Donald White (donaldwhite1)

The French Connection R

The Beginning of the War on Drugs
This movie was made when it was still popular to make cop movies and TV shows "realistic". It was so realistic that it won best picture at the Academy Awards. That fad went away after the Dragnet TV show was cancelled and Starsky and Hutch became popular. Today movies without special effects aren't that popular. The most excitement in the movie is a chase between a car and an elevated train. It's all filmed on location in New York so it's a good movie to see what New York looked like in 1970. The movie was based on a non-fiction book but the names and characters were changed to "protect the innocent" and the date was changed from the early 1960's to 1970. The real French Connection began in the 1930's after alcohol prohibition ended. The Mafia needed a new source of income and decided to sell narcotics. The Sicilian and French mafias conspired with the New York mafia to smuggle opium from Turkey and Southeast Asia through France were it was cooked into heroin and smuggled to New York. The Nazis let it continue during World War II and then it pick up dramatically after the war. Tons of heroin were smuggled into New York in the 1950's and 1960's. By the 1970's the heroin epidemic had destroyed several New York neighborhoods. This movie tells the tale of one shipment that was intercepted by the New York City police. The French Connection wasn't shutdown until President Nixon pressured Turkey into stopping the legal growing of opium poppies. This was one of the first movies I bought on LaserDisc.

Batman: The Movie PG

This was movie was made after the first season of the Batman TV show with all the TV actors except for Catwoman. Catwoman is the best part of the movie. Just like the TV show, the story is silly. It's a comedy with cheezy jokes. It literally jumped the shark before Fonzie. The first thing in the movie is Batman fighting off a big rubber shark. The movie goes down hill from there. At least the TV show had a weekly cliff hanger. There's not one in this movie. Basicly, the TV show was better.

The Guns of Navarone Unrated

This is the action adventure movie all others are compared against. The story is set in an exotic Greek island location during World War II. A small group of commandos on a desperate mission to destroy a set of German coastal guns that stand between the British Navy and thousands of outnumbered British soldiers trapped on a Greek Island near Turkey about to be captured by the Germans. The movie is set in the spring or early summer of 1941 after the British had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Germans in Greece and Crete. It is a true fact that the British barely were able to evacuate their defeated troops to Egypt before they were taken prisoners. The rest of the story is fiction. There is no Island of Navarone and the Germans never installed any big guns in Greece. Unlike many war movies, the Germans speak German to each other, not English. The violence is quick and brutal. There is no waste of ammunition for the sake of typical Hollywood action. The bullets don't explode, they just poke holes in people killing them. The special effects were good in 1960 but today it's obviously done with models. The story explores the morality of war and the duty of a soldier. When the mission commander breaks his leg his second in command must choose whether to sacrifice the life of his friend or the success of his mission. Later when a traitor is found in their mist they must decide whether she should live or die. I first saw this movie on TV when I was a kid. I have a Laserdisc version that was made with a faded copy of the film. I later bought the DVD which has a crisp cleaned up picture and is in wide screen format with much better sound. Best quote, "Are you sure it will work?" "No guarantee but the theory is perfectly feasible."

Apocalypse Now R

This movie is long and intense. It starts out good with an excellent battle sequence at the VC village. However, as they move upriver the historical accuracy gets lost. I don't think the American servicemen were as undisciplined as depicted in this movie. I also doubt that the Southeast Asian people were as primitive as shown in the movie. But this story was about 19th century Africa and not Vietnam. The ending on the DVD is not what I remember from the movie theater. I first saw this movie at the Cowboy Mall in Stillwater, OK. It was a strip mall north of the OSU campus that was new at the time and was the first multi-screen theater in Stillwater. This movie came out about the same time as Star Wars and is as dark and depressing as Star Wars was fun and uplifting. Redeux is Longer version of a good movie This version is longer and just as intense. Added a little sex left out of the original. The discussion about the history of Vietnam is interresting and reminds the viewer that this is a Vietnam War movie and not an African adventure film. This movie is worth watching more to remind people what was going on in the late 70's than during the real war. Oh Yea, the music is excellent.