Brief Mentions (Capsule Reviews)

I've seen a number of films in recent weeks, but I find myself lacking the energy to write full-fledged reviews. So I thought that I'd mention a few films that I've seen, on DVD.

The Petrified Forest, a 1936 film starring Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, and, in a breakthrough performance for 1936, Humphrey Bogart as the gangster Duke Mantee. But the film is based on a play and closely follows the kind of dialogue, direction, and acting one might have seen on the stage in the 1930s. The characters Howard and Bogart play are foils for each other--ineffectual intellectual and romantic vs. animalistic id. But the Howard character basically tells you everything you could figure out for yourself. Too much exposition, by far. (Btw, I made a bunch of other people watch this, and they all hated it.)

Hostage, starring Bruce Willis. This is a thriller I watched while at my parents' house. I wouldn't recommend it, although it's not terrible. It is a mess, though--the screenplay needed one more rewrite, minimum. My biggest complaint: Major questions about the (complex) plot remain at the end, especially the identity of the bad guys. Even after they are all killed, we have no idea who they were. Plus, why does the [one character] [do what he does] at the end? I have no idea.

Osama, that 2003 film about the little girl under the Taliban who disguises herself as a boy so that she can work, is then dragged away from work to a madrassah, then discovered to be a girl, put on "trial," and . . . well, I'll stop there, in case you haven't seen it. This one is the one to watch. A really beautiful, moving film about human suffering and striving under terror and oppression.