Donovan's Reef 4K 1963

The war is over. But the plume remains. What can veterans do now? Will they go to parades and sing war songs, write memoirs and brag about their military merits? Perhaps, yes. But the people in front of us are from a completely different background. They have been through a lot and appreciate peace of mind. But it is difficult for them to combine all this with a permanent need for adrenaline. Therefore, these tough guys once a year get drunk and beat each other unconscious.

That's the way it is. Good thing they're enjoying the world they fought for. Hawaiian realities suit them most of all and somewhere in the middle of the film you realize that only Elvis Presley with his expressive guitar is missing. The aesthetics are obvious. There will be no murders and chases, intrigues and dragons. Well, and the love gambit will be resolved somehow by itself - the girl herself will unobtrusively talk about marriage, and then will be forced to accept a comical spanking in the fountain from Wayne.

Such ‘manly’ movies are not uncommon for America. But as the years go by, it gets shallower. Here, for example, tapes of the eighties will be filled with nervous talk, constant worry. And Wayne and Lee Marvin expressed the tone of a part of that generation - real tough guys who valued a quiet life and could find a use for it. It's no coincidence that I brought up the eighties - they revived the parodic deconstruction of the masculine hero in infospace, completely leveling his entire essence. All the more important is ‘Donovan's Reef’, whose characters are so far removed from the realities of consumer society.

And the coolest thing about this movie is that Ford even glimpses the theme of war, which meanwhile is present in every storyline. By eschewing the gaudy military pathos, John Ford achieves the right effect in assessing the importance of the past. Deep, simple and heartfelt.