TL;DR: A genuinely flexible civilization with a side of military expansion
We are getting a new expansion for Civilization VI, well not quite, over the next year we have a season pass, the New Frontier Pass, which will give us several new Civilizations and Game Modes over the next year (which you can find out more information HERE). The next new Civilization has been announced, so let’s dive into Vietnam.
Continue readingTL;DR – A powerful film that hurt to watch at times, but I am glad that I did.
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit moment
Awards:
Nominated: Explosive Action & The Emotion
Review –
There have been a lot of films set during the Vietnam War or explores its aftermath. It is not a noble war like WW2 in people’s minds, it was bloody, unnecessary, and it left shockwaves throughout American society, that we are still living through today. How do you capture a war like that, well some have done it through sceptical, some have done it through horror, and there was that one time was a flying elephant. Today I look at a film that has all of that, okay not the elephant part, while hitting the realities and legacy of the Vietnam War.
So to set the scene, we open in on a montage of Black America and their experiences in war, specifically Vietnam War or the American War as it is known in Vietnam. This is where we get a crash course on the War from start to finish through a lens we don’t always see. We jump to today in Ho Chi Minh City today where four old friends come together again in a country they once fought in, a place full of memories but also somewhere that has gone through a lot of changes. Paul (Delroy Lindo), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), Otis (Clarke Peters) & Eddie (Norm Lewis) have come back to Vietnam for one reason, to find the body of one of their fallen comrades Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman). However, there may also be a whole lot of gold from the war on the line as well.
TL;DR – A powerful and deeply compelling film that explores a key moment in Australia’s military history and the cost it took.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a credit sequence and a mid-credit scene
Review –
Australia has a long history of making truly excellent war films. From works
such as the pivotal Gallipoli to Beneath Hill 60 to The Rats of Tobruk and many more. So walking in I knew that there
was a level of quality that was going to be there no matter what. However, for
me, I can either be drawn in fully to war film or I can bounce off it like Andy
Dwyer off an ambulance, so there was still a little hesitation. But I should
not have been concerned because this is some of the best of Australian cinema
at the moment.
So to set the scene, it is 1966 and it is the height of the Vietnam War, a Cold
War proxy conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union played out in the
context of a civil war between North and South Vietnam. The 1st
Australian Task Force headed by Brigadier David Jackson (Richard Roxburgh) is
set up in Nui Dat where they send patrols out into the local countryside. One
night the camp is attacked by mortars and while the Royal Regiment of New
Zealand Artillery were able to target them, the 1st Field Regiment, need to
follow up the next day to find the source. Alpha Company didn’t find much, so
part in punishment Harry Smith’s (Travis Fimmel) Delta Company was sent out to
chase them down while a musical performance was happening back at camp. All was
going well until at the rubber plantation at Long Tan the 11th
Platoon of D Company came under heavy fire and it is soon discovered that this
is not just a raiding party but a full battalion of the North Vietnamese Army
heading their way, 100 men against and advance of 2000 and a monsoon is just
about to hit.
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freelance film critic with an interest in multilingualism, feminist perspectives in cinema and crime dramas.
For the Relentless Criticism of All Existing Conditions Since 2010
