THE 100 HUNDRED BEST WAR MOVIES: #26. Tropic Thunder (2008)

      

“Tropic Thunder” is an action comedy produced, directed, co-written, and co-starring Ben Stiller.  Stiller was inspired by his bit role in “Empire of the Sun” and spent many years developing the script.  Originally the idea was to spoof actors who attend the actor boot camps to prepare for roles as soldiers.  The idea was to have the actors suffer from PTSD after their experience.  That is a funny idea.  As it turns out, the original idea evolved into a satire of war movies, prima donna actors, and movie productions. Stiller and co-writers Justin Theroux and Eton Cohen decided to construct the script around a movie within a movie concept.  The movie was a big box office success and was similar to Stiller’s “Dodge Ball” in the unexpected success.  It was well-reviewed, but there was some offense taken with the “Simple Jack” r***** subplot and the casting of a white man as a black soldier.  The movie was also daringly R-rated for a summer comedy.  This was solely for language which can be quite raunchy,  although a gratuitous shot of nudie pictures was thrown in apparently to seal the deal.  The violence is cartoonish – just like most recent war movies.

            The movie famously begins with fake trailers to introduce the four main actors.  Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is a fading action star like a Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is an Eddie Murphyesque physical comedian who is making millions off fart jokes.  Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.) is an Oscar-winning method actor who really gets into his characters.  They are filming the story of American hero “Four Leaf” Taylor (Nick Nolte) who was rescued from a prison camp in Vietnam and wrote a book called “Tropic Thunder”.  The movie opens with a gonzo battle scene that would be awesome in a real war movie.  Midway through the mayhem a soldier takes a bullet in the head and the geyser of blood is the first hint that this is going to be a no holds barred spoof of war films.  This scene includes the first of the Vietnam War movie parodies.  I’ll list those in a bit.  It is, in my opinion, the funniest scene in war movie comedy history. 

            So we now know the movie is going to make fun of war movies, but it also becomes apparent it will make fun of actors and movie making as well.  The movie within the movie is being directed by a novice Brit named Cockburn (Steve Coogan).  This movie is not subtle.  He is freaking out in having to deal with his flaky cast and the production is way behind schedule and way over budget.  The producer Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) threatens to shut down the production, so Cockburn decides to take Tayback’s advice to make a guerrilla movie by dropping the cast into “the shit” and getting them to improv the scenes while moving through the jungle.  The five leads are dropped into the Golden Triangle of the heroin trade in Southeast Asia and quickly get the attention of a drug gang called Flaming Dragon.  The actors assume this is part of the movie.  When Speedman gets captured and taken to the gang’s camp, the others attempt a rescue.

ACTING:   A+                 

ACTION:   A  7/10

ACCURACY:N/A         

PLOT:  A                   

REALISM:   N/A 

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   A  excellent special effects

SCORE:   A  great classic rock

SCENE:  the opening

QUOTE:  Osiris – “What would have happened in ‘The Great Escape’ if Steve McQueen and those dudes had turned tail and ran?”

                I think some of my readers will disagree with its ranking. The humor is not for everyone, especially if you don’t like R-rated comedies. It is far from old school WWII comedies. But it is possible to love “To Be Or Not To Be” and “Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” and like this movie too.  It is the perfect war comedy in my opinion because it makes fun of war movies and the making of war movies.  It is funny on its own, but if you are a war movie buff (especially Vietnam War movies), it is hilarious.  It is clear that the writers have seen some key Vietnam War movies and have lovingly poked fun at them.  Here are the references that I picked up:

1.       The opening chopper egress is similar to that of “We Were Soldiers”, but choppers navigating through dense jungle foliage and hilly terrain is pretty standard.

2.      The combat scene has Speedman reenacting the Elias death scene from “Platoon”.

3.      In that scene, Sgt. Lincoln Osiris (Downey) uses the line “Ain’t nothin’ but a thang”.  This is an obvious reference to “Hamburger Hill”s “It don't mean nothing, man. Not a thing.”

4.      The party to celebrate one week of filming, there are dancers like the Playboy bunnies of “Apocalypse Now” (AN)

5.      When they land in the jungle for the guerrilla filming, there is the tail of a downed plane like in AN  

6.      The panda scene is a take-off of the tiger scene from AN

7.      Osiris is a saucier in an homage to Chef for AN

8.      Speedman gets tortured similar to Rambo is “First Blood II”

9.      The water buffalo from AN has a cameo

10.  Motown (Brandon Jackson) and Sandusky (Jay Barachel) infiltrate the camp like Willard in AN

11.  Speedman channels Brando’s Kurtz

12.  Tayback does his version of flame-throwing like DeNiro in “The Deer Hunter”

13.  The aftermath of the RPG targeting of the truck has a “Saving Private Ryan” sensory deprivation homage

14.  The bridge explosion is reminiscent of “Bridge on the River Kwai”

The movie does more than mock famous scenes.  Some of it is more subtle like the inclusion of a character named Brooklyn (every WWII squad seemed to have a guy from Brooklyn) and another named Motown (“Hamburger Hill” has a character by that name).  There are some funny references to the fact that only Sandusky went to the boot camp.  The movie also makes fun of the faux soldier lingo that is put in clueless actors’ mouths in most war movies.  Speedman says “load and lock”, for instance.  Here are my two favorites from “Fats” (Black):

            “If our asses don’t get fragged in this valley, first thing I’m doing is paying my two bucks so I can watch Brooklyn bust his cherry on a sweet little mama-san’s dinky down poon-tang”.

            “Listen, you cherry fuck, you call in that snake n’ nape and get us some boom-boom now!”

      The acting is very strong.  It shows you what kind of director Stiller is to see how he allows his cast to outshine him.  I guess this balanced his tough directing style.  Downey is absolutely brilliant and deserved his Supporting Actor Oscar nomination (he lost to Heath Ledger).  His character Kirk Lazarus undergoes a “pigmentation alteration” to play a black man.  This was slightly controversial, but the ultimate way to lampoon method actors like Russell Crowe.  He also stays in character throughout (in fact all the way through the DVD commentary – which is hilarious, by the way).  One reason the movie rewards repeat viewings is to catch his facial expressions.  The real revelation is Tom Cruise.  He earned back a lot of good will due to his very game performance.  He even developed the character, including the look and the dancing.  Nick Nolte also deserves special mention.  He is perfect as the real Tayback.  I haven’t even mentioned Matthew McConaughey as Speedman’s agent.  There are no false notes from any of the performers.

      The movie is well-made as it should be for a $90 million comedy.  Kudos for the studio putting that amount of money in a risky project.  The Hawaiian locations are lush and appropriately jungley.  The cinematography by John Toll is excellent.  The sound-track has some great choices to remind of Vietnam and push the story.  Any movie with “Sympathy for the Devil” is on the right track.  The score joins in the mocking of action films.  The special effects are noteworthy with the opening scene coming off as a modern war combat film.  There is the massive napalm explosion and assorted other explosions courtesy of the pyrotechnical Cody Underwood (Danny McBride) to please the people who are unaware that they have wandered into a comedy.  Speaking of which, the movie does a great job blending comedy and action.  Keep in mind that only one character dies in the movie (and it is one of the most unexpected deaths that you will see).

      For this review, I watched the director’s cut (which has 14 more minutes) and two commentary tracks.  I was still laughing the third go-around.  Incidentally, the extended cut is better than the theatrical version.  Most of the restored cuts were edited because of time constraints and the longer version fleshes out the characters and includes some funny stuff that did not deserve the cutting room floor.  This is worth mentioning because the theatrical version is the funniest war movie comedy ever.  Keep in mind that this is the opinion of a war movie lover who does not mind hearing a guy tied to a tree offer to perform oral sex to be set free.

 

THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES: 27. The Bombardment (2021)

 

            “The Bombardment” (also known as “The Shadow in My Eye”) is a Danish WWII movie.  It was directed and written by Ole Bornedal.  The movie is based on Operation Carthage.  This mission called for the RAF to bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen.  The attack resulted in one of the most tragic incidents of collateral damage in that horrible war.

            The movie opens with a title card that tells us the Gestapo is holding resistance members in its headquarters in Copenhagen.  The resistance has contacted the British and begged for the building to be bombed.  The RAF is reluctant because the Germans are essentially using captured resistance members as human shields.  The film starts with a wedding party being strafed by a Mosquito fighter-bomber.  The happy young women are taken completely by surprise, as are we.  The attack is very graphic and pulls no punches.  The scene establishes the fact that RAF aircraft can make mistakes.  Foreshadowing!  A young boy named Henry comes upon the car which looks like Bonnie and Clyde’s.  He loses his ability to speak.  Henry is sent to live with his aunt in Copenhagen.  He goes to a Catholic school with his cousin Rigmor and her friend Eva.  Teaching at the school is Sister Teresa (the director’s daughter Fanny Bornedal).  Teresa is questioning her faith and a bit unstable (she flogs herself).  Frederik (Alex Andersen – Ivar the Boneless in “Vikings”) is a collaborator who is a member of the police force.  He and Teresa run into each other a couple of times.  They develop a strange relationship which is one between a guilt-stricken Gestapo stooge and a nun who feels friendship with evil will be a way to prove whether there is a God.  These individual’s fates will intersect at a school in Copenhagen.

ACTING:   A+                 

ACTION:   N/A

ACCURACY: A          

PLOT:  A-                    

REALISM:   A+ 

CINEMATOGRAPHY:    A+

SCORE:   A 

SCENE:  Eva’s mother running home

QUOTE:  Rigmor:  Sister Theresa, do you think God has dropped a pencil?

            This movie is not for the soft-hearted.  It is based on a true story, but with fictional characters.  It adheres closely to the tragedy that was Operation Carthage.  If you are not familiar with this royal fuck-up, you will be after watching this movie.  I won’t go into the details because that might spoil the impact.  Just be aware that children are put in dire peril.  Director Ole Bornedal also wrote the screenplay and he has deftly juggled the story arcs of the main characters.  The movie revolves around the intersecting lives of Teresa and Frederik, the trio of kids, and the crew of one of the Mosquitoes.  It is a case of it being a small world, but none of what happens seems improbable.  Even the relationship of a nun and a collaborating cop does not induce head-shaking.

            The movie is well-made.  The CGI Mosquitoes are awesome.  It was a plane made for movies.  This is the third movie that it stars in.  The other two are “633 Squadron” and “Mosquito Squadron”.  The latter of those two has a similar plot to this one in that the Mosquitoes are tasked with bombing a jail to release resistance prisoners. All the positive movie portrayals of the iconic aircraft are diluted by this film. Operation Jericho did not have the tragic results of Operation Carthage.  The operation covers the second half of the film and it is thrilling.  There are some POV shots from the cockpit and we follow the bombs down.  The movie intercuts between the bombers, the school, and the Shell House (Gestapo headquarters).  It is suspenseful and then this is followed by the tension created by the fate of the children.  The cinematography advances to the next level in the claustrophobic scenes underground.

            Acting honors go to Fanny Bornedal.  Her Teresa is like no other nun you will ever see.  She is fascinating.  The child actors are very good as well.  The problem is that the movie is too short to develop most of the characters.  We get to know Teresa and Henry well, but the rest are just sketches.  In particular, no resistance member is fleshed out.  That can be excused because this is not a resistance movie, this is the story of a school that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This movie is an anti-war movie, but what it shows is that even if you are on the right side in a “good” war, you will still suffer.  Collateral damage is one reason why war should be avoided if at all possible.

            I did not expect much from this movie.  The recent Netflix war movies like “The Forgotten Battle” and “Munich:  The Edge of War” have been underwhelming.  We have had some good war movies coming out of Denmark, like “A War”, “Land of Mine” and “Flame and Citron”.  However, this movie had no buzz to it.  I was pleasantly surprised and emotionally moved by it.  It is accurate in bringing a forgotten event to the screen.  I was invested in the characters and the last third is edge of your seat.  And it is gut-wrenching.  “The Bombardment” is not for everyone.  But suck it up and learn something.  Those kids deserve to be remembered. 

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  The film correctly gives the background in the opening title card.  The Shellhus was the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen.  It did hold about 30 resistance members who were being tortured and also served as human shields to prevent an attack on the building.  The Danish resistance petitioned the British several times to request the bombing of the Shellhus.  They were willing to sacrifice their own men to reverse the Gestapo’s successful campaign against the resistance.  The RAF turned down the requests because of fear of the dangers of low-level bombing of a crowded city.  Eventually, the RAF relented and green-lit Operation Carthage.  On March 21, 1945 three waves of six Mosquito fighter-bombers escorted by P-51 Mustangs targeted the Shellhus.  The ingress was successful and the headquarters was hit, killing 55 Germans, 47 Danish employees, and 8 prisoners.  18 prisoners escaped and most of the documents were destroyed.  The raid crippled Gestapo operations.  Although 4 Mosquitoes and 2 Mustangs were lost, the mission would have been considered a smashing success but for the smash of one of the Mosquitos.  It hit a lamp post and crashed into the Jeanne d’Arc School.  The crash started a fire which caused some of the bombers from the second and third waves to disregard the mock up of the city that they had been trained with and erroneously target one of the two buildings that were on fire.  The crews did not bother to ascertain which of the two buildings was the Shellhus.  We can assume they would not have bombed a school if they had known, but the cock-up was still inexcusable.  Clearly one of the two buildings aflame had to be a civilian building.  The bombs devastated the school at a time when it was full of students.  Many were killed instantly by the delayed release bombs and others were buried under the rubble.  86 kids and 18 adults (mostly nuns) were killed.  It was one of the worst friendly fire incidents in WWII.  Unfortunately, every modern war seems to have a similar tragedy.

Bombers B-52 (1957)

 

                    “Bombers B-52” was an Air Force recruiting film directed by the prolific Gordon Douglas (The McConnell Story, Up Periscope).  He directed films for five decades, but I don’t think this one was at the top of his resume.  In Great Britain, it was called “No Sleep Till Dawn” which was a slightly more risqué title.  The American title reflects the main character Master Sergeant Chuck Brennen (Karl Malden).  The British title reflects Lt. Col. Jim Herlihy (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.)    This horndog role was turned down by Tab Hunter, who was tired of military films.  The B-52s were played by  actual B-52s, as were the B-47s and F-86s.  The movie had the full cooperation of the U.S. Air Force, for obvious reasons.

                    Wow, a war movie where a woman gets top billing.  And the sappy romantic music over the titles also caused me to wonder what I was about to see.  In Korea in 1950, two F-86s shoot down a MiG.  Ace Captain Herlihy forces a ground crew to work on his plane at night, which draws artillery fire.  This pisses off crew chief Brennen and he hates Herlihy because he is a tool.  Not a tool like he uses to maintain airplanes.  Flash forward six years to Castle Air Force Base, the home of the B-47.  Brennen is there and he has a crew that includes “Brooklyn”.  Guess who his new commanding officer is?  Lt. Col. Herlihy.  To make the relationship even more awkward, Herlihy starts dating Brennen’s daughter Lois (top-billed Natalie Wood).  Brennen is less than thrilled for two reasons.  First, he thinks Herlihy is an ass hole.  Second, he’s a fighter pilot!  Keep your women away from those dudes.  To add to the drama, Lois is pressuring her old man to take a much better paying civilian job.  Brennen is happily married, but then this sexy beast comes along.  The bomber B-52.    Will he take the job offer?  Would that help with Air Force recruiting of technicians?

                    “Bombers B-52” is boring Air Force propaganda.  You know that although the movie finishes with a faux suspenseful test flight of a B-52, you know none of the main characters are going to die.  It’s also clear that Herlihy will get redemption and the girl.  As far as that job, I’ve already spoiled that.  The cast helps, but it can’t overcome the predictability of it all.  And the most important members of the cast, the planes, are not given enough screen time.  They are not hard on the eyes and neither was Natalie Wood.  She may have gotten top billing, but the main character is Brennen.  Her character makes little sense.  For instance, she is ashamed that her father is a crew chief.  This from a girl who repairs the family car on vacation. 

                    For a movie that is an homage to air crews, it sure doesn’t show them doing much and it concentrates on only one crew chief.  Thankfully, that crew chief is Karl Malden because he is the only reason to watch the movie.  Or if you are a huge B-52 fan. 

GRADE  =  D+