Post by pimpinainteasy on May 19, 2017 11:01:19 GMT
I re-watched this Brando-Yul Brynner film after almost a decade. I liked it a lot lesser this time. This is Brando's second film about intrigue and mutiny on a ship. He had acted in Mutiny on the Bounty three years earlier. It is also his second film as a German - he had acted as a sympathetic Nazi in The Young Lions. In Morituri, he plays a German engineer who is persuaded by the allied forces to impersonate a cruel SS officer while traveling on a German ship. His mission is to carry out sabotage so that the allied forces can steal the rubber which is the ship's cargo. Yul Brynner is the ship's Nazi hating captain.
It really is a tepid anti-war film. There was not a single scene worth mentioning. There are a lot of wannabe clever, cynical and ironic dialogs. But nothing really works. The director fails to create any sort of tension. Brando's character easily fools everyone on the ship. Janet Margolin's Jewish character who is gang raped by prisoners on the ship (this happens towards the end of the film and by this time I was too bored to be shocked) is supposed to emphasize the film's anti-war message.
There is a long tracking shot (almost certainly shot from a helicopter) where the camera pans the length of a ship while Yul Brynner passes orders down to the crew. But it adds nothing to the film.
Brynner and Brando are introduced in two exotic locations - Tokyo and India respectively. Brando's performance deserves some praise. As usual, he is all body language. I love the way he carries himself. He did exude cruelty in many of the scenes. Brynner's role was too sentimental and over the top. His accent was quite painful to my ears. Jerry Goldsmith's laidback score reminded me of the one used in The Third Man.
This must be one of the most uninspired war movies that I have ever watched.
(5/10)
It really is a tepid anti-war film. There was not a single scene worth mentioning. There are a lot of wannabe clever, cynical and ironic dialogs. But nothing really works. The director fails to create any sort of tension. Brando's character easily fools everyone on the ship. Janet Margolin's Jewish character who is gang raped by prisoners on the ship (this happens towards the end of the film and by this time I was too bored to be shocked) is supposed to emphasize the film's anti-war message.
There is a long tracking shot (almost certainly shot from a helicopter) where the camera pans the length of a ship while Yul Brynner passes orders down to the crew. But it adds nothing to the film.
Brynner and Brando are introduced in two exotic locations - Tokyo and India respectively. Brando's performance deserves some praise. As usual, he is all body language. I love the way he carries himself. He did exude cruelty in many of the scenes. Brynner's role was too sentimental and over the top. His accent was quite painful to my ears. Jerry Goldsmith's laidback score reminded me of the one used in The Third Man.
This must be one of the most uninspired war movies that I have ever watched.
(5/10)
