KatyR-55

Nuremberg tells an important story, not very well, not in a memorable way, but not in a totally false way. It's a Hollywood blockbuster in style, fudging and over-simplifying the narrative as these blockbusters tends to do, and tending to overdramatise the US involvement. The film-makers here made decisions which cluttered the narrative with side stories (the pope's story was an invention, and the translator's story was a quite unnecessary distraction). The scriptwriters couldn't decide whether this was a prisoner-psychologist story or a prosecutor-defendant-trial story so they skimmed through both narratives rather too briefly. And there were lots of very strangely filmed encounters, a dark nighttime conversation at the Nuremberg rally arena in particular. Russell Crowe was OK, but Rami Malek was poorly cast as the psychologist. And two psychologists in an angry body fight in seemingly empty prison corridor...that would never have happened!

True North as a documentary about the making a film about hiking in western Scotland is a good companion to the film, The North. I understand now how the film was made, how the script had to be changed because of changing weather conditions and things like the unexpected arrival of other hikers wanting to use the hiking accommodation. Above all I recognise the huge difficulties of fighting the midgies, the itchy insects which bombarded the crew causing them to have to wear protective gear. It was pretty clear the making of the film was a real chore for one of the two main actors, and in fact few of the crew seemed to relish the experience. So congratulations to the crew for getting through to the end.

I stayed to the end of this film, despite the lack of action, because of the scenery. But the film isn't about friendship, there is very little self-reflection, and I don't think the two men discovered any inner truths about themselves. So there's a fair bit of hype in the film's promotional material. However, that said, I got something out of the film. To me it shows the inability of men to talk to one another as many women do. Men don't like to make themselves vulnerable, they plough on, even if things are uncomfortable. They don't reveal themselves very easily. So in the film, one man casually in an off hand way reveals something important about his past, almost if it doesn't matter. The other man keeps his work problems to himself. So when the two men relax, they play cards...and in this hike there are very few times when we see them relax! I know runners like this. They exhaust themselves on long runs, even in old age, and keep their real feelings submerged somewhere. In summary this film is about a long difficult hike with two very isolated men walking on the same path but determined to keep their inner souls to themselves.