Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:53 pm 
Offline
Site Admin

Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2003 1:50 pm
Posts: 4859
Location: California/NYC
Image
Poster for the film Jackboots on Whitehall, SF Internat'l Animated Film Festival

Action figures duke it out with satirical Nazis in England

A stop-motion satirical alternative history of WW II borrowing its style from the irreverent humor and crude techniques of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police, this is an intentionally wacky story in which Nazis take over London, but are opposed by a valiant band of Brits aided by an Indian Punjab Guard regiment and a dashing American resembling Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds (clearly a basic point of reference for the whole conception, but there are many other film allusions). Jackboots on Whitehall is an action-figure film that has elicited comments like "My God this film is bad," "What's the point?", "Very poor," "They cannot be serious," as well as "Brilliant!", "A great piece of work!", "If only there were more," etc. Indeed 20-something brothers Edward and Rory McHenry's debut feature is a mixed bag. You'd best take what you like and leave the rest. If you can do that, you'll have a good time. According to Variety, the animation is "a family affair, with father David McHenry credited as production designer, and more brothers, Dominic and Jack McHenry, toiling as puppeteers." David's charming, detailed set design is one of the best aspects of the piece.

The puppets are intricate, their costumes full of detail, but overall they're pretty crude. You can see the rivets, and they have no flexibility. Churchill always has a cigar in his mouth and when anybody talks, the digitally moving mouth can barely be seen. Some early sequences such as the one in which the Nazis approach England in a Hindenburg zeppelin and are fired upon by village folk are dragged out and inexplicable, but the filmmakers had to limit the battles they would show, and they didn't choose to depict their premise action, when the Brits weren't rescued at Dunkirk but got stuck in France so the Germans could invade the Sceptr'd Isle. The Nazis burrow underground and come up in tanks at Trafalgar Square, shooting holes in No. 10 Downing Street. The little band of Brits put up a brave front, but are forced to retreat. The plan is to move up to Hadrian's Wall, by the Scottish border, and make a stand against the Jerries there. The whole film may be a lot less funny than it thinks it is. Some of the writing is repetitive and downright annoying, and the humor a little too obvious. You have to love stop-motion (cum CGI) and relish the premise, and the cast, to give this a thumbs-up, but more will than will not.

There's much to admire and enjoy too. To begin with, the audacious premise never loses its pep. The voice cast is wonderful. Imagine Alan Cumming as Hitler, Ewan McGregor as a Chris, robust, handsome country lad who could not sere in the military because his hands were too big, Timothy Spall as an orotund Winston Churchill who's handy with a machine gun; Richard Griffiths as Hermann Goering, Richard O'Brien as Himmler, Tom Wilkenson as Goebbels and all of these figures beautifully satirized in the puppetry. Rosamund Pike as a comely country maiden, Daisy, whose stuffy, but classic vicar father (Richard E. Grant) doesn't approve one bit of her flirtation with young Chris. And lots more.

The mise-en-scène is very ambitious for a production as evidently low-budget as this, vast interiors, crowd scenes, battles in the streets: and sometimes it's astonishingly beautiful. How this is carried off when sometimes the continuity falters and the writing is lame is one of the film's great mysteries. The humor and the writing are hit-or-miss. Jackboots works best if the overall scheme is not taken too seriously, and you just enjoy the wacky moments. All in all, the rigidity of the puppets is too ittle used for comic effect. Despite good work by the talented actors, particularly in the campy Nazi leaders, the dialogue is far from hilarious. And while the action is well handled in big complicated scenes, the narrative falters on the way from London to Scotland, and the film begins to seem in need of cutting well before its 78 minutes are done. And yet, the McHenry family may have more to give us.

Seen and reviewed as part of the San Francisco International Animated Film Festival in Nov. 2010 (public screening Thursday, November 11, 9:30 pm at Landmark's Embarcadero Center). The film was made in the UK and released there Oct. 8, 2010.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC - 8 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 134 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group