TxMike

As a B&W photographer myself during the 1970s I knew of Smith, however I was unaware of the scope of his photography. This is a movie about his final big assignment in 1972, returning to Japan 26 years after he was badly injured working as a war correspondent.

Johnny Depp is W. Eugene Smith. He is convinced to do this photo-essay project in Japan. It was a location where, it turns out, a large chemical corporation in Minamata was dumping rather high levels of mercury into waterways, contaminating everything and resulting in what became known as Minamata Disease, a neurological disease caused by severe mercury poisoning. The issue is exacerbated because in pregnant women, the fetus ends up absorbing the mercury and it could result in microcephaly, extensive cerebral damage, and symptoms similar to those seen in cerebral palsy.

The movie depicts all this and the hard fight with the owners of the chemical corporation to acknowledge their role in causing the problem and the task of cleaning it up. Smith's photo-essay is credited with playing a major role.

This is a very good movie and Depp is superb as the photographer. My wife and I watched it at home streaming on Amazon Prime.

The whole movie I was wondering why, "Does a Scientific Expedition in Antarctica need to have several flame throwers?" Also, "Why, when things get messy, does the helicopter pilot assume leadership of the crew?"

I found this at my local public library, it is a 2017 issue on Blu-Ray with DTS surround sound. As such it looks and sounds very good.

The movie begins with a scene of some sort of spacecraft approaching the Earth, through the story and dialog we find out it might have been buried in the ice and snow for perhaps 100,000 years. Then in present time, 1982, we see a helicopter chasing and shooting at a large dog. The dog makes it safely to the safety of the science base but the occupants of the helicopter perish in an explosion and fire. The dog turns out to be something entirely different and that sparks all the rest of the story.

This movie has a rather high rating, clearly it has lots of fans. But for me it comes off as just so-so. When there is no action it pretty much plods along and much of the dialog comes off as reciting scripted lines. Then when there is action, like the explosion and burning of a building, the camera dwells on the flames for an extended time.

Sorry, fans of "The Thing", to me it is just a mediocre, semi interesting take on what an alien species might do if found. And how Earthlings might react to the possibility that it could infect and destroy all human beings in time.

Kurt Russell, about 30 when this was made, is the nominal star as helicopter pilot MacReady. It was filmed in Alaska and Canada.

Nicole Kidman was still a teenager in Australia when this was filmed, as episode one of season one of a series. She plays Carol, a budding 15-yr-old runner coached by her father who had been a serious runner but never talented enough to go very far. The primary theme of this 46-minute episode is the dad trying to push his daughter to be the best 1500 meter runner she can be, but the daughter wanting to branch out into other interests and not spend all her time training to be a championship runner.

We see her in a race early, she runs a 4 minute 27-something second 1500 meters which is a record for her school. Even as a youngster Kidman was taller than her classmates and carrying a nice, slim figure.

Things begin to change for Carol when a new girl transfers to her classes, a rather small girl who is a dancer. They become friends and Carol takes an interest in dancing.

Not a very high quality story or production but it was a fun watch for a very young Kidman who has become one of the better actresses in her 30s, 40s, and now her 50s.

I found it streaming on Prime while I was looking for something else Kidman is in.