If I could give this movie a -1 star rating I would emphatically do so.
With a poorly written script, mediocre acting (not the least of which is James Caan doggedly referring to sailors as "soldiers"), inacurate uniform details and an amazingly incompetent misportrayal of both Clayton Hartwig and Kendall Truitt this is easily the worst movie I have ever seen.
I have often watched "real life dramas" made into movies and wondered how much is true and how much is "Hollywood". Well - I can say with absolute certainty and first hand experience that this movie is 99% Hollywood and 1% Truth.
If you really want to know about what happened aboard the USS Iowa and why it may have happened you are much better off reading the book, "A Glimpse of Hell" (which still has its faults and problems, of course) and forgetting about this farce of a movie.
Who am I? I am GMG3 Kendall Truitt's ex-wife and I lived this movie. Take my word for it - this movie stinks!
Very Good
A very good movie overall. An outstanding view of men standing up for what they believe in the face of those that would oppose them and ruin their careers.
James Caan turns in a fine performance as the Captain of the USS Iowa and Robert Sean Leonard another fine performance as the ensign that sometimes opposes the Captain and questions the Navy, even though his father is a Navy legend. These two strong personalities clash over the explosion on the Iowa and its causes.
The men of the Iowa have their own ideas of how to impress the Captain, who is on a career upswing, possibly the next Admiral and they hope to ride his coat tails. The mixture of their ideas and the Captains seeming aloofsness to his men make for a disaster when while trying to stretch the limit of the machinery a gun turret explodes. Many men die but the Navy seems content to brush it under the rug.
But the question remains, was it a horrible accident or a dereliction of duty. The facts presented here weigh in on both sides of the argument. What is the final choice? What happens when the brass get involved? Will they find a scapegoat? Will they hold someone accountable? Or will they use the faulty machinery excuse? Was there a cover-up? A whitewash? Or does the Navy tell you the truth?
Watch this excellent movie to find out.
A dramatization of the mysterious explosion on the USS Iowa
Told from the point of view of a young ensign on the ship, it attempts to show that the Iowa was a dilapidated ship whose command structure was ignorant of anything except self-promotion. Fearing that newer high-tech gadgets would make its own guns obsolete, the gunners take increasing risks in an effort to come up with more spectacular results. Possibly they took one risk to many or possibly there was a mechanical failure but something went tragically wrong and killed 47 people. To this day there are many unanswered questions about the incident.
I did not find this movie to have any spirit, nor did it succeed in showing any new plausible theory about how the accident happened or why the Navy would think that a cover-up would be in its best interests.
There were no special features on the DVD of note.
i really did like this movie and have seen it several times. there is some very funny moments here. i did not care for the whole bit on the fundamentalist army people, but realize something needed to be in there to make some of the jokes work. for some reason i, as a gay person, get a real kick out of straight people trying to act gay. i realize they overdid it intentionally and to me and my sick sense of humor, it worked. i am sure some people would be terribly offended. for those of you that really want a very surreal look at gay life, rent gods and monsters or boys in the band. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kristen Coury DVD Release Date: Released the 21 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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***1/2 "Lawless Heart" feels a bit like a confused mess at the start - until you realize that it is telling the same story from the perspective of three different characters. When the elements begin to fall into place, the film becomes a touching human drama about exactly what the title implies - the inability to make the heart do what one wants it to do.
Written and directed by Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter, the film begins at the funeral of a gay man named Stuart who drowned a few days earlier in a boating accident. The story focuses on three of the people closest to him: Nick, Stuart's lover; Dan, Stuart's brother-in-law; and Tim, an old friend of Stuart's who's been off trying to make a success of himself and not doing a very good job of it. Rather than relate the tale in a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bill Nighy - Tom Hollander - Douglas Henshall Director(s): Neil Hunter - Tom Hunsinger DVD Release Date: Released the 19 August 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Km.0, a sweet-natured and gloriously vibrant Spanish film, is perhaps possessed of one of the most beautiful looking casts that I've ever seen in a movie. Full of pretty men, and women, Km.0 is all about the importance of serendipity and providence, and that life's choices and coincidences can sneak up on you, just when you least expect it.
It's August, and Madrid is absolutely sweltering. In fact, it's so hot that everyone, distracted by the heat, is prone to getting his or her connections scrambled. When fourteen separate people show up for arranged liaisons at central Madrid's Puerta del Sol, where the street marker reads Kilometer Zero, they end up loving and connecting in ways that they never intended to.
In Gerry, two young men (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) wander beautiful, barren, and surreal landscapes, gradually growing more and more lost. This film from Gus Van Sant (director of Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting) has no story, hardly any dialogue, and even less in the way of "action" or "events." Yet the movie is by turns maddening and hypnotic; although few people will agree on which are the maddening scenes and which are the hypnotic ones, you will leave Gerry with one or more stunning images in your head. In fact, Gerry is probably more pleasurable to remember than it is to sit through. Committed performances, flashes of dark humor, and a smattering of visual effects give the movie some shape, but the more you... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Casey Affleck - Matt Damon Director(s): Gus Van Sant DVD Release Date: Released the 11 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This is probably the best digital video movie I've watched. The travelogue-like scenes do have that cheap home digital video look (I don't think this is high definition), but the character scenes are mostly dark and very well lit, they do their job helping the mood of the movie, and not getting in the way with their uglyness, as happens many times with this format. Anyway this would be nothing without a decent script, which this movie has too. You really get into the story and the main character's predicament (there's not a scene he isn't in). The less 'nice' parts of his personality (depression, etc) didn't take me away from the movie, as has happened to me with other mentally troubled characters like catherine deneuve's in 'Repulsion', where I always feel they go way too far. Though... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Rodolphe Marconi DVD Release Date: Released the 27 April 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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