Combat Mission, Episode 8: Hue City on Netflix

 
I ran across an interesting 13 part TV series called Combat Misison that claimed to tell the story of a handful of famous battles of the last half century or so in the words of the participants. It also claimed to talk about little known conflicts.

I was hoping at the time that this might mean something like coverage of the brushfire wars in Africa in the late 20th century, coverage of conflicts in SE Asia, or the ME. I was thinking perhaps that this might include stories of British, French, American, Canadian, South African, and other forces engaged in some of these small wars.

Ah well, that theory didn't work out so well. The battles were all American. Many of them were from the recent engagements in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Vietnam. That's not bad, it's just been done before to my mind. Still, Hollywood produces most of these things, so I suppose an American-centric perspective is inevitable.

I selected the SLA Gunfight in LA as my choice, but apparently my mouse-fu was weak as the Battle for Hue came up. I knew a bit about the battle for Hue from watching other documentaries on it, but I decided to watch anyway.

In the spirit of honest review, I have to say this production had both pros and cons. On the plus side, it did give you a good feeling for the fight for the South side of Hue city and the situation the various Marine units faced as they arrived at Hue, generally unprepared.

The visuals and the first hand accounts of participants (mostly Marines) does give a perspective on the experience that is a little less academic than most documentaries. This brings a certain first-person perspective that has value in understanding how the experience was for its participants.

Also on the plus side, there was a lot of footage and the recreations were not bad either. Unlike the unreality of most Hollywood battle scenarios, where participants are artificially close for cinematic reasons, the sort of urban fighting encountered in Hue did produce exactly this sort of tete-a-tete situation.

One did develop an appreciation for what a role heavy weapons play in urban fighting and the ability to deploy them. One also developed an appreciation for chemical warfare in the form of tear gas as it was employed successfully in urban warfare in this battle. I hadn't realized from prior documentaries there was a chem-war aspect to Hue.

The show did also give one a good feeling for the costs of urban fighting - half the Marines who went into Hue were injured or killed (221 were slain). That gave a clear accounting of the meat-grinder accounting of urban warfare (whether we call it city fighting, MOUT, FIBUA, or whatever term you wish to hang on it).

On the minus side, this documentary was, like many Hollywood products, entirely one sided. There was respect for the toughness of the NVA and their tactical acumen, but there was no first-hand representation of the North Vietnamese side.

I think this is a great failing of many US documentaries; They only present historical events from the American viewpoint. I think this trend helps to foster the idea the other side's perspective is irrelevant which is a bit short-sighted and myopic. They certainly could have used some input from some of the participants on the other side to truly understand this battle.

The episode didn't dwell on the arrival of the Marines in an unprepared state as an intelligence or tactical failure, although it seems like perhaps they should have. If you are brought in as reinforcements to a fight, you should have a better logistical preparation and intelligence appreciation than what those Marines had. That probably could have helped ameliorate the eventually casualty count somewhat.

The episode pay much attention to the ingenuity of coping with the small alleys and courtyards in Hue as much as other documentaries I've seen on the subject did; In those other documentaries, you saw them using these small electric movers (of the sort you might see in airports) and some similar small gas powered vehicle such as jeeps and such to improvise ways to move 106mm Recoiless Rifles to where they were needed on the battlefield.

The episode paid a lot of its attention to the battle for South Hue and then summed up rather quickly in moments by saying the battle went on and the Marines took North Hue and the (presumably) the bridge over the river, but without describing any of that. I think this is a lacking and probably means the episode's name should have been South Hue City as that was really all that was covered in detail. I still don't know what happened to the RVN troops that were cutoff in the compound in North Hue after watching the full episode.

From a technical perspective, some of the show was fairly grainy. I notice that digital streaming (be it Netflix of Satellite) seems to struggle at times with conventional TV (standard def) presented on higher definition hardware.

Whatever technique they have for digitizing seems to not do low or variable light conditions (shadowed faces, lit by reflections, night situations) very well.

I don't know how much of the not-so-laudible visual quality is the digitization, how much is the lighting, how much might be the original copy they have to work from, or how much is Netflix tuning the streaming resolution to manage bandwidth carefully, but I did find it distracting.

Overall, I'd give this a 3.3 out of 5. It dis present some good first-hand accounts and a good picture of the fighting in the South part of the city, so that is certainly a justification for watching it. However, one should realize the gloss over some failures, present a US-centric (or US-only) view on the battle, and the focus is almost exclusively on South Hue city. Worth seeing, but watch with the provisos firmly in mind.

 

Billy Connolly's Journey To The Edge Of The World, Ep 1, on Netflix

Billy Connolly's Journey To The Edge Of The World was my next candidate for consumption. This is a TV special similar to Billy's travels around Scotland, but this time he's visiting the Canadian maritimes, far North, and a bit of the West coast as he takes the Northwest Passage, walking (sailing) in the steps (in the wake) of Franklin and so many others.

The first episode covers Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland. Some highlights include Halifax, Lunenberg, St. John's, the Cabot Trail, Cheticamp Pleasant Bay, Cape Spear, the viking settlement, and the farthest North lighthouse. There are visits to the highland games (Billy's reactions are pretty hilarious... I think real Scots find most of us ex-pats to be a bit of a bunch of posers, if in a good natured way), to Halifax Pier 21, and to some interesting scarecrow collection held by an Acadian.

Along the way, Billy gets Screeched in, sees moose, sees a whale, goes fishing for Cod in the ocean, goes fishing for Salmon in the Gander river, and gets to hear some pipes, drums, and some Acadian fiddle music. He also visits Gander airport and celebrates the town's birthday with the folk of Gander.

Unlike his tour around Scotland, we don't see stand up segments to go with it; I don't know if Billy wasn't doing a tour at the same time or if they just elected not to mix it with the travelogue.

Billy has a good sense of humour, loves music and dance, and has a deep appreciation for the beauty of the natural world - all of which fit in well in the Maritimes. 

The next episode is to take him off to Baffin Island. We'll see how he fairs in the North.

I enjoyed this first episode immensely. It had a good balance of fact, image, music, and sweeping panoramas of the geography. It also gave you a very short snapshot of some of the colour that makes the people down East the distinct bunch they are. For a 45 minute episode, you can't really ask for a lot more.

I'm giving this one a 4.7 out of 5. I'm penalizing Billy for making disparaging remarks about people wearing kilts. I mean, I've seen him perform in some sort of mumu or frock and stockings and he wears Tartan trews... it takes a fair bit of cheek to poke fun at kilt wearers. Sort of pointing out the grain of dust in another's eye while ignoring the boulder in your own. Or something like that... :)

Outlaw on Netflix

Tonight, I watched the British film Outlaw. It was a vigilante film done British style, with loads of troubled personalities forming together into a vigilante group, at times goading each other on and at times holding each other back. Factious, disturbed, indecisive, and angry, the vigilantes worked on the people who had been most directly responsible for the troubles of each member of the team.

The film features a troubled (as if he plays any other sort) Para played by Sean Bean, an interesting police detective relegated to VIP protection played by Bob Hoskins, and a number of other fairly interesting British actors I don't really recall ever having seen before, although I suspect they may be known names across the big pond.

The film examined the sorts of issue vigilante films often do. It explored the question of what circumstances might justify the vigilante, what failures and corruptions of the system justify going beyond the law, whether normal men can become vigilantes without becoming something over the line and monstrous, and what is it like to live in a prevasive surveillance society where key members of the police are bought off by the bad guys and where right doesn't always even get a fair airing, let alone a win.

It was an okay film. I would probably give it about a 3.7 or 3.8 out of 5. I enjoy watching Sean Bean work and the characters were interesting. The ending was both uplifting and tragic in roughly equal measure. But the road to getting there was a fun ride.

Aside:

I wish I could queue or bookmark things on Canadian Netflix. I've had to do this manually with Ye Olde Text File. My list is now about 30 movies and 4 or 5 multi-season TV series long. A lot of stuff I'd never see on TV - docs, foreign films, oddball low budget stuff, Japanese anime I won't buy without having a good idea if I'll enjoy it, and a variety of old classics that I have (and have not) seen.

I can already see keeping my subscription going beyond my free month. They've already sold me on their value proposition.

The Beast (TV Series) on Netflix

Today's venture was watching the premiere of "The Beast", a drama about harder-than-nails FBI undercover agents. The older lead agent is played by Patrick Swayze and the younger, newly-assigned protege and partner is Travis Fimmel.

If the first episode is anything to judge by, this series will depict a dog-eat-dog environment where undercover officers have to play their cards very close to the chest and protect their own and where the bad guys will go to any lengths to get them.

In order to get the job done, they'll also have to play fast and loose with their own safety and the rules. But in the end, it will be about getting the job done.

I think I'll like this series - there is tension, their is a form of controlled chaos, and their are some machiavellian manouvers. This show's leads try to show that undercover officers have to be able to concoct a story and play to it, no matter the stresses or situation - improvising as necessary.

Patrick's premature demise in 2009 ended the series early, but if the remainder of the season follows on with the level of dramatic excitement of the premiere, one could easily say it was a decent final gig for the old pro. Unlike many of his nice guy roles, this is him at his mean, gritty best, with retained elements of the tough guy and the thinker from other roles.

I'm imagining this series would cost $30 or more on DVD and I'm watching it for free. Even if I was paying $8, it still seems like good value. The more I look at what Netflix offers, the more I understand the fear that is motivating Bell, Telus, Shaw, Rogers, etc. to want to see Netflix subjected to Can-Con rules and so on.

I think that would be one of the more tragically stupid steps if the CRTC follows it. It would seriously begin to change my mind away from supporting the CRTC's existence.

The CRTC should be about enhancing competition, enhancing consumer choice, protecting consumers from predatory oligopolies and from predatory pricing. It should be about pushing Canadian TV, radio and internet technology forward and opening up new and disruptive avenues that lead to new industries and shake up the pricing structures of the old.

Netflix is definitely disruptive and the oligopoly players of conventional TV should be scared. They've been living high off the fatted calf with the collusion of the government for some time now. Netflix and Vudu from Walmart when it gets here will be tearing up the marketplace with a new assignment of valuation and with a new value proposition declaring that cheap, available content is the route to everyone making money.

I think they ought to have a boatload of consumers. And the closed-subscription systems that will drive Showtime and other major TV players with such 'flagship' shows as Twilight (ha, ha ,ha!) are doomed to crumble. Their idea of a value proposition won't stand up i the face of $8 for all you can watch combined with bitTorrent of the things people want to keep from being under that regime.

People will pay $8 a month to Netflix for their wide service offering. They'll watch a bit of news and weather on the net and they'll watch movies and series on Netflix.

Eventually the oligopolies of the TV world in Canada will either get it, realize their business model and margins have to change, or they'll go extinct like the MPAA and RIAA appear to be working hard at.

TV and movies are no longer worth $60-80 a month. That ship has sailed. On Netflix, you can watch what you want, when you want. That beats the heck out of even time shifting.

Anyone who hasn't tried it out should give Netflix' 30 day free trial a test drive. Even $8 a month doesn' seem like a lot for what is on offer and the more subscribers the get, the better they can balance off the oligopoly tactics of Bell, Shaw, Telus and Rogers. That alone makes $8 a month worth spending IMO.

Check it out! And check out the beast, if you like gritty undercover law enforcement stories.

Cargo - European Scifi on Netflix

Cargo is European scifi and less cliched than a lot of Hollywood work. A reasonably good cast (for all I know, famous in their own lands), an interesting story with some twists and turns and a moderately ambigous ending, suspenseful at point, and with a good budget for effects.

I particularly enjoyed this movie. Subtitles I much prefer to voice dubs because the dubs rarely match the dialog and the voices sound wrong for the shape and size of the actors and actresses usually. Besides, I enjoy hearing foreign languages and reading along does not even reach the threshold of noticable  for me.

Seeing a movie with a cast of decent actors and actresses that I've never seen before was pleasant; We become very used to certain Hollywood personas, but I think we miss a lot of good work being done out there otherwise.

Being European, the film also was not an excuse to film a first-person shooter. It did have moments of conflict, of suspense, of tension, revelation and differences in approach and viewpoints between characters. There were enough things going wrong to make for good levels of tension and interest.

In they end, they tackled concepts like truth vs. the media spin, the challenges of off world colonization, the motivations of people (some want to 'take the blue pill' and others want to face the truth), and the idea that characters can go head-to-head while seeming to believe in something.

I found the lead actress to be pretty, but in a very natural way. I thought the character she played was interesting to watch and subtle in ways. She had a great interaction a family member throughout and that made her very human.

 In the end result, probably worth one month's subscription to Netflix on its own, or at least half that even if I was being critical. I hope they bring much more foreign scifi to our attention.

I'd give it about a 4.3 out of 5 rating. It was good, it had few flaws, and the actors and actresses were mostly strong enough for their roles. You could tighten it up (or expand it) here or there, but you don't need to. It would just contribute a few finishing touches.

I would buy this film if I ever saw it in a Region 1 DVD format.