Posted on 06/29/2014 7:34:22 AM PDT by bd476
It is easy to understand how anyone would have a strong memory and sense of such an experience. In person, at least we might notice the signs, and see little clues of an impending explosion. Yet in text, it's difficult to glean much beyond words and context so that when a volcano erupts, the unexpected impact would hit that much harder.
That's right! I think you just hit the nail on the head.miss marmelstein wrote: "The last thing I saw him in was a remake of “How Green Was My Valley.” He was clearly very ill but wonderful nonetheless.
Thank you, I am glad we agree and even more glad I posted this. I love good acting and sometimes can't help but share my thoughts.
Several years go I sat in a theater for a half hour after seeing a movie with two actors I had never seen before. Thankfully there were others in the theater who remained seated, apparently as moved as me. It floored me what had happened on screen - not the story, not the cinematography, just the acting.
Someone finally spoke up saying "What just happened? That was brilliant! Who are they?" and then others spoke up also giving their thoughts on the outstanding performances.
Rex Harrison is delightful! He’s great! Love this! Thank you!
That’s another thing I love - an actor who is playing the role of a villain and is able to make the villain real, palpable.
Speaking of two actors, just think of the final scenes with Mr. Baker and Mr. Caine - the working class man and the effete snob. But after the battles, they are comrades in arms, laughing hysterically at having survived.
Wow, thank you! Fascinating, and yes, the stuff of legends.
He was a hero alright, but he was also apparently an exemplary soldier, not the malingering n’er do well portrayed in the film. Presumably the producers thought that would be too boring and wanted a rogue instead.
Apparently, Colour-Sergeant Frank Bourne, who is portrayed as a man well into middle age in the film, was only in his early 20s at the time of the battle, and was the last veteran of that battle to die. Coincidently, he died on the 8th of May 1945 aged 91, on VE Day...
Yes. An important subplot. He cared about the Zulu and he cared about the Soldiers and he cared about himself and his daughter, and he could do nothing to stop the coming battle and death but drink and yell.
I think James Booth is wonderful as is the characterization. I’m sorry the family was upset but seeing the slothful Hicks finally moved to action and heroics is what filmmaking is all about! And the Color Sergeant always reminds me a little of Arthur Treacher’s performances in earlier films.
Old style, pre-war and immediate postwar British socialists may have been patriotic, but I’m not sure that is the case today. Once Communist infiltrators (of the kind Yuri Bezmenov warned us about in the 1980s) got involved, they eventually perverted western leftist groups and turned their members into useful idiots for the Soviet Union. Even though the USSR is long dead, they have never really lost their habit of despising patriotism and damning all its forms as ‘imperialist’ and ‘fascistic’ as their former paymasters wanted them to.
That is pure art.
He also scares a young soldier as I remember and has to be placed under guard. There’s also a small role of a Boer, I believe.
Michael Caine’s first movie role and he never looked back.
I only suggested that because there was a Guardian CiF editorial (I’ve been banned from giving my opinion) about the Empire and every teenaged, snot-nosed leftist wrote in praising it to the very skies. Oh, the roads we built! Oh, the purdah we destroyed! Oh, the massacre at Amritzar we loved, oh wait...
That may have wrongly colored my judgment.
He blew the audition, completely blew it. And the director came to him, offering him the role. Forget that the director was desperate, they were flying to Africa the next day and the chosen actor had become ill. But a second chance at a missed role never happens. Glad it did in this case though. :)
This is generally called Kismet. Or, Mr. Caine channeled the John Cassevettes character in “Rosemary’s Baby”!
I like the Colour Sergeant....
“Now, there’s a good gentleman.”
“Hitch. Private Hitch? Answer up lad. I know you’re alive. I saw you this morning.”
He’s wonderful. This is someone who’d actually get a slacker like me to join up.
My grandfather also fought in Africa in the Boer War...
Was he British? I should have said, btw, it was my great grandfather who I never met. Mine was Irish.
Diolch yn fawr!
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