Sometimes 'good' has to be good enough: Speed, Tsotsi and Hearts and Minds

As usual, my eyes were bigger than, well, my eyes. I had eight movies going into this weekend, and only got through three, although, to be fair, I also got through Season 1 of "Wallander". I don't know why I do that, it always seems like such a great idea to have a television series to break up the movies, but then I get sucked in, and have to watch the whole thing. That's okay, I still finished three movies, and did my laundry...a successful weekend. A friend of mine asked if I take notes when I'm watching the movies so I can use them in my write-ups. I do not, I sometimes think I should so I can capture some of my insightful observations, but I worry I would get too distracted. So, I rely on my memory, which is usually pretty good, at least for my impressions, if not always everything else. [this blog was interrupted by a serious case of writer's block]

11/22/13 Hearts and Minds, Best Documentary Feature, 1974

Hearts and Minds uses contemporaneous interviews and footage filmed around Vietnam. I always find it interesting to watch a documentary like this, that when it was originally was shown, was current and could have been a segment on the evening news, and to watch it now, it's actually 'history' or 'historical'. I have vague memories of watching the news (in the days before 24-hour cable channels, when watching the television news was kind of a family event, at least in our house) and seeing protests on television and the helicopters in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. I think it's safe to say that in the almost forty years since this documentary was released, there has been an evolution in the thought-process regarding the US involvement in the war, the feelings about the soldiers as well as those evading the draft, and the Vietnamese people themselves. Some of the people interviewed for the film express some very racist views of the 'Oriental' cultures in general and the Vietnamese people in particular. These opinions can actually be transported back in time to the Crusades and the views of Europeans about the Arabs, Americans and Europeans about the Japanese during the Second World War, and forward to the current wars/conflicts in the Middle East: non-Caucasians are identified as savages, backwards, illiterate, etc. In some cases this is just based on skin color, but then usually combined with their religious practices. That was forty years ago. Fast forward to today and the feelings that people have (had) for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the people of those countries. In some ways, things haven't changed that much, and in others, maybe they have. There seems to be a very distinct separation between the men and women fighting the war (defending our country) and the war itself. The question of whether we should have been in Vietnam at all and what was the rationale exists today. The answer in the 1950s - 1970s was to fight against Communism (there are some interesting interviews with North Vietnamese and anti-war protesters describing their fight as a war of independence, shaking of the colonial powers - sound familiar?); the answer for the current conflicts is to protect oil interests and fight terrorism. I don't think this is the best documentary I have ever seen, but I do think it is an interesting look back at watershed moment in US history. The film is very clearly slanted towards the anti-war camp and makes no real attempt at unbiased reporting, and I think as long as you know that, you can still get something out of it.

11/23/13 Speed, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 1994

Once again, I am late to the party. This was the first time I have ever watched Speed (no, I was not under a rock). I have to say, after watching four hours of depressing, moping Kurt Wallander, this was a nice change of pace. There is nothing overly thought-provoking about this movie about a bus that is rigged to explode if the speed drops below fifty miles an hour. Dennis Hopper is the psychopathic demolition man who is bent on revenge against the police (I'm not giving anything away here); Keanu Reeves is the hero cop who doesn't have too much trouble bending or breaking the rules to save the citizens of Los Angeles; Sandra Bullock winds up driving the bus through the streets of Los Angeles. Like I said, this is not complicated. The reason it works is that it's fun: there are explosions; witty banter between the characters Jeff Daniels and Reeves; Reeves and Bullock; crazy driving skills; a great look at 1990s computer technology (gasp); and Dennis Hopper is nuts. The movie won for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, and after watching a few of these winners, it does seem that there is a lot of hard work that goes into making sure explosions and traffic sounds and gun shots all sync up to make the experience come through the speakers. I should note that (knock wood), I am watching the same television I bought in 1993, and it doesn't even know what surround sound or HDTV are, so I'm sure I am missing out on a lot. It wasn't a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

11/24/13 Tsotsi, Best Foreign Language Film, 2005

I really wanted to love this movie, and I feel bad because I only liked it and even then, it took a while to get to like. Tsotsi is set in South Africa and follows a gang of kids, focusing on the leader, David (known as Tsotsi). David and his crew rob people, steal things, whatever they need to do to survive. After a series of events, Tsotsi shoots a woman, then steals her car, and discovers that her baby is in it. The overarching story is watching this tough kid (and they are kids) learn to deal with his past and open his heart to this little baby. That is some nice character development; it's not simple and straightforward, there are some zigs and zags in the road. Tsotsi forms an unexpected bond with the father of the baby and I wanted to see how that played out. South Africa is a complex country with a complex history (and present), and there is something about it that has intrigued me for a long time, and the movie captures a little of that. Things are not always black and white, cut and dried. There are circumstances. I can't put my finger on why I am struggling with this; I think it's because I was not interested in some of the peripheral characters, and found it hard to care. It was a little over halfway through that I found myself engaged. The movie was based on a book by Athol Fugard, so perhaps there is more in the book that I was looking for than was in the movie. I can't give this a big thumbs up, but I can't say don't see it. Perhaps it will resonate with you more than me. I am glad I saw it, and sometimes that's all you can hope for. I have 680 more movies to go, and I'm sure there are going to be movies I will encourage you to avoid; this isn't one of them.

On a side note, as you may know if you are a regular reader (thank you for that), I love documentaries. I would imagine that documentaries don't often get the big studio budgets that a comic book hero or a talking car get. That's where Kickstarter comes in; there are some good projects out there, and I am hoping that two of them come to fruition. Feel free to check them out (or the many others). One is about Magda, who was a Jewish spy during World War II; she's still around at 91 and this movie is telling her story. The other project is about The Wrecking Crew, studio musicians who played and supported an incredible number of acts like Simon and Garfunkle, The Beach Boys, and more. I love movies like this (if you have not seen Standing in the Shadows about the musicians who made up the Motown sound, you really should; it made me cry). I supported a project that was successfully funded a little while ago about the last surviving US veteran from World War I, called Pershing's Last Patriot. I'm usually ranting against social media and the participatory activities it spawns (no, the irony is not lost on me), but the idea of micro-funding/crowd-funding something that is of interest, is pretty cool.  It's a small way to support artists, designers, creators.

Ah, I think the writer's block is gone. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah.