wheatley-20230

This is a moving tale of great courage in the midst of terrible suffering and adversity. The rape of Nanjing entailed the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the rape of tens of thousands, although the numbers remain uncertain and contested.

Very few of the victims ever had the chance to tell their tale, so the use of fiction to fill the void and depict the horror is entirely understandable. It might seem overly convenient to assign the role of leading saviour to a western character, but the efforts of the likes of John Rabe and Bernhard Sindberg provide sufficient contextual justification.

The production and direction are crucial to the film's success. So is the acting. In particular, Christian Bale anchors the whole film through the transition of his character wrought by events he could never have imagined.

Do watch this film.

For most of this film's running time I laboured under two misapprehensions which interfered with my ability to fully apprciate the events on screen.

One was the obviously invented character of the private soldier whose personal story was clearly created to bring home the importance of getting the soldiers' mail delivered. I didn't believe a word of it. Then at the end, she is there on the screen at 100 years old telling us about her experience.

The second was the plot, which felt overly manipulated to suit its anti-racism message. I am not American and racism is less mainstream than it was, so it's hard to believe such behaviours. But, again, at the end there is documentary footage that shows you that what you have just watched is as true as it needs to be.

Despite those misapprehensions I did see the film through to the end. Now that I understand how wrong I was, I am glad that I watched it.

As an inspirational tale of triumph against the odds this could have been a great film, but it does not achieve that for a number of reasons, of which I will give three. First, the opening battle sequences did not ring true. Second, the scene where solders salute the 6888 felt entirely false (athough I could be wrong about that too). Third, to make a comparison with Glory, which is a great film, sorting the mail does not carry the same dramatic power as charging into battle.

But still this is a worthwhile film with an important story to tell.

Not having crawled out of a coffin I do of course know about Bob Dylan and recognise his music. But actually this film showed me that I really know very little about him. I am not sure that I am much the wiser having watched it. But then I have the impression that even those who have featured in his life don't know him. To just about everyone he remains "a complete unknown". In the usual sense of a biopic that's a bit of a hole in this offering.

However, the film gives us 2 hours of his music, which more than fills that gap. His impact upon the music world, both when he emerged and later when he switched from acoustic to electric, is left in no doubt. Chalomet does a great job of bringing that music to life. The running time flew by and my appreciation of Dylan's talents deepened. That is more than enough to make this a film worth seeing.