Wow here it is the second weekly This Weekend’s Film Festival. I never know how difficult it will be to get around to a regular column on Rick’s Flicks Picks, but I’m at least two for two. Like last week, I’m building this week’s theme around film(s) newly released on DVD. Two of my favorite from 2006 arrived on DVD yesterday — LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA and APOCALYPTO. They’re completely different films, but I’ve found some interesting companion pieces for the lineup that will pull this week’s festival all together.

The Friday night, opening night film, WE WERE SOLDIERS, ties together the two films in the obvious themes of war and Mel Gibson. The APOCALYPTO director stars in this Vietnam war film, which like the companion pieces of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA looks at both sides of a single battle. Another similarity is that SOLDIERS looks at the affects of war at home like FLAGS. America “wins” in both SOLDIERS and FLAGS/LETTERS, however America far outnumbers the Japanese in the latter while America is the underdog in the former film. It’s an interesting contrast to look at the unflinching way all three films deal with war and the uncertainty of it all. How does being outnumbered feel when you win in the end versus losing in the end? How is battle different yet the same when decades separate the battles of World War II and Vietnam? While SOLDIERS may be more flag waving than Clint Eastwood’s two epic movies, the three films all share an even handed tone that never undermines the complexity of human conflict during war. If you want to learn more about this film, read my original review.

The most logical follow-up to WE ARE SOLDIERS is a back-to-back screening of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. Though FLAGS is a flawed film compared to LETTERS, I’m sure seeing them back-to-back will open up nuances and details that were missed when watching the films as solo efforts. The best part of FLAGS is when it deals with the way the U.S. government uses the flag raising at Iwo Jima as a propaganda campaign. Manufactured heroes come out of every conflict, but FLAGS is the only film that I know that deals with the issues so fully and powerfully. The emotional toll that is plays on the soldiers that survived is intriguing. Survivor’s guilt is something that connects all three of these films. See my full thoughts on FLAGS, here.

I look forward to seeing Eastwood’s monumental achievement, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, next it cosmic brother FLAGS. I was struck by many of the crossover moments while watching LETTERS the first time, even though it had been months since I saw FLAGS. Together, the full scope of what Eastwood was trying to accomplish will most certainly reveal itself more fully. I’m curious to see whether my opinion of FLAGS will change once I see the two pieces together. That being said, I believe Eastwood does an amazing job of creating two unique films that can be watched and fully appreciated on their own, but get better having seen the other point of view presented in the companion film. An interesting contrast to play attention to should be seeing how LETTERS presents its underdog leader General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (played masterfully by Ken Watanabe) in defeat compared to the way SOLDIERS presents its underdog leader Lt. Col. Hal Moore (powerfully played by Gibson) in victory. By reading my original review of LETTERS, you can get a fuller view of what I thought of the film.

So how do I connect three war films to a picture about a Mayan villager on the run through the jungle from a group of angry warriors? How about a Vietnam era film, which puts average guys on the run through the forest from a group of angry rednecks? Yep, it’s every man’s nightmare outdoor outing film — DELIVERANCE. Plotwise, DELIVERANCE and APOCALYPTO are similar. Under equipped man/men must race through a hostile environment to survive. As for a link to war, every frame of DELIVERANCE smells of the stench of the Vietnam War. From its gritty look to the moral ambiguity of its story, DELIVERANCE is very much about its era without being “about its era.” See how Jon Voight’s everyman must rise to the occasion much like Jaguar Paw does in Mel Gibson’s Mayan epic. In addition, there are similar moments of bravado and revenge from Jaguar Paw that echo Burt Reynolds’ Lewis Medlock in DELIVERANCE. Find out what else makes DELIVERENCE so great in my original review from 2003.

Closing out the second This Weekend Film Festival is of course Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO. This film is easily the best straight out action/adventure film of 2006. Some of the plot points will be familiar, but this world is like none other captured on screen before. It’s the unique setting and compelling characters that drive this story. A “ticking clock” device is very common for action flicks, but Gibson finds a thoroughly gripping new one for this film. It’s as unique and innovative as the dwindling champagne bottles in Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS. This is an adrenaline pumping experience whose beautiful cinematography will leave you wide-eyed. It’s surprising that two of the best foreign language films of 2006 were made by English-speaking Americans. Find out my thoughts on how the Mayan language works in the film in my original review.

So those are the five films in this week’s lineup. Hopefully, these films serve as an enlightening and entertaining group of movies as you celebrate Memorial Day. Adjust your Netflix queue for LETTERS, FLAGS and APOCALYPTO and you can do the same for WE WERE SOLDIERS and DELIVERANCE or else check Zap2It.com to see if either of the films are playing on TV channels you receive.