Movie – Red Cliff
Posted by rickiej on June 27, 2009
The trailer did it justice. Red Cliff is no, Last Samarai, the best of this genre and the only Tom Cruise film I really like, but it has all the essential ingredients; honour, 1000 extras in battle scenes, valour, family values, love etc.
The battle scenes alone make Lord of the Rings 3 look like Enid Blyton or maybe it’s just that I haven’t seen it for years. There is enough blood spilt in the first 30 minutes to keep a blood donor unit happy for months. It’s a shame they didn’t think of that centuries gone.
What makes this film very modern is that the two armies that have joined together to fight for a better world have a strategic thinker trying to out manoeuvre the huge force that they are fighting. He is there to forecast the enemy’s every move and be one step ahead.
As in every ancient, oriental film the bad guys have a much bigger army than the good guys combined together. This is because bad guys – dictators – rule by fear and soldiers don’t fight for honour, they fight for their survival.
The ultimate genius moment from the strategist comes when the two good armies split and the army that remains doesn’t have enough ammunition to fight the now seemingly bigger army. The strategist comes up with a plan to steel the enemies arrows by sending out empty boats knowing the enemy would fire arrows at will. They promptly pull the boats back with the confident knowledge they now have thousands of new arrows. Genius.
The films moves at the right pace all the way through with enough heart in your stomach moments to keep your mind focussed.
8/10 Smile factor 8/10 June 19th 2009
