Reconstruction

Reconstruction


Starring:Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Maria Bonnevie, Krister Henriksson, Nicolas Bro, Helle Fagralid, Peter Steen, Malene Schwartz, Ida Dwinger, Line Poulsen, David Dencik, Jens Blegaa, Isabella Miehe-Renard, Klaus Mulbjerg, Mercedes Claro Schelin, Katrin Muth
Director: Christoffer Boe
Studio: Palm Pictures (Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
Reconstruction follows Alex, a photographer, and beautiful Aimee, who meet by chance and fall in love in the course of one intense day. Their feelings are put to the test as the world around them becomes more and more alien in the labyrinthine Copenhagen. They stake their existence and find themselves in a free fall, with Alex facing the question of how far he is willing to go for true love.
The Big Red One - The Reconstruction (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Unwatchable!
  • Different Time
  • the big red one
  • Big Red One
  • Not as good as other war movies
The Big Red One - The Reconstruction (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Stéphane Audran , Ken Campbell , Robert Carradine , Joseph Clark (II) , and Howard Delman
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007TKNLA
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Amazon.com

Sam Fuller's The Big Red One was already one of the best films of 1980, despite the fact that the version released to theaters ran barely half as long as the director's cut. Fuller had been America's ballsiest B-movie auteur, an ex-newspaper reporter of the hardnosed breed who made fiercely personal, radically stylized, and politically outspoken films between the early '50s (The Steel Helmet, Pickup on South Street) and the early '60s (Shock Corridor). The Big Red One was his long-dreamt-of account of World War II as experienced by his own squad of the 1st Infantry Division, USA, from the first shot fired (by a dead man, on the coast of North Africa) to the last (in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia).

Even in the studio-truncated version, there was no shortage of astonishing moments and sequences: the squad choking on dust in a bat-filled cave in North Africa as German tanks clatter past the entrance; Fuller's cold-blooded distillation of the D-Day slaughter on Omaha Beach, with a wrist watch on a dead arm in the surf marking time as the water slopping over it grows redder; the rifle squad delivering a Frenchwoman's baby in a German tank on a battlefield full of corpses; a commando-like raid on Nazi troops bivouacked in a Belgian insane asylum. A quarter-century later, film critic Richard Schickel and Warner Bros. executive Brian Jamieson succeeded in restoring 15 never-seen sequences and fleshing out 23 others to create The Big Red One: The Reconstruction, a "new" film nearly an hour longer.

Above all, BR1: The Reconstruction has a rhythm the 1980 cut lacked. The arc of years, battles, and battlegrounds is so much more satisfying. Greater play is given to Fuller's feeling for children caught up in the sidewash of history and atrocity. And the 2004 cut puts sex back into the movie, not orgiastically but as a fact of life and a rarely forgotten driving force. We can see now that Fuller touched, bluntly and shockingly, on the phenomenon of infiltrators--English-speaking German warriors who donned GI khaki and moved among their enemies waiting for a chance to strike.

It's also apparent, as it was not in 1980, that Lee Marvin as the eternal Sergeant leading the young squad is magnificent. This was Marvin's greatest role, rivaled only by his walking dead man in John Boorman's Point Blank. Just beneath the masterly implacability, we glimpse the tenderness, rage, dark humor, experience, and wisdom beyond guilt that have enabled him to survive, to preserve others and to soldier on. His performance, like Fuller's film, is a masterpiece. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars Unwatchable!.......2007-06-16

Any resemblance between BRO and WW2 is merely in the uniforms.
Do you want to see Lee Marvin kissed on the mouth multiple times by a German military doctor who has a childish tattoo of a nude man on chest? Didn't think so. And the really odd thing is that Marvin doesn't object until at least the second kiss. Was his character undecided whether he liked it?
I guess this is Fuller's idea of a good war movie or at least a good joke on the rest of us. If war is hell, then watching this movie is the closest thing to hell. And I don't mean that in a "Saving Private Ryan" way.
If you make the mistake of buying this movie and watch the first few scenes, don't torture yourself by hoping it will get better. Hit eject and move on.

5 out of 5 stars Different Time.......2007-05-06

Even not a fun of war movies likes this work of young US soldiers and their lucky elder wise commander much.

Why not so many awards for? Maybe, because Fuller then was not recent Spielberg. Time is different now. Even in Hollywood for Hollywood.

4 out of 5 stars the big red one.......2007-04-10

one of the really good wwII movies. unknown to most. lee marvin is great.

3 out of 5 stars Big Red One.......2007-03-08

Aside form the failed attempts to add / alter footage in Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, there are only two other movies in recent times that I can recall as being reduced in quality after previously excised material was later included. One was "Apocalypse Now; Redux" and the other is "The Big Red One".

Samuel Fuller was never a truly good director in any real sense of the word. Most of his efforts are mediocre to middling at best. Early efforts like "Fixed Bayonets" or "The Steel Helmet" showed flashes of something approaching greatness, but when one looks through his body of material, one is left somewhat under-whelmed.

"The Big Red One", which was easily Fuller's best movie contains those same flashes of brilliance, (a dead soldier's wrist watch marking time on Omaha beach on the 6th June), but also tends to leave the viewer somewhat dry after each section following Fullers young squad of American infantrymen. The project, which was in Fullers heart for many years, is just beyond the scope of the budget that Sam Fuller was able to scrape together for it. The 70 year old Fuller, who served with 1st battalion, has many memories to draw upon but they are let down sometimes by poor writing, directing and execution. "The Big Red One" never seems to know what kind of movie it's trying to be. In one moment we have a gung ho `gee whiz Sarge, let's kill the Krauts" type of Hollywood war movie, very much in the vein of the 1950's and on the other it tries hard to actually say something strong about the war and the period that the film is set in. Neither element seems to come off successfully however.

This is not to say that the "Big Red One" is totally un-enjoyable, that is not the case. On the whole the film passes by relatively well, with some very nice sarcastic moments delivered by a great Lee Marvin, who plays the squads Sergeant, although he is far, far too old (the prologue shows Marvin's character during the First World War ! ) If one ignores that, however and just enjoys Marvin for what he is, then it's forgivable. Other characters aren't so entertaining though. Among the core of the squad are a pretty dull Kelly Ward and Bobby Di Cicco, with Robert Carridine tasked with trying to be a composite of Fuller himself (complete with chomping cigar) and others and Mark Hammil fresh from "The Empire Strikes Back" playing a rather clichéd sharpshooter who, shock horror, loses his ability to shoot straight because he's worrying about "murdering the enemy", exercising one of the films nods to old style war movies.

"We don't murder the enemy, we kill him" reassures Marvin's Sergeant.

This is echoed by Marvin's opposite number, Fledwebel Schroeder (played by Siegfried Rauch). An obviously cardboard nazi type, that's actually made more silly by the extended material. Schroeder is ridiculously one dimensional, dispatching his own men when they don't agree with him or the party line and is simply a foil for Marvin. But he could have been a much better character and contributed more to the film. It's not Rauch's fault, it's just the writing.

The new material in the reconstruction of the "Big Red One" jars on the film as a whole. Most of the extra scenes don't add anything to the movie except to its running time and it's easy to see why they were cut out the first time `round. The exception being the extra footage of a French cavalry attack, which helps out Marvin's squad as they make an attack the Afrika Korps. At the end of the battle Marvin warns his men that he won't have any trading going on for "Krauts ears", as the North Afican troops have been cutting off American ears too and trading them as well. It's a nice little effort to introduce some ambiguity to the main characters of the piece. Among other added scenes is a frankly un-necessary sex scene between Hammil and an older female agent in a mental asylum and a scene with a German sniper child that is rendered absolutely ridiculous at its end.

None of the extra material ever comes close to matching some of the original scenes for power. The previously mentioned D-Day watch sequence (although it's a poor man's "Private Ryan" for the most part) and the finale in Czechoslovakian concentration camp just won't be bettered by the new inclusions.

Overall, the "Big Red One; the reconstruction" is a nice package and is essentially a good idea but with flawed material, both original and added. There's nice extras here too in the form of genuinely interesting documentaries and deleted scenes etc. It would have been nice to have the original theatrical cut included too. That would have rounded off the presentation.

3 out of 5 stars Not as good as other war movies.......2007-03-06

I have seen this movie several times and do not rank it as among the best war films. Several films that I consider better include "Battleground", "A Walk in the Sun", "GI Joe", The Longest Day", "The Train", "Saving Private Ryan", "They Were Expendable", "Twelve O'clock High", "Bridge at Remagen", "A Bridge Too Far", "Judgement at Nuremberg", and "Band of Brothers." I sometimes watch it on cable TV but will not buy it for my film library. I cannot give explicit reasons why I feel this way but can only use my experience as a war movie buff.
Things to Come
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Dated, but Fun and Relevant
  • a portent of things to come?
  • can you beat a classic
  • A GREAT MOVIE
  • superb!
Things to Come
Starring: Raymond Massey , Edward Chapman , Ralph Richardson , Margaretta Scott , and Cedric Hardwicke
Director: William Cameron Menzies
Manufacturer: Legend
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HLDFOU
Release Date: 2006-11-28

Amazon.com essential video

Based on H.G. Wells's speculative meditation on the price of progress, this 1936 English science-fiction epic shows the painterly touch of director William Cameron Menzies, an American whose career in art direction and production design, as well as uncredited directorial work, attached him to such visual triumphs as Gone with the Wind, Alexander Korda's sumptuous 1940 Thief of Baghdad, and Menzies's better-known SF achievement as director, the original Invaders from Mars. Things to Come traces a generational saga that begins, presciently, with a global war that outlives its own political purpose, unraveling society to a Balkanized world of isolated communities. In the wake of a subsequent, devastating plague, a new technocracy arises, evolving toward Menzies's striking vision of vast, subterranean cities, rendered in matte paintings building on then-contemporaneous art-deco "streamlined" aesthetics. Driven more by theme than plot, Things to Come lacks the sheer momentum of other Wells classics brought to film (The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine, among them); but Menzies's bold look and a strong cast including Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke and a young Ann Todd explain the film's enduring appeal. --Sam Sutherland

Description

From H.G. Wells' shocking book comes one of the most lavish science fiction epics ever to hit the screen! -In color for the first time and includes fully restored black & white version -Great Ray Harryhausen bonus features, Classic Sci-fi Toy Commercials

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Dated, but Fun and Relevant.......2007-05-01

This film is basically divided into three parts. The present (circa early 40's wartime Britain)...the foreseeable future (the '60s) and the "distant future" (mid 2001st c). The murkiest section, both in terms of plot, acting, cinematography, is the first third. Pretty mundane, war is bad, humanity is lame sort of deal. The film quality for some reason looks washy and badly filmed. Don't know if it's the quality of the print or of the original camera work, but it hasn't worn well.

The second part is saved by an over the top performance from one of my favorite actors of Brit stage and Cinema, Sir Ralph Richardson. He plays the Banana Republic, fascist "fearless leader" to the hilt and back. The cinematography is also a bit better, and in retrospect, maybe that's what the director intended. As time progresses, the film quality does as well, though given that logic, "civilization" actually regresses after all the years of warfare, so the film quality might have too.

At any rate, the main reason to purchase this film is for the final third, the futuristic, early '40's Art Deco vision of the future.
The sets are truly mind boggling. I don't know what sort of budget Korda & co had, but they spent every pence of it in constructing these wonderfully inventive, wonderfully detailed models. In an era before CGI, this has to be the state of the art in terms of set design. Truly incredible!

Some camp value in terms of the short tunics the men wear in futureland. Couldn't conceal a smirk or two in seeing those.

The ending is pretty corny, but still endearing. Raymond Massey was a great enough actor to pull it off. Definitely worth owning and the DVD quality is excellent (given the caveat about the first part, which I gather was intentional).

Oh, and a note about the colorization. I generally hate it. Who wants to see The Maltese Falcon in color, for Turner's sake? But it works very well here and Harry Harryhausen oversaw it, so you know it can't be half baked. Again, as with other technical aspects, the colorization is pretty murky in the early parts, but works fantastically in futureland. It's definitely a plus, rather than an artisitc hindrance, in this instance.

BEK


5 out of 5 stars a portent of things to come?.......2007-04-06

I first saw this movie in 1961 on TV and I found it compelling. To watch it again 44 years later on DVD/video and it still holds me. A 1938 british movie that was in special effects avant garde and it loses nothing in being B&W. the society breakdown this movie portrays is actually happening now especially in the 'Horn of Africa'

5 out of 5 stars can you beat a classic.......2007-01-26

a classic film, brillant in B/W and even better in colour. if you haven't watched this classic you should. sure it may seem dated but the story is ageless and well worth the watch.

5 out of 5 stars A GREAT MOVIE.......2007-01-20

FOR IT'S TIME IT IS A GREAT MOVIE, THINGS TO COME ARE HERE.

5 out of 5 stars superb!.......2007-01-15

This is a must for film buffs! This outfit has refined the colorization process to a Zenith. Their results are awesome. Pristine print, great sound, beautiful color AND Ray HARRYHAUSEN commentary and documentary! HELLO!
American Experience - Reconstruction: The Second Civil War
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Reconstruction but not Civil
  • Revisionist claptrap
  • Right-Wing Reviews "Woefully Inadequate"
  • One of the best documentaries I've ever seen
  • Another Politically Correct But Historically Incorrect Rendition
American Experience - Reconstruction: The Second Civil War

Manufacturer: PBS Paramount
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ASIN: B0006Z2L6U
Release Date: 2005-02-08

Description

Spanning the years from 1863 to 1877, this dramatic mini-series recounts the tumultuous post-Civil War years. America was grappling with rebuilding itself, with bringing the South back into the Union, and with how best to offer citizenship to former slaves. Stories of key political players in Washington are interwoven with those of ordinary people caught up in the turbulent social and political struggles of Reconstruction.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Reconstruction but not Civil.......2007-01-11

This was a pretty good DVD. I don't like the title. The war and reconstruction were anything but civil. It was a war and reconstruction designed to rape the South and put the northern views into the South. It still happens today. This DVD tells some of the atrocities that took place during that time.

1 out of 5 stars Revisionist claptrap.......2006-05-29

And an apology for the single most corrupt period of our entire history. The Constitution was emasculated between 1861 and 1877 and remains a shadow of itself even today. Lincoln's assasination was the beginning of the end for the South? Any "scholar" still enraptured by that myth has been skipping their medication. Lincoln was the despot who let the genie out of the bottle in the first place. There was not a single one of of the 10 Amendments that he did not break. This is just more cultural marxist, revisionist spin. Enough, please.

5 out of 5 stars Right-Wing Reviews "Woefully Inadequate".......2006-01-06

The two "featured" reviews paint this first-rate documentary as inadequate for the classroom because of omitted "warts." This is so much quibbling.

As a history teacher, I find myself perfectly capable of filling in the blanks in any film I present to my students, including this one. NO documentary covers EVERY fact or point in great detail, either because of time constraints, or to maintain focus on the main point rather than digress into minutiae that is off the subject. Speaking of such omissions, I find myself perfectly capable of discussing the Tenure of Office Act (which, with the Johnson impeachment, could be the subject of a film on its own) and the self-serving motives of some Radical Republicans of that era to give my students further context with which to understand this film, which I have done.

The idea of showing a film without comment or discussion in the classroom is abhorrent, and to insinuate that this film would be presented to students in such a manner is equally so. Additionally, viewers outside the classroom are most likely interested enough in the subject of Reconstruction to have done some reading beforehand, or some follow-up reading, since as I said above, no documentary film covers every point.

This film is an excellent tool to augment any high school unit on Reconstruction after the Civil War, and one would do well to ignore the prejudices of reviewers who are more interested in taking potshots at liberals than in an honest review.

5 out of 5 stars One of the best documentaries I've ever seen.......2005-10-11

PBS has given those of us who teach history a real gem with "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War." Reconstruction is by far the most misunderstood period in American history, owing largely to the proliferation of racist, Neo-Confederate scholarship in the post-Reconstruction Era. This paradigm portrayed Reconstruction as an era of rampant corruption, Northern "oppression," and most of all, "Negro misrule." This view, or at least the vestiges of it, is still present in many public school history textbooks.

Scholars began to tear down the Neo-Confederate intepretation of Reconstruction during the movement for Civil Rights, starting in the 1950s. However, the popular image of Reconstruction (to the extent that there is such a thing) still persists due to popular racist movies like "Gone With the Wind" and "Birth of a Nation." With this documentary, PBS is finally catching up with the new scholarship, and is at last giving the American public the truth for popular consumption. And perhaps the greatest thing about this documentary is the way in which it tackles the outdated view of Reconstruction head-on, giving students a great example of the way historical interpretation changes over time.

The film is done in the Ken Burns style, treating the stories of several individuals as a microcosm of the larger social changes occuring during this period. The characters include a white former Union soldier who goes South to run a local Freedmen's Bureau, two southern white female plantation owners, and two black politicians.

The documentary includes interviews from a diverse array of top-notch scholars including Eric Foner, Edward Ayers, Drew Faust, Nell Painter, and Clarence Walker. The variety of photos and the quality of narration are great. The music selections are also perfect in setting the mood and portraying the emotional tone of the subject-matter. To me, the most impressive aspect of the movie is the historical reenactments. Typically historical reenactments in documentaries look clumsy, fake, and silly. But in this film they are absolutely believable, and beautifally done. The quality of the picture and cinematography overall are just fantastic.

The DVD also includes several mini-documentaries focusing on different aspects of Reconstruction, such as the development of the sharecropping system, the culture of white Southerners, the career of John Roy Lynch, the establishment of public schools in the South, as well as several other topics.

This documentary is highly reccommended to anyone interested in Civil War and Reconstruction history, and ESPECIALLY to teachers who cover this pivotal period in American history. The two reviewers who have attacked this documentary do so obviously because of their political views. Mr. Victor Alpher and Mr. Eric Paddon have glowing reviews of Ronald Reagan and Ann Coulter, among others in their history of reviews. Both give high praise to works that criticize Bill Clinton, Mr. Paddon going so far as to call him the "worst president EVER."

I am no fan of Bill Clinton, but any legitimate historian would acknowledge that Clinton's impeachment as an absolute farce based on personal vendettas more than anything, whereas the Johnson impeachment, whatever your view of it, was over issues of enormous importance. Personally, I think the question of whether or not the Republicans had a technically legal reason to impeach Johnson is unimportant. What is important is the terrible damage Johnson and his racist Republican allies were inflicting on black southerners. Together, they were responsible for undoing everything that the Union soldiers fought for in the Civil War.

Perhaps the documentary could have dealt with the subject in greater detail, but I think the reason they didn't is because this documentary is much more focused on the common citizens of the country than with national political leaders. Most of the story this documentary follows takes place on the ground in the South -- on the plantations, in the halls of local and state government. The reason for this is to give a personal face to the story of Reconstruction by focusing on the lives and times of the individuals who participated in it.

And it is done wonderfully.

2 out of 5 stars Another Politically Correct But Historically Incorrect Rendition.......2005-10-09

I will attempt to take a scholar's dispassionate view to critique this documentary. However, with the time invested, and the fact that it is available to watch for FREE over the Internet, it demands a close scrutiny.

First, one would hope that by 2004 such clear propaganda would be blatantaly suspect. The method used by Burns, at first captivating in the 1989 "The Civil War" weeklong docudrama, has become shopworn. This method takes as "representative" the experiences and views of VERY few individuals--such as Vermonter Union Captian Twitchell, who attains a Freedman's Bureau commission to govern Bienville Pariesh in Northwest Louisiana, and that of Kay Stone, who returns from refuge in Texas to find her family plantation in ruins. The "stories" of newly freed slaves who become politicians, and the tumultuous period of time running from Sherman's infamous Field Order 15 to the narrow vote on impeachment of Andrew Johnson, setting the stage for the election of U.S. Grant, Federal quelling of the riots accompanying the Constitutional Convention of Louisiana in New Orleans....are just that--stories--and dare anyone say "representative" of anything?

Today the Congress faces possible spending of up to $500,000 per capita to "rebuild" New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. The economic depression of the 1870s is blamed for the "abandonment" of Radical Reconstruction--which amounted to a continued War of Northern Oppression on Southern Society--dare one say to the ignorance of social stratification resulting from immigration to the large cities of the Northeast?

This PBS documentary, funded by major corporations, is nothing short of an abomination. It uses Burns' "entertaining" documentary method to do nothing short of incite further racism of which this country is surely weary. You cannot have a meritocracy at the same time as modern politicians, deeply rooted in slaveocracy as a raison d'etre, propose "reparations" for deeds done long ago.

Innuendo is not documentary scholarship. A case in point--the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, where veterans of the Blue and Gray, just as at the 75th anniversary, at which FDR spoke, presumably were all white. What is the basis for the innuendo? I don't know. However, Stephen D. Lee's 1896 admonition to the United Confederate Veterans, which became the Sons of Confederate Veteran's, to remember the values and sacrifices of one's ancestors, is not racist and many free blacks fought in the Confederate Army by choice, as did the Cherokee Nation. It is well established that memory is selective and this documentary does no more than establish that selective memory in the form of "scholarship" or "documentary" work at least foments misperception and at worst possibly violence, if only in the distorted imagination.

I would recommend that the reader spend time with Dinesh D'Sousa's "What's So Great About America" for INSPRIATION rather than spend 3 hours mired in a distorted account of "Reconstruction" and perpetuation of racist myths. Another excellent read is "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History" by Thomans E. Woods, Jr., Ph.D. It is probably NOT accidental that a portrait of a Confederate General graces the cover of the dustjacket of this book. Many Southerners are of the opinion that the War of Northern Aggression was also a second war of Independence from rule by a foreign power--which Mr. Lincoln put under Marshal Law and suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus. The "Civil War" lasted at least twenty years--not four, and truly representative government still hangs in the balance. Would anyone reasonably assert that the "American Experiment" is concluded?

Postscript: I find it altogether predictable that this "documentary" would produce some controversy. The manner in which the Civil War and Reconstruction are presented to the public is a matter of considerable significance, even in 2006. I think that all reviewers would agree on this. Scanning my other reviews to attempt to create some "political profile" by which an ad hominem attack can be launched is somewhat disingenuous, however. The bias evident in this film can be gleaned easily from the sources mentioned in my review, which are not political works per se. They are historical. The line between propaganda and history, thankfully, can be more clearly delineated now than during the reign of the master propagandist, Dr. Goebbels.
H.G. Wells - Things to Come
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Dated, but Fun and Relevant
  • a portent of things to come?
  • can you beat a classic
  • A GREAT MOVIE
  • superb!
H.G. Wells - Things to Come
Starring: Raymond Massey , Edward Chapman , Ralph Richardson , Margaretta Scott , and Cedric Hardwicke
Director: William Cameron Menzies
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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  1. She
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ASIN: B000056NWH
Release Date: 2001-02-27

Amazon.com essential video

Based on H.G. Wells's speculative meditation on the price of progress, this 1936 English science-fiction epic shows the painterly touch of director William Cameron Menzies, an American whose career in art direction and production design, as well as uncredited directorial work, attached him to such visual triumphs as Gone with the Wind, Alexander Korda's sumptuous 1940 Thief of Baghdad, and Menzies's better-known SF achievement as director, the original Invaders from Mars. Things to Come traces a generational saga that begins, presciently, with a global war that outlives its own political purpose, unraveling society to a Balkanized world of isolated communities. In the wake of a subsequent, devastating plague, a new technocracy arises, evolving toward Menzies's striking vision of vast, subterranean cities, rendered in matte paintings building on then-contemporaneous art-deco "streamlined" aesthetics. Driven more by theme than plot, Things to Come lacks the sheer momentum of other Wells classics brought to film (The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine, among them); but Menzies's bold look and a strong cast including Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke and a young Ann Todd explain the film's enduring appeal. --Sam Sutherland

Description

One of the most important science fiction films of all time, H.G. Wells's "Things to Come" opens prior to World War II and takes the viewer on a hundred-year time trip to 2036 A.D. when a man and a woman are rocketed to the moon. This inspired saga predicts television, jet planes and evil dictators. Featuring fabulous sets, a rich musical score and sweeping visual grandeur, "Things to Come" is a truly spectacular film event! Features a pristine new film-to-video transfer from original source materials.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Dated, but Fun and Relevant.......2007-05-01

This film is basically divided into three parts. The present (circa early 40's wartime Britain)...the foreseeable future (the '60s) and the "distant future" (mid 2001st c). The murkiest section, both in terms of plot, acting, cinematography, is the first third. Pretty mundane, war is bad, humanity is lame sort of deal. The film quality for some reason looks washy and badly filmed. Don't know if it's the quality of the print or of the original camera work, but it hasn't worn well.

The second part is saved by an over the top performance from one of my favorite actors of Brit stage and Cinema, Sir Ralph Richardson. He plays the Banana Republic, fascist "fearless leader" to the hilt and back. The cinematography is also a bit better, and in retrospect, maybe that's what the director intended. As time progresses, the film quality does as well, though given that logic, "civilization" actually regresses after all the years of warfare, so the film quality might have too.

At any rate, the main reason to purchase this film is for the final third, the futuristic, early '40's Art Deco vision of the future.
The sets are truly mind boggling. I don't know what sort of budget Korda & co had, but they spent every pence of it in constructing these wonderfully inventive, wonderfully detailed models. In an era before CGI, this has to be the state of the art in terms of set design. Truly incredible!

Some camp value in terms of the short tunics the men wear in futureland. Couldn't conceal a smirk or two in seeing those.

The ending is pretty corny, but still endearing. Raymond Massey was a great enough actor to pull it off. Definitely worth owning and the DVD quality is excellent (given the caveat about the first part, which I gather was intentional).

Oh, and a note about the colorization. I generally hate it. Who wants to see The Maltese Falcon in color, for Turner's sake? But it works very well here and Harry Harryhausen oversaw it, so you know it can't be half baked. Again, as with other technical aspects, the colorization is pretty murky in the early parts, but works fantastically in futureland. It's definitely a plus, rather than an artisitc hindrance, in this instance.

BEK


5 out of 5 stars a portent of things to come?.......2007-04-06

I first saw this movie in 1961 on TV and I found it compelling. To watch it again 44 years later on DVD/video and it still holds me. A 1938 british movie that was in special effects avant garde and it loses nothing in being B&W. the society breakdown this movie portrays is actually happening now especially in the 'Horn of Africa'

5 out of 5 stars can you beat a classic.......2007-01-26

a classic film, brillant in B/W and even better in colour. if you haven't watched this classic you should. sure it may seem dated but the story is ageless and well worth the watch.

5 out of 5 stars A GREAT MOVIE.......2007-01-20

FOR IT'S TIME IT IS A GREAT MOVIE, THINGS TO COME ARE HERE.

5 out of 5 stars superb!.......2007-01-15

This is a must for film buffs! This outfit has refined the colorization process to a Zenith. Their results are awesome. Pristine print, great sound, beautiful color AND Ray HARRYHAUSEN commentary and documentary! HELLO!
NOVA - Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Drowned a City
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Well Balanced
  • An excellent look at Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans
NOVA - Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Drowned a City
Starring: Stacy Keach , Peter Thomas (VI) , and Don Wescott
Manufacturer: WGBH Boston
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ASIN: B000BKDNYO
Release Date: 2006-02-28

Amazon.com

The narration is melodramatic, some of the interviews feel stagy--but the footage of Hurrican Katrina and its horrendous aftermath is staggering. Hurrican Katrina - The Storm That Drowned a City, a NOVA special, begins a year earlier, when a team of scientists created a computer simulation of the destructive effect a powerful storm could have on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Though local officials took it seriously, the federal response was skeptical, and little was done to strengthen the city's protection. Using a combination of remarkable video of the developing storm and interviews with scientists, city residents (black and white), and member of the Army Corps of Engineers, Hurrican Katrina builds a compelling story of the disaster as it unfolded. Sophisticated graphics explain how hurricanes form and how the levees failed. The special touches lightly on the possibility that global warming may be exacerbating the intensity of hurricanes, but shies away from the political storm of the meager federal response to the devastation of New Orleans. The result is a vivid, detailed description of the natural disaster, but an incomplete portrait of the social one. --Bret Fetzer

Description

On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing at least 1,300, destroying over 600,000 houses, and turning downtown New Orleans into an uninhabitable swamp.

In a compelling hour-by-hour reconstruction of the ferocious storm, NOVA exposes crucial failures in preparation and engineering that led to the worst disaster in U.S. history. The film probes the titanic forces behind hurricanes and the latest technology for tracking and predicting them, showing how scientists precisely foresaw the impact of a strong hurricane on New Orleans a year before Katrina struck. NOVA investigates the fatal flaws in New Orleans' levees and the huge challenge posed by protecting and rebuilding the city. As global temperatures rise, are killer storms like Katrina a growing threat?

Hurricane Katrina: The Storm that Drowned a City presents astonishing storm footage, suspenseful eyewitness testimony, and a penetrating analysis of what went wrong. Viewers relive the storm through the eyes of survivors and the stories of top engineers, hurricane experts, and emergency officials as they grappled with the arrival of the storm and its traumatic aftermath.

Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.

On one DVD5 disc. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Well Balanced.......2006-10-27

This is a well balanced movie about the storm, how it was tracked by the scientists and how the flooding of the city occured. It is a very even presentation mainly on what happened and not on who was to blame. Very interesting.

5 out of 5 stars An excellent look at Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.......2006-06-10

Nova's look at The Storm That Drowned a City is by and large an excellent study of Hurricane Katrina, concentrating on the storm itself and the failure of the levee systems in New Orleans. With no obvious political agenda, the documentary only touches upon the human aspect of the storm's aftermath, pointing no fingers at city, state, or federal government.

It's not as if Katrina took New Orleans completely by surprise, as the city had dodged "the big one" on a number of occasions, including the previous year. Ivan was a monster storm that changed direction at the last moment, sparing New Orleans, and everyone there must have breathed a sigh of relief. I find it hard to believe that some city officials scoffed at the dire findings from 2004's Hurricane Pam simulation of a major storm hitting the city - it's been common knowledge for decades that a powerful hurricane would flood New Orleans. It's a beautiful city, but let's face facts here: this is the last place anyone should have built a metropolis. We're talking about a bowl sitting several feet below sea level, bordered by the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchatrain, with the Gulf of Mexico within hailing distance. Expansion had robbed the city of what little protection it had from storm surges, and the outdated levee system hid a number of vulnerabilities throughout the city.

The documentary follows Katrina's path from its origins off the coast of Africa to its fateful rendezvous with the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. It offers one of the most understandable explanations for hurricanes I've ever heard - why they form, how they behave, etc. As Katrina meanders her way across Florida on her way toward New Orleans, we see the communications between parish officials and experts at the National Hurricane Center - and the precautionary actions they began taking. Days before Katrina hit, everyone knew this could be the storm everyone had been dreading for so long. Strangely enough (and fortunately), we only see or hear of Mayor Nagin once - when he calls for the mandatory evacuation of the city. This documentary really isn't about the government response- nor does it even mention all of the irresponsible reporting in the days after the storm hit.

Once Katrina has done her worst and moved on, the documentary shifts to the failures of the levee system. Having been built to withstand a Category Three hurricane, there's no wonder that all of the incoming water overtopped some of the levees. The bigger question is why some of the city's interior levees failed, since the water never rose high enough to overspill the canals there. In these areas, we see how the levees broke due primarily to water pressure. In retrospect, they can say that the underpinnings of those canals should have been put deeper into the ground when they were built, but I'm not sure how effective that would have been, as the real problem was the loose dirt foundation in areas long shut off from annual silt deposits from the Mississippi River.

The final segment looks at ways of protecting New Orleans in the future. Even when fully repaired, the levee system will still be vulnerable to Category 4 and 5 storms, meaning the city will be no better off than it was in 2005. Some more radical solutions are offered up here, however. For example, one suggestion is to allow the Mississippi to flood certain areas, as it used to, thereby building up the disappearing wetlands that used to help protect the city from storm surges. When you consider the time and money required to secure New Orleans' future, you have to wonder if it's even worth it. As devastating as Katrina was, she was not, truth be told, "the big one." Had the city been on the eastern side of the storm and had Katrina had come ashore as an even stronger storm, the Big Easy would basically be gone - and that's a possible fate that will remain over New Orleans' head for years and years to come.
Aftershock - Beyond the Civil War (History Channel)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Horrors following horror
Aftershock - Beyond the Civil War (History Channel)
Starring: Dan Bolton , Karimah Williams , Rehana Vaidya , Orion Barnes , and Brian Danner
Director: David Padrusch
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000NA2TTW
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Horrors following horror.......2007-06-21

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all men, except a few hell-born and hell-bound rebels in Knoxville."



Union sympathizer and future Tennessee Governor William "Parson" Brownlow. Quoted in Shelby Foote's "The Civil War," Volume One.



"Swallow the dog" - Confederates taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, which included renouncing all allegiance to the Confederacy.



As I write this, Iraq is on the verge of civil war, and there is great controversy over whether American forces are wanted or needed there. Many of us assumed wrongly that when they were liberated from tyranny, everything would be sunshine and roses. Instead, in some ways, things are even worse than before Saddam Hussein fell. While the people are more free, they are slow to learn that freedom is never free. Aftershocks are all too common in every conflict, as this aptly named special from A&E shows. It contains violence and racial epithets that were all too common at the time and reveals how similar the current violence in Iraq is to the violence throughout the former Confederacy.



Part of my fascination with history is that it repeats itself, and this assures me that there are patterns to everything and that storms will always pass. Reading or viewing programs about our own Civil War makes almost any other conflict seem like just a bad day at the office. And this outstanding special from The History Channel shows that the years following the civil war were even worse than the war years themselves in some ways. Officially, the war ended in April of 1865 with Lee's surrender, but actual fighting did continue, and when soldiers returned home, they returned to find their beloved lands destroyed, their economy obliterated, and the newly freed slaves were in some ways even worse off than before. Violence was a daily occurrence in almost every southern city of any size, and our own reign of terror broke out.



Historians interviewed for this program elaborate on how important the slave trade was to the South, being a $4 billion dollar industry, about $30 billion in today's dollars. And of course it artificially propped up the cotton economy with it, and when it all went away, the Federal Government under President Andrew Johnson did very little to help anyone. Programs to reconstruct the south were instituted, but underfunded and barely managed in any way. With Abe Lincoln gone, his hopes to rebuild the nation died with him. Johnson unfortunately was like many northerners in that he hated slavery mainly because it gave so much power to the plantation owner elites. When slavery went away, he felt little sympathy for the people themselves. And of course southern whites, who had lost so many lives, property, and most of all Southern pride, took all of their frustrations out on their new brethren. At least when slaves were valuable property, there was motivation to discipline them but not to kill them unnecessarily. With that motivation gone, and with radical Republicans being shot on sight, it was as if the war never ended and was fought for nothing. The unrest gave rise to our own home-grown terrorist organization, the KKK, who inflicted wounds into America from which she may never heal. They were the terrorists of the day, the Al Qaeda of the American South.



One of the best analogies applied to the Civil War in this special is that while 9/11/01 involved terrorism and death on Wall Street, the market itself was only dented, not destroyed. In the former Confederacy, one-fourth of all able-bodied males were dead, and the agrarian economy was obliterated. Reconstruction in some ways was never finished.



The program shows a re-enactment of a sort you won't see staged anywhere. Governor Brownlow in Tennessee takes voting rights away from former Confederates but gives it to blacks. He threatens to shoot legislators when they refuse to come in to vote. When Federal soldiers order a southern woman to display mourning for President Lincoln, she refuses on the grounds that she lost her husband and son to the war. When they insist, she goes inside to retrieve her widow's garments, but instead of putting them on, she ties them above her porch and the other end into a loop. Before anyone can stop her, she hung herself. Much like Mr. Brownlow above, this incident showed that the Civil War was about pride and the right to self-determination. And in Tennessee, Governor Brownlow and KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest prepare for an in-state civil war. In Arkansas, a war did break out.



It is always a catastrophe when proud people turn against each other, whether in Paris, Charleston, or Baghdad.

The Dreams of Sparrows
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • iraqis on iraq
  • THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN OR HOW THE TRUTH HURTS
  • "Baghdad is hell."
  • Excellent, honest, refreshing, must see. Beware false reviews...
  • This is how all docs should be
The Dreams of Sparrows
Director: Hayder Mousa Daffar , and Haydar Daffar
Manufacturer: GO-KART RECORDS
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007WQHGM
Release Date: 2005-05-24

Description

The Dreams Of Sparrows follows Iraqi director Hayder Mousa Daffar and his team of contributing filmmakers as they share their vision of life in Baghdad under the US occupation. The film is dedicated to Sa'ad Fakher, associate producer, killed during the production. This is the historic first feature documentary from the IRAQeye Group, a collaboration between American and Iraqi filmmakers. After the capture of Saddam, DAFFAR'S search for the truth takes him through all walks of life in Iraq, and finally into the arts and culture of Baghdad, drawing the viewer into powerful encounters with Iraqi painters, writers and filmmakers. As the film continues, the interviews veer towards the politics of occupation and resistance, concluding with the battle over Falluja and the devastating death of one of the crew members. In somber self interviews made after the production, the filmmakers reveal the dramatic changes in their beliefs caused not only by the situation in Iraq, but also the process of documenting it. "All artists, in Iraq or in the world don't care about anything, just looking for the beauty in this world, and truth" - Hayder Mousa Daffa

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars iraqis on iraq.......2007-01-25

A group of Iraqi filmmakers directed by Hayder Mousa Daffar document life in Iraq since the fall of Saddam and the entrenchment of the American occupation. I could not detect the slightest ideological slant in this film, the gist of which is captured in the words of one person who said that he had one sentence for Americans: "Baghdad is hell, really is hell." Based upon this film, you can be sure of two truths, that Iraqis hated Saddam and are glad he is gone, and that they detest the American occupation and will be glad when we are gone. After all, observes one man, "why would America be here if they did not expect to benefit?" International diplomacy is not rooted in altruism. In a tragic metaphor of the situation in Iraq now, associate producer Sa'ad Fakher was killed when he fled Iraqis who shot at his car, only to be massacred in a hail of bullets after he turned around and drove straight into an American ambush. His friends counted 122 bullet holes in his car. In Arabic with English subtitles.

5 out of 5 stars THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN OR HOW THE TRUTH HURTS.......2006-02-19

I bought this DVD to see what the situation in Iraq is from the viewpoint of Iraqi Independent filmmakers. This hard hitting and emotional work is one of the best films I have ever seen. It is truly a great artistic work straight from the heart and soul of director Hayder Mousa Daffar and his assistants. The camera work is excellent, especially considering the conditions under which it was shot. It presents the true suffering of the Iraqi people as their country and world disintegrates around them. Its starts with a scene that depicts the birth of a child and then has a series of many interviews with Iraqis from all walks of life from Taxi drivers to nuthouse inmates to ex-soldiers and the eye opening comments of children and the cries and pleas of desperate women. Acute problems with gasoline and electric shortages and how these people struggle from day to day is graphically depicted and very sad. The fate of the Palestinians is unbelievable.

It is not by any means an anti-American diatribe but really leaves the viewer quite stunned. It is one of the most effective examples of the power of cinema ever created. It is also one of the very best documentaries I have ever seen and it moved me to tears and heartbreak. It is dedicated to the memory of Sa'ad Fakher, a cheerful soul and a musician who was helping with the video. Sa'ad was killed while the documentary was being made. At the very end a gaunt and hollow eyed Hayder speaks into a mirror in summation. This moment captures a feeling of despair that I could barely watch or confront in my own conscience. I really am having difficulty describing it. It is a great work of art and a triumph of Independent film. It is in Arabic and subtitled. All conventional US networks refused to air it. Watch this and watch it again. You will never forget it. If you want a sanitized little piece that makes you feel good about war, look elsewhere.

4 out of 5 stars "Baghdad is hell.".......2006-01-29

The documentary "Dreams of Sparrows" is the first film from Iraqi filmmaker Hayder Mousa Daffar. Daffar states, "I wanted to show the world what life was like in Iraq." Those fortunate enough to stumble across this film certainly gain at least a brief, painful glimpse of daily life in Iraq.

Daffar and his associates interview a number of Iraqis and travel to several locations. Most of those interviewed are optimistic about Saddam's removal from power--although a few interviewed Iraqis start swearing when they hear the name 'George Bush'. But as the film wears on, months go by, and optimism changes to despair as the daily conditions worsen. Those standing in long lines for petrol are interviewed, and the mood isn't pretty. We see glimpses of life in a private girls' school in Baghdad, a temporary shelter for the homeless, a Sadr City insane asylum, and a Palestinian refugee camp. Palestinian refugees were welcomed by Saddam, but were turfed out of their homes after the U.S. invasion. When the film was made in 2003, these Palestinian refugees had spent 8 pitiful months in tents. One man asks, "Where is the democracy and the freedom?"

Members of the General Union of Writers in Iraq present their philosophical interpretations of the current situation, and one man explains the insurgency as an inevitable consequence, "When you provoke a people against their leader, you will start a revolution." There are even a few shots of U.S. troops. Some are protecting a petrol station--others are seen storming a home, and still others are seen chatting with Iraqi children.

"Dreams of Sparrows" has its amateurish moments, but overall it's a fascinating glimpse at a tragic situation. The film begins with a cheesy reenactment (just like those appalling history reenactments), and while it's understood what the filmmaker is trying to say--the film would have been a lot better without the reenactment. A word of warning--there are a few graphic scenes involving humans and animals. The film takes us to the site of mass graves in Fallujah, and dead and starving animals are a common occurrence in the film. In English and Arabic--displacedhuman

5 out of 5 stars Excellent, honest, refreshing, must see. Beware false reviews..........2005-07-20

When I bought and watched this film, I was blown away by the original and raw nature of its content. What one reviewer writes in his thinly veiled marketing for a "competing" film is actually what I found to be great about this movie. It is made by a small independant group, and is, to its credit, not at all overproduced or hollywoodified... After all, shouldn't an honest documentary not be much more than a filmmaker carrying around his camera to show you what he sees? This is an excellent work.

5 out of 5 stars This is how all docs should be.......2005-06-29

This documentary really opened my eyes. It is not made up like a Michael Moore shock dock filled with distorted truths. This is the real deal. It is not an anti or even pro-American piece. It simply shows people thoughts on America and the war from an Iraqi perspective. In an honest style, this movie portray both the good and the bad. Everyone should see it.
Reconstruction
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Can Be Interpreted Many Ways
  • Unique Film or Another "Julia, Julia"?
  • A fantasy about love and reality
  • Interesting...
  • Its a good movie
Reconstruction
Starring: Nikolaj Lie Kaas , Maria Bonnevie , Krister Henriksson , Nicolas Bro , and Helle Fagralid
Director: Christoffer Boe
Manufacturer: Palm Pictures / Umvd
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007IO74U
Release Date: 2005-04-12

Description

Reconstruction follows Alex, a photographer, and beautiful Aimee, who meet by chance and fall in love in the course of one intense day. Their feelings are put to the test as the world around them becomes more and more alien in the labyrinthine Copenhagen. They stake their existence and find themselves in a free fall, with Alex facing the question of how far he is willing to go for true love.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Can Be Interpreted Many Ways.......2006-08-26

Many people seem confused about this movie and how they feel about it and what it means. Thats because there isn't a interpretation that can be called correct, as the director intentionally left it ambiguous.

Other reviewers seem to have covered the basics of the style and plot of the film well, but they seemed to have missed a large part of what the director was trying to do.

This film is more a statement on cinematic expression itself than on love. The director is showing how he can manipulate the viewer's thoughts and emotions, just as Aimee's husband the writer can manipulate the relationship between Aimee and Alex with a few strokes of the pen. With art things can be deconstructed only to be constructed again, and expression doesn't have to be confined to the rules of reality.

The other reviews seemed to have missed the quote at the end, where the director warns the audience that the characters in the film aren't anything more than that. They are simply fictional entities created for the purpose of manipulating the emotions of others, which is achieved by both the director and the writer within the film.


This is a very complex film that requires several viewings before it starts to make sense. If you like artsy films or films with deep meanings then this may be a good film for you. If you don't really like vague and confusing endings (at first) and are more of a person to watch happy-ending films then this definitely isn't the film for you. And if you aren't open-minded artistically you probably won't like this film either as you will spend most of your time trying to analyze the theme of love in the film while it covers much deeper issues than that.

4 out of 5 stars Unique Film or Another "Julia, Julia"?.......2006-05-06

I just watched this movie for the second time. I saw it first about a year ago. Although I agree that the manipulator of reality here is the writer (the husband of Aimee), and that the lovers are living his novel as he writes it, there are other subtle layers to this tale. Other reviewers have glanced over the issue of why both of Alex's lovers are played by the same actress. The make-up and cinematography here are so good, in fact, it took me until half way through my first viewing to realize this. It haunted me upon my second viewing, however, and
ultimately I concluded that this was a necessity of the story, not merely a showcase for the actress. Alex turns his back on his "girlfriend," a pleasant, pretty, devoted and very safe woman, in favor of a strikingly beautiful, exotic woman of mystery. In the end, however, he harbors doubts as to his true feelings for the woman he does not, and maybe never will know. Yet, having doubted, he loses her and cannot go back to his girlfriend. This is his tragedy - fear of an unknown love. This, to me, is very typical of most people. The vast majority tend to marry the "safe" type, yet fantasize about the mysterious exotic type. If one should come face to face with the mysterious, however, one usually is too frightened make it a reality. The mechanations of the story line and the shifting reality reminded me of the movie "Julia, Julia," starring Sting (in a fantastic job of acting) and Kathleen Turner. In that movie, the tables are turned, and it is the woman whose reality is at stake. I would highly recommend this movie to those who enjoy borderline surreality.

4 out of 5 stars A fantasy about love and reality.......2006-01-03

I was having a lot of trouble deciding which of the two women in this film I liked better, the delicate, pale Aimee or the tan, more working-class appearing Simone. Such a dilemma--and one that confronts and confounds protagonist Alex (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). Turns out that it doesn't matter.

Yes, trickery--as Danish film maker Christoffer Boe warns us up front with his floating cigarette and magician's hands--is of the essence in this romantic fantasy. What is played with is reality, which of course is what film makers do.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, I recommend that you stop reading here because what follows will likely spoil the movie for you. For those of you who have seen the movie, you might want to see it twice and then read what I have to say.

One thing about movies like this is that if you get the "key"--that is, the director's rationale for the way he plays with reality, you more or less get the movie. That's fine and can be enjoyable. If you don't, the movie can be a bit disconcerting and even exasperating.

The key here is to realize that it is Aimee's husband August, the novelist, who is the puppeteer. As Vladimir Nabokov liked to remind us, it is the essence of the novelist's art to manipulate the strings. The fact that this story is experienced from Alex's point of view inclines us to look for the key to understanding the film from his point of view. That is the error. Although Alex's persona dominates the film, at the center of the story is August. This is his fantasy and Alex is really just a prop in that fantasy, unable to understand what is happening to him. Indeed Alex--a charming and attractive young man with advanced pick-up skills--is a "gift" from August to his beloved Aimee. It may seem strange to some people that some men so love their wives that they want to give them something that they as the husband never can--that is, an affair with the perfect stranger.

The reality of Alex's existence comes from August's pen. In the scenes where Alex finds that his apartment has disappeared, that people don't know him (even his father doesn't know him), that Aimee/Simone think they are seeing him for the first time, the logic is this: what has happened before has been erased and rewritten, that is, reconstructed. Only poor Alex doesn't know since he is just a character in the story.

This reminds me a bit of Vanilla Sky (2001) and Abre los ojos (1997) in which the central character is a protagonist in a larger reality controlled by a software program. Here the control is in the hands of the novelist. Note well who gets the girl as the film ends: the guy who wrote the story, the guy who arranged to be giving lectures so that his wife could meet Alex and spend some time with him. Remember too in the scene where August comes back to the hotel room a bit too soon while Aimee is in the shower, and discovers tell-tale signs of Alex's presence. What does he do? He quickly leaves and returns a few minutes later after she has had time to straighten up.

In the final analysis, a patriarchal view of love in inexorably wrapped up in control. The patriarchal lover (the husband, August) wants to control his beloved. In this stylish and attractive fantasy, he even controls her reality.

4 out of 5 stars Interesting..........2005-07-18

A very interesting movie from Denmark. The story revolves around Alex (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), Aimee (Maria Bonnevie), Simone (Maria Bonnevie... again!) and Aimee's husband. The plot is a complex mix of two stories. One is for real and the other is a writer's (Aimee's husband) imagination. However, the two stories are complexly mingled and the characters swing back and forth creating a very (confusing) surreal mix. The Director has craft fully (and purposefully) used flashbacks to switch from the real to the imagined (reconstructed) story and effectively blurring the distinction between the two. It is really hard to tell if the real story is influencing the imagined or vice versa. Another interesting aspect of the movie is the insertion of narrative dialogs (narrated by Aimee's husband). The timing of these narrations is perfect. All in all, a controlled masterful mix created by the Director.
The dialogs and cinematography (especially the lighting and facial close-ups) are very creative. The director has used GPS like track points to show Alex and Aimee in the streets of Copenhagen. Pretty neat. I am particularly impressed by Nikolaj Lie Kaas's acting and Maria Bonnevie's captivating screen presence.

The concluding dialog of the movie is "It is all a reconstruction, but it still hurts". Very true ...

4 out of 5 stars Its a good movie.......2005-06-25

The films narrative is greatly shown and I do think is very original, it is not easy to understand but why do you have to understand everything always. The questions that the film arise are great ,as Bergman would have said "I have the impression that the questions are more important than the answers. I do recommend this movie its worth every dollar.
Basic Training for Defending the Faith (DVD) by Greg L. Bahnsen
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Meek Doesn't Mean Weak
  • Worth Every Penny!
Basic Training for Defending the Faith (DVD) by Greg L. Bahnsen

Manufacturer: American Vision
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ASIN: B000E3LXZ4

Product Description

Watch and learn as the late Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen teaches you how to think as a Christian. God didnt call us be "secret agents," He demands our minds, as well as our hearts, and expects us to be able to give a reasonable defense for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). Dr. Bahnsen reveals that our job as Christian apologists is not to change unbelieving hearts, but to simply close the mouth of the unbeliever. Part One: The Myth of Neutrality (49 min). Part Two: Introduction to Worldviews (51 min). Part Three: Worldviews in Conflict (53 min). Part Four: Defending the Christian Faith (50 min). Part Five: Problems for Unbelieving Worldviews (90 min). BONUS: An audio CD of Dr. Bahnsen debating atheist George Smith is also included!

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Meek Doesn't Mean Weak.......2006-04-01

Man, I wish I had something like this to cut my teeth on when I was a young Christian trying to figure out how to integrate my new faith into a consistent worldview. Bahnsen's legendary intellect and rhetorical skills are on full display here. The production quality is pretty rudimentary, but is more than made up for by the content. Get this. Study this. And then go out and trust the truth to change the world!

5 out of 5 stars Worth Every Penny!.......2006-03-30

The late Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen does a superb job of defining the problem and presenting the solution of how Christians are to do apologetics. If you are interested in this subject then you will benefit greatly from the content. Section one on the Myth of Neutrality needs to be watched by both law makers and judiciaries. I highly recommend it!!!
Civil War: From Gettysburg to Reconstruction
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Civil War Revisited
Civil War: From Gettysburg to Reconstruction
Starring: American Civil-from Gettysburgh to Reconstruction
Manufacturer: Direct Source Label
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ASIN: B000A2WP8S
Release Date: 2005-02-15

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Civil War Revisited.......2007-04-11

This is a well done review of the causes and actions of the American Civil War. Sympathy is shown for both the North and the South, and both are chastised for their faults. This seems to be a fairly even handed treatment of a difficult subject with a minimum reference to stereotypes and simplistic viewpoints.

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