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Week Of May 24, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri
May 24, 2006
Two political films are heading into the marketplace soon, one actually today. And it's kind of unfortunate that neither film is, I think, quite going to hit its mark.
Today's release is An Inconvenient Truth. And here is an inconvenient truth for Paramount Vantage and the filmmakers… no matter how much generosity critics and activists show this movie, it is still a boring slideshow by a boring speaker and no matter how many cool graphics are included, it's still a boring movie.
Did you hear the one about global warming?
It's happening.
And now, ladies and gents, you can send the $8 - $14 you were going to spend on the movie to "Uncle Dave Explains It All."
Or, if you want to be a lot more proactive, go out and buy The Book Of The Movie, which is really The Book of The Slideshow, which has the same title as the movie, is written by Al Gore and is published by Rodale and Melcher Media for just $21.95 US/ $28.95 CAN. I actually quite like the book, which was given to me in the goodie bag at the premiere last Monday. It has all the information of the movie and none of the trying to stay awake as Gore strains to be charming.
Sorry, but that's the way it is. Castor Oil is good for you (I hope), but that doesn't make it taste any better. McDonald's is bad for you, but that doesn't make a large order of fries hot out of the animal fat any less delicious.
I'm sure Al Gore is a nice guy. He is clearly a smart man. And he is willing to let Saturday Night Live writers make him appear to be funny. (I'm sure he and Clinton laughed and laughed in the Oval Office at the sound of farts, as most men do.) And thank God he doesn't find his own jokes hysterically funny the way that George W does.
But as a movie star, he's a screenwriter.
Actually, most of the screenwriters I know, however eccentric, have more personality than the former Vice President.
There is no judgment of Davis Guggenheim possible here. He's basically a TV director and this film feels like it was pretty much assembled, not directed. But that is the nature of the thing. It is a slideshow writ large.
The marketing has done an excellent job of making it look like it's a real movie. But even Michael Moore's weakest effort had more umph than this thing. It isn't Super Size Me or and Mad Hot Ballroom or Street Fight or most likely as worth your time as any of the 20 plus docs that are about to roll out at the Los Angeles Film Fest or Seattle or even your local art house.
If it catches the hype wave, which it is riding high on, just right, it could be the highest grossing doc of the year… at $6 million or $7 million.
For kids in school, it will be better than a slide show and they all should see it. I would happily encourage anyone who wants or needs a lesson in global warming to see this contraption. But it just isn't a movie.
The Road To Guantanamo is most definitely a movie.
Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross (who worked with Winterbottom in various roles on his last three films) know how to make a movie with style, even if the style is rough-hewn.
The real-life story of four friends who head out of England for Pakistan on September 19, 2001…
And I am a little lost right there.
As the film continues, the loss of context will become one of the themes of the film. But right from the start, this is a movie about four guys who leave England, where they were citizens, to go to Pakistan… eight days after 9/11. Uhhhh…
I don't know if the title The Road To Guantanamo is meant to recall the Hope/Crosby road movies. When I was in the theater, I doubted it. But in retrospect, it would make a lot of sense. Other titles I might have considered include "Dude, Where's My Lawyer," "Harold & Kumar & Shafiq Go To The War Zone," or "There's Something About Martyrs." Because from the get go, these guys make every stupid choice possible.
Thing is, Winterbottom & Whitecross first present the film without real clarification, so we are not completely sure, what is going on. By the 15 minute mark, I seems apparent that they are combining talking heads and recreations, much as Touching The Void did. It's beautifully shot, in the down and dirty handheld style, and it has great energy, but without any voice of authority via the filmmakers, the mind begins to wander.
Who are these fools who can't seem to get anything right, seem like they are as mentally lost as they are physically, and talk endlessly about the size of the naan in Afghanistan? Oh yes… and where is the one place stupider to be headed that Pakistan a week after 9/11? Afghanistan. But for all the goofy traveloguing, there is not a single word about 9/11. And while I can accept that not everyone in the world was nearly as preoccupied by the World Trade Center attack as we were, these are British citizens, who were home when it happened. And if they didn't see it on TV and discuss it, they are almost too idiotic and disconnected from the realities of their world to consider. More importantly, for Winterbottom and Whitecross not to acknowledge it seems, at the very least, willful, and more likely, incredibly manipulative.
You spend pretty much the full first act of the film with these guys trying to figure out where they are going. When they get to Kabhul, Afghanistan, American bombs are dropping. So what do they do? Well, they pay someone to take them back to Pakistan… but they end up in a Taliban stronghold in Konduz. Duh! Eventually, they are rounded up, put into a truck with no air… which is alleviated by bullets. I don't see an American uniform until about the hour mark.
This starts the imprisonment and torture phase, which lasts for more than two years, when they are finally released back home in England.
The idea of this movie, in many ways, reminds me of Midnight Express. That film is quite brilliant and at its heart is a man who gets himself in trouble. He has no one to blame. And yet, the punishment is well beyond the crime… at least in our society's viewpoint. The three guys in The Road To Gunatanamo who end up in America's temporary facility at Guantanamo - which has been built and rebuilt and still operates almost five years later - also have themselves to blame in many ways. Wrong place, wrong time. But they also have minor criminal records and they lie to the authorities a number of times for a number of reasons. The filmmakers don't shirk these facts. However, unlike Midnight Express, they don't get too much into the evolution of these men in this political prison.
The movie is so clear about its statement that The Alliance and then The Americans are not just wrong, but almost willfully wrong, that for me, I felt like I was being oversold. There is a moment when one of the three guys, interviewed in real life, talks about how long a particular tactic is being used. And somehow, as he talks, it goes from an hour to three hours to 6 hours or more. (Please forgive me for, perhaps, being off on those numbers… the film may have different numbers of hours, but the idea is true to what I saw in the film.) And to me, given that he is already the Sean William Scott of 9/11 prison torture films, that makes me suspicious. And again, details like that appear to come only from these guys and no attempt at context or verification are offered. Maybe the worst answer is the true answer. But in a film that is relentlessly signaling to us how gentle and kind these guys are and how evil the people running the prison are, I am not willing to just make that leap blindly.
Don't get me wrong. There is no good answer to years of incorrect imprisonment, even if you have put yourselves in the middle of a war zone by dumb luck, lied about your nationality, and your criminal record.
And I would be completely supportive of the film and with Winterbottom and Whitecross if they didn't seem to be pulling a fast one as they keep pounding away. If the manipulation had the purpose of causing the audience to feel one way only to spin the wheel and to force the audience to think about what their quick reactions are, okay, I'm good with that. If the manipulation ever felt like it was willing to concede that there was cause for paranoia that led to this prison and other dumb moves, that would work for me.
I don't see what these guys were up to if it wasn't meant to be as straightforward as it felt to me. There is no question how smart the filmmaking is. But is it any more honest than the government that built the prison in Guantanamo and continues to hold people without charges for years on end? Hard to say.
But hey… at least it wasn't boring.
E Me: Has a doc ever changed your life?
Week Of April 3, 2006 - Life In the Bubble - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 10, 2006 - List Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 17, 2006 - Review Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of April 24, 2006 - Overlooked Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 1, 2006 - Mystery Week - Tue / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 8, 2006 - How We Watch Week - Mon / Wed / Fri
Week Of May 22, 2006 - Premature Week - Oscar Mon / Wed / Fri
