Earnest and well-intended

I watched two fairly recent films this weekend – both came out on DVD last Tuesday, I believe. They were Flags of Our Fathers and Hollywoodland.

Although I haven’t been paying much attention to the hype etc. attending either of these two movies it’s impossible to avoid it altogether.

With the first film, Flags of Our Fathers (directed by Clint Eastwood) I’d have to agree with what seems to be the general impression. While extremely well-intended, even earnest, perhaps it’s a little too much so. Honestly, I found it more tedious than anything. As visually compelling as some of the battle scenes are, I probably would have cut them down. Not that my tastes are anyone else’s but I simply don’t care about battle scenes. I’ve seen Saving Private Ryan, I don’t need to see anymore big battles. Establish the scene then move on.

Of course, I’m not sure where you could move on to … the film is a bit of a muddle, in the story sense – or maybe it’s muddled in the story-telling sense. Various storylines interweave and the film jumps back and forth in time and … and well, it just doesn’t seem to hang together well.

However, although ultimately a dull film, Flags is visually compelling and I really wanted to like it. But it ends up coming across as something finely crafted, so much so the life has been crafted out of it.

Now Hollywoodland is also a well-crafted film but in this case the life remains and I definitely enjoyed this film much more. I think it is more engaging because the canvas is not nearly so large (L.A. in the late fifties versus World War II, several individuals versus entire countries). It focuses on several characters (as does Flags) but it also chooses a primary character: Adrien Brody as Louis Simo.

I also has the benefit of having a great mystery at the heart of it, the 1959 death of actor George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on TV.

The pace is slow because, I think, they’ve taken such care in recreating the L.A. of the period and clearly love it, which is not surprising. While it was a reality, for a time, it seems quite fantastical. And they can get away with a slower pace because the story is so intriguing.

Anyway … for me, both films are extremely well crafted but of the two, Hollywoodland was much more interesting to watch simply as a movie. Flags of Our Fathers is much more earnest, rather like public television, and as such drags.

Stars:

• Flags of Our Fathers: 2 out of 4.
• Hollywoodland: 3 out of 4.