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Reviews
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
Much more than a spy story
A meditation on the psychology of betrayal, the decline of the British empire, the Cold War.
Alec Guinness with a huge, great cast. I have watched this many times and never get bored with the dialogue, locations, music, atmosphere, sarcasm -- everything about it. I especially like the interrogation/debriefing scenes, and in particular one with a captured Russian spy played by Patrick Stewart, in which Stewart never opens his mouth.
The sequel, "Smiley's People,' is also good but darker.
84C MoPic (1989)
Realistic depiction of American patrol on Vietnam
Comparing this with my other favorite war movie, MASH, I'd call them both "naturalistic." They show humor and horror side by side, long stretches of tedium and short bursts of terror, without relying on an artificial plot or stereotyped characters. But 84 Charlie MoPic is much more realistic.
I was not in combat or in Vietnam, but I was in the Army at that time. Several of my Army friends had jobs making films exactly as shown in 84 Charlie MoPic. This is as accurate a picture of an American combat soldier's experience in Vietnam as any I can imagine. The first time I saw it, I was totally taken in, thought it was an actual documentary until the very end.
Incidentally, 84C or 84 Charlie is (or was) the code for the "military occupational specialty" of Motion Picture Specialist.
De Corpo e Alma (1992)
On-screen jealousies and off-screen murder
I never watched this novela, only read about it, in "The Heart that Bleeds" by Alma Guillermoprieto, a fascinating collection of articles on Latin America; but I think it's worth a comment. It was at the center of one of two sensational events that occurred in Brazil in December 1992. On the day before President Fernando Collor de Mello was impeached for corruption, the actress Daniella Perez, who had a small role in this show, was stabbed to death by the actor Guilherme de Padua, who played her obsessively jealous boyfriend. The story of Yasmin's real-life murder by Bira electrified Brazil and practically shoved Collor's disgrace right off of page 1.