History

Book Review: “Lost in Shangri-La” by Mitchell Zuckoff

/ Peter Martuneac / 3 Comments

A coworker of mine who functions as my unofficial, personal librarian lent me a book recently that he thought I’d enjoy. The title? Lost in Shangri-La. Sounded like a fun adventure novel. I soon learned it was not a fictional tale of derring-do but rather a true story of a plane that crashed in an uncharted jungle of New Guinea during World War II.

The events took place in 1945, when the end of the war was in sight and certain areas in the Pacific theater were deemed relatively safe. New Guinea was one such place and it was for that reason that so many women from the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) were stationed here.

New Guinea was and is a beautiful island full of exotic locations that, in the time before the internet, were unimaginable to most Americans. Given the beauty of this far-flung land and the relative safety from enemy ships and planes, some pilots would regularly give tours to the soldiers and civilians stationed there. The tours became especially sought after when one pilot accidentally flew over an uncharted jungle inhabited by thousands of natives. This hidden valley was appropriately dubbed ‘Shangri-La’.

The reason this valley had remained hidden from outside contact for millennia was due to its location. Surrounded by mountains on a vast island surrounded by miles of ocean, there were no paths into the valley whatsoever. Even natives from other parts of the island were unaware of its existence. Planes that had flown far over the island were too high to see any details, and flying low over it was almost unthinkable due to the treacherous mountains and sheer cliff-faces.

I say all that to tell you how a plane could have crashed in such a location. The fact is that it took an exceptionally brave and highly skilled pilot to fly into that valley and get out again safely, even in the best conditions. On this particular flight, none of these things were present. The skilled pilot allowed his untested, ‘newbie’ co-pilot to handle the controls, even when a thick cloud descended over the valley. As a result, the co-pilot did not see a mountain stretching up in front of him until it was too late.

The plane crashed, engulfed in flames. Of the two dozen occupants, only three survived: Corporal Margaret Hastings of the WAC, Lieutenant John McCollum (whose twin brother died in the crash), and Sergeant Kenneth Decker.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the rest of the story, but it’s a fascinating tale of survival in the face of unimaginable grief and adversity. The trio of soldiers had to battle disease, hunger, and the jungle itself as they tried to find a way back to civilization from a jungle that had no maps and no discernable trails. But what scared them the most was the previously uncontacted native population. Would they help the trio of strangers, wounded and lost as they were? Or would the warnings of these people being savage cannibals prove true?

This is a great story not only for history buffs but anyone who marvels at the human spirit and the resilience it shows when we find ourselves in our bleakest moments. I recommend this to any lover of books and especially those lovers of non-fiction.

If you’re like me and this book only makes you hunger more for a fictional adventure through jungles and places lost to time, you can also check out my Ethan Chase treasure hunter series on Amazon! The ebooks are only $4.99 a piece and they come with some fantastic reviews.

Review: Black Sails

/ Peter Martuneac / 1 Comment

I started watching Black Sails back when it debuted in 2014. I had just been honorably discharged from the military and was living with my parents for a few months as I waited for college to start in the fall. I stumbled upon this show because my parents had a free trial for Starz and was immediately hooked by the premise of the golden age of piracy.

Then college started and, while I enjoyed the first season of Black Sails, it wasn’t enough to convince me to get a Starz subscription when Season 2 was released the following year.

Thankfully, the show found its way to Netflix. After a full decade, I was finally able to finish this rousing pirate tale.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, even the opening credits are a treat to watch. The animation is done well, the musical score compels you to tap your foot along to the beat, and it leaves subtle cues as to the overarching themes of the show: anarchy vs civilization, the deadly power of the ocean, greed, love, and multiple sorts of honor.

You can watch the opening credits here. Even if you have no desire to watch the show, this sequence really is cool and you should enjoy the music.

The main plotline follows the fictional Captain James Flint, the same Captain Flint from Treasure Island, as he chases an impossible prey: the Urca de Lima, a Spanish treasure galleon. The plot eventually widens and thickens as the show rolls along, but this is the general thrust of it.

Along for the ride is a colorful mix of pirates fictional and real: Charles Vane, ‘Calico’ Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Billy Bones, and many, many more. Nassau, a large port town on New Providence Island serves as their home base from which a wealthy yet disgraced English merchant family, the Guthries, fence their stolen goods.

As is typical for these types of shows, early on there is gratuitous nudity, sex, and gore. I’ve noticed a trend, however, that such shows use the nudity and violence to draw in the crowd who enjoys that and will eventually taper off. I might be mistaken, but the final season of Black Sails had almost no nudity at all.

So if you’re like me and would rather the show dispense with the fan-service and get back to the plot, you can rest assured that after the first few episodes the show gets much better in this regard.

I also want to note that the casting was sublime. Every character felt fully fleshed out thanks, in part, to a solid script but mostly to the wonderful performances of the actors. Australian actor Luke Arnold deserves special praise as ‘Long John’ Silver, and the late Ray Stevenson brought the menacing, legendary Black Beard to life.

Overall, Black Sails was probably the best show I’ve watched since AMC’s Hell on Wheels. It’s stuffed to the gills with historical pirates and pirate-hunters, and it tells of a swashbuckling adventure with memorable characters, devious villains, epic naval battles, and an elusive horde of Spanish gold.

If you have a Netflix account and even a passing interest in pirate tales, I highly recommend it. The only negatives to the show are the aforementioned overindulgence of nudity and violence, which eventually tapers off. Other than that it gets a perfect score from me.

Review: ‘Those About to Die’

/ Peter Martuneac / 2 Comments

After the American Civil War, the Roman empire is probably the time and place of history in which I’m best informed. I’ve done a lot of reading over the years about the Caesars and their empire, and I’ll consume just about any media that is set in Rome. Ridley Scotts’ 2004 epic ‘Gladiator’ is still one of my all-time favorite movies. Playing ‘Rome: Total War’ on my parents’ computer took up countless hours of my childhood.

So when NBC’s Peacock streaming service released a new show focusing on Roman gladiators called ‘Those About to Die’, you better bet I started watching the very day it was released. I now wish I hadn’t.

After forcing myself to watch all ten episodes of the first season (a second season is clearly planned, though I hope it never sees the light of day), I’m ready to give my review.

My disappointment in the series was immediate, as soon as the opening credits rolled. I love a good opening credits sequence. I recently watched Starz’s pirate-themed series ‘Black Sails’ (my review for that to come soon) and the intro was so good that I let it play out in almost every episode. The music was catchy and embraced the high-seas pirate spirit, the animation was excellent, and it displayed the themes of anarchy, treachery, and constant threat of death in a pleasing, subtle manner.

Not so in ‘Those About to Die’. Here my eyes were assaulted by a garish, gaudy ocean of crimson blood washing through and around a pristine marble city. The music a generic clashing of dissonant sounds, a genuine cacophony. The CGI for this sequence was terrible and it was so on-the-nose as to be insulting. I immediately lowered my expectations for the entire show and was soon proven right.

Name a flaw and this show has it. Ham-fisted exposition. Predictable plot twists. Unlikeable protagonists encased in ten feet of plot armor. Shoddy acting. The plot being pulled along by forced events rather than flowing forward like a river. Worst of all, a total lack of historical accuracy. By the end of Episode 10 I was rooting for everyone but the Northman to die. I knew of course that wouldn’t happen but I wished it all the same. Not one character grew on me or felt genuine.

I won’t even get into the absurd amounts of gore and sex because I think I’ve already done a decent job convincing you, the reader, to skip this show. Suffice it to say that, even for a show about gladiators and chariot racers, the violence felt way over the top and perhaps just one, two at most, of the many sex scenes was necessary to the plot.

Despite the horrendous music in the opening credits, the musical score throughout the series was actually good, even excellent. As for everything else about this show, let’s just say that I envied the man in the opening scene whose throat was cut. At least his suffering ended quickly.

Film Review: 1917

/ Peter Martuneac / 5 Comments

I don’t typically watch war movies these days. Since having participated in a war myself, such films have lost their sheen for me. I do make exceptions, however. I watched “12 Strong” because it’s probably the only blockbuster film about my war to be made and now I’ve seen the 2019 film “1917”.

This film, as you can probably guess from the title, is set during The Great War, aka World War I. There are just two main characters, two young British soldiers, Lance Corporals William Schofield and Thomas Blake, tasked with an impossible mission: carry a message across no-man’s-land, passing close to a German-occupied town, to a division that is about to stumble into a trap. A simple premise that is done beautifully.

Everything about this film was done well. The accompanying musical score directed by Thomas Newman was a perfect match, at times haunting and other times inspiring. There is also an a capelle rendition of the classic folk song “I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger” towards the end, sung by a soldier to his silent comrades, that left me at a loss for words.

George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman are excellent in the roles as Schofield and Blake. They truly captured the spirit of two young men who daily live in fear of death but put a brave face over it, whether that be through humors, letters from home, or allowing themselves to be fully immersed in their work.

Benedict Cumberbatch also appears in the film briefly as Colonel Mackenzie. Though he is only on the screen for about two minutes, he runs away with the scene. It’s remarkable when an actor can suck the air out of the room in which the audience sits, even in a supporting role.

What truly elevated this film, however, is the manner in which it’s shot. There are no scene breaks, no POV changes, and no cuts. The film is a continuous, running shot. The effect of this method is astounding and a wholly new experience. Just one example, as Schofield and Blake approach a seemingly abandoned country house during their mission, they decide they must check the house for enemies.

In any other movie, here there would likely be a scene change, cutting to the young Lance Corporals suddenly on the porch of the house or kicking in the front door. Not in 1917. Here, once Schofield and Blake decide to advance on the house, you follow them literally every step of the way. Down the hill, around the pond, up the bank, and then over to the porch. It’s only about 18 seconds, but it’s 18 seconds of filming you would never see in an ordinary film.

Suffice it to say, I was fully immersed in this film. It takes you right down to the ground of a brutal land war, giving you a grunt’s-eye-view. There’s not too much violence in it; there’s a scene of somewhat unsavory hand-to-hand combat, but it takes place during the night and in a shadowed corner, sparing the viewer anything too gruesome.

And, of course, there is heart-wrenching loss. It’s painful to watch and impossible not to shed a tear.

As with other war movies, I will not watch this one again, but I’m very glad I saw it once. I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates a new cinematic experience.

Movie Review: Oppenheimer

/ Peter Martuneac / 8 Comments

On Saturday, I spent a little over 3 hours at the movie theater with a friend, finally watching the widely-acclaimed Oppenheimer. It did not disappoint.

Okay, well, it disappointed a little. The beginning was very much a mess, in my opinion. Flashbacks of flashbacks, changing from color to black-and-white, moving from young Oppenheimer to an old, and there was precious little thread holding these scenes together. The infamous apple scene, in which Oppenheimer attempts to poison a mean professor but eventually thwarts his own plan after guilt overwhelms him, felt forced. I believed the director was trying to demonstrate the depths of Oppenheimer’s chaotic personality (by using an even that those close to the man claim never happened), but it came just a few minutes into the movie, after just one interaction with the intended victim, so it didn’t carry any weight.

The plot twist toward the end was also a little messy. There were so many major characters involved with names barely used that when the antagonist mentioned a couple by name as conspirators, I couldn’t quite remember who he was even talking about.

But aside from those grips and a couple other petty ones, I really enjoyed the film. Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Straus were simply brilliant. Emily Blunt also gave a masterful performance of Oppenheimer’s wife. None of these characters are very sympathetic, as they are all deeply flawed and selfish individuals, but the actors still did a tremendous job bringing them to life.

The scene of the Trinity test was one of my favorites, as Christopher Nolan did a tremendous job building up the pressure, including the actual countdown for the atomic blast. A little later, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a scene where a deeply conflicted Oppenheimer delivers a congratulatory speech for the scientists who worked in the Manhattan Project where Nolan’s artistic vision was once again on full display with the combination of sounds and lighting.

I highly recommend this one for anyone with a taste for history. It doesn’t feel like a full 3 hours, and the resulting performance is well worth the time and money anyway. It wasn’t quite the cinematic coup de grace I was hoping, but I still give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. Easily the best movie I’ve seen all year.