The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great DVD with many excellent bonus features, including the Director's commentary that adds so much to the understanding of how the film was made. The film was shot primarily with wide angle lenses which heightens the effect of some very frightening screens. For example is there anything more incredible than the scene where the captured, brainwashed prisoners believe they are attending a ladies' garden party, while actually on stage as human guinea pigs in a meeting of communist cadres. Just an amazing juxtaposition of images! The storyline is well developed and never loses the taut feeling of suspense from start to finish. Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, and Angela Lansbury are particularly fine in their roles. If there is only one criticism, it is that Harvey lapses at times into his original British accent, which is disconcerting. But given the power of his performance in this role, this is a minor detail that can easily be overlooked. The film is shot in black and white, which is far better suited to its cold war images. Just puzzled why MGM issued the cover for this DVD in color? Anyway, highly recommend this DVD!

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Platoon (1986) Review

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(More customer reviews)"I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy. We fought ourselves. And the enemy was in us."
Thus the summation of Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) at the end of this film, a film about war, hate, self-realization, and survival. PLATOON tells a powerful story that moves beyond the horror and gore of the Vietnam War, a story that ultimately depicts the demise and disintegration of a dysfunctional combat unit. We see young Chris change before our very eyes, from a green, idealistic "grunt" to an embittered, disillusioned soldier. Chris' platoon is dominated--and subsequently divided--by two strong, yet very different men: Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe). Barnes is cold, calculating, brutal, intolerant; Elias is compassionate, humanistic. The battle of wills between these two men is just as challenging as the Viet Cong out in the bush, and just as deadly. The film's climatic ending is powerful, spellbinding.
I dismiss naysayers of PLATOON as a soapbox for writer/director Oliver Stone's political agenda just as much as I dismiss Mr. Stone's politics. PLATOON hits you between the eyes with its depictions of warfare and human conflict, again and again. There's nothing to feel good about by watching this movie, just as there is nothing to feel good about by fighting a war. It is a dark, negative film--a negative film that happens to be compelling, thought-provoking, and very riveting.

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