December

December

Category: (DVD)

31 new, starting at $3.59

13 used, starting at $1.98

Buy Now

Editorial Reviews

Four boys at a prep school are faced with the possibilities of going to war after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 1-AUG-2006
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Historical Myopia!

Reviewed by CHRISTIAN DEJOHN, 2010-03-01


While it's healthy to be reminded that many (most, actually) Americans in late 1941 were opposed to entering World War two, this film displays a breathtaking sense of historical myopia. It makes much, rightly, of the emotional impact of Dalton Trumbo's pacifistic propoganda diatribe "Johnny Got His Gun" on the Will Wheaton character.

But as John Adams liked to say, "Facts are stubborn things." Mr. Trumbo was a militant Communist pushing an agenda. In the years leading up to World War Two, and after it began in 1939, Communists the world over (including in America) were ordered by Stalin to oppose the war and to oppose fighting Nazism- because to fight Hitler would help capitalist societies like Britain and France, then fighting for survival against Nazism. While ordering world-wide opposition to military preparedness ("militarism")to fight Hitler, Stalin was actually making back-door deals with Hitler to carve up Poland and other eastern European states. With breathtaking but typical Communist hypocrisy, when Russia was invaded by Hitler in June, 1941, Stlain ordered the world's Communists to agitate aggressively for a "Second Front Now," to releive Russia. War in defense of Poland, Britain, and France, according to Stalin and his sadly misguided Western followers like Mr. Trumbo, was senseless tragedy- but war to defend Stalins' regime was a morla imperitive- hence the hypocrisy of Mr. Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun," that inspires the Will Wheaton character to oppose avenging Pearl Harbor.

None of this historical context of late 1941 is remotely mentioned in "December," although when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the brutal fighting in Russia, invlving millions of men, had been going on for six months after Hitler's invasion of Russia. The teenage boys in this film speak familarly about "Pearl-" a place most Americans had never heard of and couldn't find on the map in late 1941, yet they are presumably totally ignorant of massive battles involving millions taking place on the steppes of Russia that began six months before Pearl Harbor!

One waits in vain for long-haired (his hairstyle is more 1967 Berkeley hippy than 1941 New England prep school) sensitive young pacifist Will Wheaton, who is filled with horror at the idea of signing up to defend American interest, to ask- as millions of honest Americans asked in late 1941 and throughout the war- "If it's wrong to fight to defend America against Nazi and Japanese aggression, where's the right in fighting and dying to support Stalinism, and Soviet Communist aggression-" which the US did, prolonging the life of the abhorrent Soviet Empire for another half-century. This was the very real confusion young men faced in 1941.

If this film was emotionally honest- as well as historically, contextually accurate- it would have made a far better story by putting the boys' moral dillemma in true perspective, including Dalton Trumbo's ideological orientation and motives behind writing the blatantly propogandistic "Johnny Got His Gun," and the tragedy and hypocrisy of American boys fithing and dying to prolong Stalinism.

Since it was filmed where I went to colllege

Reviewed by S. Clement, 2009-12-14

that was the only reason I got this movie. It's an alright movie, but not one I'd watch over and over again.

Be Forewarned

Reviewed by Tammy L Matern, 2009-03-06

This may be a great movie. It may not. I never found out because about 20 minutes into it the extreme profanity forced me to turn it off.
It is unlikely that five seemingly respectable young men in a high-end prep school in 1941 would swear so flippantly and constantly as these young men do. I think it was very unnecessary for the screen-writers to incorporate such language and tarnish a potentially good movie.

But, if you can stomach d-, h-, sh- and the like about every 15 seconds, by all means. Watch this movie. It might be an otherwise great movie depicting the civilian reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but be forewarned, it is NOT a family movie, and it does NOT deserve the PG rating.

Not everyone went to War on December 7,1941

Reviewed by KerrLines, 2007-06-21

DECEMBER is a fairly straightforward look at five New Hampshire Prep school chums who on a single night have to make a decision that for some is as easy as pie and for others is as terrifying as can be.Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor.The date is December 7,!941.Within minutes boys and men all over the U.S altered all of their plans for life and immediately entered the War effort (or so it is often portrayed!!!). DECEMBER takes a different approach; not everyone is gung-ho. DECEMBER examines how each boy feels about their prospects and motivations for entering WW2.

The problem with DECEMBER is that it is so centered on being a character study that it comes off more like a play for the stage.( Frankly, I think this film would have made a TERRIFIC stage play!). As a film, though, it is extremely claustrophobic, taking place in a dorm room, and the dialogue gets rather stale and tedious. In fact, I was squirming due to the lack of anything riveting to propel ANY action forward.What DECEMBER, though, does do well is to present the fact that not everyone in 1941 America was ready to drop everything to be a "hero." This, in itself, was refeshing enough to stand one viewing.

NOTE: the ONLY thing that DECEMBER has in common with DEAD POET'S SOCIETY or THE EMPEROR'S CLUB or HISTORY BOY'S is that it is filmed at a Prep School!!!

Neopatriotism in a War Film

Reviewed by Celia A. Escalante, 2007-04-15

I wish we had more movies like these. It's a movie based on a tragic event that happened decades ago, but with a modern inflection. Unlike, the agitprop trying to be charmed into mainstream, this film is democratically correct. Cinematographically, it's studio style is commensurable with the emotional tone or "mise en scene" of German psychological thrillers, yet the storyline's characteristics are in tune with American philosophic points of view, as far as Western Civilizations goes. At first, I wasn't enjoying the film, but then surprising scenes made me stop and think. Now, I'm watching it every chance I get. (It's had a fecund affect on me.) There is a sense of diplomacy and comprehension that unfortunately skips a generation. This movie builds; not destroys. You have to see the movie up to the very end to understand how sound the moral is. It decently portrays man as a fully rational being. If it weren't for the profanity, I'd say that this film is adherent to the Logos.