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Reviews
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Masks of Evil (1999)
Half good, half bad
The first half of this episode is a really challenging one, quite one of the best in the series. We find Indy as a mature master-spy in Istambul, masquerading himself as a Swedish journalist, in charge with the mission to find a way to give general Mustafa Kemal(Attaturk) a list of separate peace proposals from the French government. The drama comes when a new girl intervenes in the scene and Indy is forced to lie her about his true identity, and use her to get to Mustafa Kemal, even if he loves her very much and gives her a marriage proposal. The things are getting worse as time goes by because a double agent comes in the scene, and the end of the adventure is truly heart breaking. But the atmosphere, the colorful oriental scenes and the adventure are breath-taking.
The second part is a real mess. Indy goes to Transylvania to track some "romanian" general Targo(what an unusual Romanian name :p, rather Hungarian, actually) who thinks himself(or in the vision of George Lucas actually is) as "prince" Vlad Tepes(Vlad the Impalor) or a relative of him or something. First of all, Romania was a part of the Entante in WWI(not how it appears in the movie, as an ally for the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany). It is, I think, Lucas' deep desire to take part in a Dracula movie.:))))), but unfortunately for him he never got the chance. Historicaly speaking, the whole thing is a big bloody failure. Vlad was not a prince, but a king("voievod" or "domnitor") and was not the ruler of Transylvania, but of the Vallachian territory(which is a very big difference, but this bloody Stoker :)). Second of all, the two Romanians (Nicholas and Maria) are not Romanians by name and by clothes(rather Hungarians). And Transylvania(which is a native Romanian territory) at that time was still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and after the war was incorporated in Romania. Transylvania at that time was(and still is) one of the most civilized of the Romanian provinces, but in the film appears like a wasteland. (again that bloody Stoker and bloody Copolla). And all that mambo-jumbo action crap with blood baths, flying pieces of a lightning, living dead and vampires is simply "to hot" for any taste. In my opinion, the worst in the series.
So I give five stars for the first half and just a star for the second one(and I'm to kind, I know that :))
Der Untergang (2004)
The best ww2 film ever made
Well, let me say, regarding the historical accuracy, the costumes, the script, the performance of the actors, this is the best ww2 film ever. I read some competent historical books about what had happened those days( in the bunker, and all about the suicides). I must say, except the fact that gen. Bugdorf's body wasn't found in, so we can't yet proof 100% that he committed suicide, all the other details are driven from pure and liquid reality.(I mean of course the main suicides' scenes).
In other ways, the film is a very realistic description of ww2, 100%. Of course, it may bother some people who should read more before qualify all German's ww2 soldiers as Nazi criminals or getting a "scape goat" out of Germany for all the ww2 war crimes, because it simply isn't like that. All the belligerent parts have their one role in the number of innocent victims. The difference between German films of ww2 and the allied ones is that in the first category we find examples of crimes made including by their own former countrymen, which of course we don't find in the Russian, English and American films of this kind( except Letters of Iwo Jima, when that Japanese prisoner is murdered). Just see the film and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Also, a big mark of realism in the street-fights, huge amount of historical resources like uniforms, military equipment and other things that give the note of the historical accuracy.
About the actors, I must say, the one who plays Hitler is simply brilliant. Also you should watch closely Thomas Kretschmann and A.M. Lara in their acts.
Here you got to feel the last days of the European war from different perspectives, following Hitler, his secretary, his generals, a HJ young-boy, a medic, Eva Brown, etc; in each's personal type of struggle. Every minute you get the feeling of the collapse of an empire, when some choose to stay and face the downfall, others to escape by all means possible, others to die by their own hand and others to hope that after all had passed away, they will be strong enough to rebuild their lives...