochistic humiliation, couplings with unknown men and mutilation of her body supposedly all in the name of love. Like the book, the film deals with a hard-core subject in a soft-core manner. The book is full of euphemisms for body parts like `his sex' or `my belly' and thus uses no vulgar words whilst the subject remains distinctly hard-core. Even the dialogue contains no swear words. As you might expect the film has an abundance of female nudity but, surprisingly, not one glimpse of a genital. The lighting is soft and atmospheric, the music swelling, the sets and costumes sumptuous, as all befits the director of the popular but mediocre Emmanuel. Histoire d'O, filmed in 1975, also contains some now gloriously camp women's fashion, the kind of thing you'd find on the cover of a contemporary Roxy Music album.

The film seems to follow the book fairly closely even showing the two alternative beginnings. Within 15 minutes O is tied naked to a whipping post (being flailed with what is clearly a bit of limp string). There follows a further half dozen whipping scenes complete with dubbed orgasmic moaning. It is undoubtedly this S&M subject matter which has the film banned in the UK in what would otherwise be an un-noteworthy seventies soft-core flick.

Throughout the film O is offered the opportunity to refuse various painful and/ or humiliating activities all of which she declines. It is this plot device, her willingness, that enables Histoire d'O to assume an air of respectability and thus attract this expensive production. She enters into the S&M regime initially because her lover wishes it and she wants, more than anything, to please him; later she desires its dubious pleasures for herself. Yet her character, a middleclass, young professional, never seems to justify this warped desire or the decisions she makes with anything approaching credibility. Therefore, as the film continues, her willingness to accept seems to me, to be a progressively transparent excuse for the filmmakers to track this descent into depravity.

Indeed Histoire d'O is a rare thing, a hard-core subject treated in a soft-core manner but a film which ultimately fails to please - 4 out of 10.

The Royle Family (1998–2012)

"I don't care if they're gay, straight or Australian."

[9/10 · 29 September 1999]

This sitcom is a must see for anybody like me who has fond memories of time spent working on a shop floor 'up north'. It perfectly captures the down-to-earth local sense of humour and a certain on-the-dole lifestyle, particularly from in and around the Liverpool-Manchester area.

The writing by Caroline Ahern, Craig Cash, and Henry Normal, is understated, pin sharp and full of detail. The direction is clever and challenging as almost all the (non-) action takes place in the tiny lounge watching endless soaps on the telly or in the adjoining kitchen making endless cups of tea. Like a fly-on-the-wall documentary we watch the group dynamics and hear the conversations between the family members often with all their eyes glued to the box. Unlike most sitcoms there is no canned laughter or 'live studio audience' so it is up to the viewer to work out the funny bits.

For example, I enjoyed spotting the fact that in an early episode father Jim Royle buys a pair of cheap jeans from a dodgy mate and then spends the rest of the series wearing them with the cuffs turned up, as they are far too long. I was also introduced to the sly betting game of who could best guess the value of the item being discussed on The Antiques Road Show. The scenes are nicely observed, from the huge, overflowing ashtrays to the TV remote control held together by red electrical insulation tape (just like mine) to the birthday bottles of Pomane.

But what ties all this material together are the perfect performances, everyone from young Ralf Little to multi-talented Sue Johnston and Ricky Tomlinson.

One of the funniest things on TV and in my view an instant classic.

Warning to non-UK readers: The Royle Family is only for the most dedicated of anglophiles - I expect half the viewers in England needed subtitles for some of the accents and idioms.

Title music specially written by Oasis.

Memorable quotes: [complaining when asked to fetch a couple of things from the kitchen] Denise: Shove a brush up my arse an' I'll sweep the floor.

Mum: I don't care what anybody is. I don't care if they're gay, straight or Australian.

Identity Pieces (1998)

Winner of Fespaco 99 but perhaps not the best film shown

[5/10 · 20 August 1999]

Pièces d'identités was showing as part of Fespaco 99 here in Ouagadougou at the open air Stade Municipal. We sat high up on the tiniest, most plasticky green seats within spitting distance of those five plush leather armchairs, one of which must have had the privilege of the presidential backside at the opening ceremony. The quality and level of the film's sound and picture were first class which was a pleasant surprise given the fact that we were in a sports stadium. Best of all there were easy-to-read English subtitles; a good thing considering this was a much more sophisticated and wordy film than 'Rue Princesse'.

However I was disappointed with the film itself. It was nicely photographed (mostly in Brussels) and the acting was fine but the main problem was the script and the direction. The film was full of unnecessary racial stereotypes: the leering, white police inspector, the racist white bar customers, the black petty crook/ pimp. The film correctly made the point that Europe is not the land of milk and honey that I am sure a lot Africans dream about. Background shots of people sleeping rough at the railway station, over-policing of blacks rightfully going about their business etc. all reinforced this image.

I also felt that not enough drama was made of the fast downward spiral situation that the visiting Congolese king, Mani Kongo, found himself in. Solutions for his problems were too easily come by: his lost passport being found under a trash can, the police inspector knowing him from his colonial administrative days, twenty years previously. Whilst there can be a lot going for a story in which the characters either meet or just miss each other by chance during the course of the film I would say that this plot device was hugely overused and without the necessary dramatic tension to justify its use. It turned out that all the characters, who were introduced to us as strangers, were related in some way to each other. I felt that, whilst the concept of the film - the different customs and values between the heart of the Congo jungle and Brussels - was potentially very strong, the director squandered this opportunity for powerful satire and savage black comedy.

One of the most memorable bits for me was during one of the film's flashback sequences. There was a piece of black and white archive footage shot in 1960 during a visit by the King of Belgium to the Congo. In this newsreel the King's motorcade is shown driving down the road flanked on both sides by a sea of waving, cheering black faces. A person from the crowd suddenly rushes forwards to the King's open top limousine and steals the king's sword from out of his scabbard by his side. He then starts swinging the sword around in front of the crowd, shouting revolutionary slogans whilst the police follow him around nervously in a game of cat and mouse, with pistols drawn, amongst the cars of the stopped motorcade. If that archive footage was genuine it was truly amazing, full of spectacle and tension.

Overall, a well made film but with a script that ties up too many loose ends; perhaps not the best film at the festival.

Fools (1997)

Lack of subtitles did not increase my understanding....

[20 August 1999]

‘Fools' was another film shown as part of the Fespaco film festival held here in Ouagadougou in Feb 99. Set in South Africa in 1989, the story is about a middle-aged teacher working in a black township and how his life is slowly falling apart. He drinks too much, he is nearing divorce with his wife, and he tries to avoid being pressurised by his politically motivated acquaintances in order to have a quiet life. Worst of all, in a profound misreading of the situation and lack of judgement, he rapes one of his students who brings a gift round to his house to thank him for helping her get through her exams. She doesn't go to the police but takes her guilt and shame home to her family.

'Fools' has one of the most gratuitous scenes in the first few opening minutes I can recall; a young black couple making love on a train complete with clichéd stock shots of pistons pumping and orgasmic amounts of white steam being squirted into the black night air. The film, post orgasmically, rather lost its way for half an hour before getting back to the plot which then made its way unevenly along for the rest of the film.

One of the most telling and powerful scenes toward the end involved a big, fat, white Boer farmer whose old car is accidentally hit by a rock thrown by the headmaster who was trying to clear a trouble maker off his grounds during a school picnic. The Boer gets out and demands in front of the whole school what the hell is going on. The headmaster, who up to now has been a dominant and authoritarian figure, is suddenly very submissive towards the angry Boer and cowers in fear. The Boer takes a whip out of the car (handy for just this sort of situation) and the headmaster flees with the whole school leaving our teacher standing alone in the open ground facing the irate Boer. When the teacher does not respond to the Boer's questioning he starts whipping him savagely. The teacher offers no resistance to this unwarranted attack and starts to laugh maniacally at the Boer. The silent crowd draws strength from the teacher's stance and surrounds the Boer who cannot cope with the teacher's defiant reaction and sinks to the ground sobbing. The teacher walks away obviously wounded but still laughing with the Boer sitting on the ground and the crowd quietly watching him. End of scene.

Cut to new scene of teacher walking across fields. In my view this was a good example of a scene not being concluded properly. The strong Boer character was introduced but his fate was not concluded. One might conclude that his fate was to be left to one's imagination but visual clues such as rocks being dropped to the ground from the hand of students preclude the obvious nasty mob lynching. It seemed throughout the film that the director took the audience just so far, lacked the conviction for a conclusion and then moved on to something else leaving too many annoying loose ends.

Also this is the third film out of three (the other two being ‘Rue Princesse' and ‘Pièces d'identités') were there has been a scene about middle aged men visiting young prostitutes. Is this a coincidence that I have seen the only three films in the festival touching this theme or are African (male) directors obsessed with this subject?

The film had French subtitles as half the dialogue was in a South African language and the rest was in English and Afrikaans. But yet again we had a poor view due to an obstacle that blocked part of the very bottom of the screen, just where the subtitles were. This undoubtedly had a negative effect on my complete understanding of the dialogue. Because of this I feel I cannot give it a score lower than 5 much as I wanted to.

Rue princesse (1994)

The Ivory Coast version of "Pretty Woman" meets "The Graduate"

[6/10 · 19 August 1999]

I saw "Rue Princesse" (in French with no subtitles) as part of the Fespaco film festival which takes place every two years here in Ouagadougou. The cinema, which resembled a warehouse, had seen better days but it was cooler than I was expecting, the seat was more comfortable and there weren't swarms of mosquitoes, just the odd one.

I decided to sit at the back which was perhaps a bit of a mistake because the two speakers were way over at the front and the chap outside with the blaring radio all but drowned out what little sound there was. After about half an hour I figured out what was going on and from then on I started to thoroughly enjoy it.

This was the Côte d'Ivoire version of "Pretty Woman" meets "The Graduate", but much more enjoyable than "Pretty Woman" which I find to be one of the most unwatchable films. "Pretty Woman" is not unbearable for technical reasons, crummy acting or anything but the glib glamorisation of prostitution and the terrible characterisations. The happy-go-lucky tart who turns into a snotty rich bitch at the first sniff of money? Richard Gere's lawyer who makes a forceful pass at his long-standing client's girlfriend? Yeah, right. And it is a poorly conceived rip-off of "My Fair Lady".

However 'Rue Princesse' was fun. The style was typically naive which was a bonus for me because as a foreign film with no subtitles and low sound volume it would have been impossible for me to follow had it had the sophistication of a typical current non-blockbuster US/UK movie.

'Rue Princesse' was simply filmed using evocative locations; the acting had some nice touches and the plot moved along with some pace and humour after a seemingly slow start. It was amusing to be watching it amongst the Burkinabè as they cheered and clapped the scenes where the women gave the men their comeuppance. All told it was worth going to see and I would recommend it to any one else who might have an interest in West African cinema.

Kalifornia (1993)

Juliette Lewis is outstanding

[9/10 · 17 August 1999]

I saw this movie for the first time a couple of days ago.

From the opening scenes with the barely recognisable, hirsute Pitt and the narration you could argue that the film was going to be predictable. It could have been a turkey but great acting and well written dialogue set against stylish and beautiful camera work combined to make the next two hours very gripping.

Pitt personifies the white trash, psycho killer with a powerhouse performance, but for me, Juliette Lewis quietly steals the show as the naïve and ignorant girlfriend. Forbes is good as ultra liberated photographer but Duchovny was curiously flat as the writer. He seemed to be acting the same throughout the film: when mixing cocktails for his boring buddies as when he was when taunting Pitt in the mine. Perhaps this was deliberate; to create a foil against which Pitt could rage. Perhaps not. (I have not seen any X-Files yet. I wonder whether he plays the same as in this? The X-Files are on my list.)

All in all the movie gets an 8. Good enough for me to put the tape back into the video player and watch over again.

Withnail & I (1987)

This film is so good that I once watched it through the b/w viewfinder of my camcorder

[10/10 · 17 August 1999]

In my opinion one of the definitions of a truly great film is that, after the first viewing one is inspired to see the film again and that, after repeated viewing, enjoyment is still to be had and new details remain still to be discovered.

This definition applies to Withnail & I more than any other film I have yet seen. I first saw it a couple of years after it had been released in a repertory cinema in Oxford with some University friends. They had seen it several times before and I was impressed at the time by their ability to quote extended passages of the script along with the actors.

I have had a copy on video for more than eight years and I guess I must have watched it, both on my own and in the company of others, about 20 times. As the film seems to be little known (outside UK cult circles) it is therefore a video that I often find myself lending to other film enthusiasts. Unfortunately it is also a tape that is difficult to retrieve from them because they have, in the spirit of spreading the news, lent it on again to their friends. I am thus on my second copy.

There was a point some years ago when work took me to a remote location here in Africa that was without the usual comforts of home. After some months sans local cinema I felt so starved of my TV and video player that I watched my tape of Withnail & I through the tiny, black and white viewfinder of my VHS camcorder using headphones for the soundtrack. The Swiss friend I was sharing with, equally hungry, was so curious about what I was laughing at that he put down his book as soon as the film had finished, rewound and played the whole movie through again.

For me the film is a work of genius. The script written by director Bruce Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay for The Killing Fields, is so pin sharp, literate, and has not one wasted word. The dialogue is piled high with memorable quotes. To me almost every line is a classic film quote. Check out the IMDB for a small, sample collection. The three main characters are played to perfection. Ralph Brown is hilarious as Danny the small time drug dealer and aspiring lawyer; a role he was later to reprise in Wayne's World 2. The soundtrack opens with a rare and most excellent live rendition of Whiter Shade of Pale by saxophonist King Curtis.

Many alcoholic beverages are drunk during the course of the movie. A pub drinking game exists based on the type and order of booze consumed. Legend has it that the game cannot be completed in one sitting without eventual recourse to a hospital. I do not recommend you try it out.

When is Bruce Robinson going to release the Director's Cut? There are a couple of scenes missing from the film that are included in book of the screenplay. I hope they were mistakenly edited out of the original and are still available to be reinserted. The original sound mix is now showing it's age and, I think, requires the dialogue to be digitally re-mastered as in some places it is less than crystal clear.

Of course, as my favourite film it scores a 10 and is a must-see for anyone who has even heard of England or the sixties and is prepared to watch something other than mainstream Hollywood pap. If Lethal Weapon 4 or Beverly Hills Cop 2 is your all-time number one movie then you just might not get Withnail & I.

Kissing a Fool (1998)

I was the fool for watching this...

[3/10 · 16 August 1999]

The story opens with a bride and groom kissing at their marriage service but you only get to see the face of the bride. This is a clue for us. We are going to have to figure out as we watch the film which guy is going to end up being the groom. The picture on the front of the video box has already showed us a bride being kissed from one side by Schwimmer and simultaneously from the other by Lee so we know the race for romance is going to be between the two of them. (This release, with Dutch subtitles, has a different picture to the US video/ IMDb picture.)

Yet in the first five minutes Linda the publisher tells us, not once, but twice that she introduced the bride and groom. We cut to a flashback of her introducing the two of them to each other, just in case we still don't get it. Then within another five minutes Jay the writer (Lee) is introducing Sam, his editor (Avital) to Max the sports caster and general foul-mouthed ignoramus (Schwimmer). IF the publisher is telling us the truth, doesn't this just kinda rule Max out of the contest for the first person to kiss the bride? Or have I missed something here?

This film is about as predictable as trying to guess which kind of white meat will feature most often on Thanksgiving dinner tables this year. I'll tell you; it will be turkey. And this movie sure is one.

But it is not just the plot and direction that are hugely lacking. Schwimmer is totally unbelievable and badly miscast as Max. His mouth moves, the words come out, but they lack any conviction whatsoever. The character of Jay the writer is such a whiney loser (with possibly the worst hairstyle in recent movie history) that I began to dread every screen appearance he made. He seemed to communicate in a series of whinging questions: "What are you doing here?" "So what??" "And??" I have absolutely no idea why the two of them were friends; they had nothing in common and were always bitching at each other. The script was very weak in places: Jay's explanation of why he had introduced Max to Sam provoked for me the biggest guffaw of the film (one of the very few). Best part of the film? The Harry Connick Jr. song over the opening credits.

Overall, it gets a 3; a waste of my time and money - it was I who was the FOOL for not reading Roger Ebert's review BEFORE going to the video shop. If you are looking for a nice romantic comedy get While You Were Sleeping, The Philadelphia Story, As Good As It Gets or anything else on the IMDb list of top 50 Romance films.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

A fine film with a plausible plot.

[8/10 · 13 August 1999]

Saving Private Ryan is certainly one of the most, if not the most, emotionally shocking films I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot). The film successfully recreates a very dark moment in recent history. Spielberg uses the intense opening scenes to promote a calculated audience reaction. He wants to give us, as soon as the film starts, a prolonged taste of what it was like for a soldier, perhaps fresh from cosy US civilisation, to step off a landing craft into the hell and chaos that was Omaha beach. Spielberg achieves this with a cinematographical style drawn from contemporary documentary footage. But for me it were the sound effects that added the final horrific realism to that scene and indeed the whole of the film. The sound of bullets striking metal, water, flesh without the accompanying crack from the far away gun is particularly memorable. (Now I come to think of it a similar effect was used in John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13).

The most powerful scene for me, one that gave me a few sleepless nights, was the hand to hand fighting that took place upstairs in the bombed-out house. The wrestling of the two opponents all the while the other wounded soldier is writhing around in the background, the would-be rescuer paralysed by fear, the short, final pleading of the loser is an absolute masterpiece of film making.

There is a lot of comment to the effect that the plot for the army to jeopardise a squad of men to retrieve an ordinary soldier is implausible. Yes I imagine that it would have been highly unusual but the action was to have a significant propaganda effect back home. I am sure that many bizarre and costly actions have taken place this century in the pursuit of propaganda. The mood of the domestic population is often crucial to the outcome of a foreign war. Look how it affected US operations in Vietnam. And you only have to read about what massive and risky operations are mounted to retrieve a single, downed US pilot in former Yugoslavia recently to be able to imagine that the SPR plot is not totally implausible.

For all the movie's real power there are, in my view, some faults to the film, curious queries that occurred to me whilst watching that have also been picked up by others. The final scene in the present day war cemetery I found to be misjudged. Supposedly to bring the film full circle, to tie in with the very first scene, I found it to be out of step with the previous two-and-a-half hours. Also, I found Matt Damon to be miscast – for me he looks too 90's. Ryan should have been played by an actor far less well known.

I suppose that in the first few days after D-Day, as the Americans spearheaded inland from one of their designated Normandy landing sites, the only other people the Americans came across were soldiers of the German army. The French population having mostly fled beforehand or in hiding and the other Allied troops still pushing ahead from their own landing zones. Having said that, as a Brit., it did feel to me as if the film portrayed the Yanks single-handedly liberating France. There aren't many opportunities for the director to incorporate other Allied nationalities into this scenario. Spielberg might have chosen RAF tank-busters but perhaps if he had he might have felt he was making a point about the Limeys showing up late and saving the day after all the hard work had been done.

Overall it is an excellent movie and gets a 10 rating from me. It is not perfect in every way but it is a film that every state-registered voter should see. It is a glorious tribute to all the men and women who served and fought to preserve the freedom and democracy we know (and take so much for granted) today.

Lastly, I do find it galling in the extreme that, amongst others, 16 year-olds from Illinois have the arrogance to moan, whinge and complain about this fine film. As the movie is R rated you presumably saw it with your Mom or Dad. I would far rather hear their comments than yours. Keep your comments to Babe 2: Pig in the City.