Category Archives: Based on true facts

2003, Acceptable for children, Acceptable Sci-Fi, Acceptable Trash, Action Film, Adventure, B-movie, Based on true facts, Corny, Hundred Years' War, Military, Sci-Fi, Suspense, Violent

Timeline (2003)

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From Netflix:

In the near future, when a technology corporation has created a method for traveling into the past, a history professor gets trapped in 1357 France, prompting his students and son to travel back in time and face untold perils to rescue him.

In yet another B-movie 30-year-old Paul Walker and 34-year-old Gerard Butler get to travel back to France during the Hundred Years’ War. (Old films certainly show us how quickly we age.) Who knows how historically accurate the life of that era is portrayed? At any rate this is NOT a film to be taken seriously. Just in case you don’t remember intimately the details of the Hundred Years’ War, you can always read the Wikipedia account from which the following quote is taken:

The Hundred Years’ War, a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453, pitted the Kingdom of England against the Valois Capetians for control of the French throne. Each side drew many allies into the fighting.

The war had its roots in a dynastic disagreement dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, who became King of England in 1066 while retaining possession of the Duchy of Normandy in France. As the rulers of Normandy and other lands on the continent, the English kings owed feudal homage to the King of France. In 1337, Edward III of England refused to pay homage to Philip VI of France, leading the French King to claim confiscation of Edward’s lands in Aquitaine.

Edward responded by declaring himself to be the rightful King of France rather than Philip, a claim dating to 1328 when Edward’s uncle, Charles IV of France, died without a direct male heir. Edward was the closest male relative of the dead king, as son of Isabella of France who was a daughter of Philip IV of France and a sister of Charles IV. But instead, the dead king’s cousin, Philip VI, the son of Philip IV’s younger brother, Charles, Count of Valois, had become King of France in accordance with Salic law, which disqualified the succession of males descended through female lines. The question of legal succession to the French crown was central to the war over generations of English and French claimants.

As far as this B-film none of that matters. Just grab some popcorn and chill out with the on-screen corn.

2013, Abduction, Action Film, Based on true facts, DO NOT MISS, Greed, Kidnapping, Military, Navy, Sea Rescue, Somail, Suspense, Violent

Captain Phillips (2013)

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From Netflix:

In this exciting adventure based on true events that made international headlines, Tom Hanks portrays Capt. Richard Phillips, who is taken hostage by Somali pirates after they hijack his cargo ship, and the U.S. Navy’s efforts to rescue him.

After watching “Gravity” I knew I never wanted to be an astronaut. After watching “Captain Phillips” I am not sure I will ever get on a boat again. Do pirates seize ferries?

If you can’t stand unrelenting tension, danger, suspense, and excitement, then do not watch this film. It never lets up. Every second is somehow a new development without there being any repetition.

Acting is superb on all parts. All the pirates are played by Somali actors who present their parts to perfection: naïve greed, bravado, fear, panic, desperation, anger, and the list goes on. Tom Hanks comes across as truly human, crafty at first but finally after almost being shot a man in shock.

While portrayed as villains, the Somali men are also presented as not only greedy, but also as desperately poor and underfed men forced by warlords into piracy.

Historical accuracy has been questioned and you should read that discussion in the Wikipedia article on the subject.

You cannot help but feel pride as you watch our US Navy come to the rescue. But no, I don’t think I want to be a Navy seal.

“Captain Phillips” is a page-turner of a film. If you can stand the suspense then DO NOT MISS and hold onto your seats!

2014, Based on true facts, Basically Sad, Book Review, Crude Talk, Disturbing Image, Explicit sexual discussion, Military, PTSD, Torture, Violent, War, War Veterans

Redeployment (2014)

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From GoodReads:

Phil Klay’s Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos.

From Phil Klay’s blog:


Phil Klay is a graduate of Dartmouth College and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. He served in Iraq’s Anbar Province from January 2007 to February 2008 as a Public Affairs Officer. After being discharged he went to Hunter College and received an MFA. His story “Redeployment” was originally published in Granta and is included in Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, the New York Daily News, Tin House, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012.

When I started reading “Redeployment” I was horrified at the language and writing style which reminded me of a C-student in a slow track in high school. But the story itself is tragically interesting. After reading more chapters I realized that each chapter is written in the voice of some particular character. Here are some examples of some chapters:

  • REDEPLOYMENT: Told by an uneducated young man who volunteered.
  • FRAGO: Description of a house raid.
  • AFTER ACTION REPORT: Timhead’s first kill is a young boy and he suffers a lot of anguish.
  • BODIES: Lonely Marine at home visits his former girlfriend.
  • OIF: An unreadable satire featuring the military alphabet soup of acronyms.
  • MONEY AS A WEAPONS SYSTEM: American bureaucrat in Iraq eventually learns the impossibility of getting anything done.
  • IN VIETNAME THEY HAD WHORES: Frank discussion of the sexual practices of military personnel.
  • PRAYER IN THE FURNACE: Military chaplain gives his side of the picture.

So far the above chapters cover about half the book and the list goes on.

“Redeployment” may be worth your time for the content rather than the several styles.

But the summary remains the usual: War is hell and destroys soldiers, especially the ones who physically survive.

1997, Based on true facts, Book Review, Conspiracy, Cuba, Explicit sex, Love Story, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Spanish

Cuba, La Noche de la Jinetera (1997) [Book Review]

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Recently I reviewed “El Peso del Silencio” written by Jordi Sierra I Fabra. That novel took place in Chile. An older novel by the same author “La Noche del la Jinetera” takes place in Castro’s Cuba. Both novels are in Spanish without an available translation. Both have audio versions from Audible.com.

“Jinetera” means a female almost-prostitute in Cuba who accompanies and sleeps with tourists to Cuba not so much for the money but to find a foreign husband as a means to escape the hardships of Cuba. Daniel Ros is the protagonist newspaper reporter in both novels. In “Jinetera” he is sent from his newspaper in Spain to Cuba to find out why his reporter friend Estanis was found dead in a hotel room in Cuba. Most of his adventure involves a jinetera named Anyelín with whom he falls in love (initially “in lust”). Secondary is an attempted assassination of Castro and a mass exodus of Cubans in flimsy boats.

Expect many detailed descriptions of sexual activity.

In order to appreciate the atmosphere of the story, a brief history of Cuban-American relations is in order. Here my source is chiefly the book “Overthrow” by Stephen Kinzer (Henry Holt and Company, 2006).

In 1898 the imperialist President McKinley, fearing that Cuba would free itself from Spain and become independent enough to not do Washington’s bidding, sent to Cuba the battleship Maine. For a reason never discovered that battleship exploded. For William Randolph Hearst, who had waged a campaign of newspaper lies against Spanish colonialists, that explosion was a godsend. To the delight of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, Hearst, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, McKinley got Congress to declare war on Spain. In the skirmish in Santiago you may recall that Roosevelt led a charge up San Juan Hill dressed in a uniform he ordered from Brooks Brothers. Although Congress in the Teller amendment had promised independence to Cuba, Secretary of War Elihu Root and Senator Orville Platt broke that promise by authoring the Platt amendment which gave the U.S. control of Cuba. Cuban outrage was championed by the Communist party which in 1925 was outlawed by the Cuban dictator Gerado Machado. Franklin Roosevelt encouraged the Cuban army to rebel and the turmoil produced a new dictator Fulgencio Batista. Our Batista encouraged American investors, including prominent gangsters, to build an empire of prostitution and gambling. Batista fled Cuba in 1959, a few steps ahead of Castro’s rebels. President Eisenhower was baffled to learn that Cubans, for some reason or other, did not like the U.S.A. And the rest remains the history of the early 21st century. Stay tuned for further developments.

2002, Based on true facts, Basically Sad, Book Review, Conspiracy, Disturbing Image, Ethical struggles, Grim, Historical Fiction, Love Story, Murder Investigation, Revenge, Sadism, Spanish, Torture, Violent

El Peso del Silencio (2002) [Book Review]

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Written in Spanish with no English translation available, you can purchase this book for your kindle. Jordi Sierra I Fabra, the author who lives in Spain, wrote the book in 2002.

Brief summary: Agustín Serradell, a dying Spanish millionaire, proposes to pay a Spanish journalist, Daniel Ros, to travel to Chile in order to find the grave of Serradell’s son Santiago who was tortured and killed by Pinochet’s henchmen. Ros agrees. Many adventures await Daniel Ros in Chile as he tries to find the son, his only starting clues coming from a recently released CIA document. That document points to three men involved directly in the torture and murder. Ros will begin his effort by trying to locate those three men. Here I stop the summary so that I don’t present you with any “spoilers”. Rest assured there are many surprise twists and turns as the story progresses.

In order to appreciate the background of the Pinochet era in Chile a bit of history is in order. Here my source is chiefly the book “Overthrow” by Stephen Kinzer (Henry Holt and Company, 2006).

Beginning in 1964 the CIA spent $3 million in Chile to help Eduardo Frei win an election against the nationalist Salvador Allende. Because the U.S. also gave $163 million in American military aid, the U.S. felt it had earned legitimate control of Chile. Kennedy had promoted his Alliance for Progress in order to encourage Latin America’s “democratic left”. Nixon hated Kennedy and decided to counteract this Alliance for Progress by supporting instead the business elite and military. Allende wanted to nationalize industry and return to Chile control over its own resources such as copper and the telephone company. American ambassador Korry and the CIA, urged on by Kissinger and David Rockefeller, asked Nixon for permission to wage a “spoiling” campaign against Allende. “Spoiling” meant planting propaganda in newspapers, stirring up fear of Communism, and supporting rightist candidates. Despite such efforts Chileans elected Allende. Nixon then ordered CIA director Helms to prevent Allende from coming to power. Effort One was to encourage President Frei to deny the election. Frei refused. Effort Two was to foment a military coup. Kissinger directed this effort. Despite objections from members of the CIA and the State Department, Kissinger and Nixon were determined to use bloody chaos to achieve their ends. Part of the CIA’s standard methodology for overthrowing a government is to destroy the country’s economy and blame the failure on the targeted victim, even if this means bringing severe deprivation to the population. Another tactic is to defeat military supporters of the targeted victim. In fact the U.S. delivered weapons to Chilean conspirators who assassinated Allende’s loyal supporter General Schneider. Chilean citizens were outraged by the murder staged by America and determined to remain loyal to Chilean democratic principles despite such American interference. After Allende’s inauguration many leading American companies active in Chile (ITT, Anaconda, Firestone, Pfizer, Bank of America, etc) joined in the effort to unseat Allende. Washington columnist Jack Anderson exposed 24 ITT internal memos which brought the “ITT Papers” scandal against Nixon. Helms was convicted of perjury when he lied about CIA involvement. Schneider’s successor, General Prats was a strict constitutionalist and defeated a CIA tank coup against Allende. In retaliation the CIA stated public and violent demonstration against Prats who was forced to resign and hand over power to the CIA puppet General Augusto Pinochet. Ironically Pinochet chose 9/11 (September 11, 1973) to bring a military attack against Allende. Infantry units, British Hawker Hunter fighter planes, eighteen rockets moved against the presidential palace. Allende died. Our Pinochet (after all, we the U.S. created this monster) was then free to unleash his reign of imprisonment, exile, torture, and murder.

“El Peso del Silencio” makes this sad history all the more personal by centering on its effect on a few characters in the novel. Strong reading, reader beware!

Based on true facts, Black History, Drama, Ethical struggles, Father-son relations, Human spirit, Optimistic, Political statement, Race Relations, Slavery, Thought provoking, True Story, Vietnam, Violent, War

Lee Daniel’s The Butler (2013)

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From Netflix;

Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker delivers a powerful performance as Cecil Gaines, who served as the White House butler under eight presidents. His three decades of service unfold against a backdrop of unparalleled change in American history.

By combining the history of the civil rights movement with the life of a particular family, that of the butler Cecil Gaines, you can feel the impact of the events much more personally.

All the black actors, including Oprah Winfrey, do a fine job, while the white presidents were merely acceptable. Special mention to Jim Gleason in his small role as R.D. Warner with his pitch-perfect portrayal of a nasty, arrogant, dismissive and probably racist White House staff manager. Similarly the murderous white Southern plantation son was equally hate inspiring.

More need not be said about a historical drama that really nails it! DO NOT MISS!

2012, Based on true facts, Docudrama, Philosophic Discussions, Political statement, Talking Heads, Terrible acting, Thought provoking, True Story

Hannah Arendt (2012)

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From Netflix:

After fleeing Nazi Germany for the United States, a Jewish-German philosopher accepts an assignment from the New Yorker to cover the trial of an infamous war criminal, resulting in an article that ignites controversy all over the world.

According to Wikipedia:

In 2012 a German film titled Hannah Arendt was released, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, and with Barbara Sukowa in the role of Arendt. The film concentrates on the Eichmann trial, and the controversy caused by Arendt’s book, which at the time was widely misunderstood as defending Eichmann and blaming Jewish leaders for the Holocaust.

Perhaps “talking heads” best describes this philosophical, talkative, historical non-action film in which the characters endlessly discuss (argue?) the nature of evil, the involvement of the Jewish leaders during the Nazi regime, group versus individual culpability, Eichmann’s trial, etc. etc. etc.

Most of the dialog is in German. Subtitles are for all spoken words, German and otherwise. Perhaps the fact that this is a German film explains why so many of the lines spoken in English sound like something out of a high school drama class.

As the film often reminds us, it is not fair to criticize the ideas of Hannah Arendt without first having the fortitude to read what she wrote.

Try and keep watching up to the point in which Hannah defends her ideas before a large student body. Her speech is moving and in direct opposition to the irrational, emotional, and completely understandable reaction of many Jews.

1996, Abduction, Based on true facts, Bicycles, Book Review, British, Complicated, Conspiracy, Cynical, Daniel Silva, Ethical struggles, Flirting, Gangs, Gay theme, Gritty, International thriler, Love Story, Physical child abuse, Political Suspense, Sea Rescue, Sex Scenes, Small British village, Spy Theme, Suspense, Thriller, Violent, War, WWII

The Unlikely Spy (1996) [Book Review]

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Book Description:

In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” For Britain’s counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable-a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor. The Nazis, however, have also chosen an unlikely agent: Catherine Blake, a beautiful widow of a war hero, a hospital volunteer-and a Nazi spy under direct orders from Hitler to uncover the Allied plans for D-Day…

Daniel Silva was a journalist and TV producer before he began his first novel “The Unlikely Spy” in 1994. This book was such a success that Silva left CNN in 1997 to pursue writing full-time. One of his more known series of books are those featuring the character Gabriel Allon.

Although Silva was born and raised in the U.S.A. (he was raised Catholic and converted to Judaism as an adult), in reading this novel you would swear he was British. We had just returned from visiting our daughter in London and it was an extra pleasure recognizing all the London streets, parks, and subway stops that figure in the plot.

Once you get used to the 20 or so characters that stay continually in the plot you may find this WW II spy novel a real page-turner. Besides the usual cloak and dagger details, the novel is saved from dryness by romances, personal ruminations, political one-upmanship, historical tidbits, and an essential focal point: an effort to prevent Berlin from knowing exactly where the allied invasion will be, i.e. Normandy.

Finally I stayed up late reading for three hours just to see how the final great chase after the clever Nazi spies ended.

1990, Anti-Semitism, Based on true facts, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Gay theme, German, Human spirit, Jewish Culture, Military, Nudity, Polish, Revenge, Russian, Sex Scenes, True Story, Violent, War, WWII

Europa Europa (1990)

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From Wikipedia:

Europa Europa is a 1990 film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. “Hitler Youth Salomon”. It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped the Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but as an elite “Aryan” German. The film stars Marco Hofschneider and Julie Delpy; Perel appears briefly as himself in the finale. The film is an international co-production between CCC Film and companies in France and Poland.

Hopefully you will watch both this 2 hour film and also the 3 hour film Sunshine.
Whereas “Sunshine” is an epic showing the history of Hungarian Jews during several epochs, “Europa Europa” is a true story about one Jewish teenager’s survival in the confusing changes in political alignment in Germany, Poland, and Russia between Hitler and Stalin.

WARNING: Once again (as in “Sunshine”) there will be some ugly scenes. Once such scene shows what it was like in the Jewish ghetto during WWII when the Germans either starved the Jews, or killed them outright, or sent them to concentration camps.

If this were not an autobiography I would label it as fantasy or magic realism or some such departure from reality. Yupp, the teenager, had literally unbelievable good luck. However, he survived partly because in all his reincarnations he learned to speak not only German but also Polish and Russian. Of course, he was also very resourceful. Moreover, when faced with a moral choice, he chose survival.

Watching the indoctrination of the Nazi Youth into a violent anti-Semitism was a revelation.

Despite the story’s best efforts, I will personally never believe that the German people did not know what was happening to the Jews.

Coupled with “Sunshine” I would call this film a DO NOT MISS!

1999, Anti-Semitism, Based on true facts, Could Be Hard To Watch, Disturbing Image, DO NOT MISS, Ethical struggles, Explicit sex, FilmReview, Human spirit, Hungarian history, Istvan Szabo, Jewish Culture, Love Story, Marital Infidelity, Nudity, Political statement, Rape, Revenge, Torture, Violent, Wonderful photography

Sunshine (1999)

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From Netflix:

A single actor portrays father, son and grandson in this epic historical tale that follows a Jewish family as they struggle to survive anti-Semitism, war and corruption in Hungary. Each man deals with the prevailing regime in his own way.

Istvan Szabo, the director, presents us with a wonderful three hour epic that leads us through many periods in Hungarian history: Austria-Hungary, World War I, Communism after WW I, Nazi occupation of Hungary in World War II, Pro-Stalin Communism after WW II, and finally the fall of Communism.

For a detailed account of the film see the Wikipedia article.

For those of us in Massachusetts please note that “Sunshine” was written by the director Istvan Szabo and Israel Horovitz. Horovitz is Founding Artistic Director of the Gloucester Stage Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Kathy and I have seen several of his plays.

Although there are too many wonderful actors to mention, clearly the film was a tour de force for Ralph Fiennes who plays parts in three generations of the family. Jennifer Ehle as Valerie Sonnenschein was strikingly beautiful.

Warning: there is one ugly scene when Fiennes as the character Adam in a concentration camp is tortured to death. Szabo makes it quite clear that the villains in this piece are not Nazis, not Germans, but HUNGARIANS who are very anti-Semitic.

Three hours may seem like a long time, but this film is worth every second.
DO NOT MISS!