Posts tagged Emile Hirsch
Lone Survivor – Movie Trailer
Feb 1st
LONE SURVIVOR, starring Mark Wahlberg, tells the story of four Navy SEALs on an ill-fated covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative who are ambushed by enemy forces in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. Based on The New York Times bestseller, this story of heroism, courage and survival directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) also stars Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana.
“Lone Survivor” Interesting and Exhausting
Jan 22nd
“Interesting and Exhausting”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
LONE SURVIVOR is based on the true story of a military operation in 2005 in Afghanistan that went terribly wrong.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Chief Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, a member of Navy SEAL Team 10, which took part in the operation after which Luttrell wrote a best-selling book about his experience.
The film and the story also have a Colorado connection, as one member of the SEAL team on the ground, Danny Dietz, played by Emile Hirsch, grew up in the Denver area.
The team was charged with capturing or killing a top Taliban leader named Ahmad Shah, who was known to be responsible for the deaths of many Americans in the military.
So, a team of four men are dropped on the ground in Afghanistan, and we hear the radio signal from the command plane above them say, “We’ll be with you for the next six hours; have a nice walk.”
Unfortunately, events begin to go wrong almost immediately when they get into position and an old man and two boys herding some goats stumble upon their location.
The team captures the goatherders, but their rules of engagement prevent them from harming unarmed prisoners, and when the team can’t communicate with their commanding officer back at base camp about what to do, after some disagreement among themselves, they let the three prisoners go unharmed, and now that the operation is compromised, they head for higher ground.
Then an army of Taliban soldiers finds them and engages them in a firefight that essentially is the rest of the movie.
There is an attempt to break up the nonstop bloody action with a couple of side stories about an Arabian horse wanted as a wedding present and the harassment of a new member back at base camp, but essentially the movie consists of the combat fighting between the team and the Taliban as the team is cut down to its title character.
How he survives after the fighting is over on the mountain is of interest and points out a culture clash, but at this point the audience is probably exhausted from everything that leads up to it.
As a story, the movie is interesting, but as a movie, it is exhausting.
LONE SURVIVOR leaves it up to the audience to decide whether to be interested or exhausted.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Taking Woodstock” It’s the Dream, Man
Sep 3rd
It’s the Dream, Man
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
TAKING WOODSTOCK is Ang Lee’s latest film and is based on the book, TAKING WOODSTOCK: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life, by Elliot Tiber, who was one of the main reasons that the legendary concert happened.
In fact, the film is a comedy and is more about Elliot and his relationship with his parents than it is about the concert itself.
If you are old enough to remember when Woodstock happened or if you were one of the 400,000 who were there, the film brings back strong emotions and even tears. What is more, you cannot take it all in with just one viewing.
On the other hand, if you were born after Woodstock occurred beginning August 15, 1969, you might unreasonably and incorrectly dismiss the film as just another self-indulgence of Baby Boomers instead of the masterpiece it is about the more aptly called Woodstock generation.
Elliot has moved back home in upstate New York to live with his parents in their run-down El Monaco Motel, which is over $5,000 in arrears on their mortgage.
Fortunately, however, Elliot is president of the local Chamber of Commerce, which is in charge of granting permits for concerts, and Elliot is known for the summer “concerts” he puts on at the motel with recorded music, but he says, “This year I’m going to try to have a live quartet.”
When Elliot learns that a nearby town has canceled plans to host a music festival, he gets in touch with the promoters and offers the motel as head-quarters and his own festival permit as all the permission the promoters need.
Sure, there are problems, but Elliot and the promoters, who have already sold 100,000 tickets to the concert, manage to overcome them, and the rest, as they say, is musical, cultural, and revolutionary history.
The film uses the split-screen technique made famous in the 1970 Oscar- winning documentary WOODSTOCK, and even though this film doesn’t concentrate on the music the way the documentary does, it is still an enjoyable experience.
It is truly a creative masterpiece.
As someone said, “It’s the dream, Man. We all could use a little Woodstock in our lives now.”
TAKING WOODSTOCK brings to mind another expression in the news a lot lately:
“And the dream shall never die.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
