Desperate Journey

                        
Raoul Walsh's Desperate Journey is a World War 2 flick that is more exciting and entertaining than it has any right to be. The film was hastily concocted and is part Allied war propaganda, part Errol Flynn vehicle, and part celebration of raucous male camaraderie à la Walsh. Arthur T. Horman was credited as the author of the screenplay, but many hands were involved in the makeshift script that bumped Gentleman Jim from production so Warners Brothers could show they were supporting the war effort. Second billed Ronald Reagan received his call for active duty as production commenced, so his rushed scenes added to the chaos surrounding the picture. 

Desperate Journey was shot in early 1942 before the tide of the war turned in favor of the Allies. Thus, there were precious few American victories to celebrate. Warners solved this problem by setting the film before America's entrance. The plot hinges upon a dangerous mission undertaken by an RAF bomber which is crewed by a bizarrely international lot. The Brits on board are all sacrificial lambs. Alan Hale Sr. is one of them and serves as the film's comic relief, spitting seeds on friends and foes alike. Flynn is an Australian co-pilot, Arthur Kennedy plays a Canadian navigator, and Reagan is a Yankee bombardier. I'm sure British audiences found this odd, but Hollywood was stressing the international effort needed to defeat the Axis foes, as in the next year's Sahara. 

Desperate Journey opens with a near silent prologue in which a Resistance fighter blows up a train crossroads. He is shot, but not before releasing a carrier pigeon which flies to England and gets the plot rolling. Walsh dollies in on the bird just as it takes flight. An apropos gambit in a film concerned with flight, movement, and pursuit. We then move from the pigeon's den to the cooped up pilots awaiting their mission. Stellar cinematographer Bert Glennon shoots the picture as if it were a noir, the Europe of the film consumed by darkness. Rudi Fehr's superb editing gives the illusion of verisimilitude to this set bound action film, mixing studio and newsreel footage. Flynn and crew's plane crashes after finishing their mission. Thereafter, they must cross Germany with monocled Nazi Raymond Massey the chief hellhound on their trail. Most of the actors playing Germans, including Massey, actually speak German in the picture, a rarity among Hollywood war pictures. 

Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn, and Arthur Kennedy

Desperate Journey would be a rather dour picture without the bantering bonhomie of the players, a Walsh specialty. The three leads above play along well with the real surprise being the flippant charm of Mr. Reagan. This is his best performance along with his apposite turn in Don Siegel's The Killers. Flynn was a little jealous of the attention the younger star was receiving and tried to wrest a key comic turn from his co-star, but the producer was adamant and Reagan got to spew amusing gibberish at the expense of Mr. Massey. In that same scene, Reagan looks longingly at Massey's lunch, a shot echoed by the one of Tom Hanks gazing at a roast beef sandwich in Saving Private Ryan. Nancy Coleman is the sole skirt in the picture, a requisite noble Resistance supporter. She is fine, but only gets a kiss on the hand from Flynn for her efforts. 

Max Steiner's score suffers from his typical bombast. I cringed at the use of God Save the King, Deutschlandied, and The British Grenadiers Song. I did appreciate Steiner's use of harps in the picture's first major death scene. Massey is under used. He is merely on hand to sneer at the scion of the "decadent democracies." The film boasts stellar production values. I wondered if the flyers were hiding in the castle from Robin Hood at one point. The depiction of military weaponry and communications are fairly accurate amidst much japery. Desperate Journey is no masterpiece, unlike Gentleman Jim, but it has surprising craft and personality for a piece of wartime proselytism.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Pavel Talankin

Pavel Talankin and David Borenstein's Mr. Nobody Against Putin is a remarkably brave and revealing documentary. Mr. Talankin worked as an event coordinator and videographer at a large school in the Russian town of Karabash. Karabash is a burg of 10,000 nestled in the Ural Mountains and dominated by an enormous copper smelting plant. Talankin recognizes the limitations of his hometown, but displays an undying affection for its humble landmarks and inhabitants. His aged mother also works at his school as a much put upon librarian. The film chronicles two years in the life of Pavel and his students beginning with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Not only do we witness the inhabitants of Karabash reacting to the conflict, but we see how the Russian government shapes the propaganda fed into the minds of its students. Not only must teachers recite state approved scripts extolling the war, but Talankin has to record this being done and then relay the recordings to the central authorities. He feels that he has become a cog in Putin's war machine and becomes increasingly uneasy. As the war progresses, the school becomes increasingly militaristic, a proving ground for future cannon fodder. Talankin was lucky enough to receive assistance from a Western producer and fled Russia in 2024 along with his film. One cannot forget those left behind, including his mother, who are caught in the maw of a rough and heinous beast. 

Yet, Talankin does not demean those who support the war. He lets them speak for themselves. In particular, a party toady on the faculty who is rewarded by Moscow for his loyalty. When Talankin asks the man who his heroes are, the man cites the most violent and vile of Stalin's henchmen. Talankin's own mother takes an extremely fatalistic view of the situation. Men fight wars she says resignedly and who can refute her. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is as an expert portrait of a totalitarian nation at war and the manifold complexities of its populace. It is a must see. Just this March, the Russian Ministry of Justice named Talankin a foreign agent. This designation of Talankin as a traitor is a capital crime that carries with it a sentence of death.                        

It Was Just An Accident

Vahid Mobasseri

I think it is difficult for me to be objective about the films of Jafar Panahi because of the high esteem I have for him as a beacon of light and sanity in today's world. Regardless, I recommend his latest, It Was Just An Accident, with some very minor reservations. Most of Panahi's ten or so superb pictures have been shot surreptitiously and It Was Just An Accident was no exception. Panahi has run afoul of Iran's ruling mullahs numerous times and is currently appealing a one year sentence for engaging in propaganda activities against the state. He has experienced torture and this informs his latest picture. The film's protagonist, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), is an auto mechanic who is gifted by fate to have the opportunity to turn the tables on a hated tormentor from his past named named Eghbai.

Eghbai is the first character we meet in the film, tersely driving through the night with his pregnant wife. Panahi shoots this with a fixed two shot, capturing the subtle interplay between the couple. We are pleasantly surprised when the couple's young daughter pops into the screen from the back seat. Unfortunately, this brief idyll is interrupted by their auto colliding with a wild dog. After subsequently encountering jarring potholes, their vehicle becomes no longer operable. Eghbai, who wears a prosthetic leg, encounters Vahid and prevails upon him to help him find a garage and shelter. Vahid tails Eghbai who we eventually learn was a notorious torturer known to his victims variously as Peg-Leg and Mr. Gimp. When his guard is down, Eghbai is knocked unconscious by Vahid who drives to the desert where he plans to bury Eghbai alive. However, Eghbai plants seeds of doubt in Vahid's mind and he resolves to find other victims to confirm that he has the right man.

This first section, an impressive display of pure cinema with little dialogue, shows how an economy of means necessitated by filming in secret can work to a film's advantage. There are no crane shops or circle dollies to distract us from Vahid's eyes. We are getting to know the man and his dilemma that will inform the rest of the film. As the film develops it becomes more polyphonic in scope for good and bad. The past victims of Peg-Leg join Vahid in his van as they debate whether he is the actual perpetrator and what price justice demands. As the bare-headed modern photographer named Shiva, Mariam Afshari fleshes out an under written role. Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr provides needed comic relief as the volatile Hamid. However, a bride and groom are just along for the ride, stock characters of no import or impact. The debates between the passenger about the fitting fate for Eghbai sound like Panahi on his soapbox rather than conversations. The film regards the quagmire of revenge and I support his hope for a stop to the endless cycles of violence in the Mid-East. However, Panahi puts this message across too baldly.

Mariam Afshari

Along its way, It Was Just An Accident becomes something of a dark road comedy. There is a plot twist designed to highlight the basic humanity of the characters. Snore. Panahi invokes Waiting for Godot, but his film is more like Little Miss Sunshine. The flick becomes cutesy at times, but, ultimately, the overall effect is jarring; purposely so I believe. The film is discordant, a tough tone to maintain in an entertainment. It does fit in tackling a weighty theme which questions wherein lies the seat of evil. It Was Just An Accident is a picture that will linger uneasily in one's mind and I mean that to be a compliment.