D
Scroll down for movie reviews beginning with this letter.
MPAA Rating is the rating given by the Motion Picture Association of America. Please note this is a voluntary rating, so some films (many times older films or obscure foreign films) are not rated.
G - General Audiences
PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
PG13 - Parental Guidance Suggested for those under 13 years of age
R - Restricted (those under 18 not admitted without parent or guardian)
NC-17 (X) - No one under 18 admitted.
USCCB Rating is the rating given by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Please note that some films are not rated simply because the Bishop’s Conference has not reviewed them.
A-I: General Patronage
A-II: Adults and Adolescents
A-III: Adults
L: Limited Adult Audience, problematic content
O: Morally Offensive
Fr. John’s Ratings
★★★★★ - Masterpiece. This film has to show aspects of cinematic excellence that are above and beyond the ordinary and even beyond the “excellent” classification. Because a true masterpiece can be determined only through its ability to endure through the passage of time, no film is even considered for this rating until at least ten years have passed from the date of its initial release.
★★★★ - Excellent
★★★ - Very Good
★★ - Fair
★ - Poor
Das Boot (1981) ★★★★★
Length: 149 minutes (original theatrical release). MPAA Rating: R. USCCB Rating: Not rated. Director: Wolfgang Petersen. Intense wartime suspense and violence.
In cinema, there are plenty of submarine movies from which to choose. There is Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) with its ultra-futuristic “Seaview” traversing the Arctic Ocean. There is U-571 (2000) where a German U-Boat is boarded by Americans looking to capture an Enigma cipher machine. And there is The Hunt for Red October (1990) where dramatic "pings” signal the possibility of defection for a Soviet submarine captain and crew.
And then there is Das Boot.
Written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen and based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, Das Boot (“The Boat”) immerses the audience in the intensely claustrophobic German U-Boat of World War II. There have been many other submarine movies, but none more intense, more frightening, more immersive, and more harrowing than this impressive opus. It is, quite simply, the greatest submarine movie ever made.
During World War II, the Nazi U-96 sets out on a dangerous mission. Encounters with a British destroyer and convoy are more than enough for the beleaguered crew, but U-96 is sent out again to the Strait of Gibraltar. There, an attack from the British results in the U-boat sinking to dangerous depths, and the crew must fight to regain control of its submarine before running out of oxygen.
Filmed inside a meticulously reconstructed duplicate of a Nazi U-Boat, Das Boot features extraordinary camerawork by a film crew that had to improvise new shooting techniques in the cramped space. The entire set was suspended on a hydraulic mechanism that could tip and shake the mock U-Boat interior in a very realistic manner. The result is a very authentic and totally convincing war-time submarine experience.
Lest one think that Das Boot is only about action, let it be known that plenty of character development (bolstered by strong performances) abounds, most especially in the longer director’s cut. We are immersed in the action not simply because of the fine camerawork but because of the characters who are trapped in the troubled boat.
In the end, Das Boot is more about the suffering of humanity than it is about action or taking sides. Nazi ideology fades into the background. What is left is the dramatic tapestry of desperate young men fighting for their lives. We care about them and find ourselves lamenting the futility of modern warfare.
Days of Heaven (1978) ★★★
Length: 94 minutes. MPAA Rating: PG. USCCB Rating: Not available. Director: Terrence Malick. Immoral situations are suggested but not shown. Some minor violence with very little blood.
Terrence Malick has fascinated moviegoers for years. This small-budgeted film was one of his first works to be noticed and received favorable reviews.
In 1916 Chicago, a steel mill worker named Bill (Richard Gere) gets into a fight with his boss and kills him. Needing to set out on a new path, Bill takes his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) and his kid sister Linda (Linda Manz) and journeys to the countryside. To avoid negative talk, Bill and Abby pose as brother and sister, taking on work in the field to survive. A farmer (Sam Shepard) takes a liking to Abby, but, as he gets closer, he becomes more suspicious of Bill and Abby’s true intentions (as well as their true relationship). Tensions rise to a feverish climax featuring both fire and locusts. In the end, it is Linda who gives us some final, parting thoughts as she embarks on yet another new adventure.
The film is beautiful, featuring gorgeous cinematography that suggests a larger budget than the paltry $3 million that was available at the time. The music by legendary Ennio Morricone is lovely but more or less a series of variations on Saint-Saen’s “Carnival of the Animals,” with the latter piece’s “Aquarium” serving as the main theme.
On the whole, the work is very good but feels disjointed in parts. It comes as no surprise that Malick had problems editing this film. It shows. Even after two long years of cutting the result was not a smooth one. Finally, it was decided to have the character of Linda narrate the whole thing, which tied up some loose ends but still left the film somewhat unfinished.
Is this my final word on this film? Here I digress – for after publishing this review on my website, I received a very interesting response from my friend, Fr. Lawrence, O.C.S.O. Fr. Lawrence is a film fan and filmmaker – he is also a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. As you might imagine, all of his videos are about the abbey and its environs (and beautifully made). As you also might imagine, Fr. Lawrence and his fellow monks rarely see films in the monastery. For his review, my monk friend relies on repeated past viewings of this particular film – including when it first premiered back in 1978. And it’s one of his favorites.
In his response, Fr. Lawrence was quick to point out that narration, though not part of the film’s original plan, was nevertheless part of Malick’s first film (Bandlands) and has been part of every Malick film ever since. Fr. Lawrence does not see the narration of Days of Heaven as a disjointed way to fix a substandard film, but a way for us to be guided through events that are shown in the “present” but have already taken place in the past. These are not events that are “current” to the film’s timeline, but memories of the past that are being recalled. This way of understanding the film is certainly bolstered by Malick’s avoidance of a strict narrative flow, and Fr. Lawrence wisely points out that Malick’s later films are even less sequential regarding the narrative timeline. My friend believes that this is because Malick wants his audience to see the film from the perspective of eternity – God’s time – where past, present and future are intertwined. “What he attempts to do in movies,” Fr. Lawrence concludes, “is to evoke rather than direct…He does not want to impose the film on us; he wants to evoke the film from inside us”. This spiritual way of looking at the film is certainly reasonable, especially when considering that the plot (though not identical) closely resembles the biblical story of Abraham and Sarai.
I thank Fr. Lawrence for his perspective. There is no question that Days of Heaven is quite impressive, and oftentimes quite moving. From this writer’s perspective, it falls short of a masterpiece, and the rocky road of post-production editing that stretched on for two years is a strong sign that Malick bravely struggled with his opus.
Perhaps one day I will change my mind. For now, for me, Days of Heaven is a lovely, well-made and well-told film that nevertheless feels more than a bit rough around the edges.