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I Accuse! (1958)
10/10
History speaks
15 August 2008
Jose Ferrer acted in more than 100 movies and TV episodes. One of his sons, Miguel Ferrer, and a nephew, George Clooney, followed successfully his steps in the movie business. All this was not an accident. Jose Ferrer's Oscar winning performance in Cyrano De Bergerac in 1950 was followed 8 years later in I Accuse! Although not winning another Oscar, his portrayal of a French Jewish artillery captain, Alfred Dreyfus, falsely accused of treason in 1894, sentenced and sent to Devil's Island, makes one feel what the relative of actor Richard Dreyfus felt while publicly being degraded, his sword broken and what he had to live in the tropical God forgotten Atlantic island, 7 miles off the coast of French Guiana, where he was sent at the beginning of 1895. Many people stood for him, like French writer Emile Zola and one can check it in Paul Muni's The Life of Emile Zola, but there is NO DVD RELEASE OF "I ACCUSE"! So I Accuse the studio MGM or whoever has the rights now days, of negligence in not releasing this movie on DVD. I can write down a thousand titles list of crap movies released by MGM, worthless garbage, in the past 20 or so years, but they had to miss this one. Shame on whoever is in charge of selecting which movies to be released on DVD and which not. Who died and made him God in that department? Wake up MGM and deal with this. I bet anything that I'm not the only one that wants that movie released on DVD.
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Troy (2004)
2/10
Worthless
15 August 2008
Homer would swirl in his grave if he had the chance to see this movie. The Iliad twisted in such a way that it is like reading a History book in which it says that Hitler's Germany won the 2nd World War. I hope this is not a spoiler because it is taken form a long time ago written poem but, Menelaus killed by Hector? Achilles killed by Paris inside burning Troy? The Hollywood idea of making always good and bad guys in a movie is what stinks most out of this movie. The historical fact and truth is that the Troyan War was nothing more that an economical war for the control of the Mediterranean commerce and trade. Hell, Troy was just another Greek city. It was getting pretty mighty and the rest of the Greek cities in Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean coasts were not very happy about it. That's in plain words. Helen, was an induced pretext, sort of speaking. Who knows, maybe she played with Paris and had the rest of the Troyans fall for it. There are two versions of her fate after the war: she was reunited with Menelaus and they lived together happily ever after in Sparta and the other is that Menelaus "took her for a ride" one sunny day never to return. I liked the special effects and the CGIs though.
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8/10
Mythology and history on film, as best as it can be considering the year it was filmed.
21 October 2007
I grew up with all the Steve Reeves Hercules movies and every time I see them memories live again. Acting, script, photography are not the best, but intentions make it for any shortcomings. In the 60's Steve Reeves was always the best choice for this kind of movies which rescue for the common viewer Greek Mythology in images, since reading these days on those topics is something of a dead matter for most people. Haven't heard lately anyone opining on Homer's books. Let's not forget that history is strongly involved and though historical events are quite distorted there's epic action along with mythological figures (Achilles) and real people (Ulyses). Although it can't be compared to the recent 2004 Brad Pitt Troy, it is more close to some real facts such as the death of Paris in situ and fact is that Paris never made it. At least, not alive. A must see for anyone who wants digested Greek Mythology and History, but why on earth ALL THE HERCULES MOVIES ARE RELEASED ON DVD IN 1.33:1 (pan and scan) AND NOT IN THEIR 2.35:1 ORIGINAL FORMAT? The magnitude of the battles and other details are unfortunately lost. It is an unfair mutilation which studios should and must avoid and repair in new DVD editions. Can one imagine Ben-Hur in 1.33:1 format? English dubbing is alright but having the option of Italian audio along with subtitles won't do any harm. I wonder if studios bother to read what their DVD buying customers have to say about the quality of their products.
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