Features
War movie relies on mystery, detail to snag viewers
Jeff Burr loves horror films and his new movie, “Straight into Darkness,” has many of the elements of a fright film. But “Darkness” is something different.
Strictly speaking, it’s a war film, but Burr’s script and direction infuse “Darkness” with an eerie sensibility that moves the story into a twilight-zonish universe where the audience doesn’t know what to expect.
That unpredictability helps make “Straight into Darkness” an entertaining and original film, nothing like the cookie cutter movies cranked out daily in Hollywood.
“Straight Into Darkness” is set in the final year of World War II. The location is never made clear, but the German Army is on the run with local partisans nipping at their heels and American troops in pursuit.
The movie opens with two GIs, Deming and Losey (Scott MacDonald and Ryan Francis), under arrest and being transported by jeep. After blundering into a mine field and seeing their jailers killed, the two troubled soldiers take off.
But where can they go?
Wandering through the often desolate countryside, Deming and Losey see signs of the war's devastation and of the fierce struggle between the Germans and the local population.
Eventually Deming and Losey come to an old mill and its inhabitants, two school teachers (played stylishly by veterans David Warner and Linda Thorson) and their class, a group of young children scarred physically and mentally by the war.
Soon, the mill is brought under siege by a detachment of German troops desperate to claim the building.
But why is the mill so important?
Deming and Losey solve that mystery while working with the teachers and their students to wage a desperate battle for survival against the attacking Germans. The final battle scene is a tour-de-force of action filmmaking, worthy of a far more expensive picture.
Jeff Burr dedicated “Straight Into Darkness” to his late father, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, and his attention to detail is impressive. From the fine score to the impressive set design and the brilliant photography, everything about “Darkness” comes together to make a challenging and entertaining movie.
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Town Crier: Snow ball
As the Town Crier walks the streets calling out the news of the week once again, he finds himself announcing the snow. We’ve had bigger snows, as anyone that lived through the Blizzard of ’93 will recall. Humvees couldn’t get through the streets. A week after the snow fell it was announced on the national news that the last places Fed Ex still couldn’t get into were Chattanooga and Dalton. But it has been years since we’ve had so many different snow days over a winter. And winter isn’t over yet.
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Consumer Q’s
Helpful information from the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
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At 99, she's just getting started
Ask Gladys Whaley how it feels to turn 99 and her answer is “Well, I’m still here, so I guess it’s pretty good!”
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Consumer Q’s
Helpful information from the state Department of Agriculture.
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Town Crier: Canned
This time of year, in the middle of the dead of winter, I would go with my grandmother out the screen door of the back porch and around the back of the house to a wooden door that opened to a space underneath. It wasn’t a basement, but just an area with a dirt floor and room enough to stand up in. The dirt on the floor was like dust since it never rained under there. Along one wall of this cool, dark, dry space was a series of broad shelves. From the shelves she would shop, just as if she were walking down the aisle of a grocery store. She would make two or three selections from the shelves and then we would go back through the cold afternoon, closing the wooden door behind us, and make our way back into the house. The back porch door opened into kitchen. She would stop there and I would go on into the living room to watch the black and white television or play with toys. Within half an hour the house would fill with the smell of good things cooking for supper that night. Good, fresh things. Things that smelled of half a year ago. For you see, the items on that shelf in the dark, under the floor, were jars. And in those jars were summer.
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Town Crier: Snow ball
