The Thing With Feathers (Part of the BFF25)
A recently widowed father played by Benedict Cumberbatch is grieving deeply and struggling to hold it together for himself and his two boys, brilliantly played by Richard and Henry Boxall.
Cumberbatch’s character is suddenly joined by an uninvited imaginary crow the size of a human. At first I thought the crow was a metaphorical doomsday figure designed to exacerbate the sadness, but I was soon to discover otherwise.
The Crow is voiced by David Thewlis and at times speaks in tongues which adds to the creepiness of the Crow’s presence.
If you’re familiar with the Mike Leigh film Naked, you will remember Thewlis as the narcissistic smart arse in that. He has brought that attitude to the Crow and it’s very amusing due in part to Thewlis’ eloquent diction.
I’ve only ever seen director Dylan Southern’s work once before with the terrific documentary No Distance Left to Run, the story of the band Blur.
He has managed to pull Cumberbatch, a seasoned mainstream star, into his film but the standouts are the two boys, left motherless. Of course it helps when they are brothers off the screen but still, the natural interactions of both is superb.
Good on Cumberbatch for supporting a low budget independent film and the remaining cast members are recognisable from many quality BBC TV series. My partner loved it a bit more than me but we settled on: 6.5/10.
https://youtu.be/OYa8lAH8lGs?si=eQOHnO5slFkrcQJN
Nuremberg
I don’t want to come across as being too critical because I have no doubt this film will have its mass appeal and if it manages to provide some level of historical education then I say, well done.
The story of the Nuremberg Trials is an important part of history that I felt deserved better treatment here. This interpretation was devoid of emotion, cliched in many parts, and had a few significant pieces that I couldn’t believe were true.
Russell Crowe gives a solid performance as Hitler’s deputy Hermann Goring and thankfully doesn’t talk like Colonel Klink or Sigfreid!
The bulk of the story is the relationship between Goring and army psychiatrist Douglas Kelly, just after Goring is captured at the end of WW2.
Kelly is played by Rami Malek whose performance, for me, was underwhelming. I just didn’t believe his character was capable of being engaged in lengthy robust discussions with one of the world’s worst ever mass murderers.
The re-enactment of the trial was fairly accurate but again there were a heap of things thrown in for dramatic effect.
Why directors continue to treat the great unwashed, like myself, with the bleeding obvious I’ll never know.
As soon as the violins start to stir, here comes the emotional bit. But wait. We are now going to throw in ‘knowing nods of the head’ between key characters so you know the finale is coming and those characters are ‘right about everything’.
This subject of the Holocaust shouldn’t be reduced to some courtroom melodrama. I feel like this is an opportunity missed. The way the world is today whereby fascism is rife, this could have been a reminder to everyone that fascism can start as a trickle and soon become a torrent.
If you are taking young kids or the squeamish to this film, please be mindful that actual footage of the aftermath from the death camps is shown.
It is played as part of the trial and the images of corpses being dumped into mass graves is confronting. Even here I thought the director James Vanderbilt has used the historical videos as gratuitous rather than being aligned with the narrative.
It’s like Vanderbilt has led the audience nowhere, then blasts some of the most horrific images in history upon us as if to say “there you go, cop that”, because the lead up to the trial is so laissez-fair. Even one of my favourite actors Richard E Grant looks bored and going through the motions.
Despite Crowe’s best efforts the script doesn’t allow for a deeper insight into Goring, the what, the why and how. Everything about the story is so casual, like Vanderbilt’s ‘straight to video’ movies of the past.
When you reflect on films about Nazis such as Schindler’s List, Downfall or more recently Zone of Interest, there is tension and an edge to them that keeps you rivetted to your seat. Nuremberg is bland in comparison.
I’m sure it will be a box office success but when you’ve got a manipulative, remorseless figure responsible for the deaths of six million Jews as your subject matter, the repartee between the psychiatrist and the Nazi deserved to be better. This is nothing more than midday TV melodrama. 5/10
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About Ian Wilson
Former army aircraft mechanic, sales manager, VFA footballer and coach. Now mental health worker and blogger. Lifelong St Kilda FC tragic and father to 2 x girls.
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“A Real Pain” is a terrific recent film that managed to convey some of the horror of the Holocaust in a poignant and affecting way. Two mismatched American cousins on a Jewish Heritage tour of Poland funded by their deceased grandmother. Human and humane.
I was disappointed in “Zone of Interest”. Tried to demonstrate the banality of evil with 2 hours of banality. Preaching to the converted whereas “A Real Pain” used humour and relationships to enlighten a younger audience.
“The Rest is History” podcast has 4 long series on the Nazis starting in the 1920’s with the Weimar hyperinflation; WW1 reparations and humiliation and the Beer Hall putsch. They are only up to 1941 (Dunkirk, Battle of Britain and the start of Operation Barbarossa – the beginning of the end for Hitler).
I found the series on the Nazis rise to elected power in the early 1930’s very relevant to today. Hitler’s election was a desperate recourse for a demoralised and impoverished German people. Once he had some early economic and territorial wins the ordinary German people willingly joined a progressive humiliation of Jewish people – long before the holocaust.
An alienated 17yo Polish jew living in Paris assassinated a minor Nazi diplomat after learning that his parent’s home had been confiscated. Hitler used this “terrorism” as a justification for Kristallnacht in 1938.
You don’t have to look far for precedent in the USA today. Flood cities with paramilitary until National Guardsmen are tragically killed. Then ratchet up the repression.
The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident involving a US warship was the justification for US escalation in Vietnam. Flooding the Caribbean with US warships will precipitate the same in Venezuela. Cheap oil in America’s backyard.
The strong do as they will; the weak do as they must.