Day: November 16, 2018

3SMReviews: Beau Travail

3SMR: Beau Travail
http://internationalfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2018/09/beau-travail-france-claire-denis-1999.html

Never has the Male Gaze been so thoroughly applied to men (by a woman director*) as in Beau Travail. “This movie has not plot,” I whispered to my cat halfway through and while it does have a loose plot, most of the movie consists of languid observations of a small band of French Foreign Legion solders in Djibouti. To reach full mesmer, it’s probably best watched in a dark theater on a day with not much else to do.

Verdict: Good

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home, in preparation for Filmspotting Best of the 2000s March Madness

*Young, fit military men are rather mesmerizing.

3SMReviews: Outlaw King

3SMReviews: Outlaw King
http://www.impawards.com/tv/outlaw_king_ver2.html

Chris Pine and his blue, blue eyes star in Outlaw King, a movie about Robert the Bruce which includes a lot of bloody treachery, especially concerning horses.* This is a solid story with attempts made to include women in the narrative.** The costumes are great in their raggedness and there are a ton of gorgeous landscape shots.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I mean, I got what was going to happen to the horses when they outlined the technique in the training scene, so I didn’t need to watch it repeatedly during the battle scene. (The battle tactics were, admittedly, a genius move on Robert the Bruce’s part.)
**This is always appreciated, though I suspect if more women wrote and directed movies, we would see war movies where women are something besides helpers.