Turkish Gambit: A Review

Note: I wrote this some time ago and then forgot to publish. Pardon gentles all. 

I really liked this poster. It reminded me of Frank Franzetta's work. 

Following the lead of Brother Cordery over at Wargaming Miscellany, I ordered a copy of Turkish Gambit recently and watched it a few days ago.  I ordered my copy of Amazon's German operation and picked the DVD up for approximately €10.

Both Mrs. Kinch and I are fans of Boris Akunin.  He's a very talented Russian author who writes novels in a variety of genres, but most particularly mystery novels. His most successful series have been the Erast Fandorin novels set in the late 19th century and featuring the exploits of Russian state official Erast Fandorin who wanders around world righting wrong and investigating mysteries.

A story I have heard is that the novels were written in response to a bet that the author could not write a series of crime novels in each of the genres sub genre's. Thus, there is a Murder on the Orient Express novel, a Red Dragon type novel, etc.  Turkish Gambit is Akunin's take on the Ian Fleming/Alistair Maclean heroic spy book.

The film is a relatively faithful adaption of the book, which is set during the Russo-Turkish of 1877. The Russian army is besieging Plevna when Fandorin learns that a secretive Turkish agent is sabotaging their efforts.  He then tries to track down the enemy agent.

The film differs from the book in several respects, but the main points of the plot were there. The screenplay was adapted by the author and in terms of style and heft you probably won't notice them unless you know the book well. The cast put in a series of very presentable performances, though I think special mention should be made of Olga Kraska, who plays the female lead.  I found her character insufferably irritating in the book, but Ms. Kraska managed to capture the irritation while still being a pleasure to watch and a fine comic actress to boot.

The production values were excellent and the director of photography certainly earned his money, though I would take note of the use of CGI. The use of CGI throughout is clever, immersive and imaginative - very well done.  I would be very surprised if Guy Ritchie had not seen Turkish Gambit as his CGI sequences in the Sherlock Holmes movies are reminiscent of this film.

Turkish Gambit is a slick, funny adventure film and I would recommend it. You can buy it here. 

The War Collection

€25 very well spent

This arrived the other day. I often watch movies while I'm painting, which might seem counter-productive as gifted and talented* though I am, I don't possess a second pair of eyes. I think the trick is to pick films that one has watched many times before and loves. Then you can look up for the good bits and then get back to the matter at hand.

Regular favourites include Zulu, Master & Commander and Khartoum. But I've also been very keen on British war movies of the 1940s and 1950s.

In which we serve

(though once described as "In which we sink", I still love it, well played Captain Coward)

The Battle of the River Plate

(brilliant film)

The Dam Busters

(once described by my father as

"one man, a ping pong ball and a bucket of water versus the nazis")

The Cruel Sea

(cruel indeed, but gripping)

The Colditz Story

(I went to several boarding summer camps, no wonder this was a favourite)

Ice Cold in Alex

(worth waiting for)

I was Monty's Double

(haven't seen this one)

Went the Day well?

(love this film, which has been described as The Archers meets Straw Dogs)

Cross of Iron (bit of an odd one out here)

The Wooden Horse (haven't seen this one)

They who dare (haven't seen this one)

The Way Ahead (haven't seen this one)

Films that could have been in the collection, but weren't.

The Third Man, Sahara, Bataan, A Matter of Life and Death, The Hill, 633 Squadron, Cockleshell Heroes and Sink the Bismarck!

Is there anything that you would add to the list?

*And did I mention handsome, lissome, strong, funny, brave and with an excellent singing voice? And modest too.

Thinking about film

The Redcoats advance in Barry Lyndon

A scene that launched a thousand 18th century wargames

I watch historical films rather differantly than I do other films. They must scratch different itches to please me. The first criteria is whether the film itself is any good or not, whether it works as a piece of storytelling or entertainment. I have enjoyed books or films that are light on story*, but they are damned few and far between.

The second criteria is that subtle that almost indefinable sense of time and place. I recall listening to Peter Weir talk about the casting of "Master & Commander" when he described hiring extras from Eastern Europe, because he felt that they had 19th century faces. Would it have made a difference if he had cast Americans in those roles. I don't know, but if that's what Peter Weir needs to do, then so be it. There is the candle lit world of "Barry Lyndon". These are films that evoke in me a genuine feeling of time travel, of having looked back into a past that is at once alien and familiar. Certainly the art direction has a great deal to do with it as does the choice of music, casting also plays a part, but I can't say exactly why some films have "it" and other films do not.

It is not necessary that a film must score highly in both criteria to be good, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Brothers Grimm" and "The 13th Warrior", both of which are hokum, but remain entertaining pieces of storytelling. However, I've found that my favourite films tend to be those with offer an immersion in a time not my own, rarely a pretty one, but compelling nonetheless; an antidote to this lousy modern world.

Then of course, there is there is the wargaming itch to scratch. I love films with battles, ideally big ones and yet one of the finest films ever made, "The Duellists", contains only a few skirmishes. I can usually count on Sergei Bondarchuck to leave me thinking, "Oh, so that's what it must have looked like." But he is dead now and others must feed that appetite. Some day someone will make a film depicting a black powder battle from an infantryman's perspective - it will be full of gun smoke and the protagonist will be ridden over by every bloody fool with a horse.

So, the perfect film must have enormous battles, be wonderfully cast, well acted, beautifully written and rigorously historically accurate (ideally down to the actors snaggly teeth); does such a paragon exist?

We shall see.

What films scratch your wargaming itch? And no unnecessary rudeness in the comments about the "The Patriot" please.

*The Plague, Ulysses and possibly some of Beckett are the only things leaping to mind at present. I'm a man of the "great storytellers", the 19th century English popular authors.