At 10:42 AM 8/11/98 -0400, you wrote: >The only thing surprising about "Saving Private Ryan" is how conventional >it is. I fully expected a much more "noir" vision of WWII along the lines >of Oliver Stone's "Platoon." What I saw was an updated version of such >1950s classics as "Walk in the Sun," written by Robert Rossen, the CP'er >who named names. I haven't seen "Ryan" yet, but I want to ask a question: does the platoon have the same ethnic mix as in "Walk in the Sun" (as I remember it) or every WW2 submarine movie (except "Das Boot") or "Forbidden Planet"? That is, is there one Pole, one Jew, one Irishman, etc.? Part of the WW2 movie genre is the emphasis on ethnic unity against the "Hun." (It also fit with the CP vision of the popular front.) I finally saw "Amistad" -- on video, natch. What's interesting is that it's hard to see any of the main characters as the Star. The closest, I think, is not the John Quincy Adams character but instead the lawyer played by Matthew McConnahey (sp?). But he's so low-key that he doesn't stand out much. The Cinque character also approaches being the Star. But because his dialogue is pretty limited (the film being mostly from the white folks' perspective), he doesn't really make it as the Star. The flick seems more story-telling than Star-driven. It was head and shoulders above Spielberg's previous effort to talk about racism, i.e., "The Color Purple" which was execrable. BTW, I want to second the motion: Louis' movie review is excellent! in cinematic solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
