A sex worker/German agent has been murdered in Warsaw. The only clue to the suspect’s identity is that he was wearing the uniform of a German general.
As the war turns against the Nazi regime, Major Grau (Omar Sharif) of military intelligence pursues his own rogue investigation into the murder, putting himself on a collision course with his own superiors.
I was not going to write about Night of the Generals - I found it a bore to watch and obnoxiously self-important. In other words, the polar opposite of Only the Brave. But as always, there was something about this movie, and its failure to achieve its muddled goals, that stuck with me.
I remember seeing the cover (above) for this film in a video store back in the nineties. The cover implies something closer to a horror film than a murder mystery, and even the title feels something more evocative.
I had not heard great things about it, but I had also not heard any aggressive critiques of it.
What shocked me about the film was its presentation. Even though the genre is typically more intimate and small-scale, Night of the Generals looks and plays more like The Longest Day, a massive war epic with multiple points of view.
Its very size is part of the problem.
The Night of the Generals is too grand in scope for what the story seems to be - at least the most functional parts of it.
I do not know what this movie wants to be about. I could not even tell you whose story it is - we have Omar Sharif’s dogged investigator, Donald Pleasance’s traitorous general, Tom Courtenay’s troubled veteran and a host of others. We even get a scene-length cameo from Christopher Plummer as Rommel.
Underneath the prestige production and big-name cast is a police procedural about a serial killer - the catch being the culprit is a member of the Nazi war machine.
This is an interesting kernel of an idea. It sounds like the log-line for a dark drama about the nature of justice in a fascist regime - or it could be a Verhoeven-style satire of the same.
Awash in multiple plot lines, Night of the Generals is lost as a story.
Tonally and aesthetically it also feels wrong. Litvak shoots the film largely in over-lit wides that feel designed to show off the massive sets and costumes, rather than generate any kind of tension or atmosphere.
Maurice Jarre’s score is intrusive and confuses what the intention of the scenes are.
Occasionally the film manages to create a sense of the horrors of the war - the focus on framing scenes in long shots does lend itself to creating certain juxtapositions - the contrast between General Tanz’s (Peter O’Toole) cool disdain and the casual brutality around him as he oversees an indiscriminate assault on a Warsaw neighbourhood.
With the conceit of transitioning between the war and the present day, it also shows how - disturbingly - these former Nazis have managed to reintegrate into society, with seemingly no regrets or doubts. This latter point of the film feels particularly resonant in 2025.
The acting across the board is fine. Appearing due to contractual obligation, O’Toole and Sharif are unremarkable, considering their other work - O’Toole is suitably monomaniacal as Tanz; Sharif brings a certain flicker of humour as the dogged detective.
Inert and bloated, Night of the Generals should only be watched by people intending to do a remake.
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After one of his colleagues is murdered, cop Jerry Beck (Don Johnson) is put on the case to track down the killer.
As Beck stumbles from clue to clue, he realises the killer is a member of a white supremacist cell with ties to a broader network of groups with plans to join forces as a single heavily armed entity.
Blocked by obstacles both external and internal, Beck will have to push himself beyond his limits in order to overcome the forces marshalled against him.
Famously rubbished for the leading man’s hairstyle, Dead Bang is sadly underrated.
I think it might have a lot to do with the title - it is two words which do not convey anything that the movie is trying to be about.
And it just looks wrong.
You try to convince people to watch a movie called Dead Bang.
It’s like telling people to breath after a fart in a locked room.
Directed by the great John Frankenheimer, Dead Bang looks great. And it has a lot to recommend it.
As a viewing experience, it was an easy watch - I was expecting some turn or dip where the movie would fall apart, and earn its reputation.
But that never came.
The ending is rather abrupt, and the romantic subplot with Penelope Ann Miller is dropped arbitrarily.
Star Don Johnson was trying to get away from Miami Vice, and you can feel it.
From the broken glasses to the divorce to crappy apartment and alcoholism, Jerry Beck is a world away from Sonny Crockett.
Johnson is charismatic, and it is too bad he did not get more chances, but this role is an odd fit. Not terrible, but the character feels just a little more square than Johnson is as a perfomer.
The story is ultimately a familiar one - a rogue cop is accused of going rogue one too many times, and proves his naysayers wrong by going rogue.
There is something darkly ironic about this theme - it is a popular one from the eighties action cinema, but it is one that has sadly polluted real-world policing, particularly in America.
As the country’s institutions fall under the sway of an authoritarian regime preaching the same white supremacist ideology as the villains of this movie, Beck’s railing against his superiors and the feds feels more vital.
The villains being white supremacists is interesting, and the film deserves some credit for showing some level of alignment between the bigotry of the bad guys and the more banal, but insidious racism of the local law enforcement Beck has to contend with.
The film builds an intriguing level of paranoia, as Beck becomes increasingly distrustful of the local police and the bleach-blonde FBI agent (the usually villainous William Forsythe, cast against type) who seems to appear at the most opportune moments.
It almost starts to feel akin to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, except with white supremacy as the covert menace. It makes for a more unstable and tense atmosphere.
The action is well-handled and the story features some interesting turns.
Aside from the villains, there is nothing about the movie that stands out.
Ignore the title. It is worth a look.
Based on a true story, Only the Brave concerns the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of firefighters who lost their lives in a tragic incident in 2013.
I was shocked by how much I enjoyed Top Gun Maverick.
I had seen Joseph Kosinski’s previous movies. While I thought he had an interesting aesthetic but neither Tron Legacy nor Oblivion were that compelling.
I was liable to chalk up Top Gun 2’s success to the collaborative power of filmmaking (particularly the involvement of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie).
But then I watched Only the Brave.
While this film carries over a few cast and crew members with Top Gun 2, it lacks that movie’s scope and visceral thrills.
There is a terse, unsentimental sincerity to the movie, a sense of being grounded in the lives of this team and their community.
At the centre, Josh Brolin anchors the whole production. He delivers an un-showy performance that mirrors the film’s no-nonsense approach. It is an empathetic portrait of a professional man struggling to express himself, but without any external business. It is not a performance that feels geared for the award circuit.
Jennifer Connolly matches him as his wife. Once again, hers is a generous, understated performance that feels like a living, breathing woman.
What I love about the performances and the movie is that it never feels like the project is aiming for anything other than honouring the people it is based on.
It is not trying to stand in the way of the story. It is not a docudrama - Kosinski does not aim for that kind of fly-on-the-wall aesthetic, but maintains a restrained sense of classicism.
While the movie ends in tragedy, the story is not concerned with that event. There is no sense of building doom or irony.
It is about the team, with newbie Brendan (Miles Teller) as the entry point.
Miles Teller has gained a poor reputation offscreen. Some online voices really dislike his acting.
I have always liked him. I thought his performance in The Spectacular Now was so heartbreaking.
And it was interesting to see someone in movies with obvious facial scarring. As someone with visible scars, it is nice to see someone who looks like they live in the real world.
Teller’s character is a recovering addict.
Once again, something that could be cliche-ridden instead feels more grounded.
There is nothing that is cliche or overly familiar about his portrayal. It feels like he has hit bottom. No sense of joy in the addiction; he passed that point a long time ago.
On paper his character, and arc, could have been a seed for something broader and more formulaic. There is a version where Only the Brave is a straight-up disaster movie.
But the film is not concerned with fitting the story into a familiar format.
It wants to tell the story of this team and the community they were a part of.
Quietly affecting.
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