A few reviews

[Gaith]

The History Of Christianity - 2009 - 6/10

Hm, that was in my Netflix cue before I put my disc plan on hold. I'd definitely like to check out those first three eps someday. Ditto for Russia 1917, having just read a short New Yorker article on Stalin.

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The Eagle Has Landed (1976)



TV Tropes: "The Eagle Has Landed is a 1976 World War II film directed by John Sturges (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven - this is his last one) and based on the book of the same name by Jack Higgins, detailing a fictional plot to capture or kill Winston Churchill by a group of German commandos. Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall star as the leader of the squad, their Irish nationalist liaison, and the German colonel in charge of masterminding the mission."

A fun war romp, somewhat let down by an absurd old-school sexist subplot. Possible quibble: one character posits that kidnapping Churchill won't win the war, but could help bargain for a better peace - but were top German officers so sure of defeat in the fall of '43, more than half a year before D-Day? I'm no expert, but it doesn't strike me as likely. Still, it's solid, classic action fare with strong perfs and realistic, easily followed battle tactics.

(My dvd is a non-anamorphic 4:3 transfer of the 2.35:1 movie. Weirdly, VLC Media Player doesn't seem to have a built-in 16:9 zoom, so I had to rip the disc, run it through such a filter in Womble, and then experiment with exporting it with a few custom dimensions to restore the native AR. Obviously, the results weren't up to HD snuff, but the cigarette burns (!) and general low-res look gave it a certain kind of charm.)

B+