Flags of Our Fathers - Film Review
May 29th, 2008 by Robert
With a title like Flags of Our Fathers, you’d expect this World War II flick to be a chest-thumping glorification of American valour and sacrifice. And you’d be right… kind of. But this is no Saving Private Ryan. Although it certainly commemorates the bravery and tribulations of American soldiers, Clint Eastwood’s film is very specific about where the audience’s admiration should be focused: the individual soldiers themselves – not the political and military machine that threw them into combat. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Philip Pullman really a writer of fiction for children? Even more so than the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Ruby in the Smoke left me wondering exactly how much a younger reader would get from it. However, unlike Northern Lights, with it’s armoured bears and animal daemons, there is little in the way of magic or wonder in this first volume of Pullman’s Sally Lockhart mysteries to sustain a younger mind through some of the darker and more mature concepts. That’s not to say it’s a poor book - I just don’t quite understand what marks this out as a children’s book. 
It’s the age old moral conundrum. Would you give up your own life so that many others could live? And no one can ever answer it for sure, because the concept is so abstract. The Counterfeiters portrays a very specific instance of a group of people who were faced with that exact dilemma in harsh reality. .thumbnail.jpg)
On cramming myself into the snug confines of the Hopetoun, I was faced by the sight of three musicians in debonair turn-of-the-century-esque costume belting out … what exactly? I don’t know, I guess you’d call it arthouse rock. This was The Dawn Collective, and I think it bodes well for the live scene in Sydney if this is the standard of band that plays third fiddle at a Friday night pub gig. 
All right, I admit it. I’m just an old softie! I had very little interest in seeing this little piece of British sweetness but, damn it, it’s just a very entertaining film. 
Another book about the Holocaust? Is there really anything more to say on the subject? Surely we’ve explored that particular episode of human history as far as we need? In truth, the subject matter caused me to leave this one sitting on the shelf for a year or more before deciding finally to pick it up and give it a go. But it turns out I was cheating myself, because Marcus Zusak does indeed have something new to say, and the voice he uses to say it is truly breathtaking. 
The rise to screenwriting superstardom of Charlie Kaufman has really brought post-modernism into the mainstream as far as film scripts go. Zach Helm’s screenplay for Stranger Than Fiction seems to want to belong to the same oeuvre as Kaufman’s work, but lacks the conviction to deliver on the potential of its fascinating premise.