Ticketverse Throwbacks #1: Periods Of Mystery
As promised in last issue of New Piece Offerings, welcome to the first issue of a series that I hope to use to thin the herd with regards to the content of my other two blogs, SW@ Ticket Archive and SW@ Ticket's Greatest Hits, and use them to contribute to the overall view count of this massive blogging endeavor, which I rebooted here on Blogger back in February 2012. But as the most loyal of my Ticketholders may remember, the history of the Ticketverse stretches back much farther (April 14, 2004, to be exact). It's Thursday evening in Washington state, so here, for your reconsideration, is a Ticketverse Throwback to SWAT Ticket #14 (FROM August 12, 2004): One might say that period films are automatically chick flicks (all references to the female period aside) because they usually involve a lot of English accents, talking, and romance. But that isn't always the case. There are period films for guys, too.
Take Word Of Honor, for example. It's a made-for-TV movie with Don Johnson, so it's gotta be a chick movie, right? Uh-uh. Johnson is a Vietnam War veteran living in post-9/11 America who is put on trial for a massacre he supposedly participated in back in good ol' rice country.
Taking a low-budget approach at being the more heavily cast, more explosive, and more confusing Basic, Word Of Honor shows what happened during the Vietnam hospital massacre, has the beautiful officer questioning our "hero" and digging up alternate stories, and gets from A to Z by stopping off at whY and skipping everything else.
Don Johnson's "I can't talk about it" attitude and drawn-out, touchy-feely, whine-and-cheese-party speech at the end were very close to unbearable. So I take it back...this is a chick flick after all.
Adding to the cheapness and lack of attention to detail, the opening scene--and others--of the Vietnam massacre were too clear and sunny and peaceful to have been even remotely confused with this viewer's concept of what the Vietnam War should have looked like.
In short, I felt it sucked.
You can't really predict how the courtmartial will end, so if you want to watch it, see the opening scene and the trial and verdict. Skip everything else.
When in Rome, do like the movie.
D-
Ticketverse Throwback Update: Thirteen years ago, I was simply an immature, emotional adult throwing out gut-based opinions and not doing any research or fact-checking of any kind. While searching Google for images and links for Word Of Honor, I found myself doing some much after-the-fact research, and I discovered a few things. Word Of Honor was based on a 518-page novel of the same name, written by Nelson DeMille, who also wrote the much better-adapted The General's Daughter (later a cinematically released movie starring John Travolta). Given the potential bulk of plot information stuffed into those five hundred-plus pages, coupled with the fact that it took four people toadapt hack the script down to its final state, I feel I must amend the film's grade down to an F, if not lower. Back to the Throwback....
A much better example of male-focused period cinema is The Reckoning, a Dark Ages-set murder mystery starring Paul Bettany (who played Heath Ledger's blowhard announcer in A Knight's Tale) and Willem Dafoe (still sporting his bony-but-ripped Green Goblin physique from Spider-Man).
Bettany leads as a priest on the run for adultery who meets up with Dafoe and his troupe of traveling actors. In one town, they see a woman sentenced to be simultaneously hung and drawn for murder. Instead of the customary religious plays of the era, Bettany and Dafoe's crew investigate the murder for their first "human play" and become entangled in a government/church conspiracy at the hands of a sadistic homosexual cardinal.
The Black Plague--a major concern of the time--is mentioned only in passing (bad news for this so-called period film). But as for the film's more positive points, modern concerns such as child murder, sexual abuse by high level church officials, and corrupt government are well-considered and given a realistic place in 1300s society. And there is substantial suspense and comedy to keep one awake long enough to see justice done.
Seemingly low-budget, but watching it is more than worth the $4.08 sacrifice to the movie maker. Buy him a sandwich.
B+
Yes, Ticketholders, back in 2004, you could rent movies for an entire week from physical stores and buy a sandwich for less than five dollars each. I guess the world really has gone to hell in the last thirteen years (at least!).... Stay tuned as next time, I get back to the Retrospective with more spoiler-laden commentary from the pages of Grimm Fairy Tales.
Taking a low-budget approach at being the more heavily cast, more explosive, and more confusing Basic, Word Of Honor shows what happened during the Vietnam hospital massacre, has the beautiful officer questioning our "hero" and digging up alternate stories, and gets from A to Z by stopping off at whY and skipping everything else.
Don Johnson's "I can't talk about it" attitude and drawn-out, touchy-feely, whine-and-cheese-party speech at the end were very close to unbearable. So I take it back...this is a chick flick after all.
Adding to the cheapness and lack of attention to detail, the opening scene--and others--of the Vietnam massacre were too clear and sunny and peaceful to have been even remotely confused with this viewer's concept of what the Vietnam War should have looked like.
In short, I felt it sucked.
You can't really predict how the courtmartial will end, so if you want to watch it, see the opening scene and the trial and verdict. Skip everything else.
When in Rome, do like the movie.
D-
Ticketverse Throwback Update: Thirteen years ago, I was simply an immature, emotional adult throwing out gut-based opinions and not doing any research or fact-checking of any kind. While searching Google for images and links for Word Of Honor, I found myself doing some much after-the-fact research, and I discovered a few things. Word Of Honor was based on a 518-page novel of the same name, written by Nelson DeMille, who also wrote the much better-adapted The General's Daughter (later a cinematically released movie starring John Travolta). Given the potential bulk of plot information stuffed into those five hundred-plus pages, coupled with the fact that it took four people to
A much better example of male-focused period cinema is The Reckoning, a Dark Ages-set murder mystery starring Paul Bettany (who played Heath Ledger's blowhard announcer in A Knight's Tale) and Willem Dafoe (still sporting his bony-but-ripped Green Goblin physique from Spider-Man).Bettany leads as a priest on the run for adultery who meets up with Dafoe and his troupe of traveling actors. In one town, they see a woman sentenced to be simultaneously hung and drawn for murder. Instead of the customary religious plays of the era, Bettany and Dafoe's crew investigate the murder for their first "human play" and become entangled in a government/church conspiracy at the hands of a sadistic homosexual cardinal.
The Black Plague--a major concern of the time--is mentioned only in passing (bad news for this so-called period film). But as for the film's more positive points, modern concerns such as child murder, sexual abuse by high level church officials, and corrupt government are well-considered and given a realistic place in 1300s society. And there is substantial suspense and comedy to keep one awake long enough to see justice done.
Seemingly low-budget, but watching it is more than worth the $4.08 sacrifice to the movie maker. Buy him a sandwich.
B+
Yes, Ticketholders, back in 2004, you could rent movies for an entire week from physical stores and buy a sandwich for less than five dollars each. I guess the world really has gone to hell in the last thirteen years (at least!).... Stay tuned as next time, I get back to the Retrospective with more spoiler-laden commentary from the pages of Grimm Fairy Tales.
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