The Patriot (2000)
DIRECTOR: Roland Emmerich
CAST: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs, Joely Richardson, Tcheky Karyo, Chris Cooper, Tom Wilkinson, Lisa Brenner, Rene Auberjonois, Adam Baldwin, Gregory Smith
REVIEW:
With The Patriot, one gets the feeling screenwriter Robert Rodat was trying to do for the American Revolution what he previously did for WWII with Saving Private Ryan. To an extent, he deserves credit, as The Patriot is, oddly enough, virtually the only big-budget Hollywood film portraying the Revolutionary War. Alas, the man in the director’s chair here is not Steven Spielberg, but Roland Emmerich, he who leaves no cliche unused. The Patriot is a marked improvement over its immediate predecessor on Emmerich’s filmography, 1998’s Godzilla bastardization, but features too many “a film by Roland Emmerich” hallmarks to be the true great war epic it clearly fancies itself. Continue reading
Gladiator (2000)
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
CAST: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, Tomas Arana, Spencer Treat Clark, Tommy Flanagan, Ralf Moeller, David Schofield, John Shrapnel, David Hemmings, Sven-Ole Thorsen
REVIEW:
Gladiator is the first sword-and-sandals epic in four decades, hearkening back to epic spectacle on a scale seldom mounted while updating the Roman epic with modern effects (and modern violence). To that end, Gladiator might attract both fans of Spartacus and those who appreciate the likes of Braveheart, and combines spectacle, action, and a stirring narrative into a rousing and dynamic film.
Continue readingRide With The Devil (1999)
DIRECTOR: Ang Lee
CAST:
Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel, Jeffrey Wright, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Jim Caviezel, Simon Baker, Tom Wilkinson, Zach Grenier, Jonathan Brandis, Mark Ruffalo
REVIEW:
At first glance, Taiwan native Ang Lee seems a director who defies any discernible genre or common thread linking his films; he has directed everything from the Jane Austen romance Sense and Sensibility to the searing ’70s drama The Ice Storm (also featuring Tobey Maguire) to the martial arts extravaganza Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, to the comic-book flick The Hulk, to the ‘gay cowboy’ drama Brokeback Mountain. Continue reading
Elizabeth (1998)
DIRECTOR: Shekhar Kapur
CAST: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, Christopher Eccleston
REVIEW:
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England began in 1558, when at the age of twenty-five, she succeeded her half-sister Mary I. Over the course of the next forty-five years, she ushered in the so-called Golden Age and became one of the longest-reigning and most popular and successful monarchs ever to sit on the British throne. Director Shekhar Kapur’s lavish period costume drama Elizabeth, however, focuses on the early years of Elizabeth’s reign, when the young queen was surrounded by enemies and plagued with uncertainty, and facing the prospect of losing her throne—and her life—so soon after taking it.
Continue readingLes Misérables (1998)
DIRECTOR: Bille August
CAST: Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, Claire Danes, Hans Matheson, Peter Vaughan
REVIEW:
Those wanting the musical numbers of the popular stage musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel Les Misérables—a mainstay onstage since its debut in 1985—may be disappointed, but among non-musical film adaptations, Bille August’s interpretation of the oft-told tale is a handsome adaptation, picturesquely-filmed, well-cast (at least in the two lead roles), and finding an effective balance of condensing Hugo’s sprawling epic into a coherent abridged film version that—while some of its omissions will not sit well with purists—retains the novel’s key themes and heart. The result is not only one of the better examples of the assorted Les Mis adaptations, but a handsomely-crafted period drama in itself accessible to Hugo neophytes. Continue reading
Michael Collins (1996)
DIRECTOR: Neil Jordan
CAST: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Alan Rickman, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart, Brendan Gleeson, Charles Dance
REVIEW:
Irish director Neil Jordan isn’t one to shy away from controversy (The Crying Game), and his latest film, a biopic of IRA (the so-called Irish Republican Army) founder Michael Collins, is sure to generate it again, both from those who feel it overly glorifies a man who, depending on who you ask, could either be labeled a freedom fighter or a terrorist, and from those who object to its negative portrayal of former Irish president Eamon De Valera. Taken on its own merits, however, Michael Collins is a well-crafted, compelling historical drama anchored by a forceful lead performance by Liam Neeson. Continue reading
Braveheart (1995)
DIRECTOR: Mel Gibson
CAST: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Catherine McCormack, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen, Brendan Gleeson
REVIEW:
WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN “SPOILERS”
For only his second outing behind the camera, Mel Gibson (who made his directorial debut in 1993’s The Man Without a Face, in which he also starred) has tackled the kind of ambitious undertaking Hollywood rarely mounts anymore, a grand epic throwback to the likes of Spartacus and Lawrence of Arabia. What might be more surprising is that he’s pulled it off in impressive fashion, showing he can handle a lavish production with large-scale battle scenes. In fact, among the directorial debuts or near-debuts of actors-turned-directors, it’s the most impressive entry since Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves five years earlier. Braveheart isn’t perfect, but it’s a rollicking, crowd-pleasing adventure painted on an epic scale with the kind of grandeur that might appeal to fans of Spartacus or The Last of the Mohicans. Continue reading
Rob Roy (1995)
DIRECTOR: Michael Caton-Jones
CAST:
Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Brian Cox, Eric Stoltz, Brian McCardie, Andrew Keir
REVIEW:
There actually was a Robert Roy MacGregor, a Scottish cattleman whose battles against wealthy landowners made him a folk hero in 1700s Scotland, but the film by Michael Caton-Jones is only inspired by MacGregor’s story, and ultimately how much or little of it is based on fact is irrelevant to one’s enjoyment of the movie. Continue reading
Murder in the First (1995)
DIRECTOR: Marc Rocco
CAST:
Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz, William H. Macy, R. Lee Ermey, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brad Dourif, Kyra Sedgwick, Mia Kirshner
REVIEW:
Murder in the First is a serviceable, if generic, courtroom drama with one exceptional performance and a couple harrowingly effective sequences. Unfortunately, it’s also a film that makes a virtual lie of its ‘based on true events’ tagline and docudrama style from beginning to end. If you’re looking for a movie to stoke the flames of righteous indignation at prison system injustice, Murder in the First may get your juices flowing, but keep in mind to take everything you see and hear with a very large grain of salt.
Schindler’s List (1993)
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
CAST:
Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Embeth Davidtz, Caroline Goodall
REVIEW:
Oskar Schindler was an unlikely hero. German businessman and war profiteer, womanizer, slave laborer, and a member of the Nazi Party with prominent friends within the SS, he happily moved in on the heels of the conquering German Army and set up an enamelware factory in occupied Krakow, taking advantage of cheap Polish-Jewish labor in the service of the Third Reich. Yet coming into such close contact with Jews at a time when his own government was implementing plans for their total annihilation seems to have lit a spark of humanity within the opportunistic Schindler, and by the Nazis’ downfall in 1945, he had bankrupted himself and his factory and endured repeated arrests by the Gestapo to bring nearly 1,200 Polish Jews safely through the war and the simultaneously blazing Holocaust. This German war profiteer and nominal Nazi had saved more Jews than any other individual. And yet, for decades afterward, his story, and theirs, remained largely untold. Continue reading