DUELING CHRISTMAS WAR MOVIES

 

Christmas Homecoming (2017)

               I have an expansive definition for war movies, so I include military movies in the genre. As you can tell from the title, there is no combat in this movie. And you might guess that it is a Hallmark movie. If you have seen even a few Hallmark Christmas movies, you know the formula that is used. Hallmark does not believe in revisionism. Its huge catalogue of Christmas movies includes few that would be considered very good. They are all comforting and mildly entertaining. And very family friendly. There are over 450 Hallmark Christmas movies so there has to be a few war movies in there.

               Amanda (Julie Benz) is a war widow who is the curator for the town’s war museum. Her husband was killed two years ago, but she still has not recovered completely. She is sour on Christmas and can’t get into the spirit. A wounded Master Sergeant Jim Mullins rents a room from her. Jim is fully into Christmas. Will he melt Amanda’s heart and restore her love of the season? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you have never seen a Hallmark movie or a Hallmark card. By the way, Amanda and Jim send out Hallmark cards in one scene. I would say that is acceptable product placement.

               Would you believe Amanda has a boyfriend? Craig (Toby Levins) has never seen a Hallmark movie so he has no idea that he is heartbreak bait. Because he is your usual clueless beau who is the last person in the cast and all the viewers to know he’s a sap. However, he is Type A of Hallmark jilted third legs which means he takes it well. He is not Type B which is the villainous boyfriend who deserves to be crushed.

               Jim warms up Amanda by being relentlessly giddy about Christmas. He is like a big teddy bear of a kid. “This is going to sound corny, but I believe in the Christmas spirit.” Is this the first time “corny” has been mentioned in a Hallmark Christmas movie? The word would fit every one of them. The one fairly novel element of the plot (but the opposite of novel for a war movie) is that Jim is being torn by his growing affection for Amanda and his affection for his mates. It’s coin toss in war movies whether the character will choose bros over hos. Guess what wins out in this movie. Jim seals the deal and completes his spiritifiction of Amanda by  helping her with a fundraiser to save the museum. He literally outbids Craig for her hand.

               I have seen a few Hallmark Christmas movies (and zero other Hallmark movies) and “Christmas Homecoming” is better than average. The leads are appealing, of course. There is some chemistry. The evolution of their relationship makes sense. You do feel sorry for Craig. He doesn’t deserve the jilting, but he takes it like a man. Plus, Amanda had not committed to him so it’s not like she left him at the altar. The movie is not smarmy. Before you say that it can’t be a war movie just because one of the cast is a veteran, the inclusion of the museum subplot puts it more comfortably in the genre. But feel free to say “bah, humbug” to that.

GRADE  =  C

Operation Christmas (2016)

               “Operation Christmas” is one of the over 450 Hallmark Christmas movies. It is one of a few Hallmark War Christmas movies along with “Operation Christmas Drop” and “Christmas Homecoming”. It should not be confused with the Colombian army’s operation against guerrillas. This is a fictional story of love set in the Christmas season in America.

               Olivia (Tricia Helfer – Cyborg “Number 6” in “Battlestar Galactica”) meets Scott (Marc Blucas – Riley in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) on a ski slope. Scott is an Army sergeant. They are both single. She’s divorced and he’s a widow. But any possibility for romance is ruined by the fact that she is Kings fan and he’s an Islanders fan. (Why didn’t the screenwriters choose a real rivalry like Rangers and Islanders?)  He’s an optimist and she’s a cynic. But wait, this is a Hallmark movie, so there is still hope. And when you factor in their adorable kids becoming friends any doubt is removed.

               Just when things are warming up, prodded by the kids, he is called back to duty right before Christmas and can’t make a date. Naturally, his message does not get to her. She knew Christmas sucks! BUMP #1  Eleven months later, Scott shows up as her liaison for her Toys for Tots drive. This is his first opportunity to explain what happened, charmingly. Apparently, he was so busy killing terrorists that he could not correspond with her to offer numerous apologies. She’s not buying his very late explanation, but she has to work with him. Awkward!  He takes her to church and they have their first kiss. Relationship sailing smoothly, right? BUMP #2 Army life doesn’t fit civilian life very well. There are more bumps to come, but love will conquer. Duh!

               “Operation Christmas” is a typical Hallmark Christmas movie. Or a typical rom-com without the com. It does differ from most Hallmark movies because there is no love triangle. There is no villain. As usual, we have a cynical woman who needs melting. And since this woman is played by Tricia Helfer, there’s your lure, guys. Tell your wife or girlfriend (or both) that you will watch a Hallmark Christmas movie because you love her so  much. And for the females in the audience, you have Marc Blucas. (He also starred in “Holiday for Heroes”.) Call it a tie. And thrown in some cute kids with acting chops who do the matchmaking scheming. Throw in beautiful, very white scenery provided by British Columbia. And add TEN songs. You end up with a nice, comforting Christmas flick.  

GRADE  =  C

The Wereth Eleven (2011)

 

              “The Wereth Eleven” is a docudrama that tells the story of eleven African-American soldiers who were murdered by the SS during the Battle of the Bulge. It uses CGI to recreate some of the incidents and archival footage, including from the Germans. There are also scenes using actors.  One of the unit’s veterans is interviewed as well as a son of one of the eleven and the son of a Belgian family that tried to give them refuge. There is extensive narration.

              The Wereth Eleven were eleven members of the 333^rd Field Artillery Battalion which was overrun on the second day of the battle. Unlike the whites from Battery B of the 285^th Field Artillery Observation Battalion that were taken prisoner that same day at Malmedy and then executed, the members of the 333^rd were taken prisoner and made it to German prison camps. There is a clip from a German propaganda film that includes members of the 333^rd being marched to Germany. The Wereth Eleven members were the exceptions to that because unfortunately they avoided capture at first. I have recently been researching the Battle of the Bulge and ran across this story. The fact that I was not familiar with it shows how unknown the story is. The movie attempts to rectify that and does a good job of it.

Thankfully, the producers decided to go a different route than movies like “Miracle at St. Anna”. Sincere efforts like that are often hurt by poor acting and dialogue. This movie avoids that by using a minimum of recreations and they are not laughable. For instance, the deaths are not the hilarious ones associated with low budget films, and even some big budget ones like “Battle of the Bulge”. The blend of CGI, footage, and real actors works. The narration is often, but adds to the story. The film has time and place for some of the scenes, but maps would have been nice. The interviewees are good and the one veteran of the battalion, George Shomo, is outstanding.

Docudramas do not get the love that some of them deserve. I would rather see a CGI Tiger tank then another tank mocked up as one. It is often the best way to tell a true war story. A good docudrama avoids the historical fiction that creeps in when you have a screenplay, actors, and limited authentic gear, weapons, and vehicles. And it avoids a big problem in low budget WWII films. They often use overage, overweight reenactors. “The Wereth Eleven” uses a trip to the Ardennes by the son of one of the Eleven and an executive producer who is an older white man wearing a uniform. It’s almost as though the movie is asking us, “would you prefer to see this guy acting in the movie?”

What “The Wereth Eleven” does, it does well, but it does not tell the whole story. Clocking in at just over an hour, it could have used more time to flesh out the discrimination the unit faced starting in boot camp and how it earned respect in France. The film briefly mentions an incident when the battalion provided very accurate fire to aid a white unit, but it does not add more depth to their evolution. It also does not do a good job fleshing out the situation they were in during the first half of December in 1944. It uses a postscript to explain the lack of an investigation and the failure to bring anyone to justice for the execution. However, those caveats aside, it does an admirable job of bringing a forgotten story to light.

GRADE =  B

Here is the story I posted about the real Wereth Eleven, don’t read on if you want to avoid spoilers.  THE WERETH 11 -  The 333^rd Field Artillery Battalion was an African-American (“colored”) unit that landed at Utah Beach in July, 1944. It was commanded by Lt. Col. Harmon Kelsey. Kelsey was not happy with the assignment and was sure the unit would never see combat because it was incompetent blacks. He was wrong on both counts. It first saw combat in Normandy when it was tasked with destroying a church steeple that was being used to snipe at 82^nd Airborne paratroopers and for artillery spotting. The men got to work, chanting their unit song – “Stand Back! Ready! Rommel count your men! Fire! Rommel, how many men you got now?”  Within minutes the steeple was destroyed, along with the Germans in it. The unit gradually  gained a reputation for being quicker and more accurate than white artillery units. In the siege of Brest, it fired 1,500 rounds in one day. An article in Yank magazine made the unit famous in the American army. It ended up being assigned to Troy Middleton’s VIII Corps. In the Ardennes, it was located near Schonberg in support of the 2^nd and 106^th Divisions. When the Battle of the Bulge began, Schonberg fell on Dec. 17, 1944. Most of the battalion was taken prisoner. 11 men escaped into the countryside. They tried to make it to American lines. They ended up knocking on the door of the Langer family. The Langers were anti-German in a small community that was mainly pro-German. They were hiding two Belgians escaping German conscription. Unfortunately, one of their neighbors ratted them out and Germans from the 1^st SS Panzer Division arrived and the Americans were take without a fight. They were led to a field where they were tortured, mutilated, and murdered. They were treated much worse than the white soldiers executed at Malmedy.  The culprits were never brought to justice.

Army of Darkness (1992)

               “Army of Darkness” is the third in the Evil Dead series. It was directed, co-written (with his brother), and co-edited by Sam Raimi. In a tonal departure from the previous two films, this one is more of a comedy horror movie. It was a box office disappointment, making only $22 million with a budget of $11 million. It has since gained cult status. Although it got mixed reviews, it did win the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. It was a weak year for horror films. Raimi’s script drew on a variety of sources for inspiration, like “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, “Gulliver’s Travels”, and  “Jason and the Argonauts”.

               Ash (Bruce Campbell) is time portaled back to medieval England. He is immediately captured by the army of Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) and is part of a slave march back to the castle. (The march is to music that reminds of the scene in “Ben Hur” when Judah first meets Jesus.)  Ash is thrown into a death pit that evokes the garbage room in “Star Wars”. We meet the first of the cheesy monsters the movie will unapologetically foist on us. Ash is reunited with his chainsaw. And is united with a love interest in the comely Sheila (Embeth Davidtz who won the role over Tuesday Weld). The resident Wise Man tells Ash that for him to be able to return to his own time, he must get a book called the Necronomicon. It’s not going to be easy as the arrogantly IQ-challenged Ash resurrects an evil version of himself and a skeleton army. (The skeleton’s are the Jason homage.) The army of the dead lay siege to the castle and mayhem ensues. Not caring about upseting the time continuum, Ash introduces the knights to dynamite so the movie can have explosions. This builds to the inevitable duel between Ash and Evil Ash.

               If you expect a scarefest similar to “The Evil Dead”, you will be disappointed with the tongue in cheek vibe of this film. But you will not be disappointed if you are a Bruce Campbell fan or a fan of mock horror films. Campbell is clearly having a great time chewing all the scenery. It looks like fun, but parts of the shoot were hard on him. Specifically, the fight scenes against special effects to be created later. Campbell had to memorize the choreography steps. One sequence took 37 takes with Bruce swearing profusely throughout. His friend Sam Raimi enjoyed torturing him. It does not appear that Campbell was tortured by the hammy dialogue. The film is definitely low brow. At least, in this horror movie, the laughs are intentional.

The special effects are from the Ray Harryhausen school of stop animation.  Unlike Jason’s skeleton foes, the skeleton’s in this movie are a variety and bring smiles rather than scares. The long battle is amusing with the choreography surprisingly good. Unlike many horror movies, there is no reason to fear for the protagonist. At least not in the theatrical release. In the original ending, Ash time travels to post-apocalyptic London. The studio deemed this too jarring for audiences. It was probably right.

Is it a war movie? Well, we have an army and a castle siege. Obviously, it is not a documentary on how to capture or defend a castle. Swords clang and battering rams ram, but dynamite arrows blow up skeletons. There is a melee inside the castle that would fit in many medieval warfare movies. If war movies are characterized by unlimited ammunition, then it qualifies. Ash’s two-barrel shotgun makes mockery of that trope. If you want to watch a movie that makes fun of horror movies and war movies, check it out. You can watch it late at night, alone. With your grandkids.

 

GRADE =  B

Six Minutes to Midnight (2020)

  

            “Six Minutes to Midnight” was directed by Andy Goddard. He directed some episodes of “Downton Abbey”. The story was written by Eddie Izzard and Celyn Jones. It made only $2.4 million. The title refers to a code used by the British agent played by Izzard.

            It’s August, 1939 in Great Britain. War is on the horizon. There is a finishing school for girls from Nazi families. A British agent is working undercover as a teacher. When his cover is blown, he tries to alert his handlers, but is killed first. British intelligence replaces him with Capt. Thomas Miller (Izzard). He finds out the German government is planning to bring the girls home. When he tries to pass the news on, a female teacher who is actually a German agent kills his handler and frames him for the murder. Miller goes on the lam. And it’s a race against time before the girls will be flown out secretly, along with the woman agent.

            “Six Minutes to Midnight” has too many contrivancies. More than your typical espionage thriller where the hero is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. It breaks the envelope of realism that these kind of movies have.There are plot developments that make no sense. Why don’t the British want the girls to go back to Germany? Holding them hostage surely would cause the German government to retaliate by holding British citizens caught in Germany when the war begins. Besides, if the Germans send a plane to pick up the girls, isn’t that a warning that war is imminent? Seems like that would come in handy for the British government to know.  There are some interesting plot twists that make it fairly entertaining. Izzard is solid as the protagonist. It was a pet project of his so he gives his all. He wouldn’t be my first choice for a secret agent, but he doesn’t distract. Having Judi Dench as the head of the school adds some gravitas to a film that would be even more of a trifle if not for her.

GRADE  =  C-