An examination of motion picture treatments of the Vietnam War that, while sometimes on the mark, is marred by questionable critical judgments. Lanning (Inside the VC and the NVA, 1992), a Vietnam veteran and former public relations officer for General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, looks at the effect of the Southeast Asian conflict on Hollywood and the movies in its broadest possible scope. Beginning with the first epic war film, D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, the author examines the history of combat films. WW II was, of course, ``the good war,'' and the numerous films made during and about it reflect that assessment. Korean War films began by following the same format as those about WW II, but their popularity waned and a more cautious and revisionist celluloid treatment arose. For instance, M*A*S*H, the author correctly notes, is less about Korea than about disaffection with Vietnam. Lanning groups treatments of Vietnam itself into a number of different categories. Prewar films such as The Quiet American, he notes, could be remarkably prescient about what was to come. Combat films sought to follow the ``good war'' model; yet the box office success of The Green Berets, Lanning claims, was overlooked by Hollywood. Instead, it produced protest films and, later, films about Vietnam veterans (or even the war itself, like Platoon) that took a decidedly dim view of the conflict. More than half the book is dedicated to meticulous reviews of every film in which Vietnam is even mentioned. Films are rated for artistic merit and historical authenticity. Lanning's prowar stance and his utter lack of knowledge of film lead to odd choices and flawed evaluations. For instance, he has a low opinion of Godard's Masculine-Feminine, generally considered one of the filmmaker's best. Julian Smith's Looking Away: Hollywood and Vietnam (1975) is a far better treatment of the same topic.
Pub Date: July 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-449-90891-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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