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Searching for Halifax NP711 (2023)
Not bad
I am a huge World War II buff and have seen it all. War documentaries stick with a formula. Grainy B&W films, Check. Old war veterans in easy chairs under soft lighting. Check. Talking heads. Check. Swing/Big band music. Check. Radio chatter. Check. Bombs and guns sound. Check.
It is rare to deviate from the formula. Searching for halifax np711 checks some of those boxes with a couple of exceptions. There is only one old veteran (from the losing side) interviewed. No soft lighting. No historians to speak of. The interviews have a TV news feel, looking like they were done on the fly. Unpolished. It works.
The biggest deviation from the old formula is the soundtrack. This movie doesn't use 40's music. No Benny Goodman or glen Miller. No nostalgia. It has a contemporary music soundtrack. Maybe soft rock. This anachronistic approach to films is relatively new to films. Steven Soderbergh or Sofia Coppola anyone? The music in this movie is not to my tastes, but I must give it credit for trying something different from the old tried and true we usually see in war documentaries. And anyone with a keen ear will recognize the faithful hussar at the end, which was famously used for the coda in the Paths of Glory.