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Reviews
Their Finest (2016)
A very British film
A thoroughly British film, with just the right amount of condescension to the Americans. I loved the contrast between British understatement and American overthetopness (hence Trump).
Very fine acting, all the time just on the edge of caricature, but not quite ridiculous. Highly authentic. As a notorious pedant, I can say I found no inaccuracies. The film really felt like it was of the era.
Top hole, chaps!
Delicious (2016)
Delicious? Not!
The starter was very disappointing. Potentially good ingredients failed to blend well, and it became a chore to chew my way through to the end of the first course. In fact, I ended up with indigestion. I'll forgo the mains, the dessert and the cheese courses, and go to another restaurant. Delicious? Not!
Under sandet (2015)
What else could the Danes do?
I lived in that part of Denmark 30 years after the war ended. Many people told me of the horrors of the German occupation. A legacy of this time was the hundreds of thousands of land mines the Germans left behind. How else were the Danes going to clear them? Should Danes be blown up in the process? No, they applied the rule: "You broke it - you fix it." Very sad for the young Germans, but this was war.
Another film showing the futility of war. And yet we go on having wars - and that fool Trump will deliver in spades.
Silence (2016)
What was the point of it all?
I left half-way through. I didn't storm out, but after 1.25 hours I'd had enough. What I saw was well-done, but I kept asking myself "What was the point of all this?" The film was hugely supportive of missionising, but was the Jesuit missionising in 17C Japan a good thing? The Japanese government had a policy of keeping out all foreigners, including missionaries, but they had good reasons for doing this. As had been seen in the Americas, and was being seen in China, missionaries came hand-in-hand with commercial interests, backed up by the military. It usually didn't end well for the local people, who were usually colonised and often enslaved.
Yes, the methods used by the Japanese government were cruel, but were no crueller than what Christians were doing to each other at the time. The Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants was an ongoing bloodbath.
The missionaries were excellent marketers, skilled in the double-whammy approach - first sell 'em Sin, then sell 'em Salvation, the missionaries being the indispensable middle-men. So thousands of Japanese died because they swallowed the missionaries' self-serving mumbo-jumbo.
I had hoped that the film would be more nuanced, exploring the rights and wrongs of missionising. Instead Scorcese chooses to do a propaganda piece - glorifying brave, noble missionaries against the cruel Japanese government.
Not a great film.