So here's a TL;DR story as to why I haven't been very present on here that's only tangentially related to the movie I saw, told for the benefit of those I occasionally talk to here or those I wished I talked to more in real life:
Sometime last fall, I was watching TV. Some joke was made. It was a dirty joke and it hit me in exactly the right way. I laughed really hard. And then I blacked out.…
An anti-war movie where two gangs of boys fight over an empty lot. Anyone who has seen the Canadian classic The Dog Who Stopped the War knows where this is going. It's not subtle and it wears its heart on its sleeve, but it works.
Here's the thing though: Two of the child actors in this movie were killed in World War II. One in France, one in North Africa.
Nothing in the film hit as hard as that.
Obviously suffers from the fact that '68 was a watershed year for sci-fi and this movie wasn't the one filling up theatres.
Altman was always more interested in dialogue and people. Not technology and patriotism. A worse match for subject matter and director would be hard to find. No wonder Altman said the ending was reshot and not his version. Though that's been questioned. (Honestly he may have just been embarrased.) Regardless it doesn't feel like his movie.
The only…
Breathe.
You sit down in the theater and wait and get fat off of the popcorn and watch the pre-show you've already seen twice this month thanks to The Avengers opening and you listen to the preteens behind you talking and you worry that they are going to be speaking throughout the entire fucking movie and you kind of wish you were seeing this in the States where it is restricted and at least there they might be accompanied by…
Yes, it plays like a Public Service Announcement for Middle America ca. 1967, but it is a beautifully acted Public Service Announcement.
No, it hasn't dated that well, but when Tracy gives the speech at the end, and there's Katherine Hepburn looking on, eyes overflowing with tears, knowing that this will be Tracy's last moment on screen ... well it's one of those moments where the weight of what was happening outside the movie was greater than what was going on in the movie.
And I'm not ashamed to admit, it kind of wrecked me.
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