WAR SHORT: Kommando 1944 (2018)

                        Recently I have been turned on to war short films.  There are surprisingly a lot of them and many are quite good.  And they are short, for those with limited attention spans.  Starting with “Their War”, I had been on a winning streak lately.  My latest viewing was “Kommando 1944” which is written and directed by Derek Quick.  His goal was to highlight the shameful mistreatment of Japanese-Americans in WWII.  The main character is a Nisei whose family is being held in Manzanar.

                        The movie takes place in Germany in July, 1944.  A title card tells us:  “A massive famine has stricken Germany.  Thousands of Allied prisoners are sent to farms across the country to make food for the Nazis.”  The film immediately contradicts this statement by having a German farmer argue with an SS officer who is planning to take half of his workers to a death camp.  The farmer has seven POWs working his farm.  They are housed in barn.  One of the prisoners is a Japanese-American named Soo (Daniel Joo).  The others are antagonistic towards him because he is a “Jap”.  One of the men had a brother on the USS Arizona which adds to the tension.  Another prisoner is Jewish and God help him if the SS officer finds out.

                        “Kommando 44” has been a big hit on the film festival circuit.  It has won over 100 awards and claims to hold the record for most awards.  It is competently made for a low budget film.  The sets are basic, but it does close with a trip to Manzanar.  The German uniforms appear authentic, so the effort is there.  Unfortunately, the movie just is not anything special.  I was stunned to learn of all its accolades.  My first thought was that the festivals were judging it as a movie rather than as a war movie.  But even if you factor out what you would expect from a good war movie, you still end up with an average short movie.  In fact, the film relies on the audiences (and judges) to be uninformed about WWII and history in general.  If you are informed, there are some head-scratching moments that make the plot hard to take seriously.  (See below)  These distracting elements are not overcome by the acting and dialogue.  Although the cast has been lauded as an ensemble and Joo got some best actor nods, I found the acting to be amateurish and the dialogue to be trite.  The SS officer is stereotypically vile.  There is no nuance in this movie.

                        I hate being critical towards a movie that clearly was a sincere effort to make a statement about racism.  And if I hadn’t seen some truly great war shorts recently, I might have been more tolerant.  I also realize that I could be wrong because after all, I am swimming upstream from the rest of the critics.  But in my opinion, the movie is vastly overrated.

GRADE =  C

PROBLEMS:  The problems start with the title.  I have no idea why “Kommando 44” was chosen.  It seemingly has nothing to do with the plot.  I have already mentioned that the premise is these prisoners have been assigned to this farmer to help fight a famine.  And yet, half are going to be sent to a death camp.  This is obviously for dramatic purposes, but it is aggravating because I am not aware of the Germans sending American prisoners to death camps under any circumstances.  This is also the first I have heard of American prisoners being used as farm workers and billeted at the farm.  This seems to be sloppy history.  Why is the farmer siding with the prisoners?  The movie gives us no reason other than a story about a tree that is supposed to indicate that he is anti-Nazi.  And boy is he.  He is willing to risk his and his family’s lives by slipping a gun to Soo.  Speaking of Soo, history buffs must assume he was part of the 100/442^nd Infantry Regiment which fought in Italy.  He presumably was recruited from Manzanar where his girlfriend is still interned.  The problem here is that when he is confronted by the other prisoners, he says nothing about being a legitimate Japanese-American soldier.  In fact, the film gives the impression he does not even speak English.  That is highly unlikely for a member of the 100/442^nd.   He does not dispute that he is a Jap and is guilty by association for the death of the brother on the Arizona!  As far as the Jewish soldier, he is discovered because of a Star of David on his dog tags.  Wouldn’t the Germans have already checked his dog tags?  Three of the prisoners (Soo, the black G.I., and a thuggish white guy) are marched off to presumably the death camp.  They overpower their guards and learn that it is actually the ones remaining in the barn who will be liquidated!  The SS officer chose to spare the life of the one black guy.  Soo runs off to rescue them and the thug chases him because he is a runaway Jap who will rat them out to the Germans, and yet by the time they get to the barn, they are comrades.  Wait, what?  In the post script, the ex-thug goes to Manzanar to visit Soo’s girl.  He is in civilian clothes, but the guard at the gate salutes him.  An appropriate book-end to a movie that insults intelligence from start to finish.

WAR MOVIE SHORT - White Feather (2013)

There have been many great books about the Vietnam War.  One of my favorites is Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson.  It is the story of the most famous American sniper in the war -  Carlos Hathcock.  Hathcock had 93 confirmed kills in the war.  The film is about his most famous kill.  The title comes from Hathcock’s trademark white feather.  A man of supreme confidence, he wore a white feather in spite of it being easily seen in the greenery of the jungle.  The film was directed by brothers Fernando and Vincente Cordero.  It runs about 23 minutes.

                    The movie opens with a quote from Ernest Hemingway about how the hunting of men, which is basically what snipers do.  It can become addictive.  The movie is set in Vietnam in 1966.  It covers Hathcock’s (Brett Miller) famous mission to assassinate a North Vietnamese general.  To get in position, he has to crawl hundreds of yards through vegetation that includes snakes and other critters.  He does this successfully because he is an expert in camouflage.  It has to be good because the enemy seems to be looking for him.  The film intercuts to Hathcock at home on leave with his wife (Carolyn Zanelli).  Things are tense because Hathcock is a stereotypical warrior who is more in love with his job than with his family. 

                    “White Feather” is a little gem.  It takes a true story and depicts it as well as could be expected for a small budget film.  The Cordero brothers have some game.  They use time-lapse photography of clouds to imply the passage of time. There are enough sniper films for it to almost be a subgenre, but few depict the non-addictive aspects of the job.  Most of those fictional films play up the adrenalin rush of hunting other human beings.  Although the opening quote posits that the movie is about Hathcock’s love of the kill, it is more about the dedication he had.  He was able to crawl for days with bugs and snakes with complete stoicism.  Sniping is attractive to many teenage boys.  This movie shows the less glamorous aspect of it. 

                   

                    The film does have some flaws.  The home front scenes are clicheish.  They tend to emphasize the low budget nature of the acting.  A bit perplexing is the fact that for the mission depicted in the movie, Hathcock does not wear his white feather.  And the movie makes no reference to it.  Only people familiar with Hathcock would get the title.  The movie does a good job on the mission leading up to the pow, but then there is no coverage of the aftermath.  After all, Hathcock also had to get out of the area.

                    Carlos Hathcock deserves a movie about his whole career in Vietnam.  Heck, this story is not even the one I told in class.  He had an even more amazing duel with an enemy sniper that is worth a short film as well.  Are we going to get a sequel, Cordero brothers?

GRADE  =  B

WAR SHORT: The Sniper (2015)

          This week’s short is “The Sniper”, which was written and directed by Gerald Fowler.  It is only eight minutes long and cost around $300.  That’s a three with only two zeroes.  It actually looks like he spent twice that amount on it.  It opens with a title card that tells us:  “Two snipers who’ve become shells of their former selves, wander into the sinister recesses of their inner darkness”.  It is a good thing we are told this because there is no character development in the movie.  We are left to conjecture what caused them to be shells of their former selves.  They are involved in an unnamed civil war.  We have to assume they are cliched snipers who have PTSD from all the kills they have had to accomplish.  That’s where the cliché ends, because unlike every other dueling snipers movie, these guys are incompetent.  Since this is far from a comedy, I have to assume Fowler is just not an expert on sniping.  Or lacks common sense.  One of them goes outside in broad daylight after his foe has killed two others, wounded him, and is obviously in a high position with a clear view of the courtyard.  After surviving this, he exposes himself in a window, with no consequences.  His foe does not change position after the kills.   

                        Fowler must have intended for the sparse narrative to be thought-provoking.  What motivates the two snipers?  Why does one shoot a woman and a peace-keeper (so I assume)?  What is it about war that brings out inner demons?   He missed the mark if he wanted those deeper issues discussed.  Instead, I was left with questions like:  why is this woman standing in the open telling the peace-keeper there is a sniper in the area?  Why does the driver speed away without checking on the two victims?  Given the angle, how does the “good” sniper pull off that shot?  Why is he even still alive?  I would appreciate any answers to these questions. 

                        The movie is competently made.  Fowler uses a lot of hand-held and clearly knows his craft.  The lack of dialogue is a plus.  Less is more in a low budget film like this.  It’s hard to be too critical of a work that is clearly a sincere project and had little money to work with.  The problem lies with the unrealistic tactics of the two.  Also, in a crowded subgenre, it shows a distinct lack of originality to call your film “The Sniper”.  At the very least it should have been entitled “The Snipers”.  Or just call it “War is Hell”. 

GRADE  =  D

Watch it here:  The Sniper

SHORT: Cat Shit One (2010)

                        “Cat Shit One” is a war short.  It is animated using CGI.  The film is based on a manga comic set in the Vietnam War.  There it followed a recon unit.  For some reason, the film has been moved to Afghanistan.  It is a sequel to the comics.  The main characters are Packy and Botasky.  They are private contractors.  (I had to read this because it is unclear in the film.)  Their mission is to rescue a hostage and a local asset from the clutches of some jihadis.

                        The film opens with Packy and Botasky observing a village where the jihadis are holding the hostage and collaborator.  Botasky is a sniper and Packy is his observer.  But he’s more than just an observer, he’s a killing machine.  He’s a rabbit Rambo without all the emotional baggage.  This bunny is a cool customer.  That’s right, he and Botarsky are bunnies.  The jihadis are camels (with towels on their heads).  Packy goes into the ville and Botarsky does his thing from a hill.

                        This is a fun little movie.  It’s combat porn with rabbits and camels.  There is a high body count and the violence is graphic.  Blood spurts.  There are RPGs for explosions.  But it’s bunnies doing it so you can watch this with your kids (or grandkids).  Just kidding, don’t do that.  The plot plays out like a SEAL movie done in animation.  And what animation.  It is amazingly crisp.  You see the tiniest details in the terrain.  The rabbits have distinct facial expressions.  When they talk, it’s not distracting.  And there are no poorly rendered humans.  The action is non-stop.  RPG rounds come flying at you and there is slo-mo of the shells ejecting ilk.  It’s a thrill ride for 21 minutes.  This does not leave a lot of time for exposition.  But the two rabbits have personalities.  Packy is a veteran and imperturbable.  He moves like an operative would.  (All of the characters are bipedal.)  Packy uses an SR-47 (an AR-15 adapted to take AK-47 magazines).  Botasky is greener and a bit panicky at first.  This sets up his redemption arc. 

                        The movie is one action set piece.  The jihadis are simply there to be killed.  One nice touch is they speak their own language and there are no subtitles.  Not that you need to know what they are saying.  I’m guessing it is some variation of:  “Death to American bunnies!”   The soundtrack is a blend of pulse-pounding action music and there is some Middle Eastern thrown in.  Overall, the production is outstanding.  The only thing that is disappointing is if it is one of a kind.  It was released in 2010 and there has been no sequel.  Pity.

You can watch it here:  Cat Shit One

GRADE =  A