| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Finally, a movie that is believable...
by Elizabeth W (movies profile)
Jul 21, 2007
32
of
32 people found this review helpful
I admit, I really went to see this movie for my husband and I thought that while I would maybe like some of the fighting scenes, it would be very Pearl Harbor-esque. It wasn't. The story line remained true to the characters, did not step outside the realm of what was going on at the time (in other words we don't get a who's the daddy dilemma).
The first 15 to 20 minutes of the movie are not that gripping. That is probably where better editing could have caught the audience's attention. After that though, you start to care about the pilots and not in a sappy over the top tear jerker kind of way. Every man who volunteers has a clear reason related to his ego, but not run by his ego. You have James Franco's character who joins on a kind of "Why not?" reason since his parents are dead and his ranch was repossesed by the bank. You have a man who wants to make his war hero family proud, a man fighting for God, a man escaping a boxing career, and a man sent by his father to do something useful after being kicked out of Harvard.
Once the training and fighting starts, there are no over dramatic scenes. Every scene in which someone dies or is killed is handled I think much more realistically than any other war movie I hvae seen. There are no grandiose speeches, and most of the time things are said more with a look of desperation or acceptance than anything else. I, who cry still every time Shelby dies in "Steel Magnolias" didn't shed a tear, because instead of making the audience all wishy-washy, the movie makes you feel just like the men who fought- this is war, it's what we signed up for when we bought our movie ticket, and in real life you can't save every friend who goes into battle with you.
I highly recommend this movie for both gender. There is a nice romance story that isn't tainted by our modern standards of sex and perfect endings. Nor is there some overdramatic climax to it. I was ecstatic to not see a gratuitous sex scene and there was not language, nudity, or grotesque death scenes. So why you might ask shoudl you see this movie? Because for once, it is a true period piece that stays in the period. You can see parts of yourself in every character, and all of them are multi-dimensional with multiple motivations for their actions. |
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