The Six Triple Eight

2024 Netflix

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 9min

Drama ~ True Story ~ War

Starring: Kerry Washington, Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Moriah Brown, Gregg Sulkin, Susan Sarandon, Dean Norris, Sam Waterston and Oprah Winfrey.

“They did not send us because they thought we could do it, we are here because they are sure we can not. But We…..Will Not…..Fail!”

On May 15, 1942, after being drug into WWII by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the creation of The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. It allowed women to serve in non-combat roles freeing up the men needed by the war effort on the front lines. The 6888th Battalion (Nicknamed The Six Triple Eight) was an all Black Female WAAC Battalion consisting of 31 Officers and 824 enlisted personnel. They watched as the White WAAC Battalions were given orders and missions overseas in Europe to support the war effort but, given the racial bias and discrimination of the day, they were left to continue training in Georgia.

The True Story of The Six Triple Eight is told through the eyes of Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian). As a young Black woman attending High School in Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, she falls in love with a young Jewish boy named Abram David (Gregg Sulkin). Abram makes Lena promise to wait for him to return as he is drafted to go to Europe and fight in the war. Months pass and Lena gets a letter informing her that Abram had died in service. She vows to join the war effort the only way she can, by joining The WAAC, and fight Hitler. She joins and is sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia where the highest ranking Black Female Officer during WWII is in charge of the new recruits.

Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) was Commanding Officer of The Six Triple Eight and oversaw the mission that took the Battalion to war in Europe. Mail delivery in and out of the war in Europe had come to a standstill. Families at home in the US had no word from their loved ones serving on the battlefield, and soldiers morale on the frontlines were growing low, being fully cut off from their lives at home. Major Adams and her Battalion were given orders to fly to Birmingham, England and sort the mess out, and get the mail flowing again. Nobody thought they could accomplish the task and they were given six months to complete the assignment. They were given an abandoned school building with no heat, and airplane hangars full of duffel bags stuffed with mail.

Major Adams and her Battalion rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Working three eight hour shifts twenty four hours a day, they sorted through an estimated 17 million pieces of mail. A great number of the letters and packages were damaged or had very little info as to who it actually went to, and coupled with the fact that the soldiers they were addressed to were constantly moving on the battlefield, it was a seemingly impossible task. The women of The Six Triple Eight gave it everything they had, playing detective, and pieced together where all the mail was supposed to go and got it there. And they accomplished their mission in 90 days, half the time they were allotted, and in spite of the working conditions, and the racial and sexist discriminations of the time.

I never did understand the racial bias and hatred towards another human beings skin color or ethnicity. I was raised in a Military household and I grew up around the world, exposed to many different cultures and ethnicities in and outside the confines of Military life. When I lived in the south for the first time it was indeed a cultural shock, at the time I was a long haired Hippie Child that loved playing guitar and Blues music. I might as well have been black, racism was rampant, and if you loved “Nigger Music” or played it you got the wrath as well. I remember playing in a country band back in the early 1980’s and somebody came up to me and said, “I’ll bet you love to play that Nigger Blues, don’t you….” Seriously?

Job well done to the women of The Six Triple Eight and Major Charity Adams, and to Tyler Perry for bringing this story to the big screen. He was so inspired when Producer Nicole Avant contacted him about the story, he sought out any remaining members of The 6888th. The next day he flew out to Las Vegas where he spent time with Lena Derriecott King. There is a video Tyler Perry posted on his Instagram account with Lena. I think Mr. Perry and the cast did a tremendous job bringing their story to the big screen. Kerry Washington had my attention from the time she walked in the barracks for the first time. Absolutely riveting performance. Ebony Obsidian as Lena as well. All the women get my utmost respect, I salute The Six Triple Eight and The Cast of the movie. Bravo. Standing Ovation………………

There is a tremendous lesson to be learned from these brave women…….no matter what obstacle, how high, how formidable….you never, ever give up…and you hold your head high as you do what they say can’t be done.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

Napoleon

2023 Apple TV+

Rated : R

Length: 2 hr 38min

Action ~ Biography ~ Drama ~ Epic ~ History ~ War

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.

“People are driven by misery to revolution…..and brought back by revolution to misery.”

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Emperor of France. As the movie opens in 1793 amidst the French Revolution, Army officer Napoleon is watching the beheading of Marie Antoinette by the guillotine. He is soon offered the role of dealing with the British siege and driving the British ships out of the city’s Harbor. Being a skilled Army Officer with an astute knowledge of how to defeat and overcome the enemy, he studies the British and lays out a plan that succeeds. He is later charged with proving himself by being tasked with squashing the Royalists uprising. During the following celebrations of freedom after his success, a woman catches his eye and he can’t quit staring…………

Josephine De Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby) approaches him and asks him why he is staring. That is the beginning of their life-long romance story. She is an Aristocratic widow with two children and it is not long before Napoleon and Josephine are married. Napoleon quickly rises up the ranks of the new French Government and is put in charge of the Army and France’s new security in the world. Eventually Napoleon and fellow collaborators overthrow the new French Government disagreeing with their leadership and handling of France. Napoleon quickly rises up to become the Emperor of France.

All the while he is off fighting for France, he pines for Josephine and their tumultuous relationship and marriage, neither being faithful yet loving and missing each other. Josephine’s affairs draw attention from the press of the day and Napoleon is constantly ridiculed for his promiscuous wife. Adding to their troubles is her attempts at getting pregnant and not producing an heir for the throne of France. Eventually under the pressure of producing an heir Napoleon is forced to publicly divorce Josephine and marry a y0unger woman who can produce a son for the throne.

It is a mighty epic of a film chronicling:

The History of France from the time at the end of the French revolution in 1793 through the final exile of Napoleon in 1815 to the island of Saint Helena off of Africa.
The main historic battles that Napoleon led and fought during his lifetime.
The tumultuous and lifelong relationship and love between Napoleon and Josephine up until both of their deaths.

It is fairly long at 2 hours and 38 minutes but it passed very quickly for me as I became very engrossed in the story and the movie. The directors cut is three hours and 24 minutes. I almost wish I had watched it instead. Director Ridley Scott says that it better fleshes out the movie compared to the theatrical version. It is well shot, the battle scenes are very realistic, like you were back in those times sitting right in the middle of it all watching the fighting all around you. The costumes and scenery were well designed, again you feel like you were transported back to that time sitting right in the middle of history, observing.

Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby did an excellent job of portraying Napoleon and Josephine, I thought they were perfect. And Joaquin as the shrewd military man outwitting his opponents was a wonder to watch. I really liked the Battle of Austerlitz scene where Napoleon dresses as a peasant to survey the surroundings and the enemy forces. He comes up with this brilliant plan and sets up camp at the edge of a frozen lake. Recently covered with snow it is hidden. He lures the enemy forces in and then broadsides them on both sides, forcing them onto the frozen lake as the only means out. Once he has them trapped on the ice he bombards the ice and they are all doomed to a frozen eternity.

I thought it was really good, an excellent very Epic Historic and Biographical War drama. I think Ridley Scott outdid himself with this Epic Portrayal.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs up!

Civil War

2024 A24

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 49min

Action ~ War ~ Thriller

Directed by: Alex Garland

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman.

“Citizens of America…….The so-called Western Forces of Texas and California, and The People of The Florida Alliance have suffered a very grave defeat at the hands of The United States Military. They will be welcomed back to these United States as soon as their illegal secessionist government is deposed.”

Kirsten Dunst stars as Lee Smith, a renowned War Photojournalist and Wagner Moura stars as Joel, a Journalist from Florida. The two are in New York City covering the ongoing Civil War in America when Lee helps a young aspiring photojournalist named Jesse Cullen(Cailee Spaeny) who has been injured while covering a group of rioters.

Lee, Joel, Jesse and Lee’s Mentor Sammy(Stephen McKinley Henderson) plan to drive from New York City across I-80 to Pittsburgh to avoid the fighting south of the city and then southeast to Washington D.C. where the Western Forces and The Florida Alliance are set to converge. They plan to interview The President before The Western Forces and The Florida Alliance get there and try to overthrow the Government.

What follows is a cinematic look at Civil War in our country and the horrors the group of Photojournalists encounter along their journey to Washington D.C.. War is not pretty, it is humanity at it’s worst. And that is fully portrayed in this movie. It is two stories rolled into one. The Civil War in America between a third term President residing over an Authoritarian Government he has helped create, and the nineteen Secessionist states that make up The Western Forces of Texas and California and The Florida Alliance. And the story of war photojournalists and what they experience in the course of their work.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination unfortunately to see this film becoming a reality in The United States. It is graphic, again war isn’t pretty. “What’s so Civil about war, anyway?” It is thought provoking and it is a glimpse into a life I could never imagine living. Going into the middle of the chaos to document for the rest of the world to see, while knowingly putting yourself in grave danger.

I think it’s a great story and a great movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will watch it again.

Two thumbs up!