War movie releases

Press, 28 July 1987, Page 22

War movie releases

Clint .Eastwood’s flinty, critically praised action drama, “Heartbreak Ridge” (M) heads the war movies being released by Warner Home Video in August There are no wars to wage, but Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway, a dog-faced relic of past wars, still has a lot of fight left in him. Eastwood, as well as producing and directing, stars as “Gunny” Highway, a grizzled United States Marine Corps veteran who, as he begins his last tour of duty before mandatory retirement sees the bumpy road his life has taken becoming even more complicated.

He tries to understand his personal failings in his broken marriage, attempting to rekindle the spark, of feeling with his ex-wife Aggie (Marsha Mason). He also renews his lifelong friendship with Master Sergeant Choozoo (Arlen Dean Snyder) and the sympathetic barmaid, Little Mary (Eileen Heckart). However, his duty assignment is complicated by his commanding officers. The battalion leadership is held by Major Powers (Everett Mcgill), whose references are limited to the supply depot and a keen eye for bureaucratic paperwork. Highway’s platoon leader, Lieut Ring (Boyd Gaines), is simply a wellintentlpned fumbler fresh out of officer training school.

“Gunny” Highway is at once a leather-hided traditionalist; a master of earscorching insults going nose-to-nose with feisty new recruits; a battlescarred Congressional Medal of Honour recipient, going eyeball-to-eye-ball with textbook-taught officers; and a closet romantic, going heart-to-heart with his ex-wife, hoping to rekindle their love with lines he has learned from “Harper’s Bazaar” and "Cosmopolitan” magazines. When he is not wooing Aggie in his own crusty style, Highway is pounding his misfit platoon into fighting shape and teach-

log Major Powers a lesson or two on the way. The pain pays off when the battalion finds itself in the front line of the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. “Heartbreak Ridge” sees another teeth-gritting performance from Clint Eastwood, with some ripe (at times very ripe!) bar-rack-room language that is a tribute to adjectival ingenuity. It is rough-and-ready entertainment that most will enjoy. Continuing the war movies theme from Warners are: “Merrill’s Marauders” (M), starring Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin and Peter Brown. The year is 1944, the place is Burma, and the objective is to prevent the Japanese and German forces linking. Based on fact, this film tells the story of how Brigadier General Frank Merrill (Chandler) and 3000 infantrymen achieved the seemingly impossible. Deep behind the Japanese lines they endured the grim environment of the hostile jungle. Suffering from malaria, exhaustion, hunger and battle fatigue they marched 500 miles and against all the odds won a magnificent victory. “The Train” (PG) stars Burt Lancaster, Paul Schofield and Jeanne Moreau. Colonel Von Waldheim of the Third Reich has been protecting priceless French art treasures for more than four years. In the face of the Allied advance in 1944, he hurries to ship the paintings back to Germany. The Resistance is informed, but their man Labiche (Burt Lancaster) is unwilling to risk lives for art and is more concerned with stopping an armaments train. He succeeds in delaying the train long enough to leave it an open target for Allied bombers — but Waldheim suspects treachery and orders Labiche to take personal responsibility for the train and its valuable cargo reaching Germany. Labiche and his Resistance colleagues per-

petrate an elaborate hoax: the Germans are tricked into thinking the train is headed for the Fatherland, while Labiche has travelled in a circle and wrecks the , engine in a spectacular crash. Reprisals are swift, but the Resistance decides the art treasures must be saved at all costs.. “Operation Daybreak” ' (M) is set in Nazi-occu-pied Czechoslovakia, ruled by the tyrannical Reinhard “Hangman” Heydrich (Anton Diffring). The Czechs’ liberation front, operating out of London, send three young Free Czechs (Timothy Bottoms, Martin Shaw and Anthony Andrews) back to their native country on a dangerous mission to assassinate Heydrich. Even with the help of the Resistance, their first attempt fails. When they ■ finally achieve their objective, the tension mounts to the exciting and tragic climax. “Victory at Entebbe” (PG) tells the dramatic true story of an act of terrorism that stands alone in the history of the ugly international menace of hijacking. When Air France flight 139 was diverted to Uganda by fanatical German and Palestinian terrorists, the political leaders in Israel had to make a calculated llfe-or-death decision — , should they submit to terrorist blackmail or mount an "Impossible” attempt to save the lives of the 106 Jewish hostages held 4000 kilometres away? Boasting a magnificent International cast which includes Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Elizabeth Taylor, Anthony Hopkins and Linda Blair, “Victory at Entebbe” is a tribute to the heroic Israeli commandos who dared — and won. “The Bridge at Remagen” (PG) was the last bridge standing over the Rhine in 1945, which both German and American Armed Forces fought to control. This is one of the most critically acclaimed war films of recent times, accurately depicting one

.of the most important events of World War IL . As that war drew to its dose, a group of Allied soldiers was forced to defend the Remagen Bridge ; and cut off the surround- ;; ing German Army. The successful holding of the bridge meant that the German supply lines were " cut — 61 days later they lost the war. George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazarra and Bradford Dillman make up the all-star cast in a film noted for the violence and authenticity of its action . sequences. “Until September” (M) moves war from the battlefield to the boudoir. Mo Alexander, a young American tourist from St Louis, finds herself stranded in Paris after missing a charter flight Angry, lost and disorientated, the last thing she wants or expects is to fall in love — but Paris in the summertime is a wonderful and rpmantic city and affairs of the heart are its business. Mo meets a charming and handsome Frenchman, Xavier de. la Perouse (Thierry Lhermitte), who is preparing to joing his family on their traditional August holiday. Both Mo and Xavier realise very soon that the consequences of their meeting, are far more serious than a mere brief encounter. Swept along by the intensity of their emotions, they become as one, exploring the mesmerising Parisian streets and travelling through the lush French countryside. It is not until September that they must face up to the reality and the possibility of parting for ever. “Until September” is an epic love story comparable to. David Lean’s “Brief Encounter.” Direc? tor Richard Marquand (“Return of the Jedi,” “Eye of the Needle”) has fashioned a story of great beauty and passion, using the beautiful young star Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Starman”) to great effect in a film which will haunt the viewer long after the end credits have rolled.