Oscar-winning short offers powerful Holocaust story

SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO 

First, I apologize for the sparse updates on my Web site. My other work teaching and doing political consulting have been consuming my time. Nevertheless, I plan to do a better job updating this site and offering you more viewing tips, in-depth analysis and film commentary.

Meanwhile, I am giving you a treat.

American cinema has seen many landmark dramas concerning the Holocaust. Certainly Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece “Schindler’s List” is the finest, a bold, sweeping, emotionally draining epic that illustrates exactly whast life was like for Jews in Europe during World War II. Spielberg came close to topping it with his D-Day follow-up “Saving Private Ryan.” But notice I say he came close. “Schindler’s List” remains today a remarkable achievement.

That said, below you will find an embedded video window where you can watch the Oscar-winning German short “Spielzeugland” (“Toyland”), a powerful, 13-minute film about the Holocaust. While certainly not another “Schindler’s List,” “Spielzeugland” is an amazing feat in itself. I will not spoil the film for you; watch it below yourself.

I first saw 2007’s “Spielzeugland” (“Toyland”) a couple of years ago on the Sundance Channel. I was blown away. I hope you find it as powerful and emotional as I did. Please drop me a line or comment below. Despite some problems with the English subtitles, I hope you enjoy the film.






Spielzeugland by Toan-01

Michael Crichton’s ‘Westworld’ fun, suspenseful entertainment

WESTWORLD (1973)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

Twenty years before author Michael Crichton wrote “Jurassic Park,” he wrote and directed a small, low-budget film that shared a similar main plot: A high-tech amusement park goes madly out of control.

“Westworld” stars James Brolin and Richard Benjamin as two friends escaping for the week to Delos, a futuristic resort where vacationers interact with robots in Western, medieval Europe and Ancient Rome settings.

Shortly after Brolin and Benjamin arrive at Westworld, the computerized, life-like robots that populate a detailed reproduction of a Western town begin to act strange. Instead of shooting blanks, they fire real bullets.

Brolin and Benjamin suddenly find themselves stalked by The Gunslinger, a robot killer who looks exactly like Yul Brynner – a nod to the role he played in the classic Western “The Magnificent Seven.”

Bad movies I love: Joe Dante’s hilarious ‘Jaws’ rip-off ‘Piranha’

PIRANHA (1978)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

I loved drive-in theaters and the cheap, trashy films that often played there – usually melodramatic revenge dramas, car-chase thrillers and rip-offs of high-profile, big-budget movies from major studios.

By the mid- to late 1970s, the spate of “Exorcist” clones significantly slowed. In its place came a series of “Jaws” rip-offs that saw fair to middling success from people hungry for the same thrills and scares they experienced when they saw the 1975 Steven Spielberg classic.

“Grizzly” led the way in 1976 with its story of an 18-foot rampaging grizzly bear. The next year saw “Tentacles,” about a killer octopus, and “Tintorera,” about a killer tiger shark. Then, in June 1978, the sub-par sequel “Jaws 2” hit screens.

My favorite is a small film that opened in drive-ins and second-run  houses in August 1978. Joe Dante’s “Piranha” belongs to the class of films that are so pathetically bad, so poorly acted, so horribly directed that they instantly become a classic unequaled in cinema history.

Overlooked and underrated: Spielberg’s ‘Empire of the Sun’

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987)

Before “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan,” director Steven Spielberg tackled a lavish, complicated and personal World War II film that wound up tanking at the box office and attracting few fans.

I was among the many people who trashed “Empire of the Sun,” dismissing the 1987 film as a waste of talented actors and a rare failure from a great film maker. The 2½-hour film was stiff, hard-headed and drab. And I hated it.

Man, was I wrong.

I caught the film on Home Box Office a year later. And this time, I had a distinctly different reaction. That night in my apartment, I found “Empire of the Sun” a fascinating, touching and boldly moving experience. This is one of Spielberg’s unsung greats.

I rarely change my mind about films, certainly not as drastic a swing as I did with “Empire of the Sun.”

First trailer for new Steven Spielberg film ‘War Horse’

“War Horse” the novel

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

It’s been a long two years since Steven Spielberg has graced the big screen with a new film – so, to make up for lost time, he has two in store for the end of the year.

First up is Spielberg’s 3-D motion-capture film, “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.” The film is based on an obscure, little-known (at least on these shores) comic book hero, Tintin.

I, however, am more interested in “War Horse” – Spielberg’s first live-action film since “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the dreadful 2008 film that attempted to revive the Indiana Jones franchise.

It’s difficult to make consistently great films every time out of the gate. And even though Spielberg has amassed an impressive filmography, he also has released the occasional dud such as “Always” (1989), “Hook” (1991) and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997).