Three Days in the Life of Lt. Kravtsova (2012)

                   My latest treadmill viewing was the Amazon Prime series “Three Days in the Life of Lt. Kravtsova”.  It is four episodes totaling 184 minutes.  It comes from Star Media, the folks that brought you “Night Swallows” and “The Attackers”.  It covers three days in the life of a young officer on the Eastern Front in WWII. 

                   Lt. Kravtsova is green and this will be his first command.  On the trip to his platoon, he is informed that the average life expectancy for a lieutenant is three days.  His platoon is a motley group who are veterans.  They don’t have high hopes for their new leader.  He wants to do right and studies and memorizes his manual.  They proceed to tell him how it really works at the front.  He’s got some real learning to do and the learning curve is steep.  The platoon is manning a trench with a no man’s land of about fifty yards separating them from a German platoon.  It’s basically a live and let live situation, with occasional futile attacks.  Kravtsova is told to stay low because snipers only shoot at officers.  The men are skeptical of his leadership and when he leads an attack at first few follow him.  However, he is brave, if naïve, and gradually earns their respect.  Kravtsova is caught between the platoon and his superiors.  He has to follow orders from men who are clueless about the actual situation at the front.  When a major comes visit, he orders the sniping of a German getting water from a stream in no man’s land.  He is told this will break an unwritten rule, but cares not.  Meanwhile, romance is brewing between Kravtsova and a local farm girl.  This is building toward a suicide mission to take out a forward observation post.  The mission happens on the third day.

                   “Three Days…” is a typical Star Media production.  It has a low budget feel to it.  The trench set is fine, but small scale.  No man’s land looks like a field and the village looks like a village that was available for cheap.  The uniforms and weapons appear authentic.  The acting is actually better than you could hope for.  Alex Sparrow is well cast as Kravtsova.  He is a rising star in Russian television and music.  Kravtsova is naïve, but sincere, and he grows in the job.  His wooing of the girl (who is no beauty) is refreshingly chaste.  The platoon members have distinct personalities and you do care about their fates.  As is true for Russian WWII television series, the officer class is portrayed as mostly competent and empathetic toward the soldiers.  There is always a villain, however.

                   The weakness of the series is the confused nature of the combat.  Most of the tactics make no sense.  For instance, once they find out where the observation post is, it would have made more sense to bombard it (which they eventually do) rather than sending a squad.  The combat is visceral and one no man’s land confrontation is combat porn.  At least with the action scenes, you don’t have to rely on the subtitles.  Star Media is notorious for its sometimes laughable subtitling, but this series is the worst I’ve seen.  Plus, I often could not read them because they were set against a light background.  And often you would have to be a speed-reader to keep up.

                   In conclusion, I would recommend it for bingeing if you don’t require top flight entertainment.  It is short and the main character is appealing.  Just learn Russian first.

GRADE  =  C 

Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

            “Drums Along the Mohawk” is a John Ford (“The Horse Soldiers”) film set in the Revolutionary War. It was based on the novel by Walter Edmonds. It was nominated for one Academy Award – Best Supporting Actress (Edna May Oliver). The movie was a box office hit.

            The movie begins in 1776 Albany, New York. Lana (Claudette Colbert) marries Gilbert (Henry Fonda) and she leaves her upper class urban life for life on the frontier on a small farm. Her new home is a log cabin. It’s quite a contrast to the civilized life of the cities. It is a rough transition and she wants to go home. Next scene we see her as a proper frontier woman. We all know she is going to get there so why bother using film to show how she evolves?  It’s tough life even if they didn’t have the Indian and Tory problems in the valley. They are going to have to deal with Indians led by the dastardly Caldwell. How do we know he is a villain? He has an eye patch and he is played by John Carradine. Caldwell is balanced by a friendly Oneida Indian named Blue Back (Chief John Big Tree). He’s a “good” Indian. (I won’t get into the fact that Blue Back was a fool to support the Americans.) The naïve Gil wonders why this is happening. “I don’t know why we’d have trouble with the Indians.” Duh, you are taking their valley! There are times when the pioneers have to take refuge in Fort Schuyler. It’s built of lincoln logs. One of those times, Gil and Lana return to a burned out farm. They are forced to live and work for a feisty widow named Mrs. McKlennar (Oliver).  It’s on now. Gil’s militia unit marches off to get revenge. They should have taken their drilling more seriously become back with their tail between their legs. This was the Battle of Oriskany, but we don’t get to see it for obvious reasons. Gil claims that the whupped the Indians, but in reality they got their asses whipped. For a while, the valley is quiet and the farming is good, but that would be a boring ending act, so we get another Indian/Tory siege of the fort.

            “Drums Along the Mohawk” is very much a John Ford film and is very much of its time. It is basically a western set in the east. The Indians are evil, whooping savages being used by the British. The only good Indian is the one who warns them about Indian attacks. Ford directs many of his stereotype characters. The cheerful drunk, the crust old widow, the anti-pacifist preacher, the pampered young woman who is forced to adjust to frontier life. The cast is full of recognizable character actors. Surprisingly, the cast includes an actual Indian playing Blue Back. Chief John Big Tree appeared in over 50 movies. Fonda and Colbert are excellent as the central couple. It can be argued that Lana is the central character. The movie does not go to war with Gil. It stays with Lana. She’s the one who is most impacted by life in the Mohawk Valley.  The film is stolen by Edna May Oliver. The Best Supporting Actress category was created for perfomances like hers. It reminds me of Margaret Wycherly as momma York in “Sergeant York”.  Oliver lost to Hattie McDaniel in “Gone With the Wind”. No shame there.

            Ford gives a taste of life in colonial America. There is a church scene with a hymn. We see a birthing. There is a wedding. All of this in vibrant Technicolor (Ford’s first use of it.)  It is a beautiful film to watch. Ford interjects his trademark humor. The soundtrack fits the film well and pushes emotional buttons to enhance the visuals. Although it has the feel of an epic, it is actually only 104 minutes long. There is little action, but there is a great chase scene (I bet you did not see that coming) where Gil has to outrun three Indians to go for help. That’s right, Henry Fonda outruns some Indians. (Thank God none of them had a bow and arrow.)

            The movie is actually based on historical events, even though it is based on a novel. It has the feel of a chapter in a 4^th grade American History textbook. Some of the characters are historical persons, including Caldwell who was a British agent who was a British officer who fought in several places during the war. Sometimes he commanded Indian allies. He survived the war and fought in the War of 1812. He probably did not wear an eye patch. Herkimer did die after his leg was amputated after the Battle of Oriskany. The fort was not actually in the center of the farmland. When it was besieged, it was garrisoned by Continental Army soldiers, not militia. And it was attacked by British soldiers. Because of the timing of the movie, it was determined that the British could not be the bad guys at a time when America was looking at the possibility of fighting on their side in the upcoming world war. The movie resonated with audiences who could imagine the men going off to war in the near future, just like Gil was forced to do.

            “Drums Along the Mohawk” is a must-see movie. It is Ford at his best with a top notch cast. Like many of his westerns, it passes on the myths of frontier life. That makes it a shaky history lesson. So watch it as a novel brought to the screen in vibrant color.

GRADE  =  B-

           

The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)

            My brother Jason recommended I treat this movie as a movie about the making of a war movie. I had remembered it fondly as a teenager and was happy to revisit it. It was directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. It was a passion project for him. As a child he loved WWI aces and a famous barnstormer named Charles “Speed” Holman.  Holman set a record of 1,433 consecutive loops during a five-hour flight.  Hill himself had been a pilot and flew transports for the Marines in the South Pacific in WWII. In the Korean War, he flew night fighters. He reached the rank of major.

            The movie is set in the 1920’s in the waning days of barnstorming. Robert Redford plays Waldo Pepper. He makes a living giving country folk rides in his biplane and then joins a barnstorming troupe. After getting in trouble with new safety regulations, he becomes a stunt pilot for a “Hell’s Angels” type movie. There he meets a famous German ace (Bo Brundin).  (He was modeled after Ernst Udet who had 62 victories in WWI and then became a stunt flyer for airshows and the movies.) The movie concludes with a dogfight between the two.  It is arguably the best dogfight ever put on film.

            “Waldo Pepper” is a must-see for aviation movie fans. The aerial scenes are some of the best ever filmed. And we are not just talking about great stunt flying, we are also talking about great stunt work like wing-walking. The planes are awesome with the final duel between a replica Sopwith Camel and a replica Fokker triplane.  The sounds that are matched to the aircraft are realistic. 

             The acting is fine, with surprisingly the best performance by Brundin. The cast includes Bo Svenson, Susan Sarandon, and Edward Herrmann. Redford is his usual charming self. He’ll remind you of Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”.  Coincidentally, this movie boosted recruitment for barnstorming.  That’s a joke. 

             What keeps the movie from being great is it is not sure what it wants to be. It starts as a whimsical comedy and then has a major tonal shift midway through when a major character is sacrificed.   From that point on it becomes a psychological drama revolving around the old trope of men who can’t let go of their glory days.  What’s odd about this is Waldo did not even fly in the war.  He wants the adrenaline that guys like Kessler got.  And he wants to experience the mano-a-mano of a dogfight.  And he doesn’t want to wait for WWII.  Neither do we. 

               “The Great Waldo Pepper”  is not a war movie and it could have used a deeper dive into the filming of a WWI aviation film, but it is an entertaining film if you can overlook the flaws.  It is an excellent homage to barnstormers and stunt men.  You’ll be amazed how far pilots would go in the 1920s to earn a little money and entertain crowds.

GRADE  =  B

De Vijanden (1968)

            The movie was directed by Hugo Claus (“The Lion of Flanders”). It takes place during the Battle of the Bulge. Since I strongly suggest you don’t watch it, I will summarize what you should avoid. An American platoon pulls back because of the German offensive, but they forget to wake one of the men.  Harrison hooks up with a boy named Richard and an old Belgian named Alfonzo. They are making their way to American lines while trying to avoid the krauts. It is a war road trip picture. On the way, the meet a mother who Harrison rapes after she flirts with him and then has a change of mind. Harrison is something of a dick. Richard talks the daughter into showing her breasts. There are no heroes in this film. There are some fake German tanks they have to survive. They end up being captured by a rogue American group led by a woman. At one point, Harrison shoots a dogs and they eat it. By this time, you won’t care what happens to them.

            This is one terrible movie. Its 5.8 rating on IMDB might have been inflated by perverts. Much of the actions by the characters is ridiculous. It does have a lot of unintentional laughs. The battle scenes are surprisingly big for such a miniscule budget. There are even some flamethrowers which would have been used better to incinerate the film. The characters are all unlikeable and very poorly acted. Rivet counters will have heart attacks if they take the movie seriously. Insomniacs might like it. The only thing I can say positive about my experience is that it lasted only 1 hour and 31 minutes. However, I was begging for it to end before the hour mark.

GRADE  =  F-