Michael DeNobile's Movie Reviews

THE BANALITY OF EVIL: A REFLECTION ON THE FILM HANNAH AREDNT (2012) AND THE BOOK EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM (1963) Michael DeNobile reviews the 2012 film  Hannah Arendt  and Arendt's 1963 moral political thesis Eichmann in Jerusalem and their moral implications. I am, of course, as you know, a Jew. And I’ve been attacked for being a self-hating Jew who defends Nazis and scorns her own people. This is not an argument. That is a character assassination. I wrote no defense of Eichmann. But I did try to reconcile the shocking mediocrity of the man with his staggering deeds. Trying to understand is not the same as forgiveness. I see it as my responsibility to understand. It is the responsibility of anyone who dares to put pen to paper on the subject. Since Socrates and Plato, we usually call thinking to be engaged in that silent dialogue between me and myself. In refusing to be a person, Eichmann utterly surrendered that single most defining human quality, that of being able to th...

A REFLECTION ON THE FILM DOWNFALL (2004) Michael DeNobile reviews the 2004 German film Downfall, and its historical significance.  "For me, the terrifying thing is that he [Hitler] was human, not an elephant or a monster from Mars. If he had been a monster rather than a man, it would take the guilt away from other people--from his millions of followers. A monster is capable of anything, but everyone knows that one man could never have puled it off alone."  ~Bernd Eichinger, producer of Downfall History can get dirty. It's painted in shades of ambiguous grey, not black and white. Sometimes the stories are difficult to tell. Oftentimes, is can be uncomfortable to share. Michael DeNobile asks readers, how does one share one's own uncomfortable history, parcelling out the condemnation of what was wrong while salvaging pride in one's own culture and history? As an American, Michael DeNobile recognizes that telling stories of the Civil War, especially if you're some...

Originally published October 2014. A REFLECTION ON CLINT EASTWOOD'S FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (2006) "War . . . is always a defeat for humanity." ~Saint Pope John Paul II From the greatest generation to millennials, we have been generations shaped by war. We have seen global conflicts make it to our own soil, the blood of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and grandfathers spilled for this cause and that one. From ending tyranny in all of its forms, to protecting our God-given liberties to fighting one's own demons, we have seen ethereal numbers march onto the battlefields under the banners that it is truly, truly honorable to die for one's country. Yet, we try to avoid war at all costs, whether it be with ourselves or foreign combatants, because we know there is no victory in war. No matter whose flag is raised in the end, whether literal or figurative, when the dragons that lurk in the bowels of humanity are released, and the...

Originally published in February 2015. AFTER WATCHING BAND OF BROTHERS (2001) AND THE PACIFIC (2010) Although I never served in the military, I feel there is at least an ounce of understanding from necessary projects such as Band of Brothers  and the Pacific . While I am grateful and hope I never feel what it is like to be in a muddy foxhole or hold the wooden grip of a military rifle, smell the sea's salty foam or the gunpowder from hot bullets during battle, I cannot help but pause in appreciative awe at what it must have been like and continues to be like for those who have. I cannot claim to understand war, but from my study of film and reading of primary accounts, I feel safe in my estimate that the greatest casualty of war is the loss of one's humanity. We get caught up in measuring the greatness and valor of a warrior by particular sacrifices, usually physical in nature, ranked by decorative medals and special honors, but it seems the value of a soldier is i...

Originally posted July 2017. Movie seen at Oswego 7 Cinemas in Oswego, NY. A REFLECTION OF THE MOVIE DUNKIRK (2017): Michael DeNobile shares his thoughts on the groundbreaking historical movie, DUNKIRK. ...we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, ... we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded ... would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. ~Winston Churchill to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940, a...