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DVD Buffalo Soldiers
Inviting casual comparison to Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, Buffalo Soldiers is an Army-base comedy about soldiers "with nothing to kill except time." It's 1989: The Berlin Wall is falling, completing the cold war's thaw, and Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix)--a clerk with the 317th Supply Battalion, stationed in West Germany--combats boredom with a variety of black-market schemes, from cooking heroin for the base's corrupt MPs to dealing stolen arms to the highest bidder, in addition to having a shallow affair with the two-timing wife (Elizabeth McGovern) of his outgoing commander (Ed Harris). Elwood's new CO (Scott Glenn) clamps down on his illegal activities while protecting his daughter (Anna Paquin) from Elwood's advances. Fine casting and positive buzz couldn't prevent this movie's ironic fate: Acquired by Miramax one day before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Buffalo Soldiers--based on the celebrated novel by Robert O'Connor--was shelved for nearly two years, by which time this dark and defiantly amusing exercise in political incorrectness had been overshadowed by world events. --Jeff Shannon
This movie is interesting if you arfe stuck in the 80's like I am. It is an interesting tale of how things are not always quite the way they seem - the different personalities in the film have conflicts over the different priorities of their lives - playing one role but are doing other things that seem to against what they are doing.
An alright movie
Buffalo Soldiers is an alright movie, it has good actining, but the plot is a little off. Even though it's satarical, there's no reason why it should nake soldiers look bad. I have no problem with criticizing soldiers, but do it for a reason.
Very Good Acting and Characters, But Satires No Longer Bite
The name of 'Buffalo Soldiers', historically speaking, originally refers to the all black soldiers during the post-Civil War period (there is a made-for-TV film starring Danny Glover of the same title). I say this not because I wanted to show my historical knowledge (sorry, I confess, I did). I say this because I still don't know why the film (or the original book) uses the name? What's the point?
This is exactly what I was thinking while watching this film. It is a satire, to be sure. I can see it when Joaquin Phoenix appears as Elwood, US soldier in Germany just before the Cold War ended, and acts like an anti-hero -- stealing, cooking cocaine, etc. I don't know whether or not his outrageous deeds are based on truths, but I know such dark comedy films as "MASH" and "Catch 22," and you don't need to be offended seeing these things on screen. Even if the tank runs like mad on the town's market, 'squishing' the cars and stalls; even if Ed Harris's Col. Berman is, good-natured as he is, hopelessly inept as an officer. Scott Glen's sardonic sergeant Lee (another reference to the Civil War?), according to his daughter Robyn (Anna Paquin), is delighted to 'kill' Elwood, just like he did in the previous war in Vietnam. And her burnt skin testifies to her words. All these elements point to one thing only.
Right, if the things went this too far, this film must be a satire. But against what? The film is about that particular time between the long Cold War and the Gulf War, the curiously 'peaceful' period when nations in the world were keeping the military balance in a precarious way. But that old time is gone forever, and we should know that now. It is Miramax who knows it best when it had to delay the release date many times.
However, for all its uniformly good acting, the film looks irrelevant now. It's about those soliders living at that time and that place. It's not 'Three Kings' whose setting is more immediate to us. It's not 'Catch 22' whose absurd situations reminded us of our equally absurd existence. And of course, the film is not about the soldiers in Iraq (if so, this could never be released).
With all respect to the film and its makers, it is truism, or cliche, to say that 'Buffalo Soldiers' is darkly funny, hilarious attack on the US military system, and so on and on. The film is not boring, but it ends there, nothing more. Aussie director Gregor Jordan made 'Ned Kelly' after this, and it also lacked a strong center or theme around which the events should be depicted. Like 'Ned' 'Buffalo Soliders' is pretty entertaining, and retains a good amount of satrical tone in it, but the target remains very vague throughout the story.
Set in Montana's Big Sky country, shot in Utah, lensed by Eric Alan Edwards (cinematographer of My Own Private Idaho)--no wonder it's hard to tell where Clay Pigeons lives, or where it's going. A Ridley Scott protégé previously at home in commercials and videos, debuting director David Dobkin aims to deliver us into the blackly comedic badlands of neo-noir, territory mined by the likes of Red Rock West and Fargo. Pigeons launches strongly, with several cruel turns of the screw. Out target-shooting, Clay Birdwell (Joaquin Phoenix) is hit with the news that his best pal knows he's been boffing his ur-slut wife (Georgina Cates) and could take Clay out on the spot, but chooses a creepier revenge--committing suicide in order to frame the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Joaquin Phoenix - Georgina Cates - Vince Vaughn Director(s): David Dobkin DVD Release Date: Released the 05 November 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Fulfilling the promise of his debut film, Little Odessa, 31-year-old writer-director James Gray proves himself a mature storyteller who attracts good actors and elicits their best work. Inspired by the experiences of his own father, Gray sets The Yards inside the corrupt workings of the New York City railway system, in which men such as Frank Olchin (James Caan) maintain their dominance by sabotaging the work of their competitors. Mark Wahlberg is well cast as Leo Handler, who serves jail time for a crime he didn't commit and returns home to a warm welcome from his ailing mother (Ellen Burstyn), his aunt Kitty (and Frank's wife, played by Faye Dunaway), and cousin Erica (Charlize Theron).
If anyone ever doubts whether Nicole Kidman is a good actress, they should immediately be required to watch this outrageously wicked comedy from 1995, for which Kidman deservedly won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role. While director Gus Van Sant handles the fact-based satire with razor-sharp precision, Kidman delivers a deliciously devious performance as Suzanne Stone, a small-town New Hampshire housewife who fancies herself the next Barbara Walters, Jane Pauley, Diane Sawyer, and Maria Shriver all rolled up into one meticulously coiffed package. So determined is she to have a successful career on TV that she'll stop at nothing--even the calculated murder of her husband (Matt Dillon)--to get the attention she feels entitled to. To carry out her scheme she recruits some... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nicole Kidman - Matt Dillon Director(s): Gus Van Sant DVD Release Date: Released the 07 August 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In Malaysia, three young Americans with little else in common are united in a shared enthusiasm for beer, women, and righteous hashish. Eventually, "Sheriff" (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) head back to New York. Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix), a spacey but good-hearted sort, stays on with the notion of helping save the orangutans. Two years later, a brassy lawyer (Anne Heche) shows up in Manhattan with the news that her client, Lewis, has spent the interim in Penang prison. Arrested for a prankish misdemeanor they all shared in, he's taking the rap for something worse: the dope stash they left him holding was a fatal few grams over the limit. Unless his fellow Americans return voluntarily to (literally) share the weight, in eight days Lewis will be hanged as a drug... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vince Vaughn - Anne Heche - Joaquin Phoenix Director(s): Joseph Ruben DVD Release Date: Released the 05 November 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A showcase for bright young stars, Inventing the Abbotts aspires to be the kind of 1950s melodrama--like Splendor in the Grass--that was perfected by directors like Elia Kazan and Douglas Sirk. Calling on the strength of his earlier Circle of Friends, Irish director Pat O'Connor brings many of that film's admirable qualities to this similar ensemble piece (set in late-'50s Illinois), but it's held together by looser and weaker threads. And yet this tale of class division and forbidden love is sensitively written and beautifully filmed, highlighted by two young lovers at the center of an interfamilial conflict.
"Alice is the good daughter, Eleanor's the bad one, and I'm the one that just sorta gets off the hook." That's how rich girl Pam Abbott (Liv Tyler)... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Liv Tyler - Joaquin Phoenix - Jennifer Connelly Director(s): Pat O'Connor DVD Release Date: Released the 13 March 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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