Welcome to Netflix Weekend! Each week I’ll be highlighting three films available to watch on Netflix Instant that (hopefully) share a coherent theme, and why they should be watched.
Since it’s July 4th weekend, I thought we’d take a look at three of the most “American” films I could find on Netflix streaming, each with their own unique thing to say about our country, and the cost of freedom.
First, we’ll take a look at Patton, a film about the titular general’s life, and how war and the quest for patriotic glory consumed him. George C. Scott delivers one of the most iconic performances of all time here as a soldier obsessed with his legacy, particularly as he goes from battle to battle, hoping to achieve glorious victory every time. The opening monologue, set against a massive American flag, is one of the most quoted and recognizable scenes in American cinema, and with good reason.
If nothing else, the film is a brilliant character study of what chasing a legacy will do to a person. Is the American dream truly about becoming a legend? Or is it simply enough to lead a fulfilled life of peace and happiness? There’s one scene in particular that always tips me off to what the film is trying to say: Patton takes his troops on an unexpected tour of the site of the ancient Battle of Zama, reminiscing about the battle, insisting that he was there in a past life. While belief in reincarnation doesn’t somehow make one insane, it’s telling that his particular insistence of exactly what his past life was would be of some glorious battle. It’s this kind of complex storytelling that make Patton one of the great studies of America and her people.
Speaking of the American Dream, let’s move on to something a little less serious. That’s right, I’m going to talk about Michael Fucking Bay again. After the success (commercial at least) of his Transformers trilogy, Bay turned to a smaller project, or at least as small as you can get when your film stars Mark Whalberg, The Rock, and Anthony Mackie. Following a trio of down on their luck body builders, Pain & Gain tells the sort of true story about how these three absolute idiots stole money from a gym patron via fraud, and only managed to get caught because enough was never enough.
But what’s really at the heart of this film is just how fucking funny it is. While it still retains some of Bay’s signature juvenile humor, the jokes actually land 90% of the time, because Bay has finally started to show signs of more than ironic self-awareness here. It’s actually a biting satire of the American Dream and the lengths we go to attain our version of it, and it works. Some of it gets away from Bay, simply because he’s not a subtle enough filmmaker to stick the landing on all of it, and the film’s climax feels a little hamfisted and flat compared to the great work that comes before it. Ultimately though, Pain & Gain better than the sum of its parts, and possibly Michael Bay’s best film to date, perhaps because it’s the most sincere thing he’s ever made.
Lastly, we’ll be taking a look at one of the great American films from the quintessential American filmmaker, Robert Altman: M*A*S*H*. Another biting satire (hey, there’s a common theme this week!) about America’s place in the world, the film follows a group of soldiers stationed at the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War, and the result is something magical.
Not only is it one of the funniest films ever made, but it also contains a strong anti-war message that was no doubt due to the screenwriting contributions of Ring Lardner Jr., one of the Hollywood 10 jailed during the McCarthy era. It’s a black comedy masterpiece about the cost of freedom, and how Americans tend to have an independent streak in them, not just willing to fall in line and follow orders when war is not the answer. If nothing else, it gave us one of the greatest television shows of all time, so it must be a great piece of cinema black magic.
That’s a wrap for this week’s edition of Netflix Weekend. Questions? Comments? Want to share what you thought of these movies? Hit up the comments section. And as always, happy streaming.
