Boycott Channel 4

Join me in boycotting Channel 4. This is no longer a public service television channel. Join me in contacting Ofcom and Channel 4 to stop these appalling reality shows. Commercial channels can pander to the lowest common demoninator if they want.

Miss Potter

I probably knew this wasn't my sort of film. I also had the problem that I'd recently heard on the radio a serialisation of a biography of Beatrix Potter.

It is an extremely sentimentalised view of the early life of the children's book author. (Well in fact only a few years of her life, studying the courtship of Miss Potter by her publisher - Renne Zellwegger and Ewan MacGregor).

In real life Beatrix understood only too well the brutality of nature (Peter Rabbit's father ended up in a pie after all), and she and her brother boiled dead pets to examine the skeletons. This was underplayed in the film, as was Miss Potter's feminism and triumph over the social attitudes to the role of women in late Victorian England.

A useful advert for the Lake District Tourism Authority though. My rating? 5/10

Flags of Our Fathers

I don't usually go to see war films, but as part of my policy of seeing at least one film a week I went to see this Clint Eastwood epic. How different this is from the old John Wayne movies I usually see on a Saturday afternoon on BBC2. This ia graphic film - the colour is used to enormous effect with a great deal of blood. I imagine this is closer to the reality of the experience of war than 'In Which We Serve'.

The film is the story of the photograph taken of a group of soldiers raising the flag over Iwo Jima - the first part of Japan to be taken by American forces. In truth the flag was not raised once but twice, and the photograph of the original raising was lost. Only three of the men featuring in the famous photograph survived the battle. These 'heroes', Doc, Rene and Chief were used in a fund raising campaign across the United States. The movie is a study of heroism - Doc keeps saying over and over again that the three of them are not the heroes, those left behind on the island are the heroes. Chief - a native American - is treated with total disrespect, both in the army and back in the United States. He didn't want to go on the tour of the US and his life is real tragedy, rapidly declining into drunkeness and depression. Rene is an accidental hero (his commanding officer insists he is used as a runner because he believes he is more of a liability than an asset). He loves the fame and is disillusioned to discover that after the war his actions and fame are forgotten - the modern equivalent of fifteen minutes of fame!

This is an interesting and powerful film - but I think Mr Eastwood missed the target. Powerful photography cannot make up for poor characterisation. It is extremely difficult to tell who is who, the characters are not developed - so the viewer fails to be moved by their plight, or to understand the comradeship and interdependence of the fighting unit. I wasn't truly gripped by their fate. In the end it is slightly sentimental, and this reduces the impact.

Spectacular, but not an outstanding movie. He'll probably get the Oscar though. Rating: 6/10

The Queen

I saw this film (later than most people have I'm sure) at a wonderful cinema called the Gate at Notting Hill Gate with two friends.
I was quickly drawn back into those times of mass hysteria when Diana died almost a decade ago. Helen Mirren is a true star, and although she doesn't look like the Queen her mannerisms quickly made me believe she was our monarch. No one possibly know the true conversations that took place at that time - but it a tribute to the cast, the writers and the director that by careful use of historic footage it all seemed very probable. Isn't it strange how for a week the British nation behaved so out of character. Now I cried on the day of her funeral, I laid a rose in her memory at Sale War Memorial, and this film pushed all those buttons again. I started to fill up as Faure's Requiem was being performed. My friends couldn't understand what happened in late August 1997. I can - I was at a time when things in my life made me want to grieve - even if it was for someone I didn't know, and had never met.
I was glad this film didn't go along with some of the preposterous conspiracy theories that have currency today. My respect for the Queen was increased by this film, my respect for Tony Blair declined - as the Cherie Blair character implied Tony was sucked in by the establishment, and how genuine was his manner of describing the Princess? He certainly tapped into the mood of the nation - a true politician.
Excellent film - my rating 9/10