Search - Their Finest on DVD

Samuel K. (Solvanda)
Reviewed on 9/27/2018...

BBC Films movie, who have been releasing a good handful of quality flicks each year since they were established in 1990. Their Finest is a film which defies categorization as there are so many busy little things going on inside it. It is much about the interconnectedness of people and how they carry on with dignity through difficulties. There's quite a few details which are several times described as "the rancid curds of wartime." Also much about how important films as well as art were during these times, especially for propaganda. 30 million people in Britain and 90 million in the U.S. were visiting the film theatres every weekend during WWII. This is also another piece which addresses what women were up to during wartime, and that the men were concerned they wouldn't go back into their little boxes when the war was done. A couple other outstanding series which address this topic are 'Lilies' and 'Bletchley Circle'. Most of all, to me, this was a film about a Welsh girl finding her passion in life and following through despite difficulties; and also a man finding his emotional coherence.

There are more than a few quotable bits here. One I thought an interesting observation was this quote from the American distributor of the British film they are shooting: "American picture-goers like to be knocked off their feet. Bangs, crashes, ambulances careening around corners. The same goes for romance. What you call understatement translates as a lack of oomph." One could certainly argue that this is indeed the case even more so today. Strangely enough, even though Their Finest is loaded with the usual British understatement, the body count itself ends up being quite high, if you take the time to notice.

My cat watched this with me for about the first half hour, but then decided to sleep in a bit more after a dog nicknamed 'Cerberus' appeared onscreen. I enjoyed one particular scene here where they are eating British chips served in the traditional pages of a newspaper. BTW, those chips are much larger than the usual. Americans would most likely call them steak fries. The key to the British ones is to parboil them until almost ready to start falling apart. Then deep fry in beef tallow until golden brown. I also learned in this film about Rugelach (A light, flaky Jewish pastry) and Kogel Mogel (A dessert which resembles thickened eggnog.)

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