405 - The Cry of Reason - Beyers Naude: An Afrikaner Speaks Out (1988) - 7.5/10 - Beyers Naude was a white South African cleric who started speaking out against apart apartheid in the early 1960s. It caused him to separate from his church and start his own institute. He was harassed by the South African government and banned for seven years. He is interviewed here along with Desmond Tutu and many others about his work and his relationship with the black population. Archival footage is also mixed in and it all makes for a pretty good film.
406 - Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House (1991) - 6/10 - This HBO film had the filmmakers visit Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania where they interviewed guards, the warden, and prisoners to discover what their lives were like inside the prison. They also discussed with a few of the prisoners what led them to be in prison and what problems they currently had. I thought that the film was interesting at times, but didn't find myself fully engaged at others. Overall, it was okay.
407 - He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' (1983) - 7.5/10 - Jacques d"Amboise was the principal dancer for the New York City Ballet for many years. He started the National Dance Institute in 1976 to bring dance into New York City schools so that students could meet once each week with professional dancers and learn modern dance. Exceptional students were invited to join his 'Swat Team' and rehearse at Lincoln Center on Saturday mornings. At the end of the year they put on a big performance to show off the various routines that they learned, woven together into a story. This was a nice film and the kids seemed to be having a great time, even though it was hard work. d'Amboise is demanding, but generally in a nice way, taking the time to work with the kids, and they speak highly of him in the film.
408 - Let My People Go (1965) - 7.5/10 - This film looks at events that led to the founding of the State of Israel, mostly from the beginning of the 20th Century through 1949. The founding of Tel Aviv, the British Mandate, Jewish Ghettos in Poland and elsewhere, concentration camps, etc. are all covered. Immigration to Palestine was limited even after WWII ended so that many Jews were kept in camps on Cyprus if they were caught trying to enter illegally. The footage was well chosen and the narration was good, though I felt that the history was sort of superficial. There was a lot to cram into a one hour documentary.
409 - The Anderson Platoon (1967) - 7/10 - A French film crew was embedded with an American platoon in Vietnam for six weeks. This film shows what their lives are like during that time. There is combat, but there is also time to relax, eat dinner, bathe in the river, go on leave in a big city, and interact with locals. The narration is sometimes sparse as it often lets the film speak for itself. A number of the platoon members are wounded or killed during the course of the film. I found it to be an interesting look at some of the things soldiers in Vietnam had to deal with.
410 - Wolves and the Wolf Men (1969) - 7/10 - Wolves are shown (and studied) in the wild. Some of them are captured, equipped with radio collars, and released so that researchers can study their movements. Wolves are also raised in captivity so that researchers can become close with them and study their social behaviors. In some areas, wolves were still being hunted to extinction and populations were somewhat threatened. I thought the film did a nice job showing the wolves that were raised in captivity and how they interacted with humans and each other. Their behaviors were also explained by the narrator or the scientists involved.
411 - The Fighting Lady (1944) - 7.5/10 - The USS Yorktown is an aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 1943. This film takes place from July 1943-June 1944 and shows it traveling through the Panama Canal, undergoing sea exercises, and battling Japanese forces in various parts of the Pacific. We get to see plenty of action using gunport cameras and activity aboard the carrier with planes landing, sometimes too damaged to land properly. We also get to see aspects of everyday life aboard ship - writing or reading letters, playing cards, getting some sun on the deck, eating meals, getting mission briefings, etc. It is in technicolor and I think that this really adds to the film. The Yorktown is now a museum ship in South Carolina and I visited it a couple of years ago. It is a big ship and it was interesting to tour it.
412 - On the Bowery (1956) - 5/10 - Ray is new to the Bowery, a place full of people who are down and out, making very little money and often spending what they do have on alcohol. Ray is taken advantage of by one of the residents that he thinks of as a friend, though Ray doesn't realize it. When he is sober, Ray swears to stay off drink and try to better himself, but the call of drink is too much to resist. I didn't really care for this film very much. It didn't really work for me, though it seems fairly popular to others.