Marty vs. Clint: Round Two
reviews
The Departed Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg
Flags of Our Fathers Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Ryan Phillipe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford, Jamie Bell and Barry Pepper
Deja vu --wasn't it just two years ago when we had a Martin Scorsese movie and a Clint Eastwood picture arriving within weeks of each other, fighting it out for critical kudos and audience dollars? The big difference this time is that it's October instead of December and neither movie, due to genre in the first case and quality in the second, is as red carpet friendly.Before I get to The Departed I feel it necessary to restate, quickly, that I am firmly pro Aviator. So, I’m not sure (entirely) what this current fuss is about --this general consensus that the acclaimed auteur has finally ‘recovered’. It’s as if he’s been dropping embarrassing stink bombs for years. I didn't like Gangs of New York (messy, overlong, hit and miss acting) but Marty made The Aviator just two years ago. That was a wonderfully glitzy, gorgeous and crackling movie with strong performances. While it may be true that this auteur’s best films are behind him, whose aren’t? –-I mean as far as iconic filmmakers of the 70s go.
I don’t love Scorsese's new pic quite as much as I loved the last but that’s a taste statement rather than a qualitative one. Give me a choice between two equally well made pictures: one is about glamourous Hollywood types and the other is about foul-mouthed criminals on both sides of the law. Which one you think I’m gonna grab at lustfully?
Aside from a little late film fatigue, I was thoroughly entertained by The Departed . It's a pretty faithful redo of another good picture, Infernal Affairs but I liked it more. It was easier to follow (maybe because I’d seen the original?) and the small shifts in story made it more of an ensemble piece. And oh how they ensemble! Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio all relish the opportunity to get a little bloody for Marty. I don’t think the new film has solved the problem of this story’s lone female character (what is this psychiatrist thinking?) but Vera Farmiga works hard to make some sense of her. And here’s a neat little twist of pleasure: the film is overloaded with deadly competitive character agendas but you won’t see a more superb example of cohesive ensemble acting.
Scorsese can justifiably take another bow though we should send some credit to the screenplay which has balls of steel –I’m not sure that it’s completely graceful in its relentless forward motion but it’s easy to see why the audience gets so high on the third (fourth?) act developments. I wouldn't call it twisty exactly. After all, it’s only a shocking movie because most Hollywood storytelling is so wallflower shy. This one has personality, kick and bite. B+
While Marty enjoys relieved hosannas from the fanbase that wants him to do crime dramas forever, my guess is that Clint -- still coasting from the extravagant love that greeted Million Dollar Baby, won’t enjoy as much warmth for Flags of Our Fathers. Even for moviegoers who found Baby to be wildly overpraised, it was hard to argue with its solid storytelling: tightly constructed, intimate and moving. Eastwood’s new WW II picture is more ambitious in concept and theme but shakier in execution.
This movie examines the lives of three soldiers: Doc, Chief, and Gagnon. They are played by Ryan Phillipe, Adam Beach (the film’s only hope for Oscary acting recognition) and Jesse Bradford, Our Man of Perpetual Smirk, respectively. They were captured in the photo of soldiers raising the stars and stripes atop Iwo Jima. We soon learn that this flag raising, however evocatively frozen in time, was hardly the definitive moment in reality that it came to be once the myth-making machinery was done with it. It’s interesting subject for a movie.
Unfortunately the movie doesn't sufficiently reward interest in its premise. The problems start with the shuffling of flashbacks to the war, flashbacks to the bond tour celebrating the photograph, and present day interviews with former soldiers. This three pronged stop and go often kills the dramatic momentum and plays awkwardly throughout the movie. Transitioning from flashbulbs to explosions: this is something we’ve seen a million times before. Further compounding the choppy drama are the one dimensional characterizations on display. These roles aren’t exactly complex on paper (Doc is thoughtful and quiet, Chief is drunk and angry, and Gagnon loves attention) and the performances, even the stronger ones, do little to deepen the initial impressions.
Flags is also too reminiscent of better films. Both the cinematography (bleached, monochromatic) and the setting of the initial massacre (beachfront) will surely have audiences flashing back to Saving Private Ryan. There is nothing wrong with the filming of the scene but the problem is in the construction of the storytelling. Since we know from the beginning who will survive and who won’t the war scenes are immediately drained of the random death that made Ryan’s parallel scenes so realistically frightening and intense. By contrast Flags just feels like every other serious war movie. Something in the tone of the nostalgic lulling narration was straight out of A River Runs Through It. More oddly, I was fighting off memories of Brokeback Mountain. Like Brokeback, Flags goes easy on the music, choosing to employ one endlessly repeated musical theme. Clint Eastwood (yes he also scores his films) is not as gifted a composer as Gustavo Santaolalla and the approach doesn't fit the film as well. This movie is not about self-stifled monotonous lives and it could have used a fuller or more expressive score.
Eastwood's picture has an effective emotional climax as two friends say goodbye but he unfortunately follows it with a whole lot more movie. It’s a common staple of true story based films to end with a series of titles that tell you what became of the real people after the events shown in the film. Flags takes this responsibility (?) seriously and instead shows you what became of each of the principles through several filmed sequences for each. While this certainly serves the same purpose as title cards it stretches patience thin and is highly undramatic.
Despite the disappointment of Flags of Our Fathers , I am interested to see what its companion piece Letters from Iwo Jima adds to Eastwood’s vision of World War II and, more originally, to his vision of the war between truth and fiction. C-
So… Clint has two Oscars. Martin Scorsese has none. This is not as maddening a statistic as Hilary Swank versus [Insert Numerous Actresses Here], but it's still perplexing. It's yet another damning statement about taking the Oscars seriously. Obviously neither man is a slouch in the directorial department, but I would hope that were you in a burning building and faced with the terrible choice of saving the last remaining prints of only one filmography, you'd choose the one with Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, Goodfellas and Age of Innocence. Few people, outside of Academy voters, would question your decision.
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