Poetry: BIRD WARS

The skies
seem placid
But only to
Those held in thrall
by their chosen
Daily grind and commute
As dawn yields
to ever-expanding clouds
Intrepid nightingale
defend inscrutable turf
against enterprising
Sparrowhawk
Over
The water's edge frigate birds
Hold a tight formation
A geometric majesty that
Mocks
the facile tower blocks
Below
Neutral egret
stick their bobbing task
of ridding freshly mowed
idle patches of scampering bugs
Power lines
Tree tops
And cell towers become
Bases and ways stations
And this one
As with all wars
had its intervallic courtships
and copulations
Its cyclical
flights of life
Renewed amid mayhem
The skies
merely
seem
placid


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Killing Season: OldSoldiers Never Die....they just develop terrible accents

 John Travolta and Robert De Niro are both excellent actors a little past their primes. Both came to public cinematic notice in the 1970s, Travolta in the breakout disco story "Saturday Night Fever" and De Niro a few years earlier in "The Godfather II". Both have their share of winners and clunkers. If anything Travolta has been more of a tabloid target in recent years, owing to death of his son Jett, his adherence top Scientology and rumours about his sexuality.

So this story of two veterans of the Bosnian War, one American, one Serbian, who clash in the Appalachian Mountain wilderness has a certain sense of inevitability about it in terms of bringing the two together. Ford (De Niro) is a former American soldier who fought on the front lines in Bosnia. When the story begins, he has retreated to a remote cabin in the woods, trying to escape painful memories of war. The drama begins when Kovac (John Travolta), a former Serbian soldier, seeks Ford out, hoping to settle an old score. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game in which Ford and Kovac fght their own personal World War III, with battles both physical and psychological.

And the physical quotient is certainly high - meaning this is not a film for the squeamish: Travolta his his lower jaw "nailed" to a wall courtesy of an arrow fired by De Niro and he in turn exerts similarly harsh physical punishment on his rival. This back-and forth takes up most of the film's running time, with a barely mentioned subtext of De Niro estrangement from his son (Milo Ventimigilia) and his grandson.

By the end of the flm, old wounds are opened, suppressed memories are drawn to the surface and long-hidden secrets about both Ford and Kovac are revealed, including of course that they were  in much closer quarters in the war than Ford had any memory of. Director writer Mark Stevenson keeps things pretty murky throughout, as he did with "Daredevil" and other features, but the action is absorbing enough and almost covers for Travolta's wretchedly contrived Bosnian accent.

Nazis in the Valley: Resistance

"After the failure of D-Day, the Germans have invaded England"


That bold bit of revisionist fantasy sets off a melancholy, restrained yet strangely irresistible cinematic story. The year 1944 finds the Germans ensconced in Wales, looking to deliver the death-blow to Allied forces. 
Or are they? In the desolate, remote yet starkly beautiful Olchon valley, in Wales (or Hertfordshire), a Nazi squad led by Albrecht (the steely yet muddled Tom Wlaschiha) is playing a tricky balancing game of ingratiating himself to the local townswomen - whose husbands have left them to join the resistance movement of the title, and keeping a lid on the "collaboration" lest the vicious Gestapo get wind and wipe them all out. There's also a supposedly valuable map hidden in a cave, and a local sniper who's entertaining his own doubts. 

Tom begins to fall in love with Sarah (Andrea Riseborough), the quietly desperate farmer's wife, the women contribute civilian clothing - their husbands' - to the conquerors and there is a quietly riveting scene at a county horse and livestock show, only this one is complete with Nazi symbols, staff cars and German officers.


Months pass, with little respite from the bleakness, but all the while, the hope of the women, especially Sarah, of being reunited with their spouses (and, supposedly, of defeating the invaders) is being subtly pitted against the squad's fears of discovery. 


A war story with little (but effectively staged) violence, and a love story with no physical congress between the "lovers" Resistance is the kind of film that falls between the Hollywood cracks, but one which is worth picking up.

Of Saints & Sinners: There Be Dragons

"In a child's heart, many seeds; who knows which will bloom"

With strong shades of The Kite Runner, Writer-producer-director Roland Joffe (The Mission) delves into the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s to produce a stirring missive on faith, betrayal, shame, forgiveness and redemption.

The story actually starts in the 1980s, with a writer trying to piece together the strands of myth concerning a Catholic priest who braved both the Fascists and the Communists in doing good and ministering to the locals, the movie's main sub-plot.

The priest, we learn, is the childhood friend of a Fascist who has infiltrated the ranks of the Communists, seeking to avenge the death of his industrialist father. On the way he also falls in love with the paramour of the Communist leader.

Their adult paths scarcely cross and Joffe weaves a comp,ex yet compelling tapestry as the son slowly uncovers the sins of the father. In a film world where war scenes have overblown, technologically dictated snoozefests, the conflicts here retain the full measure of immediacy and urgency. The film's religious thread, while strong, never overwhelms, and the characters always come off as flesh and blood human beings rather than one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs.

Oscar Wilde is quoted in the movie ad saying "every saint has a past;every sinner a future." the two types meet, meld and transform each other in this slept-on gem of a movie.

Bringing the Wars Home: Battle: Los Angeles Trailer 3 (2011) HD

Often enough, especially with war movies, getting there is really half the fun. Even if you can't guess the outcome, you're fairly sure there will be one, and the way said outcome is arrived at is what largely holds one's attention.

Into this rubric steps Battle: Los Angeles (actually the subtitle; the full thing being World Invasion. Battle Los Angeles, which telegraphs its sub-plot before subsuming it in the main action sequences, only for it to resurface near the end.

Marine Staff Sergeant Mike Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) is damaged goods, a fearless leader who has endure the ignominy of heavy casualties on his last tour. He has basically put in his discharge papers when of course, all hell breaks loose, and the meteor showers that pepper the western coastline form the film's opening segue into  the alien attack of the title. Nantz is thus pulled back into active duty and to lead men, one of whom is the brother of  one of the fallen soldiers. Complicating matters further, Nantz must also serve under a lieutenant (Ramon Rodriguez) who is fresh out of the academy, and who is both mistrustful and resentful of his presence.

With those issues, the squad charges into its mission, to reach an abandoned police station and see to the rescue and evacuation of some civilians trapped in there and to get everyone out before the Air Force levels the entire area with bombs.

What ensues are some credibly gritty fire-fights, the type that lit up Black Hawk Down, but this film lacks much of the urgency that attended Ridley Scott's war opus (ironically chronicling a side that got its butt kicked). The proceedings are leavened somewhat by the addition of the reliable Michelle Rodriguez as the leader of another squad that has stumbled through its own hell to find themselves in the same vicinity.

Ultimately however, Battle Los Angeles, which arrives in cinemas with "Battle Libya" escalating and with the prolonged battles in Iraq and Afghanistan supposedly approaching their respective endgames, is timely, but not timeless. The pantheon of great war movies ,both classic and contemporary, is already crowded, and the price of admission is simply higher than this movie presents at the door.