Thanks for the ping. I’m looping in the usual suspects.
We can lament great comedies of the past that probably couldn’t be made today. That said, I do note with interest that a pushback against cancel culture seems to be emerging. It’s too early to predict how it will play out, but Netflix is (so far) standing up for Dave Chappelle and even fired one of the wokesters who went to war over the issue. Not that Netflix has switched sides ... far from it ... but we should note points of inflection when somebody finally gets tired of the bullying. Some of the liberals are noticing that the revolution is eating its own. It’s not surprising that quite a few comedians especially are now speaking out. The comedians know where the sacred cows are today, and they know the commissars are trying to silence them.
My question, as always, is what the film industry has done for us lately. There are many great comedies from the past. Does anyone have a recommendation from, say, the last five years? Good comedies, recent, that people on our side might appreciate?
Switching gears ... I finally saw Greyhound. It is exclusive to Apple tv, to which I don’t subscribe, but I have an adult daughter who took the one month free (?) subscription to binge watch Ted Lasso, which I’ve not seen and about which I have no opinion. I took advantage of that limited window to catch up on the Apple tv exclusives on my list, of which there are three.
Anyhow: A conservative movie? Yes, in spades. The story opens with a very short bit of character backstory, just to establish that naval officers are real human beings (which we all know is not really true, but let that pass). This is perfectly tasteful and unobjectionable; it’s a very sedate scene in a nice restaurant. Then Tom Hanks is instantly transported from the restaurant to the bridge of his ship, a destroyer escorting a Britain-bound convoy across the North Atlantic in 1941.
What ensues is a straightforward running fight. You could do this story with B-17s over Germany, a British column fighting its way through the Khyber pass, or a wagon train in Indian territory. A wolfpack has found the convoy. Submarines, submarines everywhere. You know how this turns out, but that’s ok. It’s well done.
Conservative, yes, and not just in general theme and old-fashioned presentation. Tom Hanks is the prayingest captain you’ve ever seen in the movies. He’s on his knees in his cabin. He says grace over every meal. His officers instantly apologize if an untoward word is uttered in a moment of stress. None of this is overplayed at all; these scenes are quick. They’re just there. It’s the character of the man and his crew.
The narrative is highly tactical, which is again a throwback to the old-fashioned ways of doing a war film. Contacts at such and such a bearing; come to such and such a bearing; ranges and closing speeds; rapid fire mental math well beyond the woke generation. You know who the good guys and bad guys are, and the story is simple. The convoy has to run the gauntlet in the mid-Atlantic, where it’s out of range of land based air cover. That’s where the wolfpack lurks.
Greyhound was released last year. It’s been on my watchlist but I wasn’t going to take out a subscription for it. But it’s worth watching if you get a chance. It’s a film I would recommend to high school teachers as a very good introduction to the Battle of the Atlantic, which is among the many stories on which the schools have mostly defaulted.
Oh, by the way, there is one major suspension of disbelief issue with Greyhound. Tom Hanks is 30 years too old for his role. But let that pass. It’s Hollywood. If John Wayne can parachute into Normandy in The Longest Day, Tom Hanks can stand on the bridge of a destroyer. Hanks is also credited with writing the screenplay. While he’s not credited as the director, it looks like this was very much his project from the start. If he wants to play a captain, it’s ok with me.
“The Good Shepherd” by C. S. Forester is a great book. The book was republished under the new title “Greyhound” after the movie came out. That was something I’ve not seen before.
The rapid mental math gets a lot harder when you’ve been on the bridge for 36 straight hours, you are freezing to death, everything on the bridge is coated in ice, and your body is taking a physical pounding in the rough North Atlantic seas.
As you point out, it is a great story of bold, conservative values when ordinary men are thrust into very un-ordinary circumstances.
I don’t remember the captain praying so much in the book, though. I wonder if Hanks added that to the movie.
***We can lament great comedies of the past that probably couldn’t be made today.***
How true. In the late 1980s and early 1990s I began to notice that comedy was becoming less funny. Some of the movies were slapped together to show off new “special effects” more than a laugh.
I sat through several and thought...”This is supposed to be funny”.
Thanks for the write up.
I just went to amazon audible to check it out. The Greyhound version is cheaper on audio. They have different narrators. The Good Shepherd is cheaper on Kindle and in used paperbacks. No Hardcover available for Greyhound.
Appreciate the review as I’d not heard of this picture.
Separately: the Airplane! scene with Robert Stack beating up a host of airport solicitors including Hare Krishnas makes me laugh just thinking about it :)
Very funny scenes in the movie “Stretch.” I believe it is an unrecognized classic along the lines of “True Romance.”
Adding Greyhound to my watch list... through Kodi...