Master of the Game (2002)
I always try to know almost nothing
about a film when I walk into it, if possible. I want
to see things with fresh eyes. I don't want any surprises
the film might have for me to be ruined by some sort
of misguided synopsis writer or, worse yet, marketing
dolt. I mention this because, going into "Master of
the Game," I only knew it was a WWII film and that
it was made by Jeff Stolhand, an Austin filmmaker
whose "What I Like About You" showed in Park City
in 2000.
So, during the first twenty minutes
or so of the movie, I was fairly impressed. The locales
were nice, the props were good and the film looked
really nice. The cinematography was nearly flawless.
The acting was not bad. Nothing much bothered me about
the thing but one, the way the actors spoke. The film
is set in Germany, so it begins with some Nazis speaking
in the native language. When Jews appear, they speak
English and then, after the very opening of the film,
which only had incidental dialogue, the Nazis begin
to speak English as well. Not just English, but English
with German accents. Like the Nazis on "Hogan's Heros."
It doesn't work. It gets obvious and annoying.
(To tell much more requires some
spoliers so... you have been warned).
About 20 minutes into the film a
group of Nazi soldiers stranded in a farmhouse have
captured one American Jew. They toy with him and it
seems like his death is imminent. Then, because it
has been established that they will be stuck at this
locale for a while and because it has been exposed
that the American is smart and also a novelist (so
he's inventive), he challenges the four Nazis to a
game. He says that at the end of the game, they will
all admit that he, a Jew, is superior to them, and
they are inferior to he, or they can kill him.
This is where the film lost me.
Never, not for one second, did I ever believe that
these four Nazis, even under the control of the somewhat
dumb commander, would ever agree to this game. It's
silly. It's unrealistic. It's so contrived that a
new word other than contrived needs to be created
to express how contrived this idea is. It is manufactured.
That's a good word for it. It is a manufactured storyline.
This flaw is so disappointing that
one has time to ponder film history when one watches
the film. The conclusion? This film is proof that
every conceivable story there is about WWII has been
told. We have officially run out of WWII story ideas
with this film.
Another huge problem I had with
this film is not so much the fault of the film. One
of the four Nazis here is played by one of the guys
who also starred in the most egregiously homophobic,
most distasteful film I've seen all year, "The M.O.
of M.I." I tried to forgive this guy for being in
that film, but I could never look past it. And his
work here is just about as poor, in my opinion, as
his work in that supposedly "gay" film, so it was
hard to look much further. I'm sorry. I don't like
to badmouth Austin actors, but this guy is not very
good.
An aside: You know, I get lotsa
nasty notes from people in Austin who say, especially
after I dis a film that they have something to do
with, that I don't support the local scene. And that's
bullshit. I go out all the time and often spend my
own hard-earned cash to see local films, local plays,
local bands and local events. I support the scene
because I go to the events. When I get there, I expect
to experience something that made it worth my time
and effort (and sometimes money) to go out. When I
do like something, I will say so. When I love something,
I rave about it on the site. But when I don't, you're
going to hear about that too. I support "the scene."
Another problem with the film, if
you can get past the ludicrous premise, is the acting.
It gets very ham-handed at times. I noticed that a
guy with a very odd name wrote the film. He was also
the first actor listed in the credits. This made me
weary. As I watched the main character, the American,
become more and more pedantic, contrived and outrageously
false, I just knew that this actor was also the same
guy who wrote the piece. He gave himself the meatiest
(supposedly, anyway) role. This piece of flabby ham
gave himself all the good lines and played a character
that ended the film with Godlike status. It was one
of the most self-satisfying and smug performances
one could imagine. His name is Uygar Aktan.
Aktar is also credited as a producer.
A lot of the people involved in this film got credit
as "producer." This is a sure sign to be cautious
when you are watching a film, as film fanatics know.
Be weary when you see that. I don't know where Stolhand
was when Aktan started going over the top but he must
have been preoccupied with some technical aspect of
the film. Or perhaps, he was director in name only.
I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and
credit him with the good things the film has to offer,
nice effects, great choice in cinematographer (by
former Second Unit cameraman Ian Ellis who proves
himself to be quite talented here), decent music usage,
and verisimilitude when it comes to props, costumes
and that sort of thing.
Thematically, "Master of the Game"
is yet another bit of pomposity from Aktarn whom even
though he has a weird name, we assume is American.
The film seems to suggest that if Americans had been
in Europe in the early stages of the war, we could
have beaten the Nazis much earlier with intelligence
and reason. Aktan's smart-assed, nameless soldier
jumps down off of his self-imposed pedestal at the
end of this movie and walks away into the distance
suggesting that it is the same sort of maneuvers our
country made as a whole when it was in WWII. We came,
we saw, we conquered, we were smug assholes about
it. (Okay, maybe he's got a point here).
When Aktan's nameless soldier begins
to use his intelligence and reasoning powers on the
Nazis, they one by one begin to kill each other. This
film's script and acting is so unbearable that you
begin to wish for certain characters to be next in
line.
