My Week 02/23 - 03/01
Lots of docs this week.
Life Itself - 2014 - Steve James
The world of film criticism will never see another like Rodger Ebert.
Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story - 2014 - Alex Holmes
Cycling is known to be a world where everyone dopes. Lance was better and more committed to it.
Milius - 2013- Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson
Milius was not the best director of the 70's new Hollywood but he may be the most compelling character. An outsider among his group of outsiders.
Citizenfour - 2014 - Laura Poitras
When Senator Wyden ask if the NSA collects data on millions of US citizens and gets a response of no, the look on his face is priceless. He is on the intelligence committee, he knows the answer but legally cannot say anything.
There is also a section of the film that shows hearings in Brasil and Germany about the spying programs. The thing is NSA was created to gather intelligence. They are supposed to spy on people in other countries just as spies in other countries are spying on Americans.
The saddest part of the Snowden story is that if the government just went public with the intent to trawl all the communications in the world, most of the American public would support the idea.
The Act of Killing - 2012 - Joshua Oppenheimer
A terrifying look at humanity. It would be easy to dismissed the men in this film as monsters. That is unfair and unproductive. They are men. Men that were told they could do anything they wanted so long as they got rid of "communists" a term that was applied liberally at the time. As with every other occurrence in history, a group of young men given free rein to rape, pillage, and plunder lead to a series of atrocities. Unlike past incidents; these men are still around and in power so they can freely tell their stories. The scary thing is they seem to recognize what did was wrong although they would likely do it again. The closest thing to chest pounding about how they won the war is when one man says that war crimes are defined by the winners. He won so what he did is not a crime and he is not wrong. Only once in a text dump is it mentioned that the Indonesian regime is supported by the west. The mass killings took place during the height of the cold war when being anti-communist meant you could do anything and still get the blessing of NATO. These men did the killing but there is more than enough blood for everyone's hands
The end credits may be the most interesting part of the movie. Not only are dozens credited as anonymous, likely out of fear, but Werner Herzog and Errol Morris are both given executive producer credits.
Best of the Week: The Act of Killing - 2012 - Joshua Oppenheimer
Life Itself - 2014 - Steve James
The world of film criticism will never see another like Rodger Ebert.
Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story - 2014 - Alex Holmes
Cycling is known to be a world where everyone dopes. Lance was better and more committed to it.
Milius - 2013- Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson
Milius was not the best director of the 70's new Hollywood but he may be the most compelling character. An outsider among his group of outsiders.
Citizenfour - 2014 - Laura Poitras
When Senator Wyden ask if the NSA collects data on millions of US citizens and gets a response of no, the look on his face is priceless. He is on the intelligence committee, he knows the answer but legally cannot say anything.
There is also a section of the film that shows hearings in Brasil and Germany about the spying programs. The thing is NSA was created to gather intelligence. They are supposed to spy on people in other countries just as spies in other countries are spying on Americans.
The saddest part of the Snowden story is that if the government just went public with the intent to trawl all the communications in the world, most of the American public would support the idea.
The Act of Killing - 2012 - Joshua Oppenheimer
A terrifying look at humanity. It would be easy to dismissed the men in this film as monsters. That is unfair and unproductive. They are men. Men that were told they could do anything they wanted so long as they got rid of "communists" a term that was applied liberally at the time. As with every other occurrence in history, a group of young men given free rein to rape, pillage, and plunder lead to a series of atrocities. Unlike past incidents; these men are still around and in power so they can freely tell their stories. The scary thing is they seem to recognize what did was wrong although they would likely do it again. The closest thing to chest pounding about how they won the war is when one man says that war crimes are defined by the winners. He won so what he did is not a crime and he is not wrong. Only once in a text dump is it mentioned that the Indonesian regime is supported by the west. The mass killings took place during the height of the cold war when being anti-communist meant you could do anything and still get the blessing of NATO. These men did the killing but there is more than enough blood for everyone's hands
The end credits may be the most interesting part of the movie. Not only are dozens credited as anonymous, likely out of fear, but Werner Herzog and Errol Morris are both given executive producer credits.
Best of the Week: The Act of Killing - 2012 - Joshua Oppenheimer
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