Phil Karlson's Hornets' Nest is an bizarre, offbeat WWII effort that is best described as The Dirty Dozen starring the Dead End Kids. The film is centered around Captain Turner, an American Army officer whose been tasked with parachuting into the Italian town of Reanoto, with his mission being to destroy a dam which the Nazi's are using strategically. Upon landing, Captain Turner and his men find themselves attacked by the German forces, with Turner being the lone survivor once the dust settles. Rescued by a group of Italian boys, who are the only ones to survive the slaughter of their town by the Nazis, Turner strikes up a deal with the local youth - if they help him take out the damn, he will help them get revenge on the Germans responsible for the slaughter of their parents. Phil Karlson's Hornets' Next is an overlong and tedious film that overstays its welcome in delivering one of the most fascinating, albeit offbeat examinations of the effects of War on man. Hornets' Nest is a film that feels almost in conflict with itself, being a film that takes a lot of glee in the heavy dose of carnage it provides while simultaneously deconstructing the effect war has on man. Karlson's main message seems to be related to capturing the toxic effect war has on the human psyche, with nearly every character, from the somewhat unlikable Captain Turner, who himself is abusive and mean-spirited, to the various youth, each who has become intoxicated with their desire for revenge. Aldo, the leader of this group of ragtag youth, is the central character which the film uses to deconstruct the effects of war on man, being a character whose anger and hate for the Nazi's has become borderline psychotic. The performance of Mark Colleano as Aldo is electric but also over-the-top, being a character who has essentially developed a blood lust for death after the loss of his parents, something which Captain Turner realizes he must suppress towards the end of the film. Hornets' Nest has a rather simplistic, straight-forward story, so it's a little frustrating how overlong the film is, considering there are a host of scenes which add little to the overall arch and themes of the story. Karlson's direction is effective as well, with the finale which finds these young men and Captain Turner successfully destroying the Damn. While it's not quite Rififi, ,Karlson shoots the infiltration sequence in complete silence, an effective sequence that really ramps up the suspense and tension of this mission. A forgotten oddity of the World War II genre, Phil Karlson's Hornets' Nest is a deeply flawed and endlessly fascinating film about the intoxicating effect which war and violence can have on man.
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Seijun Suzuki's Everything Goes Wrong tells the story of Jiro, a student growing up in post-war Japan. Losing his father in the war, Jiro is a angst-ridden young man who has no real outlet for his deep-seated discontent. While many of the peers in Jiro's social circle rely on mischief, thievery, and sex to quench their unbridled anger at the world around them, Jiro spends most of his time alone, stewing over his mother's newfound affection for Nanbara, a married Mitsubishi executive, who has helped support the two of them since to death of Jiro's father. Holding Nanbara personally responsible for his father's death, Jiro begins to gravitate to his mischievous peers, eventually being paired up with Toshimi, a young woman who has her own unique problems. Suzuki's Everything Goes Wrong is a great companion piece to Koreyoshi Kurahara's The Warped Ones, being a kinetic film that is drenched in teenage angst and rebellion. Through the story of Jiro and his other peers, Seijun Suzjuki has created a film that encapsulates the post war resentment of the Japanese youth, showing how a group of young men and women have grown desperate to take their piece of the world. Through these characters, Suzuki captures this conflict of young vs. old culture, showing how the younger generation, for better or worse, rejects what was done before them, headstrong in their desire to break free of what is traditionally expected of them. Unwilling to be like the people before them, the youth lash out, almost rejecting the commitments and devotions of the prior generation as an act of defiance. Everything Goes Wrong is a film that is best seen knowing very little, but lets just say the title is apt, as Seijun Suzuki creates a wild, dramatic roller-coaster of a film that finds its main character in Jiro spiral deeper and deeper into an angst-ridden view of the world around him. Jiro as a character is the closest representation to the massive pitfalls of youth thinking, a man whose stubbornness and inability to accept Nanbara's kindness eventually leads to tragedy and a shattering of innocence. Through the conflict between Jiro and Nanbara, Suzuki captures how the young tend to see things as very back and white, while older, aged voiced tend to understand that the world is never that simple, with truth never being on a nominal scale. While the film isn't nearly as kinetic as some of Suzuki's gangster films, Everything Goes Wrong is vibrant and alive nonetheless, with Suzuki's frantic camera and eye for detail being an important aspect of the film. One of my favorite segments of the entire film is a simple scene between two characters on a street median, where Etsuko tells her friend that she is pregnant. Unwilling to burden her live-in boyfriend for the money necessary to have an abortion, Etsuko asks Toshimi for help. In this sequence, Suzuki wisely holds on to a single medium shot of the two characters, capturing cars frantically passing by on each side of these two characters, which in a way, beautifully reflects the inner chaos of Etsuko, a woman who is dealing frantically concerned about what to do. Intentional or not, another interesting aspect of Everything Goes Wrong is how the value of woman is depicted, being defined by men. Through these young woman, who are mostly prostitutes, Suzuki seems to have something to say about the dependency which has been ingrained into woman in Japanese culture, one where their worth and value is defined by how much men are willing to spend on them, whether that be for sex or taking care of them in domestication. Seijun Suzuki's Everything Goes Wrong is an unbiased film which effectively dissects the angst and resentment of the youth, never judging either the youth for their rebellious ways, nor the adults for their past transgressions, offering up a passionate and heartfelt portrait of post-war Japan. |
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June 2023
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