Lives brought into focus
Mystic River
Stars Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Rated MA.
Reviewer :: Pte John Wellfare

Clint Eastwood's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel uses a lot of close ups; the camera focuses right in on an actor's face, which is where the action is in this gritty story of three men who each have individual problems and a shared demon in their past.

Blind justice and fine art
Dare Devil
Stars Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner. Rated PG. From RedBack DVD
Reviewer :: Lt Simone Heyer

Unfortunately I watched Dare Devil after watching a movie of substance and depth. In comparison, DD falls disappointingly short.

Consuning passions
Paradise Found
Keifer Sutherland, Allun Armstrong, Natassja Kinski, Rated M15+. Magna Pacific.
Reviewer :: Lt Simone Heyer

Paul Gauguin (Sutherland) is a successful stockbroker and his family live in 1880s opulence until his passion for buying paintings from a roadside artist, Camille Pissarro (Armstrong), causes him to change his life.

Sporting chance for all
Australia may have missed taking the prize at the World Cup, but Army has the goods with a set of four sporting books to give away courtesy of publishers Random House.

Plot to kill the Führer
Killing Hitler

Screens SBS on December 14 and 21 at 7.30pm
Reviewer: Paul Cross

Bombs, poison or snipers - the means are limitless but the opportunities rare as the Special Operations Executive (SOE) plans the assassination of Adolf Hitler in late 1944 and the chance to bring the war to a speedy end.

Using a combination of dramatisation, historic footage, interviews with SOE veterans and a round-table of British military academics and experts, Killing Hitler takes an indepth look at Operation Foxely, the SOE initiative begun on June 6, 1944, as the D-day invasion began its roll across France.

Killing Hitler not only looks at the physical aspects of undertaking a political murder but also the ethical and consequential aspects, amply illustrated by the killing of Reinhardt Heydrich, the Nazi security service chief, in 1942, and the reprisals that followed and the Von Stauffenburg attempt on Hitler's life in 1944.

Killing Hitler is a well presented docu-drama on a subject that has not been deeply explored on recent television.It is finely tuned, although one of the dramatic passages, used and reused, becomes a little laboured after the fourth time around.

This is well worth the look for those interested in one of the lesser known facets of World War II.