Far Cry (2008/Vivendi DVD) + A Walk In The Sun (1945/VCI DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+/C Extras: D/C+ Films: D/B-
The War Genre used to be a proud genre, even at its most
propagandic. However, nearly 7 decades,
social changes and extremism have ruined all of that. Now, give or take a few important films, most
War works are War Porn (a nameless, faceless sea of fighters purposely edited
in a blur to give the message that we are all expendable to protect something
undefined celebrating mindlessness and violence in an ugly new way). One of the master hacks in this respect (and
so many more) is Uwe Boll, who has decided he is “important” after being
lambasted and tries to legitimize his latest video game adaptation Far Cry (2007)
It lives up to its name by begin a far cry from being
watchable and is based on a video game, but much more shallow. Udo Kier is the “boo hiss” bad guy/foreigner
that the white nationalist types must kill, spouting a bad 1980s militant kill
action film mentality, but with as much hate, stupidity and violence as you can
imagine. No one talks like this in real
life unless they are out of their gourd and/or up to no good.
You could call this War Porn not-so-cleverly disguised as
a bad videogame feature, but released the same year as the
still-amazingly-horrid Tunnel Rats
(rightly bashed elsewhere on this site), every frame is a total
embarrassment. Ralf Moeller and Michael
Pare also show up and are also wasted in this mess. Hope he and Kier got paid well.
Fortunately, A Walk
In The Sun (1945) is a proud film about how the U.S. Army fought against
Nazis in the Salerno countryside of Italy as the
Germans intend to take advantage of their relationship with Mussolini. Directed by Lewis Milestone (All Quiet On The Western Front, Mutiny On The Bounty (1962)), it is a
smart film with good writing and character development (Robert Rossen (The Hustler) adapted form the book by
Harry Brown (who later created the Ocean’s
Eleven franchise) also boasts a great cast including Dana Andrews, Richard
Conte, Norman Lloyd, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Huntz Hall and Sterling
Holloway. It is about a great group of
men fighting against evil that had to be stopped and for all the best reasons,
which we rarely see in the genre since its revival in the late 1990s.
It is amazing how well this holds up and especially as
compared to the Boll film, is such a professionally crafted work with real
talent involved all around. Let’s hope
more people rediscover it.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Cry is so bad with its weak Video Black
and poor detail than it is hard to watch, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is loud
and harsh. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is actually weaker and to date, no Boll film has had a soundtrack anyone would
consider good. The 1.33 X 1 black and
white image on Sun is soft and can also be a problem watching, but its Video
Black is actually better, while its Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is distorted and
shows its age, yet is not that much worse than the Boll film.
Extras on both releases include trailers. Cry
adds a CGI Featurette, audio commentary by Boll, deleted scenes that are no
better than the feature and behind-the-scenes featurette; all useless. Sun
adds a half-hour look at the film and hour-long interview with the great Norman
Lloyd.
- Nicholas Sheffo
