Sunday, June 6, 2021

A Soldier's Sweetheart (1998)

IMDb plot summary: An Army medic brings his girlfriend to stay with him at an out of the way Vietnam outpost in 1967, the woman disappears one day and he begins searching for her.
Directed by Thomas Michael Donnelly. Starring Georgina Cates, Kiefer Sutherland, Christopher Birt, and Lawrence Gilliard Jr.

The most interesting part of this movie is definitely the general narrative core, which was just as interesting in the original short story. However, when it comes to the actual filmmaking, there are some bizarre choices, especially the camerawork in play. It vacillates between traditional stable camera shots and wildly unstable camera movements -- and not in the way a film might be using deliberately to simulate the feeling of being there. More like whoever was holding the camera just frequently loses his balance and staggers to the side trying to regain it, and then they just decide to use that take anyway. At first I thought maybe it was the crappy VHS transfer quality of the version I was watching on YouTube, but, no, I think those were deliberate camera choices, and they're baffling. Everything in between the core story, which is great, and the cinematography, which is awful, is just okay. I vote read the short story, skip the movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:
A Soldier's Sweetheart < The Misfits
A Soldier's Sweetheart > Deliverance
A Soldier's Sweetheart < Run Lola Run
A Soldier's Sweetheart > Two for the Money
A Soldier's Sweetheart > Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
A Soldier's Sweetheart < Rigoletto
A Soldier's Sweetheart < Ghost
A Soldier's Sweetheart > Buddy Buddy
A Soldier's Sweetheart > Crash
A Soldier's Sweetheart < Gunga Din
A Soldier's Sweetheart < The Big Sleep
A Soldier's Sweetheart < The American President
Final spot: #2196 out of 3377, or 35%.

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