Word: bettering
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Marcia Gauger, has yet to enjoy the modest liberalization that is occurring in China itself. Though their situation is improving slightly, Tibetans "are not at all happy. They practically remain prisoners. The Chinese are not yet matured fully" in their religious policy. Conditions for Buddhists, he noted, are far better in the Soviet Union and its satellite Mongolia, two nations he visited last June...
...film's Dutch makers do occasionally bring to it a certain intensity, arising from still lively feelings about the wartime behavior of their fellow countrymen. Better yet, the movie is based on an autobiographical novel by Erik Hazelhoff, a Resistance hero now living in Hawaii. Hazelhoff escaped occupied Holland to join the Free Dutch forces operating out of England. He returned on an ill-fated mission to rescue some political leaders and later became an R.A.F. bomber pilot. As played by Rutger Hauer, he is an engagingly unmilitary figure, peering nearsightedly through rimless glasses at a once comfortable world...
...stronger melodramatic payoffs. It is the sort of thing storytellers invent but reality rarely provides; the sort of thing that makes even silly efforts like Force 10 from Navarone or the recent Hanover Street seem mildly exciting. Something simpler, more documentary in manner would have suited Soldier of Orange better. As it stands, the movie is unsatisfying, both as action entertainment and as a serious study of people under the pressure of oppression...
What if Little Nell doesn't die? What if nothing much happens to her? Nell had better be unusually charming, that's what. The feeling here is that Peppermint Soda, a film about an uneventful year in the life of two young Parisian sisters, wavers back and forth across an awkward boundary: sometimes it is just barely charming enough, and sometimes it almost charms, but not quite...
...American way is blessed in the end--family, competition, team spirit, college and friendship--all are affirmed in Dave's final victory. Yates creates just enough ambivalence to stop short of cuteness, but he knows better than to drop the full weight of the heavy hand of Social Conscience on Breaking Away. He pushes ahead to an upbeat finish...