THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES: 85. Jojo Rabbit (2019)

 

                    “Jojo Rabbit” was written, directed, and acted in by Taika Waititi.  He won an Oscar for his adaptation of Christine Leunen’s book.  The book is about a young boy in Hitler’s Germany toward the end of the war.  Waititi added the imaginary Hitler character and played him in the movie.  He did no research on Hitler and meant the role to be a mockery of the dictator.  (Lack of research might explain Hitler offering cigarettes when the real Hitler was anti-smoking.)  The movie was controversial because of its comedic take on Hitler’s Germany, but it was critically acclaimed by most critics.  It received six Oscar nominations:  Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Scarlet Johannson), Production Design, Costume Design, Film Editing, and Adapted Screenplay.  Waititi won Best Adapted Screenplay from the Academy Awards, BAFTA, and the Writers’ Guild. 

               The movie opens with a German version of the Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”.  (And closes with the German version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”).  Let the satire begin! And don’t take the movie seriously.   Jojo Belzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is a ten-year old who is in the Hitler Youth.  He has been thoroughly indoctrinated in Nazi doctrines, like anti-semitism.  But he is not likely to become a stormtrooper as he is just a naïve little boy corrupted by the system.  Jojo has an imaginary friend – a buffoonish Adolf Hitler.  Hitler is his mentor and confirms what Jojo has been taught.  On the other end of the spectrum, his mother Rosie (Johannson) is secretly an anti-Nazi.  She tries to keep his childhood whimsical, but he is being pulled into the serious nature of the war as the Americans and the Soviets are closing in on his town. As preparation for their conscription, Jojo and his best friend Yorki attend a Hitler Youth Camp run by the decorated combat veteran Capt. Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell).  There is the requisite training montage, but this one includes book burning.  Jojo gets his nickname “Rabbit” because he refuses to kill a rabbit to earn his Nazi merit badge.  His world is turned upside down when he discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie).  Their relationship will force him to reassess what he has been taught about the Jews.

ACTING:                      A

ACTION:                      N/A

ACCURACY:                  N/A

PLOT:                           A

REALISM:                    N/A

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   B (lots of off-center shots)

SCORE:                           A (very anachronistic, but in a good way)

BEST SCENE:  when Jojo discovers a dead body

BEST QUOTE:  [looking at hanged dissidents]  Jojo:  What did they do?  Rosie:  What they could?

               This is a unique movie.  I understand the criticism about portraying the Nazis and Hitler in a humorous way, but Mel Brooks (who lauded the film) did a similar thing in “The Producers”.  Clearly, Waititi is making 21^st Century satire and no one could have left the theater wanting to join a neo-Nazi militia.  However, it is not dark satire.  It tends more toward silliness.  For instance, when Klenzendorf asks for some German shepherds to defend the town, he gets a group of actual shepherds.  When the Gestapo visits Jojo’s home, 31 Heil Hitlers are exchanged in about a minute.  The minor characters are caricatures.  Rebel Wilson plays a butch she-Nazi.  Alfie Allen is Klenzendorf’s lackey second-in-command.  There is a huge gap between these characters and the main trio of Jojo, Rosie, and Elsa.  All three are amazing characters.  The relationship between Jojo and his mother is moving and Rosie is the real hero of the picture.  She gets the best line.  When Jojo asks what the people who have been hanged in the town square did, she responds:  “What they could.”  It is one of the few lines in the movie that is not aimed at smiles.  There are many funny lines told with straight faces.   Some of the funniest lines go to Yorki.  Here is a typical exchange between the two friends:

Yorki:  There are bigger things to worry about than Jews, Jojo. There's Russians somewhere out there. They're worse than anyone. I heard they eat babies and have sex with dogs. I mean like that's bad, right?

Jojo: Sex with dogs?

Yorki: Yeah. The Englishmen do it too. We have to stop them before they eat us and screw all our dogs.

               The key to the movie is the romance of Jojo and Elsa.  While it does take the standard route of a rom-com, it is much deeper than a film from that genre.  The Jojo/Elsa dynamic allows Waititi to poke fun at German myths about the Jews.  It’s uncomfortable humor and in a drama would be considered offensive.  This is high-level satire to balance the slapstick portrayal of the Nazis.

               The movie has a top-notch cast and they are clearly fully on board.  Scarlet Johansson earned her Academy Award nomination and is perfect as Rosie.  But the movie relies on the work of two young actors who have very bright futures.  Roman Griffen Davis plays Jojo.  He is wonderful in his acting debut.  His performance is matched by Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa.  She is the one character that exemplifies the dark aspects of the war and McKenzie brings a blend of hopelessness and feistiness to her portrayal.  Her interactions with Jojo are the highlights of the film.  Their arc is not trivialized.  Those who criticize the humor of the movie need to give it credit for giving us one of the great Holocaust characters

               The movie is a real treat for the eyes.  Waititi found that most German towns were not bombed into rubble and life continued fairly close to normal.  Filmed in Czechoslovakia, Jojo’s neighborhood has an old world look to it.  The pristine environment is meant to convey the cluelessness of the German public as to what was actually happening in the war.  The Oscar nomination for Costume Design must have mainly been for the costumes put on Johannson.  Elsa’s fashions are great at conveying her personality.  She wants to shield her son from evil, but dresses to evoke her pre-war party-girl days.  She also dresses to try to distract Jojo from the realities of the war.  The very odd music score by Michael Giacchino (“Rogue One”) matches the vibe of the film well.

               “Jojo Rabbit” deserved its Best Picture nomination.  It deftly blends satire, broad humor, and drama.  For a movie that is laugh out loud funny in parts, it has some very poignant moments.  It is a movie that does not fit clearly in a category, but that is one of its strengths.  I have seen hundreds of war movies and I am always open to movies that push the boundaries of the genre.  There are some significant war comedies, but this subgenre is not noted for great satires.  “Jojo Rabbit” takes its place with movies like “Dr. Strangelove” at the upper tier of war comedies.  It is a must-see for war movie lovers, but I can’t promise everyone that they will like it.  I can enjoy both “Jojo Rabbit” and “Hail the Conquering Hero”, but not everyone can.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)

 

            “Captain Horatio Hornblower” (known as “Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N.” in the United Kingdom) was one of the last swashbuckler films.  It was natural that C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series would be made into a movie.  His first three were used for the screenplay.  Forester helped adapt his books.  Those titles were “The Happy Return”, “A Ship of the Line”, and “Flying Colours”.  Raoul Walsh (Objective Burma, Battle Cry, The Naked and the Dead) was chosen for his skill at making action movies.  And action was what he was interested in.  When dialogue scenes were shot, Walsh took a seat and read a newspaper.  The studio originally wanted Errol Flynn, but thankfully settled for Gregory Peck.  Flynn would have been wrong for the role.  Hornblower is a stoical leader who is more cerebral than any Flynn character.  The ship from Disney’s “Treasure Island” was used for some of the scenes.  The other ships were refurbished vessels.  The final scene was shot on the HMS Victory.  The movie’s profit more than doubled its budget.

            The movie is set in 1807.  A narrator tells us the HMS Lydia (a 38-gun frigate) is on a secret mission around Cape Horn into the Pacific.  Only Hornblower knows their mission.  It is so important that when the doctor urges they make land to deal with a scurvy outbreak, Hornblower turns him down.  The movie is filled with nautical details that are informative.  The ship routines are accurately portrayed.  When the ship is becalmed, it is towed by boats.  A sailor is flogged.  Hornblower is a sailor captain, meaning he believes a happy ship is a good ship.  But he backs up the officer who ordered the flogging and then in his cabin dresses the officer down.  The movie can be used as a study in command.  The mission is to support a rebellion in Central America against the French.  This means helping “El Supremo” who is an insane a-hole. 

            The first action scene is the boarding of the 60-gun Spanish ship Natividad which he then has to turn it over to the odious “El Supremo”.  Soon after, he takes aboard the sister of the Duke of Wellington.  Barbara (Virginia Mayo) gets off on the wrong foot with Horatio like in every similar situation in movie history.  Spoiler alert:  that will change.  The next action scene is the Lydia versus the Natividad.  The scene lasts ten minutes and has plenty of mayhem.  There’s lots of falling debris, but little blood even though the movie was made in brilliant technicolor.  This is followed by two montages:  repairs and romance.  Unfortunately, Horatio is married and Barbara is engaged. To Hornblower’s admiral.  Awkward!  The final set piece has Hornblower’s ship of the line attacking French ships in a port.  More falling debris.  It’s rousing with an unpredictable result. 

            “Captain Horatio Hornblower” is not as good as the Hornblower series of movies, but it is not bad as a swashbuckler.  The combat is not realistic.  No one is felled by a splinter.  It’s vivid and done with verve, which is what you would expect from Walsh.  The battles do not look like models because actual ships were used.  The cinematography and score match the action well.  The sets are excellent.   It is a educational on tactics.  However, it is very command-oriented with little coverage below decks.  The movie goes for romance over bromance.  Puzzlingly, the plot sets up some dysfunction among the officers, then doesn’t deliver.  The romance is from the black and white era, although the movie is in color.  Mayo and Peck have some chemistry, but the relationship is chaste.  Peck is his usual solid self (did he make any bad movies?) and was a good choice for Hornblower.  He clearly read some of the books because he has Hornblower’s mannerisms and personality down pat.  The rest of the cast is average.  Mayo was chosen for her beauty, but she was not a bad actress.  The first third of the movie is marred by the buffoonish El Supremo.  But then he gets his comeuppance in a crowd-pleasing way.  The movie’s top priority is entertainment and it succeeds in that.  If you learn a little about Napoleonic naval warfare, that’s a bonus.  The most important thing to me is the audience was introduced to the greatest character in Napoleonic naval fiction.

            We have plenty of pirate movies, but not that many naval combat movies from the age of sailing ships.  This movie and “Damn the Defiant!” are the best two from that era. “Master and Commander” tops them, but since it was not a big box office success, we probably won’t be seeing many more swashbucklers.   If you have seen all the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, try watching something a bit more realistic.

GRADE  =  B  

100 BEST WAR MOVIES #86. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) / Thank You For Your Service (2017)

 

              “The Best Years of Our Lives” is one of the most beloved movies of its time. It was directed by the acclaimed William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver, Friendly Persuasion). Wyler had earlier done the famous documentary “Memphis Belle”. Producer Samuel Goldwyn wanted to make a movie about returning veterans so it is set in the period immediately after WWII. It is based on a blank verse novel by MacKinley Kantor and was adapted into the screenplay by Robert Sherwood – two heavyweights. The movie was a box office smash in America and was actually even more popular in England. It won seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Frederic March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Editing, Adapted Screenplay, and Original Score. AFI ranked it as the 37th best motion picture of all time. The movie is famous for the casting of Harold Russell as a disabled vet.  Russell had lost his hands due to a faulty fuse setting off some explosives during a training session. He is the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same performance. The Academy felt he would lose for Best Supporting Actor so they gave him an honorary Oscar. Besides Russell, Wyler insisted on the film crew being veterans.

            The movie’s opening introduces us to three servicemen returning to the same city.  They hitch a ride on a B-17 and we get some cool nose cone views of an American landscape not touched by war.  And then there is an overhead view of an aircraft graveyard.  Will they be treated the same way?  Technical Sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March) is returning to his wife (Myrna Loy) and kids.  He worked at a bank before the war.  Capt. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is returning to his wartime bride (Virginia Mayo) and his soda jerk job.  Petty Officer 2nd Class Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) lost his hands in battle and has mechanical hooks for hands.  He returns to his parents and the girl next door who is supposed to marry. 

The trio will have trouble adjusting to post-war America.  Al has a drinking problem.  Fred has nightmares from his flights as a bomber bombardier.  Homer is very proficient with his hooks, but feels he is less of a man.  Each will have a challenge to overcome.  Al is promoted to small loans officer at the bank and he feels compassion towards vets trying to get loans.  His empathy is at odds with the bank’s policy of not taking risks.  “Last year it was kill Japs, now it’s make money.”   Fred gets his old job at the drug store, but now he is under a jerk who avoided the war.  His wife is a party girl and is much more high maintenance than he can afford with his small salary.  They had been married for only 20 days before he left, so you can see where this is heading.  When Fred meets Al’s daughter (Teresa Wright) there is a spark.  Homer does not want to burden Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell) with a disabled husband, so he pushes her away.

ACTING:                      A

ACTION:                      N/A

ACCURACY:                  N/A

PLOT:                           A

REALISM:                    B

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   B

SCORE:                           B  (it won the Best Original Score Oscar)

BEST SCENE:  Homer putting on his pajamas with Wilma

BEST QUOTE:  Homer: I know what it is. How did I get these hooks and how do they work? That's what everybody says when they start off with 'Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?' Well, I'll tell ya. I got sick and tired of that old pair of hands I had. You know, an awful lot of trouble washing them and manicuring my nails. So I traded them in for a pair of these latest models. They work by radar.

 
              It is easy to see why “The Best Years of Our Lives” is so beloved. It was the perfect movie for its time. It really struck a chord. People were making the transition from wartime to peacetime and the adjustment was difficult. Millions of veterans were returning to lives that were not only different from Depression-era America, but drastically different from their military experiences. Some came home disabled and wondering about their place in society. Some came home to stable families and jobs, but found that boring and unfulfilling. Some came home to faulty wartime marriages and unclear occupational futures.  They had varying degrees of combat fatigue (which is what PTSD was called back then).

           The movie is very well made. Wyler is at the top of his craft and used his experience filming “Memphis Belle” to get a realistic veteran vibe. The movie has a different look to it. Wyler insisted on a type of cinematography called “deep focus”. When you watch a scene, everything in the background and foreground is in focus. It gives the scenes incredible depth. The framing is also nicely done. Many of the scenes feature doorways like in “The Searchers”.  Wyler allows his scenes to take their time.  Although Wyler did not like the score, it matches the moods well.  It’s very mood manipulative, but at least not schmaltzy.  And there is plenty of it.  This movie might have the most music of any war movie.

            The cast is all-star. The acting is top notch. Just the facial expressions alone are amazing. Russell is the standout because of his background. He does real well for a rookie. (Wyler insisted he not take any acting lessons.)  He deserved his Oscar.  It was not a pity trophy.  The actors were given dialogue that matched the adults they portrayed.  There is a scene where Al confronts Fred about his relationship with his daughter.  Two mature friends discussing a problem.

            The movie holds up surprisingly well considering it came out right after the war. You would expect a good bit of patriotism and sentimentality. It keeps those elements to a minimum. The way characters in the movie behave is true to life. The one problem is the tidy ending is not true to life. It is asking too much of 1940s Hollywood to have a depressingly realistic ending. All three story arcs portend positive futures. That’s 100%. It would have been nice if 100% of actual WWII veterans had bright post-war lives.

               “The Best Years of Our Lives” is one of the best of the small subgenre of post-war home front movies. It is an excellent companion to all the good American WWII movies. Many of the survivors in those movies would have had experiences similar to Al, Freddy, and Homer. It’s almost like a sequel to many of those movies. It is definitely a must-see and it holds up well.  It takes you back to a different America where a meal at a restaurant costs less than a dollar.  An America where veterans were expected to easily return to their pre-war lives with no help.  But because of this movie, the American public could better relate to the new civilians.

 

            “Thank You for Your Service” is the newest war movie to examine PTSD.  It is based on the nonfiction book by journalist David Finkel.  Finkel’s book was a sequel to his “The Good Soldiers” in which he wrote about the 2^nd Battalion, 16^th Infantry Regiment’s deployment in Iraq in 2007-8.  The sequel deals with the readjustment of the men to life back in America.  It is telling that Hollywood decided to make a movie out of that book instead of his book about combat deployment during the Surge.  I suppose there is more drama in PTSD than in combat.  The movie was directed and written by Jason Hall.  He had written the Academy Award nominated script for “American Sniper”.  This movie is his directorial debut.  Bruce Springsteen wrote a song for the movie and you hear it over the closing credits.

                The movie opens with the ambiguous “Inspired by a true story”.  A squad gets ambushed in an Iraqi city.  One of the men is shot in the head by a sniper.  Staff Sergeant Adam Schumann (Miles Teller) drops the body on his way down the stairs.  That’s got to have a lasting mental effect.  The unit is returned home not long after the incident.  Schumann’s weapon is checked in by a soldier played by the real Schumann in a cameo.  He is confronted by a war widow (Amy Schumer) who wants to know the circumstances of her husband’s death. Schumann is going to be tormented by two deaths.  The movie focuses on the adjustment of three soldiers.  Schumann is readjusting to life with his wife Saskia (Haily Bennett) and young daughter and baby.  They are financially challenged and have lost their house.  His best buddies are Specialist Tausolo “Solo” Aieti (Beulah Koale) and PFC Billy Walker (Joe Cole).  Solo is married without kids.  Billy is expecting to get married, but his fiancé is not home when he gets there.  Their arcs will intertwine.

            Solo is suffering from memory loss.  Schumann is suffering from the inability to communicate that he is torn up by the two incidents.  They visit the Veterans Hospital in a scene that is mandatory for showing the lack of empathy of the System.  Most of the extras waiting interminably in the waiting area are actual veterans.  I’m sure they did not have to be instructed how to act in the situation.  Solo will have to wait 6-9 months to see a psychiatrist.  To add insult to injury, Schumann ex-CO basically calls him a pussy for being there.  “Don’t fold like this.” This is a tipping point for Adam and Solo.  Each takes a typical PTSD Hollywood path.  One will have to confront his demons and the other will get in bed with demons.

ACTING:                      A

ACTION:                      B

ACCURACY:                  A-

PLOT:                           A

REALISM:                    A

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   B

SCORE:                           nothing special except the Springsteen song

BEST SCENE:  the mission when Emory gets shot

BEST QUOTE:  Schumann:  I was a good soldier. I had purpose, and I loved it….I rode shotgun in a lead Humvee, and I looked for bombs. You don't see the bomb unless they want you to. You sense it. You just know.

            “Thank You for Your Service” is a sincere effort to cover the effects of PTSD on veterans.  It does not break new ground on this topic, but it is entertaining and I will assume not everyone has seen numerous movies on this topic.  If this will be your first one, you could do worse.  Like “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”.  Although the scenarios depicted in the movie are not really original, some of the dots that are connected are unpredictable.  The movie is not heavy-handed.  There is a fairly subtle use of a wounded pit bull as symbolic of wounded veterans.  We are reminded of the crass treatment of vets, but not bludgeoned by it.  The movie assumes the audience already knows about the flaws in the system.  This movie is not “Born on the Fourth of July” or “Coming Home”.  But it does make it clear we have not improved much from the Vietnam era.  In an interesting discussion, Adam and Solo debate whether it is better to be wounded physically (like Ron Kovic) or mentally (like Adam and Solo).  Solo argues that an amputation at least results in medals and hero status.

            The movie reminded me a little of an Afternoon Special for adults.  This week’s film is on PTSD.  Three besties deal with the stress of war and readjusting to their families.  The movie has the pat ending of one of those specials, but it is definitely a worthy effort and just as informative.  The acting is very good.  Teller anchors the film as the stoically tortured Schumann.  His interaction with his wife (Bennett) feels authentic, albeit deja-vuish.  Koale matches him as the stereotypical vet who goes over to the dark side.  You care about these comrades.  You may look back at the movie and realize you had seen all of it before, but while you are watching it, you will be drawn into their story.

            I strongly recommend watching “The Best Years of Our Lives” and then “Thank You For Your Service’.  While the latter was not meant to be a modern answer to the post-WWII movie, it does give you a comparison of treatment of veterans back then to veterans today. The implication is that our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were more damaging mentally than WWII was.  I guess part of that difference is that WWII was considered a “good war”.  “Thank You For Your Service” depicts the flaws in the system, but at least Schumann and Solo get help whereas there was nothing for Al and Fred.  It is more realistic because modern cinema allows for that.  And it uses flashbacks to show why the three soldiers are suffering from their experiences.  Modern warriors deserve modern war movies and they got it with this movie.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  “Thank You For Your Service” does a good job bringing David Finkel’s book to the screen.  He was embedded with the 2^nd Battalion, 16^th Infantry Regiment in Iraq.  And then kept in touch with some of the men for his sequel.  Schumann acted as a technical adviser and sung backup on Bruce Springsteen’s “Freedom Cadence”.

            James Doster did die in a fire when his Humvee hit an IED.  He had taken Schumann’s place for the mission.  However, Aieti’s painful memory was of a different soldier’s death.  Michael Emory was shot by a sniper and Schumann carried his body down the stairs, but he did not drop him.  Emory became a hemiplegic who was paralyzed on the left side.  Schumann did have PTSD from the death of Doster and the injury of Emory.  It was his wife that convinced him to get help at Pathway House.  Aeiti did turn to drugs and he did wreck his house at a low point.  Aieti got help, but it was at a Veteran’s Hospital.  The pit bull was creative license.  The Billy Waller character is fictional and was added to depict the suicide problem for vets.