Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

‘Red Cliff’: A striking Chinese film

Awhile ago one of the more astute grasshoppers recommended watching Red Cliff, a film by John Woo that came out a few years ago. When it arrived from Mr. Netflix I cooked up some chicken Penang curry, cracked open a Rolling Rock, and popped the DVD into the machine. My wife bailed after 10 minutes, ...

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Wikimedia
Wikimedia

Awhile ago one of the more astute grasshoppers recommended watching Red Cliff, a film by John Woo that came out a few years ago. When it arrived from Mr. Netflix I cooked up some chicken Penang curry, cracked open a Rolling Rock, and popped the DVD into the machine. My wife bailed after 10 minutes, but I enjoyed the whole nearly-three-hour shebang. I'd call it a Chinese David Lean's mix of Saving Private Ryan, Gone with the Wind, and Star Wars. Except with more battle scenes -- the last hour was just one big old firefight. (You'll see what I mean.)

Awhile ago one of the more astute grasshoppers recommended watching Red Cliff, a film by John Woo that came out a few years ago. When it arrived from Mr. Netflix I cooked up some chicken Penang curry, cracked open a Rolling Rock, and popped the DVD into the machine. My wife bailed after 10 minutes, but I enjoyed the whole nearly-three-hour shebang. I’d call it a Chinese David Lean’s mix of Saving Private Ryan, Gone with the Wind, and Star Wars. Except with more battle scenes — the last hour was just one big old firefight. (You’ll see what I mean.)

I’d thank the grasshopper in question but I can’t find the comment.

Just make sure you watch it with subtitles instead of the incompetent dubbing.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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