Weekly Witch Hunt: The Outlaw of Torn & Bitter Harvest

We decide what artistic endeavour passed approval to earn the Scorcher label from the past seven days & what also had the dishonour of being that week's Torture...

So this week I explored an old story about a tyrant terrorising Ye Olde England and then went on to watch a film about a true tyrant causing genocide in the Ukraine.  One of these was well written; the other, not so much.

The Scorcher

I do like to discover books from a different age that are able to still get your pulse racing and have you turning each page in eager anticipation.  One such author who often is able to get my attention in this way is Edgar Rice Burroughs.  I have previously enjoyed John Carter's adventures on Barsoom; as well as his Caspak series.  So I was more than happy to dive into one of his historical adventures The Outlaw of Torn.
This is a book about a master swordsman who betrays his king by kidnapping his son and leaving the king and queen heartbroken; not knowing if their son is alive or dead.
The reasons for the villain Jules De Vac's treachery are paper thin but every story has to start somewhere.  Why didn't he just bugger off back to France years ago if he had such a problem with the English he was serving, that's my question?  Anyhow far be it for me to judge the mind of an insulted proud French knight.
De Vac kidnaps the kings son Richard who he renames Norman and raises him as his son.  He teaches him swordsmanship as well as hatred towards all Englishmen.  He becomes an outlaw and terror to all who venture near to the territory of Torn where they choose to live; hence the title.
A kindly priest that Norman befriends adds balance to his life and opens his eyes to some of his harsher ways.  Norman's inner turmoil is one of the most enjoyable aspects explored in this character.  It is his upbringing that has made him what he is but deep down there is that moral conflict eating him up.  He questions the true motivations of De Vac and comes to realise there is more to his life than banditry.
His life takes on true meaning once he meets Bertrade who he will fall madly in love with.  This in turn will send events in his life spiralling to the final conclusion as he heads towards redemption or oblivion.
I love that you can read this and question the whole way through if you want to see Norman succeed in his quest for Bertrade's hand in marriage; or if you want to see him hung as the criminal he was raised to be.  You want De Vac to get his comeuppance certainly; but by the same token opinions will vary from one chapter to the next on Norman.
As formulaic as some of the story is; there are still a couple of surprises that you might not see coming.  I don't want to spoil any but a couple of gruesome things take place that really took me by surprise.
There are many books that have a similar pattern to The Outlaw of Torn.  Much like a lot of sci-fi and fantasy that follow Edgar Rice Burroughs blueprints; you have to wonder if this book has had similar influences on more modern works.  If anything this novel has me more convinced what a true master storyteller Edgar Rice Burroughs was in life.

The Torture
 

I don't think I have watched a film that has dragged on and on like this in a long time.  Bitter Harvest is only 103 minutes in length but feels like an eternity.  That is because there is nothing, absolutely nothing endearing about this heavy handed; overly melodramatic (historical) movie.
You might wonder at the parenthesis used there and I am not denying the horrific events of the Holodomor in any way shape or form.  What took place during the early 1930's between Russia and the genocide of the Ukrainian population was terrible and deserves to be brought to the attention of the wider population.
Using these tragic events as a backdrop to a story about a romance is certainly not the way to do it; especially when the execution is so poorly handled.  This could have been set during any devastating event in history and would have still told the same tale.  None of the events occurring in the Holodomor have any real impact on the story.  It could just as easily been French resistance fighters during WWII; or Scottish highlanders during the Jacobite risings.
The point here is that the filmmakers wanted a setting that hadn't really been used before; a harsh environment to place this couple in; and against all odds have them survive to be together at the end.  The care and compassion shown to the subject matter should be at the forefront; making the final reunion all the more satisfying, but the filmmakers treats the Holodomor with irrelevance.
Instead they throw in a few vignettes of a wagon of crops rolling past a few supposedly starving people (no one actually looks like they have missed one meal, let alone not eaten in days). Or they will have a Russian soldier carry out a murder and we then view the subsequent funeral that has to be shown in slow motion for extra dramatic effect.  All of this misses the mark completely of really portraying the atrocities committed.
The films style and execution has the look of a bad midday telemovie.  The happy moments are all colourful and brightly lit.  Once things start to sour the colour pallet changes to dark grey and monotone colours.  None of this is done with any subtlety.  Just in case you missed the tonal shifts the music is there to constantly remind you what sort of scene you are watching and how you are supposed to feel about what is onscreen.
Added to the poor direction are the sub-par performances from all the actors.  Max Irons isn't a strong enough actor to carry this film on his own; which he pretty much has to try and do being the main focal point.  He is drab and bland and looks like he can't be bothered half the time.
Terrence Stamp is totally unbelievable as a sword wielding Cossack and looks all of his 78 years of age.  This is all the more comical when he has not one, but two sword fights with the physically imposing and much younger Tamer Hassan's Sergei.  Hassan looks like it would take him all of five seconds to take care of Stamp.  You almost feel embarrassed for him as he holds back on swinging his sword so his much older opponent can get back into a fighting stance.
Sergei is such a stock standard moustache twirling bad guy that at any moment you expect him to turn to the camera and start laughing maniacally.  All of the Russians are portrayed as such.  Then again the Ukrainians aren't treated much better; the rural populace are clearly gypsy peasants and the residents who live in Kiev are obviously more refined middle class citizens.  The stereotyping is mind-blowing.
Honestly this film has nothing that I can recommend about it.  It is 103 minutes of my life I won't get back.  All in all the historical events deserve a far better cinema representation that will treat this tragedy with the care and integrity it deserves.

Weekly Witch Hunt: Winged Victory & Live By Night

We decide what artistic endeavour passed approval to earn the Scorcher label from the past seven days & what also had the dishonour of being that week's Torture...

War and Mobsters have been the order of the day over this last week.  My scorcher is full of material ripe for a film adaptation.  I would love to see a screen version of No. 46 Squadron and all the triumph and tragedy associated with Tom Cundall and Co.
Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for as not all book adaptations work out as my torture this week did not live up to expectations.  I haven't actually read the novel but I am keen to give it a perusal.

The Scorcher

There are many books covering the events of World War I but not too many that focus solely on the newest form of warfare of the time: war in the air.  Author V.M. Yeates was a fighter pilot with No. 46 Squadron and wrote his novel Winged Victory based on his and his fellow pilots experiences during the Great War.
Whilst this is a work of fiction, it is based around actual events and draws extensively from Yeates' memory for detail of the reality of war.  His exposure to the ghastly goings on around him and the other flight crew are told in great detail through the eyes of the main protagonist Tom Cundall.  Some of the supporting characters are heavily influenced by the people who fought alongside Yeates.
Yeates puts across the differing views of the pilots and the debates they share about the futility of war.  Some of these views are unfortunately still as relevant today when compared with the conflicts still going on around the world.  It is quite confronting to realise that soldiers had similar opinions about world leaders and the money grabbing ways of people who are out to profit from war.  They are the same sentiments that many people feel today.
There is an awful lot of repetition in this story as Cundall goes on flight after flight, often with no real purpose or result.  This can make the book quite a grind to get through but I chose to view it differently.  I put myself fully into Cundall's position and treated it as an opportunity to experience the monotony and drudgery of war that he had to go through day after day.  It helped me gain a better perspective of the character and allowed me to feel his frustration more as he questions what it is that he is actually achieving; other than constantly putting himself in danger of being killed.
Normally when people think about WWI the first thing that pops into mind is the endless trench warfare and the other types of battles that took place tend to be forgotten.  It was very refreshing to get a real understanding of how these pioneering pilots fought in a new theatre of war.
It was fascinating reading about the dogfights and the fragile nature of these early aircraft.  The everyday life on the ground was just as enthralling as the descriptions of the flights.  It appears that their living conditions are a million miles away from what the average Tommy was having to put up with as they buried their heads in a foxhole; hoping that the next mortar shell would pass them by.  By comparison Cundall and his friends live in relative comfort when not flying and are often found spending their evenings in drunken debauchery.
That isn't to say that they aren't under duress as shelling often occurs close to their quarters but nowhere near the same levels as the trenches.  It is once the pilots take to the sky that their lives are truly in danger and because they are living with the knowledge that each day could very well be their last; you can excuse their excessive behaviour.
I would describe this novel as an aerial version of All Quiet on the Western Front with its pessimistic views about the ensuing conflict.  The real tragedy with both novels is that the two authors were writing from the heart in the hope that tales such as these would help prevent more wars in the future.  Yeates passed away before WWII commenced; I can only imagine what his thoughts would have been about the terrible events to come.

The Torture
 

I have an inherent fondness for gangster flicks.  Give me a Wiseguy and a Tommy gun and usually I am already in the ticket aisle.  The trailer for Live By Night had me all excited and having enjoyed the films that Ben Affleck has directed found this film ticking all the right columns.  The end result however was a bit of a letdown.
This film is just so slow with endless amounts of time spent basically setting things up just so we can get a massive set piece close to the end of the movie.  It is filled with cliché after cliché and doesn't stray from any average, formulaic gangster flick.  It is such a shame that Affleck couldn't inject the film with some more life as the story itself is a solid one; which makes me think that the book would be much more entertaining than this adaptation.
Affleck's Joe Coughlin isn't a nice guy and at no point does he appear to be a nice guy; so I had a hard time rooting for him.  He starts out like "I don't want to be a gangster, just a bank robber," then goes to "I want to be a gangster, but only for revenge," and then just ends up as "I am a gangster and revenge will come second now".  His motivation shifts dramatically from start to finish; so much so that you have a hard time understanding his thinking.  It had me wondering if all along he did in fact secretly want to be part of the mob.
The supporting cast are all given little to do as they flitter in and out of Coughlin's life.  Actors like Chris Cooper and Brendan Gleeson are wasted in the small roles afforded them.  Those roles are nothing though compared to the short shrift given to the female cast members.  None of the women have much to do and it hurts the end product.
Zoe Saldana is supposed to play the love interest; or more accurately the replacement love interest after the first one, Sienna Miller, is disposed of.  However she has such a small amount of screen time that you don't feel any emotional connection to her or her relationship with Coughlin.  Once their romantic subplot played out I felt next to no sympathy for the outcome because they spent hardly any time building her character.
I will admit the final shoot out that the film builds to is impressive, but it is too little too late to salvage your interest.  By the time it reached this stage I didn't care who lived or died.  This confrontation isn't the end though as the movie then pulls a The Return of the King on us and keeps going and going; showing more of Coughlin's story that also fails to hold your attention.
Affleck goes for a Film Noir feel with the look and style of the 1930's setting that mostly works.  His Coughlin narrates during the entire film which is distracting in itself, but also gives you an early indication that this guy will probably make it out alive come the end.  What it also does is show that Affleck couldn't come up with a better way of telling the story, other than through a narrator.  That should have been enough of a warning to make me reach for the book instead.

Weekly Witch Hunt: IWM Voices of the First World War & The BFG

We decide what artistic endeavour passed approval to earn the Scorcher label from the past seven days & what also had the dishonour of being that week's Torture...

Unfortunately life has got in the way a bit this week and cut short the amount of time I have had available in my role of Inquisitor.  I did catch Doctor Strange at the cinema and was highly entertained by this new Marvel movie, I recommend seeing it on the big screen.

The Scorcher

This week's Scorcher is something completely different to anything I have had on trial before.  The Imperial War Museum's podcast Voices of the First World War is a series of fifty episodes covering all aspects of the Great War.
The series tries to run sequentially while tackling the many different and varied methods of warfare employed, some for the very first time, during WWI.  Each episode goes for about thirty minutes.  The focus isn't only on the combatants as there are episodes covering such topics as conscientious objectors; women's war services and animals in war.
Each episode has a narrator to provide some background information.  In between this narration are the people who were present during the events discussed.  These ex-service men and women give their own views on what took place from their perspective.  The stories they tell are fascinating and give a real insight as to what they experienced.
While the vast majority of the interviewees are British, there are also people from other nations represented.  A lot of these are from the Allied countries but we do get some of the German perspective; especially from those stationed on the Western Front.
I can't fathom what it must have been like to go through this harrowing experience.  To think that these people not only survived the war but still managed to maintain their sanity afterwards is a credit to them.
There were many times whilst listening to this series where I found myself feeling deeply moved by what I was hearing.  These brave men and women, from both sides, were thrust into a conflict that they had no control over; much like every war that has occurred throughout history.  Their stories deserve to be heard and I can only hope that by doing so it makes future leaders think before going to war ever again.  Lest We Forget indeed.

The Torture

I will start by saying that this is not a particularly bad film.  The BFG has a lot going for it; the motion capture is excellent as are most of the special effects.
At times though I did feel that Ruby Barnhill, as the heroine Sophie, had been inserted into a scene.  It felt at points that she was acting against a green screen.  This is not an indictment on her overall performance because I can imagine just how hard it would be for any actor to perform against such a backdrop.  I would expect it to be even harder on someone twelve years of age and starring in their first big movie.
This aspect did have a big impact on my overall enjoyment of the film.  It also felt that some of the conversations between Sophie and BFG were a bit stilted too.  I don't know if this was due to Mark Rylance performing opposite Barnhill and having to accommodate for scale or due to something else.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it; but their conversations felt a bit like: then he says, then she says, then he says and so on and so forth.  These conversations felt more like a stage play.
Overall though I just found this to be run of the mill Steven Spielberg.  I get the impression that he could do this type of film in his sleep.  I would have appreciated him stepping out of the comfort zone a little and challenging himself a bit more.  I guess when your films generally resonate with audiences though he doesn't have too.
For me this was just a little bit run of the mill; nice for a Sunday afternoon watch but quickly forgotten.