historyonfilm.com

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Gangster Squad’s presentation of Mickey Cohen as a vicious gangster who rules over the city of Los Angeles until a small band of brave policemen end his reign of terror has nothing to do with reality. Extremely inaccurate, the movie is a deliberate falsification of the situation. Worse, it is not entertaining. Filled with exciting car chases in the desert and exciting shootouts in a hotel, the movie should be exciting but the action scenes are bland and formulaic, so it is cartoonish like 1980′s G.I. Joe cartoonish, but not as good. It will take quite some time to list just the major inaccuracies in this film, so you might want to go to the bathroom first. Read More…

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At first glance, Atonement appears to be a compromise movie, which is primarily a tragic romance to attract women, but has a battle scene to satisfy their husbands and boyfriends. Unexpectedly, the earlier scenes of the romance between a young couple separated by the social divide in England before WWII are much more interesting and coherent than the scenes set during the Dunkirk Evacuation. Far more comfortable with sexual tension and class issues, director Joe Wright’s emphasis on stunning images rather than actually explaining how the British army was successfully evacuated from France at the beginning of WWII proves that he does not know how to direct a war film. Read More…

Cinco de Mayo, or May 5, is a Mexican holiday that receives little attention in Mexico but is an important holiday for the Mexican-American community. The holiday celebrates a Mexican victory at Puebla against French invaders, which begs the question, why did France invade Mexico in the first place?

The French Intervention in Mexico (1861-1867) is one of the stranger footnotes in history. Employing a flimsy excuse, Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon, invaded Mexico, stage-managed a referendum in favor of switching from a republic to a monarchy, and placed Archduke Maximilian, the brother of Emperor Franz Josef of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on the throne. The French army defeated the Mexican army, but Maximilian’s support was limited to the conservative elite, while the countryside was dominated by Juaristas, guerrillas loyal to President Benito Juarez. After the fall of the Confederacy and the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865), the victorious Union would not tolerate a French presence on its southern border. Blatant pressure convinced the French to return home, enabling Juarez to regain control of Mexico. When the Juaristas finally captured Maximilian, they placed him on trial and executed him, so the brother of one of the most powerful men in the world died in front of a firing squad, like the thousands of Juaristas who had been executed in his name. Read More…

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Starring Cary Grant in one of his less debonair roles, an American submarine sneaks into Tokyo to gather information in preparation for the Doolittle Raid, where Japan was bombed in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite the implausible plot, Destination Tokyo is worth watching for the brilliant underwater photography, taut action, sharp direction, a terrifying depth charge scene and impressive attention to detail.
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A bland movie, The Kid From Texas (1950), one of many movies on Billy the Kid, has an intriguing script, and could have been an intriguing psycho-drama with better actors and direction. Read More…

The tag line of season three of The Borgias is “give in to sin”. Judging by the trailer, the sin is incest, which puts the series where Game of Thrones was in its first episode.

The previous season had ended in a cliffhanger as Cardinal della Rovere’s plotting against the pope had finally achieved results, although given the involvement of a key character, it seems unlikely that death will result. While the machinations between the papacy and the city-states for control of Italy will undoubtedly continue, hopefully this season will deal with the controversial Papal Bulls, which gave the Spanish king authority to enslave the inhabitants of the New World, what we now call Latin America and the Caribbean, if they refused to convert to Christianity.

Admittedly, last season was an improvement over the first season, especially the scenes with Machiavelli and the religious zealot Savonarola, so my hopes for the third season are relatively high. Anyway, season three is starting next week. Read More…

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Famous for a love scene between Jim Brown and Raquel Welch, one of Hollywood’s first interracial love scenes, 100 Rifles provides a brief look at the fire that consumed Mexico during the Revolution, laying waste to entire states. The story of a marshal searching for a bank robber in Mexico who becomes involved in the Mexican Revolution, it is not the best movie on the Mexican Revolution, and to be honest it could be set anywhere, but it is entertaining. Read More…

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Set during the American retreat to the Bataan peninsula during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during WWII, a small group of soldiers must stop the Japanese from rebuilding a critical bridge. A workmanlike film, the plot shares much in common with The Lost Patrol (1934) but the cast is made up of an excellent group of character actors and the story moves along quickly. Read More…

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Near the end of the American Civil War, the commander of a Union prison recruits a mix of civilians, Confederate prisoners and Union troops to hunt down a band of Apache, pursuing them into Mexico, which was occupied by a French army struggling to place an Austrian prince on the throne. As the search extends into weeks and then months, the men gradually shed all traces of civilization.
Described as Moby Dick on horseback, the film became famous for director Sam Peckinpah’s mix of self-destructive behavior and brilliance. Clashing with the executives who ran the studio, the film was taken away from Peckinpah in the editing stage and a drastically shorter version was released, which was ridiculed by critics and ignored by movie-goers. Although no one knew it at the time, it was a dress rehearsal for The Wild Bunch, but it is still an impressive accomplishment on its own. Major Dundee is one of those movies where a film of the behind-the-scenes action would probably be as interesting as the final result. A restored version, based on a cut made by producer Jerry Bresler, was made in 2005, which provides a more coherent story, while revealing the movie’s flaws. Despite the flaws, it bursts with passion and brilliance. Read More…

History Channel’s new series Vikings has just started, and it looks good so far. To be honest, it is worth watching just for the introduction of early navigation and shipbuilding techniques. The second episode shows the terror of being lost in the mist in the middle of the ocean with no idea of which direction is land, or if there even is land nearby. The lead character, Ragnar Lothbrok, is a famous Norse hero, and Travis Fimmel plays him as a visionary driven to find new lands and kill and loot their inhabitants. I have only seen two episodes but Gabriel Byrne’s Earl Haraldson is a deliciously paranoid and small-minded villain.
Following the surprisingly good Hatfields and McCoys miniseries in 2012, this is History’s first scripted series, making it a player in a crowded field that includes HBO, Starz, AMC, Showtime and the BBC. Nice to see some actual history on the History Channel, instead of the usual Pawn Stars, Ice Truckers and American Pickers.
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