The Pianist

Pianist’s key to survival
Stars Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman and Ed Stoppard. Rated MA.

Reviewer: Pte Simone Heyer

DO YOU love anything so much that it could bring you through the most difficult time in the lives of you and your family?

Wladyslaw Szpilman loved music, the sound that his fingers made on piano keys coursed through his body like blood.

Last Orders
Stars Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. Columbia TriStar. Rated M. 106 mins.
Reviewer: Ben Caddaye

On paper, Last Orders has all the ingredients of a quality film – an outstanding cast, a solid storyline and a classy director.
With actors of the calibre of Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren in front of the camera and one of the world’s finest directors in Australian Fred Schepisi behind the lens, Last Orders had to be a quality piece of cinema – and it is.

When Human Voice Wake Us
Dreams become a reality
Stars: Helena Bonham-Carter and Guy Pearce. Madman productions. Rated M. 149 mins.
Reviewer: Pte Simone Heyer

Dr Sam Frank doesn’t dream. He explains this away, saying the subconscious prevents mind analysts from dreaming to hide their true character.

East Wind Rain
The pictorial history of the Pearl Harbor Attack

By Stan Cohen. Pictorial Histories Publishing Company. 298pp. $38.50.
Reviewer :: Cpl Jonathon Garland

The attack by Japan on Pearl Harbour was a turning point of WW2 and remains one of the memorable military actions of modern history.

This book, in the author’s words, doesn’t seek to uncover anything new but to present the most comprehensive collection of pictures in print.

And there are lots of them.

The hero of Anzac Cove
John Simpson Kirkpatrick: The Man with the Donkey
Friday, April 25, on SBS at 8.30pm.
Reviewer: Ben Caddaye
In the early 1900s, a young Englishman named John Simpson Kirkpatrick jumped ship from the British steamer he was working on as it docked at Newcastle in NSW.
Soon after his arrival he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and would go on to become one our greatest ever war heroes.
To this day, the tale of Simpson and his donkey is synonymous with the bravery, character and heroics of our Anzac soldiers and typifies, perhaps more than any other story, the Aussie fighting spirit.
Shovelling coal into the engines of British steamers had turned the young lad from South Shields in England into an extremely fit, powerful man.
So when he joined the Army, his strength made him an obvious choice as a stretcher-bearer in the 3rd Field Ambulance division of the Australian Army Medical Corps.
On that fateful day in April 1915, a day we now celebrate as Anzac Day, Private John Simpson, with the help of a stray donkey, is credited with saving the lives of many Allied soldiers wounded in the bloody battle at Anzac Cove.
This documentary, though, is about much more then Simpson and his donkey – it’s a fascinating yarn that many Australians will find fills in the gaps of one of the most significant days in our history and one of our best known military heroes.
Compulsory viewing this Anzac Day.