Woke up to the 75th Anniversary of Dunkirk today, not to be confused with the 70th Anniversary we had last week for VE Day or, of course, the various and numerous 100th Anniversaries relating to the Great War. It's OK cos all this remembering ensures that we don't have wars today.
So.....50 years ago Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' was bothering the upper reaches of the album chart and that's what I'm remembering.
I like remembering wars, especially the world ones.
I don’t think the first one deserves it’s “Great” reputation. First off the beginning is very confusing – who did what to who? Why does he hate him? Then it gets really plodding in the middle, basically the same scene over and over, and then a real cop-out finish. It’s like Lost – they couldn’t think of a decent end so they just let it fizzle out, last shot everyone in a room together saying "what the hell was that all about?" You don’t know who won or why. The characters suck (Ottomans and Austro-hungarians!) and you’re never sure who the good or bad guys are.
Like The Godfather, Aliens and Star Wars the second one is the best. Characters are excellent – Baddy Darth Vader Hitler and his evil but buffoonish henchmen taking on the good guys Churchill and Roosevelt (and top marks for putting a disabled person in a lead role) with Uncle Joe Stalin in the back ground – is he good, is he bad? You have to wait for number three. The plots easy to follow, you know exactly how it starts, the set pieces are great and the finish with that big mushroom cloud over Hiroshima is awesome.
Should have led nicely to World War Three (The Empire Strikes Back). Remember the trailers – Soviet tanks rolling across Western Europe, billions of Chinese falling from the sky and Nuclear Armegeddon laying waste to humanity. Close with a tease shot of monkeys riding horses on a beach. But they bottled it and released the Cold War instead. More of a drama really – lots of grim faced men in suits saying “the situation is grave Mr President, what should we do?” Mr President:” Absolutely nothing.” Boring. The Vietnam bit was okay I suppose, and brownie points for finally casting some lead women (Thatcher, Meir, Ghandi) but it could have been so much better. Though at least it was in colour and had a killer soundtrack.
I think they bottled it because they didn’t want to close the door on a lucrative part four. Still on the cards, though I hope they give it to Disney and not George Lucas. If nothing else they’ll nail the merchandise.
