Max’s Picks July 2011
My best picks of the month:
OF GODS AND MEN
This is another excellent film you may not know about. It is based upon the true story of the faith and courage of a brotherhood of eight French Christian monks in a mountain monastery in North Africa whose lives were endangered when a crew of foreign workers was massacred by Islamic extremists during the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s. They had been living harmoniously with their Muslim brothers, but when the insurgents arrive they are conflicted as to whether to flee or stay and try to fulfill their spiritual mission and also continue to provide medical care and other services for the Muslims. It won the Grand Prix at the 1010 Cannes Film Festival and was named the Best Foreign Language Film from the National Board of Review. Richard Corliss, Time Magazine critic, called it “A luminous tale of faith and heroism,” and Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said it is “Nothing less than sublime.” The film stars Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale, available on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack from Sony Pictures Home International. Extras include how the film was made.
Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of “Woo woo’s!”
WINTER IN WARTIME
In a wintry village in Nazi-occupied Holland in 1945, a thirteen-year-old girl becomes involved in the resistance movement when she aids a British paratrooper. This leads to danger and also worries about who she can trust in the village. It’s excellent World War II drama based on the book by Jan Terlouw, produced by Isabella Films, with a stand-out performance by Martijn Lakemeier. In a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Extras include a featurette on the making of the movie.
We agree with the Hollywood Reporter’s review: “Superb filmmaking, beautifully crafted,” and Rex Reed in the New York Observer who said “Haunting, a powerful and touching film.” Treat yourself and see it.
Also recommended:
A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO ADULTERY
Now that I have your attention with that title, I’ll explain that it’s a new British movie. Theresa Russell plays a university photography student who falls for her lecturer, played by that always watchable Sean Bean.
Based on the novel by Carol Cleweon, it also stars Adrian Dunbar and Amanda Donahue, from Hartswood Productions for Carlton Television. Seen on BBC Television, it’s sexual but not X-rated material and adults will probably enjoy it.
The DVD is from BFS Entertainment.
JUST WILLIAM
My master and I really enjoyed this family film about an 11-year-old boy who tries but can’t seem to stop causing mischief. Daniel Roche is perfectly cast as William, leader of a bunch of pals called “The Outlaws” in England in the 1950s. Based on humorous stories by Richmal Crompton, it’s excellent family entertainment from BBC Television and BFS Entertainment.
LAND GIRLS, SERIES 2
Further adventures of British women on the rural homefront during World War II. Sophie Ward and Liam Garrigan star in this delightful second series from the popular BBC Television shows. The the-two DVD set is from BFS Entertainment.
THE STREET, SEASON 2
The second installment of the award-winning British television drama series recalls life among working-class families on a street in Manchester, northern England.
Stories involve crime, poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, unemployment, to keep viewers engaged. Seen on BBC Television, the DVD is from BFS Entertainment.
A GOLDEN OLDIE: CENTENNIAL
You may have missed the DVD set of CENTENNIAL, a fantastic television mini-series seen on NBC in late 1978 and early 1979. The DVDs came out in 2008 from Warner Bros. Television and Turner Program Services. It’s an engrossing saga of history of the American West from the mid 18th century in what became Colorado to the 1970s, based on the novel by James A. Michener. A galaxy of stars mainly from television include Robert Conrad, Richard Chamberlain, Gregory Harrison, Lois Nettleton, Lynn Redgrave, David Janssen, and many others, with a truly memorable performance by Barbara Carrera as an Indian woman whose life touched many of the people in the story. It’s long, at 26 hours, in 12 episodes on 6 DVDs, but well worth spending some evenings with. It’s truly an epic and we learn a lot about pioneer-Indian relations, among other aspects of America’s growth from then to now. It’s something the entire family could watch together and discuss.
GOLDEN OLDIE ON BLU-RAY
Not really a classic but very entertaining, NIGHT FLIGHT, this 1933 “thriller” stars some of the top actors at MGM that year: John and Lionel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery in a drama about the mail going through at a South American airline, bad weather or not. Although it has its share of drama and adventure, it finds its place in movie history mainly because it was the first time a film’s producer put his name on the movie. Movie historian Jay Robert Nash says David O. Selznick took the honor, after its real producer, Irving Thalberg, declined it (as was to be his habit), whether out of modesty or he didn’t think that much of the movie, we’ll never know. It’s worth seeing, but there are other movies in the MGM archives worth the Blu-ray treatment. One of them is THE SEARCH with Montgomery Clift trying to help a war orphan find his mother in Berlin after World War II. An ignored true classic still only available on VHS tape.
Documentaries
NATURE: BEARS OF THE LAST FRONTIER
Bear ecologist Chris Morgan takes us on a 3,000-mile motorcycle journey deep into the wilds of Alaska to document the lives of three bear species –- black bears, grizzly bears, and the mighty polar bear. All are endangered because of human encroachment into their habitats and also from global warming. As seen on Public Television, it’s a wonderful three-hour adventure on DVD but even better on even sharper Blu-ray in this combo set of two DVDs from PBS Distribution.
FRONTLINE: KILL/CAPTURE
The U.S. military strike targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters that killed Osama Bin Laden was one of America’s best kept secrets. After a six-month investigation, the PBS series Frontline gives a full report on the mission.
Gen. David Petraeus and his senior commanders are interviewed about the raid and answer the question of whether such raids will help end the war in Afghanistan.
From PBS Distribution.
CHRONICLE OF THE THIRD REICH
Many movies aren’t as engrossing as this four-hour documentary about Nazi Germany’s Third Reich which began in 1933 and ended in 1945 with the end of World War II in Europe. It marks the 65th anniversary of the downfall of Adolf Hitler’s regime, using some previously unpublished films. Historian Michael Kloft, aided by three other historians, describes the politics, day-to-day life, the war years, and the crimes of the Nazi state. This is important history to know about and remember, from Spiegel TV and PBS Television Distribution.
IRENE SENDLER, IN THE NAME OF THEIR MOTHERS
A compelling documentary about the Polish social worker who helped rescue more than 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi Gestapo during World War II. She did it by forging identification papers and placing the children in Catholic safe houses and orphanages in Warsaw and the Polish countryside. Ms. Sendler was interviewed about the experience when she was in her 90s, but she still vividly recalled them, including her brush with death in a Gestapo prison and harassment in post-war Communist Poland. Fascinating, exciting, from 2B Productions, KQED Presents, and PBS Television Distribution.
REMOTE CONTROL WAR
A revealing documentary on how ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan comprise the world’s first robotic war. When the U.S. invaded Iraq ten years ago there were almost no remote control weapons, but that has since grown to 7,000 robots in the air and 12,000 on the ground. Some 43 other countries also now are using robots in combat. This documentary surveys the present and future of robotic warfare, from today’s CIA drone strikes to the next generation of armed autonomous robot swarms, killer robots that are about to change our world. From SaskFilm,
Canadian Television, and PBS Television Distribution.
LETHAL LANDSCAPES
Soldier artists at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, are trained to paint, sketch, and draw the intense moments of battle. This documentary introduces several combat artists who tell their experiences in conflicts from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, and how they illustrated them. Fascinating first-hand reports on the battlefronts today, from MPT and PBS Television Distribution.
BAD BLOOD: a Cautionary Tale
A report on how a miracle treatment for hemophilia in the 1960s became instead an agent of death. Derived from human blood, the treatment transformed the often fatal genetic disease into a treatable chronic condition. But using it infected 10,000 with HIV and 15,000 with hepatitis before it was pulled from the market in 1954, having caused the worst medical disaster in U.S. history. The documentary takes a look at six families impacted by the tragedy, and the doctors, nurses, and scientists who cared for them.
From PBS Television Distribution.
OUTBACK PELICANS
Surprisingly, the Australian Outback, the driest place on the driest continent on the planet, has some water birds.
Once every ten years or so, rains flood into dried-up river beds and create an oasis in the scorching heart of the desert where 100,000 pelicans arrive for a fantastic gathering, coming from coasts and harbors, and give birth during the short wet spell. A fascinating Nature documentary from Cabnon, WNET Org. 13, and PBS Television Distribution. In both DVD and Blu-ray formats, but see it in crystal-sharp Blu-ray if you can.
SURVIVORS OF THE FIRESTORM
Bush fires that ravaged the state of Victoria in Australia in February 2009 incinerated more than a million acres of land including vital mountain ash forest ecosystems. Kangaroos, koala bears, wombats, wallabies, endangered possums, lizards, and many bird species and fish were overcome by the flames. Millions of them died, but survivors were nursed back to health at wildlife hospitals and showed a remarkable ability to bounce back to health. The hour-long documentary is from Nature, Canon, WNET Television, and PBS Television Distribution.
JOURNEY OF THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER
Opera lovers are treated to this documentary that follows the creation of the San Francisco Opera’s production of the opera, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, based on Amy Tan’s best-selling novel. The behind-the-scenes hour-long documentary brings together artists from China and the U.S. to tell about the opera, a story about the difficult but unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters, inspired by Tan’s own family history. The DVD is from KQED, Art Works, and PBS Television Distribution.
FRONTLINE: FOOTBALL HIGH
My master sometimes stops on our walks and we watch school boys playing football. Ouch! Some of them really look like they get hurt. How safe are boys playing high school football? This hour-long Frontline-PBS documentary looks at the safety and other factors in high school football. The special reports on a school where two plays collapsed from heatstroke last year while practicing during one of the hottest summers on record and suffered extensive damage to their internal organs. One died, the other survived. At another school, 60,000 players suffered concussions each year. A report of special interest to parents, coaches, and players, from PBS Distribution.
SAVING THE OCEAN; SHARK REEF AND THE SACRED ISLAND
A PBS Television documentary on environmental dangers in the oceans, focusing on sharks around the world and also the fishing threats to the Sacred Island of Pemba, part of Zanzibar in East Africa. Two starting episodes of a new series, SAVING THE OCEAN, reporting on marine environmental dangers. The DVD is from PBS Distribution.
CRAFT IN AMERICA: MESSAGES
How many craft artists express personal and political ideas to tell a story, prove a point, or bring attention to issues. A Wisconsin glass artist explores the symbolism of 17th century still-life to show the fragility in nature. A New Mexican artist uses authentic materials to combine historic religious subject matter with contemporary culture. A Baltimore bead artist uses bead and quilting to focus on issues such as race and stereotyping. A New Orleans sculptor created a series of wall panels that document the destruction after Hurricane Katrina. Through craft, messages help us to gain a greater understanding of our nation’s complex heritage. From PBS Distribution.
TYPEFACE
Typography is a seldom explored form of art. This documentary explores graphic design and how old and new techniques are converging. It tells of artists from the Midwest who meet in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to attend printmaking workshops one weekend each month and utilize both traditional techniques and modern design in their work. The DVD is from PBS Distribution.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: THE DUEL
The American Revolution was over, but a war was not ended between two leading politicians of the time. The most famous duel in American history is recalled in this documentary between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the morning of July 11, 1804. From first-person documents, interviews with historians, and historical re-enactments,
the duel tells of the bitterness between the two political giants, Hamilton one of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, and Burr, a rival for political power.
Another excellent entry in the American Experience series seen on PBS Television, the hour-long DVD is from PBS Distribution.
NEW YORK STREET GAMES
Before there was television, computers, video games, the Internet, and Facebook and Twitter, boys and girls like my master played non-electric games in the streets. This delightful documentary takes a look back at those “kinder, gentler days” on New York’s streets in early to mid years of the 1900s. Celebrities, politicians, businessmen, and average New Yorkers recall their childhoods playing games such as Spaldeen, Stoopball, Tingoleavio, Skully, and others, played with everything at hand from a ball to a broomstick. The 90-minute DVD comes with a booklet with rules for 13 of the most popular games. It’s a real hoot back in time from PBS Distribution.
FRONTLINE: WIKISECRETS
If you want to know about how the biggest government-political breach in American history happened, this is the DVD for you. PBS Television’s Frontline examines the hoopla in “Wikisecrets: Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Wikileaks.” The hour-long documentary reports on the leaking of more than a half million classified documents on the Wikiuleaks Internet website, and includes interviews with Assange and Manning’s father. Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, has been charged with handing over the classified documents to Assange who released them on the Wikileak Internet website. A very important DVD documentary from PBS Distribution.
NOVA: POWER SURGE
The PBS science series examines whether new technology can defeat global warming in this hour-long documentary. Included are what roles coal and nuclear energy may play in solving the environmental problems they create. From PBS Distribution.
SECRETS OF THE DEAD: World’s Biggest Bomb
A documentary about the race between the United States and Soviet scientists to build and detonate the world’s largest bomb. The U.S. won the race on March 1, 1954 when it exploded its first hydrogen bomb, in an operation known as “Castle Bravo,” at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. It’s still America’s biggest bomb, although concentration then shifted on smaller, more precise bombs. But the Soviet Union continued building massive devices capable of destroying entire cities. Their efforts reached their peak on October 30, 1961 when they exploded the “Tsar” above the north European island of Novaya Zemlya. The 50-megaton bomb was equal to ten times the entire amount of explosives used in World War II. The hour-long DVD about the super bomb race is from PBS Distribution.
AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN: Season 11
The most-watched cooking show on public television, it just keeps going and is always a good way to learn new recipes worth cooking up. Christopher Kimball and kitchen helpers show how they make some of their favorites from Cook’s Illustrated magazine. The dishes include indoor pulled pork, simple pot roast, bread pudding, and Chicago-style deep dish pizza (I love it when my master gives me a little of the crust). A boxed set of 4 DVDs from PBS Distribution.
3 KEYS TO HEART HEALTH
Dr. Lori Mosca, professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and a leading preventive cardiologist, offers practical steps to preventing heart disease. She addresses her advice to women because it is the number one killer of women, but the keys also apply to men. She answers common questions about heart disease and gives a prescription for exercise and nutrition. Healthy viewing from PBS Distribution.
MUSIC OF THE 70s
If your master remembers the songs “Nobody Does it Better,” “You Light Up My Life,” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” he or she will probably love this new DVD of some of the favorite songs of the 1970s. It’s called MARVIN HAMLISH PRESENTS THE 70s, THE WAY WE WERE. The award-winning composer and conductor hosts this television special bringing together on-stage for the first time the singers who made the songs favorites. A companion to the DVD is a CD that includes bonus songs. From PBS Distribution.
That’s all, folks. See you at the same fire hydrant next month. And if you want to social network with me, I’m not on Facebook or Twitter (I’m a more independent dog than that), email me at waltmax@comcast.net.)
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