Dunkirk (Movie 2017)

Since this is the start of my staycation, it's the New Year's holiday weekend, and it's brutally cold out, I felt like watching a movie. I rented Dunkirk. It follows the true story during WWII when British civilians came to the rescue in vessels of their military who were trying to evacuate France with the German soldiers closing in. 300,000 were saved. Well known actor/director Kenneth Branagh is in it as well as Harry Styles (boy band One Direction) and Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders). But really there are no stars in this. This is not a character driven story. The characters are almost anonymous to us. We don't know their backgrounds. We are are just thrown into the circumstances with them and watch it unfold. It's the events/ history that is the star of this film. It has 3 focal points-soldiers on the beach at Dunkirk, pilots flying in Spitfires, and a father, son and young boy in a boat on their way to France. You feel the panic, the hopelessness and desperation. An interesting thing is you never actually see a German soldier's face. A faceless enemy just heightens the fear as the bullets are whizzing by or hitting the British soldiers praying to be delivered from death. At the end of the movie we hear a British soldier reading from a newspaper the famous "we shall never surrender" speech by Winston Churchill. Of course we know it is true. The Allies were pushed back in 1940 but eventually won the war. Being a student of WWII I feel this is well made and had a unique way of presenting this part of history.

Knightfall (TV Series, History Channel 2017)

Knightfall is the new drama about the mysterious Knights Templar of the past who fought in the Crusades. The first episode aired this week. It starts with them being forced out of the Holy Land and in the process lose the Holy Grail. It then jumps to 15 years later in Paris and the lead character Landry questioning what has become of their mission since all they have done in the past years is to become money lenders. I wanted to love this since I am a history buff and find the Knights Templar a fascinating topic. Can't say I fell in love. The sets and locations were well done and some good battle scenes. But it didn't really start out with characters that caught my eye. And the story line was a bit dull. However, there were a couple of interesting revelations in the last 10 minutes that got my attention. The preview of the upcoming weeks definitely gave me some more hope. I plan on giving it another try next week to see if it picks up. Jeremy Renner is one of the executive producers of this series.

A Christmas Carol (TV Movie 1984)

Tis the season once again to catch some movie version of the Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol. The BEST one hands down was made for tv back in 1984 starring George C. Scott. Even though Scott does not physically match the description of Scrooge in the book, he totally embodies the character and brings him to life. He doesn't over play him like some have in the past. This man becomes real and you understand how greed has masked sadness and emotional wanting. This Christmas Carol has a scary and sympathetic Jacob Marley ghost like no other. Edward Woodward is bigger than life as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Tiny Tim is positively ethereal here. David Warner and Roger Rees also star. When you take a trip back to that wonderful Victorian Christmas ghost tale about the spirit of a man being revived and soul saved, I recommend this wonderful film.