Lucky Strike: Lurie’s Story of American Service and Survival

Today, it would be a scandal if the government supplied cigarettes to our troops, but during WWII, they were staples of K and C ration packages. At the time, the government and military figured they might as well give the soldiers fighting for democracy what they wanted, instead of telling them how to live. Can you imagine? Consequently, the Lucky Strike company played up its connection to the troops with its “Lucky Strike Green has gone to war” campaign. Indeed, Captain Castle goes through Hell with his brand of choice in Rod Lurie’s Lucky Strike, which is still playing in theaters.

The opening prologue fully and shockingly establishes the brutality of the Waffen-SS and the constant specter of death hovering over Allied troops during the Battle of the Bulge. Unfortunately, that is exactly the sort danger Castle must brave with his squad. Their orders are simple. Block a vital road to prevent German troop advances. The execution will be a you-know-what show. In fact, Captain Castle will be the mission’s sole survivor, unless you also count “Lassie,” the squad’s trusty Motorola SCR-300 radio, so-nicknamed for its reliability. As the voice from HQ tells him, Lassie will be his lifeline, until he reaches the extraction point, so he’d better protect it.

Getting to the rally spot will be a harrowing journey, as the older Col. Castle explains years after the fact to the somewhat confused Mrs. Caldwell. For reasons that are not immediately clear, he invited himself in and started chronicling his harrowing tale of survival. However, she will indulge him for a while, out of respect, since she also lost her son, a member of the 761^st Tank Battalion, during the Battle of the Bulge.

Lurie happens to be a Westpoint graduate, which gives viewers confidence he will treat his Army characters with the respect they deserve. Indeed, he and military advisor Jariko Denman (a fifteen-year-plus Ranger combat veteran) realized the warfighting scenes with a very high degree of historical accuracy, including the use of vintage tanks and vehicles that were authentic to the combat in the Ardennes. To his credit, Lurie skillfully stages battle scenes that are confusing and disorienting, in a deliberate, realistic kind of way.

Tin Soldier: Jamie Foxx Starts a Cult

Please, someone tell Hollywood there is more to the veteran experience than PTSD. Yes, it is sad reality and those who struggle with it deserve our support and understanding. Yet, there is also duty, honor, service, heroism, and comradery—which are all solid dramatic themes. Unfortunately, this film uses PTSD to define veterans and exploits it as a Macguffin to justify the formation of a sinister cult. It wasn’t a group of nobodies either. There are some big names in Brad Furman’s Tin Soldier, now playing in theaters.

As the film opens, Nash Cavanaugh is in worse shape than John Rambo at the start of the serious, psychologically realistic First Blood (Rambo #1). Cavanaugh had joined what he thought was a new agey PTSD peer-run treatment ominously called “The Program,” but it was really a personality cult led by the messianic Leon K. Prudhomme, who rebranded himself as “The Bokushi.”

Ironically, The Program started to work, but it was really because he fell in love with Evoli Carmichael. (By the way, I am absolutely not using a faulty AI program to generate these names.) Sadly, he accidentally caused her death while fleeing The Program to start a new life together. Since then, he just continued spiraling downward, until approached by commando Luke Dunn.

The FBI has laid siege to the Bokushi’s compound and is poised for a Waco-style assault. Before that happens, Dunn wants Cavanaugh to lead his team through the compound to take out Prudhomme and hopefully save lives, maybe even including Carmichael’s. Since her body was never recovered, maybe The Program faked her death. At this point, Cavanaugh slaps his forehead and says, “oh man, I wish I’d thought of that sooner.”

Of course, he agrees, even though Emmanuel Ashborn, the shady powerbroker financing the operation is obviously extremely sketchy. Further complicating matters, Dunn also recruits special operator Kivon Jackson, who is pointlessly hostile towards Cavanaugh.

Usually, when an unheralded film suddenly appears in theaters with a starry cast, in the case Robert De Niro, Jamie Foxx, and John Leguizamo, it is a strong indication of quality control issues, which is true here too. Bizarrely, even Rita Ora appears briefly as Dunn’s inside contact, Mama Suki, but by the time you start wondering if she’s really Ora, she’s already gone.

Frankly, the best work in the film comes from Scott Eastwood, who clearly wants to do right by his character and the issues he faces. Arguably, Foxx might have been entertaining in an over-the-top scenery-chewing kind of way, if Tin Soldier had been a more coherent film. Of course, De Niro just disinterestedly phones in scenes as Ashbrook. Frankly, he was probably thinking more about when the car service was scheduled to whisk him away to his next VOD shoot.

Diablo: Scott Eastwood Rides a Hard Trail

It is strange how often former Union soldiers are the villains of revisionist westerns. Who do they think fought the Confederates? (They must have been bad, since their flag is the embodiment of all evil.) Jackson is one such bad cat. They say he was Sherman’s best killer. Given his very particular set of skills, it is probably a bad idea to kidnap his wife. Yet, a band of outlaws go and do it anyway in Lawrence Roeck’s Diablo (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in Los Angeles.

At least those outlaws do not waste time with exposition. As the film starts, they have just abducted Jackson’s wife Alexsandra and lit his barn ablaze. Unfortunately for them, the Union veteran manages to get his horse out safely before collapsing from smoke. With help from his neighborly neighbors, Jackson is able to right himself quickly and light out after the bandits. He will be stalking his prey on decidedly dangerous trail. A psychotic named Ezra is also prowling about, gunning down people for sadistic sport. To survive long enough to catch up with his wife, Jackson will have to kill better than Ezra.

By far, the best scenes in Diablo involve the Native people who give the injured Jackson shelter. Adam Beach and Samuel Marty are terrific as Nakoma and his young son Ishani, which is why the dark, seemingly random direction Roeck and co-screenwriter Carlos take their side plot is so disappointing.

If Scott Eastwood couldn’t ride a horse, it would be a scandal. He has the appropriate scruff for Jackson, but he doesn’t have anything close to his father’s piercing stare. On the other hand, Walton Goggins (from Justified and Sons of Anarchy) has the loquacious killer thing down cold. Danny Glover notches another greybearded western cameo, while Camilla Bella hardly gets any screen time as the Macguffinish Alexsandra.

Diablo starts out as a mildly revisionist western that suddenly becomes massively revisionary in the third act. However, that big twist feels out of place in the genre. It would be spoilery to explain why, but it leaves viewers feeling like they misspent their investment in the characters. It is nice to see filmmakers try to give the big screen western a shot in the arm, but it just doesn’t work here. Interesting for its ambition, but not really recommended, Diablo opens this Friday (1/8) in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema.