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Journal Archive
Tuesday
Jun212011

The Human Stain

This movie has been criticized on the grounds that it’s miscast and that Philip Roth’s work doesn’t readily lend itself to film translation.   However, I think this adaptation of Roth’s novel (which I’ve long been meaning to read) is a strong film.   The quality of their performances made me buy Hopkins and Kidman in roles that don’t seem right for them (as a black man passing for white and a janitor, respectively).   The story about the impact of racism and political correctness on the life of an academic is set in the recent past and may remind one of incidents and conversations from one’s own experience.

--Nov 11, 2003

Tuesday
Jun212011

The Revolution Will Not be Televised  

This is an amazing documentary about the coup which temporarily ousted Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2002 (he was re-installed a few days later via a popular uprising).   The Irish filmmakers, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain, went to Venezuela to do a documentary on Chavez and found themselves swept up in a right-wing coup.   The democratically-elected Chavez had promised to bring actual democracy to his country (i.e., implement policies in the interest of the Venezuelan people, most of them poor).   Of course, this earned him the enmity of the country’s oil oligarchs and their friends in Washington.   Chavez went too far when he proposed the redistribution of the country’s oil wealth, and the ruling class (almost certainly with CIA backing) launched a coup.   In one especially gripping sequence, they threaten to bomb the presidential palace in which the Chavez administration and the filmmakers have taken shelter.   This film is far more riveting and suspenseful than most Hollywood fictions.

--Nov 4, 2003

Monday
Jun202011

Kill Bill Vol. 1

 

I enjoyed this adolescent fantasy in which Uma Thurman battles an assassination squad of attractive women (and their minions).  It’s basically carnage from front to back.   What recommends the film is its exhilarating energy and bravura visuals.   It’s an interesting mix of Tarantino’s two primary influences: exploitation films and the French new wave.   The more familiar you are with Asian animation and kung-fu films, the more you’ll “get it”.   (Personally, I’m not at all familiar with that stuff).   “Vol. II’ to follow next year.

 

--Oct 27, 2003  

Monday
Jun202011

Mystic River

Three men were childhood friends when one of them was abducted and molested.   Another grows up to be a man whose daughter is murdered.   The former incident hangs over the events that occur in the wake of the latter.   The work by Penn, Robbins and even Bacon is as good as you’ve heard.   There’s also been a lot of talk about how Eastwood’s approach to violence here is much different than in the films that made him famous, and it’s true.   There’s not actually a lot of violence here, but when it comes it’s not there to entertain or thrill.   It causes pain, it has human consequences, and the audience feels it.

--Oct 21, 2003

Monday
Jun202011

Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train  

  Last weekend I attended the premiere of a documentary on the radical historian and retired B.U. professor Howard Zinn, author of the towering “People’s History of the United States”.   The film tells Zinn’s story from formative childhood experiences through his time as a bombardier in WWII and his participation in many of the last century’s key social movements (he was especially active in the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements).   In the wake of 9/11, at age 81, he finds himself more in demand than ever as he speaks out against war.  

What inspires is not only Zinn’s sustained commitment to social justice, but also his unflagging humor and optimism.   Studying the history of people’s movements gives him hope that humanity may still win a decent future.   The film is a moving look at an exemplary life.   As Chomsky has observed of Zinn, “His contributions are truly incomparable”.   Includes interviews with, among many others, Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Hayden and Alice Walker.   Narrated by Matt Damon.   Hopefully coming soon to your public television station, or available via mail order.  

Incidentally, I’ve worked a bit with the filmmaker, Dennis Meuller, and was in attendance at the Eugene Debs Award ceremony depicted in the film, where I met Zinn.

 

--Oct 14, 2003