0935 – Das Boot (1981)

timespace coordinates: October – Christmas Eve 1941  harbour of La Rochelle, harbour of Vigo,  Strait of Gibraltar

Das Boot (German pronunciation: [das ˈboːt], German: “The Boat”) is a 1981 German submarine film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as a theatrical release and as a TV miniseries (1985), in several different home video versions of various running times, and in a director’s cut version supervised by Petersen in 1997.

An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim‘s 1973 German novel of the same name, the film is set during World War II and follows German U-boat U-96 and its crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.

During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 and one of Germany’s top U-boat “tonnage aces” during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen’s goals was to guide the audience through “a journey to the edge of the mind” (the film’s German tagline Eine Reise ans Ende des Verstandes), showing “what war is all about”.

Today, the film is seen as one of the greatest of all German films. (wiki)

Historical accuracy

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imdb

919 – The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1981 Texas

The Old Man & the Gun is a 2018 American biographical film written and directed by David Lowery, based on the true-life story of Forrest Tucker, a career criminal and prison escape artist. The script is based on David Grann‘s 2003 article in The New Yorker titled “The Old Man and the Gun”, which was later collected in Grann’s 2010 book The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. It stars Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter, Tom Waits and Sissy Spacek. It is Redford’s final role, as he announced his intent to retire from acting in August 2018 (wiki)According to David Lowery, the final montage of Forrest Tucker is like a summary of Robert Redford’s career. It is as if “all those escapes almost feel like it’s like you’re listing the movies he’s made”. (imdb)

0918 – The Drop (2014)

timespace coordinates: 2010s Brooklyn

The Drop is a 2014 American crime film directed by Michaël R. Roskam, from a screenplay written by Dennis Lehane. The film is based on Lehane’s 2009 short story “Animal Rescue”. Lehane also adapted the script into a 2014 novel of The Drop. The film stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini (in his final film role), with Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz and James Frecheville in supporting roles. (wiki)

imdb

914 – yesterday evening

858 – Roger & Me (1989 documentary)

timespace coordinates: 1980’s Flint, Michigan

Roger & Me is a 1989 American film written, produced, directed by and starring Michael Moore. Moore portrays the regional economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith‘s action of closing several auto plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, reducing GM’s employees in that area from 80,000 in 1978 to about 50,000 in 1992. As of August 2015, GM employs approximately 7,200 workers in the Flint area, according to The Detroit News, and 5,000 workers according to MSNBC.  In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” (wiki)

imdb

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Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint (1992) 

836 – American Gangster (2007)

timespace coordinates: 1968 – 1975 Harlem / Golden Triangle

American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is fictionally based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by detective Richie Roberts. The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in their first lead acting roles together since 1995’s Virtuosity. The film also co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr. Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts were on-set consultants to director Ridley Scott and the crew throughout filming.

accuracy of the film   /   imdb

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“I wanted to be rich. I wanted to be Donald Trump rich, and so help me God, I made it.” Frank Lucas

0823 – Crash (2004)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Los Angeles

Crash is a 2004 American drama film produced, directed, and co-written by Paul Haggis. The film features racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. A self-described “passion piece” for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real-life incident, in which his Porsche was carjacked in 1991 outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard.  (read more: wiki)

[first lines]
Graham: It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

imdb   /   365-magnolia-1999/