Das Boot (1981)
DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Petersen
CAST: Jurgen Prochnow, Herbert Groenemeyer, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge, Klaus Wennermann, Bernd Tauber, Erwin Leder
REVIEW:
Hailed as possibly the best submarine film ever made, and one of the most honest and unromanticized portrayals of war, Wolfgang Petersen’s simply-titled magnum opus Das Boot (“The Boat” in English) features only adequate special effects and few and far between action sequences, but overcomes any limitations with uniformly authentic performances, Petersen’s direction, and the haunting, sometimes stirring but more often melancholy score by Klaus Doldinger.
Continue readingIndiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
CAST:
Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Wolf Kähler, Anthony Higgins, Alfred Molina
REVIEW:
As a child in the 1940s, George Lucas was enthralled by the serials depicting the hero ending every week in a cliffhanger, only to make a death-defying return the next week. In 1977, fresh off his first Star Wars film, Lucas vacationed in Hawaii, where he met up with Steven Spielberg, who had likewise suddenly made a name for himself with 1975’s Jaws, and the two budding visionaries decided they needed to work together. Their first joint project became Raiders of the Lost Ark, which introduced theatergoers to the character of Indiana Jones, soon to become an iconic figure in American film, and transformed the genre of action movies. Before Indiana Jones, James Bond was the reigning model for action heroes and the films that showcased them to follow. Indiana Jones was a new kind of hero who at the same time hearkened back to the stars of the serials Lucas used as his inspiration. Unlike the debonair James Bond, Indy was a rugged, rough-and-tumble everyman (albeit an exceptionally skilled and daring one) who gets battered and bruised, wears “lived-in” clothes, and doesn’t always operate smoothly. He’s not invincible, and his narrow escapes are partly due to skill, partly due to luck, mostly due to brazen derring-do. Rarely does a film have us asking “how’s he going to get out of this?” more times than Raiders of the Lost Ark. Continue reading
Nighthawks (1981)
DIRECTOR: Bruce Malmuth
CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer, Nigel Davenport, Lindsay Wagner, Persis Khambatta
REVIEW:
Nighthawks aims to be an edgy urban crime thriller combining the gritty, street-level action of Baretta or The French Connection with the international intrigue of The Day of the Jackal (in fact, at one point it was originally planned as The French Connection III), but is actually a rather half-baked and shallowly-plotted cops and killers yarn that squanders the underdeveloped potential of its premise.
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