I have seen a number of young people review this movie and go on endlessly about the lack of cinematography and whatnot. This is irrelevant. This is an hour and a half of the kind of soul-searching that, if you can let go of your desire to remain above and outside of it, will change you. Frau Junge tells us the mundane and then the mundane descends into the horror that we went in expecting, but yet when she tells of the horror, we are still unprepared. Movie after movie has been made about Hitler's last days, and some have been very good. But there is nothing like a first-hand account. This is not a movie to see if you don't like documentaries but kind of like to learn about Nazis, this is a movie to see if you want to learn about the dark nights of the human soul. Watching an elderly, grandmotherly woman go through the gamut of emotions discussing something that everyone born since then learned about from second grade on yet she was almost totally unaware of while in the midst of it
I found it stunning, devastating, and very, very touching.
Reviews
6 Reviews
one of the ultimate Kojakisms
12 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Most episodes contain a variety of Kojakisms that are only remembered by die hard Kojak fans. This one, however, showed Kojak as an impromptu poet staring down John P. Ryan and uttering what was really the only Kojakism in the episode, one which frequently turns up as a disjointed snippet on radio and television station identification:
"If you come
near me,
or my family
I'll scatter your brains
from here to White Plains"
In the case of the show Kojak, there should be a "quotes" section for each episode. Kojakisms deserve cataloging and preservation.
You can call this episode "Kojak's Big Fat Greek Wedding".
"If you come
near me,
or my family
I'll scatter your brains
from here to White Plains"
In the case of the show Kojak, there should be a "quotes" section for each episode. Kojakisms deserve cataloging and preservation.
You can call this episode "Kojak's Big Fat Greek Wedding".
Casino Royale
(1967)
This is a supremely silly movie
8 February 2006
Enjoyment of Casino Royale may be generational limited. Also, it's British, with a British type of humor. Silliness and jokes about bodily functions and various body parts were much more appreciated then and there than by today's American audience, and the open-ended style of the plot, such as it is, was much more in vogue for comedies of the mid-to-late sixties and is less likely to be embraced now. Pity about that.
That said, I think to be unable to enjoy this movie indicates some form of humor handicap. Trying to anal-retentively follow the details of the plot is not only unnecessary, but is detrimental to the experience. The obvious plot points are so boldly drawn that they hit you over the head, and they're pretty funny. The rest are just devices to provide an excuse for crazed silly behavior.
Don't go into this experience looking for a worshipful Albert Broccoli type paean to the Manliness that is 007. This movie, made while there was still only one Bond, presciently made the point that Bonds were pretty interchangeable. It is the deconstruction of the Bond persona, in as many ways as five directors & a slew of writers could come up with. For those of us that love a good Bond spectacular for the stunts, the explosions, and the wink, wink style of "I'm not really a misogynist, I just play one in the movies" jokes, this is a great way to spend a couple of hours. Also, the nostalgia factor is high, look at those clothes! Look at that crazy hair & makeup! Look at Woody Allen back when he was just a kid!
Come on, it's funny! Relax and enjoy it, don't worry about your dignity. I recommend it as a double feature with the Magic Christian, now that's an afternoon well spent.
That said, I think to be unable to enjoy this movie indicates some form of humor handicap. Trying to anal-retentively follow the details of the plot is not only unnecessary, but is detrimental to the experience. The obvious plot points are so boldly drawn that they hit you over the head, and they're pretty funny. The rest are just devices to provide an excuse for crazed silly behavior.
Don't go into this experience looking for a worshipful Albert Broccoli type paean to the Manliness that is 007. This movie, made while there was still only one Bond, presciently made the point that Bonds were pretty interchangeable. It is the deconstruction of the Bond persona, in as many ways as five directors & a slew of writers could come up with. For those of us that love a good Bond spectacular for the stunts, the explosions, and the wink, wink style of "I'm not really a misogynist, I just play one in the movies" jokes, this is a great way to spend a couple of hours. Also, the nostalgia factor is high, look at those clothes! Look at that crazy hair & makeup! Look at Woody Allen back when he was just a kid!
Come on, it's funny! Relax and enjoy it, don't worry about your dignity. I recommend it as a double feature with the Magic Christian, now that's an afternoon well spent.
Kojak
(1973–1978)
Kojak changed everything
21 August 2005
Sure, Dragnet was in a category all its own and Naked City did pave the way for Kojak, but the grit was too shiny and fake. I grew up in NYC and later, after I moved away, when I watched Kojak in syndication I would get so homesick. What got to me the worst wasn't seeing landmarks like The Angry Squire or Washington Square, but by shooting on city streets, the NYC detritus was blowing down the sidewalk. Yes, that made me lonesome for home. Kojak was a show by, for, and about New Yorkers. Kojak's attitude was a New York cop's attitude, he was tough and glib and underneath that layer was the soft chewy center.
Law & Order owes a huge debt to Kojak. I knew I would have to watch L&O because of what I can only describe as Kojakisms, and it is a disservice to Kojak (& to Telly) that he is only remembered for "Who Loves Ya, Baby?". Kojakisms were as rich and varied as literature.
Here are some of my favorites:
"That's the way the baklava crumbles, baby"
"Whatever you do, don't you so much as double park anywhere near Manhattan South, 'cause you'll get a Hear Ye and a Hear Ye and a greeting you'll never forget."
"Light a candle, baby; a Get Well card won't do."
"...kiss off Goldilocks, your porridge is getting cold."
"You could package that with a wrap-around deodorant and still come out with a stink."
"...the Internal Affairs shoo-flies, they're gonna be all over us like a groom on a honeymoon. And lemme tell ya something, we all better be virgins or have a pretty good story."
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may; there's a chill in the air.'
"The wine, it smells beautiful baby, but the company, strictly down the tubes."
"Ya know what a vendetta is? It's when a whole bunch of people kill a whole bunch of people for years and years and years and like that!"
" Yer no good! And that's the end of the story!"
Absolutely one of the best shows ever.
Law & Order owes a huge debt to Kojak. I knew I would have to watch L&O because of what I can only describe as Kojakisms, and it is a disservice to Kojak (& to Telly) that he is only remembered for "Who Loves Ya, Baby?". Kojakisms were as rich and varied as literature.
Here are some of my favorites:
"That's the way the baklava crumbles, baby"
"Whatever you do, don't you so much as double park anywhere near Manhattan South, 'cause you'll get a Hear Ye and a Hear Ye and a greeting you'll never forget."
"Light a candle, baby; a Get Well card won't do."
"...kiss off Goldilocks, your porridge is getting cold."
"You could package that with a wrap-around deodorant and still come out with a stink."
"...the Internal Affairs shoo-flies, they're gonna be all over us like a groom on a honeymoon. And lemme tell ya something, we all better be virgins or have a pretty good story."
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may; there's a chill in the air.'
"The wine, it smells beautiful baby, but the company, strictly down the tubes."
"Ya know what a vendetta is? It's when a whole bunch of people kill a whole bunch of people for years and years and years and like that!"
" Yer no good! And that's the end of the story!"
Absolutely one of the best shows ever.
great example of '70's cinema
2 January 2005
I went to see this movie with my mother when it first came out. Now I am waiting for this to come out on DVD because it is one of the few movies that I want to own. When we went to see it in 1971 I laughed so hard I thought I might either pee on myself or vomit. I'd never seen anything so funny
or so familiar. I'm sure that it helped that the action took place primarily in my own neighborhood in Brooklyn, but I believe this movie has something for everyone. The humor didn't seem subtle to me at the time but in light of the brainless fare that has become so popular this movie does require that you actually pay attention from beginning to end. If you get nothing else out of it, the realization that it's not possible to housebreak a lion is worth the price of admission. That and the valuable lessons about car bombs, but to talk about that would require a spoiler alert.
Queen of the Damned
(2002)
horrors!(a spoiler here or there, watch out)
14 November 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Simply as a movie, it's pretty bad. On the whole, I like vampire movies, & I even like bad vampire movies, the guilty pleasure thing.
However, as an adaptation of a marvelously imaginative book -- well, then this movie is a piece of crap. The creative liberties taken to condense 500 pages of intense fantasy slaughtered the story like Rice's old vampires thoughtlessly slaughtered innocents. As I watched it I could only see a movie that had the same title & some characters with the same names as in the novel I so loved, but only here & there did I see hints of the same story.
To change Lestat's maker to Marius from Magnus dishonored Magnus, it dishonored Lestat, & it truly dishonored Marius. To make Akasha into a sociopathic killer rather than someone self-deluded enough to see herself as a redeemer dishonored the whole story. Jesse's death altered to a flimsy horror show convention dishonored a powerful & poetic thread in the story all of which leads to the greatest dishonor of all, Maharet without her twin, Mekare.
This movie was so hideously miscast I stared in slack-jawed amazement at the screen, wondering if anyone at all involved in its production had read the book. Except for Claudia Black, who is a perfect Pandora; but then look at how crazily she was outfitted & made up, what a shame. What a waste.
If you like campy vampire films & have no intention of EVER reading any of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, then what's not to like? But, if, like me, you were transported by her book The Queen of the Damned, then you will hate this movie. It's a pitiful hint at what could have been.
However, as an adaptation of a marvelously imaginative book -- well, then this movie is a piece of crap. The creative liberties taken to condense 500 pages of intense fantasy slaughtered the story like Rice's old vampires thoughtlessly slaughtered innocents. As I watched it I could only see a movie that had the same title & some characters with the same names as in the novel I so loved, but only here & there did I see hints of the same story.
To change Lestat's maker to Marius from Magnus dishonored Magnus, it dishonored Lestat, & it truly dishonored Marius. To make Akasha into a sociopathic killer rather than someone self-deluded enough to see herself as a redeemer dishonored the whole story. Jesse's death altered to a flimsy horror show convention dishonored a powerful & poetic thread in the story all of which leads to the greatest dishonor of all, Maharet without her twin, Mekare.
This movie was so hideously miscast I stared in slack-jawed amazement at the screen, wondering if anyone at all involved in its production had read the book. Except for Claudia Black, who is a perfect Pandora; but then look at how crazily she was outfitted & made up, what a shame. What a waste.
If you like campy vampire films & have no intention of EVER reading any of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, then what's not to like? But, if, like me, you were transported by her book The Queen of the Damned, then you will hate this movie. It's a pitiful hint at what could have been.
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