donrogers42

This meandering documentary about the Cannes Film Festival, made by Time's film critic Richard Schickel, consists almost exclusively of anecdotes and interviews with directors, some actors, and (naturelment) a lot of critics. Though this makes the film visually quite dull, some of the stories are interesting, and you do get a sense of Cannes' past glory as the first truly international film marketplace.

But whatever charm the festival had in its heyday could not survive its own success, and today the "festival" seems like a preview of some hedonist's outer circle of Hell -- most enjoyable from a continent's remove, at least.

Made only two years later, this plays like a pale (albeit colorized) remake of Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Not only does it have the same star (Wayne) playing essentially the same tough-as-nails Marine sergeant character, it also has the same screenwriter (James Edward Grant).

Though this film was directed by Nicholas Ray, it has none of his characteristic directorial excesses. It feels much more like a (lesser) Howard Hawks film. The use of color in the battle sequences must have seemed to 1951 audiences like a step forward in gory realism, but they are not that impressive by today's standard.

The film benefits from a very good second-lead performance by Robert Ryan, who plays the more humane foil to Wayne's hard-bitten taskmaster. On the other hand, Jay C. Flippen more than exhausts his welcome as the stock comedy relief.

An OK Duke/WW2 picture -- worth seeing once. But by all means, see Sands of Iwo Jima and They Were Expendable first.

And you thought your last vacation was bad! This modest 1987 made-for-TV docudrama, starring Lindsay Wagner as flight attendant Uli Derickson, does a surprisingly good job of depicting a 1985 Arab hijacking without too much of the expected overdone histrionics or Rambo-esquire heroics. The writing carefully and sensibly sticks to Derickson's perspective. This is certainly one of Wagner's best roles; she is affecting, again without being overly glamorized.

If this all has something of a Reader's Digest Drama-in-Real-Life feel to it, that goes with the territory. No great contribution to world cinema, but well done.