Lone Survivor [2013]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RE.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J.P. McCarthy) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RE.com (S. Boone) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

Lone Survivor [2013] (directed and screenplay by Peter Berg, based on the memoir by Marcus Luttrell [IMDb] and Patrick Robinson) is about the skill, dedication and heroism of U.S. Navy SEALS fighting in the post-9/11 U.S. War on Terror, often, obviously, in the mountains of Afghanistan where this story is set.

From this description, it should be clear that the film carries with it a clear, basically, pro-American, pro-American-military point of view.  To many American readers here, this may seem like a somewhat annoying restatement of the obvious: Of course this is (and should be) a pro-American, pro-American military film, for it to be anything else would disingenuous or unpatriotic or both.  Yet though I am an American, I belong to a world-wide Catholic Religious Order (the Friar Servants of Mary), I've been on various national and international committees for my Religious Order over the years (including Justice and Peace), and a significant portion of my blog's Readership comes from overseas.   I know well that non-American Readers of my Blog (and non-American Viewers of the Film) would approach this same film with a great deal of skepticism wondering: Is this just "another American propaganda piece?"  I WOULD TELL READERS HERE, BOTH AMERICAN AND NON, THAT IN A CERTAIN SENSE IT (NECESSARILY) IS (an American propaganda piece) BUT (!) IT IS A RATHER GOOD / THOUGHT PROVOKING ONE WORTHY OF THE CRITICAL ATTENTION OF EVERYONE (of both Americans and non).

Why would I write that this film deserves "the critical attention of everyone?"  I write this because the film does deal with both moral questions AND portrays, I believe QUITE WELL certain fundamental characteristics of "American military doctrine" THAT ARE WORTHY OF REFLECTION UPON and COMPARISON WITH fundamental characteristics of the military doctrine of both "other lands" and "other times."

I write this because we all know well that ANY COUNTRY could produce wonderful, compelling "pro-Our Folks" military pieces.  American director Quentin Tarantino did the ENTIRE WORLD an enormous favor by including in his fascinatingly deconstructive "WW II" film Inglourious Basterds [2009] the subplot of the German propaganda machine seeking to produce an American style but PRO-NAZI GERMANY World War II film about "a brave lone Nazi sharpshooter in a bell tower keeping 300 American soldiers at bay" in some random town in Italy (One scene even shows the "brave Nazi sharpshooter" holed up in said "bell tower" pulling-out his pocket knife to carve the crisscrossing lines of the Nazi Swastika into the wood of the floor next to him, to the wild applause of the pro-Nazi German audience watching the film's premiere) the point being precisely that ANY COUNTRY can make its people look Good and "the Enemy" look Bad.   

That said, even propaganda films reveal more than "Our guys are Good and Their guys are Bad" and that is what I believe makes THE CURRENT FILM fascinating.

For the setup of the current film is conventional enough: A team of four über-fit, highly trained U.S. Navy Seals -- Marcus Luttrell (played by Mark Wahlberg), Michael Murphy (played by Taylor Kitsch), Danny Deitz (played by Emile Hirsch) and Matt 'Axe' Axelson (played by Ben Foster) -- are inserted on a "recon" mission into the mountains to Afghanistan to positively I.D. a Taliban leader by the name of Shah (played by Yousuf Azami) reported to be operating out of a small Afghan village in said mountains.  Once positively I.D.ing said Taliban leader, the rest of U.S. Navy Seal Team would be brought in by helicopter to take him and the rest of his company out.

All goes more-or-less according to the set plan until ... the four Navy SEALS perched in the mountains overlooking the village are happened upon by a number of goat herders -- two boys and an old man.  The Navy SEALS quickly overcome/bind the three Afghani goat-herders, but the question becomes, what now?   The team radios back to HQ for instructions, but alas, radio reception even today isn't ideal in the mountains _anywhere_ let alone in Afghanistan.   Without instructions (or the hope of immediate backup ...) the team has to decide what to do on their own.  The team's leader identifies three options: (1) let them go, which will almost certainly compromise their positions and virtually guarantee a firefight coming from directions/positions that they only guess (the Taliban is an army after all, with its own communications networks, and their garrisons aren't simply "sitting in town" waiting to be attacked by Americans ..., (2) leave the three tied-up, with the Navy SEALS bugging-out to another position (with presumably better possibility for communications), (3) "terminate the compromise" -- kill the three goat herders.

ONE COULD IMAGINE AN ELITE SQUAD OF ANY NATION'S ARMY FACING A SIMILAR SET OF OPTIONS.  What distinguishes THIS ELITE SQUAD is that it is _American_ and thus two characteristic concerns/values pervade: (1) The four have been trained according to post-WW II U.S. Military Doctrine to value their team.  One of the Navy SEALS says it bluntly: "I don't care about them (the three Afghani prisoners), I don't care about the higher-ups, I care about you, you and you (the team)" and (2) professionalism / a learned sense of accountability.  Another of the Navy SEALS points out: "If we kill these three Afghanis, or leave them here to freeze/die, it will be found out (someone's going to go looking for them and those goats are going to remain in the area), it will make CNN and we'll end up in Leavenworth."

I DON'T THINK A RUSSIAN SQUAD to say nothing of a NAZI "ELITE" WAFFEN-SS SQUAD would think that way.  In both cases, they would be "fighting for country" rather than "team" and in both cases, there would be no "CNN" to worry about, let alone "accountability back at the base."

Now I am no "pie in the sky, we do no wrong" naive American patriot.  Indeed, I reviewed (and gave high marks) to a documentary film produced by liberal/left leaning Nation Magazine national security correspondent Jeremy Skahill named Dirty Wars [2013] which chronicled various time when U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) weren't nearly so careful and killed all kinds of civilians both in Afghanistan and in Yemen.

But this is exactly a good part of my point: In the United States these stories DO COME OUT.  Violating "rules of engagement," blithely killing civilians, does actually carry risk in the U.S. military (and other western armies).  It doesn't elsewhere.  And please, if I'm wrong, show it to me.  Please offer me an example or two when members of Russian Special Forces units have been held accountable for "accidental killings" in the Caucuses, or even members of Indian Special Forces Units for similar actions in The Kashmir?

Jeremy Skahill's documentary Dirty Wars [2013] did show _clearly_ that U.S. Special Forces have killed innocents in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the War on Terror.  Still, I do get the sense that U.S. special forces units DO TRY TO BE CAREFUL and do understand that there are consequences (including possible jail time) for unprofessionalism.

Anyway, the Navy SEAL team in question in this story lets the three Afghani goat herders go free and the rest of the film follows.  The title of the film itself is a spoiler, suggesting more or less obviously that only one of the four will make it out.  I'll add a SECOND SPOILER -- the one who got out alive, made it in good part because of assistance from Afghani peasants (other "goat herders ...") who ALSO "happened upon him" when he was wounded ...

Great story and honestly one giving one much to think about.


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The Legend of Hercules [2014]

MPAA (PG-13)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (1 Star)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune/Variety (S. Foundas) review
RE.com (S. Wloszczyna) review

The Legend of Hercules [2014] (directed and cowritten by Renny Harlin along with Daniel Giat, Sean Hood and Giulio Steve) is really kinda a mess.  Presenting an "origin story" for the Greco-Roman hero Heracles (Hercules), it actually borrows more from The Gladiator [2000], Oliver Stone's Alexander [2004] and 300 [2006] than from the classical myth.

Now why should this be a problem?  After all, Marvel Comics has done a pretty good job converting the Norse God Thor [wikipedia] [marvel] into one of its comic book Superheroes, a character that's happily appeared in three Marvel films reviewed here [1] [2] [3].  Further, the Percy Jackson series, its latter film Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters [2013] reviewed here as well, did a reasonably good job re-imagining the various Greco-Roman heroes for the present day (I've found it particularly amusing that Percy, et al have been portrayed as growing-up with largely "absent fathers" ;-).  And I didn't find it particularly necessary to check the classical mythology underpinning films like Clash / Wrath of the Titans [2012], the latter film reviewed here as well.  Yet in the case of the current film, The Legend of Hercules [2014], I did find it necessary to do so and let me explain why:

Though bearing the name that derives from the Greek Goddess Hera (the Goddess of Hearth and Home), in the classical myth Heracles was actually tormented by Hera throughout most of his story.  Why?  Because he was the illegitimate son of her serially unfaithful husband, Zeus (the head of the Olympian Gods).  Indeed, in the classical myth, so terrified was Alcmene, Heracles' mother, of Hera's wrath that she left her infant Heracles exposed (to die) after giving birth to him.  Yet Athena (the Greek Goddess of Wisdom) seeing this injustice taking place, had pity on the infant and (playing a trick on Hera) brought him up to her, who (as Hera is the "Greek Goddess of Hearth and Home") cheerfully raised him as her own even giving him the name Heracles -- meaning "Hera's glory" because ... well that's what a Goddess of Hearth and Home does when she sees an abandoned infant: SHE TAKES CARE OF HIM / RAISING HIM AS HER OWN.  Imagine then Hera's anger when she discovered that her "pride and joy" Heracles was actually the illegitimate son of her philandering husband-God Zeus!  So she then took-out her anger on Heracles in all sorts of ways for the remainder of his earthly life.  That's the classical myth.

In the case of THE CURRENT FILM, Queen Alcmene (played actually quite well by Roxanne McKee) irritated with her husband King Aphrytion's (played by Scott Atkins) endless-warlike ways prays to Hera (again the Goddess of Hearth and Home) to knock some sense into her husband who was causing SO MUCH PAIN TO SO MANY HOUSEHOLDS (including her own) with his constant wars.  Okay, that would kinda make sense.  In the Greco-Roman world, Hera would probably be the Goddess to pray to with such a request. What doesn't make sense is Hera's answer to Queen Alcmene's prayer: HERA sends her randy/ever-philandering husband Zeus to impregnate Queen Alcmene so that she'd give birth the to the future Heracles (here understood as "Hera's Gift").  ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT GREEK MYTHOLOGY WOULD KNOW THAT THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE.  There's simply NO WAY that Hera would "vend out" her husband like that.  Not only was she EXTREMELY JEALOUS in the Greco-Roman conception, she was THE GODDESS OF HEARTH AND HOME.  She wanted peaceful households, NOT ones where there was infidelity present.

So from the get-go this story is "Hollywood, in your dreams" nonsense ...

Then the rest of the story simply plays on elements of the three above mentioned Hollywood films:  King Aphrytion is never sure whether Heracles (played by Kellan Lutz) is really his son (shades of Oliver Stone's Alexander [2004] where Alexander the Great's father is portrayed as having similar worries).  At one point, Heracles is betrayed by King Aphrytion and Heracles' older/half-brother -- and SOLD INTO SLAVERY (as in the Russell Crowe starring The Gladiator [2000]).  How does regain his freedom? Through a series of "Gladiator-like" arena fights...  Finally, in case one didn't remember from 300 [2006] what a phalanx battle formation looked like, I can't imagine how one would forget it after this film, as this CGI friendly formation is used OVER AND OVER AGAIN THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF THE MOVIE.  There's even an a la last Hollywood version of Troy [2004] "doomed love story" between Heracles and a Cretian princess named Hebe (played by Gaia Weiss) which could be have been at least partly inspired by the Classical Heracles' falling in love with a Princess named Iole.  However, one gets the sense that the film-makers here really could care less about the Classical Heracles and just wanted to produce a generic, heavy on the CGI, "sand and sandal" movie with a more imposing name than the film in any way merited.


Sigh, there's a second Hercules movie coming out in the summer.  We'll have to see what this next one brings ...


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Faust (orig. фауст) [2012]

MPAA (NR would be R)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RE.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (A)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoNews.ru listing*

Izvestia.ru  review*  news coverage*

ChicagoTribune M. Phillips) review
RE.com (G. Cheshire) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review

Faust (orig. фауст) [2012] [IMDb] [KN.ru]* (directed and cowritten by Aleksandr Sokurov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*, screenplay by Yuri Arabov* [IMDb] [KN.ru]* based on the Faust legend popularized by late 18th-early 19th century German playwright Johann Wolfgang Goethe [IMDb]) is a serious, award winning film -- it won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 2012 Venice Film Festival as well as four Nika (Russian Academy) Awards among them for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay) and was nominated for four others (Best Costume, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Music) -- by a serious award winning Russian director.  It played recently at the Music Box theater here in Chicago.

The film (played in German with English subtitles) set in a nondescript German village of the late-18th century is to be understood as the capstone (part 4) of a four part reflection on POWER which included three previous Sokurov-Arabov collaborations -- Moloch (orig. Mолох) [1999] [IMDb] [KN.ru]* (about Adolf Hitler [IMDb] and "a weekend with friends" at this mountain retreat in Biertesgarten a few months before the beginning of the fateful battle at Stalingrad), Taurus (orig. Телец) [2001]* [IMDb] [KN.ru]* (about a "day near the end of the life" of V.I. Lenin [IMDb] where he finds himself impotent and marginalized at his own "dacha" (country retreat) wishing for death), and The Sun (orig. Солнце) [2005]* [IMDb] [KN.ru]* (about the Japanese Emperor Hirohito [IMDb] musing with the conquering American general MacArthur [IMDb] about the origins of the War that had just ended and his (the Emperor's) personal failings, even as he had been worshiped as a "living god").

Needless to say, Faust (orig. фауст) [2012] [IMDb] [KN.ru]* along with Sokurov-Arabov's other collaborations is pretty dense stuff!

And it is certainly key to note that while Hitler [IMDb], Lenin [IMDb] and Hirohito [IMDb] were all despotic/totalitarian historical figures of the 20th century, Faust [IMDb] is, of course, a legendary one, and one who predated the others by several hundred years.  Yet, Faust [IMDb] is, of course, the legendary figure who "made a deal with the Devil" ...

So who then is Sokurov-Arabov's Faust [IMDb] (played in the film by Johannes Zeiler [IMDb])?  And how does he compare with the three 20th century (at least for a while) "living Gods"?   He is portrayed right from the beginning film as one who is obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge even if his methods shock/offend the people around him: The film begins with him performing (in his barn) a horrific 18th-century autopsy of a human corpse that he had dug-up (presumably without anyone's permission) from the village's graveyard.  The tools that he uses are basically 18th century farm and kitchen implements and he cuts off the genitals of the corpse (PARENTS take note ... this would DEFINITELY be an R-rated film) like one would cut-off a piece of sausage.  The scene is intended to shock ... and it does ... both the villagers who (quite understandably) look at him as Nuts/Evil ... and probably viewers of the film who honestly may not have expected such a grotesque beginning to the story.

But it becomes rather clear that Sokurov-Arabov's Faust [IMDb] does not give a damn what the villagers think of him as he dismisses them as "backward."  Well, his behavior, of course, attracts the attention of a "kindred spirit" ... the Devil, personified as a very slimy-looking moneylender (played by Anton Adansinsky [IMDb] [KN.ru]*).

Now initially Sokurov-Arabov's Faust [IMDb] dismisses the Devil himself as he has no use for him either.  Alas, however, raw "Power" / "Knowledge" don't seem to be enough (a seemingly common theme if one compares this film to the three others) as Sokurov-Arabov's Faust [IMDb] begins to long for "personal fulfillment" / "companionship" ... in the form of a village girl ... named ... Margarite (in the original legend, Gretchen) (played in the film by Isolda Dychauk [IMDb]).  IT IS FOR HER interest/companionship that he "sells his soul to the Devil."  But in this version, there honestly remains a question: Who's stronger throughout (even after he "sells his soul" to him...) the Devil or Faust.

In abstract, the adaptation here is interesting enough.  Further, due to my Central/East European background, I find myself having a certain disconcerting "attraction" to LENGTHY (and to almost everyone else outside of my background BURDENSOME) reflections on "the nature of Power" (and its abuse...).

However, I have to say that I found this film both very DENSE and AESTHETICALLY UGLY -- a combination of DENSE SOVIET-ERA (perhaps "good"/"best of" Soviet Era) ALLEGORY and a GERMANIC FASCINATION WITH THE GROTESQUE.  Add to this the film seemed unending ... well over 2 hours (and twenty minutes) long.

I'll grant the film (as the Czechs would call it) "Velkodil" (Great Work) status.  And I've since looked-up Sokurov-Arabov's other films (Moloch and The Sun).  Now where would one find them?  Well, in Chicago / the U.S. through Facets Multimedia ;-).  But my both Czech and American sensibility (both apparently lighter than German / Russian sensibilities) really could have done without the grave-robbing, the incessant half-congealed black/red blood and the genital mutilations).  I do get it, these graphics did add to the film, but the film's incessant "icky-ness" just went ON AND ON ...

Yes, the power-mongers of the last century were really sick S.O.B.s ... and I suppose I'm happy I saw this film, but I would never, ever want to see it again ;-).  But then, that's, in good part, the point ;-).  We'd probably _not_ want to see ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS again ;-). 


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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Aftermath (orig. Pokłosie) [2013]

MPAA (UR would be R)  ChicagoTribune (4 Stars)  Polityka.pl (4/6)  Liberte.pl (8/10)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
FilmWeb.pl listing*

GazetaWyborcza.pl (T. Sobolewski) review*   news coverage*
Polityka.pl (J. Wróblewski) review*  forum discussion*
RP.pl [Rzeczpospolita - Common Speech] (B. Hollender) review*  news coverage*
Gazeta.pl  news coverage*
Liberte.pl (M. Mirowski) review*   news coverage*

Jerusalem Post (Reuters) news coverage

ChicagoTribune/Variety (R. Scheib) review
RE.com (S. Abrams) review

Aftermath (orig. Pokłosie) [2013] [IMDb] [FW.pl]*(screenplay and directed by Władysław Pasikowski [IMDb] [FW.pl]* based on the true incident recounted in the book Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland [2001] by Jan Tomasz Gross), which played recently here in Chicago at the Polish Film Festival in America (but with a synopsis so "spoiler-free" that I honestly didn't know what the film was about until after the festival was over ;-) is a well constructed tale that utilizes the conventions that will be recognizable to American viewers as that of American Film Noir to bring to light a very ugly secret: During Nazi occupation in at least one case, Polish peasants took advantage of the Nazi campaign of exterminating Jews to (on their own, without much prodding by the German Gestapo) wipe-out the Jews of their own community ... in order to steal their land.

[The film is playing again at the Music Box Theater here in Chicago, which also organized a Panel discussion after one of the showings which included a representative of the Polish Consulate in Chicago as well as two Professors, one of Polish Studies and another, my Order's own, Fr. John Pawlikowski, OSM of the Catholic Theological Union here in Chicago and a former member of the National Holocaust Museum Commission.  I attended the showing with the subsequent panel discussion]. 

Needless to say, the J.T. Gross' original book caused a sensation (and an official Polish Government inquiry which both by-and-large vindicated Gross' claims regarding the 1941 Polish peasant instigated pogrom in Jedwabne AND found (thankfully) the atrocity to be all-but unique in the history of Nazi occupation of Poland.  J.T. Gross' subsequent works including Złote żniwa (Golden Harvest) about how various Poles across Poland would have benefited financially from taking-over property (both land and other material wealth) after their Jewish neighbors were taken away by the Nazis first to the Ghettos and then extermination camps have caused further controversy with Gross having been accused of oversimplification and more-or-less obvious one-sidedness.

This is because while Gross was CERTAINLY RIGHT that many Poles probably benefited from the land and property left behind by their deported and subsequently largely exterminated Jewish neighbors, Poles were CERTAINLY NOT the only "beneficiaries" of such "vulture-like" behavior nor were Jews the only victims.  The recent film Sarah's Key [2011] about the rounding-up and deportation of Paris' Jews (an operation run by PARIS' OWN LOCAL (FRENCH) AUTHORITIES if under direction of the German occupiers) reminded viewers that there are plenty of homes and flats across Paris that were confiscated after the deportation of their Jewish owners and then reallocated to non-Jewish French families.  And this would have been true across the whole of Europe.

Then the situation became even more complex in Poland after the War because 1/3 of Poland today belonged to Germany prior to World War II and the eastern half of pre-WW II Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union and now belongs to Belarus and the Ukraine.  SO THERE ARE MILLIONS OF POLES WHO LIVE IN HOMES OR OTHERWISE "OWN" LAND THAT USED TO BELONG TO GERMANS, even as millions of Poles were displaced (losing their land/property) as well.  Going south to my parents' country the Czech Republic and a similar phenomenon occurred when after World War II the post-war Czechoslovak government summarily expelled the three million ethnic Germans of the Sudeten region of that country.  Again there are perhaps millions of Czechs who now live in homes and "own" land that used to belong to ethnic Germans.   An excellent Czech film ALSO using the conventions of American Film Noir applying them to the "unspeakable secret" of the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from their lands was the recent and quite haunting Alois Nebel [2011].

THEN ADD THE COMMUNISTS TO THE MIX who confiscated lands and other property from "rich people" OF ALL ETHNICITIES  ACROSS ALL OF CENTRAL/EASTERN EUROPE, and redistributed them to others.  So there were a multitude of mass property thefts that occurred all across Europe and particularly Central/Eastern Europe during the middle half of the 20th century.

Then add to this list of property crimes, honestly, the confiscations of Arab lands that took place during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence (one of the biggest sticking points in the making of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace agreement is the question of the "right of return" of Palestinians to land that belonged to their families for centuries that was lost during that first Arab-Israeli War). 

Resolving these many, many layers of "property issues" would honestly require a Solomon as well as an ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MERCY.

Hence it should not be surprising that a film like this one "would strike a nerve," and I certainly understand the fear of many Poles (expressed in some of the coverage of this film above) that a film like this would just make people across the Western world HATE POLES even as POLES HAVE BEEN SCREAMING FOR DECADES THAT THEY WERE ENORMOUS AND WILDLY UNDER-APPRECIATED VICTIMS DURING WORLD WAR II AND NOT JUST AT THE HANDS OF THE NAZIS who enslaved them, murdered a good part of their Intelligencia and even as the Nazis' War was lost leveled their capital city, Warsaw, to dust BUT ALSO OF THE SOVIETS who stole the eastern half of their country and deported millions of Poles from that part of the country East (an excellent recent film on this Soviet-era crime is the Polish language/English subtitled film Siberian Exile (orig. Syberiada Polska) [2013]) and waited patiently while the Nazis leveled Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising wiping out most of the non-Communist "Polish Home Army" for them before coming in to "liberate" the country.

Still the truth is the truth and part of that truth is Nazi-era Pogrom in Jedwabne was an atrocity not committed by the Nazis but by Polish peasants themselves.  That is then what this film is about.  And as is typical of the young everywhere, the younger generation in Poland just wants to know its past and know the truth so that it can go forward from there.  And who can not appreciate that desire?

So then how does the current film then play out?

It begins presumably around the year 2000 with 40-something year old Franek Kalina (played by Ireneusz Czop [IMDb] [FW.pl]*) arriving in Warsaw (from Chicago) for the first time over 20 years after having left Poland during the Communist era following the 1980 crackdown against Solidarity.  He's not picked-up by anybody at the airport.  Instead, he takes a taxi to the train station, and then by train, then by bus and finally by foot he arrives, at night-fall, at his family's homestead at the edge of a small provincial town somewhere in rural Poland.

Why didn't his younger brother Józef (played by Maciej Stuhr [IMDb] [FW.pl]*) pick him up at the airport, or even at the bus-stop at the edge of town?  Well, apparently he didn't even know that Franek was coming.  Why?  Because they hadn't been talking in years.  Why?  Because Franek had appeared to be so involved in his own life in the West that he didn't even return to Poland for his parents' funerals.  Note that in an early conversation between the two after Franek appeared suddenly at Józef's doorstep, Franek tried to explain that it wouldn't have been easy for him to return as they died still during the Communist Era and conceivably could have gotten himself in trouble with the then Communist authorities if he had returned.  True or not, or partly true or not, the fact was the Franek hadn't come back for his parents' funerals and hence had been written off as being basically dead by Józef (and as we find out, by the rest of the village).

Okay, so what the heck is Franek doing at his family's homestead in Poland so many years after having broken ties with his parents/brother following his departure?  Well, we're told that JOZEF'S WIFE AND KID(S) suddenly appeared at Franek's doorstep in Chicago and Franek could not get a clear answer from them why THEY were there.  All he knew was that it was something about what Józef was doing.  So Franek flew out to Poland thinking that Józef his brother had been somehow abusing his wife and kids.

Yet it soon becomes clear that something else is going on: As the two confront each other in a very awkward initial conversation -- "What the heck are you doing here Franek after all these years?  Mom and Pop have been dead for a bunch of years.  You know YOUR PARENTS, the ones whose funerals you didn't bother to come back for."  "I get that, but WHY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS did your wife and kid(s) SUDDENLY show up at my doorstep back in Chicago?" -- a brick flies through through the window of Józef's house abruptly changing the conversation: "What the heck was that?" asks Franek.  "Ask in the village," replies Józef.

So the next day, Franek does.  The villagers _all remember_ Franek as the one who left the village back in 1980 and never returned, not even for his parents' funerals.   But they do add that Józef had apparently done something that had irritated them all.  What was it?  Well, he had dug up something on the "old road by the tannery" outside of town.  What was it?  Well, it turns out that during the Nazi occupation, the Nazis had paved "the old road by the old tannery" with the gravestones of the local Jewish cemetery.  Soon after the war, the local Polish government had paved over the the gravestones with asphalt so that the stones were no longer visible.  Well, a number of years prior to Franek's return, a flood came and washed away the much of the asphalt AND Józef one of the few people still taking that road (to his family's fields) happened upon those old Jewish gravestones.  NATURALLY APPALLED by what he saw, he started to recover those old grave stones, and SINCE NONE OF THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES SEEMED TO WANT TO DO ANYTHING WITH THEM he started to put them up, upright in his field nearby.  Józef explained to Franek: "It just seemed the right thing to do.  We (as Catholics...) are supposed to honor the dead." (Remember, Franek didn't even come home for his his own parents' funerals ...).

Anyway, the town didn't take too kindly to what Józef was doing.  Those gravestones had been paved over (buried) there in the road for a long time, and the villagers didn't want to dig this all up ...

Why?  Well, that's the rest of the story and the story does follow more or less what truly happened in the village of Jedwabne: It wasn't really the Nazis who got rid of (killed) the village's Jews, it was the Poles of the village themselves.   Why?  Well, in part for their land, and yes (and this is _always_ one of the great "little evils" of dictatorship ...) to settle old scores: "So I was not good enough for you?  NOW DIE, you and your whole family..." 

In any case, what a horror that these two brothers progressively walk into!  And the horror just keeps going: "What do you mean that this house where we were both born, these fields that our family owned, were not really ours...?"

This is honestly A GREAT and VERY BRAVE movie.  It's ugly, it's horrific.  It's something that NO ONE would want to hear about one's past or one's family's past.  But it's also the truth.

And the Truth CAN set one free.  Again this is a great film and ANYONE who tries to use this film against POLES ought to remember that this story (or one similar to it) could be repeated OVER AND OVER AGAIN across Europe and EVEN NO ONE OF EUROPEAN DESCENT who lives in the Western Hemisphere today lives on land that originally belonged to his/her families.  IT WAS ALL STOLEN from the natives who originally lived here.  Every nation, every people has "skeletons" in its closet.


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.

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2013 Denny Awards - Pt 4 - The "Pale Dennys" ;-) - Movies about Historical Events Generally NOT Taught in School

Finally, Part 4 to my 2013 Denny Awards -- the "Pale Dennys"
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles  (Female)
Part IV - "The Pale Dennys" - Films about Hist Events Generally NOT taught in School 


FILMS ABOUT HISTORICAL EVENTS THAT AREN'T GENERALLY TAUGHT IN SCHOOL

All Honorable Mentions:
               Siberian Exile (orig. Syberiada Polska) [2013] - The first feature length film (Polish, w. Eng. Subtitles) about the as many 2,000,000 Poles who were deported from Eastern Poland east to Siberia after their lands were annexed by the Soviet Union as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.  A similar number of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians were deported East after these lands were annexed by the Soviet Union as part of the same agreement as well, and entire peoples (that of the Tatars from Crimea and the Chechens of the Caucususes were deported by Stalin in this way after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union).
               Aftermath (orig. Pokłosie) [2013] - Serves me right, the day after I write up this list of films, I see a film that certainly belongs on this year's list as well.  A noirish (Polish, w. Eng. Subtitles) film based on the true story of the Nazi-era pogrom in the Polish village of Jedwabne where the Polish villagers themselves murdered the Jewish families of their community ostensibly to steal their land.  The film serves to remind viewers that there millions of people across Europe who live in homes/property that did not originally belong to them or their families but belonged to others (Jews, Germans, Poles, the Church, "rich people" in general) prior to WW II.  It's a really dark secret and it's a real mess. 
               Aluku Liba: Maroon Again [2009] - French language w. Eng. Subtitled film about the communities of descendents of run-away slaves existing to this day in the jungles of French Guiana and Suriname.  The swamps, jungles and frontierlands of EVERY SLAVE OWNING COUNTRY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE (including the United States) HAD SIMILAR COMMUNITIES of run-away slaves existing outside the reach of the authorities of slave owning lands.  Most were either wiped-out by sweeps of the militaries of the slave-owning lands or became assimilated into the rest of society after slavery was abolished.  In French Guiana/Suriname, these communities apparently have been so isolated from the rest of society that they continue to exist on their own.
               Tlatelolco, Summer of 68 (orig. Tlatelolco, Verano del 68) [2013] - A Mexican (Spanish lang., Eng. subtitled) film, again the first of its kind, about the events leading-up to a Tienanmen-like Massacre of hundreds of students in Mexico City three weeks prior to the opening of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games.  The authorities wanted a "peaceful Olympics" -- yup, they were as "peaceful" as a grave.
               Burning Bush (orig. Hořicí Keř) [HBO-Europe Miniseries 2013] - A Czech lang., Eng. subtitled film / miniseries about the self-immolation of a Czech university student named Jan Palach in January 1969 in protest to the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia.  His death remained an open wound in that country until the fall of Communism twenty years later in 1989.
               Gypsy (orig Cigán) [2011] and Papusza [2013] two films, one Slovak/Roma with English subtitles, the second Polish/Roma with English subtitles about the Roma (Gypsies), Europe's indigenous "darker skinned' people who have often been terribly treated by Europe's lighter-skinned majorities.
                Wolfschildren (orig. Wolfskinder) [2013] - German film, English subtitled about the possibly thousands of young children left behind to fend for themselves sometimes for years behind Soviet lines after the Red Army overran what used to be German East Prussia.  Many of the children found their way ON THEIR OWN to (also) Soviet occupied/annexed Lithuania were many rural Lithuanian families adopted them into their homes. 
                Philomena [2013] - about the abuses of the "Magdalene Laundries" run by Catholic nuns in Ireland up until recent times for mostly unwed pregnant teenagers.  The Catholic nuns did not start these "Magdalene Laundries" in Ireland (the Protestants did, when Catholicism was still illegal there) but they did run them with gusto for far longer than anyone outside of Ireland would have imagined.
                Dallas Buyers' Club [2013] - about the desperation of those infected by HIV in the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
                With You, Without You (orig. Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka) [2013] a Sri Lanken / Tamil film with English subtitles set in the context of the aftermath of the crushing of the Tamil insurgency there.
                The Reluctant Fundamentalist [2012] - A plea for understanding, made by a famed Indian woman director, based on a best selling novel by a Pakistani author and acted by some of Hollywood's top actors about the nuances/complexities of the War on Terror.
                Shadow Dancer [2012] - about the quite "dirty war" waged by British authorities in Northern Ireland against the IRA during the "Troubles" there in the 1970s-1990s.
                Viva Belarus! (orig. Żywie Biełaruś!) [2012] - a Polish/Belarussian, Eng. subtitled film about Belarus, where 1989 never really arrieved.
                Dust (orig. Polvo) [2012] - A Guatemalan/German film (Spanish language with English subtitles) set in the Guatamalan countryside and regarding the aftermath of the genocidal counter-insurgency warfare that took place there during the decades of the Cold War (1950s-1980s) era.
                 Apaporis: In Search of One River (orig. Apaporis: En Busca del Río) [2010] - film both in English/Spanish (subtitled appropriately) about the indigenous peoples living in Colombia's portion of the Amazon Rainforest.  Ironically, the drug wars and the FARC insurgency in Colombia served to protect the indigenous peoples of southern Colombia BETTER than more "peaceful" areas in South America.


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2013 Denny Awards - Pt 3 - Most Compelling Performances (Female)

Part 3/4 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Female)
Part IV - "The Pale Dennys" - Films about Hist Events Generally NOT taught in School
 

CHILD (female)
    Most Compelling:
             Idena Menzel and Kristen Bell voicing Elsa and Anna in Frozen [2013], just a lovely story about two sisters growing-up together and trying to look-out for, protect and understand one another.
    Honorable Mentions:
             Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty Hoff in Saving Mr. Banks [2013] growing-up at the turn of the 20th century in rural Australia in an alcoholic household.  She knows something is wrong, tries really hard to be good / helpful, and can not yet understand that the situation's really outside of her control and when it inevitably ends tragically it's simply not her fault (what a sad, sad story ...).
             Sophie Nélisse as Leisel in The Book Thief [2013] growing-up in an adoptive household in Nazi Germany.  When her adoptive parents choose to take-in and hide the 20-something son of a close Jewish friend of theirs, her adoptive parents tell her that she simply can not tell anyone that they are hiding him.  Imagine being a 10-12 year-old, in a still somewhat strange household, and given that kind of responsibility.

TEEN (female)
    Most Compelling:
           Jennifer Lawrence as Katnis Everdeen in Hunger Games: Catching Fire [2013], teenage heroine in the series, continually needing to "step-up" to defend her and her people's humanity in a world where life for most has been turned into a sick game.
    Honorable Mentions:
           Saoirse Ronan as Melanie in The Host [2013], teenager finding herself in a very interesting situation.  Her soul's been displaced by an alien lifeform that's taken over control of her body, but she's kinda made peace with the alien soul that's now within her.  On the other hand, when that alien soul kinda likes the same guy as she did, what then?  A very complicated teenage metaphysical story here ;-)
            Lorena Guadalupe Pantaleón Vázquez as Lore(na) in Aquí y Allá [2012], the teenage daughter of the humble Pedro and Tere(sa) growing up in rural Guerrero, Mexico and the one who is most challenging to her father when he periodically leaves for "Up North" to go to work in the States.  "What about us?"  What about us indeed ...
            Katie Chang, Emma Watson, Claire Julian and Taissa Farmiga along with Israel Brousssard (male) in The Bling Ring [2013] portraying "celebrity culture gone amuck."  Based on the all too true recent story, to get "close" to their favorite Hollywood celebrities, these Southern-California teens begin to break into the homes of their favorite celebrities to steal their stuff.  Of course they eventually get caught AND SERVE SIGNIFICANT TIME but how were they able to get away with this at all?  Didn't their parents "miss them" when night after night they (teens afterall) came home "late" from partying / said robberies...?

YOUNG ADULT (female)
     Most Compelling:
             Greta Gerwig as Frances in Frances Ha [2013], who despite all the (social and economic) disasters in her life keeps smiling hoping/believing that her day will come.
     Honorable Mentions:
              Lake Bell as Carol in In a World ... [2013] a Hollywood voice coach / voice-over specialist trying to make her way "in a world ..." dominated by males, including her own father, who don't see the need for female voices in their line of work.  But what happens when even SciFi (think of the Hunger Games...) starts targeting female audiences ...?  Well "in that world" she starts getting jobs ... and respect ;-)
              Keri Russell as Jane Hayes in Austenland [2013], an unabashed "I <3 Darcy" New York residing Jane Austen fanatic who shells out a good part of her still relatively meager life-savings to go on a 2 week Jane Austen immersion experience at a country estate somewhere in England, where she learns a bit about the realities of "Country Manor Life in the early 1800s" (shelling out a few grand for a vacation doesn't exactly make you "landed gentry" ;-) and has to confront what is real and what is imaginary in her own life.
              Gail Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell playing the 1960s-era Australian "girls group" named as the film The Saphires [2013]. Based on a true story, these girls, all from "Aboriginal families" from the "Outback" had the time of their lives singing Motown tunes to American service personel in Vietnam during the War there even as the Australian Constitution at the time didn't even recognize them as people.  A truly uplifting/poignant story (even amidst RPG and mortar fire) about the need to "make a Life" out of what one is given.  These young women could have been depressed and bitter about their circumstances.  Instead they sang even in the midst of a shower of bombs (which were falling around them for reasons that had _absolutely nothing to do with them_).  What a story!
              Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and Selena Gomez in Spring Breakers [2013] playing college students all, who tell their parents/grandparents that they're going on Spring Break to "find themselves."  Well what do they find?  Absolutely nothing that is good ... but perhaps what is inevitable if Life is reduced to a hedonistic exercise of "use it or lose it" and "whoever dies with the most toys wins."  One scary, scary morally depraved movie.   


ADULT (female)
    Most Compelling:
              Mavis Fan as Lan Feng in Will you still love me tomorrow? (orig. Ming tian ji de ai shang wo) [2013].  An early/mid 30-something administrative professional in Taiwan, until the beginning of the story basically happy, married with a son, discovers that her loving, basically "nice guy" husband is actually / would prefer to be gay.  What to do?  The poignant question asked in the title of the famous 60s-era Motown song which she sings at one point with her friends at a Kareoke bar becomes the central question of the film.
    Honorable Mentions:        
             Octavia Spencer as Wanda, the mother of Oscar Grant a random African-American 20-something male who was killed by BART police in the hours after New Years 2009 at Fruitvale Station [2013].  She was no nonsense tough with him when he was alive and, of course, wept for him when he so tragically died.  
             Jessica Chastain as Anabel in Mama [2013], raven-haired, tattoo sleaved "rocker" in a "punk girls' band," nevertheless "steps-up" to take care of two little nieces of her boyfriend when really have no one else to turn to. 
              Teresa Ramírez Aguirre as Tere(sa) in Aquí y Allá [2012], the wife who "keeps house" with the kids in rural mountainous Guerrero, Mexico even when her husband Pedro goes up North to the U.S. sometimes for years at a time to work to (ostensibly) support them.  Quiet, kind, but she's also not dumb ...
              Kirsten Dunst as Carolyn Cassady in On the Road [2013] and Kate Bosworth as Billie in Big Sur [2013], the responsible characters in the two Jack Kerouac's novels that were put on the big screen this year.
              Ivana Chýlková as Erika in Perfect Days - I ženy mají své dny [2011].  A lot of readers here would probably not like this character much (I'm not sure I do ...) BUT most would understand her.  At 40-something, she's made choices in her life, and made her share of mistakes.  Now, not in any relationship, with few particularly good prospects on the horizon, she decides that what she'd really want is a baby.  AND HAVING THE POWER TO DO SO (thanks to modern technology and a requisite donation of sperm ...) she gets herself pregnant.  But even this choice is not free of consequences and doesn't go all according to plan ...
              Cate Blanchett as Jasmine in Blue Jasmine [2013] the "Blanche of 'Streetcar Named Desire'" character in this film.  What if poor, suffering Blanche (and her husband) had ripped-off her poorer relations in a Bernie Madoff like scheme prior to her landing, helpless and penniless, on their porch? 
              Sandra Bullock as NASA Mission Specialist Ryan Stone in the epic survival tale Gravity [2013].  Yes, it's never too late to learn to pray, and there is a place for God even in the midst of all kinds of high-flying human built technological wonders.
             
ELDER (female)
    Most Compelling:
            Judy Dench as Philomena Lee in Philomena [2013], simple woman, who had been terribly treated by both her family and later "the Nuns" when she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland of the 1950s-early 60s.  Wanting simply to know what happened to her son who she was forced to put-up for adoption, she nevertheless proved capable of forgiving what a lot of people would find very, very difficult to forgive.  Yet, what else was she to do ... carrying around hate / resentment is a terrible burden.  Honestly a great if painful example to folks on both simply "seeking the truth" and "letting go."
    Honorable Mentions:
            Emma Thompson as P.L Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books in Saving Mr. Banks [2013].  Yes, she was a very difficult person to work with BUT as is often the case with "very difficult people," there was a story there as to why she became who she became.            
            June Squibb as the Matriarch in the dysfunctional family in Nebraska [2013], never outright mean, nevertheless by the end of the movie, one's left wondering if she had a single nice thing to say about anyone in the entire film ;-).
            Anne Gee Byrd as the no nonsense grandmother in Zero Charisma [2013].  Yes, her middle-aged daughter had left her to raise her grandson, yes he himself wasn't going to amount to much as a result, but in the midst of not particularly great choices, she held her own and offered both of them a good example of how to how to live a good, honest and dignified life.

HERO / VILLAIN (female)
    Most Compelling:
              Greta Gerwig as Frances in Frances Ha [2013] in a year that celebrated _a lot_ of "bad girls" Frances' smiling persona in fact of all kinds of social and economic disasters in her life is such a more positive example.
             Judy Dench as Philomena Lee in Philomena [2013], no one could possibly have blamed her if she had grown to be bitter in life, but she chose not to be.
             Mavis Fan as Lan Feng in Will you still love me tomorrow? (orig. Ming tian ji de ai shang wo) [2013].  Faced with a very hard (and seemingly "out of the blue") situation at home in her marriage, she deals with the situation quite well and with a great deal of grace.
    Honorable Mentions:
             Jessica Chastain as Anabel in Mama [2013] the punk rocker who "steps-up" to take care of her boyfriend's nieces when they have no one else to turn to.
             Jennifer Lawrence as Katnis Everdeen in Hunger Games: Catching Fire [2013] and Saoirse Ronan as Melanie in The Host [2013], the teenage heroines of the these two pulp-dramas put on the screen this year. 
             Cameron Diaz as Malkina in The Counselor [2013], one "tough as nails," scary-scary consort in the world of drug-lords/kingpins. 
             The teens / young women of The Bling Ring [2013] and Spring Breakers [2013].  No, not all choices are "equal," and even if one can "get away with it" one's choice can still be a bad/Evil one ...


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2013 Denny Awards - Pt 2 - Most Compelling Performances (Male)

Part 2/4 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Female)
Part IV - "The Pale Dennys" - Films about Hist Events Generally NOT taught in School


CHILD (male)
    Most Compelling:
              Patrick Lorenczat and Levin Liam as 14-year old Fritchen and 9-year old Hans in Wolfschildren (orig. Wolfskinder) [2013] who behind Red Army lines, in former East Prussia, one year after WW II are told by their dying mother to leave her behind and instead walk on their own 100 miles East to also Soviet occupied Lithuania to a family that she hoped would take care of them.  Talk about growing-up fast ...
    Honorable Mentions:
              Bill Hader voicing Flint Lockwood in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 [2013], okay he was kinda a nerd but WOW was he creative!      

TEEN (male)
    Most Compelling:               Jacob Latimore as Langston in Black Nativity [2013] a struggling teenager with a lot of questions about his and his family's past, living in a single-parent household and at least initially no one wants to tell him anything.
    Honorable Mentions:
               Miles Teller as Sutter in the Spectacular Now [2013] the most popular kid in his high school, despite having problems of his own (growing-up in a single parent home where arguably he's the parent much of the time, plus having an obvious emerging drinking problem of his own). Still despite his difficulties at home and his status in school, he chooses to use his popularity / social gifts to help the quieter folk in his school.  What a guy ;-)
                Luis Omar O'Farrill as Carlos in The Gold Brooch (orig. El Broche d'Oro) [2013] the teenage son of a moderately successful businessman in Puerto Rico.  Dad scored a better job stateside in Orlando but Carlos already has his life and friends in PR.  What to do?
                Liam James as Duncan in The Way, Way Back [2013] the utterly basket-case of a child-of-divorce having (one hopes) the worst summer of his life.  What do you do when your dad ran away with some other woman and your mom is also finding it really next to impossible to cope?
                Celso Franco as Victor in 7 Boxes (orig. 7 Cajas) [2012] a teenager in Asuncíon, Paraguay with a job of taxiing stuff bought and sold at the city's Central Market.  Now he's given a job of transporting 7 boxes from one end of the market to the other and if he completes the gig, he'll be given enough money to buy a smartphone.  But what could possibly be in those boxes that he'd be paid so much to deliver them? 

YOUNG ADULT (male)
     Most Compelling:
                Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby [2013], from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, born literally dirt poor somewhere in Minnesota, changed his life completely becoming spectacularly rich all to try to impress a young woman from far wealthier beginnings.  Tragically, he's still "doomed" but boy did he give it a shot at improving himself and his life. 
     Honorable Mentions:
                Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund as Sal Paradise and Neal Cassady in On the Road [2012] playing the characters from Jack Kerouac's iconic "Beat Generation" novel.
                Oscar Isaac as Llewyn Davis in Inside Llewyn Davis [2013] terribly suffering folksinger in this Coen Brothers' piece, in a role that a lot of musicians / artist types would probably appreciate.
                James Franco as "Alien" in Spring Breakers [2013] "towny" gangster who in good part just wants to be "noticed" / "taken seriously" by the wild college kids who come to his town each Spring Break (and then left again ...)
                Dźmitry Vinsent Papko as Miron in Viva Belarus! [2013] a fictionalized (but based on true events) young Belarussian musician / human rights activist.  What would you do, if even in this internet age, you got drafted and then sent TO CHERNOBYL for "re-education" because the "Powers that Be" thought your music was "too radical?" 
                Lisandro Rodríguez as Liso in La Paz [2013], a psychologically troubled Argentinian young adult from an upper-middle class family who doesn't find peace until he leaves everything behind and goes to Bolivia to teach poor school kids there.

ADULT (male)
    Most Compelling:
                 Ernie Hudson as Marcus Wells in The Man in the Silo [2012], a previously successful, college educated African American businessman who finds himself left to take care of his aging, increasingly senile, white racist mother-in-law after his beautiful white "farmers' daughter" wife and their mixed race son die tragically in a car accident.
    Honorable Mentions:
                 Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup in 12 Years a Slave [2013] who lived the story of The Count of Monte Cristo for real:  African-American though born and having lived all his life in the North, he was nonetheless drugged and kidnapped while on a trip to Washington D.C. and then trafficked South where he was sold as a slave.  It took him 12 years to get free again.           
                Will Forte as the younger but adult son David in Nebraska [2013], yes, he knew that his aging,  "old drunk," never much of a dad was now borderline nuts but he chose to take pity on him anyway. 
                 Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty [2013] who spent most of his adult life as a "squirrel" of a man buried in the photo-archives of "Life Magazine" only when "Life Magazine" was being restructured was he forced and with some help of a high-flying/"eagle eyed" photographer to leave his shell.
                 Nicholas Cage voicing Grug in The Croods [2013], as a Cave Man, yes, he was "limited" in his knowledge/education but BOY was he BRAVE and willing to sacrifice himself for his family.
                 Ethan Hawke as Jesse in Before Midnight [2013] now paying in good part for the decisions he made in the previous parts of the story which now spans almost 2 decades (Before Sunrise [1995], Before Sunset [2004]).  Nevertheless he knows he's made choices, he knows he's paying for the choices he's made and is trying to do the best with the cards that he has left.
                 Steve Coogan as journalist Martin Sixsmith in Philomena [2013], boy did he thank his "lucky stars" that he "Stooped to Conquer" to take the "little human interest story" involving Philomena looking to find out what happened to her son after she was forced to give him up for adoption through a group of nuns back in Ireland in the 1950s-60s.

ELDER (male)
    Most Compelling:
                 Jacobo Morales as Rafael in The Gold Brooch (orig. El Broche d'Oro) [2013] the now wiser/mellowed "abuelo" (grandpa) who his now successful middle-aged son was going to leave in an old folks' home in Puerto Rico when he got a "step-up" job in stateside in Orlando.
    Honorable Mentions:
                  Geoffrey Rush as the older adoptive father Hans in The Book Thief [2013], set in Nazi Germany, he tries to help his young apporaching teenage-hood adoptive daughter make sense of the War / Repression that was going on around them.
                   Robert Redford in All is Lost [2013] - A film almost without any dialogue, no matter, Redford proves that he can act.
                   Forest Whitaker as Rev. Cornell Cobbs in Black Nativity [2013] basically a good man but put principles over mercy and paid dearly for it.
                   Bruce Dern as Woody Grant in Nebraska [2013], after growing-up in rural Nebraska, he went to War in Korea and never really came back.  Spending most of his adult life as a drunk and a disappointment to all those around him.  Now he's living in Billings, Montana, almost certainly completely senile and yet he's convinced that he has a Million Dollar Check waiting for him back in Nebraska from one of those Publisher's Sweepstakes.  If you were from his family what would you do?
                   Harrison Ford as Col. Graff in Ender's Game [2013], aging veteran of a desperate war that saved the world from alien invasion, now responsible for training _kids_ to fight-off the anticipated next invasion attempt.  What do you teach them? How hard to you push them?  Are you now even the best teacher to begin with?  And yet the stakes are _so high_.
                  Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline in Last Vegas [2013].  A great ensemble piece and great to see four great older actors both clearly enjoying themselves as they play their parts and willing to acknowledge some of the more problematic aspects of their own life-experiences.                  
HERO / VILLAIN (male)
    Most Compelling:
                    Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom [2013] and Robert Więckiewicz as Lech Wałęsa in Walesa: Man of Hope (orig. Wałęsa. Człowiek z nadziei) [2013]. Need one say more?
                    Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Thor: The Dark World [2013], Evil, utterly untrustworthy but becoming more interesting with every Thor film.
    Honorable Mentions:
                     Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup in 12 Years a Slave [2013] what he had to go through
                     Dźmitry Vinsent Papko as Miron in Viva Belarus! [2013] again what one still has to go through in some parts of the world.
                     Javier Bardem as Reiner in The Counselor [2013], one crazy-looking Evil (hedonistic) guy
                     James Franco as "Alien" in Spring Breakers [2013], another crazy-looking Evil (gangster wannabe) guy




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