Ahhhhh, remember that time America wanted to battle Nazis, not coddle them? Ahhhhh. Seems so refreshing … and so long ago. I truly wonder if films like this will -in our present age of dipshittery- get knocked for belittling Hitler and Nazis. Are we that far gone yet? I swear we can’t be too far away if we’re going to see backlash against a Reverend for pleading with Trump to behave like a Christian.
But I digress.
Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) was a model and a talented photographer who liked to attend topless blasé French tea parties on the lawn with “friends” when suddenly it turns out to be 1937 and something big was brewing in Europe. In a moment of deciding to participate in the world, Lee gets a job as a photographer for Vogue and quickly turns that role into “war correspondent.”
The problem, of course, is Lee Miller is a woman and women were not permitted under English norms to be war correspondents, at which point she conveniently remembered that she is also American, and we don’t give a crap about such things (so long as she isn’t black, of course … geez, sometimes America really sucks, huh?). Hence, Lee was able to trot happily off to France again in 1944 and get frontline battle interviews –which became a tad awkward. “Lady, would you mind shooting at the enemy instead of taking their picture?”
I saw this film on consecutive nights with The Six Triple Eight and it’s almost embarrassing how tame it makes the Tyler Perry picture look by comparison. Lee depicts a war of blood and explosion, a war in which a fearless unarmed
woman throws herself into crossfire just to get a winning shot or to keep a G.I. from raping a French woman. Maybe it’s not quite Saving Private Ryan, but it sure is war. I’m not quite sure what Tyler Perry shot.
That said, Lee is far from a perfect film. Lee herself is a difficult person to like, none of which is aided by the overall narrative of this older version of Lee being interviewed by her child. She comes off as cold and evasive when talking about her past … and while living in the past, she comes off as dogged and uncompromising – which were both ideal qualities for her work, but lousy qualities for our enjoyment. Also, the film has a real problem with the score failing to match the action on screen. Did Lee have a casting director for composer, because it needed one. I’m thinking Lee was worth seeing, but I give it no higher praise.
There was once a war journalist named Lee
Who went to France to see what she could see
Then she found Hitler’s bath
And earned Nazi wrath
For her mocking der Fuhrer with glee
Rated R, 117 Minutes
Director: Ellen Kuras
Writer: Liz Hannah, Marion Hume, John Collee
Genre: “How I spent WWII”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Feminists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Nazis
