Batman Begins Revisited "Nice coat!!"

 

 

 

So, as September is almost over, I figured I would do one more post and this will be a revisit of one of my older ones and it will be one of the first of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight films, Batman Begins, which saw the franchise reboot with Christian Bale in the dual role. So, as this was an older post, I'll do the usual expansion stuff on it to expand it more.

So, with that said let's take a look at this film, which is unbelievably 21 years old already!

And the warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY 

So, the film begins with Bruce Wayne as a child (played by Gus Lewis) who accidentally falls into a well where he is attacked by a swarm of bats and is later rescued by his father, Thomas (Linus Roache).  As a result Bruce is left terrified by bats and has nightmares and later on when he attends an opera with his parents, Thomas and Margaret (Sara Stewart) which involves performers pretending to be bats, he becomes frightened and they leave.  On leaving the opera house they are mugged by Joe Chill (Richard Brake) who kills Bruce's parents.  Bruce is afterward then taken to the police station where his comforted by an officer, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and later is taken care of by the Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) who reassures Bruce that his parents deaths were not his fault.

The story then moves on to 14 years later when Bruce as a young man (Christian Bale) seeks revenge on Joe Chills, who is granted parole when testifying against crime boss, Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson).  As Joe is escorted from the courthouse, Bruce close by conceals a gun, intent on killing Chills, but before he can one of Falcone's assassins shoots Chills.  Bruce is then picked up by his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) who is now an assistant district attorney who berates him for trying to take the law into his own hands and she drops him off at Falcone's nightclub.  

Bruce meets with Falcone who tells him that fear is a power that cannot be bought and that he should be grateful that Chills was killed before his men throw Bruce out.  Bruce then decides to travel the world and becomes a criminal himself as he is caught for stealing and placed in a prison in Bhutan.  In the prison Bruce is approached by a man named Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who offers to train in the arts of stealth and fear as a member of League of shadows, lead by Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe).  

On completing his training, where Bruce confronts his fear of bats, he learns that Ducat's real intentions are to destroy Gotham to rid it of the corruption that has infested it.  Bruce who is then given the task of executing a villager, who committed a crime, refuses to kill the man and instead burns down the League of shadows temple, in which Ra's al Ghul is killed by falling debris and Bruce rescues Ducat and takes him to the local villagers.

Afterward Bruce then returns to Gotham where he takes an interest in his family's company, Wayne enterprises, which is run by the corrupt William Earle (Rutger Hauer).  Bruce then sets about trying to find a way to bring Gotham to justice himself without killing and sets in motion how to prepare himself for combating the city's criminals.  And in doing so Bruce pays a visit to Wayne enterprises top scientist, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who shows Bruce some of the company's technological prototypes such as a bodysuit and also the tumbler (essentially a large reinforced vehicle) which Bruce takes.  Bruce then uncovers the entrance to a cave under his well, where he faces his fear of bats, as they swarm around him and he later creates his workshop down in the cave and soon dawns the bodysuit and becomes "Batman".  

So, as Batman, Bruce intercepts a shipment of drugs and he captures Falcone and provides evidence to Rachel to indict Falcone.  Batman then receives help from Jim Gordon, who remains one of the few honest cops left in Gotham who later arrests Falcone.  Falcone and his men are deemed as mentally unfit to stand trial and Falcone is moved to Arkham asylum where his met by the corrupt Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) who has been using Falcone to import the drugs which can cause terrifying hallucinations.  Crane then puts on a mask and exposes Falcone to the toxins, which drives Falcone insane with fear which will keep him in Arkham.  

While investigating Crane, Batman is also exposed to the drug and he barely escapes and survives as he is later given an antidote by Lucius.  Rachel later on meets with Crane at Arkham where she finds the city's water supply has been laced with the hallucinogen compound and Crane exposes her to the drug as well.  Batman however soon manages to rescue Rachel and takes her back to the batcave where he administers the antidote to her.  Bruce then attends a party at his manor, where all of a sudden he comes to face with a familiar face, Ducard who reveals him to be the real Ra's al Ghul, who is intent on destroying Gotham and from here Bruce must find a way to stop him....

THOUGHTS 

Batman Begins remains an excellent reboot to the franchise of Batman and it saw the character get a much needed shot in the arm after the dreadful Batman & Robin, which ended the series previous reboot on a real low point.  

The film also get's back to the proper origins of the character and Christopher Nolan made the right decision to make Batman a more humane character, while retaining the brooding intensity of the dark knight, but Nolan concentrates on making him more a moral avenger and avoids going down the route of making Batman a killer.  And for me that is when the film really kicks into action during the scene where Bruce makes his choice to reject the League of shadows vision to destroy Gotham city as he realises he must save the city despite the corruption that plagues it as prior to that it is a bit of a slow burner.  And when Bruce arrives back in Gotham you know you are in for a bumpy ride as is the city itself as he prepares to take down the city's criminals before later on facing his biggest challenge in facing Ra's al Ghul once more.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES 

Getting onto the performances, the cast are all excellent with plenty of stars on display in main and supporting roles.  

Starting with Christian Bale who is great in his dual role as Bruce Wayne and Batman, although he fares best as Bruce more than as Batman, where he puts on a rather husky voice, but at this stage he doesn't overdo it like he does in the next two films! Bale himself apparently auditioned for the part wearing the Batman suit from Batman Forever, which starred Val Kilmer. Bale also had previously made the film, The Machinist, where he lost a significant amount of weight, and he literally put on a hundred pounds of muscle to play the part of the dark knight. However Nolan felt that Bale had overdone his weight gain and had him slim down about 40 pounds to fit into the bat suit. 

Bale has some good highlights in the film such as the scene near the beginning when Bruce is in the Buhatnese prison and he is getting beat up by a big inamte who says to him "I'm the devil!" and Bruce says "You're not the devil, you're practice!" and he proceeds to beat the big guy up and his men. So, as the prison guards come and separate them, the head guard says "Take into confinement!" and Bruce says "I don't need protection!" and the guard says "The protection is for THEM!".   

Another good scene is where Bruce pays a visit to Lucius Fox at Wayne enterprises he invents some excuses as to why he needs certain equipment but Fox sees through him. So, at first Bruce says to Fox of some equipment "I want to borrow it" and Fox asks "For what?" and Bruce awkwardly says "For spelunking, cave diving". So, as Bryce returns again, Fox asks "So, what will it be today? More spelunking?" and Bruce says "No, today is base jumping!". So, as Fox tells Bruce "Look, Mr Wayne, if you don't want to tell me what you want this for me, I don't need to lie but don't think of me as an idiot" and Bruce says "Fair enough" and he notices something in the back "What's that?" and Fox says "The tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that". However, they go for a ride in the tumbler in a large hangar and Fox asks "So, what do you think?" and Bruce excited by it asks Fox "Does it come in black?".  

Then there is the scene where Batman makes his first entrance and as he beats up Falcone's men, he shortly after grabs Falcone and pulls out of the car as Falcone asks beforehand "what the hell are you?" Batman replies "I'm Batman!" and head butts Falcone, knocking him out, then he looks over at the tramp he saw earlier in the film, who Bruce gave his coat and Batman simply says "Nice coat!" before leaving.  

Another good scene is where Batman meets Rachel at the subway station and she fires her taser gun at his body armour, which has no effect and he casually removes it from his suit.  And Batman throws some evidence at Rachel's feet, who asks what it is and Batman says "Leverage, to get things moving" and Rachel asks who he is and Batman replies "Someone like you, someone who isn't afraid to rattle the cages!". 

Then there is the scene where Batman literally picks up the corrupt cop, Flass (Mark Boone Junior) by leg using his bat grapple and dangles him upside down.  And Batman yells at Flass "Where were the other drugs going?!" and Flass tells him he doesn't know "I swear!" and Batman yells "SWEAR TO ME!!" and let's him drop and dangle but lifting him up again on the grapple.  And Flass tells Batman of a location of a drop off point for the drugs "Cops can't go down to the narrows" and Batman says "Do I look like a cop????" before letting him go (or rather drop!).

Then there is the scene where Ducat shows up (SPOILER!!) and reveals his dual identity as the real Ra's al Ghul at Bruce's big party in his manor. So, Bruce does what he can to try and get them to leave to save them from Ducat by pretending to be drunk and insulting them. So, Bruce clinks his glass to get their attention and says "I wanna thank you all for coming here tonight and drinking all my booze!" and he smiles and continues "That's a thing about being a Wayne, there's never not enough freeloaders to turn up to your mansion, so here's to you people". So, with the people looking aghast, Bruce carries on mock insulting them "To all you phonies, all you two-faced friends, you sycophantic suck ups, who smile at me through their teeth, please leave me in peace. Please stop. Stop smiling. Its not a joke. The party's over. Get out!".

Then there is the scene where Batman rescues Rachel before confronting Ducat for the last time, and Rachel says before he goes "Wait! You could die, at least tell me your name" and Batman turns to her and in Bruce's voice tells her "Its not who I am underneath...but what I DO that defines me!". So, Rachel looks amazed realising who he is and says "Bruce??" and Batman dives off below. 

Last of all is the final scene where (SPOILER!!) Batman having saved the day from Ducat and his men, meets with Gordon up on the rooftops and we see they have a new Bat signal set up. So, Batman taps it and says "Nice!" and Gordon says to him "You like it? I couldn't find any mob bosses!". Gordon then tells Batman of a new case of a mysterious figure using a calling card with a Joker card on it and Batman says "I'll look into it". So, before Batman leaves, Gordon says to him "I never said thank you" and Batman before he goes says "And you'll never have to" and he dives off the roof to the end the film.    

Liam Neeson is also very good in his role as Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul who takes Bruce in to train him but ultimately can't convert him to the league of shadows of way thinking, and its not long before Ra's comes back to Gotham to finish off his business.  

Neeson plays the part in rather melodramatic fashion but he still has some good moments such as the scene where he tells Bruce where to go if he wants to be trained and Bruce climbs up a mountain and arrives at the temple of the league of shadows.  On entering Bruce is exhausted and Ra's starts to whip his ass, lecturing him he says "Death does not wait for you to be ready!" and as Bruce tries to defend himself Ra's effortlessly knocks him away saying "You are skilled but this isn't a dance!" and later "You are afraid, but not me of.  Tell me, Mr Wayne.  What do you fear?".  

And later as the two men practice combat on the ice, Neeson has a good moment where Ra's taunts Bruce by saying "You're parents death was not your fault.  It was your father's!" and Bruce attacks him angrily and says "But I had training!" and Ra's says "The training is nothing, the WILL IS EVERYTHING!!!".  And as Bruce knocks down Ra's on the ground, Bruce tells him to yield and Ra's says "You haven't beaten me. You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke!" and he proceeds to tap his sword on the ice which causes Bruce to fall under.  

SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!!

Then there is the scene where Ducard (or Ra's) as he turns up at Wayne manor during a party held by Bruce with his men, intent on destroying Gotham. So, Ducard tells Bruce "Tomorrow the world will watch the world's greatest city tear itself apart from fear. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time". So, as Bruce asks if Ducard attacked the city before, he tells him "Of course, over the years our weapons have grown more sophisticated, with Gotham we tried a new one, economics! And we are back to finish the job. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all is that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you just walk up behind them and stab them in the heart!". So, as they fight briefly and Ducard's men set fire to the manor, Bruce is trapped under a collapsing beam and Ducard looks at him and says "Justice is balance, you burned my house and left me for dead! Consider us even!".   

Katie Holmes also does well in her role as Rachel Dawes, although she was only 26 or 27 at the time of filming, I don't quite buy that she is old enough to portray the part of an assistant DA.  

Holmes does have some good scenes though such as the one where Rachel picks up Bruce, not long after Chills has been murdered by Falcone's assassin and she tells him about how bad things are under Falcone's reign. 

So, she says "You care about justice? Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. People talk about the depression as if its history, and it's not. Things are worse than ever down here. Falcone floods our streets with crime and drugs, preying on the desperate, creating new Joe Chills every day. Falcone not have killed your parents Bruce, but he's destroying everything they stood for" and she stops by a building and says "You wanna thank him for that, here you go". So, Bruce tells her of Chills "All these years, I wanted to kill him" and he shows her his gun "and now I can't" and after a pause, Rachel angrily slaps Bruce and says "Your father would have been ashamed of you!". 

Another good moment is where Rachel is accosted by two of Falcone's men on the subway, but one is subdued by Batman and the other looks on in panic and runs off, just when Rachel prodcues her taser, and she says "That's right you better run!" and she turns to see Batman and jumps, firing the taser, which has no effect on Batman's suit. 

Another good scene is where Rachel confronts Crane over Falcone's sudden breakdown in Arkham and she asks "Isn't it convenient for a 52 year old man who has no history of mental illness to suddenly have a complete psychotic breakdown, just when he is about to be indicted?!" and Crane says "As you can see there is nothing convenient about his symptoms".  

And also there is the moment where Rachel bumps into Bruce at a party, where he is starting pose as a billionaire playboy, and she says to him "Bruce, you may still be that great kid you use to be, but its not who you are underneath, its what you do that defines you" which is a line Batman later quotes back to her giving a hint to the fact that its Bruce who is the dark knight.

As for the other performances Michael Caine is very good as Alfred, Bruce's trusty butler, who helps out Bruce in starting his crusade as Batman.  Caine also has some highlights in the film, such as in the scene where he meets Bruce and they fly back to Gotham on a private jet. So, in the scene, Alfred asks Bruce about his plan to bring justice to Gotham and says "I assume as your taking on the underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect those you care about from reprisals" and Bruce says "You're thinking about Rachel?" and Alfred nervously says "Actually, sir, I was thinking about myself!". 

So, Alfred then goes on to say he had Bruce legally declared dead (well Earle did really), he says to Bruce "I couldn't think about the legal ramifications of bringing you back from the dead" and Bruce taken aback asks "You had me declared dead??" and Alfred says "Well, its Mr Earle actually, he's taking the company public". So, Alfred then says "Those company shares are worth quite a bit of money" and Bruce says "Well, its a good thing I left everything to you" and Alfred says "Quite so, sir! And you can borrow the Rolls, just bring it back with a full tank".  

Another good scene is when Alfred confronts Bruce about forgetting his family's legacy and Bruce say he doesn't care about his name and Alfred strongly says to him "Its not just your name, sir!  Its your father's name!  And its all that's left of him!  Don't destroy it".  And then there is the scene where Ra's Al Ghul arrives at Bruce's manor and his men set it on fire and leave Bruce for dead, and Alfred helps lift a large piece of wood that Bruce is trapped underneath and he exclaims "What is the point of all those push-ups if you can't even lift a bloody log?!".

Morgan Freeman is also excellent as Lucius Fox, who helps Bruce by using some of Wayne enterprise's prototype technology, such as the bodysuit for Batman and the tumbler, which Bruce uses for Batman's car.  Freeman also provides his character with a dry sense of humour as he exhibits throughout and is noted in the scenes where Bruce first approaches Lucius and uses excuses that he wants to use the equipment for base-jumping and spelunking.  

And as Lucius shows Bruce the memory cloth used to create his cape, Lucius says "I don't think they tried to market it to the billionaire, spelunking, BASE-jumping crowd!".   And then Lucius who is wary of Bruce's excuses says "Mister Wayne, if you don't want to tell me exactly what you're doing, when I'm asked, I don't have to lie.  But don't think of me as an idiot" and Bruce says "Fair enough".

Then there is the moment right after where Bruce looks at something off camera and says "What's that?" and Fox smiles and says "The tumbler? You wouldn't be interested in that". So, then it cuts to them taking the tumbler for a spin in a large hangar and Fox says "It was supposed to be built as a bridging vehicle, we never could get the damn bridge to work but this baby works just fine!". So, Bruce halts the tumbler looking excited and Fox asks "So, what do you think?" and with a smile Bruce asks "Does it come in black?".  

And last of all is the scene near the end (SPOILER!!) where Earle finds Fox in the boardroom handing out documents to the members. So, Earle speaks to Bruce on the phone to find out what is going on and Bruce says "Oh, I decided to buy out most of the company shares, so I'm now the majority shareholder" and he sarcastically throws Earle's earlier words back at him saying "Its a little complicated but Wayne enterprises is in safe hands". Bruce then says "Is that right, Mr Fox?" and Fox smugly says "That's right, Mr Wayne" and he looks at Earle and with relish says "Didn't you get the memo??" and Earle gives a weary smile.  

Rutger Hauer is also good in his brief role as Earle, who has been running Wayne enterprises in Bruce's absence and he has a good moment where he visits Lucius and says to him "I'm merging your department with archives, and I am firing you.  Didn't you get the memo?".  

And later on rather amusingly, Bruce buys back control of his shares in the company and puts Fox in charge of operations. So, Earle in the scene enters the boardroom to see Fox handing out papers to the members and he says "Didn't I fire you?" and Fox says "Yes but then I get offered another job...yours!". Earle then speaks to Bruce on the phone, who tells him that he bought the majority of the company shares leaving Earle out of the loop and Lucius says smugly to Earle "Didn't you get the memo?". 

Cillian Murphy proves to be quite effective and creepy in his role as Dr Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow and he has some good moments as well.

So Murphy's notable scenes include the film's most frightening moment where Crane says to Falcone in Arkham "Would you like to see my mask?" and he takes out his fabric mask and his briefcase "I'm probably not so scary to a guy like you, but these crazies, they can't stand it!".  And Crane proceeds to open his case and detonate a charge of the weaponised hallucinogen which freaks out Falcone and Crane's visage distort as the gas spreads and voice changes and he says "They scream and they cry.  Much as you are doing now!".  And just after Crane leaves the room and he says to one of the staff "No he's not faking, not that one! Get him transferred to my practice, I can't treat him here". 

And then there is the scene where Batman arrives at the narrows and hides as Crane and his men arrive, and as Batman attacks his men, Crane fires the toxin in Batman's face and he says as he throws alcohol in face "Here take a drink, you look like a man who takes himself too seriously!  You want my opnion?  You need to lighten up!" and he lights a match and sets fire to Batman's suit, who dives out the window. 

Then there is the scene where Crane is confronted by Batman after he gives a potential lethal dose of his hallucinogen to Rachel. So, in the scene Crane and his men hear Batman move around and his men ask "What should we do?" and Crane says "What else should we do with a man that prowls around at night? Call the cops!". Batman soon disables Crane's men and grab a vial of his fear toxin and uses it on Crane and says "Taste of your own medicine, doctor?!" and the toxin causes Crane to see Batman as a demonic figure. So, Batman asks "Who are you working for??!" and Crane with a look of terror says "Ra's al Ghul!" and Batman says "Ra's al Ghul is dead! Who are you working for???!" and Crane then says "Doctor Crane isn't here right now but if you like to leave him a message, someone will get back to you!" and Batman knocks him out. 

Tom Wilkington is also very good as the mob boss, Falcone and he has some good scenes also that include where Falcone meets with Bruce in his nightclub and he tells him "Look around you, kid, you'll see two councilmen, a union official, a couple off-duty cops and a judge.  Now I wouldn't have a second's hesitation of blowing your head off right here and now in front of them.  Now, that's power you can't buy!  That's the power of fear". So, Falcone tells his men to throw Bruce out and before they do, Falcone tells Bruce "You've got guts, kid, more than your old man had. Chill said when he died, he begged, begged like a dog!". 

And then there is the scene when Crane meets Falcone in Arkham after he is captured by Batman and he apparently cut his wrists to get the insanity plea.

So, as Crane enters the room, Falcone mockingly says "Yeah, Doctor Crane, I can't take it anymore, the walls are closing in, blah blah blah! Couple more days of this food and it will be true!". Crane then asks "What do you want?" and Falcone says "I wanna know how you're gonna convince me to keep my mouth shut" and Crane says "About what? You don't know anything". Falcone however then says "Now I've been bringing your stuff in for months and whatever your boss is got planned, I know its big, so I want in" but Crane says "Well, I already know what he'll say, that we should kill you" and Falcone laughs and says "No, he can't get to me, not even in my own town". Crane sighs and takes off his glasses and asks "Do you want to see my mask? I use it in my experiments" and he opens his briefcase and he takes out his mask and says "Now, I'm probably not very scary to a guy like you but these crazies, they can't stand it". So, Falcone asks "So, when did the nut take over the nuthouse??" and Crane activates a trigger than sprays fear gas in Falcone's face and he screams in terror, as Crane rises with his mask on, which causes the fear toxin to distort his face and he says in a distorted voice "They scream and they cry, much like you're doing right now!".

Last of all is Gary Oldman, who is excellent as Sgt Jim Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in Gotham, who ends up helping Batman.  

Oldman's highlights include his first scene where Gordon sits in his car along with the corrupt cop, Flass, who says to Gordon he should take the corrupt money "Maybe one day you'll wise up" and Gordon says "There's nothing wise about what you do, Flass" and he then says "In a town that's bent, who is there is to rat to anyway??" and Flass laughs.  

Then there is the scene where Batman talks quietly with Gordon on his rooftop and Gordon tells him that the commissioner think that he is a menace. So, Gordon says "The commissioner is setting up a taskforce to find you, he thinks you're dangerous" and Batman asks "What do you think?" and Gordon says "I think you're trying to help" and turns back to see Batman has gone and he says "But I've been wrong before".  

And then at the end there is a funny moment where Gordon has setup a bat signal, which Batman taps and says "Nice!" and Gordon "You like it?  I couldn't find any mob bosses!". Batman then says "Well, Sergeant" and Gordon says "Oh, its Lieutenant now. You've really started something. Bent cops running scared, hope on the streets" and Batman says "But?" and Gordon says "We still haven't picked up Crane or or half the inmates that he freed" and Batman says "We CAN bring Gotham back". Gordon then pulls out a file and says "Take a look at this guy, armed robbery, double homicide, a taste for the theatrical like you, he leaves a calling card". So, Batman looks at the card, which is a Joker card and he says "I'll look into it" and he steps to the edge of the rooftop and Gordon says "I never said thank you" and Batman looks back and says "And you'll never have to" and he dives off to end the film. 

DIRECTOR 

Now finally onto the director, Christopher Nolan who has done a great job here with the film and he keeps the atmosphere intense and broody throughout, but also allows for a few moments of levity as well in the film and provides the film with just enough hope and humanity from keeping it permanently in the dark and never forgets it is supposed to be a superhero film.  Nolan also confidently handles the film's impressive action scenes and uses its different locations very well also as it was filmed mostly in Shepperton studios in England, but also there were some location filming in Iceland, during Bruce's training, as well as Chicago during the scenes where Batman is chased by the police.  

MUSIC  

The film's music score is also excellent by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, which is very intense and atmospheric is well suited to the tone of the film. Zimmer was initially asked by Nolan to score the film alone but Zimmer was keen to do a collaboration with Howard and together they composed the score over a 3 month period. There are plenty of dark passages and the main theme is also pretty good although is there one criticism of the score it can be a bit too boomy and overbearing in its volume but overall its solid enough. 

FLAWS 

As for the flaws.........well Batman Begins does have some niggles worth a mention.

Starting with the pacing of the film, which is a bit inconsistent and it has to be said that Bruce's journey in Bhutan and his training drags on a bit and it takes until Bruce sets the fire to the League of shadows temple for the film's tempo to kick a bit more into gear.  

I also felt that Bruce's father, Thomas, was unjustly branded a coward in the film, when during the scene where he is killed, he calmly tries to reason with Chills before being shot, which hardly shows the actions of a coward.  And Ra's blames Bruce's parent's death on his father, when his father actually tried to do what he could and keep a cool head, but the film certainly doesn't seem to take that into consideration and even in Chills's mind, he felt that Bruce's dad begged for mercy, which going by the scene is crap, but then again its not like a criminal would ever lie!   

Then there is Bale's portrayal of Batman, which is far from bad, but he does start to use that husky voice thing here, which can be grating, but it is nowhere near as bad here as it is the following two films.  But I just think why is it necessary for Bruce to husk his voice to that extent, when all its liable to do is make him cough and splutter!  And Michael Keaton managed to hush his voice well enough as Batman without making it sound ridiculous so its a bit crap that Bale wasn't able to do the same thing with his performance.  

You could also argue in a way that Nolan's attempts at humour in the film are at times also a tad lame, although there are some good lines and Caine and Freeman both provide the film with some dry moments of wit, but there are some naff ones as well such as the scene where Gordon first sees Batman's tumbler and he gasps "I've got to get me one of those!".  I think its right though that Nolan does have some moments of levity in the film because it would be even more dreary without them, and I guess it is less guilty of cheesy humour than some of the superhero films out there.  

I also found it a bit bizarre how Crane was able to recover from his own fear toxin so quickly after Batman sprayed him with some but he is released by Ra's men although maybe his exposure to using it so much on inmates even using a mask made him a bit more resistant to its effects after a while. However later on, Rachel uses her taser and shoots him in the face with it, now surely that would have caused him severe facial nerve damage of sorts even with his mask on. But again it is a Hollywood film, so no realism applies here really.  

And lastly another flaw well worth mentioning is the scene where Ra's Al Ghul turns up at Bruce Wayne's mansion near the end and he has his men set fire to the place and Ra's struggles with Bruce and leaves him trapped under a falling roof beam.  And in the scene Ra's says to Bruce "You burned down my house and left me for dead.  Consider us even!" which when you think about it, it is not even remotely close in their case whereas Bruce did burn down Ra's house, he didn't leave him for dead and instead dragged him out the burning house and saved him from falling off a snowy cliff and then him took to a villager so he could recover!  So obviously Ra's has a pretty warped sense of justice and let's face it the guy does anyway as how exactly is destroying one corrupt city which albeit has plenty of criminals in it but also plenty of innocent people, justice???  In short, Ra's Al Ghul is an ungrateful knob to put it mildly!       
     
So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, in summing it all up, Batman Begins is an excellent start to the Nolan trilogy and it successfully rebooted the franchise giving it a more grounded and gritty feel again after the stupidly camp Batman and Robin movie some 8 years earlier. The film also features a solid cast with Christian Bale really good in his dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman even if he does his husky voice, its not overkill here unlike the sequels. The supporting cast are also really good with Liam Neeson in the main villain role as Ducard (aka Ra's) as well as Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Katie Holmes although she is a bit young for her role. Nolan does a great job also with the film's action scenes even if they do feel a bit messy and chaotic in terms of their camera work but he brings the right intensity to the film itself. 

So, with that said, Batman Begins is definitely one of the best films in the trilogy and is well worth a look or revisit. So, with that I will rate it:

9 out of 10

So, that's all for now and I'll be back again next month.

Until then, bye for now!  

 

A Few Good Men Review (Revisited Part 2!) "I want the TRUTH!!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, time for a revisited post once again and yes it is a bit lazy (sorry!) but I quite liked the idea of having another look at a classic legal thriller, A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson and expanding on albeit already very expanded review! However, there are a few things I'd like to add in all the same.

So, with that said, let's take yet another look at this classic after 34 years on from its release... 

And the usual warning is coming up....

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!! 

STORY  

So the film begins at Guantanamo bay naval base in Cuba, with two young marines, Lance Corporal Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and Private Downey (James Marshall) entering the room of Private Santiago (Michael DeLarenzo) where they proceed to tie him up and stuff a rag down his throat as a hazing attack, however as a result of the attack, Santiago dies and Dawson and Downey are arrested.

Shortly after Dawson and Downey's arrest, naval investigator and lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Jo Galloway (Demi Moore) believes the two marines did not murder Santiago and they were in fact acting on order known as a "code red" which is a form of disciplinary military punishment.  Galloway requests that she defend the two marines however her request is denied and instead the case is assigned to Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, an inexperienced, cocky lawyer in the US Navy but who has a strong track record for plea bargaining.  Kaffee and Galloway at first however don't get along as Galloway resents Kaffee's carefree attitude as he clearly doesn't want to take on the demands of the case whereas Kaffee resents Galloway's overzealous attitude.

However despite their differences, they travel to Cuba along with Kaffee's fellow lawyer, Lt Sam Weinberg (Kevin Pollak) where they meet with the commanding officer, Colonel Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson) who neither confirms or denies the practice of code reds on the base, and after a brief investigation of the base, the three of them fly back to the States. 

However on their return to the States, Jessep's executive officer, Lt Colonel Markinson (J.T. Walsh) goes AWOL, and Galloway grows more convinced that the order was a code red.  Kaffee and Galloway go and question Dawson and Downey who tell him that they were given an order to perform a code red on Santiago by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland).

Kaffee then approaches the prosecution lawyer Captain Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon) and tells him the marines were given an order and he works out a plea bargain with him, where he will offer the marines involuntary manslaughter for which they would receive a reduced sentence of six months.  Kaffee takes the offer to Dawson who turns it down as he refuses to admit he did anything wrong other than follow his duty and will not dishonour himself or his corps.

As a result of this, Kaffee verges on quitting the case after having a row with Galloway, who insists they go to court and put the marines on trial, but Kaffee soon decides to take on the case.  And from here this is where Kaffe, Galloway and Weinberg plan their case to try and save their two clients from serving a life long prison sentence.....

THOUGHTS 

As far as courtroom dramas go, "A Few Good Men" definitely is one of the most entertaining and gripping ones of its time and it has aged very well 34 years on from its release.  The story itself was actually based on a phone call the writer Aaron Sorkin had with his sister, who worked as a lawyer in the US Navy Corps for three years, where she defended marines who were accused of murder after a direct order from their commanding officer to carry out a hazing disciplinary action on a fellow marine.  Sorkin would then go on to write his script for the stage where it was a success on Broadway on its initial run in 1989.

And it has to be said that Sorkin's screenplay is wonderfully written and richly worded and the characters are all really well drawn out, and it also lead toward a fruitful career as a screenwriter for TV and film, as Sorkin went on to write "The West Wing" for TV, as well as films such as "The American President", "The Social Network" and "Steve Jobs".

PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers and strong language!)   

As for the performances well they are excellent as the film features a great cast.

Starting with Tom Cruise, who despite his tendency to play annoyingly cocky characters (and yep Daniel Kaffee here is no exception here!) still provides a really good performance as Daniel Kaffee, the inexperienced and yes, cocky naval lawyer, who would rather take the easy way out of the case rather than go to trial.  However as the film progresses, Kaffee's character begins mature and grow and he takes on his responsibilities rather than run away from them.

And Cruise certainly has plenty of good scenes in the film such as the one where he is met by an angry naval officer, Spradling, as the two of them argue over a pending case of a young naval employee who supposedly smoked marijuana but it turned our to be oregano.  So, in the scene Spradling angrily says to Kaffee "We were supposed to meet 15 minutes ago. You're stalling on the McDermott case. We either get it done now, or I'll hang him from a f****** yardarm!".  And Kaffee, surprised asks the person he is practising soft ball with, Sherby "Do we still hang people from yardarms" and Sherby replies "Don't think so" and Kaffee says to Spradling "Sherby doesn't think we still hang people from yardarms anymore".

So, Kaffee tells Spradling "I'll file a motion seeking to obtain an evidentiary ruling in advance... ...then I'll file against pre-trial confinement. You'll get three months' paperwork... ...because a signalman bought and smoked a dime bag of oregano!".  And as the two of them continue to haggle over a resolution to the case and Spradling eventually gives and says "I don't why I'm agreeing to this!" and Kaffee grins and says "Because you have wisdom beyond your years!".

Then there is the scene where Kaffee confronts Dawson and Downey, who are being detained while Kaffee and Galloway do their investigation and in the scene Kaffee asks Dawson if their superior officer, Lt Kendrick ordered them to give Santiago a code red.  So, Kaffee walks in angrily and asks Dawson "Did Kendrick order the code red?" and Dawson asks "Sir?" and Kaffee about to lose his temper says "Don't say sir like I just asked you if you cleaned the latrine. You heard what I said. Did Lt. Kendrick order you guys to give Santiago a code red?!".  And Dawson says "Yes, sir" and Kaffee asks Downey, who also says "Yes, sir".

So, Kaffee, exasperated asks "You mind telling my why the hell you never mentioned this before?!" and Dawson says "You didn't ask us, sir" which pisses off Kaffee more who says "Answering my questions, isn't going to win you a place in my heart.  I get paid no matter how much time you spend in jail!".  And Dawson angrily says "Yes, sir, I know you do, sir!" which prompts Kaffee to yell "F*** YOU, HAROLD!!".

Then there is the scene where Kaffee offers Dawson and Downey, Ross's plea bargain deal to serve a 6 month sentence for involuntary manslaughter, however Dawson refuses to go for it.  So in the scene Kaffee tells them "All right, here's the story. The government's offering involuntary manslaughter. Two years. You'll be home in six months".  This prompts a look of surprise from Dawson and Downey but little more than that and Kaffee says "Wow! You're the greatest lawyer in the world! How can we thank you? Fellas, you hear what I just said?! You'll be home in six months!!".  However, Dawson says to Kaffee "I'm afraid we can't do that, sir" and Kaffee asks "Do what?" and Dawson says "Make a deal, sir."  And Kaffee bemused asks "What are you talking about?" "We did nothing wrong. We did our job. If that has consequences, I'll accept them. But I won't say that I'm guilty, sir".

So, Kaffee becomes angry and points accusingly at Jo and says to Dawson "Did she put you up to this???!" and Jo says "No".  And Dawson says "We have a code, sir!" which angers Kaffee "You and your code plead not guilty. You'll be in jail for life. Do what I say, and you'll be home in six months. Do it, Harold. Six months, it's nothing. It's a hockey season!".  But then Dawson lays it on the line as he tells Kaffee that he believes he was right and will not dishonour himself or the corps, so he can go home in just six months.  So, Kaffee requests to talk to Dawson alone, so the others leave and Kaffee says to Dawson "You know, Downey worships you. He's gonna do whatever you do. Are you really gonna let this happen to him because of a code, Harold?".  And Dawson looks at Kaffee and asks "Do you think we were right?" and Kaffee says "It doesn't matter..." but Dawson angrily asks again "DO YOU THINK WE WERE RIGHT??!" and Kaffee says "I think you'd lose!".  And Dawson looks at him in disgust and says "You are such a coward!  I can't believe they let you wear a uniform!".

Then there is the scene right after where Kaffee argues with Galloway as he is ready to walk away from the case.  And Kaffee says in disbelief "I don't believe it!  Dawson wants to go to jail, just to spite me! If he wants to jump off a cliff...fine!  I'm not gonna hold his hand on the way down!".  Then Galloway argues with Kaffee and tells him "I want them to be judged, I want you to stand up and make an argument!" and "Why are you so afraid to be a lawyer?!  Were Daddy's expectations that high?!".  And Kaffee sighs and says "Oh, spare me the psychobabble father bullshit!  Dawson and Downey will have their day in court but they'll just have it with another lawyer!".  And as Galloway insists that they need him as he know how to win and if he walks away he will seal their fate, Kaffee tells Galloway "Their fate was sealed the moment Santiago died!".  And as Galloway asks "Do you believe they have a case?" and Kaffee angrily says "You and Dawson, you both live in the same dream world. It doesn't matter what I believe, it only matters what I can prove. So don't tell me what I know and don't know. I KNOW THE LAW!!". 

And to save a lot of time in typing more paragraphs for Cruise, I will just skip to the scene where Kaffee questions Colonel Jessep in court and he finally get's to the point where he asks him if he ordered the code red.  But before that there is the funny moment where Kaffee asks Jessep a number of questions about his personal items and telephone calls he made as he made his trip to Washington.  And Jessep tells Kaffee "I wore utilities on the plane" rather than his uniform and Kaffee asks "Toothbrush, shaving kit, underwear?".  And this provokes Ross to shout "Object!" and Kaffee asks "Is the general's underwear a matter of national security?!".  

So, in the scene Kaffee says to Jessep "If Lt. Kendrick gave an order that Santiago wasn't to be touched... why did he have to be transferred? Colonel? Kendrick ordered a Code Red because THAT'S what you told him to do!".  And then Kaffee begins to bellow at Jessep and shouts "AND WHEN IT WENT BAD, YOU CUT THESE GUYS LOOSE!! You signed a phony transfer order!  You doctored the logbook!  You coerced the Doctor!  Now I'm asking you!  COLONEL Jessep DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED???!!".

And as the Judge says "Colonel, you have to answer that question!" Jessep refuses to back down and says angrily "I'LL answer the question!" and he looks at Kaffee and says "You want answers?!" and Kaffe says "I think I'm entitled!".  And Jessep again asks "You want ANSWERS?!!" and Kaffee yells back "I WANT THE TRUTH!!!" and Jessep shouts that great line "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!".

And Jessep (SPOILER!!!) finally admits that he ordered the code red as Kaffee yells at him "DID YOU ORDERED THE CODE RED???!" and Jessep yells back "YOU'RE GODDAM RIGHT I DID!!".  Then Kaffee recommends they go to "an immediate 39a article session" as the court members and the jury leave the room, Jessep is placed under arrest and he lunges at Kaffee but is restrained.  And Jessep then says to him "All you did was weaken a country today, Kaffee! That's all you did. You put peoples' lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son!" and Kaffee says "Don't call me, son.  I'm a lawyer and an officer in the United States Navy.  And you're under arrest, you son of a bitch!".

And lastly there is the scene at the end where Ross, the prosecution for the case, asks Kaffee "Airmen O'Malley and Rodriguez.  What exactly were they going to testify to?" and Kaffee tells him "They were going to testify that they had no recollection of absolutely anything".  And Ross responds sarcastically "Strong witnesses" and Kaffee says "And handsome too, don't you think?" and they both laugh.

Demi Moore who it has to be said was a rather unlikely choice for such a role here, is actually pretty good as Lt Commander Joanne Galloway, the overzealous naval investigator who works on the case with Kaffee.

And Moore has quite a few good scenes of her own also such as the one where she talks to Captain West (John M. Jackson) in his office at JAG (Judge Advocate General) corps about the Dawson and Downey case.

And in the scene Jo tries her best to make a strong impression and also put herself forward to defend Dawson and Downey however when she makes the recommendation she bungles it nervously.  And Jo says to Captain West "Sir, I'd like to have them moved up to Washington and assigned counsel. Someone who can really look into this. Someone who possesses not only the legal skill...but a familiarity with the workings of the military.  In short, I'd like to suggest that I be the one who that-- That it be me who is assigned to represent them, myself!".  And Captain West says to her "Commander, why don't you go and get yourself a cup of coffee" and Galloway politely says "No, thank sir, I'm fine" and West says to her bluntly "Commander, I'd like you to leave the room so we can talk about you behind your back!" and Galloway smiles awkwardly saying "Certainly sir!".

Then there is of course Moore's most notable scene where confronts Kaffee for his lack of commitment over the case and tells Kaffee that she knows exactly who he is and his background.  So, she says to Kaffee "Daniel Alistair Kaffee, born June 8th, 1964...at Boston Mercy Hospital. Your father's Lionel Kaffee, former Attorney General of the U.S...died 1985. You went to Harvard Law, then joined the Navy...probably because that's what your father wanted. Now you're just treading water for the three years in the JAG corps...just laying low till you can get out and get a real job. If that's the situation, that's fine, I won't tell anyone".  However Jo then get's angry and warns him "But if this case is handled in the same Persian fast-food, slick-assed manner...with which you handle everything else...then something's gonna get missed! And I wouldn't be doing my job if I let Dawson and Downey to sit in prison, because their attorney predetermined the path of least resistance!".  And Kaffee simply stares at her and says "Wow!  I'm sexually aroused commander!".

Another good scene from Moore is when Galloway confronts Kaffee over his decision to quit the case and get another lawyer for Dawson and Downey.  And as Kaffee is about to leave, Galloway says to him "One thing, though. When you ask the judge, be sure and ask nicely" and Kaffee turns around and says "What do you want from me??" and she says "I want you to let them be judged. I want you to stand up and make an argument!".  And Sam sarcastically says to her "An argument that didn't help Calley at My Lai, an argument that didn't work for the Nazis at Nuremberg!".  However then Kaffee turns around and gives an angry response "For Christ's sake, Sam!  Do you think that's the same as two teenage marines executing an order they didn't think would result in harm? These guys aren't Nazis!" and Galloway says "Don't look now, Danny, but you're making an argument".

However as Kaffee is about to leave again and says that Dawson and Downey will have their day in court with another lawyer, Galloway says "Another lawyer isn't good enough! They need you! You know how to win!  You know they have a case, and if you walk away from them now you've sealed their fate!".  And as Kaffee angrily tells her not to tell him what he knows or not because "I KNOW THE LAW!" Galloway says to him "You know nothing about the law! You're a used-car salesman! An ambulance-chaser with a rank! You're nothing. Live with that" and she leaves instead.

And last of all is the scene where after their case hits a bad setback later on the film, Kaffee returns home drunk as he tells them about (SPOILER!!) Markinson (Jessep's executive officer at Gunatanamo bay, who was set to testify) having shot himself.  So, in the scene Galloway tells Kaffee that they still have a chance to win the case if they subpoena Jessep much to Kaffee's annoyance.

So, Jo (I'll call her Jo from now on!) in the scene says to Kaffee "In the morning we'll ask Randolph for a continuance for 24 hours" and Kaffee asks "Why would we do that?" and Jo says "To subpoena Colonel Jessep".  And Kaffee refuses to listen to Jo's reasoning and he says "No, I won't listen, Jo.  Your passion is compelling but useless.  Lowden Downey needed a TRIAL lawyer today!" (meaning she messed up being Downey's attorney) and she says to him "You chickenshit!  You're gonna use this as an excuse to give up?" and Kaffee says to her with a sense of finality "Its over!".

However Jo refuses to give in and she asks Kaffee "Why did you ask Jessep for the transfer order in Cuba?" and Kaffee annoyed answers "I wanted the damn transfer order!".  Jo, however spits back at him "Bullshit!  You could have gotten it by calling any one of a dozen departments. You didn't want the order. You wanted to see Jessep's reaction when you asked for the transfer order! You had an instinct and it was confirmed by Markinson! Now, damn it, let's put Jessep on the stand and end this thing!".  But as Kaffee goes into a big long rant and ends it like a game show host yelling at Jo "SHOULD OR SHOULD WE NOT FOLLOW THE ADVICE OF THE GALACTICALLY STUPID????!!" he then angrily knocks some papers and books off a table.  And Jo, shocked, takes a moment and then puts her coat and as she is about leave she says to Kaffee "I'm sorry I lost you your set of steak knives!" and she leaves (referring to a scene earlier where Kaffee said he will get a set of steak knives if he wins one more case). 
 
Jack Nicholson next up is terrific in his role as Colonel Nathan Jessep, the intimidating Guantanamo bay Naval base officer, who is the superior officer at the base where Santiago died. Nicholson's screen time was only 15 minutes or so here and he is only in four scenes but his presence is unquestionably here and he chews whatever scenes he is given impeccably. 

Nicholson also has his share of great moments in the film such as the scene where we first see Jessep, reading Santiago's letter and he puts it down and introduces himself saying "Who the f*** is PFC William T. Santiago?!".  And then after Lt Kendrick tells Jessep who Santiago is, Jessep says "Well, apparently he's not very happy down here at Shangri-la because he's written everybody but Santa Claus, asking for a transfer. Now he's telling tales about a fenceline shooting!".  And Jessep looks to Markinson and says "Matthew?" and Markinson offers "I'm appalled, sir" and Jessep now annoyed says "You're appalled!  This kid broke the chain of command and ratted on a member of his unit to say nothing of the fact that he's a U.S. Marine and it would appear he can't run from here to there without collapsing from heat exhaustion!".

And towards the end of the scene, Jessep decides to have a quiet word with Markinson when Markinson disagrees with Jessep's decision to keep Santiago on the base and be trained rather than transferred.  So, in the scene Jessep bluntly tells Markinson "We go back a while. We went to the Academy together...were commissioned together, did our tours in Vietnam together. But I've been promoted with greater speed and success than you. Now, if that's a source of tension or embarrassment for you...I don't give a shit. We're in the business of saving lives, Lieutenant Colonel Markinson. Don't ever question my orders in front of another officer!" and he walks out leaving a frustrated Markinson alone.

Then of course there is the great scene where Kaffe, Jo and Sam go to Cuba and meet with Jessep at the base and they have lunch together where Jo asks Jessep a sensitive about code reds and whether they still happen on the base.  And in the scene Jessep says to Kaffee "You know, it just hit me.  She outranks you, Danny. I want to tell you something. And listen up, because I mean this. You're the luckiest man in the world. There is nothing on this earth sexier--believe me, gentlemen, than a woman you have to salute in the morning. Promote them all, I say, because this is true. If you haven't gotten any from a superior officer, well...you're just letting the best in life pass you by!".

And just before they go, Kaffee asks Jessep for a copy of Santiago's transfer order for his paperwork in a rather abrupt manner and Jessep somewhat takes offence.  But in the scene just as Kaffee is about to leave, Jessep says "But you have to ask me nicely!" and Kaffee is somewhat taken aback and asks "I beg your pardon?".  So, Jessep says firmly "You have to ask me nicely!  See, Danny, I can deal with the bullets, the bombs and the blood. I don't want money and I don't want medals. What I DO want is for you to stand there...in that faggoty white uniform... ...and with your Harvard mouth, extend me some f***ing courtesy!! You got to ask me nicely!".  And as Kaffee takes a moment and asks in more polite tone "Colonel Jessep, if its not too much trouble I'd like a copy of the transfer order, sir" and Jessep takes a moment and then says "No problem".

And last of all is the lengthy courtroom scene where Kaffee questions Jessep about the circumstances surrounding Santiago's death and it leads into him asking Jessep if he was the one that ordered the code red on Santiago.

So, in the scene Kaffee builds up to the moment and he yells at Jessep "DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!" and as the Judge tells him he doesn't need to answer that, Jessep furiously says "I'll answer the question!".  So, Jessep glares angrily at Kaffee and asks "You want answers?!" and Kaffee says "I think I'm entitled!" and Jessep again asks "YOU WANT ANSWERS??!" and Kaffee yells "I WANT THE TRUTH!" and Jessep yells back "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!".

So, Jessep launches into his lengthy vitriolic speech which he spits at Kaffee "Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded. Who's gonna do it?! You?! You, Lieutenant Weinberg?!! I have a greater responsibility than you can possible fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. The luxury of not knowing what I know: That Santiago's death, while tragic,  probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives!".

And Jessep continues "I have neither the time nor inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the freedom I provide then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you are entitled to!".  And Kaffee continues to pressure Jessep "Did you order the code red?" and Jessep says "I did the job..." and Kaffee goes in for the kill "DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED???!!" and Jessep not holding back, yells "YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I DID!!!".

And as Jessep tries to leave, he is arrested by MP's and as Ross reads Jessep his rights, Jessep angrily says "What the hell is this?!  I'm being charged with a crime?!  IS THAT WHAT THIS IS?!  I'm being charged with a CRIME?!  That's funny, that's what this is!".  And Jessep suddenly lunges at Kaffee but he is restrained by the MP's and he yells at Kaffee "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!! YOU MESSED WITH THE WRONG MARINE!!".  Jessep soon calms himself down a little and he looks around the room in disgust and says "You f****** people!  You have no idea how to defend a nation!" and he glares at Kaffee and says "All you did was weaken a country today, Kaffee, that's all you did!  You put peoples lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son!".  

Kevin Bacon next is excellent as Captain Jack Ross, the prosecution lawyer for Dawson and Downey's trial and Kev has some great moments himself in the part as he was just starting to establish himself as a more serious actor at this stage in his career after appearing earlier films such as "Footloose". He also sports an notable flat top hairdo, which is supposed to be a bit inconsistent to how marines actually have their hair done. 

And some of Bacon's best scenes include the one where Ross addresses the jury for the first time as he makes his opening statement.  And Ross in the scene tells the jury members of Kaffee "Now, Lieutenant Kaffee is gonna try and pull off a little magic act here. He'll try a little misdirection. He'll astonish you with stories of rituals. Dazzle you with official-sounding terms like Code Red. He might even try to cut into a few officers for you. He'll have no evidence, none, but it'll be entertaining. But in the end... ...all the magic in the world will not divert your attention from the fact... ...that Willy Santiago is dead, and Dawson and Downey killed him.  These are the facts of the case and they are undisputed".

Then there is the scene where Kaffee meets with Ross and tells him that he has Markinson and he will testify against Jessep and Kendrick but Ross warns him of the dangers of making unwarranted accusations against both men.

So, Ross says to Kaffee "If you accuse Kendrick or Jessep of any crime without evidence, you'll be court-martialled for misconduct and that's gonna be stapled to every job application you ever fill out!".  And Kaffee says to Ross "I think the whole f***ing bunch of you are certifiably insane and this code of honour makes me wanna beat the shit out of somone!".  And Ross fires back "Don't you dare lump me in with Kendrick and Jessep just because I wear the same unifrom. I'm your friend. I don't think your clients don't belong in jail, but I don't get to make that decision! I represent the U.S. government without passion or prejudice and my client has a case!".

So, Ross stands up to leave the bar and before he does he says to Kaffee "You got bullied into that courtroom. By everyone. By Dawson. By Galloway. Shit, I practically dared you. You got bullied into that courtroom by the memory of a dead lawyer".  And just before Ross leaves, a furious Kaffee stands up and yells at Ross "YOU'RE A LOUSY F****** SOFTBALL PLAYER, JACK!!" and Ross turns to him and says "Your boys are going down, Danny.  I can't stop it anymore".

Kevin Pollak is also great in his role as Lt Sam Weinberg, Danny's fellow lawyer and good friend, who enjoys a bit of banter with Danny while he also plays his part in preparing their case.

And Pollak's good scenes include the one where Sam is out pushing his baby's pram as he walks with Kaffee.  And Sam says to Kaffee of his baby daughter "You heard her.  She said her first word.  Pa" while pointing and Kaffee says "She was pointing at a mailbox, Sam!" and Sam replies "That's right, as if to say "Pa, lookl!  A mailbox!".  And just before they part company, Sam refers to their trip to Cuba and that they should wear white uniforms because its very warm down there.  Sam then asks Kaffee "You got dramamine?" and Kaffee asks "Does Dramamine keep you cool?" and Sam says "No, it keeps you from throwing up, you get sick when you fly" and Kaffee tells him "I get sick when I fly because I'm afraid of crashing into a big mountain!".  And Sam then offers "I got some oregano.  I hear that works pretty good" and this refers to Kaffee's prior case regarding an Navy employee smoking a dimebag of oregano, so Kaffee laughs.

Another good scene from Pollak comes just after Kaffee questions the Guantanamo bay naval base doctor (Christopher Guest) in court and Jo embarrasses herself in front of the judge as she asks that the doctor's testimony be stricken from the record and "strenuously objects" to her comments being overruled.  So, after the court clears, Sam, clearly annoyed with Jo says "I strenuously object? Is that how it works? Objection. Overruled! No, I strenuously object! -Oh, then I'll take some time to reconsider!".  And Jo says "I got it on the record" and Sam angrily says "You got the court thinking we're afraid of the doctor. You object once, so we can say he's not a criminologist. You keep after it, our cross looks like a bunch of fancy lawyer tricks. It's the difference between paper law and TRIAL law!  Christ, even the judge said he was an expert!".

And just before Sam leaves the courtroom, Jo asks him re: Dawson and Downey "Why do you hate them so much?".  Sam then turns around and angrily says to her "They beat up on a weakling. The rest is this just smoke-filled-coffeehouse crap. They tortured and tormented a weaker kid! They didn't like him, so they killed him. Why? Because he couldn't run very fast!".  And then Sam asks Jo just before she goes "Why do you like them so much?" and Jo turns to him and says "Cos they stand on a wall and they say "Nothing's gonna hurt you tonight.  Not on my watch!" and Sam says to her "Forget about the Doctor, this trial starts Monday".

They beat up on a weakling.
The rest is this just
smoke-filled-coffeehouse crap.
They tortured and tormented
a weaker kid!
They didn't like him, so they killed him.
Why?
Because he couldn't run very fast!

Then there is the scene where Kaffee has his big row with Jo after Markinson had shot himself, with their case seemingly in tatters, Jo suggests they put Jessep on the stand, which Kaffee rejects and then ridicules her for before she leaves.  So, Sam says to Kaffee afterward "Did I ever tell you I wrote a paper about your father in college?" and Kaffee says "Yeah?" and Sam says "One of the best trial lawyers ever" and Kaffee says "Yes, he was".  And Sam goes on to say "But if I were Dawson and Downey, and had to choose you or him...I'd choose you any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. You should have seen yourself thunder away at Kendrick".  Kaffee then asks "Would you put Jessep on the stand?" and Sam says "No" and Kaffee asks "Do you think my father would have?" and Sam says "With the evidence we got, not in a million years".  But Sam then says "But here's the thing, and we can't get around this: Neither Lionel Kaffee nor Sam Weinberg are lead counsel for the defense in U.S. v. Dawson and Downey. So there's really only one question: What would you do?".

And lastly is the scene where the next morning, Kaffee decides to put Jessep on the stand and they start to go about their tactics for the case.  And Sam asks "What do we do?" and Jo says "I think we should hit Jessep with the phony transfer order" and Sam says "Without a witness" and Jo says "We have a witness" and Sam says "A dead witness".  And Kaffee, shooting hoops with his basketball says "In the hands of a lesser attorney that would be a problem!" and Sam smiles and says to Jo "Look at this.  Last night he was swimming in Jack Daniels and this morning he can leap tall buildings with a single bound!".  And as Kaffee confidently makes his case for how he will get Jessep to admit he ordered the code red and then asks where his baseball bat and that he thinks better with it.  So, after Kaffee get's his bat, he quickly looks at his closet that contains his lawyer clothes and he then races out saying "Stay here, I'm going to the office for a while!" and Sam says to Jo "He DOES think better with that bat!".

J.T. Walsh is also very good in his role as Lt Colonel Markinson, Jessep's executive officer, who feels guilty about Santiago's death and decides to later help Kaffee.

And I will mention for the sake of time only one of J.T.'s scenes and its the one where Markinson sneaks into Kaffee's car while he is out getting himself a magazine.  And as Kaffee get's in and drives away, he suddenly sees Markinson in the back seat and he exclaims in surprise "Jesus Christ!!" and Markinson says "You left the door unlocked".  And Kaffee asks him "Are you aware you are under subpeona?" and Markinson says "Yes. I'm also aware the lives of two Marines are in your hands. If I could do something about that, I would. Since I can't, all I can do is help you, Lieutenant".

So, Kaffee asks him "What do you know?" and Markinson says "I know everything" and Kaffee asks "Was it a code red?" and Marikin says "Yes" and Kaffee asks "Did Kendrick give the order?" and Markinson says "Yes".  And Kaffee then asks "Did you witness it?" and Markinson says "No" and Kaffee asks "Then how do you know?" and Markinson says "I know" and Kaffee says "Yeah, you know shit!" but Markinson then says "He was never going to be transferred off that base" which prompts Kaffee to pull over his car and look back at Markinson.  And Markinson continues "Jessep was gonna keep him on the base and wanted him trained".  Kaffee then says "You signed the transfer order" and Markinson tells him "I know.  I signed it the morning you arrived in Cuba.  Five days after Santiago died".  Kaffee then starts his car again and says to Markinson that he will work out a deal with prosecutor to offer him immunity and that he will check him into a motel.  Markinson then says "I don't want a deal, and I don't want immunity. I want you to know that I'm not proud of what I have done, nor of what I am doing".

Kiefer Sutherland next is excellent as Lt Kendrick, the Guantanamo bay officer, who is alleged to have given the code red order on Santiago.

Kiefer also his his moments in the film such as the one where Kendrick shows Kaffee, Jo and Sam around Santiago's quarters, which were sealed off.  And Kaffee asks Kendrick "Lt Kendrick, may I call you John?" and Kendrick formally says "No, you may not" and Kaffee asks him "Have I done something to offend you" and Kendrick replies "No, I like all you Navy boys.  Anytime we have to go some place to fight, you fellas always give us a ride".  Jo then asks Kendrick "Lieutenant, do you think Santiago was murdered?" and Kendrick tells her "Commander, I believe in God and his son Jesus Christ.  Because I do, I can say this: Private Santiago is dead and that is a tragedy.  But he is dead because he had no code, he is dead because he had no honour and God was watching!".

And lastly there is Kiefer's big courtroom scene where Kaffee questions Kendrick on the stand over Santiago's death.

And in the scene, Kaffee asks Kendrick "Lt Kendrick, would you say Santiago was a good marine?" and Kendrick says "I'd say he was about average".  Kaffee however then produces some conduct reports and hands them over to Kendrick who looks at them and says "Yes, Private Santiago was below average.  I do not see the need to trample on the man's grave".

Kaffee then questions Kendrick about another marine, Private Bell, who was caught sneaking liquor out of the officer's club.  So, Kaffee asks Kendrick "Did you report Private Bell to the proper authorities?" and Kendrick smiles and says "I have two books at my bedside, Lieutenant: the Marine Code of conduct and the King James Bible. The only proper authorities I'm aware of are Colonel Jessep and the Lord our God!".

Then Kaffee questions Kendrick about Dawson receiving a below average report rating on one occassion "Was Dawson given a below average rating because he was caught sneaking food to Private Bell?".  And Kendrick replies "Lance Coporal Dawson was given a below average rating because he committed a crime?" and Kaffee asks "What crime did he committ?" and Kendrick says "He disobeyed an order".  And Kaffee says "And because he made a decision about the welfare of a Marine that conflicted with your order, he was punished, right?" and Kendrick again firmly says "Lance Corporal Dawson disobeyed an order!".

And Kaffee finishes by saying to Kendrick "Lieutenant Kendrick, one final question. If you HAD ordered Dawson to GIVE Santiago a Code Red...!" and this rattles Kendrick who shouts "I told those men specifically not to touch Santiago!!".  And Kaffee finishes "...wouldn't it be reasonable to think he disobeyed you again???!" and Ross shouts out "Lt, don't answer that!" and Kaffee says "You don't have to, I'm through!".  So, Ross asks Kendrick one last time "Did you order Dawson and Downey to give Santiago a code red?" and Kendrick, still rattled says "No, I did not!". 

Wolfgang Bodison next up is very good in his debut role as Lance Corporal Dawson and Bodison himself never had any prior acting experience and was actually the personal assistant to the director, Rob Reiner, who thought Bodison fit the bill physically for the role, so he had him audition. Bodison himself would carry on as a professional actor and appeared in various film and TV roles. 

And Bodison has some good moments aswell but I will mention just a couple of his scenes and the first being the one where Kaffee offers Dawson and Downey a deal so that they can serve just a six month prison sentence.

However in the scene Dawson refuses the deal and says to Kaffee "I'm afraid we can't do that, sir" and Kaffee asks "Do what?" and Dawson says "Make a deal, sir.".  Kaffee, bemused says "What are you talking about?!" and Dawson says "We did nothing wrong. We did our job. If that has consequences, I'll accept them. But I won't say that I'm guilty, sir".  And Kaffee tries to make another attempt at convincing Dawson to go for the deal "Six months!  Do it, Harold!  Six months, its nothing.  Its a hockey season!".  Dawson then takes a moment and says "Permission to...." and Kaffee exasperated by Dawson's formality shouts "SPEAK!!! JESUS!!".

So, Dawson asks "What do we do then, sir?" and Kaffee asks "When?" and Dawson says "After six months, we'll be dishonourably discharged, right, sir?" and Kaffee says "Probably" and Dawson asks again "What do we do then, sir?" and Kaffee has no answer.  So, Dawson get's up and explains "We joined the Marines because we wanted to live by a certain code. You're asking us to say we have no honor, that we're not Marines! If a court decides what we did was wrong, I'll accept whatever punishment they give."  And then he walks toward to Kaffee and says firmly "But I believe I was right, sir. I believe I did my job and I will not dishonor myself, my unit ...or the Corps, so that I can go home in SIX MONTHS! Sir!".

And Kaffee tells the others he wants a moment alone with Dawson, so the others leave and Kaffee says to Dawson "You know, Downey worships you.  He's gonna do whatever you do.  Are you really gonna let this happen to him because of a code, Harold?".  And Dawson asks "Do you think we were right?" and Kaffee says "It doesn't matter what I think..." but Dawson snaps "Do you think we were right???!!!" and Kaffee says "I think you'd lose".  Dawson then looks at Kaffee with disgust and says "You're such a coward!  I can't believe they let you wear a uniform!".  And Kaffee tells him "I'm not going to feel responsible for this, Harold.  You're going to Leavenworth for the better part of your life and you know what?!  I don't give a shit!".  Kaffee opens the door to leave and asks Dawson "What happened to saluting an officer when he leaves the room?" and Dawson stands up and defiantly shoves his hands in his pockets instead.

And lastly (SPOILER!!!!!!!!!) there is the scene where Dawson and Downey's trial is over and they are found not guilty of the murder but are guilty of conduct unbecoming a US marine, so they are to be discharged form the marine corps.  And Downey, confused asks Dawson "What did that mean?" and he approaches Jo and says "Colonel Jessep said he ordered the code red!  What did we do wrong?!  We did nothing wrong!!".  And Dawson, looking ashamed says "Yeah we did.  We were supposed to fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves.  We were supposed to fight for Willy".  And as Dawson and Downey are about to leave the courtroom, Kaffee says to Dawson "Harold...you don't need to wear a patch on your arm to have honour" and Dawson, suddenly filled with respect for Kaffee says to him "Ten-hut!  There's an officer on deck!" and he salutes Kaffee, who salutes back and Dawson leaves.

James Marshall is also pretty good as the naive Private Downey facing trial for carrying out a code red on a fellow marine, Private Santiago, who died as a result.

And Marshall's best main scene is where Downey is questioned by Ross in court over the day on which the code red took place.  And in the scene Ross asks Downey "Private, the week of 2 September, the switch log has you down at post 39 until 16:00, is that right?" and Downey replies "I'm sure it is, sir, they keep that log pretty good".  Ross then asks "How far is it from Post 39 to the barracks?" and Downey says "Oh, its a ways, sir.  Its a hike" and Ross asks "Have you ever had to walk it?" and Downey says "Yes, sir, that day. Friday. The pickup private-- That's what we call the guy that drops us off. Also because he can get the girls in New York City....he got a flat tire at Post 39, so we had to double time it back to the barracks".  Ross then says to Downey "And if its 15 minutes by jeep, I'm guessing its an hour by foot, right?" and Downey with a sense of pride says "Pick-up private and me did it in 45 flat, sir" and Ross smiles and says "Not bad".

So, Ross then says to Downey "You've said your assault on Santiago was ordered by Lieutenant Kendrick...in your barracks room at 16:20, am I right?" and Downey says "Yes, sir".  However Ross throws Downey a curve ball "But you just said you didn't get back to the barracks until 16:45" and Downey looks nervous "Sir?" and Ross says "If you weren't back till 16:45, how could you be in your room at 16:20?".  Downey now flustered says "Well, you see, sir, there was a blowout..." but Ross interrupts him and asks "Private, did you ever actually hear Lt Kendrick order a code red?" and Downey nervously says "Well, Hal said..." and Ross firmly asks again "Private, did you ever actually hear Lt Kendrick order a code red?!" and Downey, caving under pressure says "No, sir".

So, Ross grills Downey further and asks "Why did you go to Santiago's room?  Did Dawson tell you to?" and Downey panics and looks at Dawson and says "Hal...!" and Ross shouts "Don't look at him!!".  And Downey shouts again "Hal?!" and Dawson shouts out "Private, answer the Captain's question!" and Downey, beaten says "Yes. I was given an order by Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson United States Marine Corps and I followed it!".

And second to last is Noah Wyle does well in his brief role as Corporal Barnes, who also testifies at Dawson and Downey's trial.

And Wyle's main scene is his testimony trial scene where he recalls that he once received a code red himself.  So, Kaffee asks Barnes "Did you ever receive a code red" and Barnes says "Yes, sir. We were doing seven minute assault drills and I dropped my weapon. It was over 100 degrees and my palms were sweaty and I hadn't used the resin like we were tought".  So, Kaffee asks "What happened?" and Barnes tells him "A few guys in my squad threw a blanket over me. Took turns punching me on the arms for five minutes and they poured glue on my hands. And it worked cos I ain't never dropped my weapon since!".

So, Kaffee asks Barnes if Santiago never received a code red prior to the one he got the night he died who says he never did.  So, Kaffee says "You got a code red because your palms were sweaty.  Why didn't Santiago and his burden to his unit, never get one?" and Barnes takes a moment and says "Dawson wouldn't allow it, sir.  The guys would talk tough about Santiago but they would never go near him.  They were too afraid of Dawson, sir".  Ross at this point says "Object!  The witness is speculating!" so Kaffee says "Alright, I'll rephrase...Jeffrey did you want to give Santiago a code red?" and Barnes says "Yes, sir" and Kaffee asks "Why didn't you?" and Barnes smiles and yes "Cos, Dawson would kick my butt, sir!" and Kaffee says "Fair enough".

And last of all is Cuba Gooding Jr, who makes an appearance in his small role as Corporal Hammaker and he does well enough in the brief role that he has but he only has a small amount of dialogue.

So, I will quote a part of his scene where the prosecutor, Captain Ross questions Hammaker about Kendrick's order to not touch Santiago. So, Ross asks Hammaker about Santiago's letter "Did it make you, Corporal?" and the Corporal doesn't respond, so Ross asks "Its OK, Corporal, did it make you mad?" and Hammaker says "Yes, sir" and Ross asks "How did it make you mad?" and Hammaker says "Private Santiago betrayed a code we believe in very deeply, sir". 

End of Performances section!  Sheesh that was a BIG one! 

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

So, FINALLY moving onto the director and music stuff, starting with the director, Rob Reiner does an excellent job here with the film and its surprising to see him direct a drama for a change here as he was previously associated with comedies (the most notable of which were "This is Spinal Tap" and "When Harry met Sally...").  Yet, Reiner makes the change to drama very confidently and he paces the film well, even if its running time of 2 hours and 18 minutes might appear a little lengthy its doesn't really feel that long.

And despite an emphasis on drama, Reiner still injects plenty of humour into the film as the cast and characters all deliver some wonderfully witty dialogue written by Sorkin.  This allows for Kaffee, Sam and Jo to develop a rapport with one another and work well together as a team as things progress and overall Reiner does an expert job at putting this together in the film. Reiner tragically however later in life was murdered along with his wife as the result of stabbing in December last year, for which Reiner's son, Nick Reiner was charged with the crime although he pleaded not guilty. Reiner's death was a great loss to Hollywood as he directed several classic films throughout his career.   

Music wise, Marc Shaiman provides the score and its a pretty good one overall even though its use of synthesizers does date it a little to the early 90's period the film was made in (1992) but Shaiman's score is still very well suited to the tone of the film.  Shaiman also scores a version of John Phillip Sousa's "The Washington Post March" which given that its a film about the US Navy and Marines its very suitable and is used for both intro and end credits.

FLAWS

As for flaws....yeah OK "A few good men" isn't quite that perfect.

For starters one of the problems I had with the film was to do with Sorkin's screenplay, while it is excellent and very well written, there are times where it is just a bit too excessive in its verboseness and Sorking could finish off his character's sentences a lot quicker than he does!  So instead of e.g. Jessep saying to Markinson "Maybe transferring Santiago isn't the American way, Matthew" he has to say "And now I'm thinking, Lt Colonel Matthew Markinson, that your suggestion of transferring Santiago, while expeditious, and certainly painless, might not be in a manner of speaking, the American way!".  I mean surely he could just cut down their sentences just a bit as it makes the writing feel really bloated at times.  Sorkin's script is high quality but it is also a bit too high on words as well. 

Plus, is it really necessary to use the characters full names?? In terms of legal investigations, its apparently not common practice to say the full name of the person they enquire about, so instead of Lt Colonel Matthew Markinson, they would really just says Lt Colonel Markinson. So, again Sorkin is guilty of bloating the dialogue more than is needed.  

Another issue I had was to do with Kaffee's character as he is the typical cocky callow youth, who is actually a very inexperienced lawyer and given that, why in the hell would he be the best man for the job of defending two marines charged with murder????  Surely they really should have given the case to someone who has a bit more experience on their side when its comes to trial law, but nope let's just give it to the cocky young lawyer who's making a start in life! Of course Tom Cruise had made a career out of playing cocky young guys up to this point, so this was no real departure for him.

Further to this point, Kaffee throughout shows he is not the most adept lawyer either, as he says at one point he needs Sam to help him prepare their witnesses for trial and is not the best at research. I mean Kaffee IS a lawyer, isn't that meant to be HIS job?!! But nope instead they go for showing Kaffee to be both lazy as well as inexperienced in his role as a lawyer.  

Then there is the whole thing about Jessep's blatant deviousness, which Jo uncovers on their trip to Cuba as she presses him on whether code reds still go on at his base despite receiving cautionary memos against such actions. So, Jessep indirectly but still rather blatantly admits that code reds DO appear to go on at the base and he is also in favour of them as an "invaluable part of close infantry training".  So, even though Jessep doesn't admit it outright, its clear that he was in favour of the code red against Santiago.

Then there are some daft choices of dialogue in the film here and there such as the scene where Sam criticises Jo for her failed objection against the Doctor. So, in the scene asks her why she likes the marines so much and her response "Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is gonna hurt you tonight, not on my watch!" is pretty cringe inducing!

Another is when Kaffee questions Jessep on the stand and he asks why Santiago was transferred and Jessep says "I thought his life might be in danger once word of the letter got out" and Kaffee asks "Grave danger, sir?" and Jessep sharply replies "Is there another kind?!". Now, there is of course more than just one kind of danger from mild to extreme levels of danger, so to say grave danger is the one and only type of danger is pretty silly. 

Last of all is of course the final scene with Dawson and Kaffee where after Dawson is cleared from the trial but to be discharged from the marine corp, Kaffee tells him he doesn't need to wear a patch to have honour. So, Dawson proudly shouts "Ten hut! There is an office on deck!" and they both salute, which is again very cringe inducing! So, these lines remain a blot on an otherwise brilliantly written film. 

Another thing that bugged me was why did they choose Downey as the witness to take the stand over Dawson???  Dawson is the far more capable, decisive and articulate of the two, so surely he should have testified instead of Downey because they both recieved the order from Kendrick, its not like Dawson did it himself.  Or rather, perhaps Downey was picked for the sake of a plot device, so that the code red order could be pinned on Dawson instead, but I still think its daft regardless.

UPDATE: However on doing a bit of digging on this (or rather using Google AI!) it appears a good reason why Downey was picked instead of Dawson is because Dawson was far more hardened and disciplined than Downey, so it might have been tougher for him to crack under the prosecution's questions. Further to this, Downey was the weaker of the two and his vulnerability might have made him more sympathetic to a jury than Dawson's hard ass persona would have. I guess this is backed up by Dawson earlier in the film saying to Kaffee "I believe I was right, sir and I did my job and I will not dishonour myself, my unit or the core!".  

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, A Few Good Men is still an excellent legal drama three decades on and it features some great performances particularly from Cruise, Nicholson and Bacon but Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak and Kiefer Sutherland also provide very solid support. The script from Aaron Sorkin is also high quality, despite the odd cheesy bit of dialogue here and there and Rob Reiner's direction is very solid throughout. There are of course some minor plot niggles and as already mentioned some cringy dialogue but that aside, A Few Good Men is a highly entertaining and gripping drama, which is well worth a look or revisit. 

So, I will rate A Few Good Men:

9 out of 10

Right, that's all for now and I'll be back sometime next month with another post.

So, until then its bye for now! 

For Your Eyes Only Review (Revisit 2) "He had no head for heights!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, since its September, I thought I would do another post and this one is on another Bond film and the film in question is one of Roger Moore's era, which is For Your Eyes Only, which will be a revisit of an older post from 2021. 

So, with that said let's take another look at this Bond classic some 45 years on from its release.

And the usual warning is coming up.

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! 

STORY 

So, the film begins with a British spy boat being sunk after its strikes a mine, the boat itself contained a specialised communications system used by the ministry of defence to communicate with its fleet of Polaris submarines, named ATAC.  So, 007 or James Bond (Moore) as a result of the incident is ordered by his superiors to retrieve the ATAC before the Soviets can as they could use it for their own means.

Meanwhile a British marine archaeologist who was hired by the British to locate the sunk spy boat is murdered by a hitman named Hector Gonzalez (Stefan Kalipha).  Bond follows up the lead and travels to Spain where he sneaks around Gonzalez's villa but he is captured, however Gonzalez himself is killed by an arrow, which allows Bond to escape.  Bond soon finds out Gonzalez's assassin is the daughter of the murdered archaeologist, Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) and the two of them escape together.

Bond later on with the help of Q (Desmond Llewellyn) discovers the identity of one of the men that was present at Gonzalez's villa was Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard) another hired killer.  Bond then travels to Cortina in Italy to track Locque and he meets with his Italian contact, Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno) and a Greek businessman and informant named, Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover) who tells Bond that Locque is employed by a smuggler named Milos Columbo (Topol) who was one time a former business partner of his.

Bond later meets up with Kristatos's protege figure skater, Bibi Dahl (Lynn Holly Johnson) and while they ski together, Bibi points out to Bond an East German biathlete, Eric Kriegler (John Wyman) who later tries to kill Bond, who manages to escape.  Later on Bond fends off another attempt on his life at an ice rink and soon finds his contact, Luigi dead, with the symbol of a "dove" in his hands, the nickname for Locque.

Bond then travels to Corfu to follow Columbo and he meets with Columbo's mistress, Countess Lisl van Schaff (Cassandra Harris) and they spend the night together.  The next morning while walking a beach, Bond and Lisl are attacked by Locque who kills Lisl but Locque flees just as Columbo's men show up and capture Bond and take him to Columbo.

Columbo later explains to Bond that Kristatos is the man Bond should be after as he was the one who hired Locque and Kristatos is working with the KGB to retrieve the ATAC and he persuades Bond to go along on a raid of Kristato's opium processing warehouse in Albania.  During the raid, Bond discovers naval mines similar to the one that sunk the British spy boat, later Bond chases after Locque, shooting him in the shoulder, causes Locque's car to crash on the edge of a cliff and Bond kicks the car over, which sees Locque plummet to his death.

So after this Bond then teams up with Columbo and reunites with Melina to take down Kristatos and end his schemes....

THOUGHTS 

After the somewhat over the top and completely fantastical Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only saw the Bond series come back down to Earth (literally!) and with the change of director, John Glen, the film has a more gritty feel to it than Moore's previous films did, which is certainly not a bad thing in itself.

The film also saw a change in the cast as sadly Bernard Lee, who played M, died shortly just after filming had begun in 1981, so instead of replacing the actor, they re-wrote his character to include a new one, Bill Tanner, to take over as the chief of staff at MI6 and Bond's superior.  Roger Moore also apparently was set to make this his last Bond film but later of course did come back to play the part in two more films, Octopussy and View to a Kill. 

The film also notably starts with reference to Bond's late wife, Tracy, who visits her grave before he is attacked by an unknown bald assaliant, who we see sit in a wheelchair with a cat. This clearly appears to be a reference to the Bond villain, Blofeld (as previously played by Donald Pleasance, Telly Savalas and Charles Gray). However, as the filmmakers didn't own the rights to the character Blofeld, they weren't able to use his name directly. So, instead they resorted to shooting the actor, John Hollis, who played the villain from behind.  

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

Performance wise, the film is actually quite good and features a largely fine cast.

And to start off of course we have Roger Moore who provides another solid turn in the part and this time he plays Bond with a bit more sensitivity and with less chauvinism and it actually stands as one of his most likeable performances in the role.  Although it does have to be said that Roger is starting to look a bit old for the part by this time as he already 53 years old by this point at the time of filming.

Moore has some good scenes and naturally some good one-liners and even his opening scene is quite funny where Bond is attacked by a bald headed villain (unidentified but clearly based on Blofeld and played by John Hollis and voiced by Robert Rietty) who remote controls a helicopter that Bond is in.  And in the scene Bond eventually manages to take control of the helicopter and picks up the villains' wheelchair by one of the copter's landing skids and as the villain pleads with him and Bond pats his head and says "Alright keep your hair on!" and the villain continues "Please Mr Bond, put me down!" Bond teases him saying "Oh you want to get off???" and he drops the villain down a large chimney stack and the the villain shouts "MR BONNNNND!!!!" as the credits roll. 

Then there are the scenes where Bond is stuck with taking care of Bibi, the annoying horny teenage skater and one such example is where Bibi lies in bed naked and Bond for once looks uncomfortable given that she is just a teenager. And Bib asks Bond "What is it? Don't you like me? and Bond awkwardly tells her "I think your wonderful, Bibi. I just don't think your Uncle Aris would approve!" and Bibi says "Aris? He still thinks I'm a virgin!". So, Bond again awkward, says "Yes well...you put on your clothes, I'll buy you an ice cream!".  

Then we have the scene at the ski slopes where Bond bids her farewell and says "Well, sorry Bibi but I'm afraid I must be off?" and Bibi says "What?" and Bond tells her "I have an appointment". And Bibi a bit disappointed asks him "Well, will I see you before we leave?" and Bond tells her "Well, I'll try but if I don't see you again, Bibi, I'll just say don't grow up anymore" and Bibi looks at him puzzle and says "Huh?" and Bond says to her "The opposite sex would never survive it!" and he skis off.

Then there is one of the film's best scenes where Bond chases after Locque, who crashes his car up the top of a cliff and Bond goes up to Locque and shows him the killer's pin that he left with Luigi Ferrara's body (Bond's associate) and Bond says to Locque "You left this with Ferrera, I believe".  And as the cars starts to give way to the crumbling rock, Bond kicks Locque's car off the cliff and later he quips "He didn't have a head for heights!".  Moore was reportedly uneasy about the idea of filming the scene but eventually agreed to go ahead with filming it, which is just as well as it remains a standout moment in Moore's era. 

Another really good scene for Roger which is quite suspenseful is when Bond makes his long climb up the mountain to St Cyril's monastery where Kristatos is hiding and waiting to deliver the ATAC machine to the KGB. And in the scene in a mountain-top monastery and one of Kristato's men tries to kick him off the cliff and knock out the climbing bolts he has placed one by one, but Bond manages to pull himself up just in time before the last one is knocked out and he kills the henchman with a throwing knife.

Roger also has one or two good serious moments as well such as in the scene where he warns Melina about taking revenge for the death of her parents and he says "The Chinese have a saying "before setting off on revenge, you first dig twice two graves". And later on as she is about to kill Kristatos he reminds her again as she is ready to kill Kristatos and Bond tells her "No, Melina, we'll leave him for the police" but Melina insists "Out of my way, James!" and James relucantly says "Alright. Just be prepared to dig those two graves" before (PLOT SPOILER!!) Columbo saves her the trouble.  

And in the second last scene of the film Bond throws away the ATAC machine as he approaches General Gogol (Walter Gotell) and the machine itself smashes into pieces on the rocks below. So, Bond then smiles at Gogol and says to him "That's detente, general, you don't have it and I don't have it!" and Gogol himself laughs and bids him farewell and leaves. 

Julian Glover is pretty good in his part as the main villain, Kristatos and he seems to enjoy playing the part of the double dealing businessman and intelligence informant although his villain isn't the most memorable or menacing it has to be said.

But Glover has some good moments that include the one where Kristatos has Bond and Melina tied up on his boat and they have been tied to a speedboat which will drag them through the water to attract the sharks for dinner!  And in the scene just before Bond and Melina are to be dropped into the water, Kristatos says to his men of Bond's wound on his arm "Bind that wound. We don't wany any blood in the water.  Not yet!".  Melina then looks disgusted at Kristatos and she spits at him "Murderer!" and Kristatos says to her, as a way of a pun as she uses her crossbow as a weapon in the film: "You've shot your last bolt, Miss Havelock!".    

Another scene of note is when Kristatos at the monastery near the end tries to appease a tired and bored Bibi, who is working out and he comes in to see her. So, Bibi in the scene asks Kristatos "What are we doing in this creepy place?" and Kristatos says "Our plans have changed. We are going to live in Cuba for the next few months" and Bibi annoyed says "Cuba?!" and Kristatos says to Bibi "You can skate privately there, without distractions and I will be your audience". Bibi, however is not interested "What a drag that will be! I wanna win the gold medal!" and Kristatos reassuringly says "We all want that!" and Bibi says "I know what you want...you're too old for me! I'm splitting!". Kristatos then glares angrily at Brink and says "You have poisoned her against me!" and Bibi says "Leave her alone, Ari!" and Kristatos looks angrily at Brink and says "I will deal with you as I deal with everyone who betrays me!" and he storms out.

Then there is the scene where Kristatos near the end readies his departure with the Atac machine but he is met with by an angry Bibi, who angrily asks him of the whereabouts of her coach "Where's Brink?" and he tells her "Go to your room!" and she angrily says "You can go to hell!" and  Kristatos smacks her roughly and shuts the doors.   

Topol however provides the film's standout role as Milos Columbo who is a really colourful character, who loves eating pistachio nuts and Bond is wary of him at first but he later becomes allies with him.  

And when Columbo meets with Bond he tells him that he has got him all wrong and that Kristatos is the real villain.  So Columbo tells Bond "I'm here, Mr. Bond of the British Secret Service. But I'll tell you... it is Kristatos you want, NOT me. He told you about himself. He's the one with the powerful connections, not me. Locque works for him, not me. He told you that I was a heroin smuggler, yes? That is partly true. I'm a smuggler. I smuggle, yes. I smuggle gold, diamonds, cigarettes, pistachio nuts... but no heroin. Sit down. That I leave to him... when he is not too busy working for Russia against my country and yours". Bond then reminds Columbo that the British government gave Kristatos a king's medal but Columbo tells him that he was a double agent.

Bond then asks Columbo "What does Kristatos gain by setting you up?" and Columbo says "Well, I know too much about him. He wants me out of the way. By using a British agent to do his dirty work for him, your government might give him another medal". Bond, still wary of Columbo asks him "Why should I believe you?" and Columbo says "I'll prove it to you tonight. We'll go to his warehouse in Albania". Bond warns Columbo "If I don't report in by tomorrow morning, not only my people, but the entire Greek police will be down on you like a load of bricks" but Columbo reassures him "Don't worry. By tomorrow, we'll be good friends. Let us drink to that" and Bond carefully says "I'll wait until tomorrow". 

Columbo then goes and takes Bond's Walther PPK and aims it at him and then hands over to him and says "You will need this. I'm a good judge of men. You, Mr Bond, have what the Greeks calls "thrausos" Guts!".

Carole Bouquet is one of the weak links in the cast as she is pretty wooden in her part as Bond's love interest (or one of them!) Melina Havelock.

Regardless of that though, Bouquet does what she can with her role and to the credit of her character, she does have more of a motivation and backstory to deal with than most of the Bond girls we usually see.  Bouquet, a French actress, reportedly had her voice dubbed over by another unknown actress for the film, which given that she can speak English herself seems a bit daft. 

Bouquet still has some good moments here and there and the one that springs to mind is when Melina tells Bond she is out for revenge for the murder of her family.  However Bond warns her with the Chinese saying of being prepared to "dig two graves" if you plan for revenge and Melina says to him "I don't expect you to understand, you're English, but I'm half Greek and Greek women like Elektra always avenge their loved ones!".

Then there is the scene where Bond, Columbo and Melina arrive at the scene of a monastery where Kirstatos is located and Bond starts to make his way up a steep mountain to get to the top where it is.  And during the scene, Columbo looks up concerned saying "We are just five men!" and then Melina produces her crossbow and says "And a woman!".  

Bouquet also gets the dubious pleasure of delivering the film's title line, which is one of the naffest as well "For your eyes only, darling!" just as Bond and Melina strip off and go for a swim.  This is of course then following by the annoying parrot who speaks to Margaret Thatcher (played by June Brown) on the phone and keeps saying "Give us a kiss!" although the parrot is kind of funny. 

As for the other cast members, Lynn-Holly Johnson is quite annoying as the horny teenage ice skater, Bibi Dahl who has a thing for Bond even though he is three times her age!

However it is worth mentioning Johnson's most notable scene where she attempts to try and seduce Bond as get's into bed naked but Bond is reluctant to oblige her.  And in the scene Bibi asks Bond "Don't you like me?" and Bond wearily says to her "Why, I think you're wonderful, Bibi... But I don't think your uncle Aris would approve" and Bibi says to Bond "Him? He thinks I'm still a virgin!". Bond then awkwardly says "Yes, well, if you put your clothes and I'll buy you an ice cream!".     

And lastly I will mention her scene where Bibi who has been taken to St Cyril's with Kristatos and her coach, Brink but she hates the place and is bored of working out and Kristatos comes in to see her. So, Bibi in the scene asks Kristatos "What are we doing in this creepy place?" and Kristatos says "Our plans have changed. We are going to live in Cuba for the next few months" and Bibi annoyed says "Cuba?!" and Kristatos says to Bibi "You can skate privately there, without distractions and I will be your audience". Bibi, however is not interested "What a drag that will be! I wanna win the gold medal!" and Kristatos reassuringly says "We all want that!" and Bibi says "I know what you want...you're too old for me! I'm splitting!". Kristatos then glares angrily at Brink and says "You have poisoned her against me!" and Bibi says "Leave her alone, Ari!" and Kristatos looks angrily at Brink and says "I will deal with you as I deal with everyone who betrays me!" and he storms out.

Michael Gothard is quite effective in his role as the creepy silent assassin, Locque aka "The Dove" who Bond kicks Locque's car off a cliff with him in it.  Gothard himself has no dialogue at all in the film, which would suggest that his character was a mute.  Sadly Gothard later took his own life in 1992 after years of struggling with depression. 

Desmond Lewellyn also nicely reprises his role as Q and has a good scene where Q and Bond try to identify Locque by using specialised facial ID tracking equipment.

So, in the scene, Q sets up the machine to use it with Bond's help and tells Bond "This  -D Visual ldentigraph is still in the experimental stage. Now, once we get a composite of the man...we can find a match by patching into the photographic files...of the Surety, lnterpol, CIA, the Mossad..." and Bond finishes Q's list and says "Yes and the West German police. You've told me so already five times!". 

And later there is the amusing scene where Bond goes into a church in St Cyrils and goes into a confession booth and he says to the priest on the other side "Forgive me father, I have sinned" and the priest turns out to be non other than Q who says to him "That's putting it mildly, 007!" who peels off a fake beard. Q then says to Bond "Your signal sent Whitehall into shock. So far we have managed to locate...St. Cyril's in Greece. Heaven only knows to which one Kristatos took the ATAC!" and Bond says "Well, I know a well informed man who I contact about that, Q".

Cassandra Harris also adds a bit of sexy charm to the film aswell in her role as the Countess, Columbo's mistress, whom Bond spends the night with just before she meets her fate the next day.

And I will mention one of Harris's scenes which is the one where Bond spends the night with the Countess but her Greek accent starts to slip a little revealing her to be English. So, as the Countess lies next to Bond she says in an English accent "My nightie's slipping!" and Bond says "So's your accent, Countess. Manchester?" and she corrects him "Close. Liverpool!. Bond asks her of her fake storm out to Columbo earlier "That was quite a performance earlier with Columbo. What exactly did Columbo whisper to you?" and she says "That you're a spy and to find out more about you" and Bond asks "And have you?" and she says "Have I ever?" and they kiss and you know the rest!   

John Wyman does OK in his role as Eric Kriegler, Kristatos's henchman, who has an amusing scene after chasing Bond in the mountains and Bond escapes, Kriegler out of rage angrily lifts his bike above his head and throws toward Bond's general direction!  In fact it has to be said that this film seems to have a thing for not so very talkative henchmen! 

And last of all is of course June Brown, who provides an amusing cameo performance as Margaret Thatcher, who calls to congratulate Bond on his mission's succcess, however instead she talks to Melina's parrot, Max, while Bond and Melina both go off for a night swim. 

So, in the scene, Maggie Thatcher unwittingly talking to Max says "Ah, Mr. Bond. I wanted to call you personnally and to say how pleased we all are that your mission was a success. Thank you" and Max says "Thank you! Thank you!". So, Maggie continues "Don't thank me, Mr. Bond. Your courage and resourcefulness are a credit to the nation. Denis and I look forward to meeting you. Meanwhile, if there is anything I can do for you..." and Max tells her "Give us a kiss!" and Maggie bashfully says "Oh, Mr Bond!".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Moving onto the director, John Glen does a fine job here in his directorial debut and he confidently handles the action of the film very well as he would continue to in his next four Bond films that he directed.  Glen also contributed well towards changing the tone and style of Bond quite a bit and he radically changed it when Timothy Dalton came onboard as Bond and its funny to think he was the only active Bond director in the entire decade of the 1980's! However, Irvin Kershner did direct the Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery in 1983 but that's not part of the official Bond series as it was not by the Eon production studio.

Music wise the film also has a fairly good score by Bill Conti, however at the same time his musical style isn't quite well suited to the Bond films as you just keep hearing echoes of his Rocky scores here. Regardless his score is still a decent one and it has some good sections to it that include the one where Bond makes his mountain climb up to the top of St Cyril's monastery near the end. 

The film's theme song however sung by Sheena Easton was never really a favourite of mine, so its a pretty average theme for me but there are worse ones for sure out there. Interestingly enough though, Sheena Easton herself was the first singer to feature in the title theme credits as the title designer, Maurice Binder liked her appearance (or basically fancied her!) and wanted to include her in them. 

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for flaws...... well For Your Eyes Only isn't perfect and it has to be said that again the film lacks a strong central villain as Kristatos isn't very menacing even though Julian Glover's performance is pretty good his character is not an effective villain, certainly not in comparison to the likes of Goldfinger, Scaramanga or Kananga and next to them he is quite forgettable.

The same can also be said to an extent for its leading lady and Bond girl character, Melina Havelock, as her character doesn't really come across as well as she could have, given that Melina's character had the potential to be really good as she had a motivation for revenge in the story.  This however could also even have come down to the possibility of Boquet's voice being dubbed over and if it was then it would certainly attribute to her performance being not as strong as it might have been, which if it is the case then that's probably more to do with the director's decisions than the actress. 

Then there is that stupid albeit entertaining opening scene where a bald-headed man, who is presumably Blofeld, takes remote control of a helicopter that Bond is flying in, however Bond manages to severe the cable that was remotely controlling it.  So then Bond turns the table and he scoops up the bald-headed villain's wheelchair, which leaves the villain pleasing "Mr Bond, I'll give you anything!  A delicatessen in stainless steel!!".  A WHAT???!!  A delicastessen in stainless steel???!! Now that is a bizzare one even by any Bond villain's standards!  Its just an example of very cheesy, lazy writing if you ask me and it mars the opening scene.

Another silly scene is the facial ID equipment Q uses with Bond to identify Loque and while Bond's description is hardly pin accurate, the tech of the time is pretty crude, so its amazing they were able to come up with Loque almost straight away! So, yep about 10 seconds later, we get an old dot matrix printer print a copy of Loque's face and full bio on the man. Not too bad for the early 80's! ;-)

I also felt that the film's underwater scenes were a bit tedious where Bond and Melina locate the ATAC and get attacked by a man in a metallic suit with pincers (yep really daft!).  Then there is the scene where Bond and Melina are tied to the back of Kristatos's speedboat and he has them dragged through the water in an effort to attracts nearby sharks in the water.  Its a pretty laboured drawn out sequence which ultimately of course results in Bond and Melina escaping anyway.

And then we have Bibi...ohh God! Yeah, Bibi. Bibi must be one of the most annoying Bond characters to have appeared in the series, who is of course a horny teenage ice-skater with a promising career ahead of her, who has her eyes on Bond despite the fact that he must be about 40 years older than her! And there is one point where Bibi is even arrogant enough to think that Kristatos wants her and she says to him that he is too old for her yet Julian Glover is actually 8 years younger than Roger Moore!  But yeah, Bibi is pretty annoying and she has plenty of naff dialogue and one of her worst lines which I didn't mention is when she hugs Bond and says "I could just eat you alive!". Jesus wept! 

And lastly Bernard Lee's presence is somewhat missed from the film as his character M was written out to allow for the new character Bill Tanner to be written in who makes a rather bland replacement.  But then Lee's contribution to the series was very memorable so his successor would have had some tough shoes to fill and unfortunately Tanner just doesn't cut it. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.   

SUM UP 

So to sum up, For Your Eyes Only remains one of Moore's stronger Bond films and definitely one of the more underrated Bond films of the era as it has plenty of good solid action, a likeable performance from Moore himself and a good supporting cast particularly from Topol and Glover.

And yes it does have a few problems and its not one of the most memorable Bond films but its still got a lot going for it and it saw the series come down to Earth after the outlandish (literally) Moonraker.  Although the following film, Octopussy, would see the series become perhaps the most ridiculous its ever been up to this point, so we go from one extreme to the other...again! ;-) 

Anyway, I will give For Your Eyes Only a rating of:

8 out of 10. 

So, that's it for this one and I'll be back with another post or other hopefully before the end of the month as I know the blog has been a bit empty post wise lately. 

Until then its bye for now!