Sunday, May 15, 2005

It's a Beautiful Day....

So much is in the air at the moment. We are still waiting to find out if we will succeeded in buying our house. And my employer is "restructuring" which normally results in some "involuntary separations". Not an ideal combination. But then I have been through about 7 redundancy processes over the last 16 years and have only been given the boot once - and that turned out the best thing that ever happened to me (in that it made me move from Hull to London).

But despite these dodgy thoughts in the back of my mind, we had a lovely day today. Firstly I had a nice lie in and didn't get up till midday. When I got up Ali was sunbathing in the garden (very nice view :0). We then went for a really nice walk in Richmond Park. Specifically the Isabella Plantation which is totally beautiful at this time of year. After a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine we popped for a quick shandy at the Sun Inn opposite the pond in Barnes (quite literally, I really did drink shandy - Ali was drinking Pimms). Then I cooked a full Sunday Roast with Chicken, Prince Charles's Chipolatas, Savoy Cabbage, Broccoli, Roast Spuds and Parsnips and even bread sauce and gravy. Controversially we also had Yorkshire Puddings which you shouldn't have with chicken, but sod it - no roast would be right without them. And I am a Yorkshire man in all senses of the word :0)

The night was rounded out with watching the 100 greatest War Films on Channel Four. It was great to see awesome films like "Ice Cold in Alex", "Das Boot" and "Apocalypse Now" getting good placings. And no surprise that the excellent "Saving Private Ryan" got the nod as best War film ever. But I was frankly baffled that my favorite War film, "Crimson Tide" didn't even rate a mention when some really ropy stuff got mentions. What would you have picked?

6 comments:

Ricey said...

Although not strictly a war film, my favorite is "Enemy of The State", Will Smith, Gene Hackman & Jon Voight. Also worthy of note would be "The Hunt For Red October" with Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin & James Earl Jones etc.. which is a war film, same plot(ish) as "Firefox", but on a sub!?

Tony C said...

Where Eagles Dare, Burton and Eastwood on fine form with the classic line "Broadsword calling Danny Boy".

Band of Brothers also made by Hanks and Spielberg is far far superior to Saving Private Ryan, but gets less exposure as it was a TV series.

Das Boat. Top stuff, a sad but inevitable ending.

Mephis Belle. Das Boat with B17s...almost.

Platoon. The Vietman War at it's best...or should that be worse.

I don't suppose Star 'Wars' counts? :)

Mr Ports said...

Ricey, I agree that Enemy of the State is a great film but as you say - no really a war film. More a scary picture of what we could allow as our civil liberties are eroded by scare mongering politician scum.

Yeah Daz the Guns of Navarone was in the top 20 if I recall correctly.

Tone, yes the Where Eagles Dare was also up there and rated a special mention n because apparently Eastwood personally tops 86 Germans during the film.

And let's not start on Star Wars - you know it just gets Daz in flame bait mood.

Anonymous said...

It's funny, you said "scare mongering politician scum" and my ears started burning.

Anyway, my vote would have been "das Boot" but for the fact I've seen "Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella)"

An Italian film which, like das Boot, should be watched in it's native language with subtitles it's simply the best film ever made and happens to be based in the war.

If you haven't seen it, buy it for £6.99 from play.com and enjoy the best seven quid you ever spent.

Didn't catch the program...was Schindler's List in there?

Ben
http://www.jaffacake.net

Mr Ports said...

@Ben. Schindler's List was also in the top 30 or so. Spielberg had quite a few in there.

Life is Beautiful also got a nod in the top 50, but interestingly the commentary from some of the critics was quite harsh. One guy saying it was "offensive to both the victims of concentration camps and film makers!". I don't agree since I don't think the film was about war it was about the resiliance of people and I found it profoundly moving. Whilst I can understand why some folk think it is contrived, I think they miss the point. It is contrived O make a point.

Anonymous said...

So glad Life Is Beautiful was at least in the Top 50. For a not-so-well-known foreign language film that about as high as one can expect.

Glad you enjoyed it too, when I found it on play.com I bought a copy for every member of my family!

Cheers,

Ben