Movie Review: Lee

The new movie "Lee" is about World War II correspondent and photographer Lee Miller, and stars Kate Winslet. My first impression about this above-average movie about World War II and the dangers of covering a war by a civilian is that the chain-smoking throughout this film, by Lee Miller was way overdone. The world knows that smoking was constant and most common during all the years until the time when the Surgeon General declared that cigarettes cause different kinds of Cancer in 1964. However, this level of constant smoking was not necessary just to show that this bad habit was prevalent during World War II. Lee Miller did in fact die at age 70 of lung Cancer in 1977 at the age of 70. If she smoked as much as she did in this movie, it's amazing she lived as long as she did.

As far as this film, it is well done and well acted by Winslet who has several scenes that could be considered worthy of Academy Award recognition. However, with ratings as low as 63%, on Rotten Tomatoes it is unlikely either the film or Winslet will receive any nominations. This film did a good but not great job of showing the insanity of a civilian with no training or a weapon who runs around taking pictures during a battle. In World War II, no less than 127 war correspondents were killed. Why this practice of putting civilians in harm's way during a war for a story, picture, or video, is baffling, considering the safe workarounds of putting cameras on war equipment or even on the helmet of a trained soldier. We do not need a civilian standing in front of a tank while a bomb goes off, to know that there is a war going on.

One big surprise in this serious drama is the appearance of comedic actor Andy Samberg, who has a serious role as Lee Miller's friend during the war. His acting was very well done, and believable despite his many years of doing nothing but comedy.

I thought the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film were too low 63%, with my rating about 75% and a mild recommendation.