Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)
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Movie Reviews of Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)
Movie Review: Excellent WW I Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I had just bought and watched Flyboys. While Flyboys was not the greatest it left me in the mood for WWI. 'The Great War' that not even The History Channel touches. Fortunately I found this in the rental bin at the store and figured I would give it a try.
A warning to those looking for an action/war flick..this is not it. This a heavy drama with a powerful message. There is a battle scene at the begining of the movie but it feels to me that it was obligatory and thrown in just because of the setting of the movie. It does nothing to illustrate the ablolute horror of trench warfare during this seemingly forgotten war.
There are scenes in this movie that truly touch the heart. Christmas day after the Christmas Eve gathering the German officer goes out to meet a Scottish officer on the battlefield who is ordering a Scottish soldier back to the trench who is on the battlefield without authorization digging a grave for his brother. The German officer has to order his troops back into the trench as they try to follow him out. They didn't want to fight.
Many touching scenes. Great cinematography. Excellent music, especially if you like bagpipes. Uniforms and weaponry are all right on. This Sony DVD release is incredible at handling the subtitles. There is English, French and German spoken throughout and the English subtitles come up only when English is not spoken, a very easy movie to watch.
Movie Review: Best Serious DVD on Possibilities of Peace
Summary: 5 Stars
See my list of Serious DVDs for other suggestions, a few of which I link to directly below, This DVD is a pure diamond of delight and divinity. It helped me feel that peace on earth is truly possible, and brought me closer to God, whom I conceptualize as heaven on earth within the community of man--what Paul Goodman called Humanitas in the 1960s.
This is a TRUE STORY. This true story stands in distinct opposition to the lies that Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz and other neocons have been telling us. It also stands in distinct opposition to the nonsense the Washington Post and other newspapers continue to print, selling advertising with the party line and no mention of the 75,000 amputees that the second Gulf War has created (the first created over 250,000 disabled veterans, but our medacious media does not examine either of these facts at all).
I truly believe that We the People are acquiring a digital memory and the ability to self-govern through an Earth Intelligence Network (see the web site for more details). I truly believe that this DVD captures the inherent goodness of man, and answers in a different way the question that E. O. Wilson asked in writing Consilience: why the humanities are essential to science.
Please by and share this DVD and consider the others listed below (see list, one of my earlier ones, for other recommendations).
Movie Review: A Very Effective Movie, Teaching True Tolerance.
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this movie, fittingly, on Christmas. This is a great Christmas movie, and deserves to be put in the same tradition as "It's A Wonderful Life".
This is a French movie, but the German and Scotch characters speak their own languages through the movie, which is subtitled.
It is inspired by an occurance where on Christmas in 1914, WWI soldiers fraternized. This is not based on the event in that real people are represented.
This movie starts with children echoing hatred, and it ends showing the hatred in all three camps. It deals with overcoming the hatred. There is a cost to letting go of hatred, but it is worth it.
This movie is rated PG-13, and it definitely deserves that rating, as opposed to the R the MPAA wanted to give it. Thanks to Roger Ebert for campaigning it to get the correct rating.
One thing my dad mentioned was whether the Scottish priest was Catholic or Anglican. I would say the former for three reasons: 1) he gave mass in Latin; 2) there was a shot of a statue of Mary when he was first introduced, and 3) he mentioned praying for a deceased soldier; this would preclude a belief in purgatory -- as a non-purgatory believer, I feel the dead are in heaven where they are in no need of prayers or in hell where they are past the deliverance of prayers.
Jeff
Movie Review: Meeting in No Man's Land.......
Summary: 5 Stars
Several reviewers have written beautifully about this film, so I feel no need to reiterate their descriptions. This is a small treasure, dramatically depicting real events, and examining how an impromtu cease-fire and the meeting and one-on-one exchanges between decent and civilized people finding themselves on opposite sides in a war, makes killing those same people impossibly difficult once the fighting is to resume. No wonder their superiors had a fit!
Please note, I emphasize a meeting between peoples having the same relative values (it all begins with a shared Christmas carol in German accompanied by Scottish bagpipes). This was also still a "gentleman's war", despite the mechanized slaughter. Other than pointing out the ultimate absurdity of war, finding relevance to today's conflict with fanaticism would be a bit of a stretch. No, this was a specific time and place and the massive World War between more or less cousins, many of the main leaders being related to Queen Victoria, was in itself, the ultimate absurdity.
At any rate, in the extras the director explains what his source material was, and as unlikely as this seems, nearly all of the film was based on fact, although several different stories have been condensed into the one. It does point out the sad facts of war, and it is a touching film, and well worthwhile.
Movie Review: Worth Weighing
Summary: 5 Stars
With our country at war and Christmas coming up, this seemed like a timely movie to share with my family. I'd heard it was based on actual events from World War I, a Christmas Eve on which three sides of the war in the trenches laid down their weapons to share in an evening of peace.
"Joyeux Noel" is not only beautifully directed and photographed, it uses a cast of great actors. The story revolves around a Scottish priest caught up in the drama, two German opera singers caught between love and patriotism, and a French lieutenant missing his pregnant, sick wife. Other characters are included as the movie meanders toward the momentous evening on December 24, 1914. For American audiences raised on constant drama, this might seem to lack fireworks; yet the ideas here are potent, made all the more so by their basis in fact. When one man makes a simple sacrifice for the sake of his superior, he pays a price that underlines the irony of war.
In conclusion, the movie is a moving tribute to men of three nations who saw past hate and political intrigue long enough to share in their humanity. The true enemies reveal themselves as those who stick dogmatically to their own agendas. This is a message worth weighing--spiritually and politically--in light of our current Christmas situation.