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DVD Faith of My Fathers
"It's all about character," Jack McCain says to son John on his first day at Annapolis Naval Academy. Based on John McCain's autobiography, A&E’s Faith of Our Fathers traces the senator's character-building journey from pilot to POW to war hero. Shawn Hatosy (Soldier's Girl) is John and Scott Glenn (The Right Stuff) is his four-star admiral father. The story begins in 1967 when the younger man is shot down over North Vietnam, tortured, and hospitalized--only to be tortured again. Then it flashes back to 1953 as he takes his initial steps towards a military career and life with first wife Carol (Erin Cottrell). The made-for-TV movie continues to alternate between Annapolis and Vietnam's Hanoi Hilton. The story ends after McCain is released in 1973. Although his part often feels underwritten, Hatosy shines as a man who, like his father before him, would not betray his country at any cost. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
I read the other review for this movie on this page, and I wonder if the author and I saw the same movie.
I agree that "Faith of My Fathers" did not show the full horror of what McCain went through. But it showed enough (McCain in agony from injuries that he suffered ejecting from his plane, McCain getting the hell beaten out of him by his captors, McCain getting brutally tortured). Remember, this was a made-for-TV movie, so there were limits on what could be shown (both for ratings and not to turn people's stomachs).
My quibbles are that at 90 minutes, the movie was indeed too short. There was no reference to McCain's narrow escape from a terrible fire onboard the aircraft carrier that he served on. McCain's life after his release from captivity is also missing (the movie could have been a miniseries).
"Faith of my Fathers" may not be as wrenching as "the Deer Hunter," but it's still a good movie and made me admire McCain all the more.
Faith of My Fathers: Unrealistic Portrayal of Vietnam
Arizona Senator John McCain enjoys his present day life as an influential member of the congress, leading debates on important issues and influencing legislation. He often gets into conflicts over some of his stands, but none of these can compare to the conflict McCain experienced back in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It was during this time that McCain spent several years as a Vietnam prisoner of war. This event is the subject of this movie, which is based on McCain's book of the same name.
In this film, McCain is portrayed briefly during his teenage years but the majority of the movie's time is spent either in Vietnam (inside the prison) or at McCain's military school, the U.S. Naval Academy. The movie begins by showing McCain (who is played by actor Shawn Hatosy) operating a fighter plane over Vietnam. He is shot down and has to parachute to safety; landing in water where some local Vietnamese come to his rescue and then promptly turn him over to the proper authorities. The film then alternates back and forth between scenes in the prison and flashbacks to scenes in the Naval Academy.
There is some violence in this film, but it is nothing compared to what was actually experienced. And herein lies the main problem I have with this film. The director made this movie in a very toned- down fashion so that it would be mild enough to get past the censors and be shown on television. In order to accomplish this, he had to eliminate scenes of brutal violence; profanity; and tough talk. Because of this, the movie seems very unrealistic. If you have read McCain's book by the same name, then you know that the conditions and the treatment McCain and others like him endured were horrifying. None of this comes through in this movie. It comes across as a little rough and unpleasant, but nowhere near the awful, inhumane experience that it really was.
Another problem I have with this film (which stems from the first problem) is the attitude of actor Shawn Hatosy and others who play the POW's. Hatosy's McCain character seems very bland, and rarely does he voice any concern over the nightmare he is living through. You can tell he and the others are not happy, but about the only dialogue you get is when McCain and another prisoner talk through the walls, between cells, by placing a cup to the wall. There is no intelligent dialogue, discussion of escape, feelings about the war or the captors, or anything else. This, again, makes the film seem a little unrealistic.
This movie is 90 minutes in length and it needed to be another half hour (or more) longer to give the McCain story the attention and respect it deserves. McCain's story, as told in his book, would make for a great, dramatic, and powerful Hollywood motion picture about the atrocities of war. But the way it is presented in this film, his experience seems more like a bad day on the job than the horrifying experience that it really was.
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Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nicole Kidman - Sean Penn - Catherine Keener Director(s): Sydney Pollack DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Warm Springs is a riveting, deeply moving film about a lesser-known chapter in the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the American president who saw his country through the dark, terrible times of the Great Depression and most of World War II. Before those epochal events, however, Roosevelt spent time in a political wilderness, groomed for high office but struck down by polio at age 39. Warm Springs is the fascinating story of Roosevelt's painful journey from despair back to wisdom and leadership. Kenneth Branagh gives an emotionally raw, courageous performance as FDR, estranged from his wife, Eleanor (a near-luminous Cynthia Nixon), and his political guru (David Paymer) while ambivalently seeking rehabilitation at Warm Springs, a broken-down spa in the backwoods of... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Joseph Sargent DVD Release Date: Released the 30 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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