Cease Fire - 3D [Blu-ray]

I was twelve years old when Cease Fire came out in 1954. The Korean War had just ended, but it was still in the news and every school kid had heard of Panmunjom and the DMZ. At that time, I had seen almost every 3-D film released since Bwana Devil premiered in 1952, but I never saw Cease Fire. I think it was because I wasn't a big fan of war movies until I saw The Bridge on the River Kwai three years later and realized that a movie about war can be a great movie. But, great war films don't come along very often and I'm still not a big fan of them. For that reason, I only purchased Cease Fire to see the stereoscopic cinematography. I wasn't disappointed, because the 3-D is excellent! In spite of the difficulties of hauling the heavy Paravision 3-D camera rig over rough terrain in a war zone, this is some of the best black and white stereo photography I've ever seen in a motion picture. And, thanks to the excellent restoration by the talented folks at the 3dfilmarchive, Cease Fire probably looks as good, or better, today than it did when it was released in 1954. I've read some negative reviews about the acting in Cease Fire which are based on the fact that the soldiers in the film are not trained actors.  In my opinion, the acting is natural and the fact that these men are not slick Hollywood actors makes the film more authentic.  The stars of the film were actual combat soldiers on rest-leave.  They had recently been in combat and some of them went back to combat after they made this film.  You can't get any more authentic than that!  Ironically, in a case of life imitating art, a soldier who was killed in the film returned to combat and was killed in battle.  If you're interested in knowing more about that soldier's story, go to the 3d film archive and read about 19 year old Pfc Ricardo Carrasco who was such a "natural" in the film that he was offered a studio contract, but he elected to return to the fighting and was killed in battle on Pork Chop Hill.  It's interesting to see that when this film was made in 1953 the Army was integrated and a Black soldier is shown fighting alongside White soldiers in the film.  By 1953, the federal government had mandated that Black soldiers could fight next to White solders and give up their lives for their country, but it would take another ten years before the Federal Government defended the right of Black children in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Mississippi to attend public elementary and secondary schools with white students. I watched Cease Fire for the first time last night, and when I got caught up in the movie, I almost forgot I was watching 3-D. But occasionally, the film drops back to 2-D and then I really noticed that something drastic had happened. The film is not the same without 3-D, it's like watching a completely different movie. Fortunately, the 2-D segments are short and far between. It's too bad that the only way to experience real stereoscopic 3-D today is to buy films like Cease Fire that were made more than sixty years ago, because the films that are advertised today as 3-D are nothing but fake post-conversions that don't come close to the reality of true stereoscopic photography. I don't understand why studios would rather pay legions of computer artists to create fake 3-D today instead of just using twin cameras to capture true stereoscopic images. With a few notable exceptions, such as Avatar and Hugo, all the so-called 3-D films today are 3-D conversions. That makes as much sense to me as shooting all movies in black and white and then colorizing them in post production. I don't want to see some computer technician's idea of what the 3-D should look like, I want to see scenes filmed in real stereo 3-D the way I see life with my own two eyes. Due to 3-D post-conversion, my love affair with watching 3-D movies in theaters has ended and today I'm forced to buy classic 3-D films on Blu-ray if I want to see real 3-D. I'm grateful that there are people like Bob Furmanek who are devoted to restoring and preserving the classic stereoscopic films from the fifties. The major HDTV manufactures have stopped making affordable flat-screen 3-D TV sets, and when my six year old Samsung 60 inch 3-D plasma TV dies, or my 3-D Blu-ray player croaks, then I'll probably have to live out the remainder of my life without seeing real 3-D movies. But, I'll always have the Stereo Realist slides I took in the golden age of 3-D, back in the nineteen fifties.

The first time I ever saw CEASE FIRE, I was privileged to view it in two-strip Polaroid 3-D. This was in 2006, deep into World 3-D Film Expo II, when "festival fatigue" was bound to cloud my appreciation for any film, let alone one so unconventional in its way. I did not exactly fall in love with CEASE FIRE in that first viewing.Since then, I've seen the film twice in 2-D, once on cable television, once in streaming format. Neither encounter left a deep impression.But as so often happens-- as we have seen time and again with a whole range of films these past three years-- a proper 3-D presentation in comfortable viewing conditions makes all the difference in the world. From THE BUBBLE to GOG to THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE, films I was once prepared to brush aside have become permanent fixtures in my heart and in my imagination. And in CEASE FIRE, I think we can say the 3-D Film Archive and Kino Lorber have done it again.CEASE FIRE contrives to employ the filmmaking techniques of 1953 to capture some sense of what life was like for ordinary infantry soldiers in the field during the Korean War. The film has the guts to add one massive technical complication to the proceedings, namely stereoscopic 3-D. And that is what really makes the difference.It is not hard to find fault with CEASE FIRE, if one insists. In two dimensions on a small screen, one is made instantly and relentlessly aware that we are watching non-actors doing non-acting. But in stereo, the "You Are There" dynamic the filmmakers were aiming for comes fully into play. Three-D truly elevates the film into an experience that ordinary, planar cinema could never hope to achieve.I myself never had the privilege of serving my country in uniform, and I have certainly never tasted combat, but thanks to CEASE FIRE, I can claim to have peered through a magic window, down the better part of a century gone by, and looked over the shoulders of men at once revered and half-forgotten, the veterans of the Korean War. I have observed with my own two eyes the courage, the dedication, the hard and often thankless work of American and allied soldiers who were prepared to lay down their lives to preserve an independent South Korea, and to uphold at the cost of their own blood the ideal of individual liberty, the self-determination of peoples, and the defense of friendly nations.Let me add to all this my profound gratitude to Greg Kintz, Bob Furmanek, Jack Theakston, Thad Komorowski, and Eckhard Buttner, the valiant few who comprise the 3-D Film Archive, for their sterling work in bringing this unique and remarkable film back to life. I also commend Kino Lorber for their dedication to making films like this one available to the discerning collector and to new audiences.If you are a vintage film buff, a student of 20th-century history, a 3-D hound, or a little of all three, then CEASE FIRE on Blu-ray belongs in your collection today.

At least they made this movie, and it's almost a documentary. The UN-approved war didn't end with a whimper here, and we see it first hand from a group of those who actually almost made it through it at least: The fighting would end a short while after filming began according to descriptions of the film. Dying on the last day of this "police action" in Korea had to be on the minds of real infantry depicted and who act in _Cease Fire_.It also depicts various parties waiting for the cease fire, especially in Korea, such as the reporters, various levels of support at the time such as Naval, air, and artillery support of a "patrol" near the end of the 1950-1953 Forgotten War which to this day has no official peace, just a truce. It's also an interesting take on how they viewed it as another Civil War, a take I hadn't seen before. Actually, with the truce ending the conflict at the 38th parallel, it wasn't really a Korean civil war in the same sense as our Civil War, but the theme of our Civil War appears throughout the film.

"Cease Fire!" in 3-D tells the Korean War story of an infantry platoon selected to make a patrol to a nearby hill called "Red Top," while peace negotiations continue at Panmunjon. As the platoon nears the hill, the soldiers face mounting tensions, especially while navigating a field they know to be mined.This movie is a semi documentary, with real soldiers, on a real battlefield.While the movie was restored, film quality is uneven. Considering the location conditions, it's forgivable.The stereoscopic elements in this movie look good. The visual depth gives an enhanced sense of location.Oddly, at least three photo clips had no stereo depth at all, presumably due to needed continuity.

A rather ordinary Korean war flick. You'll have no trouble picking out who of the main characters won't make it back. However the 3d is really goodand it puts the lousy computer generated modern 3d to shame.

The acting is not the greatest but they used real army personnel for most of it.The 3D is quite good. It is a good restoration.

Person liked it.

Wasn't in 3D. I had to return it. Recommend buying the more expensive DVD of the same movie.

Wird in Europa angeboten OHNE den Hinweis, der beim Abspielen kommt:»INVALID REGION«.