KSL Movie Show review: ‘Lee’ leaves a lot beneath the surface
Sep 27, 2024, 6:00 AM
"Lee" features a flawless performance by Kate Winslet, who portrays real-life photojournalist Lee Miller.
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SALT LAKE CITY — I know this is going to sound weird, but this biopic “Lee” reminds me of an iceberg. Cold and inflexible on the surface, but underneath is filled with buckets of memories with little to no context to give them the rich depth they deserve.
Lee Miller — played by the always amazing Kate Winslet —was a free spirit.
We learn she was a photojournalist for Vogue in Paris, who got tired of fashion shoots and celebrity profiles and set out to create photographic evidence of World War II’s European theatre, along with her good friend David E. Scherman (Andy Samberg – yes the funny guy) who worked for Life Magazine.
The two were embedded with the 83rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army as it fought along the front lines.
Lee became the first female photojournalist allowed in, much to the chagrin of the military brass, who finally just gave up.
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She was the first to photograph the liberation of Paris and everyone was thrilled that the war was finally over. But she had her doubts.
Her next assignment was the small village of Saint-Malo, which was supposed to be cleared of warfare. It was not.
In fact, Lee captures one of the first uses of napalm on film there. The U.S. Army had no idea what it was. They soon learned of its horrifying effects.
She entered hospitals in Normandy, against protocol, and took graphic pictures of surgeries. But she also made personal connections with severely injured soldiers who asked her to take their pictures so people could see firsthand the realities of war.
Soon after, she was one of the first photographers at the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, witnessing trainloads of dead bodies that were left when the Nazis retreated.
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You will notice in the closing credits if you stick around, how detailed the reenactments are based on Lee’s actual photographs. One, in particular, is when Lee and David enter a well-apportioned Munich apartment with a bunch of U.S. soldiers lingering around.
Strangely, Lee decides to take a bath there with a photo of Adolf Hitler in the background and her muddy boots from Dachau staining the white bath rug. She makes David take the picture.
Turns out, it was one of her most iconic since it was actually Hitler’s bathroom.
Yet, no mention is made of it then. Nor the fact that Lee slept in Eva Braun’s bed that same night.
This was April 30, 1945 — the same day Hitler and Eva died by suicide.
All these things I later discovered, having watched the movie and wondered if there was more to the story. Uh, yeah, a ton of stuff!
So while I appreciated Kate Winslet’s flawless and unapologetic performance, I was surprised to learn that there was so much more beneath the surface that would have made this an even more compelling movie.
