Green Energy
I know it's going to sound strange to say this, but, Roger Ebert is one of my favorite writers. So, when I wanted to read about United 93, I turned to him.
Here's an excerpt of his review:
It is not too soon for "United 93," because it is not a film that knows any time has passed since 9/11. The entire story, every detail, is told in the present tense. We know what they know when they know it, and nothing else. Nothing about Al Qaeda, nothing about Osama bin Laden, nothing about Afghanistan or Iraq, only events as they unfold.
This is a masterful and heartbreaking film, and it does honor to the memory of the victims. The director, Paul Greengrass, makes a deliberate effort to stay away from recognizable actors, and there is no attempt to portray the passengers or terrorists as people with histories. In most movies about doomed voyages, we meet a few key characters we'll be following: The newlyweds, the granny, the businessman, the man with a secret. Here there's none of that. What we know about the passengers on United 93 is exactly what we would know if we had been on the plane and sitting across from them: nothing, except for a few details of personal appearance.
There has been much discussion of the movie's trailer, and no wonder. It pieces together moments from "United 93" to make it seem more conventional, more like a thriller. Dialogue that seems absolutely realistic in context sounds, in the trailer, like sound bites and punch lines. To watch the trailer is to sense the movie that Greengrass did not make. To watch "United 93" is to be confronted with the grim chaotic reality of that autumn day in 2001. The movie is deeply disturbing, and some people may have to leave the theater. But it would have been much more disturbing if Greengrass had made it in a conventional way.
He does not exploit, he draws no conclusions, he points no fingers, he avoids "human interest" and "personal dramas" and just simply watches. The movie's point of view reminds me of the angels in "Wings of Desire." They see what people do and they are saddened, but they cannot intervene.
Now, that sounds like exactly the movie I would have wanted them to make.
Read the rest.
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Green Energy
United 93
I know it's going to sound strange to say this, but, Roger Ebert is one of my favorite writers. So, when I wanted to read about United 93, I turned to him.
Here's an excerpt of his review:
It is not too soon for "United 93," because it is not a film that knows any time has passed since 9/11. The entire story, every detail, is told in the present tense. We know what they know when they know it, and nothing else. Nothing about Al Qaeda, nothing about Osama bin Laden, nothing about Afghanistan or Iraq, only events as they unfold.
This is a masterful and heartbreaking film, and it does honor to the memory of the victims. The director, Paul Greengrass, makes a deliberate effort to stay away from recognizable actors, and there is no attempt to portray the passengers or terrorists as people with histories. In most movies about doomed voyages, we meet a few key characters we'll be following: The newlyweds, the granny, the businessman, the man with a secret. Here there's none of that. What we know about the passengers on United 93 is exactly what we would know if we had been on the plane and sitting across from them: nothing, except for a few details of personal appearance.
There has been much discussion of the movie's trailer, and no wonder. It pieces together moments from "United 93" to make it seem more conventional, more like a thriller. Dialogue that seems absolutely realistic in context sounds, in the trailer, like sound bites and punch lines. To watch the trailer is to sense the movie that Greengrass did not make. To watch "United 93" is to be confronted with the grim chaotic reality of that autumn day in 2001. The movie is deeply disturbing, and some people may have to leave the theater. But it would have been much more disturbing if Greengrass had made it in a conventional way.
He does not exploit, he draws no conclusions, he points no fingers, he avoids "human interest" and "personal dramas" and just simply watches. The movie's point of view reminds me of the angels in "Wings of Desire." They see what people do and they are saddened, but they cannot intervene.
Now, that sounds like exactly the movie I would have wanted them to make.
Read the rest.
- "honor Diaries" Is A Good Recruiting Tool
Many of us find it difficult to talk to people about Islamic doctrine and Sharia law. Some people resist listening to us or accepting what we say. A new film, first screened last fall at the Chicago International Film Festival — Honor...
- Act Of Valor -- Opinion?
Waddup peeps! Long time, no see! Anyway, I just watched this movie and I thought it was A-mayy-zing! They portrayed things accurately and well, I just didn't expect a movie to do that anymore. Here's the making of/trailer. I'd like to know...
- Inglorious Basterds
A band of eight Jewish special ops guys torture and kill Nazis. Yes! "We're going to be cruel to the Germans, and through the evidence of our cruelty, they will know who we are." I can't wait to see this movie. Tarantino has told interviewers...
- Strange, But Not A Total Surprise
From this article in the October 5, 2007 edition of the Washington Post: On a dusty street in south Kabul that still bears the scars of three decades of fighting, a 12-year-old boy is living the next chapter of "The Kite Runner," the best-selling book...
- Finally Seeing "united 93"
I don't recall ever being so shaken up by a film, though even watching the History Channel's hour-long special about Flight 11 was a real shake-up when I saw it a week ago. I went to the movie alone, and many others in the audience were similarly...