Ashdoc's movie review---Against the sun

by ashdoc Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:04 am

I thought that 'against the sun' meant against the Japanese , since it is a world war 2 tale of three American men who fought against Japan and Japan's flag is the rising sun . But the Japanese don't make an appearance in the whole ordeal of three men stranded at sea after their military aircraft crashes at sea , though the threat of capture by Japanese soldiers is always uppermost on the minds of the stranded men .

Japanese soldiers and sharks---those two are the living threats that the three men have in their minds , and the sharks do duly make their appearance . But it is based on a real life situation , and the sharks are less menacing than what they would have been in what we Indians call a 'filmy' situation . Of course , all this is in the comfort of a theatre ; the very thought of knowing that sharks are circling your life boat must have been harrowing for the three men....and indeed , there is a beautiful shot of the sharks circling taken from above ; beautiful for us in the theatre, terrifying for the stranded men....

The three men are---pilot Harold Dixon (Garret Dillahunt), bombardier Tony Pastula (Tom Felton), and radioman Gene Aldrich (Jake Abel) . And other than living threats , the men have to counter loneliness at sea ( the least of their problems really ) , no food for days except the birds and sharks they kill by either their bare hands or shooting them by pistols , no water to drink except their own urine ( yeah they are forced to drink that using a boot as drinking vessel ) , and above all the merciless sunlight that beats rentlessly on them causing blisters---hence the name of the movie , for facing the heat of the sun is their biggest challenge . Relief comes only at night , or when there is rain which also gives some precious water to drink . But sometimes the rain can herald seastorms , and the seastorms bring on waves of such might and power that it can overturn their lifeboat---leaving the three men trying to hold on to it and gasping for life....

In the middle of all this , the three men try to maintain a semblance of normalcy and drink imaginary tea poured to them from imaginary teacups . And one of them describes the looks of his sister to the other , leaving him imagining a beautiful prim and proper lady smiling to him across the oceans....

At the end of it all do the men survive ?? That is silly question , because if they hadn't then they wouldn't have told their story and we wouldn't have this movie . It is how they survive that is interesting to watch .

The film is less interesting than the other such real life movie that was released just a month before this one---'Unbroken' . That is because there are no human challenges that the three men in this movie have to overcome , unlike the men in 'Unbroken' who ultimately have to face the Japanese . And as everyone knows , humans are the most dangerous species of all ; they are deadlier than the sharks....

But without comparing with other movies , this does stand as a good movie with decent acting performances ; and is a remarkable story of survival . And for that reason , it's worth a watch....

Verdict---Good .

by Hellsangel Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:39 am

Hey Doc Ash, where else do you publish your reviews?

by ashdoc Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:00 am

Hellsangel wrote:Hey Doc Ash, where else do you publish your reviews?

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Ashdoc's movie review---Against the sun

Ashdoc's movie review---Against the sun

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